#am i projecting here cos i wanna go to the beach

[faithforgottens]

𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆.

from the writer’s desk: i’d tell you i started this a year ago after deciding i needed closure on post - crying on newport beach about how i’m incapable of being loved but that would mean me unloading all over the dash, and nobody needs that. i’m just a girl, out here projecting like tomorrow’s not coming, and thought i’d share. please know that i love carol, i just had to pick a character that i didn’t have strong emotional attachment to in order to play my villain. motivation to continue this would be much appreciated, thnx.  summary: you’ve been stuck in carol’s web for nearly four months now, and you need a distraction before you go postal and commit a capital crime or worse, tell her you love her. fortunately for you, natasha’s willing to offer her services. contains: college!natasha x female reader —— warnings include toxic relationship dynamics that involve infidelity, gaslighting and cheating, marijuana use, alcohol consumption, nsfw content [ fingering, dirty talk ]. →  inbox status: OPEN                                        don’t repost my works anywhere.

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM — SATAN    💬     am i gonna see you tonight?

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM — SATAN    💬     :(

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM — SATAN    💬     hellllllooooooooooo??

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM — SATAN    💬     I WANNA SEE U I MISS UR PRETTY FACE

INCOMING MESSAGE FROM — SATAN    💬     pls come tonight. it would mean everything to me

You’ve never claimed to be smart.

In fact, you’re pretty sure you have to fall on the opposite end of that spectrum in order to bother showing your face tonight at the behest of Carol fuckin’ Danvers. Satan. It’s the work of the goddamn devil pulling you from the clutches of your apartment’s comfortable silence where you’d be much better off riding through the nuanced gut-punching waves of disappointing Carol guilt instead of the hell storm that is being played once again by Carol guilt. You even put on eyeliner for such an occasion, because if you’re going to get fucked over (either physically, emotionally, or both), you might as well look good doing it.

Her name’s still lighting up your phone as the Uber drops you off at the curb, boasting a flood of pictures on Snapchat that illuminate the awaiting scene inside of the frat house through blurry streaks of glass bottles and marijuana smoke and the pale expanse of her neck where a glint of her gold necklace flashes is promised to you to do as you wish, leaving behind bruises or lip prints. It’s an enticing picture painted for you. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think maybe tonight will be the night she tells you she’s free from the clutches of Maria, her perfectly sane girlfriend that you’ve only ever known through Carol’s jilted lens, and that she’ll even let you climb her like a tree in front of her friends.

Lucky you.

Except you do know better. In the pit of your stomach, you know the reality is that you are in closer proximity than Maria, which therefore makes you the most convenient piece of ass at Carol’s disposal, that Carol believes — and is likely right about how — you’re still wound tight enough around her finger to make you drop to your knees like a good little girl, blinded by her golden halo of hair and the whiskey-soaked taste of her lips and ready to excuse her shit treatment of you. That even feeling like you have her for the beat of a butterfly’s wings is worth your sanity. And despite it all, it isn’t enough to keep you away. It’s not enough to exile the parts of a masochistic heart beating in your chest that somehow loves her, even if the only part of you she loves is your willingness to show up for her.

Carol’s fraternity is co-ed, which means that between all of the brothers, their social circle extends to the farthest corners of the university — they consume a fair bit of your own, considering you have at least two classes a semester with Bucky, sit with them at Wanda’s softball games (mostly so you can talk shit about your high school ex that made the team), and rent study rooms at least once a month with Thor, Bruce, and Val to spiral into late night insanity while you all contemplate the meaning of life and attempt to memorize vocabulary words. You slip in through the door, bass thudding into your molars and the heavy blanket of smoke and sweat covers your bare shoulders as you weave your way through the house.

“Look who finally showed up!” Behind the counter in the kitchen is Sam Wilson, running position as makeshift bartender. You detour long enough for a vodka and Diet Coke, stopping next to the barstool that Bucky’s perched on. He tucks you underneath his arm for a side hug, other hand tipping his own solo cup back as he tries to drain the last bit of liquor down his throat.

They’re good friends to you. It’s why you hate doing this dance with Satan — because at some point, you feel that there’s going to be a tectonic shift between the two of you that dredges up a rift in the concrete and you don’t know who will be left on your side. You don’t know who you’ll be able to look in the eye and lie to about Carol, who would pick you over her. You don’t even know if any of them would believe you or would write you off as crazy as you’ve been writing yourself off as of late.

You tell yourself that you’re trying, goddammit, to shove that piece of yourself back into a locked drawer and enjoy the company of your friends.

“Anybody seen Danvers?” you pitch as nonchalantly as you know how, planting your elbows down onto the granite of the counter while you watch Sam mix your drink. He goes heavy on the vodka, which you quietly appreciate.

Bucky snorts. “Yeah, we’ve seen her alright.”

“She’s in the dining room trying to rally everyone into a round of strip beer pong,” Sam explains. “Last we saw, she got her shirt stuck in the chandelier.”

“The face of class, this fraternity,” you tease as Sam hands you your drink. He can’t help but laugh, a jovial, guttural noise that makes you smile, even though your stomach is currently in your throat.

You bid them farewell and snake through the living room, trying to avoid the furniture or the bodies of other people and almost always fail in avoiding both at the same time as you carve out a path to the dining room. It’s densely packed, which forebodes the game of beer pong that the boys mentioned. You try not to cut your elbows into the bones and flesh of others to make your way through, but your adrenaline is humming at the thought of seeing Carol, the thought of her body glowing in the house lights and the cut of her physique out on display for anyone, including you, to openly ogle without abandon.

“Goddamn, Danvers!” someone yells mirthfully. “Keep it in your pants!”

Whistling down to one thought, one track, your mind lasers in and you’re positive that the sharp point of your elbow nails T’Challa directly in the ribs as you finally make it to the inner lip of the circle around the dining room table. It’s desperate. You know it’s desperate. You'll care about it later, you’re sure, but for now, all that’s on your mind is her.

“For the love of fuck, I—” Someone stumbles back into you, dark hair in frizzy waves and the bill of their baseball cap nearly jabbing straight into your nose. Wanda Maximoff spins around, her eyes lightening up at the sight of you as she grabs onto your wrist to stable herself. “Oh! Hey, babe,” she says with a smile. “Didn’t know you were coming.”

“Me either,” you tell her, trying not to be blatant as you scan for Carol. “Carol didn’t tell me until last minute.”

“Boo,” Wanda pouts, before turning to yell over her shoulder, “Danvers! Fuck you!”

“Get in line!” Carol calls back, and your head locks in on where her voice comes from. Your stomach plunges into free fall when you see her: as promised, she’s standing around in her sports bra and jeans, white teeth glinting and blonde hair curling around onto her tanned shoulders, biceps on display and her arms snaked around — her.

Maria Hill, in the flesh, pressed against Carol’s side and her chin balanced on Carol’s shoulder as Carol makes a shot one-handed that successfully lands in a cup on the opposite end of the table. Carol cheers victoriously, and Maria kisses her cheek, and you notice that Carol’s hand on Maria’s side drifts down towards her ass.

All of Carol’s messages swim inside your mind, the ones where she assures you that it’s all real, that she and Hill are done, that Hill’s holding her back, that she’s felt things for you since the moment she laid eyes on you and just knew; the ones where she paints a beautiful picture of a future with you, the same picture she’s just doused in cheap spirits and ruined for the dozenth time. Your drink suddenly tastes like arsenic, heavy and uneven in your stomach, the room shrinking and heat crawling up your neck in an uncomfortable panic. You are going to be sick.

Wanda’s voice comes through in the midst of the ringing in your ears. Fuck you, Danvers.

It takes you a moment to realize that Wanda’s voice isn’t just a reverberation inside your mind, but is right in your ear. “Hey!” She calls your name again, and you finally snap your attention back to her. She scans over your face for a moment, eyebrows folding in the center of her brow. “You alright? Where’d you just go?”

The shock is fresh on your face, salt water from the crashing wave that’s irritating your eyes — you refuse to let yourself cry, here in front of everyone, because all that’s going to do is open the door to a conversation you don’t want to have, incite a fight with Carol that you’ll surely lose, leave you feeling even lower than you do at the moment. You shake your head, trying to shake whatever emotions that aren’t nonchalant off of your face. “Noth—nowhere,” you stammer, voice an octave higher than usual. Wanda’s perplexity only deepens. “More crowded than I thought. Got beer-splashed.”

Wanda breaks into a smile, seemingly buying your excuse. “C’mon, what’d you expect?” she ribs. It’s a loaded question, and if Wanda wasn’t Wanda, you’re sure it’d be enough to light your rapidly shorting fuse. The thin strain in your falsified smile must give something away, because she softens the slightest bit and wraps her arm around yours. “Let’s go downstairs. I’ll kick your ass sideways in pool.”

You appreciatively take Wanda’s out, allowing her to guide you away from the Carol show and the crowd of people you have steeled yourself in order to not cry in front of and head with her towards the basement, which the frat has renovated into a lounge space with a giant television, sectional that is infamous for its hosting of The Threesome, and the pool table. It hasn’t garnered quite the same audience that the beer pong game has, but less people means you feel slightly less suffocated. Carol’s still got her foot on your throat, but down here, it’s easier to maneuver and act as though you haven’t just had yourself made a fool in front of everyone without them knowing.

Relieved for the little things, like elbow room, you sit down on the arm of the sectional and take a long drink from your cup — if you’re going to survive the rest of the night without your tail tucking between your legs (and you’re determined to further your self-sabotage by going the extra mile to ensure Carol knows she fucked up, even though it’s likely she doesn’t care) you’ll have to be drunker than this. Wanda adjusts her hat on her head and picks up a pool cue, glancing back over her shoulder at you. “Want someone to show you how it’s done?” she teases.

You lift your cup in acknowledgment, smile shedding off of your lips. “Go for it.”

As Wanda weasels her way into the current game of pool, you do a quick intake of who all’s downstairs. There’s a few of the brothers, a few of the brother’s dates, people that are otherwise background characters designed to make campus seem at capacity but not so many people that no one would notice if you threw up in the corner or worse, started crying. You purse your lips around the rim of your solo cup, scanning the company around the pool table. Wanda sidles up next to another one of her brothers, poking her with the pool cue. “Nat!” Wanda whines. “Give me room.”

Natasha Romanoff shuffles out of the way with the roll of her eyes. “Poke me with the stick again and it’s gonna go somewhere less than ideal.”

Wanda flicks her middle finger upright before hunching around the shape of the pool cue. “You don’t scare me, Natty.”

“Your funeral.”

Your eyes follow Natasha out of the way, and she feels their weight because the next thing you know, you’re off the cliffs and deep somewhere inside the greenery of her eyes. They’re pretty eyes, you idly note, and you find yourself mulling over Natasha Romanoff, as a person, as a concept, as Natasha. She’s the oldest of the girls in the fraternity, a senior to your junior, and she’s been around for so long that it’s hard to remember a time when she wasn’t there. It’s hard to imagine a room without her in it, a constant fixture on the mantel that you don’t even bother acknowledging it anymore.  

She cocks an eyebrow at you after what’s sure to be a long moment of staring, and Wanda, who is unfortunately more observant than you’d like to believe, begins laughing. “Am I interrupting this little staring contest?”

Natasha smirks. “I could win a staring contest and kick your ass at the same time, Maximoff.”

“Show off,” Wanda grumbles as she passes the pool cue over to Natasha. She then looks at you, and whatever grumpiness dissipates, her shit-eating grin returning. “Now, you on the other hand,” she preludes with a gesture towards you. “There’s no way.”

You drain the rest of your drink and discard the cup off to the side. "You talk a lot, Wan,” you inform her as you walk up to the side of the pool table. Wanda just grins as you turn to Natasha, gesturing for the pool cue. “Let me have a go.”

Natasha acquiesces and passes you the pool cue, giving you the space you need coupled with a low nod of encouragement. There are a few clusters of balls around the table and you’re trying to eye up a shot that’ll give you not only a handful of points, but will get Wanda off your back — even if you are grateful for the timing of her diversions.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough; you can still hear the laughter and music through the walls from upstairs, a raucous noise that scatters your train of thought. Is it Carol? What’s she doing? What’s she whispering into Hill’s ear? Does she know you’re even here? Does she care? 

Probably not.

You take the shot without thinking, balls ricocheting off the sides of the pool table. Wanda barks out a laugh. “Really? That’s the best you’ve got?”

“Just getting warmed up,” you say stiffly, handing the pool cue off.

Wanda’s face is alight with amusement, nodding slowly as she moves around the pool table for her next shot. “Okay.”

You’re too far in your head, and you know it. You’re content to linger on the outskirts of the game while everyone else that Wanda goes about recruiting takes their turn. It’s a few minutes or an hour before the cue ends up back in your hand, like a rickety sort of clockwork that is unexpected but also entirely predictable. You assess the situation and find a decent enough angle now that the game has progressed, significantly so.

You bend over slightly, eyes fixed on a blue ten that’s not too far from the cue. Before you can make the shot, you hear someone behind you muttering. “Do it like this.”

When you glance over your shoulder, it’s Natasha, only a few inches from where you stand, hands hesitating before she reaches out. “Back up,” she guides, her hands stationing on your hips and forcing you to take a half-shuffle of a step backwards. “And lift your elbow like this.” You’re clay and she shapes you how she wishes, her touch feather light. “Okay. Now try.”

You do exactly as she says, pool cue shooting from your hand and colliding with the cue ball. The ten you’ve had your eyes on sails into the pocket without any interference. 

“Nice shot, sweetheart,” Natasha says, her voice ghosting along the back of your spine. As you straighten up, you glance behind you, noticing the faint grin along the curve of her lips.

“Well that wasn’t sexual at all,” Wanda comments with a low whistle as the pool cue returns to her grip. “Do losers get laid still? I wouldn’t know.” With a toothy flash of a grin, she draws the cue back and makes another shot — you’re not entirely focused on her efforts, thanks to the gravity of Natasha’s sights still pressing deep into your skin.  

Wanda talks a big enough game that she recruits nearly everyone standing around the pool shot to give it a go, which provides a window of opportunity for Natasha to brush a hand along your shoulder and steal you away. “Up for a smoke?” she asks, and you nod. You allow her to lead the way out through the basement’s French doors, slipping outside into the backyard where the sky is dotted with stars, the air smells only the slightest bit cleaner, and the music is nothing but a dull pulse from inside the house.

Natasha steers you away from the patio where other fraternity brothers and their guests are sitting around, enjoying their drinks and laughing amongst their idle, stoned conversations around the fire pit. You follow her into the grass, trailing around the side of the house until the two of you don’t have any other company aside from each other and Thor’s knockout rose bushes that he takes great pride in.

She leans up against the wall, hands fishing in the pocket of her jacket for her lighter. For someone who’s devoted the rest of their evening to shooting metaphorical (or even literal) middle fingers in Carol’s direction, you’re still too far on edge to be nonchalant about any of it. The quiet is all consuming, maddening inside of your buzzing mind. Natasha produces a joint, embers burning on the end as she lights it and brings it up to her lips. You’re left to watch as she takes a long, casual drag, a cloud of smoke billowing from her lips on the exhale. Her wrist then extends, offering the joint up; if there is such a thing as too eager, you’d be the poster child for it, the way you pluck it from her fingers and take a hit.

“Something on your mind?” she asks, her voice a low drag of gravel against the muted bass thud inside of the house. You open an eye and glance over at her, her green eyes burning holes through you as she watches. 

“Eh,” you mutter half-heartedly with a shrug. “Not worth it.”

You pass the joint back to her after you take one more drag, your eyes fixed on the steady stream of smoke that you forcibly control the exit from your mouth. It’s nice to have control over something, you think, even if it is, to some degree, just seeing how long you can hold your breath. 

“Seems like you could use a distraction,” Natasha comments, fingers idly rolling the joint between her fingers as smoke still curls from the tip. 

You laugh, a low and guttural noise that’s passive at best. “Yeah, probably.”

Natasha turns so her entire body is facing you, and it doesn’t register, the way that she’s looking at you, until you feel her brush your hair off of your face. Your eyes fully open, somewhat surprised by the action, watching her carefully. Natasha’s a lot of things, but gentle isn’t one you’d readily associate with her. It’s almost like she’s handling you like glass, waiting for the right moment to shatter you. It’s a hiccup in your chest, a strange feeling washing over your body.

“Let me distract you, then.” She says it simply, like it’s the most logical conclusion to arrive at.

“Nat, what...”

“C’mere.” One of her hands encircles your wrist, guiding you closer. You follow wordlessly in her guidance, unsure of what she’s doing or what’s to come. She takes another hit of the joint, her eyes glowing the same way the end of the joint does, a low burning fire that seems to grow hotter the longer your eyes are connected. 

The hand holding your wrist slides up your body until she’s cupping your jaw, her thumb darting across the expanse of your face to swipe across your lips in a prompt to open them. She lowers the joint, bringing her face inches away from your own as her mouth forms a perfect circle and releases smoke. You’ve shotgunned weed before, but never at such a close proximity. Natasha breathes out and you breathe in, eyes fluttering shut at the intimacy of the moment. 

“Gonna let me distract you some more?” she whispers, and you barely register yourself nodding before her lips capture your own. Her mouth is plush and soft but nothing about her is gentle anymore — this is where she forces a spiderwebbing crack across your surface, the deft way in which she manipulates your lips to do exactly as she’d like, her tongue skating across the skin and opening your mouth to allow her access. You can’t help but to sigh into the kiss. She is exactly what she claims she is: a distraction, a welcome reprieve, and the golden halo around Carol’s head seems fuzzy and jilted now.

Natasha kisses you like she’s trying to set you on fire; at some point she has absconded the joint and ground out its remnants into the mulch, both her hands cupping your face as she boxes you in with her legs and adjusts the two of you so your back is now flush against the wall. “How’s this?” she murmurs against your ear, lips starting a descent down your neck that is feather light and the gentle scrape of her teeth.

“Very... very distracting,” you stammer out, fingers curling into fiery red hair. 

“Good,” Natasha hums, her mouth vibrating over a particularly sensitive spot on your collarbone that causes your grip in her hair to tighten. “Pretty girl like you shouldn’t be so far in your head.” 

You nod, thankful for the reward of her body pressing against yours. 

“What d’you say?” Her voice ghosts over your skin, and for a moment, you’re not sure what it is she’s asking. It takes a moment, the weed and the liquor clouding your mind, but the dig of Natasha’s blunt fingernails into your hips and the graze of her teeth along your skin serves as motivation. “Huh? What d’you say, princess?” 

“Thank you,” you gasp, the feeling of her mouth tightening around your skin wet and hot sending a glimmer of electricity down your spinal cord. Natasha chuckles, a dark and melodic noise that buzzes through your body. 

“You’re welcome,” she croons. “’S that all you needed? Or do you need more?”

More. It’s the knee jerk response you have, the way your world has narrowed down to just her and the scent of her heady perfume and each individual curve of muscle is now flush against you. Your eyes open only to see Natasha grinning like she’s the fuckin’ devil. 

Maybe you were misplaced somehow.

Natasha’s hands drag over your sides, up and down roughly as she kisses you and forces your legs farther apart so she’s able to snake one of her thighs in between them. She rucks your top up on the edges, fingers brushing over your skin in a delightful contrast to the cool evening air. Natasha is hot, her touch burning and singeing the skin wherever it moves. She’s painting you out of ashes and making you into something beautiful, something uniquely her own. Her hands slip underneath your shirt and you feel one hand trail upwards, fingers wrapping around your breast before squeezing. It elicits another tiny moan from you, which Natasha swallows down with a kiss. “Shh,” she hisses against your lips. “Be quiet.”

You arch into her touch as her fingers slip beneath the cup of your bra and pinch your nipple tight, another squeak of pleasure groaned into her mouth. It only encourages her further, the other hand of hers moving in the opposite direction. “Want me to touch you?” she whispers in your ear while you press your mouth into her shoulder, breath warm against your ear and her teeth just barely missing your earlobe. “Bet you’re not distracted now; only thing you and that pussy are thinking about is me, huh?”

“Fuck, Nat,” you mumble into her skin.

“Yeah you are,” she replies with a shit eating grin, your head tilting back until it roughly meets the back of the wall as her hand goes up your skirt. 

You’d been meticulous prior to coming over, thinking on whatever lone star trailing in the sky that you’d be seducing Carol tonight; you’d purposefully worn your skimpiest pair of underwear just to show her what she could have if she was with you. It’s only when you see the look on Natasha’s face, the way her pupils dilate and her jaw slackens the slightest bit as her fingers skim in between the folds of your thigh and vulva and feels lace that you feel something resembling satisfaction. “You came ready for a distraction, princess,” she grumbles, moving your underwear to the side and swiping her fingers through what is now sheer want dripping from you. “Fuck, you’re wet.”

“N... Nat,” you whine, squirming around in the pursuit of pressure. “Touch me.”

She places the tip of her finger at your entrance, just barely teasing it in. “Ask nicely, honey.”

The words spill from your lips without thought. “Please, Nat, please touch me, fuck m—” She cuts you off as she slips her finger inside of you and you all but rocket up the side of the wall at the feeling. Her free hand, still underneath your shirt, wrestles out from beneath the fabric and is slapped over your mouth to muffle whatever noise you make.

“Thought I told you to be quiet,” she says between her gritted teeth. “Here.” She presses her index and middle fingers against your lips and you acquiesce, opening them wide enough to allow them to slip in. “Suck.”

You do as you’re told, happy to oblige as she begins to finger you. There’s nothing soft or sweet about the way she fucks you; she adds another finger and finds a steady rhythm, curling each time she’s knuckle deep inside of you just so she can be rewarded with you humming around the fingers in your mouth. It amuses her to some extent, the way her eyes have darkened and her mouth is slightly agape. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and considering how tight you are wound, you’re not going to last long.

"Clench around me, pretty girl,” she hisses amongst the other litany of dirty things she’s whispering in your ear. “Such a sweet pussy, does whatever I ask it to; what if I want this pussy all to myself? You gonna let me have it?”

You nod, Natasha withdrawing her fingers from your mouth before she hauls you in for the filthiest kiss of your life. “Fuck,” you whimper against her lips. “Yours, Nat, your pussy.”

“Yeah, I know. This is my pussy now, all tight and hot and wet and desperate just for me. This was what you needed, wasn’t it? Needed me to fuck you silly until you forget how to put one foot in front of the other.”

“Please, Nat, gonna...” 

“What?” she teases, her thumb flicking across your clit and you know that she’s doomed you, mind and body barreling down a track that there is no return from. “What, baby? Use your words.”

“Gonna come,” you manage to get out, and she fucking laughs.

“‘S right,” she agrees. “Gonna make this little pussy come all over my fingers, since I’m the only one who can. That right?” You nod; her fingers tighten in your hair and pull your head back so your neck is exposed for her. “C’mon, baby, wanna see you make a mess on my hand. Come for me like a good little slut. You know you want to.” You do, you do, and everything is bordering on the edge of too much the way Natasha is sucking your neck and rubbing tight circles on your clit. “Show me who’s pussy this is. Come.”

Another few thrusts and flicks of your clit and you are gone, Natasha bringing her mouth back to yours to swallow the keens and cries of you hitting your climax. The brick wall underneath you scratches at your shirt but it is a heavenly feeling, losing control underneath Natasha. She just smiles when she pulls away and you slump into her, perfectly sated. 

“That was hot,” she says with a wicked grin, pulling her fingers out of you. She doesn’t break eye contact as she brings them up to her lips, sucking your taste off of them. Her eyes alight with pleasure, a contented hum reverberating from her vocal cords. “Thanks, pretty girl.”

Beat that, Danvers.

#natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x you #natasha romanoff imagine #black widow x reader #black widow x you #black widow imagine #marvel fic #marvel fanfiction #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #avengers fanfiction #avengers imagine #carlie writes things #writing: fics #i am a fan of wanda starting shit tysm #let wanda be the villain if she wants!!!! <3 #i have played pool exactly 0 times before so leave me alone

[hotdadlicense]

hmmm top 5 shows, top 5 animals aaaaand top 5 scenes from any show/movie

loren please..... i lve you.

top five SHOWS.

the walking dead - ................. like it has to be said. i'm so sorry. it didn't even really go 'bad' for me like it did lose me for a hot minute or two there originally but like. when i rewatched i was like no actually i love it here. i love this hot mess. and i tragically fucking do. could really do with bringing certain characters back etc or just dissappearing some storylines but like. i do fucking love it.

breaking bad - i didnt even KNOW what i was in for i was just like this'll be fine this'll be chill. and then my life changed forever y'know.

it's always sunny in philadelphia - my go-to show to have on in the background, to have on when im sick, to have on when i need a laugh, to have on when im feeling miserable, to have on when i just wanna feel like Myself. can probably quote like. every episode by this point.

black sails - literally don't even need to explain this one. bs is already tumblr critically acclaimed. if i could go back in time and watch the season two last two episodes for the first time all over again, i would in a heartbeat. the girl that existed in my bedroom when watching those eps? never seen her before and i'll never be her again.

911 - listen. it TRULY is tv show of all time. u KNOW this i know you know this. u can't put eddie diaz in a tv show and not have it change the lives of millions.

top fIVE animals.

SHARKS. sharks sharks sharks sharks sharks all types all kinds theyre all my children

foxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please the fennec fox my BABY

long maned wolf.

dogs!

snakes. also HOW is your snake btw i miss them

top 5 scenes!

lets revisit black sails again and say season two finale as a whole? but also the 'in the light there is discovery' forest speech in the series finale............................i get chills like every time. WAIT ALSO 'my name is John Silver. and i've got a Long Fucking Memory.' INSANE acting also idk if this is really technically 'top five scenes' worthy but uknow that line where flints like 'where else would you wake up in the morning and matter?' @ silver??? yeah it ingrained itself into my brain and now whenever my brains having a bad day and being a bitch, it just repeats that line over and over to myself. again i dont know if that makes it a top five thing but boy oh bOY it sure made an impact !

iasip mac finds his pride when mac does the dance and franks crying and is like 'i get it. i get it now.' maybe its cos i feel like there is just a 00.01% chance of my parents ever accepting me and im projecting or whatever but that scene? every fucking time im like........ crying lol

my brain is one big jumble for the walking dead and i just can't pin down one scene? so i'm just gonna take a cop out and say that part where daryl and merle are in the woods huntin when they split off in s3 or whatever after they reunite and daryls got his crossbow simply becos i still remember watching it with my mum and her being like 'oh look at daryls Arms. he's really got Muscles.' and i was like. scandalised. in a Good way. and now everytime i see him in that scene i'm like justin beiber tweet i love Arm.

that scene in breaking bad where jesses in hospital after hank beats the shit outta him in the rv and walt visits him in hospital and jesse has that breakdown in 3.07? jesse pinkman crying in a hospital bed bruised and beaten saying 'i am not turning down the money, i am turning down you.' when he's yelling 'i have NOTHING. NO ONE.' ??????????????? scene of all scenes. wait also the peek-a-boo kid scene in s2

stuggling to think of a last one uh maybe in the seventh fast and furious movie when see you again plays at the end and they're all on the beach and then dom and brian are racing except you know its not paul walker and u know its CGI or whatever and ???? i still cry over that sorry

#msgs <3 #drcloyd #LOVE to ramble im so sorry #but THANK!!!!!! #m

[barbwalken]

I felt an urge to draw them in the beach, but also maxie and cyrus roasting gio

#pokemon #team rainbow rocket #galactic boss cyrus #aqua boss archie #magma boss maxie #rocket boss giovanni #am i projecting here cos i wanna go to the beach? #yes 😭

[babymetaldoll]

The Super Secret Mystery Project (Insomnia II) (Matthew Gray Gubler / Reader)

Requested: Yes 

Summary: Matthew Gray Gubler proposes to Reader after seven years together 

Warning: You might die of an overdose of fluffiness. Sorry, I can’t help it. 

Pairing: Matthew Gray Gubler / Reader

Word count: 2,6 K

A/N: Thank you all for the nice comments and requests <3 

Part I  

Materlist

.

- “I need you to guard this for me”- Matthew Gray ran into the kitchen and nearly killed his girlfriend of a heart attack. She jumped on her spot and almost dropped the cake pan she was holding.  

- “Jesus!! Gubler!!”- but he just laughed and kissed her cheek sweetly, notoriously excited about something she didn’t know. 

- “Sorry Bunny!! Just keep this for me for a while, ok?”

Matthew placed an envelope in her pocket and wrapped his arms around her waist. 

- “What are you baking?” 

- “I’ve been craving an ice cream cake all week, and today I finally have time to do it”

- “Damn, sounds good, which ice cream’s flavors?” 

- “Oreo cookies and cream, and chocolate chip cookie dough”- Gubler kissed (Y/N)’s neck making her giggle as she kept pouring batter on the pan.

- “You are gonna make me get fat”

- “You don’t have to eat it”- (Y/N) turned and smiled at her boyfriend- “More for me.”

- “You wish, young lady, but that ice cream cake has to get the Gubler’s seal of approval before it’s served”- Matthew pecked her nose and moved to the fridge. His girlfriend stared at him with a sweet smile, thinking she was dating the most adorable manchild on earth.  

- “And what am I guarding by the way?” 

(Y/N) looked back at the pan and prepared it to get into the oven, and her boyfriend stayed quiet for a few seconds, trying to arrange his thoughts. It was an important deal, and he had to make sure it all turned out perfect. 

- “Remember that project I’ve been working on?”- he finally said, as casually as possible.

- “The “Super Secret Mystery Project”?”- she asked, thrilled to know more about it- “The one you’ve been working secretly for the last two weeks?”

- “Yes, that’s the one”- the actor took a sip of water and finally made his move- “I was thinking I could show it to you later”

- “Really? is it done?”- (Y/N) turned to him the second she closed the oven- “Can we see it now?”

- “Nope, you have to finish that cake first”- her instantaneous pout made him chuckle immediately.

- “Please?”

- “No, Bunny, you’ll have to wait.” 

The “Super secret mystery project” had taken Matthew Gray Gubler at least two weeks in the making, mostly because he had to do it at work, in between shots in the set. Why? ‘cos (Y/N) couldn’t see it, which meant he couldn’t do it home. 

Ever since the last time he was forced to spend a whole week home alone, he had made the decision: it was time to propose. But first, he had to find the perfect way to do it. 

There was no way on earth Gubler was going to do it over dinner in a restaurant. 

Neither on the beach at sunset. It had to be special. It had to be different. It had to be about them. Easier said than done, that’s why it took him exactly seventeen days to be completely ready to do it. And the day was that night. 

- “Ok Gubbilubie, the cake is in the freezer, can I see the “Super secret mystery project” now?”- (Y/N) literally jumped on the couch onto Gubler’s lap and pouted- “Please?”

- “Gubilubie? what the fuck?”

- “I don’t know, it just came to my mind in the desperation to get your… attention?”- she made up a bad excuse and snickered- “Come on, it wasn’t that bad… was it?”

- “Please never call me that again”- Matthew Gray pretended to get serious, but you could tell he was making his best not to smile. 

- “What? Gubilubie? why not? it sounds super cute”

- “I hate it”- he was lying

- “If you don’t want me to call you that again, show me the Super Secret Mystery Project.”

- “You love calling it by that name, don’t you?”- Gubler leaned and kissed (Y/N)’s lips softly a few times.  

- “What can I say… it’s a good name, just like Gubilubie”

- “Stop it”

(Y/N) smiled and watched him stand up and grab the remote control. 

- “Ok, so, it took me a while to master this project, it’s something I’ve had in mind for years, but it has always been hard for me to find the right time to do it… besides, I felt I needed more to add to the story, more character development, more… I don’t know, like one last push, maybe? I don’t know how to explain it”

- “Is this about the puppet show you were putting on the other day in your office?”

- “No”- Matthew laughed immediately- “Although, maybe I could add it… I’m not sure… it’s not a bad idea” 

- “Come on! show me the project!”- (Y/N) jumped on her seat and clapped excitedly. 

- “Fine, just… be honest and tell me what you think, ok?”

Matthew Gray Gubler was nervous. He had always said you had to get nervous when you were doing something important, ‘cos it meant you actually cared for it. Well, this time, he was truly nervous. Afraid even… hysterical, maybe, but making his best to look as cool as a cucumber. He loved that comparison, he was indeed a fan of cucumbers. Not ta fan of eating them, ‘cos he said they were disgusting, but he supported them. His words exactly.  

  The second he pushed play, there was no way back. 

- “Hi, I’m Matthew Gray Gubler”- the image of him sitting in his trailer waving at the camera made (Y/N) smile immediately- “And today, I’m here to make some magic, make you laugh, but mostly, to tell you a little story about this incredible girl who met this, badly groomed, awkward and hyperventilated looking dude a few years ago, and somehow, fell in love with him”. 

(Y/N) looked at him not getting what was going on. He just smiled and pointed at the screen. 

- “Keep watching, it gets better.” 

And it did. 

- “Hi, I’m (Y/N)”- on the screen, Gubler impersonated her voice and stood next to a real size cardboard cutout standup of her, in the middle of the bullpen set. There were people around him actually pretending that wasn’t weird at all and just kept working. 

- “Are you serious?!”- the real-life (Y/N) yelled and laughed as soon as she saw the screen- “What the fuck is this?”

- “Just keep watching, and don’t laugh, this is some serious work, Bunny, it might be the best thing I’ve ever directed”

- “Hello, I’m Matthew, nice to meet you, (Y/N)”- and in the scene, Gubler shook the cardboard hand and smiled- “You smell like cinnamon”

- “I just baked cinnamon rolls”

- “So, do you bake a lot?”- that had indeed been their first and awkward conversation the day they had met at a party one of their friends had thrown. 

- “No… yes, have someone ever told you how hot you are?”

- “Gubler!”- (Y/N) yelled and smacked his arm right away- “I didn’t say that!!”

- “It’s an adaptation, I’m sure you were thinking about it”

- “I was not thinking that!”

Yes, that was exactly what she had thought. 

- “Be quiet, I wanna know what happens next”- Matthew covered (Y/N)’s mouth with his hand and turned to the screen. 

- “And, would you like to go out sometime? maybe get some coffee?”- Gubler said to the cardboard.

- “Sure, sounds like a plan, you look like a nice, handsome young man who can make me happy”- (Y/N) turned and looked at Matthew with narrowed eyes, but didn’t make a noise. She was enjoying the super secret project way too much to keep talking. 

- “This is an incredible evening, so romantic!”- cardboard (Y/N) said. The scene was taking place in the Criminal Minds’s jet set- “I can’t believe you are taking me to London on our first date”

- “Why didn’t you do that in real life?”- she whispered and giggled, but he shushed her and pointed at the screen.

- “Pay attention!”

- “Anything for you, Bunny”

- “You are amazing Matthew Gray, you are the most handsome, intelligent and tall man I have ever met”- Gubler’s impersonation was so funny, his girlfriend couldn’t stop laughing  

- “You forgot I can also do magic”

- “I can’t believe it! you are perfect”- (Y/N) had to bit her lip to control the laughter. 

- “Would you like to see a trick?”

- “Of course, there is nothing on earth sexier than a guy who can do magic”

- “Great, let me get my special deck”

On the screen, Gubler started to prepare a magic trick, but now the camera was pretending to be (Y/N), so he was sitting right across from her. 

- “Take that deck of cards and pick nine cards”- on-screen Matthew said, and in real life, he pointed at a deck sitting on the coffee table

- “I think he wants you to do it”- he whispered and his girlfriend looked at him confused.

- “What?”

- “He said he was going to make a trick for you, so… try i”t- not getting what was actually going on, (Y/N) grabbed the deck and did as told. 

- “Do you’ve got your nine cards?”

- “Yup”- (Y/N) answered the screen feeling like a dork. Like a happy and excited dork.

- “Great, now shuffle them a little, then turn them, and fan them, so all the numbers are facing you, got it?”

- “Yes Mister Magician”- (Y/N) nodded at the screen and giggled, having the time of her life.

- “Spread them out, can you see all of them?”

- “Yes Gubidubi”

- “Stop it”- real-life Matthew whispered, making his girlfriend laugh

- “Shh, I’m doing a magic trick here, don’t interrupt me!”

He kept looking at her, now sitting on the floor, with his legs crossed, her eyes stuck at the screen. And he kept feeling his heart about to come out of his chest. That was indeed the biggest and more important project he had ever made. 

- “Now it’s time to pick a card, I’m gonna roll my lucky nine sides dice to pick it, ok?”- the two of them watched how Gubler did so on the screen- “Number two, so look at your second card from left to right, and memorize it, ok? ‘cos that’s your secret card, and you don’t have to forget it, alright?”

The girl nodded and looked at it.

- “I don’t know what cards you’ve got, so this is going to very hard to do… but trust me, Bunny, the Great Gubler is gonna blow your mind”

There was a short silence, ‘cos both on-screen, and real-life Matthew were looking at her at the same time, if possible. 

- “Get the cards together, turn them over, numbers down, and we are going to do my secret special shuffle, the one that’s going to do all the magic, ok?”

It was funny ‘cos (Y/N) was actually nodding at the screen, making Gubler chuckle. 

- “You have to spell your name putting the cards in a pile, ready? use one card for each letter”- and so, she did as asked- “Ready? now take the cards left in your hand and put them on top of the pile, and now hold all of them in your hand, got it?”

- “Yes!”- she wasn’t actually trying to hide her excitement

- "Awesome Bunny, now I want to be part of this so why don’t you spell my name with the cards, just like you did with yours”- (Y/N) frowned and looked at her real-life boyfriend

- “Just Matthew or can I use one of the million nicknames?”- but the answer came from the tv.

- “Spell Matthew, Bunny”- her jaw dropped, and yelled.

- “Witchcraft!!” 

Her boyfriend was really having a hard time trying no to laugh, he kept biting his lips as he smiled. So far, so good.

- “Are you done? now place the remaining cards on top of the pile, pick them all, and now put the first one facing down on the table”

- “Ok…”- she whispered 

- “Now the next one on top of it”

- “Alright…” 

- “Keep going, you can stop whenever you want to, and when you do, I want you to put the remaining cards on top of the others... if you don’t have any left, that’s cool, I just hope the trick isn’t ruined”

(Y/N) chuckled at Gubler’s face on the screen and did as told.

- “Now, as you can see, there’s no way I can know which card you selected ‘cos… well I’m not there, and I don’t know which card you selected, but, I am gonna give it a shot, ok?”

The fact she was nodding at the screen, forgetting Matthew was in fact sitting there next to her, was so far, his favorite part of the whole video. She was so into the trick, she had no idea what was coming up next. 

- “Ok Bunny, move a little closer to me and place your card facing down in your hand”- she crawled closer to the tv and giggled.

- "And now take the first three cards, don’t look at them, just hold them up and show them to me… no, neither of those, throw them away, we don’t need them, show me the next two”

And so she did, giggling nervously, thinking there was no way on earth that trick was ever going to work. 

- “Nope, your card ain’t there either, show me one more… nope, nothing… are you sure you shuffled this right? yes? sorry, don’t look at me like that! ok… you know what, none of those is your card, I’ve got the feeling you’ve got it hidden somewhere… hold it… I can feel it” 

(Y/N) frowned, confused and by instinct, her hand moved to the envelope her boyfriend had given her earlier. 

- “Yes Bunny… show me what’s in that envelope”- she knew it was the same man the whole time, but it was still freaky the guy on the tv knew everything she was doing in real life.

- “Now, open the envelope and show me the card…”- she did exactly what the magician asked her to do, and saw him smile.  

- “Finally! that’s your card, take look at it” 

When (Y/N) turned the card, she wide opened her eyes. It was actually the card she had picked, but it also had a note written on top of it with a handwriting she knew all too well, that said: “Turn around”. 

And when she did, she saw Matthew Gray Gubler kneeled in front of her holding the perfect engagement ring. 

- “I always thought magic was an illusion you create for an audience until I met you, and you made me feel the magic in life without any kind of trick, that’s why I want to be with you for the rest of my life, trying to make your days as magical as you make mine… so… (Y/N) (Y/L/N), would you marry me?” 

The tears and the smile across her face were all the answer Matthew needed, but it wasn’t until he heard her say “I do” that he didn’t let out the breath he had been holding ever since he had stopped talking. 

That was it, it was finally happening, in the most romantic, different, nerdy way Gubler could have thought about. And she had said yes. Anyone would have been sure she was going to accept, but he didn't want to take her for granted, it was the first mistake in a relationship. He hadn't done that in seven years, he wasn't going to start now. 

They held each other tight for a few minutes, whispering how much they loved each other. They kissed, they even cried a little (more than a little, actually), and finally, they sighed and smiled. 

- “Is it too soon to ask for some of that ice cream cake?- Gubler whispered in her ear and she laughed.” 

- “I was thinking about it... celebration cake?”

- “And then, celebration sex?”- they smiled at each other and nodded. 

- “I love you, Gub”

- “I love you, Bunny.” 

#Spencer Reid #Matthew Gray Gubler #matthew Gray Gubler Fanfiction #fluff #magic #spencer reid fanfiction #matthew gray gubler fanfic #criminal minds #mgg fluff #babymetaldoll writes

[haiq-trash]

By Your Side (1/19)

Series Master-list

Next 

♡━━━━━━ ◦ ✤ ◦ ━━━━━━♡ 

      The shop's tv was switching on and off. People passed by not paying much attention. After all, this was Tokyo, the city was kept alive by always moving, always busy.

The unnoticed TV the 10 o'clock news played out. Begging to be noticed by the civilians.

“Viria Tech has just been named Japan’s top 10 tech business in only a few years while the CEO and Founder had been named Forbes Richest Self Made Entrepreneur!” The show host’s blond prim hair swished side to side as she shook her head in disbelief.

Her co-host feigned a gasp, “ I also heard that the CEO of the Viria Tech branch, Y/n L/n was asked to model and be in the cover of Forbes but denied it!”

“I wonder why? She’s a woman in power, could she be shy? Aww” The blond host’s comment wasn’t one that rang with true concern, it was tinged with pettiness and snide remarks. 

“Who knows? I wonder what she’s doing right now? After all, she is so secretive about everything!” 

       ♡━━━━━━ ◦ ✤ ◦━━━━━━♡ 

 The steel doors slid back, scratching the smooth floor slightly. Inventors, scientists, data analysts, and more gathered around the room.

The walls were tall and plain white. The sounds of typing, low conversations, and the movement of objects echoed through the big room.

“Miss, here is this week's new data developments, the success rate of each one” Akita, one of Viria Tech’s lead scientists handed you a form.

Looking over the various numbers, symbols, and marks you gave a nod in approval. Handing it back you sighed as you eventually clicked your tongue. 

“Hand these to my assistant and tell him to leave this and this week developing files at my desk”

“Your assistant is……?” Akita said bashfully.

For a moment you had forgotten that Akashi wasn’t by your side most of that day and it didn’t help that this new lead scientist was new too. 

“Akashi Keiji, he is on his lunch break with Hinata from HR. So go give it to him and tell Hinata I wanna talk to him later on in my office. No later than 8 pm, I have a business meeting with the investors at 9. Got it?”

Akita nodded, you could tell by his shoulders that he was tense and he speed-walked away. You looked down to adjust your shirt, one of the collar buttons had been undone. 

“Y/n”

You turned around, (E/C) eyes slanting slightly as you looked and saw Kozume Kenna in front of you. 

Kenma was one out of three people in the whole company to refer to you as your name. Maybe it was because of all that time you were with him in College.

“Yes?” You asked, Kenma never bothered you with much….

“Some idiot intern was messing with the new Data Software without supervision and-“

You wanted to roll your eyes, but you slightly gripped your fist. You were professional.

“Tell him to come to my office….now and whoever recommended him as well”

Kenma’s eyes slightly widened but he nodded, jotting it down on his Digi-journal and walked away, “got it.”

As for yourself? You walked alone back to your office, it was likely on the top floor. Your heels hitting the floor with a small tick-tack, you passed by your secretary, Kiyoko

You nodded at her, she was a great employee, professional, team player, and organized. 

Kiyoko nodded back and flashed you a small smile but by that time you were gone inside your office.

It was a solid color, the black cashmere rug was on the cold floor, the only “personality” it had was the two pictures in the backdrop of your black mahogany desk that was slapped in the middle of the room.

The two pictures made you smile and were extremely important in times like right now. 

The first was you at Hinata and Kageyama’s wedding on a beautiful beach in Brazil. Hinata was wearing a white tux while Kageyama was in black. A younger you were squished in the middle, a bright smile on your face as you snapped the candid pic.

The second picture was of you when you were in college. It was a picture of you and Kenma, both with tired eyes and computer lights reflecting on your faces, but complimenting your under eyes was a huge smile. That was the day, Viria Tech was finally official.

“Y/n” a small familiar voice hit your ears and snapped you out of your reminiscing of the past years. 

“Yes, Akashi?” You turned to see your glasses eye assistant, in his vest clutching the papers, he left them on the desk while he kept talking.

“Hinata says he’s available at 7 pm is that okay? HR has been flooding with workers lately and since he’s head of the department he’s been busy”

You nodded as you let out a small sigh and ran your hand through your hair, “Sure, I’ll be cutting it close so can you go to my apartment and grab an outfit that’s on the bed? I laid them out in case this happened”

Akashi gave you a small smile, “Nothing ever passes you does it?”

If you had energy, you would have smiled back, instead, you just shrugged, “If it does, well that’s what I have you for Akashi”

He nodded and stretched out his hand to receive your keys and as you handed them to him you spoke.

“By the way, tell Kiyoko to let in the intern and employee now on your way out”

Akashi’s smile flatlined, “okay, should I give Hinata a heads up?”

As you sat down in your chair and shifted through the papers he had left you, you nodded. 

Akashi exited the room and two males entered. One was Rae. He had been working for Viria Tech for two years now, the intern was around his mid-20s near your age. 

He seemed surprised by that, “You’re the CEO of Viria Tech?!”

You nodded as you motioned them to sit down, they did so. The older employee gently jabbed the intern in with his shoulder. 

“Do you know why you are here?” You asked out, coolly. 

The older employee nodded, “ Because...of the incident right?”

“And who are you required to report to when making these mistakes?”

“Kozume, the head of Software development, miss” the younger one spoke out. 

“Yet none of you reported it? One of your coworkers did…..”

“We didn’t think it was that serious of a mistake!” 

You grabbed and laid down documents in front of them, one by one. 

“Yet, as these documents say. Your little mishap has just made Viria Tech lose most of our new software development data for this July’s new project launch with Sony….”

Both of them paled as they looked over at the papers, you continued.

“ Not only that but this will make a lot of the Software Development block stay overtime with pay that will make a mark on this month’s budget for the company.”

“Boss, we are so sorry!”

You gave them a small pressed smile, as the two men in front of you begged for forgiveness. From the corner of your eye, you saw the time read 6 pm.

You had to wrap things up soon, so you took out two sheets of a white document with a red box in the upper corner and handed it to them.

“Here are your dismissal slips, have all your things packed out and ready to move by next week. Any more questions ask Kiyoko, my secretary.”

“What?! Wait, I can’t get fired, my rents due this month?!”

“I've been working here for two years, surely you can oversee this right?”

Your pressed smile had fallen and your eyes slightly narrowed at them both, “If I oversee this what type of example am I setting? This mishap will hurt both the company and your ex-fellow employees. I cannot overlook this, take the papers, and leave.”

“Wait boss please!” The younger one pleaded as the older one dragged him by the collar. 

“Please leave or I will ask security to escort you out” 

And like that they left. Sighing when you looked at the clock, it read 7 pm. Hinata should be here any sec-

“Y/n! How have you been?” Hinata’s orange hair entered your vision and you almost cracked a smile that wasn’t forced. 

“Seen better days, how’s stuff in HR?”

Hinata sat down in the chair that was occupied prior moments, “Busy! Gah! So many people have been applying and we are already at full employee numbers right now!”

“Well we just lost a Software Developer and an intern so could you hop on that? Also, we might need to overhire more workers for the development team…”

Hinata looked at you, his eyebrows knitting in concern, “Why?”

“Mishap with the data for the new Tech collab with Sony. The intern was left unsupervised and decided to tinker with it”

Hinata groaned, “Isn’t this gonna hit the budget for this month? I’ll get the temporary employees but-“

“I’ll cover it, don’t worry. But please when finding extra developers to hire, make them sign NDA’s, I don’t want word of this getting out. It will make other companies hesitate to work with us and look so unprofessional”

Hinata nodded, “got it is that all?”

You sighed as you stretched your arms, you leaned in closer to him.

“Yeah, I also wanted to catch up. We haven’t talked and we work in the same building…”

Hinata nodded sheepishly, “Yeah I guess we’re both really busy”

“Do you need help in managing HR? I can get another employee to help you with your workload? Maybe an assistant? Kenma’s been wanting one….”

Hinata shook his head, “No! I can manage, really I’m doing fine.” A small laugh left him, “Of course Kenma would want one, he’s always saying he wants more free time to game…”

A small smile slipped on to your face, “Well he’s Kenma, I’m just glad he has a passion for what he’s doing. We’ve been trying to get a deal with Nintendo but I haven’t told him, I’m sure he’ll be excited about it it goes through”

Hinata’s eyes sparkled, “ Really! That’s so cool! I can’t believe it!”

“Yeah, I’m making Akashi network a bit more before jumping on to it. Plus I think I might have to push it further back since we’re now behind working on the Sony data and we have August’s release of the new analytics for the stockholders since our popularity outside Japan had increased”

Hinata let out a groan, “So much jumble, Ne? Y/n don’t you get stressed?”

Of course I- but you cut off the thought and said, “Sometimes, but I can handle it”

Hinata looked at you with shiny brown eyes, you ruffled his hair and asked, “So how’s stuff with your hubby?”

Hinata flushed red and played with his hands, “I and Kageyama are doing good! Right now he’s also been busy with work so we haven’t seen each other much.”

“But you guys are still going strong right?”

Hinata grinned, “Three years and counting!” He looked over to the side of your shoulder, “I can’t believe you still have the wedding picture”

You let out a grin, “You got married once we graduated! I had to celebrate seeing as you weren’t gonna be a single with me for my mid-Twenties!”

Hinata laughed, “Oh they’ve been crazy but not in the way we thought huh?”

Your smile slightly slipped, “Yeah, now we’re midway with them and I still have-“

A knock interrupted your words, Akashi entered the room with your clothes. You looked over at the clock, it read 8 pm.

Standing up you squeezed Hinata’s shoulder and smiled at him, “I have a business meeting at 9.”

Hinata nodded, “No worries I get it”

“We’ll talk soon, tell Kageyama I said hi”

But as Hinata flashed you a smile, you were sure he wasn’t convinced about your promise of catching up soon.

He left and you grabbed your clothes from Akashi thanking him but later interjected, “Make sure Hinata once he’s hired the extra employees for this mishap takes some time off. Make sure Kiyoko jots it down and notifies Yamaguchi that he’ll be in charge of HR for the time being that Hinata’s out”

Akashi nodded as he got it down on his planner, “Got it, your drivers waiting outside. You have around 20 minutes to get ready and head to the Ibadan Restaurant”

“Got it”

“Are you going alone? Would you like me to come?” Akashi asked.

You shook our head, “Akashi you’re off the clock and you’re 24 and young so go spend some time with your boyfriend I’ll be fine”

Akashi nodded as he left the room but you heard him say, “Y/n you’re only a year older…”

Grabbing your (F/C) dress you rush to put it on and touch up our makeup in 10 minutes and are downstairs in the car in 3. The driver didn’t chat which you enjoyed as you were bombarded with messages from your friends asking what you were doing that night. 

Meeting with old 40-year-old men for dinner to convince them to invest in the company, you thought tiredly. 

“She’s in a bad mood so watch out!” Whispered one of the employers to the other. 

The room went silent as you walked into the Software Development meeting you called. Akashi on your heels with a journal and glasses. 

All eyes landed on you and you saw Kenma sitting out on the opposite side of the table’s tail, you at the head. 

Akashi sat next to you on the side, “I’m calling this meeting because last night we had a successful meeting with investors from the US”

The head software team was listening carefully, “They have invested so I need everyone here to work hard to discreetly clean up the mishap that happened yesterday understood? I want the work to be top tier. You have till the end of the July”

“But that’s only a month!” One of them protested. 

Your eyes slanted a bit but did not form a glare, “Its either finish it or lose the investment. The investors are looking into July’s output and growth and will take back their investment if there are no results. Our Development Data for Sony is that months biggest profit...if we don’t make it I will need to cut down on employees”

``We'll get it done” Kenma spoke who had been eerily quiet. Your gazes met and you nodded.

“That will be all the meeting has ended” and you walked out. Akashi was hot on your trail and as you entered the elevator he looked at you with concerned eyes. 

“Are you not going to talk about what happened last night? I should have gone with you-“

“No” and that was all you left out. For your throat burned too much and the nerves in your body denied your air.

The elevator was silent.

         ♡━━━━━━ ◦ ✤ ◦ ━━━━━━♡

Tag-list Open (Reply to be added!) 

@fatal-impact

@ambabhie

#miya osamu #osamu miya #osamu x reader #haikyuu osamu #osamu x y/n #osamu x you #osamu miya x y/n #osamu miya x reader #osamu miya fanfiction #Miya twins #Haikyuu #hq osamu #Osamu fluff #osamu angst #Osamu Miya AU #Haikyuu Au #Hq #haikyū!! #fanfiction #multichapters #Miya twins fanfic #Fluff #osamu imagine #osamu x reader smut

[de-profundis-ad-astra]

I’ve been on Writeblr before but my last attempt fell through the cracks, so I’m taking another try at it. This is a blog where I post both fanfic and original works. Frankly, this whole blog is a bit of a clusterfuck because I can’t keep track of shit and keeping different blogs for different interests is... well. It’s not something I have either the time or the energy for.

Regardless, I’ve been channeling as much as my post-grad school and new-professional energy I have into my novel projects. I’m going to start posting much more about those, especially with NaNoWriMo coming up. Find me over at Miranda Pearl if you wanna add me as a buddy, or shoot me a message here! I believe in these stories so much, and they’re kicking and screaming to be shared with the world.

So, about me:

- As mentioned above, I recently graduated with a master’s degree in school psychology, and I am currently working as a school psychologist out of the bay area in California. I’m spending my free time on my novel projects.

- I live in northern California, but I was born and raised in southern California. I am a born and raised beach bum.

- I love hiking, swimming, running, and all manner of outdoor activities as well as reading, writing, sketching, and video games.

- I love, love, love space. Stars, galaxies, nebluae, you name it, it’s all part of my aesthetic. Send me pictures of nightscapes and you will forever own my soul.

Stats:

I’m 26 Virgo sun, Cancer moon, Virgo rising Neutral good Bisexual E/ISFP, depending on the day Hufflepuff Type 2 personality

About my writing:

- I’ve written just about everything under the sun, but my current WIPs are an urban gothic and… my co-author and I haven’t really decided on a genre for our series. We half-seriously call it a historical fiction, even though it takes place in the present day. It’s more of a spy/espionage thriller.

- I write for the YA/adult fiction cusp, which I believe is called new adult. My series will cater to older teens or new adults, and my urban gothic is strictly adult

- A lot of my work is related to character study. My work strives to be character driven more than plot driven. Developing my characters is my favorite part of my writing process.

- My co-author and I love to make vine compilations that we think are fitting to our characters and come up with absurd headcanons about them. It’s actually a really fun way to do character development if you’ve hit a rut.

- I write for the love of it. Ultimately, I’d love to get published one day, but for the time being, I love my small audience and after my stint writing fanfic, I’m ready to get serious about my original projects.

WIPs:

Wretches and Kings: There’s something deeply wrong in Easthold, an affluent city rife with bandits and thieves of all pedigrees. Something strange and unsettling. Like a catastrophic event has knocked the whole city just slightly out of sync with the rest of the world. It’s in the way the EPD have cabinet upon cabinet of unsolved crimes that never manage to make their way into reports, years of unacceptably unpunished offences that would bring the might of a federal investigation if only they were disclosed. In the way a startling amount of those offences resemble crimes from days long past. PINTEREST | SPOTIFY

LEGION: A company’s unreasonably aggressive severance policy sends two employees on an adventure to destabilize the infrastructure. PINTEREST | SPOTIFY

Feel free to drop in and say hi! I’m hoping to start posting my stuff soon!

#writeblr #writeblr introduction #writing #writing community #ok real last try before i quit

[tylerwritez]

Tuesday, june 22 2021

I've noticed I'm getting "the shiverys" or "the twitchy" a lot today. Like every time I FEEL something I take a moment to violently tic.... every time I think about certain things I tic.... good things, bad things, things from an hour ago and things from years ago. Tic, tic, tic.

Also, I have... some stuff to explain. Its really no big deal, but you know me: I'll freak out about it anyway. Basically I dissed my friend (rightfully so) around the time that we had just met cos they did something that threw me off.

He saw it in my phone... NOW. it's not RELEVANT anymore and I've since redacted that criticism...and now I gotta explain it to him anwyays. Oh well. I'm good at this stuff. I can get myself outta any situation. I dont even know why I'm talking like this tho... it's not a "Situation" it's just smthn I gotta explain rq.

Oh, today's song recommendation is Spirit Crusher by Death. I'm a huge Death fan...

Also! I gotta study... for my replacement exam. How stressful. Its about photosynthesis, but like, it's not simple. We went DEEP inside those fucking leaves.

One sec, lemme hook up my IV tube

Not an ACTUAL IV tube... just my headphones. But since I'm so #emo, it might as well be a fucking IV tube with the way that I cant live without it.

Its 3:08 and I'm walking home now. I was upset last night but me and Star have made up now lol... it was thAt easy. I'm so defective, making shit hard when it doesnt need to be.

It's so hot out damn. Idk. I had school today, so I had Bio class... I ACTUALLY PAID ATTENTION for once. I had lunch with Star and her friend group, and I honestly kinda feel like they're MY friends now too, even just a little bit.

Actually, I used to rant about feeling lonely like all the time but now I have so many friends it's crazy they all keep inviting me places and it's like people WANT ME AROUND... idk. It makes me happy.

Today I gotta ask if tommroow after school I can go to Bee's house to watch Supernatural (famous homoerotic ghost show)

I should also add songs to Erin's spotify playlist for our picnic saturday which I still need permission to go to.

I gotta ask for Wednesday after school to watch Insidious with Jay  which is apparently really good

Also hes the friend that I gotta explain stuff to... the DrAmA... the ThEaTrE....

Update my dad said yes to hanging out with Bee but first I'm gonna miss school to fix my broken brackets on my braces

Also turns out the house I THOUGHT we were moving into has substantial damage from shifting so... we aRENT moving there.

In case you didn't know, shifting is when like the house that's been built literally SHIFTS like it moves around.

Anwyays Jay just texted me... I'm gonna change into shorts since it's hot, set up my study area,.... and respond to him.

The time is 3:22 p.m.

Wish me. Luck.

Luck is plentiful! As it so often is in my risky, risky life.

I play my cards right. It's a learnt skill.

But also there wasnt much to explain since it passed already and was tiny anywyas.

XD so I've made up with the whole goddamn world by now.

Its 6:31, we saw 1 house. Only one. Its kinda hot out but I'm gonna bike now since we just had supper. I finally finished my homework... I just have to finish one mixed media piece as my final project for art!

Friday is my replacement. On photosynthesis and cell resp. We know this. But what I didn't mention, or I dont THINK I did, is that if I finish my art project before then I have the second block FREE!!! Me, Star, and her friend

A are planning to leave for second block and maybe get mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Also I might eat her out XD

Anyways idk. I hope I can bike tonight to call Jay.

I keep accidentally using people's real names here then having to correct it... I dont know how much i care about MY identity being discovered... but to have my friends doxxed would suck.

Man I feel bad abt saying fuck star last night cos we made up....

Wait we r looking at another house? Idk I'm in the car still waiting to go home

Oh wait no now we r goin home

Its 6:39... I hope I still have time.

I went biking, called Jay. Went home. Idk, friendly conversation... we talked more tonight and I also talked to my other friend A. Jay is... I LOVE HIM?? SO MUCH??? I feel so happy. Talking to him thinking about him seeing his STUPID FUCKING FACE JESUS. his eyes alone... I could stare at his face all day probably. I want to kiss him... hOLD HIS HAND... omg... huG HIM!!! Eofjwpxjwie he's so sweet like I can't even... and I'm proabably not good enough for him like. Wtf. Hes easily a 10. And I dont rate things outta 10. How tf do I end up with HIM? Doing stuff, as friends. Like wHAT. I guess I got lucky XD. He says he loves my personality and I'm hot XD ofc I dont see it myself. But like. JESUS CHRIST he could proabably easily pull whOever. XD me?

Whatever though. As long as we r together and stuff. I LOVE HIM A LOT. he said he loved me. Every time he says that it makes me so overly happy.

Maybe I'm just sappy and stuff.... whatever. I think it would be nice to be hugged by him.

Yeah I'm cheesy.

I'm sorta tired now so maybe I'm not writing the best.

I just keep thinkinf about love. Love is a muscle of evil suggestion. But how evil can it really be? I am just a human being and that is all. Everything else is applied. I am just a human being with soemthing in my heart that pulls me all over the place. Love is this strange thing because I'm fucked up and to be able to love without that fucked up part of me, without the damage... is this complicated, hard thing to do and I can NEVER tell if I'm doing it right but I know I'm DOING IT. I know I FEEL LOVE. And soemtimes it's such an intense thing like when you go to surf on a wave at the beach with ur belly but u hit it wrong and it's so big and overwhelming it washes over you and PULLS you down to the bottom and smushes your face into the sand and YOU CANT BREATHE jesus Christ it's like that.

Or maybe I just want to experience love as it should be felt.

Obviously all of my problems surrounding this Damage could be easily fixed if I went to therapy but. there are reasons I can't.

I LOVE a lot. Too much for my own good. Enough to hurt me, get me into trouble, etc etc but also... enough to liberate me. I LOVE. I love Jay. So much. LIKE. MY BRAIN ORBITS AROUND HIM CONSTANTLY THINKING OF HIM AND PRAISING HIM AND MWUAH HE IS SO LOVELY I BOW BEFORE HIM...

I think as much as I love, a lot of the times I tend to focus even more on BEING loved.

If I am told I am loved, and shOwN I am loved... it is one of the most powerful things. Especially since I was literally emotionally neglected in childhood... yeah. I feel like I'm always trying to fill that hole.

Not EVERY feeling I have is for that reaosn but sometimes, if you tell me you love me, show me you love me, hug me,... I'll like start crying,,, that's the childhood emotional neglect kicking in. If you call me #smol and #cute and say I look young and fragile which happens more often than you'd think XD, I know I'm not supposed to like that shit, so I act like I dont....but I do. Which is PROBABLY ALSO THE CEN 🤪  like whatever lol

Anwyays I'm fucked up

You see how quickly things become complicated in my mind?

Convoluted? Is that the word?

Whatever. I OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS COS I OVERTHINK THEM BECAUSE I'm LITERALLY MENTALLY ILL IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. I'm not joking. I obviously have unresolved undiagnosed "issues"

I do Suspect things, though.

I can make a list

Maybe I shouldn't.

Maybe I will.

I shouldnt.

Whatever.

I used to hate when people brought up my self harm. I would actually panic. I still self harm but now? Now I'm fine with anyone  talking about it as long as it's not an adult who can get me into trouble/force me into therapy over it. Because really? I kinda like having it mentioned. It's kinda validating and it's like hey... people can see that I'm sick.

I dont do it so people talk to me about it though. Dont get me wrong. If I did, I'd go vertically on the arms, not for suicide but so it healed and people would ask XD.

My scars are actually VERY hidden... cos I never intended for ANYONE to see. But for those who DO see them,,,, it's nice soemtimes to have people express concern.

I dont wanna be PITIED or anything, but idk I just think to myself "wow, they're CONCERNED... about ME... they arent angry or mean... they didnt yell at me or threaten me... they respect my autonomy and privacy...

And they CARE ABOUT ME..." and it makes me cry.

That's also the CEN.

I dont know. I just like when people express genuine concern. Even if they see and then just ask if I'm okay. That's all it takes cos then I go wow.

Its validating and irs lovely because finally people care... FINALLY PEOPLE CARE. FINALLY I GET SOME EMPATHY OR SYMPATHY AND NO ANGER.

Even just having them brought up tells me its noticeable enough

My brain does this thing where it thinks nothing bad that's ever happened to me was Bad Enough for me to be upset about.

And I dont know... its nice sometimes to be told shit like "omg that looks so bad" or to see that people who do see my cuts are somewhat shocked or revolted... it's nice because I go... "hey, it was bad enough for them..."

Or to have people comment on them with concern. Just ANYTHINT WHERE PEOPLE NOTICE IT AND ARENT ASSHOLES ABOUT IT IS VALIDATING.

Because I'm not used to that...

Because CEN

I'm. The worst perosn on the fucking planet.

I should kill myself.

I suddenly actually feel so self hating I do want to kill myself... oh god.

I ruin everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. What have I done. Like. Why. Oh god.

I'm just remembering when Star said my kindness seemed like an act. And how I've been called out for seeming fake like 2 other times.

DO I SEEM FAKE???? I DONT EVER PUT ON ACTS OF KINDESS.... CONCIOUSLY? but the very idea that I could be perceived that way...

Should I like not try to be nice or some shit?

Jesus christ she hurts my feelings even now when it was a long time ago.

But I cant blame her. I can't blame anyone for how i feel except my parents because they left me with fucking. Heart nerve damage or some shit.

I'm tired and now I'm sad too. Goodnight guys.

#JudeJournals

[gotatext]

PREFERRED NAME — nora. i think i started going by it in like, 2009?? my full name is eleanor but i hated it n thought it was way too pretentious n i never felt like it fitted me so when i started writing on forums i decided i’d be a nora rather than eleanor and then my school friends called me it and it just kinda stuck, the only person who calls me eleanor is my mum

PRONOUNS — she / her / ethereal being beyond comprehension

AGE — 23 but i tell everyone im 21 because even tho time is literally fake im desperately clinging to that fleeting thing we call youth trying to catch it like smoke in my hands

PINTEREST — i actually have two. this one is my main one where i just cram all my shit n i’ve had it for years and some of its super unorganised. then i also have this one which is one i made for exclusively female characters. it started as mythological figures but now its like, women in literature and the occasional oc as well. variety is the spice of life!

DISCORD — lindsay lohan’s meth#8664

TUMBLR (PERSONAL/MUSE/RPH) — i used to be froseths but now im pvrscphones cos ya gal is a fucking whore for mythology 

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE — oi oi guvna ere’s me twitta. also here’s my letterboxd n my goodreads if anyone still uses tht

MYER-BRIGGS — enfp / infp border .... the classic profile of a lit student

HP HOUSE — hufflepuff, am fuckin mad. 

ZODIAC — libra which is a joke because i am in no way balanced but i guess i AM indecisive and a peacekeeper so?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY? — i believe it when it says good shits gonna happen in my life and blame it if bad shit happens but i don’t strongly follow it i just find it interesting

HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED RPING ON TUMBLR — maybe like 14?? my first rp blog here is literally so embarassing i wrote as clove from the hunger games n my best friend irl wrote cato :/ it was wild

WHAT YEAR WAS IT? — like 9 years ago?? 2010 maybs

NAME A RANDOM ROLEPLAY THAT STICKS OUT IN YOUR MEMORY — me n my friend ellie made this really cool group the summer before we left for uni which was loosely based on a concept mentioned mayb once in the divergent series, but it gave us loads of freedom to make it our own thing. it was called the fringe n it was like..... this dystopian society where people with different genes were cut off from the rest of society n lived in overrun slum cities where different groups had like, a monopoly over weapons, produce, etc.... my character jack was the leader of this lost-boy-esque tribe called the wolf pack who were hunters n used to run across the rooftops wearing the skins of animals they’d killed and engage in tribal rituals with sacrifices to the gods n shit. sounds lame but everyone there was so invested in their character arcs that it was a shame to see it go. but ! it kind of reached its end point so we blew it up w nukes n they all died. tragic.

WHAT WEIRD ANIMAL WOULD YOU HAVE AS A PET IF IT WAS REALISTIC — a fox?? do ppl keep foxes? idk i’ve always just felt a sense of connection w them like when a fox stares at me im like this shit is life i am living and breathing in this bitch.... visceral

NAME THE FIRST SONG ON YOUR DISCOVER WEEKLY ON SPOTIFY OR THE FIRST SONG THAT COMES ON APPLE MUSIC / ITUNES SHUFFLE — everbody party tonight by cobra man n summer girl by haim..... not my usual stuff but big summer chillin vibes,.....

NAME A BOOK THAT YOU READ IN SCHOOL THAT YOU SURPRISINGLY LIKED — lord of the flies and also the handmaid’s tale. one of assignments was to write a chapter from another character’s perspective n i chose moira

NAME A BOOK YOU HATED THAT MOST PEOPLE LIKED — skellig. fuck off with ur asprin ugly bat man i don’t care. also of mice and men. don’t care about the rabbits or curley’s goddamn wife.

WHAT TV SHOW DID YOU RECENTLY BINGE? — im not a big binger bc i find it jst makes me depressed if i watch tv all day but im nearly finished stranger things season 3 n i recently finished euphoria (big rec but proceed w caution as quite triggering content)

FAVOURITE QUOTE — cool girl speech from gone girl. but also “there’s something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls” i know its like.... such an overused quote but it really encapsulates this kind of feral girlhood that a few of my characters like bridget n greta have tapped into. i also loved the line “i feel like i could eat the world raw” from song of achilles, that really captures this kind of.... pure n childlike enthusiasm tht i wanna achieve w rory 

LINK TO A VINE THAT EXUDES YOUR ‘ENERGY’ ��� this is my energy completely am always covered in glitter n staring broodily out of the windows of ubers at 4am like im in the sad bit of an indie film 

DO YOU WRITE OUTSIDE OF RP? WHAT DO YOU WRITE? — uhh.... not as much as i shd.... i want to be a writer so i shd be makin some effort to get my stuff Out Into The World but im just not.... lol. ive done a lot of poetry collections . i wnt to finish a novel @ some point too.

THREE YOUTUBERS YOU STILL TRUST — bold of you to assume i trust any youtubers

A CELEBRITY CRUSH THAT JUST WON’T QUIT — id literally die for saoirse ronan n timothee chalamet :/ chance perdomo also owns my ass. 

EVER MEET A CELEBRITY? SHARE YOUR STORY — i once high-fived dani harmer, the actress who played tracy beaker. today my sister text me tryin to make me guess what celebrity she just saw on holiday in wales and for ages she let me think it was timmothee but it was actually bradley walsh from the chase :/

WHAT’S YOUR PICTURE-PERFECT NIGHT? — i am in a bomb ass crop top and mini skirt, several scrunchies in my hair, glitter all over my face, wearing cowboy boots. we eat dinner in a trendy but affordable pub that doubles up as a cocktail bar n then we drink zombies or sex on the beaches n go to a rave where everyone is on the same wavelength n i share drugs with girls in the toilets and we swap numbers knowing we will never text each other but its ok bc in that moment we feel like we are soulmates and everyone is super drunk n touching everyone else n its all very visceral and we walk through the woods when the rave ends and lie in the grass because we wish to suck out all the marrow of life 

A CONSPIRACY THEORY YOU KINDA BELIEVE IN — princess diana was murdered 

ARE ALIENS REAL? — maybe the real aliens are the friends we made along the way

PLAY ANY PHONE GAMES? WHICH ONES? — love island game im addicted and way too invested in my fictional relationship with bobby, a cartoon

WHAT’S A FILM YOU LOVED WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG AND RECENTLY WATCHED, ONLY TO FIND OUT YOU DON’T ANYMORE — bold of u to assume i remember my childhood. but if we’re talking last 10 years angust, thongs n perfect snogging is so so cringe 

DO YOU COLLECT ANYTHING? — pairs of glasses belonging to other ppl when they break / get new ones even though i can see perfectly well. 

WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BUT YOU’RE TOO LAZY? — mythology...... always a craving and a wish i’d read like ancient texts but my school wasn’t good enough to do greek or latin or any of that shit n even tho i could read english translations i cant be bothered. also criminal psychology

THREE LANGUAGES YOU DON’T SPEAK, BUT WISH YOU COULD — italian, french and latin

MOVIE YOU’VE WATCHED MORE THAN 5 TIMES — ladybird, about time, angus thongs, shrek 2, what we do in the shadows, the history boys, atonement, coraline, the breakfast club, ferris bueller’s day off

NAME A FICTIONAL CHARACTER FROM TV/FILM/MOVIE/GAME/BOOK THAT YOU FIND YOURSELF PROJECTING ON / YOU RELATE TO — cecilia lisbon. rue in euphoria. alison brie in glow. adam parrish in the raven cycle. richard papen. olivia cooke’s character in thoroughbreds. allen ginsberg in kill your darlings. lily in sex education. holliday grainger’s character in the film animals --- i too am an aspiring writer who never writes and just gets drunk instead .

DO YOU FOLLOW ANY SPORTS? WHO DO YOU ROOT FOR? — no. cba

HOBBIES BESIDES WASTING AWAY HERE? — i go to the movies basically every day bcos i work in a cinema. im also a voracious reader n i occasionally do theatre or costume making

PLUG A TV SHOW / MOVIE / BOOK / VIDEO GAME / ETC… YOU WISH MORE PEOPLE WOULD CHECK OUT — where the wild things are (film by spike jonze).  animals. beats. the book fen by daisy johnson and a girl is a half formed thing by eimar mcbride. andy warhol’s biography from a to b and back again

WHOSE BRAIN WOULD YOU LIKE TO PICK, ALIVE OR DEAD? — phoebe waller-bridge on how i get her life. carey mulligan on how she got to be such a good actress n how i can become her. maybs wes anderson. maybs gillian flynn. i tend to listen to podcasts w the ppl i really wanna pick the brains of.

TEAM EDWARD OR JACOB? — edward :/

LAST MOVIE SEEN IN THEATRE — blinded by the light n i lovd it

DO YOU STILL READ? — when i finished uni i kinda got out of the habit but this week i finished two books so ive set myself the challenge of a book a week.

IF SO, WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? — i finished song of achilles yesterday n i also finished call me by your name yesterday. started circe by madeline miller today, im also partway through milkman by anna burns and the plays of annie barker

ON A SCALE OF 1-10, HOW MUCH DID YOU HATE FILLING THIS OUT? – 3 i didnt hate it bcos at heart i am self-indulgent and love fashioning some sense of self when i feel lost in a world that is scary and constantly changing 

#wshedtask002

[sonicawareness]

The Best Albums of 2019

After listening to more than 2000 new albums in 2019, I’ve narrowed my picks down to The 20 Best Records of 2019.

I’ve included 3 essential songs from each pick, as well as a choice lyrical clip and a brief description of the album.

Noting beats actually LISTENING TO MUSIC! So don’t just read my thoughts: follow and listen to the Spotify playlist containing 60 songs from the top 20 albums:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5TWlfWoo54MQ5cYTMmB0RI?si=M_23L6DDRieVuA845A90Pg

01: Yung Gravy - Sensational

Aptly titled Sensational, this debut full-length is a thirty minute party that dances between the hottest trap beats, well-placed samples, and the young Minnesota rapper’s braggadocious persona and ridiculous raps

Hey Alexa, how many bitches can we fit in the Tesla?...Pull up in that Model X with your model ex!

“Whip a Tesla” • “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot” • “The Boys Are Back in Town”

02: TWICE - &TWICE • Feel Special EP • FANCY YOU EP

Nine young South Korean women radiate endless energy, bountiful bliss, and some of the catchiest songs to come out not only in 2019 but recent memory 

Even when things go wrong, feelings out of control: lessons, to be sure. Be okay, all right! Even a crying face is glittering, filter and laugh! You can return to invincibility, right? Blow off, and we havin’ fun! [Translated from original Japanese]

“Fake and True” • “Breakthrough” • “Stronger”

03: Sublime with Rome - Blessings

Frontman, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Rome Ramirez delivers his finest record to date: eleven heartfelt reggae-driven songs that are as well-written as they are masterfully recorded and produced

Watching you feel good tonight: it's your song up on the station, and we don't even know no words. I wanna hear you roll your R’s, singing Spanish in the car, “Dime algo hermosa tonight”.

“Wicked Heart” • “Light On” • “For the Night”

04: Bring Me the Horizon - amo 

Cohesive yet genre-spanning (metalcore, hip-hop, electronic, and pop, to name just a few), the sixth album from the English quintet is an emotional yet insightful rollercoaster masterpiece

Before the truth will set you free, it'll piss you off. Before you find a place to be, you're gonna lose the plot. Too late to tell you now, one ear and right out the other one ‘cause all you ever do is chant the same old mantra.

“MANTRA” • “wonderful life” • “i apologise if you feel something”

05: Weezer - Weezer (Black Album)

Expertly produced and instantly memorable, the long-running Rivers Cuomo-driven California quartet is once again in top form, adding yet another fresh and unique — but distinctly Weezer — record to their extensive discography 

Don't get mad at me, I'm just being honest. I should have lied, now you're mad at me? I'm just being honest. How 'bout from now on you'll write the script, I'll read the lines?

“Can’t Knock the Hustle” • “Zombie Bastards” • “Living in L.A.”

06: Big Data - 3.0

Like this sophomore album’s lyrical content — exploration of the impact artificial intelligence will have on humans and on the Earth — the latest project from producer, multi-instrumentalist, and mastermind Alan Wilkis is paradoxically dark yet bright; like AI, this album’s execution is equally flawless and Dangerous

I created a monster, it's out of control, it's going to take me...I didn't know what I was making...But now it's coming, coming for all of us!

“Monster” • “See Through” • “Evolution Once Again”

07: blackbear - ANONYMOUS

Vibrant yet dark, personal yet accessible, the fifth album from Mat Musto is a collection of 18 vulnerable, confessional songs told over slick electronic and hip-hop sounds

You drop the bag and ask me how my weekend was. I love that, though. You laugh when I make stupid jokes, and when I went to rehab, you didn't judge me that bad. I struggle with addiction probs, you always got my back. What am I gonna do the day that my drug dealer moves away? Whatever am I gonna say to my new plug? It just ain't the same.

“DOWN” • “HATE MY GUTS” • “DRUG DEALER”

08: Denzel Curry - ZUU

Hit-after-hit of hip-hop bangers pack this album’s half-hour runtime, with a plethora of guests joining the fray but never quite knocking it out like the young Miami native, Denzel Curry 

First they mockin', now they hoppin', all on the wave, 'cause they see me poppin'. Big-big-big large pockets, they start flockin'. Here's what I say when they ass keep knockin'...

“RICKY” • “BIRDZ” • “ZUU”

09: DaBaby - KIRK / Baby on Baby

On his two 2019 albums, his first proper efforts after countless mixtapes and singles, DaBaby unleashes his signature, incessant vocals over relentless trap and modern hip-hop beats

Prolly heard I was broke from a broke nigga, prolly heard I'm a ho from a ho! I don't know what you know, I ain't runnin' from no nigga, let’s go!

“BOP” • “OFF THE RIP” • “Suge”

10: Bayside - Interrobang

On their eighth album, the Anthony Raneri-fronted New York natives sound refreshed, focused, and tighter than ever telling their trademark tales of heartbreak and healing

I love that music saved you, and Lord knows it’s saved me too, but songs never love you back, and you never know the person preaching to you...

“Interrobang” • “Prayers” • “Bury Me”

11: The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru The Passion

Few frontmen can weave an album’s worth of compelling narratives, yet the Brooklyn band’s Craig Finn finds himself on the seventh The Hold Steady album once again delivering ten more engaging, interlocked tales over his band’s fierce guitar riffs and all-too-catchy choruses

Thanks for listening, thanks for understanding: tequila takeoff, Tecate landing.

“Entitlement Crew” • “Denver Haircut” • “You Did Good Kid”

12: Electric Guest - KIN

Sugary sweet, the third record from the California duo promptly polishes any rough few rough edges they once had to deliver a perfectly slick yet quirkily heartwarming collection of eleven easy-listening songs

I'm like, “this mothafucka might sue me, and that mothafucka might boo me”. I'ma keep on goin' to a better day, all this other bitterness can fade away.

“Dollar” • “I Got the Money” • “More”

13: Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

Part punk energy without sounding even slightly punk, part emo diary without being a dashboard confessional, the debut record from American teenager Billie Eilish craftily bounces between genres, haunting sounds, and strange stories

If you think I’m pretty, you should see me in a crown. I'm gonna run this nothing town. Watch me make 'em bow one by one by one.

“bad guy” • “my strange addiction” • “you should see me in a crown”

14: The Cat Empire - Stolen Diamonds

The eighth album from Australia’s The Cat Empire is a full-blown dance party packed with catchy, clever songwriting and a room full of drums, horns, strings, keyboards, turntables, and bass

Operator, please, I can’t get out my head. Tell me where I’m going or where I’m being led. Tell me like an order, and order I’ll obey. Maybe I just thought you said, or did I did I hear you say, “We’re going to ([kill a man]) Kilaman-jaro, jaro…”

“KIla” • “Stolen Diamonds” • “Ready Now”

15: Dirty Heads - Super Moon

Co-frontmen Dirty J and Duddy B return to the beach for the seventh Dirty Heads album, borrowing sounds from across their entire discography of acoustic guitars and witty hip-hop to craft a surprisingly delicate record

I'm a flame, I'm a beacon that won't go out. In the dark, in the rain, I'm your lighthouse. When you can't stand the pain, hope you know now, I'll keep you safe, I'm your lighthouse.

“Super Moon” • “Lift Me Up” • “Tender Boy”

16: TENDER - Fear of Falling Asleep

Dark and uninviting, the second album from this London duo is an intimidating but rewarding listen delicately spiced with just enough hooks to keep you trapped in its atmospheric dreams 

I’ll be looking for the scent when it goes cold. I’ve been trying to beat the maze with a blindfold on. I’ve been foraging through mud and sticks searching for that power that don’t exist.

“Closer Still” • “Bottled Up” • “Handmade Ego”

17: Logic - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind / Supermarket Soundtrack

Logic returns once again with countless rhymes delivered over his trademark breathless bars, frequently painting an all-too-vivid picture of a famous rapper struggling to comprehend the world around him

All these comments got me lost in my mind; all these thoughts that I'm having are not mine. I always post that I'm having a good time so my life looks perfect online...

“Homicide” • “Don’t Be Afraid to Be Different” • “Lemon Drop”

18: Tyga - Legendary

More than just a collection of hits, the seventh album from the Compton rapper is well-sequenced and effortlessly laced with hook-after-hook for Tyga to deliver his signature obscene lines about things he self-admittedly has too many [sic] of: money, cash, hoes, cars, clothes, flows

Hey, shut the fuck up, bitch, you know who I are. Point blank range, and I'm shootin' for the stars. You niggas subpar and I just raised the bar. You got Rollies on your wrist, this is Chopard. Slide on your block like a fuckin' go-kart, my nigga A&R, still got an AR.

“Haute” • “Lightskin Little Wayne” • “On Me”

19: The Chainsmokers - World War Joy

The third album in three years from Alex Pall and Drew Taggart (and no shortage of guests) is an easy, light collection of ten slick relationship-focused pop songs that find the duo largely eschewing their dance-centric history 

You said, "Hey, whatcha doing for the rest of your life?" and I said, "I don't even know what I'm doing tonight". Went from one conversation to your lips on mine.

“The Reaper” • “Family” • “P.S. I Hope You’re Happy”

20: Bear Hands - Fake Tunes

Brooklyn’s Bear Hands returns with another collection of bright, bouncy songs that ever-so-slightly conceal the trio’s underlying sadness and struggles  

I don't see how you think you can come to me, and bitch to me, lay out your problems, like ancient history, like I ain't got no other shit to do. I love you, baby, but my lips are turnin' blue.

“Blue Lips” • “Back Seat Driver (Spirit Guide)” • “Mr. Radioactive”

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2019

Yung Gravy - Sensational

TWICE - &TWICE • Feel Special EP • FANCY YOU EP

Sublime with Rome - Blessings

Bring Me the Horizon - amo 

Weezer - Weezer (Black Album)

Big Data - 3.0

blackbear - ANONYMOUS

Denzel Curry - ZUU

DaBaby - KIRK / Baby on Baby

Bayside - Interrobang

The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru The Passion

Electric Guest - KIN

Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

The Cat Empire - Stolen Diamonds

Dirty Heads - Super Moon

TENDER - Fear of Falling Asleep

Logic - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind / Supermarket Soundtrack

Tyga - Legendary

The Chainsmokers - World War Joy

Bear Hands - Fake Tunes

#best albums

[bigskydreaming]

princeescaluswords replied to your post:

Alex Summers, after the most recent of 128979889...

Why don’t you write Marvel? You couldn’t possibly do any worse and I could use the laughs!

Lol, its a nice dream, but realistically I don’t think there’s any universe in which Marvel would ever let me write the X-Men. 

Like, my very first story would probably have Bobby refreezing the Arctic while Storm heads up a team of elementals to combat climate change. And then a Republican senator and a Democrat senator would go on TV and make a bipartisan show of expressing their gratitude towards mutants for helping save the planet and this is the real future of humanity, this is them all building a world where they can live side by side in a mutually beneficial -

And then the broadcast would cut off because Cypher just hacked every satellite worldwide and said “all your binary codes belong to me now, resistance is futile, blah blah” before turning the camera to Sunspot who’s all decked out in his snazziest suit and dressed to the nines. Roberto yawns and flips the whole world off and says “LOL fuck you, the X-Men are done with respectability politics, we took a vote and our democratic process actually works, we don’t have a fucking electoral college. We only saved the planet because it happens to be the planet we live on, dipshits, nobody did it for you, you’re still cordially invited to go extinct. Or you can play nice and try getting along with the rest of us for a change but good luck trying to make Sentinels happen again, lmao, funding’s gonna be an issue for you pretty soon I think.”

He turns off the camera and goes back to planning his and Sam’s wedding, because look, I have my priorities, okay.

Then Mystique unleashes her new Fellowship of Evil (Same Name, But This Time Its Evil as in STFU, Its Ironic U Assholes) Mutants that she’s been recruiting from the ranks of the young and disenchanted. Overnight, the market is flooded with gold and gems transmuted from ordinary materials by mutant powers, as well as a bunch of shit ‘liberated’ from the coffers of the 1% via her Fellowship’s alliance with her son-in-law’s Thieves’ Guild. Value plummets instantly, and then technopaths join in the fun, crashing every banking system worldwide.

“Whoopsie, I broke capitalism, money’s worthless now, vive la revolution, everyone eat some fucking cake,” Raven sing-songs merrily from the chaise she’s lounging on while eating grapes. The city outside her window is burning. Meanwhile, a fiddler is playing nearby. She calls him Nero, because Aesthetic.

“Oh relax,” she rolls her eyes when Remy attempts to frown at her disapprovingly. “I had my teleporters evacuate the city before I set it on fire. I’m not a heartless monster, you know.”

“You mean you didn’t want to spend the next ten years dealing with your children yelling at you about innocent civilians and how could you,” Remy says dryly.

Mystique just shrugs and eats some more grapes. “Or that.”

Far-right dominated police forces and white supremacist militia groups attempt to forcibly establish martial law, except mostly they’re just standing around clutching their heads and trying to cope with the mother of all migraines as a gestalt of telepathic minds headed up by a Cerebro-powered octet of Jean, Emma, Betsy, Rachel, Quentin, and the Stepford Cuckoos psychically screams FAKE NEWS!!! into their brains every time their CO’s attempt to bark out new orders.

“Best school project ever,” Quire shouts. Emma smirks.

“Extra credit to the first person to psychically leak the full extent of just how extensively governments have invaded their citizens’ privacy with surveillance extremism in the name of national security.”

Jean attempts a half second of chastisement, but with them all linked this closely, there’s really no way to hide that she’s mostly just amused. Oh no, she and Emma are seeing eye to eye on something and there are witnesses and everything. The revolution was a mistake.

Atlanteans and mutant hydrokinetics team up to shove the worst oil and toxic waste and trash spills up onto the shores of every beach marked ‘privately owned’. The mile-wide ‘island’ of plastic debris that formerly sat in the middle of the Pacific is now parked off the coast of Malibu.

There’s a twenty foot demon from Limbo sitting in the Oval Office. It burps. Illyana beams and boops its nose. “Good boy.” It wags its tail and breaks the Oval Office.

Kitty and Kurt direct teams of similarly powered mutants in raiding the top secret R&D facilities of major pharmaceutical companies for all their research on diseases that never made it to mass production because they decided those treatments or cures wouldn’t be profitable in the long run because healthy people don’t need to spend a ton of money on medical care. Teams of healers are standing by to vet the viability of various research, while Hank, Cece and other mutant geniuses are already working on filling in the gaps on all the projects that were shutdown and Forge, Madison Jeffries and tech-based geniuses are converting existing infrastructure into the necessary machinery to take over mass production of these drugs, prosthetics, and sweatshop labor in general.

Speedsters and teleporters are redistributing food and stocking up the millions of properties worldwide that have just been sitting there empty for god knows how long, useless. Colossus is standing in the smashed remains of a mansion with his arms crossed sternly while a man who is definitely not meant to resemble the CEOs of either Tesla or Amazon or look like some kind of Musky Bozo hybrid cowers on the floor.

“You are a very stupid man,” Colossus says. “Why are you wasting billions funding research into space travel when there are aliens with a strong grasp of the technology in the ships that brought them here on every superhero team on Earth? You could have easily provided the Earth with working and widely accessible space travel by now if you weren’t so miserly.”

“Yeah,” Juggernaut says behind him, scratching his head. “Aliens have been coming and going from this planet for like fifty years. There are tons of fancy spaceships anyone could’ve just reverse engineered and mass produced by now. How come nobody’s ever done that and we’re all just acting like space travel is some far-off dream when everyone we know’s been to space like at least ten times?”

“Stupid people,” Colossus rumbles again. Musky Bozo wets himself and Piotr sighs and shakes his head. He didn’t even touch him.

Cyclops and Wolverine and their teams of bruisers are already done with the ICE facilities and have progressed to busting open prisons and liberating all nonviolent offenders. They inform everyone else that they can appeal to a panel of telepaths to read their minds and see for themselves that they’re innocent.

“Guilt determined by mind-reading?” Someone asks. “Lots of potential for sketchiness there.”

“Absolutely,” Scott says. “Which is why laws about boundaries and oversight have to be established. For now, its a volunteer basis only. Nobody has to get their mind read, but its an option available in the meanwhile as we sort out a better system for determining who’s been imprisoned for crimes of premeditated malice and abuse and who’s just been railroaded by an unjust and biased system.”

“So this is your new utopia, huh?” Sneers the prison warden, from the floor where he’s on his ass with a busted face because, idk, Reasons.

Scott just shakes his head. “No. It’s merely a start.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but if its broke and you wanna fix it, you gotta start somewhere,” Logan says gruffly. “Shit was broke. This is ‘starting somewhere.’”

He and Scott share a very Passionate look of camaraderie. Rogue sighs loudly.

“Just fuck already, jfc.”

Logan grunts. He already offered, but apparently all Personal Business must wait until after the Revolution was over, because a Scott Summers who put himself first was very clearly an impostor, so its not like Logan could even fucking get mad considering Scott putting in a pin in sucking each other’s faces after their We Were Both Dead But Now We’re Not and Also What the Fuck Was Up With Us For the Five Whole Years Before That reunion was what confirmed that it was definitely the Real Scott’s tongue in his mouth.

“Alright, let’s move it people,” Logan barks, clapping his hands. “There’s three more joints to hit before sundown. We got a timetable here.”

Jubilee squints at him suspiciously. “Since when are you efficient?”

“Mind your own fucking business.”

At no point does anyone suggest they erase the most sacred sites of all the world’s major religions and call them all fake or randomly resurrect a bunch of dinosaurs and release them on unsuspecting and innocent populations, because those are terrible ideas and make no sense and just because they’re stinkin’ commies now doesn’t mean they’re fucking morons.

Also, nobody grows a ridiculous beard or stops using shampoo or starts wearing flip flops or robes, because apparently those are not actually essential components of being a stinkin’ commie or even just a garden variety peace-aspiring socialist. They checked. Extensively. It was almost a dealbreaker. Emma, Monet and Roberto all threatened to side with the Capitalist Pigs if that was not thoroughly clarified before proceeding any further.

Thus ends my first issue. I email Marvel the script. They email it back, almost entirely redacted in red, with the note “This isn’t quite what we were looking for. Do you have anything about a new cure for mutants, maybe?”

I email them back: LOL NO. MAGNETO WAS RIGHT.

I am promptly fired.

I go back to ranting about how Marvel sucks on the internet.

[wineanddinosaur]

We Asked 11 Beer Pros: What’s the Best New Beer You’ve Had This Summer?

In case you missed it, summer 2020 came in the middle of a global pandemic. In a period that has required following safety measures, including mask wearing and social distancing, many of the season’s pastimes that so often accompany beer — barbecues, beach days, ballgames — have looked different or been abandoned altogether.

The custom of beating the summer heat with a refreshing drink, too, has taken on unconventional forms amid the coronavirus pandemic, as most states have temporarily loosened laws around takeout and delivery alcohol, a small lifeline for a handicapped food-and-beverage industry struggling to survive.

Craft brewers, for instance, have been battered by evaporated on-premises sales at taprooms, bars, and restaurants. In a survey of its members conducted by the Brewers Association in April, the majority did not believe they could stay in business for three months if current conditions continued. And, as a cost-cutting measure, data shows innovation has slowed: Almost half as many new beer releases, themselves an earmark of small, independent American breweries, are being registered compared to the same period last year due to Covid-19.

Still, producers are pushing through the crisis — for one, they’re adopting creative ways of packaging and selling in a constantly changing regulatory landscape. And, as we share below, many brewers are still releasing new offerings, helping beer lovers salvage the sublime joy of summer imbibing.

So, with this far-from-normal summer nearing its end, we asked brewers across the country to tell us about the beers that impressed them the most so far.

“Let’s be honest: Summers in Phoenix are BRUTALLY hot. Like, working the deep fryer inside of a food truck parked at the gates of Hell hot. It’s a type of heat that’s so intense, only those who experience it know how truly awful it is — and why liquid solace is needed. For me this summer it came from Humble Seas’ West Coast-leaning pilsner, Beverly Krills 90210. Dry-hopped with a nice blend of American and noble varieties, it’s a great example of what a contemporary American pilsner can be: Dry, sessionable, with subtle fruity hop aromatics, and the perfect amount of balanced maltiness. The head retention absolutely begs for a slow pour so you can build those nice frothy, aromatic peaks, almost like Arizona’s mountainous landscape.” — Kyle Kreig, Taproom Manager, Wren House Brewing Co., Phoenix

“With everything that’s been going on, it’s been incredibly important to find joy in the little things. I definitely found a bit of joy this summer in Tripping Animals’ joint can release, Am I A Cat? and Am I A Dog? It’s ‘90s cartoon nostalgia meets experimental beer cuvée, where both are designed to stand alone and also be mixed. Both titles had the same sour base and coconut additions. But the Cat was conditioned on blueberry and pomegranate, and the Dog pineapple and key lime. Once you combined them, it was like a perfectly tart key lime pie with a berry reduction on top! Changing the ratios of the cuvée made each drink exciting, playful, and unique. I had a lot of fun drinking something so interactive and flavorful!” — Susie Bennett, Quality Assurance Analyst, Motorworks Brewing, Bradenton, Fla.

“To support the Black Lives Matter movement, several brewers have stepped up and launched initiatives to speak about and work toward combating the racial injustice we face. Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful ignited this large-scale industry support and it has been astronomical, while more recent efforts such as the ongoing, open-source project BREATHING : CONVERSATIONS from Finback in New York will go deeper into the route of problems, and further push necessary change. Knowing the people at Finback, it isn’t a brewery to make a beer to appease BIPOC and not seem racist, or to follow ‘woke’ trends, but to effectively bring forward conversations and ideas that aren’t comfortable, but need to be had.” — James Higgs, Brand Ambassador, Forager Brewery, Rochester, Minn.

“Saaz Off Shotgun, a Czech-style pilsner from Radicle Effect Brewerks, was my go-to summer beer. Radicle is a nanobrewery, so it doesn’t put out too many lagers. But luckily for some small brewers, Covid-19 allowed them to have extra time to lager. Saaz Off was released right when patios started to open back up here, and it was the perfect way to bring some normalcy back. Crispy, and all of the character from the Saaz hops shine.” — Glenn Cole, Brand Ambassador, Midwest Ale Works, East Moline, Ill.

“Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful initiative unified over 1,000 breweries this summer to take a stance and bring awareness to the systemic issues that challenge communities of color. This led to an incredible lineup of varying stout recipes, like ours, in tandem with Trillium Brewing, aged on a bed of Papua New Guinea vanilla beans. Aside from our deliciousness, one Black Is Beautiful stout that really stood out was from two other Massachusetts beer makers, Vitamin Sea and Brockton. They put an extra twist on their version and went with a blackberry sour that had a complex yet subtle layering of marshmallow and chocolate whirled into a deep dark color bursting with blackberry flavor. Well balanced and absolutely a memorable beer.” — Ray Berry, Founder and President, White Lion Brewing, Springfield, Mass.

“Key Brewing’s Semi Charmed takes me back to the time when pale ales and Northwest hops ruled the beer land. Light amber in color, with distinct maltiness and assertive bitterness presented harmoniously. The Baltimore tie-in to ‘Charm City’ also tells a great story.” — Rob Day, Senior Director of Marketing, Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Springdale Beer Co., Framingham, Mass.

“At the start of summer, my girlfriend and I drove up from Texas to a cabin nestled on a lake in the Adirondacks. On the way, we spent the night at my old stomping grounds, in northern Virginia, to stay with a friend. To my delight, she had a case of Aslin beers waiting for me. Aslin’s That’s Facts, a pilsner dry-hopped with Waimea and Motueka hops, became my go-to adventure beer. Though everything we drank during that time tasted better thanks to the setting and company, That’s Facts was the one I kept reaching for when hiking or kayaking, or when sunset was involved. And just like our time quarantining on the lake, my 4-pack of this crispy pilsner was thoroughly enjoyed, finished way too soon, and left me craving more. And that’s facts.” — Eli Traks, Photography and Social Media Manager, Turning Point Beer, Bedford, Tex.

“My pick is the Big Ditch and Ommegang collaboration, Superior Helles. Of course, any well-crafted helles is a sublime summer crusher, but these two Upstate New York brewers took it to the next level with the deft addition of Hallertau Blanc and Bavaria Mandarina hops, which together layer a delicate aroma of noble hops and tropical fruit atop a sound, cracker-y malt base which adds a soft sweetness. The beer is a perfect accompaniment to a sweltering day, yet also holds its own in a food-pairing situation with lighter summer fare such as a salad or pasta primavera. Prost!” — Ethan Cox, Founder, Community Beer Works, Buffalo, N.Y.

“As a brewer who likes to spend their spare time hiking and camping, I like to reach for beers that I can pack easily and are the ones I’ll wanna drink when I get to a lake or summit. That beer for me this summer is Kolsch 4.5, by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. I’ve had an admiration for Logsdon since getting into craft beer, with its ability to produce beautiful saisons and mixed-culture beers. The Washington [State] brewery moved facilities and has expanded to brewing styles like IPAs and lagers. Kolsch 4.5 is a perfect example of the team’s rounded ability to make a delicate, crisp, and refreshing German-style ale that can be taken with you on any adventure. And yes, it’s really 4.5 percent ABV. And no, it doesn’t come with Zig-Zags.” — Anne Aviles, Brewer, Breakside Brewery, Portland, Ore.

“My pick is from Nashville’s one-man operation, Barrique Brewing and Blending. Joel Stickrod’s BBA [bourbon-barrel aged] Freeman Red is a traditional Flanders red initially aged on red muscadine grapes, then finished for an additional six months in a Wild Turkey barrel. The extended bourbon-barrel-aging adds some wonderful vanilla, char, and whiskey character to a style that is oft overstated and can tiptoe the line of aggression.” — Dylan Field, Operations, Southern Grist Brewing Company, Nashville

“White Sangria Hut, from Half Acre’s Wyld program. This open-fermented, oak-aged saison was racked onto Michigan peaches and Pinot Gris must, and then introduced to Cara Cara orange peels. It offers tons of bright, exotic, tropical flavors — kiwi, peach, coconut, citrus — and truly makes you feel like you are sitting beachside somewhere on the coast of Spain. It has definitely provided the greatest degree of escape from the confines of summer quarantine in Chicago. It’s hard to tell while sipping, but this beer also packs a hefty 10 percent ABV. And though that is typically a bit higher alcohol than I like in my day-to-day beer, it’s exactly what I want when I‘m pretending to lounge around on a faraway beach.” — Averie Swanson, Founder and Brewer, Keeping Together, Chicago

The article We Asked 11 Beer Pros: What’s the Best New Beer You’ve Had This Summer? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/beer-pros-new-summer-beer-2020/

[isaiahrippinus]

We Asked 11 Beer Pros: What’s the Best New Beer You’ve Had This Summer?

In case you missed it, summer 2020 came in the middle of a global pandemic. In a period that has required following safety measures, including mask wearing and social distancing, many of the season’s pastimes that so often accompany beer — barbecues, beach days, ballgames — have looked different or been abandoned altogether.

The custom of beating the summer heat with a refreshing drink, too, has taken on unconventional forms amid the coronavirus pandemic, as most states have temporarily loosened laws around takeout and delivery alcohol, a small lifeline for a handicapped food-and-beverage industry struggling to survive.

Craft brewers, for instance, have been battered by evaporated on-premises sales at taprooms, bars, and restaurants. In a survey of its members conducted by the Brewers Association in April, the majority did not believe they could stay in business for three months if current conditions continued. And, as a cost-cutting measure, data shows innovation has slowed: Almost half as many new beer releases, themselves an earmark of small, independent American breweries, are being registered compared to the same period last year due to Covid-19.

Still, producers are pushing through the crisis — for one, they’re adopting creative ways of packaging and selling in a constantly changing regulatory landscape. And, as we share below, many brewers are still releasing new offerings, helping beer lovers salvage the sublime joy of summer imbibing.

So, with this far-from-normal summer nearing its end, we asked brewers across the country to tell us about the beers that impressed them the most so far.

“Let’s be honest: Summers in Phoenix are BRUTALLY hot. Like, working the deep fryer inside of a food truck parked at the gates of Hell hot. It’s a type of heat that’s so intense, only those who experience it know how truly awful it is — and why liquid solace is needed. For me this summer it came from Humble Seas’ West Coast-leaning pilsner, Beverly Krills 90210. Dry-hopped with a nice blend of American and noble varieties, it’s a great example of what a contemporary American pilsner can be: Dry, sessionable, with subtle fruity hop aromatics, and the perfect amount of balanced maltiness. The head retention absolutely begs for a slow pour so you can build those nice frothy, aromatic peaks, almost like Arizona’s mountainous landscape.” — Kyle Kreig, Taproom Manager, Wren House Brewing Co., Phoenix

“With everything that’s been going on, it’s been incredibly important to find joy in the little things. I definitely found a bit of joy this summer in Tripping Animals’ joint can release, Am I A Cat? and Am I A Dog? It’s ‘90s cartoon nostalgia meets experimental beer cuvée, where both are designed to stand alone and also be mixed. Both titles had the same sour base and coconut additions. But the Cat was conditioned on blueberry and pomegranate, and the Dog pineapple and key lime. Once you combined them, it was like a perfectly tart key lime pie with a berry reduction on top! Changing the ratios of the cuvée made each drink exciting, playful, and unique. I had a lot of fun drinking something so interactive and flavorful!” — Susie Bennett, Quality Assurance Analyst, Motorworks Brewing, Bradenton, Fla.

“To support the Black Lives Matter movement, several brewers have stepped up and launched initiatives to speak about and work toward combating the racial injustice we face. Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful ignited this large-scale industry support and it has been astronomical, while more recent efforts such as the ongoing, open-source project BREATHING : CONVERSATIONS from Finback in New York will go deeper into the route of problems, and further push necessary change. Knowing the people at Finback, it isn’t a brewery to make a beer to appease BIPOC and not seem racist, or to follow ‘woke’ trends, but to effectively bring forward conversations and ideas that aren’t comfortable, but need to be had.” — James Higgs, Brand Ambassador, Forager Brewery, Rochester, Minn.

“Saaz Off Shotgun, a Czech-style pilsner from Radicle Effect Brewerks, was my go-to summer beer. Radicle is a nanobrewery, so it doesn’t put out too many lagers. But luckily for some small brewers, Covid-19 allowed them to have extra time to lager. Saaz Off was released right when patios started to open back up here, and it was the perfect way to bring some normalcy back. Crispy, and all of the character from the Saaz hops shine.” — Glenn Cole, Brand Ambassador, Midwest Ale Works, East Moline, Ill.

“Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful initiative unified over 1,000 breweries this summer to take a stance and bring awareness to the systemic issues that challenge communities of color. This led to an incredible lineup of varying stout recipes, like ours, in tandem with Trillium Brewing, aged on a bed of Papua New Guinea vanilla beans. Aside from our deliciousness, one Black Is Beautiful stout that really stood out was from two other Massachusetts beer makers, Vitamin Sea and Brockton. They put an extra twist on their version and went with a blackberry sour that had a complex yet subtle layering of marshmallow and chocolate whirled into a deep dark color bursting with blackberry flavor. Well balanced and absolutely a memorable beer.” — Ray Berry, Founder and President, White Lion Brewing, Springfield, Mass.

“Key Brewing’s Semi Charmed takes me back to the time when pale ales and Northwest hops ruled the beer land. Light amber in color, with distinct maltiness and assertive bitterness presented harmoniously. The Baltimore tie-in to ‘Charm City’ also tells a great story.” — Rob Day, Senior Director of Marketing, Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Springdale Beer Co., Framingham, Mass.

“At the start of summer, my girlfriend and I drove up from Texas to a cabin nestled on a lake in the Adirondacks. On the way, we spent the night at my old stomping grounds, in northern Virginia, to stay with a friend. To my delight, she had a case of Aslin beers waiting for me. Aslin’s That’s Facts, a pilsner dry-hopped with Waimea and Motueka hops, became my go-to adventure beer. Though everything we drank during that time tasted better thanks to the setting and company, That’s Facts was the one I kept reaching for when hiking or kayaking, or when sunset was involved. And just like our time quarantining on the lake, my 4-pack of this crispy pilsner was thoroughly enjoyed, finished way too soon, and left me craving more. And that’s facts.” — Eli Traks, Photography and Social Media Manager, Turning Point Beer, Bedford, Tex.

“My pick is the Big Ditch and Ommegang collaboration, Superior Helles. Of course, any well-crafted helles is a sublime summer crusher, but these two Upstate New York brewers took it to the next level with the deft addition of Hallertau Blanc and Bavaria Mandarina hops, which together layer a delicate aroma of noble hops and tropical fruit atop a sound, cracker-y malt base which adds a soft sweetness. The beer is a perfect accompaniment to a sweltering day, yet also holds its own in a food-pairing situation with lighter summer fare such as a salad or pasta primavera. Prost!” — Ethan Cox, Founder, Community Beer Works, Buffalo, N.Y.

“As a brewer who likes to spend their spare time hiking and camping, I like to reach for beers that I can pack easily and are the ones I’ll wanna drink when I get to a lake or summit. That beer for me this summer is Kolsch 4.5, by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. I’ve had an admiration for Logsdon since getting into craft beer, with its ability to produce beautiful saisons and mixed-culture beers. The Washington [State] brewery moved facilities and has expanded to brewing styles like IPAs and lagers. Kolsch 4.5 is a perfect example of the team’s rounded ability to make a delicate, crisp, and refreshing German-style ale that can be taken with you on any adventure. And yes, it’s really 4.5 percent ABV. And no, it doesn’t come with Zig-Zags.” — Anne Aviles, Brewer, Breakside Brewery, Portland, Ore.

“My pick is from Nashville’s one-man operation, Barrique Brewing and Blending. Joel Stickrod’s BBA [bourbon-barrel aged] Freeman Red is a traditional Flanders red initially aged on red muscadine grapes, then finished for an additional six months in a Wild Turkey barrel. The extended bourbon-barrel-aging adds some wonderful vanilla, char, and whiskey character to a style that is oft overstated and can tiptoe the line of aggression.” — Dylan Field, Operations, Southern Grist Brewing Company, Nashville

“White Sangria Hut, from Half Acre’s Wyld program. This open-fermented, oak-aged saison was racked onto Michigan peaches and Pinot Gris must, and then introduced to Cara Cara orange peels. It offers tons of bright, exotic, tropical flavors — kiwi, peach, coconut, citrus — and truly makes you feel like you are sitting beachside somewhere on the coast of Spain. It has definitely provided the greatest degree of escape from the confines of summer quarantine in Chicago. It’s hard to tell while sipping, but this beer also packs a hefty 10 percent ABV. And though that is typically a bit higher alcohol than I like in my day-to-day beer, it’s exactly what I want when I‘m pretending to lounge around on a faraway beach.” — Averie Swanson, Founder and Brewer, Keeping Together, Chicago

The article We Asked 11 Beer Pros: What’s the Best New Beer You’ve Had This Summer? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/beer-pros-new-summer-beer-2020/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/627708682284793856

[johnboothus]

We Asked 11 Beer Pros: Whats the Best New Beer Youve Had This Summer?

In case you missed it, summer 2020 came in the middle of a global pandemic. In a period that has required following safety measures, including mask wearing and social distancing, many of the season’s pastimes that so often accompany beer — barbecues, beach days, ballgames — have looked different or been abandoned altogether.

The custom of beating the summer heat with a refreshing drink, too, has taken on unconventional forms amid the coronavirus pandemic, as most states have temporarily loosened laws around takeout and delivery alcohol, a small lifeline for a handicapped food-and-beverage industry struggling to survive.

Craft brewers, for instance, have been battered by evaporated on-premises sales at taprooms, bars, and restaurants. In a survey of its members conducted by the Brewers Association in April, the majority did not believe they could stay in business for three months if current conditions continued. And, as a cost-cutting measure, data shows innovation has slowed: Almost half as many new beer releases, themselves an earmark of small, independent American breweries, are being registered compared to the same period last year due to Covid-19.

Still, producers are pushing through the crisis — for one, they’re adopting creative ways of packaging and selling in a constantly changing regulatory landscape. And, as we share below, many brewers are still releasing new offerings, helping beer lovers salvage the sublime joy of summer imbibing.

So, with this far-from-normal summer nearing its end, we asked brewers across the country to tell us about the beers that impressed them the most so far.

“Let’s be honest: Summers in Phoenix are BRUTALLY hot. Like, working the deep fryer inside of a food truck parked at the gates of Hell hot. It’s a type of heat that’s so intense, only those who experience it know how truly awful it is — and why liquid solace is needed. For me this summer it came from Humble Seas’ West Coast-leaning pilsner, Beverly Krills 90210. Dry-hopped with a nice blend of American and noble varieties, it’s a great example of what a contemporary American pilsner can be: Dry, sessionable, with subtle fruity hop aromatics, and the perfect amount of balanced maltiness. The head retention absolutely begs for a slow pour so you can build those nice frothy, aromatic peaks, almost like Arizona’s mountainous landscape.” — Kyle Kreig, Taproom Manager, Wren House Brewing Co., Phoenix

“With everything that’s been going on, it’s been incredibly important to find joy in the little things. I definitely found a bit of joy this summer in Tripping Animals’ joint can release, Am I A Cat? and Am I A Dog? It’s ‘90s cartoon nostalgia meets experimental beer cuvée, where both are designed to stand alone and also be mixed. Both titles had the same sour base and coconut additions. But the Cat was conditioned on blueberry and pomegranate, and the Dog pineapple and key lime. Once you combined them, it was like a perfectly tart key lime pie with a berry reduction on top! Changing the ratios of the cuvée made each drink exciting, playful, and unique. I had a lot of fun drinking something so interactive and flavorful!” — Susie Bennett, Quality Assurance Analyst, Motorworks Brewing, Bradenton, Fla.

“To support the Black Lives Matter movement, several brewers have stepped up and launched initiatives to speak about and work toward combating the racial injustice we face. Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful ignited this large-scale industry support and it has been astronomical, while more recent efforts such as the ongoing, open-source project BREATHING : CONVERSATIONS from Finback in New York will go deeper into the route of problems, and further push necessary change. Knowing the people at Finback, it isn’t a brewery to make a beer to appease BIPOC and not seem racist, or to follow ‘woke’ trends, but to effectively bring forward conversations and ideas that aren’t comfortable, but need to be had.” — James Higgs, Brand Ambassador, Forager Brewery, Rochester, Minn.

“Saaz Off Shotgun, a Czech-style pilsner from Radicle Effect Brewerks, was my go-to summer beer. Radicle is a nanobrewery, so it doesn’t put out too many lagers. But luckily for some small brewers, Covid-19 allowed them to have extra time to lager. Saaz Off was released right when patios started to open back up here, and it was the perfect way to bring some normalcy back. Crispy, and all of the character from the Saaz hops shine.” — Glenn Cole, Brand Ambassador, Midwest Ale Works, East Moline, Ill.

“Weathered Souls’ Black Is Beautiful initiative unified over 1,000 breweries this summer to take a stance and bring awareness to the systemic issues that challenge communities of color. This led to an incredible lineup of varying stout recipes, like ours, in tandem with Trillium Brewing, aged on a bed of Papua New Guinea vanilla beans. Aside from our deliciousness, one Black Is Beautiful stout that really stood out was from two other Massachusetts beer makers, Vitamin Sea and Brockton. They put an extra twist on their version and went with a blackberry sour that had a complex yet subtle layering of marshmallow and chocolate whirled into a deep dark color bursting with blackberry flavor. Well balanced and absolutely a memorable beer.” — Ray Berry, Founder and President, White Lion Brewing, Springfield, Mass.

“Key Brewing’s Semi Charmed takes me back to the time when pale ales and Northwest hops ruled the beer land. Light amber in color, with distinct maltiness and assertive bitterness presented harmoniously. The Baltimore tie-in to ‘Charm City’ also tells a great story.” — Rob Day, Senior Director of Marketing, Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers and Springdale Beer Co., Framingham, Mass.

“At the start of summer, my girlfriend and I drove up from Texas to a cabin nestled on a lake in the Adirondacks. On the way, we spent the night at my old stomping grounds, in northern Virginia, to stay with a friend. To my delight, she had a case of Aslin beers waiting for me. Aslin’s That’s Facts, a pilsner dry-hopped with Waimea and Motueka hops, became my go-to adventure beer. Though everything we drank during that time tasted better thanks to the setting and company, That’s Facts was the one I kept reaching for when hiking or kayaking, or when sunset was involved. And just like our time quarantining on the lake, my 4-pack of this crispy pilsner was thoroughly enjoyed, finished way too soon, and left me craving more. And that’s facts.” — Eli Traks, Photography and Social Media Manager, Turning Point Beer, Bedford, Tex.

“My pick is the Big Ditch and Ommegang collaboration, Superior Helles. Of course, any well-crafted helles is a sublime summer crusher, but these two Upstate New York brewers took it to the next level with the deft addition of Hallertau Blanc and Bavaria Mandarina hops, which together layer a delicate aroma of noble hops and tropical fruit atop a sound, cracker-y malt base which adds a soft sweetness. The beer is a perfect accompaniment to a sweltering day, yet also holds its own in a food-pairing situation with lighter summer fare such as a salad or pasta primavera. Prost!” — Ethan Cox, Founder, Community Beer Works, Buffalo, N.Y.

“As a brewer who likes to spend their spare time hiking and camping, I like to reach for beers that I can pack easily and are the ones I’ll wanna drink when I get to a lake or summit. That beer for me this summer is Kolsch 4.5, by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales. I’ve had an admiration for Logsdon since getting into craft beer, with its ability to produce beautiful saisons and mixed-culture beers. The Washington [State] brewery moved facilities and has expanded to brewing styles like IPAs and lagers. Kolsch 4.5 is a perfect example of the team’s rounded ability to make a delicate, crisp, and refreshing German-style ale that can be taken with you on any adventure. And yes, it’s really 4.5 percent ABV. And no, it doesn’t come with Zig-Zags.” — Anne Aviles, Brewer, Breakside Brewery, Portland, Ore.

“My pick is from Nashville’s one-man operation, Barrique Brewing and Blending. Joel Stickrod’s BBA [bourbon-barrel aged] Freeman Red is a traditional Flanders red initially aged on red muscadine grapes, then finished for an additional six months in a Wild Turkey barrel. The extended bourbon-barrel-aging adds some wonderful vanilla, char, and whiskey character to a style that is oft overstated and can tiptoe the line of aggression.” — Dylan Field, Operations, Southern Grist Brewing Company, Nashville

“White Sangria Hut, from Half Acre’s Wyld program. This open-fermented, oak-aged saison was racked onto Michigan peaches and Pinot Gris must, and then introduced to Cara Cara orange peels. It offers tons of bright, exotic, tropical flavors — kiwi, peach, coconut, citrus — and truly makes you feel like you are sitting beachside somewhere on the coast of Spain. It has definitely provided the greatest degree of escape from the confines of summer quarantine in Chicago. It’s hard to tell while sipping, but this beer also packs a hefty 10 percent ABV. And though that is typically a bit higher alcohol than I like in my day-to-day beer, it’s exactly what I want when I‘m pretending to lounge around on a faraway beach.” — Averie Swanson, Founder and Brewer, Keeping Together, Chicago

The article We Asked 11 Beer Pros: What’s the Best New Beer You’ve Had This Summer? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/beer-pros-new-summer-beer-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/we-asked-11-beer-pros-whats-the-best-new-beer-youve-had-this-summer

[amorningshadeofyellow-blog]

Suggestion O’Clock

As February ends and March begins, here’s a reflection of some things I’ve been listening to and watching. Everybody needs suggestions, take them as you need.

Music: I am a firm believer in Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists which automatically update themselves based on your listening patterns and what not. The BEST place to go for some handpicked tunes. However, here are a few I’ve come to love the past month.

• The Neighbourhood’s Hard To Imagine EP: Unlike the last three works they’ve put out, Hard To Imagine is something all it’s own. Very far from I Love You and Wiped Out!, HTI is full of songs that definitely reach outside of the usual boundaries they’d set for themselves. Though I am not a fan of the EP in its entirety, there are a few songs that make it worthwhile. ‘Void’ being in the top spot with that one lyric, “Wonder how I got by this week, only touched you once.” Just feels so smooth. Following in no definite order are Scary Love, Nervous (which dropped 5 days ago), You Get Me So High, and Roll Call. Honorable mention to 24/7 and Sadderdaze- both catchy, but in a way that will get old really fast. If there’s such a thing as dishonorable mention, Dust takes that. I could have gone the whole album without that.

• Sufjan Stevens- Visions of Gideon: Top Spot for WEEKS in the category of “Songs That Will Ruin My Day”. This is one of the most gutwrenching songs for me. So pretty, so smooth, so full of feeling. Sufjan is an artist that has definitely made more waves since the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack’s Oscar nomination he got for “Mystery of Love.” I hate to say that the Academy was wrong, but picking that over Visions of Gideon was nothing but wrong. Seriously, listen to this and tell me you didn’t cry.

• Viola Beach- Call You Up: The song I want to montage videos of myself dancing on a beach at sunset with a bottle of wine to. Definitely that annoying indie sounding voice, but it works for this. Lyrics you’d find in the diary of young people in some summer love. “I’ll call you up in the middle of the night in hopes that you want to hear from me. I just wanna know if you’re feeling alright.” It’s just so CATCHY you just gotta sway your head and hips and close your eyes when you sing it. Has a beachy feel. One of those in the middle sort of songs. Not a breakup song, not a love song. Takes a seat on the harshly drawn middle line. Just give it a listen, I can’t stop playing it in my car because it’s impossible to not sing along to.

• Manchester Orchestra- Colly Strings. I don’t know what they are, but I know this song makes me perform power house vocals in the shower. Definitely something the singer wrote to be specific to himself, but still vague enough to feel like it relates. Simple, heavily lyric focused, not technically impressive at all. Just really plain, but I love it. Listen to this on drives home. “CONFESSEDLY, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IVE LOVED YOU AND GOD, I MEAN IT. GOD, I MEAN IT. I HOPE THAT I MEAN IT. CAUSE LIKE DIANE YOUNG, IDOLS GET THE BEST OF ME. WELL, DONT STOP CALLING- YOURE THE REASON I LOVE LOSING SLEEP.” a... slammer. A true indie king. Strange that I’ve never liked Manchester Orchestra’s other songs.

• The Last Shadow Puppets- Miracle Aligner: IN CASE YOU ARENT AWARE, Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys is the front man of this band. Basically, its Arctic Monkeys music under a different band name. TLSP had Sweet Dreams, Tennessee which I learned about a summer or so ago and loved. How I never found Miracle Aligner baffles me. It’s got that same AM vibe that most of Alex Turner’s work does. Feels a bit like a background song for a 60’s feel good family show. This one’s upbeat for his fashion, but I dig it. Alex Turner is the man I’ve always wanted to meet. I cannot believe he is real. I’ve been convinced he’s sincerely an enigma.

• From the Dining Table- Harry Styles: OKAY, I know it‘s overdue. I didn’t give much listen to Harry’s album because it mimics so many British rock classics so closely that I just.. I didn’t want to. And I’m the biggest one direction stan alive. Sometimes, I cringe at the lyrics. Aside from that, it’s a song I’d fall asleep to and that’s why I like it. It’s something I would sing to put someone to sleep. After a minute and a half we can stop the song because the third verse/bridge/ whatever is so close to resembling Over the Rainbow in my head. Just throw it on your playlist if you’ve not already. I’m sure almost everyone has.

• Jamie T- Magnolia Melancholia: I AM SO MANY THINGS AFTER THIS SONG. First off, Jamie T has been around for a few years, and I’ve always liked some of his stuff. Don’t You Find, and Zombie were two that I definitely was like, huh, this is new. He’s one of those British singers that really actually sounds British. Most of it’s a little more spoken than sung. Anyway, outside of this- magnolia melancholia is very different compared to his other music. Almost similar to Dont You Find, but it’s the only thing close. The song is sincerely just so impactful to me because of the lyrics, but I think it’s a good song overall to have. Like I said, different. “Nice to meet ya, boy, I know your mama knows. I fell in love with her seven thousand summer ago. I was a runner, boy,” just something I think he stripped from my diary and made his own. Definitely really excited to have seen his name come back on my screen and feel something so personal and nostalgic. Really think he’s an underrated artist.

Films: Of course, it’s March when I’m writing this, so the Oscars have come and gone. However, Oscar nominees or not- these are the films I’ve seen, loved, and suggest.

• The Shape of Water- Winner of Best Picture, The Shape of Water is obviously something you look at and say, “Hm, I should probably see that.” TSOW is insanely creative, but there should be nothing less expected from its director. Following a black woman, gay man, and a mute woman’s romance with an amphibian man- it’s definitely up there in terms of diversity. In short, the feel of the film and its tenderness paired with intrinsic visual detail is stimulating in a multitude of ways. You leave the theater feeling something.

• Black Panther- I would literally pay the first person who reads this and hasn’t seen Black Panther $20. I’m pretty sure it’s like... the top grossing movie ever at this point. If you don’t care for superhero movies, just go for the complete bad-assery. And Michael B Jordan. Who I don’t think is a great actor, but I do find him almost as gorgeous as Lupita.

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Another Oscar nominee. Frances McDormand who plays the lead took home best actress while supporting actor went to her co star Sam Rockwell. Really, in all honesty, the thing that I think about when I explain the film is the character arc they gave San Rockwell’s character. Watching this man grow and change throughout the film was impressive both in the acting and the writing.

• Hostiles- ROSAMUND PIKE BEING A BADASS COLONIAL WOMAN!! CHRISTIAN BALE HAVING A GOOD HEART!!! SWEET ENDINGS!!!

• Atonement- Look, I’m just asking you to go on Netflix and add this to your Watch List for an afternoon when you’re laying in bed and want to cry. James McAvoy and Natalie Portman, a heart wrenching love story during war time, but still far more than that.

• The Warriors- We Love A Good 70/80’s film, and this is what that was. Based around gangs and a journey back home, this is full of companionship, unity, wit, and lots and lots of leather vests. (prime)

• Wonderstruck- Ultimately a feel good film that is unlike any other. Complex story line, wonderful depiction, just creative and free. Feels so sweet to see something so pure.

• Captain Fantastic- okay, everything I’ve deemed “creative” is subpar when it comes to Captain Fantastic. Surrounding the theme of family, mental illness, and exclusion- the film depicts a family living off grid with their dad after losing their mother to depression, the following days are full of humorous and heartfelt feats as they attempt to attend their mothers funeral despite the grandfathers wishes. The complete disconnect between the modern world and the world this family lives in puts them at no sort of disadvantage, and the theme of unity and pride of where you come from shines through.

• Blade Runner 2049- Rewatched it. Felt so happy to have my eyes glued to a screen. Genuinely equivalent to being induced into a coma because you’re not leaving your seat. And if you haven’t seen the original Blade Runner- do yourself and Harrison Ford a favor.

• Honorable Mention to Lady Bird, CMBYN, Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, and The Florida Project all of which will be included in an “Oscars in Review” post I have queued for next week

As far as music and movies go, that is a slight look into some of the things February and March have brought thus far. For every time Lauren needs a suggestion, I feel as though it’s necessary to compile a list for whoever else may need it.

[recommendedlisten]

This week really made us wonder if Lana Del Rey is the real deal as her excellently written and produced new album Norman Fucking Rockwell paints, or if maybe she’s the same confectionery sugar-gazing pop star industry plant we originally met upon entering with Born to Die who is never content even with her praise. Beyond the lives of the rich, beautiful, famous and ungrateful, independent music always comes through, as very exciting new listens out of Brooklyn from experimental noisemakers ESSi, House of Feelings’ new disco prince ANDREW and indie rock thinkers Bethlehem Steel. Yaeji made her first appearance of the week by doing Robyn justice on the beach, Hovvdy had us riding for a better community, and UK hardcore risers Higher Power already gave us one good thing to look forward to come 2020. Right now, though, we’ve got world problems to solve and goth energy in every direction.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of September 1st, 2019…

Bethlehem Steel - “Govt Cheese” [Exploding In Sound Records]

It was just a sec ago that we caught up with the promising outlier rock of Bethlehem Steel leading into their eponymous sophomore effort, due out on September 13th, with their second single “Empty Room”, and the Brooklyn four-piece already has another to consume in “Govt Cheese”. This one comes with a video directed by co-vocalist Rebecca Ryskalczyk, depicting her and the band’s other voice Christina Puerto in deep choreography with another after their dead stares kills off a dirty looking dude trying to steal their center, and for good reason at that, as the listen -- a hook-heavy jostle between rough, cranking riffs and clean electric solos -- is about pushing away toxic bodies from your life and leaning on the support system of those with only the best of intentions for your personal growth and success in life. “I must take care of myself,” rings out the mantra in its chorus, even if it takes spilling some blood to do so.

Billie Eilish - “all the good girls go to hell” [Darkroom / Interscope Records]

There was a great discussion started on Twitter this past week by Speedy Ortiz and Sad13′s Sadie Dupuis that stated, “no one seems skeptical about any pop music anymore and it is bizarre.” Through poptimism, pop music has circled back to being what’s on trend while oddly enough, the underground where most innovations in both sound and style tend to spawn first is no longer regarded as the cool place to be. Leading the pack for the next gen of pop stars is Billie Eilish, a Los Angeles rich kid coming from a family with industry ties who this site has actively observed from a distance, but reserved itself from speaking on until we saw how everything shook out for her. Looking past her possible plant status, the thing that’s the most alluring about this teenage prodigy is how she’s bringing goth-pop to the masses with her brother Finneas O’Connell as her right hand in creating beats weird, yet digestible enough to make this bad guy climb to #1. The latest single from her recent breakout debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? doubles as a call to arms about the global warming epidemic and coincides with the United Nation’s Climate Action Summit upcoming later this September in New York. In the visuals, Eilish emerges as an oil spill-covered angel walking a scorched earth ominously. There's shade against modern pop here when it strives to be something greater than itself...

Charli XCX feat. Clairo and Yaeji - “February 2017″ [Atlantic Records]

The long road that has, since 2014, been leading to Charli XCX’s long-awaited third full-length album Charli ends next Friday, and before its drop, she’s hyping it with arguably one of the album’s strongest previews yet. As has been case with its predecessors featuring Lizzo, Christine and the Queens, Sky Ferreira and HAIM, the UK pop star is flanked by two more women making music with the future in mind in lo-fi pop widescaler Clairo and electronic house producer Yaeji. The result is a near-perfect offering of owning up to your fuck-ups while being grown-up enough to ask for forgiveness with “February 2017″. Produced by A.G. Cook and Planet 1999, the song is characteristically carbonated with synth-pop bubbles and soft pink hues abound with the listen breaking off into an island that gives Yaeji her own moment to press her fingerprints all over it with a minimalist scale-back and transforming the context into her own tongue.

Chelsea Wolfe - “Deranged for Rock & Roll” [Sargent House]

With Birth of Violence, the forthcoming acoustic-laden album from Chelsea Wolfe arriving on September 13th, even the dark spirit songwriter can’t completely escape the heaviness that has devoured her recent works of doom and metallic weight, and perhaps Birth of Violence’s final reveals why. The song is Wolfe’s homage to music -- A tragic love story so to speak in the sense that often times what becomes our passion can become the thing that makes our lives a little maddening. Being a hobbyist music blog is a fine example of that, and as an artist, one can only imagine putting your entire body and soul on the line in your work can be an expression of personal freedom, but also the thing that traps you once it’s put out there in the world to have. In the quiet rapture of the listen’s accompanying visuals directed by Gilbert Trejo, Wolfe plays a performer in the nowhere outskirts dive bar destined to play the same song over and over as revelers coming through for the first time seemingly experience it all as new. You can be complicit to this when Wolfe’s fall tour starts this October.

Grimes and i_0 - “Violence” [4AD]

Grimes continues to be a baffling enigma who you can’t be too sure if her personal happenings are just a way to fuck with the media or a detachment from reality due to fame and star status, but with a new album on the way called Miss_Anthrop0cene, a new single created in collaboration with producer i_o is at the very least something to talk about when trying to figure out what it exactly it all means in the context of her art. Aesthetically, Grimes -- when she’s not veering into chintzy nu-metal detours -- is a mood when she inhabits the space she’s discovered for herself between the ethereal and virtual, and doing so in the dark night with morbid imagery. “I am like, begging for you baby / Makes you wanna party, wanna wake up / Baby it's violence,” her voice blurs through gauzy synths and digital stardust. “You feed on hurting me, off hurting me.” Whe you take into account the damaged personal relationship here represents that of the Earth and humans, the horror of “Violence” has the power to haunt us all.

Kal Marks - “Science Is Science” [Exploding In Sound Records]

Like their local peers Pile, who put out a phenomenal effort earlier this spring with Green and Gray, Bostonian subterranean rockers Kal Marks have been keeping the otherwise white, basic and overpriced city surroundings of the Hub weird and loud for the better part of this decade with their own brand of fired up and twisted indie rock. Coincidentally, they’ll be releasing a new EP on September 27th entitled Let the Shit House Burn, and characteristically, it’s filled with grim thoughts from frontperson Carl Shane such as its latest preview “Science Is Science”, which premiered originally on The Alternative. Like Billie Eilish, the climate change chaos is on these DIY scene staples minds just as well, and their song is a heavy-stomping and head-woozy condemnation against those defying the hard facts of our Earth’s sad reality out of greedy motivations. “As the shit house burns down / I’ll be there to fan the flames / Let the record show there’s no sign of hope,” Shane sings. All evidence points to that being true, too.

Let the Shit House Burn Down by Kal Marks

Portrayal of Guilt / Soft Kill Split - “Sacrificial Rite” / “The Foil Drop”

Portrayal of Guilt have not stopped being busy since releasing their breakout debut and heavy listmaker Let Pain Be Your Guide last year. At the end of August, the Texan screamo progressives released Suffering Is a Gift, a six-song bashing of heavy crosses to bear that pushed the abrasive corners of their sound even further out. They’ve already got new music as of this week, though, through a split single alongside the Soft Kill, the long-standing doom pop project of Blessure Graves’ Toby Graves, who released a doubling last year with the album Savior and Just a Body EP, and are setting out on tour soon with VEIN as well as one of this week’s aforementioned highlights, Higher Power. The Venn diagram between these two artists overlaps in the dark, but other than that, Portrayal of Guilt’s offering “Sacrificial Rite” is another smoldering gut punch while Soft Kill’s “The Foil Drop” turns the atmosphere upside and brings the stars down six feet under with dreamy despair.

portrayal of guilt / Soft Kill Split by portrayal of guilt

#the best of the rest #songs #bethlehem steel #billie eilish #charli xcx #clairo #yaeji #chelsea wolfe #grimes #kal marks #portrayal of guilt #soft kill #new music &amp; videos

[punkscowardschampions]

Jimmy & Janis

Jimmy: Alright Janis: Not bad, boy Janis: you? Jimmy: Happy to be at work. Says it Jimmy: 🎻🎻🎻 full orchestra Janis: 😨 Christ Janis: assuming you're not just buzzin' to see your fave GILFs, what's the drama? Jimmy: 3 guesses, mate Jimmy: 1 clue, he's a top dickhead Janis: he's a child and you're rude Janis: jk bobs Janis: my number one fan, how's tricks Jimmy: he's #buzzing that we're back to being #goals like Jimmy: expects me to get the cake and bunting in every time he gets a new lass through the door though Janis: obvs its a competition and you ain't trying hard enough Janis: can't win though, cass said you were bringing him down before so what's he want like Jimmy: I've already won, me. Sorry dad but there's the reality Jimmy: Such a twat Jimmy: If you wanted me to date the other twin it's too late to register your vote Janis: Forreal Janis: the LDR might not last but can't be banking on it now Jimmy: Every time he pops his head round me door I keep thinking he's gonna wheel out my ex Jimmy: Having driven back up north to remind me of what I loved and lost Janis: Ha Janis: I mean, not the girl you need to be looking for, wanna get real about it Jimmy: Can't be getting real, can he? Jimmy: Unless its about me then he's gonna fill his boots Janis: What would he know about it Janis: 'less you're doing his job, when's he ever been arsed Jimmy: always time for a bit of father son criticism naturally Jimmy: makes the paid slog go with more of a swing Janis: what a prick Janis: wanna fake breakup? Jimmy: No Jimmy: Why should he get what he wants Janis: Shouldn't but idc about him Janis: if it gets him off your back then don't mind Jimmy: experience knows its not that easy Jimmy: gonna be something most days Jimmy: I packed a bag so many times when you were away only to figure I had nowhere I could actually go Jimmy: Or especially take Cass and Bobs along to Jimmy: nowt to do but unpack it again Janis: It's shit, babe Janis: you'll have somewhere one day but for now Janis: you wanna go somewhere after work Jimmy: I do Jimmy: only thing getting through this shift was reckoning you'd say that Jimmy: and needing money to get far Janis: 'course Janis: don't count as running if you come too right Jimmy: No problems with us both legging it Jimmy: as long as I can keep up 🚭 Janis: good, be shit if i fucked up my streak already, like Janis: can't be that loser Janis: can but try, mate Jimmy: 💪😎🏆 Jimmy: Challenge accepted as many times as it gets laid down Jimmy: 👌 Janis: stoptober the real challenge 😏😂 Jimmy: Funny Janis: I know Janis: s'been said Jimmy: But not the best track record at getting Twix to not do things Jimmy: So I'd need a better trainer if you were serious Janis: 😮 Janis: How dare you Janis: maybe I don't want her to stop Janis: clearly, I am that cunt, fucking with you and yours for the craic Jimmy: Life and times according to Pops Jimmy: As you said, what does he know Jimmy: you're just a piss poor trainer. Unlucky like Janis: 🖕 Janis: got you whipped like Jimmy: 😏 Jimmy: Likely story Janis: okay come thru with that denial Jimmy: It's genetic, mate Jimmy: Clearly foolproof Jimmy: 😒 Janis: Same Janis: awks when they're just bonding us further Jimmy: not mad about it Janis: he will be Janis: don't think any of mine are proper haters Janis: pablo, maybe but our bad Jimmy: and he's got no taste as shown for a full fortnight when those spanish lasses were here Jimmy: so if he don't like me I'm alright with it Janis: honestly 🙄 he's so...let's not even go there Janis: sure about that? Janis: idk if your ego can hack it, personally Jimmy: don't tar me with your brush, like Janis: just saying Janis: know it 💔 when you aren't fave Janis: i'm more than used to it, thanks mr. t Janis: needed cutting down, like 😜 Jimmy: I am where it matters Jimmy: Mr Lucas come through Janis: 😂 Janis: surprised he didn't find a reason to chaperone Janis: like bitch you ain't languages Jimmy: I bet he tried his hardest Jimmy: Would've def found a way to swing it if they'd sent you to a Spanish location with a load of beaches and pools Janis: regret hitting so hard i gotta seduce him to add to the shitheap Janis: 😬 Jimmy: Was there an equivalent when you were over there or is he in a league of his own 💘 Jimmy: Might dedicate my next artsy endeavor to him get those top marks Janis: truly one of a kind Janis: suck up Janis: not bitter i'm being replaced or nowt Jimmy: only in his dreams am I Jimmy: 💕 Janis: 🤢 shut uppppppp Jimmy: fancy helping me with the project yourself then? Jimmy: Less time on my knees and more in front of a lens Janis: what you doing Jimmy: Still in the planning stages cause my POV shifted from 💔 back to 💕 Jimmy: But we aren't busy and I've got plenty of napkins here to figure it out with Janis: Your teach is welcome, saving her from your angst 😉 Janis: cool though, help how i can Jimmy: And me from getting the piss taken by the rest of the class Jimmy: #blessed Jimmy: On the subject of angst though, how's Gracie? Janis: You know they'd lap that shit up Janis: basic bitches i 👀 you Janis: She's alright, he's as highkey so they're making it work Jimmy: Cute Jimmy: Better not be coming for our brand and fans 👀 her Janis: No danger Janis: even if I've pulled a Sinead and you're past your prime Janis: still got it, kids Jimmy: 😂 Jimmy: still a decent muse, you Janis: Oh you Janis: not doing nude for free Janis: 😏 Jimmy: Alright Jimmy: I won't bin the job off yet then Janis: Probably don't Janis: shit fit your dad would have if nothing else Jimmy: nothing he does, says or thinks has any impact on me, don't worry Janis: 👍 like Janis: but if you put that on a phonecase the flat whites would buy it, just FYI Jimmy: Anything for a good earner Jimmy: Need petrol never mind them pricey nudes of yours Janis joined the chat 101 minutes ago Janis: listen, i can go twos on the petrol but i can't budge with the nudes, like Jimmy: 👍 Jimmy: stick to your guns, mate Janis: get disowned by rio if i did it fo free Jimmy: We can't have that. You're the one with the decent fam Janis: Let's not get carried away Janis: they don't actively hate you, s'a start but they aren't the fucking... Janis: I'd say waltons but like Janis: was that not the goal Jimmy: 😂 Jimmy: Your nan started something and your ma was like, challenge accepted Jimmy: Can't fault her for it Janis: Competetive Janis: least I got enough sibs I don't need to come for the title next, like Jimmy: Gotta go the other way and get a different one, like Janis: that's the plan Janis: like I have one but you know Jimmy: We both want to get out of here. Done Janis: True Janis: Hold you to it Jimmy: Alright Janis: even if you're like married with kids Janis: homewrecking that shit 😂 deals a deal mate Jimmy: Who'd wanna marry this dickhead? Jimmy: The in-laws are so offputting an all Jimmy: You've got nowt to worry about Janis: Glad Janis: though I think you're alright, for the record Jimmy: 😎 Jimmy: You aren't too bad yourself Janis: soppy prick Jimmy: cute dickhead Janis: don't take up poetry Janis: words aren't your strongsuit, also you'd be more unbearable so Jimmy: told you before, strong silent type, me Janis: yeah, i know Janis: woulda ignored me for life Jimmy: You think? Janis: Yeah Janis: 😶 like Jimmy: not THAT strong, mate Janis: 💪 never tell your fans, like Jimmy: They probably know Janis: reckon? Jimmy: Is there anything they reckon they don't Janis: bunch of twats Janis: why's there no one decent 'round here Jimmy: Offensive Janis: You don't count Janis: ain't from 'round here, are you boy Jimmy: But I'm still stuck here for a bit Janis: I know Janis: sure there's nothing worse than the couple who only ever hang together Janis: #sooocringe #judgingyou Jimmy: Can't raise this 🐶 alone Jimmy: Sorry Janis: yeah, she ain't my only friend Janis: she's my fur baby Janis: 🤢 Jimmy: #socringe #actuallyjudgingyounowthough Janis: shut up you started it 😂 Jimmy: you gonna finish it then? Janis: too soon 😉 Jimmy: 😏 Janis: such a dick Janis: hardly surprising we're stuck with each other Jimmy: hardly gutting either like Janis: 🤷 had worse Jimmy: Me too Jimmy: Sorry to slander your fave, dad but Janis: Distance ain't made the heart grow fonder? Janis: awks, don't tell Gracie Jimmy: Only if I feel like being a dick Jimmy: So might do Janis: please do Janis: having to be uncharacteristically nice atm Jimmy: Done then Jimmy: If you wanna be uncharacteristically nice to me I'm due a break soon Janis: Hmm Janis: tough ask Janis: see if I've got it in me, like Jimmy: 👌 Jimmy: Keep me informed of your process, like Janis: fucking perv Jimmy: 😇 Jimmy: keep that to yourself, got fans to think of Janis: that i can do Jimmy: Alright Jimmy: Good Janis: yeah Janis: not like i got ulterior motives of my own Jimmy: Obviously not Janis: 😇 Janis: never believe you anyway Jimmy: I can be convincing when I want though Janis: prove it Jimmy: get yourself over here and I will Janis: okay Janis: really make the most of those 15 minutes Jimmy: Done deal Janis: did i tell you i missed you Jimmy: yeah but I don't mind hearing it a second time Jimmy: or third Jimmy: or as many times as you want to tell me Janis: ambitious Janis: see how many we can fit in Jimmy: challenge accepted Janis: 🥇 Jimmy: if I told you I want you I'll say it again Janis: still feels unreal so Janis: take it Jimmy: You're gonna feel how real it is, don't worry Janis: fucking hell Janis: rude of the real world to exist and take you from me Jimmy: I won't go back Jimmy: Like I care Janis: You gotta Janis: this is how addictions start 😏 Janis: think of the plan Jimmy: Damn Jimmy: Alright Janis: I know, buzzkill Jimmy: What are you doing tonight? Janis: Fuck all unless you gonna change that Jimmy: We'll make the most of your drive idea Jimmy: Find somewhere we can be alone for longer than 15 minutes Janis: Good 'cos I need you Jimmy: I need you too Janis: How stupid, 16 years without it and I was chillin' Janis: now, any time I'm not with you I'm frustrated as fuck 😣 Jimmy: 🥇 Jimmy: that's the only victory I proper want Janis: you got it Janis: and me Jimmy: I love you Janis: I love you