#and the teacher was just playing music videos people wanted to see so Felix and my friend (no idea who he was) were suggesting them

[crowtrinkets]

Your Weary Widow Marches

A Gender Neutral MCxFelix fic in which our dear barista educates their teacher and shows him some music from their home.

I’ve never really written fanfiction before but I thought Id give it a shot. The formatting looks weird on my end so if it looks weird after posting I apologize I couldn’t figure it out. Hope you enjoy!

—-

The crackling fire and pages being turned were the only sounds heard for the past few hours. Felix and I sat on either side of a couch placed in Anisa’s office silently reading our respective books. I’ve been in Astraea for nearly a week and had I known that Felix’s teaching method would be done via reading books the size of an encyclopedia I probably would have chosen Sage or Anisa instead... probably

I glance up at Felix, he’s sitting with legs crossed slouching on the arm rest of the couch, glasses on and enthralled in his book. I'm leaning with my back against the arm rest facing Felix, peering at him from behind my knees. I watch as his eyes scan the pages, partially hiding behind my book so he doesn’t notice me stare. I rub my eyes, dry from the endless reading of Astraean history. I know plenty of history and lore from this world thanks to countless hours of playing Last Legacy and stalking forums, but I don’t think I could’ve convinced Felix of that without having to explain what video games are let alone the internet. He thought if I were to learn magic I should at least know part of its history and it’s contribution to their society. 

Despite spending some time with Felix I'm still amazed at the attention span he has for reading. I scan the room trying not to move too much lest I be scolded by the warden. I glance over at the high back chair across the room. The one Anisa sat me in after my jaunt through Felix’s portal and painfully onto Anisa's desk. My mind begins to wander. 

I’ve only been here a short time but I feel like I’ve adjusted well. I wonder what's happening on Earth. Does time pass the same at home like how it does in this realm? World? Alternate universe? I still don’t exactly know how to explain my predicament. Has anyone noticed I'm gone yet? I wonder if I’m on the missing persons list, someone at work will have noticed I didn’t show up for my shifts. I cringe slightly at that last thought, my open book now resting on my chest. Ah damn it, I’m definitely fired aren’t I. How am I gonna pay my bills.... and my home, I miss my bed....my plants. SHIT MY PLANTS. I bring my hand to my face and cringe, my beloved house plants they’re going to wither away in my absence. Fate is such a cruel mistress.

“Bored of reading are we?” I slightly jump at Felix’s comment. I bring my hand down and look at him. Staring at me through his glasses a smirk on his lips. I flush slightly and close my book.

“No I just, got to thinking about Earth, and my life, I guess I’m just a little home sick,” I mumble out those last words. I want to be honest with Felix but I don’t want him beating himself up for my situation. I mean yes he is the reason I’m stuck here but I don't hate him for it. Felix frowns and closes his own book.

“Ah... I am sorry about that, I-“ I sit up interrupting him.

“No no no, I'm not mad at you, I’m actually quite enjoying my time here. I mean I don’t have to make drinks for annoying customers everyday here,” I force a laugh but it comes out awkwardly. Felix gives me a quizzical look. I then realize, with the amount of times he calls “dear barista” I just assumed he knew what it meant. “Yknow, my job? A barista?” Felix flushes and avoids looking at me.

“I must admit.. I do not actually know what that is,” I cant help but chuckle, the great necromancer Felix, is embarrassed to not know something.

“Well my dear teacher," I emphasize the word teacher mimicking the way he calls me, "allow me to educate you on some Earth information,” I sit cross legged and scoot closer to him book in my lap. Felix adjusts to face me properly and removes his glasses. I clear my throat and smile at him. “My part time occupation of being a Barista, requires me to make drinks for customers and sell them, more often I make coffee but sometimes people order tea. We sell pastries as well,” Felix gives me yet another confused look.

“All you do is prepare drinks and flakey confectioneries?” I nod in response with a smile, I can only imagine what he assumed a Barista was. Felix chuckles and runs a hand through his hair, “All this time I thought it was something more complicated, you described your customers as being annoying? I am assuming you do not like this particular job?”

“Well, I don't hate it but the customers can get a little rude and for the dumbest reasons too. One time a woman threw her drink at me claiming I added 3 1/2 shots of espresso and rather than 3,” I laugh to my self looking back at the memory, chuckling more when I see Felix’s horrified expression.

“A woman... threw a drink at you? Because she deemed it made incorrectly? I did not except Earth customs to be so. . . Barbaric,” Felix looks at me astonished and confused but all I can do is laugh. “And why are you laughing? Are you alright did she hit your head when she assaulted you with a beverage?” Felix is now standing while I clutch my stomach in pain, the combination of the story and Felix’s confusion is too much to bare. After a minute I manage to calm down enough to speak.

“No no, she did not hit me in the head, I’m just laughing cause it was funny, well at the time it wasn’t but my co workers took pictures and I looked ridiculous. I can laugh about it now,” I wipe a stray tear from my eye as I recount the experience. Thank god her drink was iced. 

“Picture?” Felix chimes in. I try to think of how to explain how photography works but I come up with an idea.

“Why don’t I show you?” I stand handing Felix my book and I jaunt over to Anisa’s desk. I let her peruse my backpack because she seemed so interested in my “Earthly items” as she called them. I walked back over and sit on the floor, patting the ground next to me so Felix can join. 

“You known there is a perfectly good sofa right next to you, I don’t understand why you wish to sit on the ground like we are mere children,” but despite his protests Felix sits next to me still clutching our books. I rummage through my back tossing the other items to the side. My wallet, a flyer, a jacket, that granola bar which has definitely crumbled to pieces in its package. Until I finally find it, my phone. My first night here I instinctively tried to use it, forgetting I am now stuck in a world without wifi or cell towers. In an effort to hopefully conserve its battery I hard shut off my phone I did not think I would need it but now is an opportunity for me to educate Felix about my world rather than his and tell him a little about myself. Really I just want a reason to prolong my time from reading anymore history. I hold the power button and silently pray. Please have some battery left, please please. Felix is leaning towards me, his face inching closer to mine, I glance at him studying his expression. He looks confused, and curious at the same time, there's a slight scrunch in his brow like he’s trying to seem like he understands what I’m doing, but I know he doesn’t. In that moment his eyes meet mine, I turn my head to fully face him, a blush creeps up his face and I can feel mine begin to warm as well. “Felix-“

BING

We both jump at the sound of my phone turning on. Damn phone, well I guess I kinda asked for that. Felix sits back and clears his throat.

“Um, what, what is that?” His voice wavers slightly but I choose to ignore it to save him some dignity.

“Its my phone, on Earth nearly everyone has one of these. You can use it to communicate with other people, take pictures, look things up, and listen to music.” I begin to unlock it and open my photo album.

“You can communicate with other people? On this... this flat brick?” Felix points accusatory at my phone the scrunch in his eyebrows have intensified creating deep crevices on his forehead. I nod while I scroll through trying to find the photo. 

“Yup and take pictures, such as this one,” I turn my phone to face Felix revealing the image documenting the after affects of being assaulted with coffee. He leans over to get a better look. In the picture I'm standing by the cash register, soaked through my clothes in an extra large coffee's amount of liquid. The brown liquid stains my apron and the parts on my white shirt poking out from underneath. There's smeared whipped cream going across my shoulder up my neck and partially along my jaw, and the scowl on my face could kill a man. The instant I show the picture to Felix he plants a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. He turns away in an attempt to hide his amusement but I know he wont last.

“Im-I must apologize I did not mean to laugh but, but the look on your face is hilarious,” Felix faces me again trying to hide his smile with the back of his hand. I start to chuckle, I turn the phone back to me and swipe to the next picture. Its a similar picture but in this one my co worker put whipped cream on top of my head, something about it “completing the look”. When I show this picture to Felix it breaks his terrible attempt of remaining poise. He laughs loudly, and it’s extremely contagious. I laugh along with him reminiscing in his beautiful laugh. Every once in a while we calm down until we look at the picture and we start up again. After a bit I’m able to calm down enough to speak.

“Don’t feel bad for laughing, at the time I was pissed but my co workers cheered me up and now I have these memories to laugh at,” I start to look through my album again as Felix calms down from his laughing high. I find more pictures to show him. Some are of me at work with my co workers, one picture of me laughing as I held a dog that jumped through the drive through window. I show him more pictures, some are of earth sunsets which Felix claimed to look like they belong in a painting. I also show him a picture of some Geese I saw while on a walk, and then a picture of said Geese chasing me. This gets Felix to laugh again but not as hard.

“You lead an interesting life on Earth, it seems similar to Sage you are also prone to provoke others into attacking you,” I roll my eyes at Felix’s joke and give him a friendly shoulder bump. Its at this moment I realize how close he’s sitting. Our books set aside and Felix is leaning on one arm politely looking over my shoulder at my phone, I can tell he doesn’t really understand how it works but it seems he’s enjoying this moment to much to ask. In an attempt to keep the sweet moment I change the subject.

“Hey do you want to listen to some Earth music?” With a nod from Felix I close the app and instinctively go to press my streaming app. Damn no Internet. I think for a second and remember I have some music I bought in times before streaming apps existed. I find the app and open it. Dear god my taste was cringey. I scroll through the songs until I stumble across a less than embarrassing song. “This is a classic where I come from, everyone has heard this song at least once. I lay back onto the floor so I can properly listen to the music. Felix looks at me and awkwardly lays down as well, I click on the song allowing it to play.

Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Just a city boy

Born and raised in South Detroit

He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Felix gives me a puzzled look but I just shrug and look up at the ceiling. I close my eyes and take in the song as it plays. If I concentrate hard enough I can imagine my self back on Earth. Sitting in my room listening to 80s music while I do laundry or cook my dinner. I start to feel nostalgic again but I try not let my emotions take over. The song ends and I pause it before it plays the next song. I roll onto my side and rest my head on my hand.

“So what’d you think?” I beam at Felix, I genuinely want to know what he thinks of Earth music, and more specifically a song that I am quite fond of. Felix is laying flat on his back, he ankles crossed and his hands laying on his chest. He looks nervous to be laying on the ground next to me but has made no attempts to leave.

“I thought it was... interesting to say the least. It had quite a captivating story although I was confused when the subject changed multiple times, and what exactly are they trying to “not stop believing” in” Felix does air quotes and seems genuinely enthralled in the “story” of the song. I smile and start to look for another song. 

“How about you choose the next one?” I tilt my phone towards him. Felix sits up at my question.

“I dont feel very well versed in Earth music though,” He mumbles. I shrug at his comment.

“Just pick one with a name that sounds interesting to you” I show Felix how to use the phone and hand it to him laying back down. I peek at Felix, he’s holding the phone in one hand and is scrolling with the other, he’s holding it like an old man. I watch his face, he’s thoroughly looking at every single song title and determining whether they are interesting or not. I find it... cute, his concentration face is cute. Oh if he caught me staring I know he would become a blubbering blushing mess, I mean I would be too. I close my eyes again as I wait for him to pick. 

“This one seems interesting,” I hum in response, but when Felix says the title out-loud and panic seizes through me. I sit up and shout WAIT but I'm too late. He already pressed it. And then I hear it.

That dreaded, infamous G note. Felix turns towards me surprised and hastily hands the phone to me, I pause it before another note can play.

“Hells MC what will that song make my head explode or something??? You nearly made my heart stop.” Felix takes a deep breath with his hand on his chest.

“I'm sorry, that song its kind of embarrassing actually,” I can feel myself flushing, I look away in embarrassment at the fact that I had that song downloaded and the fact that I nearly sent my teacher into cardiac arrest.

“Embarrassing how?” Felix looks at me puzzled. I open my mouth to speak but then stop. Hold on a second, Felix doesn’t know this band, let alone what an emo phase is. Well judging by his raven skull necklace he does but not in the way I do. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if we listened to it. I do still like their music. But god did it HAVE to be this song. I clear my throat and look back at Felix.

“Nothing, it’s nothing I was just being dramatic,” I stifle a laugh. “We can listen to it, I actually quite like this band,” Felix nods and turns to face my direction, were now both sitting cross legged and I press play on the song. I smile a little as the song plays and close my eyes again. I cant even remember the last time I listened to this song. My mind begins to wander again, to my younger years when I first heard this song.

 I was such a try hard back then, wanting so badly to “be different” but also to mend the emotional pain I was going through, and this band really helped me through it. This song is a little more narrative than the last one so I hope Felix would like it. I can’t believe I freaked out like I did god he must think I'm crazy, or maybe that lady really did hit my head when she threw that drink at me. As the song plays I silently hum to it, quiet enough so that Felix might not hear. I drink in the lyrics and instruments and it feels like I'm listening to it again for the first time. 

The song ends and I open my eyes again to pause the music before it plays another one.

“So what did you think of tha-“ before I can continue I'm stopped by the sight of Felix’s face. His eyes are misty and his nose is colored pink. Was he... was he crying? Felix looks at me and his eyes go wide. He quickly turns away and rubs at his face.

“There-there is quite a lot of dust on this floor, honestly you would think Annie would have any sense to clean in here every once in a while,” I cant help but smile, wow he really is a goth child. 

“It’s ok Felix, this song makes me cry sometimes too,” Felix side eyes me and sniffles.

“I-I was not crying, yes I admit the song was... moving to say the least…. But, but I will not be mocked by you for my emotions,” Felix turns to face me again refusing to meet my eyes, his voice turning accusatory. I scoot closer to Felix and place a hand on his shoulder. He looks at me astonished and slightly flushed, either from the contact or the crying, I mean dust, I will never know.

“Congratulations” I say with a smile. Felix’s puzzled look twists even more.

“What ever are you talking about,” Felix questions.

“You’re emo now,”

#fictif games #fictif #fictif last legacy #last legacy fictif #last legacy #fictif felix #felix iskandar escellun #felix escellun #fictif sage #fictif anisa #crow writes

[san-station]

Thirsty • Seo Changbin

Pairing: Seo Changbin x Reader

WARNING: suggestive, fluff. Two of three swear words.

↝Word count: 5,1k

The beginning of semester always made you happy, you craved for coming back to your daily routines, you missed walking down campus to your favourite coffee shop and the smell of fresh bread. You missed the newbies asking about where was the registration building and the older students telling them the wrong directions just to pissed them off. You missed the early bumping sound of your neighbors’ loud music. Yeah, and the most of all, you missed the art studio at the Art and Design faculty as you were an art student for almost 3 years now.  

You entered the studio determinate, chin up and a small smile in your lips. Five classmates greeted you with hugs and cheek kisses. Meeting your classmates made you feel slightly happy about them around you. Usually, you best friend Jihyo would be there, asking how was your summer, the problem was that she had to move to another state due to her father’s job. No worries, though, you were a sociable person, not too quiet, but not too talkative, just the right amount of sociability you wanted. When your teacher finally arrived, he was exuding happiness as he brought with him the hardest evaluation of your life: nude models. Everyone there burst into whistles and giggles as the two male models located themselves on the studio’s parquet and established their elegant postures for you to begin the assignment. You grabbed your graphite pen and started to draw on your canvas after a long sigh, only enjoying a quarter of your piece. 

On the other hand, Changbin woke up late for his first class because he forgot to set the alarm, he got used to waking up whenever he wanted, so, for him, the semester was already a pain in the ass. He hated when he was having the best time of his life at his own apartment playing video games, listening to music or watching a movie. He was a music engineer student and so, he always hated when people made him do things, like establishing a deadline for his tracks or making him do the entire melody according to rules. He felt the pressure and felt obligated to do whatever people wanted. Well, that was college for those who always had to deal with the worst teachers and the worst partners. Or maybe it was because he irradiated a dark aura wherever he walked in and intimidated all human beings. His wardrobe was pitch black, maybe one or two white shirts he wore when he exercised. His daily expression was mad serious that you could think he was going to murder you in any second. However, he was a softy around his best friends and close acquaintance, that included you, the best friend of his best friend. 

Changbin ran to his class, stopping by the coffee shop to buy his morning coffee only to arrive to an empty room. 

A familiar person got out of the classroom seconds later and closed the door; he watched Changbin catching his breath crunching on a side of the wall. 

“Are you okay?”, he asked looking carefully as the strong and fitted man stood up completely. 

“W-what happened… to Mr. Oh’ session?”, Changbin question difficulty, after he notice he was half an hour later to his second class, he ran as fast as he could from the other side of the campus. Unfortunately, he thought, he would have to talk to him on another occasion. 

“You are pretty late… Session’s over, mate”, the boy chuckled and put the classroom’s keys on his pocket. 

Changbin whined and walked shoulder to shoulder with the him. 

“Lend me your notes”, he spatted bumping the man’s arm. 

“Which is the magic word?”, he asked with a smirk on his face, grabbing his backpack with one hand and putting the other inside his jean pocket. 

“Lend me your notes or I’ll eat your babies, Chan”, Changbin wasn’t in the mood for begging, so he said harshly as they got outside the building and walked through campus to their next location. 

“...C’mon, man, that was rude”, Chan fake cried and hold his chest thinking about the small man doing such atrocity. 

“Ugh, fine, please, Channie-hyung, could you lend me the fucking notes or I’ll have to ask Mark and I don’t like him.”

“Dude, it was only first day, I actually can ask Mr. Oh to give me the presentation and the assignments for the rest of the semester if I want and you can miss classes whenever you like to. Just send him your works”, Chan shrugged knowing how much Changbin disliked Mr. Oh. He almost failed him for expressing himself and saying Mark Lee’s rap sucked, he was the class favorite, thus he got the lowest score of the class and an email from the teacher saying he had to be responsible for his words and accept consequences. 

“If you do that, we’re getting marry this spring, bro”, he said as his nostrils filled with the sweet smell of coffee. Chan laughed and agreed, making their way into the famous place and lined up to order lunch. 

While they were taking, a familiar voice made Changbin turned to the direction of the source and smiled warmly. You were talking with one of your common friends, Felix, while sipping your frappuccino and eating a cheeseburger. Chan talked alone for a whole minute without receiving any attention from the small man. When it was time to order, he had to make the decision for his friend and scoffed when he notice where his eyes were glued like a statue. 

“Do you still have that tiny little crush on her?”, he whispered. The barista handed him a blueberry bubble tea, two burgers, chicken wings and a soda.

“I never said it was tiny”, Changbin gave the money without even looking at the cashier and started to walk to your direction, the employee was very surprised by seeing his 10$ tip, tho.

“Oh, wow…”, Chan was impressed, his childhood friend never admitted having feelings, he once thought Changbin had a tiny rock where his heart was supposed to be and his heartbeats where only earthquakes on his body.  He was a kid when he believed it, pardon him. 

They approached to your table startling Felix and you. 

“Hi, guys! How are you?!” your excitement melted Changbin’s heart, for him you were the cutest person he would’ve ever met and every time you came across and have a conversation, he always found something about you that made him believe that evil didn’t exist, that flowers bloomed constantly around the two of you, that when you laughed, a fairy was born and babies smiled. He thought you were the most beautiful girl he had ever seen and he found himself thinking about you every little second of his nights, daydreaming at every hour about what would you two do in the future if you ever got together. 

“Hey, Y/N, Felix! How’s it going? Can we sit with you?”, Chan asked stroking Felix’s head, that made Changbin flinched as he got lost in his mind.  

“Sure! C'mere”, you patted the sit next to you for him and his cheeks reacted instantly flushing a pinkish shade to his ears hidden by his black hair. Chan choked with his bubble tea as he wanted to vomit after watching that. 

“What were you talking about?”, Changbin asked grabbing his burger and eating like if he was in some sort of fancy restaurant and needed to impress you with his skills. 

“Tonight’s gonna be the welcoming fair for the new students and it’s gonna be outstanding!”, you clapped your hands full of glee. Changbin repressed a smiled. “There’ll be fireworks, a music show and a loooot of food!”, you finished, eager about the news. You loved the welcoming fair, it was so good to start the semester with great vibes, music sounding all over the place, colors flashing and lightning the dark night, tasty food dancing in your mouth making your stomach the happiest place on Earth. It was wholesome.  

“And we were planning to go when everything’s set up”, Felix added grabbing one of Chan’s chicken wings, that made the older looked at him with pressed lips, betrayed. “Wanna come?”, he asked with full mouth. 

Changbin was about to decline the offer, he wasn’t found of those kinds of things. People screaming and running over the place and food gathered on the floor at the end of the event? No, it wasn’t his thing. 

“It’ll be fun!”, you nodded and slowly took a chicken wing from Chan’s food. He whimpered and pouted after biting his burger. 

“Yeah, we’ll be there”, Changbin made it sound cool with his uninterested aura, but he was howling inside full of joy, he was going to spent the night next to you and he couldn’t ask for more. 

Or maybe he could ask for more, like making Chan and Felix get away from you and let him have, at least, a few words with you. Since you arrived at the campus park where the fair was settle up and vibrating with energy and new faces, Chan and Felix tormented you with his vacation stories, not letting the e-boy get close to you. Except that he was the one too shy to integrate to the conversation. 

The reality was that your gloomy state flowered after they walked away from you and, thinking you were alone, the happy mask you put on after going out of class was the perfect facade for the A student you were. Your first day started as great as it could be, you made your interventions in class, asked a few questions letting people answer and filling your brain with unknown themes and topics, that always sparked your curiosity and was one of the things Changbin like the most, that innocent eyes which never saw the bad side of people, only the greater of things. The eyes that looked at him without fear and only with excitement, not like everyone else. The eyes he deeply wanted to see closer and watch every little spot on your skin, memorize your scars and wrinkles; kiss the little moles you had in your mouth and your neck; blow the rebel strands of your hair that made you pull them on the back of your ears, trace the curves of your body, appreciating the reactions his hands would make on you as he could hear your heartbeat getting faster and little sweat drops appear on your skin. He would be proud of himself as he could sense how hot you’ll be as he touches you with such tender fingers, he wanted to make you feel thirsty for him, the same way he was thirsty for you

However, now he was a little worried when he saw the smile on your face fade away at the same time Chan and Felix decided to buy something to eat and watch the music show.  Changbin was nervous, he wasn’t good with reassuring words, he preferred being the company and listen to the other person, usually people only needed someone who could listen to them and just that, company. So he thought that maybe his company would cheer you up as the australian boys were out of sight. 

You walked a few steps ahead of him, Changbin keeping his distance as he delivered with himself about his next move, but you turned your head back to see him and waited for him to approach. 

“Are you okay?”, he asked when your eyes met his, you gave him a small nod and continue your walk beside him.

“Mhm…”, you mutter raising your eyes to the night sky.

“You sure? You don’t seem like it…”, he could read your body language, your downed shoulders, your sad face trying to be something it was not, the tone of your answers. 

“Today was not what I expected to be…”, you sighed and crossed your arms over your chest to hug yourself from the freezing wind it suddenly blow. 

“Yeah, tell me about it…”, Changbin scoffed, glancing  your previous action.

There it was, he had started the awkward silence because he couldn’t think about something more appropriate to say to cheer you up. He needed to think, he needed to know what was bothering you so much but he only could see the moonlight illuminating half of your face, your eyes looked visually pleasant, they seemed to reflect the entire sky and Changbin was stargazing. Your mouth started to move, you were telling him something that made you pout for a second. Changbin’s eyes followed the curve of your pointy nose and rested on your lips, for him they look pretty soft and kissable. Actually, everything about you seem soft and kissable for the strong man. 

“Bin…?”, you frowned and a ghost smile tried to emerge from you mouth, watching the man beside you so lost in his thoughts.

“Changbin, did you hear me?”, he realized your mouth said his name and he looked up, meeting your starry eyes. 

“Y-yeah…”, he muttered. “W-well, no… I’m sorry”, he apologized immediately, mentally slapping himself for not giving you the attention you deserved. You chuckled softly and brushed your palms up and down your arms to keep them warm as much as you could. Changbin’s arms intchend as planned carefully his next movements.

“I was saying that my drawing today wasn’t as good as I expected”, you pouted again, Changbin always seemed so interested in every word you’d say and it pleased your heart, he listened, not only heard and. You were glad he never pushed, he would let you open your heart as your mouth let out all your concerns. The first time you two met, Jihyo had told you Changbin was not an easy-going person at the beginning, he would keep distance and would never talk as that was his personality with strangers, he didn’t have too much trust in anyone but his close friends. Nonetheless, when she introduced you as her new best friend, Changbin fell his chest burning and his palms sweating as an angel stood right before him. Your shy smile warmed his chest and when you spoke, he sweared he was in heaven, he’d died and this beautiful creature greeted him in the entrance of his new home. 

For you, meeting him was a little more… extreme. He stood there with wide eyes, his lips pressed in a thin line and his arms crossed over his chest. His muscles weren’t as prominent as now, but that didn’t stop your mind to picture him holding you tightly, that made you shiver; a tiny hurricane of butterflies ignated from your belly to the center of your breast and you had to swallow hard when he hold his hand out for you to take it. Politely, you shook his hand for a little too long, but neither of you care to notice. Jihyo gave you both a knowing smile without realizing the meaning and the three of you talked the whole night. Well, you and Jihyo, Changbin dedicated the time to engulfed himself in your invisible wrap around his body. He wasn’t aware of the looks you had give him that da. His cute dimples drove you crazy instantly, his laugh exercised your cheeks muscles making you smile by inertia and, for the first time in two years, you let your heart enjoy the company of this shy and intimidated man that made you feel pure ecstasy just by standing on your side. A couple of years later, you became very good friends unaware of your feelings for each other. 

“O-oh… Why? What happened?”, he cared, you really life he cared, it meant a lot for you. 

“We have to learn how the human body has so many different shapes by sketching nude models and-”

“W-what?! Did you said nude…models?!”, he interrupted you and stopped on his place. You let out a soft laugh.

“Yes, and today was the first try… by the end of semester we have to present four different body shapes but every time I looked at the models, I just hated the way my fingers couldn’t create the proper shape…”

Changbin was quiet, the image of you in front of a naked man’s body made him shiver in repulsion. He refused to let your pretty eyes wandering through someone else's’ body that wasn’t him, even if that idea was kept for himself. 

“Anyways, I have three more months before the final presentation so I can practice a lot”, you finally said and turned to Changbin, the night breeze caressed your body, the goosebumps obligated you to press your palms harder over your naked arms and you allowed yourself to take a look at the man in front of you. 

After a long minute staring at you, Changbin found some courage deep in his chest and wrapped his arms around your shivering figure. He almost died, sweating as if he was being chased by some predator, turns out he was being chased by his own feelings trying to erupt as the time with you seemed to go slower than usual. And of course you were taken aback by the man’s actions. In the couple of years you’ve known him, Changbin only had hugged you twice: the time your dad had a car accident and was pretty ill, you felt awful thinking about losing him forever. Changbin comforted you when you came from the hospital. When your dad recovered, your heart exploded with so much love and happiness that Changbin needed to feel those pure feelings, so he hugged you tightly and you were on cloud 9 for the first time as your bodies interacted that much. He hugged you when you win first place at the art gallery competition, he was proud of your hard work and saw the opportunity to celebrate next to you such an award.  

Now, he hugged you because you were cold? He didn’t think clearly, he just saw his -not- tiny little crush freezing to death and his body reacted, wanting to protect you forever. Your shoulders were stiffed for a while, still in shock about the gesture. Changbin took that as a bad sign and slowly backed off. Not before you returned the hug quickly, welcoming the warmed feeling of his proximity. You closed your eyes and hide your face in the crook of his neck, making your nose inhale his viril scent. Changbin felt shivers down his spine as your breath tickled his sensitive skin, your hands intertwined behind his lower back and you pressed your chest to his, he let out a soft sigh.

“If you ever need help with something, just ask”, he murmured, mouth hidden in your hair. He took mental notes at how sweet your hair smelled, at how fragile your body could feel in his arms, he wished you could stay in his arms forever.   

You nodded and pull your head out of his neck, just to face him with a few inches separating the tip of your noses. Neither of you moved away, you felt too comfy in each others arms. Suddenly, your fingers delineated Changbin’s back muscles in such slow motion, never breaking the eye contact. At the same time, you allowed yourself to paint his face features in your mind permanently with ink, he was attractive, you knew that the first time you met. And although at the time he was skinnier, his features were as sharp as always, his eyes were as captivating as always and his mouth was as inviting as always.

Changbin seemed to read your mind and, for an instant, he looked at your rosy lips barely parted. All rational thoughts vanished from his brain, he really wanted to do this, he was ready to do this but his body never reacted, he only stared at you while the breeze, once again, hit your bare arms. 

“I-...”, he spoke in the sweet silence of the night. The music fair echoed through the air while you felt the only people in the place, reciprocally satisfied with each other’s heat.

Unlike Changbin, you were pretty confident so, you cupped his face with your colds hands and the grip he had on your waist got tighter. You gave him a sweet smile as he tried to say something that never came from his mouth, lips already connected with yours. 

It felt surreal, even if it lasted for only five seconds. Your lips tasted like cherry chapstick and felt as soft as silk, Changbin thought that maybe, if he ever got the chance, he would buy you a silk dress just for him to trace his hands all over your body while he kissed you for hours, loving the sensation the texture gave him with the extra of your figure. 

But good things sometimes didn’t last and you break the kiss with embarrassment. Your cheeks burning as you took a step back from the hug.

 “I- I’m sorry…”, you whispered, startled by your abrupt actions and avoided Changbin’s intense glare. He opened his mouth one more time and tried to hold your hand, but two accents made you both jump in surprise.

“Oi, why did you get so far from the fair?!”, Felix’s deep voice resonated around, some students passing by frowned as they thought the voice came from Changbin, only to find out it was from the fairy-looking guy.  

“We were looking for ya everywhere”, Chan spoke munching his almost finished hot dog. You cleared your throat and smiled widely at them. 

“We went stargazing!”, you pointed over your head directly to the sky. Felix wowed at the view and stood there for a while, watching the stars and talking about astrology facts. You listened and made little interventions with Changbin sat next to you, smiling from time to time. Chan, on the other hand, looked at the both of you with a smirk on his face being nothing but too obvious that they say the whole show you too starred.

As time went by, neither Changbin or you brought the kiss event back; you acted as if nothing had happened and, for a while, Changbine asked himself why. He found himself overthinking one night alone in his apartment after sending Mr. Oh’s final appointment. This time, Chan helped him with the pensum and handed him the assignments the teacher would make him prepare. He did everything on time, feeling gratified about not having to face Mr. Oh ever, he didn’t want Changbin’s  big mouth on his class and Changbin didn’t want to go to his stupid session, so everyone win. Everyone except for the fact that you erased his kiss from your mind, well, that was what it looked like for him. 

You both met a few times after the welcoming fair and you acted so natural and obvious that, for one moment, he thought he dreamed about the time he finally could tasted your cherry taste lips, and it would’ve been fine because that wasn’t the first time if he was being honest. Yet, when Chan asked him about your “puppy lovers moment” they watched from afar, his heart shrunken and couldn’t concentrate anymore. Nevertheless, his wilde thoughts got interrupted that night by the knocking on his door. 

He frowned, not expecting anyone to visit him at 2 in the morning. He got up from the comfy spot on his sofa after pausing the movie he was barely paying attention to and opened the door without even bothering to ask.  

You made your way to his sofa and collapsed, letting out a loud sigh. You decided to sneak up into Changbin’s place with no invitation, you couldn't catch a proper sleep since two weeks ago and nothing could make you feel better. You knew he would be up since he used to had insomnio, he had told you that a few days after the fair when you were having lunch once again in the coffee shop. 

“Uhm… hello, would you like to come in? Oh, great, have a sit on my nice couch”, Changbin said with purely sarcasm and closed the door, a smile flashing his face. You groaned, grabbed the blanket under your body and wrapped yourself with it as you made you comfortable in his place.

"I can’t sleep", you muttered gaining a scoff from the man.

“I can’t concentrate, Bin! The final presentation is the next week and I’m not over yet”, you uncovered your head out of the blanket and frowned in anxiety. “I feel the sketches look like shit…” 

“Hey... don’t say that”, Changbin sat down your feet and rushed his hands over your hair. One thing was clear, after your kiss, you became more touchable with one another and it just felt natural by now. “Your work is pretty impressive, you know it.” 

“Yeah, not this one.”

“What is it? What is the think you can’t find in your pieces?”

“Textures… I can see the muscles, I can see the curves, the lines, the expressions”, you explained sitting and carring your knees to your chest. “But I definitely can’t feel them. It’s just a canvas and, form me, every piece needs to be felt. I want people to look at the canvas and feel they can reach at the flesh and touch the warm skin! It’s so difficult when I don’t feel connected with my art…”

“You know what? Draw me!”

“What? Are you crazy?”

“N-no, I really want you to draw my body! W-well, at least my upper body”

A pink flush covered your cheeks as he took his hoodie off and turned to face you with his built up body. You almost let a gasp out at the gorgeous view but you controlled yourself before exposing that side of you, unknown. 

Changbin dragged a chair from his kitchen counter, sat on it and assume a pose for you.

“Let’s go, draw me as one of your french girls, baby”, he said exuding confidence. The nickname made your heart skip a bit but you brushed it off and stood up, looking a pencil and paper over the apartment. 

Changbin waited as you sat again and started to feel your cute form become timid and embarrassed about the fact that he was half naked. You concentrated on his wide shoulders, imagining your fingers traveling from his neck to his elbow, passing your fingertips over his flesh, painfully slow. The graphite of your pencil followed your orders as you let yourself sink deeply on pure sensations. How would your hand feel caressing his fitted warm chest, would you feel his heartbeats under your touch? Would he hold his breath if you lower your hands to his abdomen, tracing his belly muscles? You tried to not look right into his eyes, because you were catching some kind of heated steam vanishing into thin air and inundating the atmosphere around the empty apartment. You loved the way his muscles contracted as he shifted his weight from leg to leg. As he did so, you jumped.

“Really, Y/N?”, he smirked. “You are drawing daily nude models but you can’t take my chest? Jezz, my power…”, he muttered and you groaned, controlling the urge to reach out and punch that cocky smile of him. 

“Shut up and don’t move!”, you complained and he obeyed, still laughing at your adorable tantrum. 

An hour later, some suggestive jokes and another pencil, you were giving your piece the final touches as Changbin made an early morning snacks for you both. 

“Are you almost done?”, he questioned cleaning his hands and drying them with the kitchen towel. It was funny, because he didn’t even bother to put a shirt again, he just wandered around like that, it was his house after all. 

You hummed, letting him know that you needed a few more minutes. He stepped behind you, looking over your shoulder to his wide chest being touched by the tips of your middle finger, you were blurring some lines to give profundity to the piece. While you were so caught up by your work, Changbin allowed himself to trace your skin with his eyes, silently jealous of a insipid paper as he got unconsciously closer. 

You felt very proud of this, pretty confident about Changbin’s features. The last time he wanted you to portray him was a year ago and he was skinnier, but this time, well, this time your heart flipped everytime the lines of his body curved and became muscles, your breathing became rougher as your heartbeat was running faster than ever just by looking at the sheet. You could feel his body through this, you felt your chest hurting as excitement bursted into you silently and a proud smile came out of your mouth. 

You didn’t notice how or when Changbin’s cheek almost touched yours as he looked closer to your representation of him. Your breath was stuck in your lungs now, burning you inside. You pressed your thighs together as a reflexion, but Changbin catch sight of the movement and he knew it was deeper than him just imagining things.

“I can feel it”, you whispered swallowing hard, your heart thumping harder on your chest like if it wanted to get out of there to meet Changbin’s on the halfway. He tilted his head, making his lips brushed your cheeks slightly. 

“How does it feel?”, his voice was ten times deeper as you’ve ever heard him. Soft throbbings emerged progressively between your legs making your ears buzz. 

“It feels like you”, you purred, feeling his heavy breaths touching your lips faintly. 

“What are you doing?”, you scanned his features, the proximity feeling oddly familiar, so close but so far away. Changbin licked his lip and watched every inch of your face, trying to reminiscent the previous mental picture of you in the welcoming fair. You were beautiful that night, it glorified your pure and innocent soul. Nevertheless, having you there, not feeling cold but exuding a torrid aura, made Changbin think this could probably be the beginning of a unstoppable thirst he wouldn’t be able to control.  

“Let me take a sip of your lips, baby”, he put his hand down your chin and turned your face to his.  

“Changbin-”

His lips were on yours like a rush, as if you were on a desert and you’ve drunk the last drop of water, he was thirsty for your touch, he was crying out for your soft lips to meet one more time after a long time and you didn’t want to hold back, not in the slightest. You both deserved each other’s needy touches, you’ve been desiring this for far to long that it felt right when he softly asked if you were okay with was going to happen, taking your soft moans as answers, he gently carried you to his bedroom, never leaving your mouth at any cost, probably thinking that if he was dreaming, he would never want to wake up again. At the end of the early day, you became one, pure hearts attached to one another, feeling the same love and attraction since the day you met and finally. You finally were ready to give your sketches the sensations they needed, you felt capable of doing whatever you wanted if Changbin was there for you, because he became the missing piece of the big canvas you were painted on. 

And, by the end of the day, you were aware of how Changbin's body felt under your delicate touch.

Masterlist

A/N: this isn't proof read so, please, be nice~!

#Seo Changbin #Changbin #Stray Kids Changbin #Skz Changbin #Changbin fanfic #Stray Kids Fanfic #Changbin Fluff #Stray Kids fluff #Chan #Bang Chan #Thirsty by Taemin #Lee Felix #Felix #Changbin x reader #stray kids x reader #Minho #Hyunjin #I.N #Seungmin #Jisung #Changbin imagine #fluff #suggestive #hot #art #one shot #mark lee

[cherryeol04]

The Firsts

Summary: No one ever told him that living was going to be so difficult. That there would emotions get couldn’t label and distinguish. He’s just a young boy trying to navigate through life and its unexpected ups and downs.

Genre: Humor, Fluff, smut(?)

Pairings: Oc x Felix, Oc x Changbin, Changbin x Oc x Felix

Warnings: poly relationship, angst in some part, excessive fighting about the MCU.

Parts: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14 / Part 15 / Part 16 / Part 17

A/N: This story has a theme of Firsts. First love, first kiss and many other firsts. Each part can be read on their own and are meant to stand as oneshots. It’s basically a collection of oneshots (little snapshots into my Oc’s life. 😁)

It was the weirdest dream that Aiden had ever had and he wasn’t exactly sure why he had it or what it even meant. But it was strange enough that he was waking up at 4am, Felix’s name falling from his lips as the last remnants of sleep escaped him.

The TV in his room was still on -volume low as it cycled through video after video on YouTube - bathing him in a soft blue and white glow that allowed him to look around his room in the slight paralyzed state that he was in. This wasn’t the first time he had dreamt about Felix and it most likely wouldn’t be the last. But it was the first time that someone from outside his friend group had been involved in his dream. Knew about Felix and talked to him.

It was rather strange and Aiden wondered what the hell had actually triggered the weird images and scenarios that had filled his mind. In the most direct way, the dream he had involved Felix being a family friend’s “baby boy”. Whether he was dating the older woman or was just a sugar baby, he couldn’t actually be certain. But what he knew was that his friend acted like he hadn’t know him in the dream. Didn’t want to talk to him and Aiden was pretty sure that dream Felix had been jacking off when he had taken the phone from the family friend. At least, that’s what his mind supplied with soft grunts and barely there acknowledgements coupled with a lot of movement and noise on his end.

And while dreaming of Felix masturbating on the phone for him would have been a nice wet dream, there was just something about knowing that he wasn’t there or interesting enough for Felix that really rubbed him the wrong way - an unsettling emotion washing over him as he finally turned to his left and stared at his phone that laid innocently on his bed.

‘Would it be wrong to text him now?’

The thought raced through his mind faster than he could process the actual time that was blaring at him from the alarm app he had downloaded on his phone.

4:10 am

His hand was reaching for his phone on its own, face scanned and recognized and screen unlocking before he could start talking himself out of it. The downside of having one of the newer phones on the market. He wanted so much to call Felix and express the weird, unsettling feelings he had about this dream, but how was he supposed to explain that he had a dream about Felix jacking off over the phone to a family friend he had never met without sounding like a creep? Their friendship wasn’t a stable or solid one, at least not that he was sure of. They had only hung out a few times outside of the times they had interacted at school and while that been more than enough for Aiden, he highly doubted that it was enough to deem each other worthy of being close friends that could dream about each other.

“Hello?”

Unlike the friendship he had with Changbin.

“I’m fucked.”

“No shit. It’s 4 fucking am. What the hell are you doing calling me?”

“Binnie.” The pathetic whine that left Aiden caught Changbin’s attention and Aiden could tell as he heard the other shifting on his bed, voice sound clearly compared to the groggy greeting he got moments ago.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was soft and Aiden almost melted at the sound. The hardness in Changbin’s voice was barely there and Aiden was so thankful to have the kindness he was getting now because he honestly didn’t know what was going on with him and he needed to be able to talk to someone who would understand his strangeness. Changbin was the perfect person, having put up with Aiden’s strangeness since they were kids.

“I had this dream.” He started in, a soft sigh leaving him as he laid back on his bed. “This family friend of ours was over and she was calling and talking to Felix -“

“The fuck?”

“I know, so weird right?” He asks and sighed. “And I was like ‘I know Felix! I’ll talk to him!’ So while she was busy doing something I took the phone to talk to Felix. But all I got was like grunts and he didn’t acknowledge I was there, even when I called his name.” He paused for a moment, trying to see if Changbin was still awake and paying attention to him. It wouldn’t be the first time the other fell asleep on Aiden while on the phone with him.

“Really? That seems so unFelix like.” His voice was softer, words slightly slurred but he could tell Changbin was trying to keep himself awake.

“I know. But he was moving a lot and I could swear that he was...” he trailed off, cheeks flushing at the thought of what he was about to say. Despite Changbin already knowing about his crush on the Australian, it was still embarrassing to admit he had a semi sexual dream about Felix.

“He was what?”

“Jacking off.”

“E-excuse me, what?!” Changbin sputtered and all evidence of sleepiness disappeared from his voice. “Wait, let me get this straight. You dreamt a family friend - who is clearly older than both of you - was talking to Felix and you wanted to talk to Felix, it he was ignoring you and now he was jacking off on the phone? Which in a weird roundabout way means he was jacking off for that friend. Am I understanding this correctly?” Changbin asked and god was this a time that Aiden hated the fact that Changbin knew him so well. He didn’t even need to connect the dots for Changbin to come to the same conclusion that he had when he first woke up and started thinking about the dream.

“Yeah.” A whisper that was borderline a sob because honestly it sounded so stupid. It was stupid. Why was he like this?

“Jesus Aiden, you are fucked.”

“Thanks.” There was no bite after that comment, though he wished their had been. Changbin’s laughter that filtered through the other end of the phone made his blood boil on slightly - he was mostly just absolutely mortified over his own damn brain.

“Sorry.” Changbin apologized and sighed softly. “Aiden, that’s a weird dream but don’t think too much about it. You’re a young guy with a healthy libido and a crush on a cute guy with the most adorable freckles that -“

“Changbin.”

“You get where I’m going. It’s natural to have dreams about your crush jacking off.” Changbin finished with a chuckle. “I bet that family friend was just your brain’s way of justifying why you were hearing Felix jacking off. You just weren’t ready to think of yourself in that position with him.”

“Changbin, I love you, but you’re crazy. There is absolutely no way Felix would be my baby boy. I’m a 100% uber bottom. I’m not out here trying to be a daddy.” Aiden snorted, joining Changbin in his laughter at the statement.

“You’re not wrong. But you still got those feelings. Or maybe you want him to call you baby boy.” Changbin teases.

“Fuck, more than anything.” Aiden whispered, eyes closing for a moment as he imagined those words falling from Felix’s lips - whispered in that deep honeysuckle voice that sent shivers down his spine anytime he heard it. Which was usually only during music class the music class he shared with Felix when the other had to sing for the teacher or right after playing one of the wind instruments their teacher loved to torture them with - the recorder specifically. Those two words directed at him as he lay beneath Felix, body pliant and willing.

“Good god you need to get laid.”

“I wish but the guy I want to fuck my brains out is barely my friend. Besides, I don’t even think he has sexual thoughts.”

“The majority of people in the world have sexual thoughts, Aiden.”

“Yeah well, we’re teenagers -“

“Teenage pregnancy.”

“Damn it Changbin! I’m trying to make a valid argument over why I can’t have Felix. Be a little supportive will you?” Aiden nearly growled out in frustration. Changbin’s laughter didn’t help the situation and he let out a loud, long growl. “I’m so fucked.” He grunted.

“And not by Felix.” Changbin jabbed.

“I really hate you.”

“Go to sleep lover boy. I’ll see you at school.” Changbin snickered, a yawn following and Aiden couldn’t stop his own yawn from taking over him.

“Mmm, okay. See you later Binnie.” He whispered as he rolled onto his side, getting comfortable on his bed. “Night.” The words came out mumbled as he was already drifting back to sleep, the late night phone call taking away the weird feelings he had. There was a soft hum of acknowledgement that flitted through Aiden’s subconscious and he could have swore he heard a “night, baby” as he finally fell asleep, phone nestled between his head and pillow.

#stray kids #fanfic #skz #stray kids fanfic #stray kids au #stray kids fanfic au #skz fanfic #skz au #skz fanfc au #au story #the firsts #felix x oc #changbin x oc #changbin x oc x felix #fluff #humor

[trylonandperisphere]

TATIANA MASLANY ON 'SLIPPERY' CHALLENGE OF SLIPPING BACK INTO CHARACTERS FOR ORPHAN BLACK REUNION

Tara Bennett

May 14, 2020

It’s been three years since BBC America’s Orphan Black ended its five-season run, but the Clone Club is still beloved and not forgotten. And that’s especially true for Tatiana Maslany and the cast of the series, so she’s reuniting the Clone Club on Sunday to use their seestra powers for good. 

In a turn of events we’re sure not even Cosima could have imagined, the global pandemic has created hardship for everyone, including those marginalized in the LGBTQ community. With that in mind, Maslany and the show’s cast and creators are welcoming fans to join them for a two-episode table reading that will be streamed on the official Orphan Black Facebook page Sunday, May 17 at 3:00 p.m. ET. 

Tatiana Maslany on rejoining the sestrahood with Orphan Black: The Next Chapter

WTF Moments: Orphan Black's Helena dances with a severed human tail, proving she's the best clone

“There’s definitely a feeling of what can we do to help, and also to be creative right now,” Tatiana Maslany told SYFY WIRE today about how the event came to fruition. “We were inspired by the Big Mouth, Parks and Rec, and the Queer as Folk casts getting back together to raise money for charity and to also create community. It felt like a no-brainer.”

Despite the cast residing all over the globe, Maslany says it wasn’t a big challenge to get everyone back together. “Everyone was gung-ho to do it and it was pretty easy to get it into motion when everyone said yes. We really valued our time on Orphan Black and valued the Clone Club and just wanted to do it.”

To read the Season 1 episodes “Variations Under Domestication” and “Parts Developed In An Unusual Manner,” Maslany will be joined by Maria Doyle Kennedy (Mrs. S), Jordan Gavaris (Felix), Kristian Bruun (Donnie), Kevin Hanchard (Detective Art Bell), Dylan Bruce (Paul), Evelyne Brochu (Dr. Delphine Cormier), Josh Vokey (Scott), Michael Mando (Vic), Inga Cadranel (Detective Angela DeAngelis), Eric Johnson (Chad Norris), Natalie Lisinska (Ainsley), Kathryn Alexandre, creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, executive producer Kerry Appleyard, writer Will Pascoe, and co-producer Mackenzie Donaldson. 

For how they settled on those two particular scripts, Maslany says, “It was tough to find one [episode] that was juicy for everyone, so doing two episodes was the only way to do it. 'Variations Under Domestication' was so fun and light, and highlighted the different dynamics of Donnie and Sarah. And Cosima and Delphine have a lot of budding relationship stuff that became beloved by the fans, and we wanted that to be highlighted. 'Parts Developed in An Unusual Manner' has gorier stuff and some beautiful stuff with Mrs. S and Art. So, it was all about a balance.”

And to add a little intrigue to the whole affair, Maslany also hints that there will be some surprises about just who will read what parts on Sunday. “I cast a few people in roles that they didn’t play in the show, so I’m really excited to see what they bring to it, and for the Clone Club to see them in parts that weren’t for them, so I hope they get a kick out of that.”

Maslany also asks for some patience from the fans because she admits slipping back into the skins of Sarah, Cosima, Alison, and Helena again was not just like riding a bike. “Even just looking at the scripts now and working through them in prep for Sunday is way harder,” she laughs. “The muscle memory has softened, but it’s fun to go, ‘Oh, right’ with the voices, or the accents. It’s all slippery but it will be fun for people to see where it falls off the rails here and there.”

While the streaming event is free, Maslany encourages fans to support the two charities they’ve selected all the proceeds go towards: CenterLink and Sistering.

“Our LGBTQ fanbase has always been so deeply important to us,” Maslany explains. “We realized really early on the show was striking a cord with LGBTQ youths and adults finding themselves and seeing themselves reflected back. It was eye-opening to feel that response, and how impactful it could be, and how important it was to people. We felt protective of the community and aware of them in our writing. So, getting to work with CenterLink, an organization that helps over 250 LGBTQ community centers around the world, is so important to us. They are disproportionately affected right now due to stigma or having to be isolated with family members who are unsupportive or even violent. There’s a loss of community which is so incredibly important to identity and feeling safe.”

She continues, “And then the other charity is a smaller charity in Toronto called Sistering. It’s a group that helps women and trans people across Toronto who are precariously housed or homeless. It’s also a community that is deeply impacted right now. Our show has always had feminist ties and we wanted to ally ourselves with a charity protecting women and trans people in this time.”

As for how she’s personally dealing with the lockdown, the actress admits it’s been a real challenge for a “deeply social person” like herself. “I’m missing that for sure. But what was so obvious to me when we were putting this together is the deep need for artists to create. And at the same time, I’ve held the opposite to be true and have felt deeply unmotivated to create because there’s so many other places your brain and your heart are trying to process and contend with. I think if you do feel that impulse, it’s wonderful to know that there are so many other people who want to get on a Zoom and read a play, or writing something with a friend at a distance, or whatever is available to us. But at the same time, I’ve had to let myself off the hook, when I feel completely disconnected from that. And that’s OK too, because we’re just surviving.

“By all accounts, I should be reading novel after novel right now, but I have no capacity for it,” Maslany says, laughing. “But the one thing I do feel connected to is dance classes. Ryan Heffington, who is the choreographer of Sia’s music video 'Chandelier' and The OA, has been doing these classes on his Instagram live three times a week. He’s a choreographer that most of us would never get to work with so it’s crazy to get to do his classes. And in L.A., I used to do Dance Church, which is Kate Wallich’s creation. She does two a week and it’s saving my life. I feel like there’s so much anxiety in our bodies, and you don’t want to have to talk, so it’s a great way to express. Also, both teachers allow for a lot of emotion in it. Get it out and whatever feeling is OK. It’s deeply connective.”

As the Clone Club knows, even when it’s a party of one, there’s never a bad time for a dance party…

#orphan black #tatiana maslany #she's a good egg #tmas #charity #table read #clone club #centerlink #sistering

[eboychangbin-blog]

Stray Kids as High School Students

High school AU - This is for a longer series I’ll be working on.

These are just my opinions.

Chan:

I personally feel like he’d be one of those stereotypical artsy kids. He’d probably get decent grades and do well in Art. I can see him in the library making some beats for his music or drawing. Big fan of TØP, 5SOS, and P!ATD. Really loving and soft on the inside but since he wears dark clothes and hangs out alone nobody really wants to chill and get to know his soft side. Best friends with Changbin and Jisung.

God Woojin:

I feel like he’s one of the friendly neutral students. He’s does good in all of his classes and has quite a few friends. Woojin would probably be one to help any younger students who need anything. He’d spend most of his time studying with friends or doing stuff with his family. He’d sing as a hobby and be a member of choir. Might get bullied for being affectionate but everyone would stand up for him. 🥺

Minho:

Minho would be pretty popular. He’s very polite and respectful so people would love that. I feel like he’s struggle in a few subjects but he’d be good in the rest. He’s in the school’s dance club and is the leader of it so... He’s willing to help anyone dance if they have passion. Probably has Micheal Jackson posters in his room. He spends lots of time dancing so that’s the main reason why he struggles with some subjects.

Changbin:

Binnie doesn’t really fit into any stereotype but I’d imagine him as being everyone’s hero. He’d be a goody two shoes and would get really good grades so he can make his parents proud. His hobby is rapping but his parents don’t support it so he hangs out with Chan and Jisung anyways because he’s an unbothered king. I feel like some people might mock Changbin because he’s a little smaller but like I said he’s unbothered. Probably pretty confident and treats his friends a lot since he has money.

Hyunjin:

Most popular. That’s all I have to say. He’s kind, attractive, tall, and talented. He’d be a 4.0 GPA student because he wants to be successful. Most of the girls always follow him around but I doubt he’s even thinking of them. He’s a new member of the dance crew so he’s constantly wondering if he’s made a mistake or what he can do to improve. He’s really friendly and really open so he has lots of friends. His parents are also very supportive of his passions and support him to death.

Jisung:

He’d be one of the cool kids. He’s best friends with Chan and Changbin so they’re “the boys.” He’s probably failing a class of two but that’s only because he’s constantly busy and has no time to study or do homework. He’s really funny and adorable so he has a few friends but he’s never leave Changbin or Chan behind. His hobby is rapping and producing like the other “boys.”

Felix:

The meme boy. 😳 He literally plays fortnite so we already knows he has the soul of a 12 year old boy. He probably gets okay grades and has five or six friends. He sends memes to everyone. He even sends memes to his teachers and gets along with them well. He loves playing video games and having fun with friends.

Seungmin:

Dandy boy will do the best in school. He goes home and studies. He’s at the library and studies. He’s at a friends house and studies. He’s always trying to keep an 4.2 GPA. He’s class president and he’s friends with few people. But that’s because he’s always studying. He has a passion for singing. Day6 fan club leader.

Jeongin:

Jeongin seems like a nervous student. He likes school because he can see his friends but everyone babies him and he isn’t a big fan of it. He does fairly well despite never studying. He loves to sing trot and play video games with Felix. He’d be in choir and he’d be one to get solos at performances along with Woojin.

#kpop #stray kids #stray kids reactions #stray kids fluff #stray kids scenarios #bangchan #chan #kim woojin #woojin #lee know #lee minho #hwang hyunjin #hyunjin #seo changbin #changbin #jisung #han jisung #felix #felix lee #lee felix #seungmin #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #i.n

[cheeseeatingtrashmonster]

Home

Nelix week day 2: Home

Read the whole month on AO3

Family

“Where's Adrien?”

Those were the two words Nino said to Felix most often. He considered it a standard greeting these days.

“Left early.” Felix reached in his bag for the book he was reading only to remember for the twelfth time that day that he had forgotten it at home. He had resorted to doodling in between his notes during classes without the distraction of his current novel. He sighed in irritation and Nino crossed his arms. Oops. Offended the Nice Kid again. Nino probably thought Felix was sighing at him. Oh well. He was pretty sure Nino's opinion of him was already set in stone.

“We might as well walk together,” Nino said.

Gabriel had lightened his choke hold on the twin's freedom and they were allowed to walk home a few times a week. Nino's house was past theirs by a few blocks, and it wasn't the most direct route for Nino, but Nino and Adrien would take any time they could get together.

"Of course," Felix said. They headed for the door in silence. It was a sunny, early spring day with a bit too much wind to be comfortable, but a nice day all the same.

"I've gotta say, part of why I said we should walk together is because I thought you'd try to read while walking and accidentally step into traffic or fall down an uncovered sewer access hole," Nino said after a couple blocks. "Where's the book?"

"I forgot it at home," he said. "I've been in an awful mood all day because of it." He glanced at Nino and jumped in before he could say anything. "Don't say 'I couldn't tell', it's beneath you."

"I was going to say that I could tell," Nino said with a smirk, glancing from the crosswalk signal to Felix for just a moment before returning his attention to the signal.

"That's fair."

A block later, Nino asked, "Was it just the book? I mean, like I said, I could tell something was off, so I figured it was bigger than that. So I was just... wondering..."

"It doesn't matter," Felix said. "The book was the straw that broke the camel's back."

They reached the mansion and Nino kept walking, giving a quick goodbye and a wave. Felix looked up at the cold iron gates and made a split second decision. He caught up to Nino and kept walking.

"Uh, where you going, dude?" Nino asked when Felix appeared at his side again.

"Errands."

"There's nothing this way," Nino said. It was a residential area.

"Tutoring."

"Okay, now I know you're lying," Nino said, coming to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. "What's up?"

"Nothing. We just happen to be going in the same direction. It's not a big deal. I can wait a few moments, give you a head start if walking and talking at the same time is too much for you." Felix was aware that he got mean when defensive, but he hadn't found a way to make it stop yet.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Nino said, crossing his arms. "Something's up with you, has been all day. Just spill."

"Why do you care?"

"Because that's what normal people do? If me caring is that uncool to you, hurry up and tell me what's wrong and I'll be on my way."

Felix rolled his eyes and kept walking down the street, leaving Nino behind. He wasn't sure what his goal was in doing so, seeing as Nino had to head the same way to get to his house, but again, he made a decision and stuck to it.

"You have until I reach my house to tell me what's wrong," Nino said. He had grown a few inches taller than Felix and had less trouble catching up to Felix than Felix had had catching up to Nino a minute before.

"And then what?”

"And then I get annoyed that we walked all that way and you said nothing."

They were quiet a few minutes more until Felix blurted out, “Have you ever had a miserable time, like stuck at school with a cold and the teacher won’t let you call your parents, or traveling to visit relatives you hate and you have a headache from your little cousins screaming? And you’re tired and your thoughts are jumbled, but in all that mess, you have one clear thought, ‘I just want to go home’?”

Nino glanced at Felix out of the corner of his eye. He had hunched in on himself and pulled his sleeves further down his hands, eyes down on the sidewalk. The grimace on his face made Nino think that maybe Felix hadn’t meant to speak at all.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think everyone’s felt that way before.” He didn’t ask what that had to do with Felix following him. He was worried that being too direct would spook Felix.

“Have you ever felt that while in your own house?”

Nino shook his head. “I haven’t.”

“All I want is to go home,” Felix said. “But that place isn’t home. Especially since Adrien’s gone until tomorrow.”

“So you’re wandering the streets of Paris instead?”

“I figured I’d walk around a little, find a cafe, get homework done…”

Nino stopped in front of his house and looked Felix over again. Felix was telling the truth, but there was something he was leaving out. It took a minute, but it finally clicked for Nino. Felix wasn’t just wandering at random. He could have gone in the other direction, crossed the street, stopped in and grabbed that book he left home. Instead, Felix had followed him. He was lonely.

"C'mon, dude," he said, grabbing Felix's wrist and tugging him up the steps to the front door. "It's not your home, but I'm sure a home cooked meal will get that feeling to calm down some."

"Technically, all my meals at home are home cooked by a chef," Felix said, putting up very little resistance as he was dragged into the house and directed on where to put his shoes.

"Yeah, not the same," Nino said. "Mom?" he called down the hall. "I brought Felix home. We're gonna do homework and then we'll help with dinner when you start it."

"And what makes you think I'll let you choose everything we do?" Felix asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you like to play video games or watch reality TV?" Nino snarked as he pulled Felix to the couch.

"While I'm here, I was hoping, if you want, that you could show me some of the music you're working on."

"Uh, yeah," Nino said. He couldn't be more surprised if Felix had admitted to liking bad horror movies. "Yeah, we can do that."

A few hours later, Nino found out that Felix did not, in fact, like bad horror movies, but he was a fan of spy movies and the occasional rom-com. They put on a classic Bond-style action movie and worked on their homework until Nathalie called Felix demanding to know where he had been all day. A car was sent for him and the boys waited for it on the porch.

"Thank you," Felix said. "I had a nice time."

"Any time," Nino said. "Seriously, you heard my mom at dinner, she loves when I bring people home to compliment her food."

When Felix entered his room that night, he wasn't sure if it was better or worse that his feeling of "I want to go home" now came with a clear place, and a face to represent that feeling of "home".

#nelix week #mlshipfleet #miraculous ladybug #nino lahiffe #felix agreste #nelix #my writing #events

[palecolorbouquetmag-blog]

Cosmo Pyke is a skater from South London who’s become known around the world for his unique singing, songwriting and guitar music. His unique sound made such a big noise it was heard by millions of people and many of them quickly became his fans. But in conversation you discover his passion for his music is as strong as his love for skateboarding and making art. Skating and playing the guitar gripped him from a young age and he picked up both naturally. But it wasn’t just his talent to string together well written songs and lines on his board that helped him to be the artist he is today. It’s also the excitement he gets from expressing his thoughts and ideas through them that stokes him out. Inspired to push for perfection with his pursuits and through taking his skills in a creative direction, he was further motivated to make art and his music career moved forward. Cosmo has been a No Comply Network member since the start and to see his meteoric rise as a musician has been immense. Four years since he released his impactful first EP and a week before the release of his latest offering, we had a chat about how he learned to skate and play guitar, shredding South Norwood, Peckham Rye and Bromley Skateparks, Ben Glasser and Max Critchlow, seeing US pros at demos, BRIT School, WITH Section, Slam City Skates, Southbank, street skating, making graff, recording his breakout EP ‘Just Cosmo’ with Fraser T Smith in the same studio as Stormzy, behind-the-scenes stories of all of his music videos, playing the last ever show at The Montague Arms with King Krule, filming ideal skate clips in Birmingham and Barcelona, playing live gigs, why his latest single Piper for Janet is one of his most meaningful to date, making tunes in Lockdown, the release timeline of his new tracks and his favourite skaters, spots, skate videos, art and photos and much more.

Glad to get a hold of you man, it’s been a while!

Yeah, it’s good because I’m releasing my first tune in a while in six days. It’s really good timing, we’re getting to chat now.

So when did you first see skating and think, I want to do that?

I used to skate when I was younger, maybe when I was about 7 years old.

That’s young, where did you get your first skateboard?

I got my first board from Brixton Cycles, which was next to Stockwell Skatepark at the time. I used to skate Peckham Skatepark. But not too much. I was always going to Stockwell and Kennington Bowl with my mate when I was really small. But then I stopped skating and started rollerblading…

Why on earth did you stop skateboarding to rollerblade?

It was my mate that I mentioned earlier. His older brother used to skate in my area and he was like a bit of a king in the graffiti scene. We always used his skates, everybody learned on his skates. We used to rollerblade at Whites Grounds, the skatepark in London Bridge, when Reuben De Haan’s cousin used to run it.

What year was this, 2005-2006?

Yeah.

So you started skating at age 7, stopped for a few years and started again. What motivated you to get back on board?

Yeah when I was 12, in year 7, Louie Dobbs, my boy he got me on it. We used to skate with Max Critchlow as well.

Yeah the day I started skating again I was at Bay 66 Skatepark, on the mini, on blades, with a party of people and at Bay you had to wear a helmet if you’re on blades but not if you’re on a board, it’s still like that. So at the time I was like fuck this!

I tried to drop in on the mini on a board and I was like look, I put my Vans on and went for the drop in on a skateboard and just did it! Dropped in first try on the mini and I was like fuck this! I’m skating from now on. I could always ride into the bank in Peckham but I’d actually never dropped in on a skateboard up to this point.

When was the first time you made your own music?

Well it was from about the age of about 9-10, maybe 11-10. I went to this thing called School of Rock at the Prendergast School in South London. It was called Felix’s School of Rock – run by this guy called Felix. You get put into a band, it was sick. In the holidays you’d do it for 4 days for a £100.

Like a kind of music boot camp for kids?

Yeah. Max Critchlow used to do it so it was really cool. It was sick. We weren’t allowed to bring skateboards and skate in the hall because they were scared we’d break our necks it was funny man.

How did it work?

You’d’ get put in a band with a Jack Black kind of figure and then on the fourth day there would be a battle of the bands type event and you’d do a gig on the stage. There would be like 90 bands, all just like loads of small kids playing  and the winner at the end wins chocolate, whoever screams the loudest wins basically!

Sounds hilarious man

From there, I was put on the stage, those were my first shows and gigs as a kid, just playing guitar, not even singing really, I did that School of Rock like nine times over the course of the next 5 years over the holidays and shit. Then I moved from Prendergast to Thomas Tallis School and then I started working there when I got to the age of like 18.

At the School of Rock?

Yeah, my first gig was there! Playing gigs, I was really scared before I got on stage as well. Because I cared a lot about what I was doing from such a young age. Cared about how I did.

Once you’d finished school and were looking to go to College, were you making music a lot or skating a lot?

I kind of wasn’t even doing anything religiously. Skate one day. Music the next day. Day after that do some graffiti. Never do one thing; I’ve always been juggling three things at a time. Going to school and school was just…school, you know?

For sure. What was it like studying at the Brit School?

It was really cool, I loved it, I was so happy really. I wasn’t at my rubbish school I was at previously. It had a uniform. This had no uniform and liberal teachers.

That’s dope

Yeah BRIT was crazy. It was like Uni as a 15 year old, no school bell, just like be on time.

So it made you be more independent

I didn’t go to Uni. I went to Sixth Form and then just finished school,  recorded my tape when I was in year 13, towards the end of my school, so it all patterned up well. When I finished school. I was touring all around London, South, West, East and North. In all the pubs.

I guess you made such a big impact; you were waiting to make something on that level or better

The way that I do Graff is the same way I do music. My friend even told me the other day. My songs are like the same way I do a piece or skate, just perfected and something I’ve been doing for a long time, so they are all really similar for me.So what stopped you from releasing those other songs?

I went up to Leeds and recorded with this guy, stayed with him there and recorded in his house. It just felt like the act of making music felt forced. I felt mad going up to Leeds sleeping in an Air BnB and focusing solely on just making music. Now I could do it a lot more but at the time I didn’t have the concentration.

Now I know a lot more but then I wasn’t ready. I made some good stuff and I really like it now and at the time I kinda like it as well but I kind of didn’t want to release it because it wasn’t the same process as the first record that I made with a big old studio with live musicians. This was just me on my own with no drummer, my mate, my drummer wasn’t there, it didn’t feel natural.

I tried to do some other stuff, that will come out in the future that I will re-record but I did stuff that I wasn’t 100% happy but this record I’m putting out now. This latest record, I recorded the way I’d done the first one with all live instruments.

Sounds like you needed some inspiration on this one. What music inspires you as an artist?

At the time I was coming up with loads of bands that played in the Montague Arms in New Cross and The Windmill in Brixton. There were loads of bands playing there at the time

Like who?

Horsey, my cousin’s band a cover band called The Bodies and King Krule.

You and King Krule played the last ever show at the Montague Arms in New Cross, what do you remember from that gig?

Yeah, there was a queue down the fucking road. The first person I saw in the queue was King Krule. I was like what the fuck!? why are people coming to see me. I never really had confidence in myself but you know! Yeah that was the first time I experienced people acting weird man, from those days at the Montague.

Yeah, when you get fame people treat you differently. But what was it like for you?

I learned my social skills from skating so I was always just completely…When you do my line of work, you meet a lot of fans. So it’s like when you meet someone and you’re a fan of their skating, it’s just about being nice to people and it was nice at the time and I miss playing.

The last gig I played was in Jakarta and I haven’t played since then. I’ve been dormant for 2 years. It’s such a long time but you know due to Lockdown it’s just extended that really.

Do you have a favourite artist?

Matthew Klarwein.  He did Miles Davis’ album cover artworks and then I really like Peter Green too; he’s a musician from Fleetwood Mac.

I also like John Piper, he’s the artist who’s art I’m basing this next record I’m about to release on. It’s called a Piper for Janet because my granny’s friend drew a John Piper style painting for her, he used a lot of watercolour and collage so the front cover of this record is based on him and he’s a British Painter. John Piper, he’s pretty cool

I like Edward Ruscha; he’s a photographer but he did a lot of stuff like taking photos of carparks and gas station in LA and Route 66 from specific perspectives back in the 60s and stuff like that.

Dope. Lastly when are all your new songs going to be released?

Next couple of months; they should all be out in January

Sounds good, look forward to it. Any last words Cosmo?

For anybody who’s out there reading this thanks for supporting me.

[lunapaper]

The year was 2010. Emo was just starting to die out (long live the scene). I was studying to become a secondary school teacher, and Katy Perry was shooting whipped cream out of her boobs...

Second albums, more often than not, fail to live up to the hype. And yet, Teenage Dream has somehow endured.

While Perry’s 2008 debut, One of the Boys, launched her into the mainstream, it really hasn’t aged all that well. On tracks like ‘Self Inflicted’ and ‘Fingerprints,’ she tries way too hard to emulate Paramore’s bold pop punk. On others, she attempts to rebel against her gospel roots by turning the bawdiness up to 10.

It can also come off pretty juvenile at times. The singer was almost 25 when she sang on the title track: ‘So over the summer, something changed/I started reading Seventeen and shaving my legs/And I studied Lolita religiously/And I walked right in to school and caught you staring at me.’

But let’s be honest: Even though it’s been declared ~problematic~, you still jam out to ‘I Kissed A Girl’ when you hear it, don’t you? I hadn’t listened to ‘Ur So Gay’ before this, either, but its slinky, jazz-infused vibe absolutely slaps.

Like Teenage Dream is also a product of its time, presenting pop at its most sugary, hook-laden and bombastic. It managed to spawn 5 No.1 singles, the second album in history to do so after Michael Jackson’s Bad, as well as a documentary, Part of Me. There’s even a deluxe edition, cleverly titled The Complete Confection. It was Perry at her peak.

You know the title track, of course. Evoking images of cherry red lipstick, tight denim and driving down an empty highway in summer, Perry desperately clings to the memory of young love, breathlessly pleading ‘don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.’

‘The One That Got Away,’ meanwhile, is its bittersweet sequel, Perry's lovesick nostalgia now tinged with regret. Yet, the only thing I really remember about the song is the video starring Cassian Andor himself, Diego Luna, as Perry’s past love, the beautifully dishevelled and tortured artist of my dreams (Dear God, that penetrating stare...) He’s also the only reason why anyone bothered to watch Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, if it wasn’t already obvious.

First single ‘California Gurls,’ on the other hand, is pure pop exuberance at its most campy and carefree, indicative of a more innocent time when it wasn’t driven by algorithms or social media. ‘Firework’ is still a go-to empowerment anthem for just about every kind of montage imaginable. ‘ET’ (featuring a pre-’presidential’ Kanye) is heavily-synthesised cyber pop that doesn’t get nearly enough love.

But Teenage Dream, in retrospect, has quite a few misses. ‘Peacock’ is just one big, long, glitchy dick joke. ‘Not Like The Movies’ is big ballad schmaltz. The brassy soft rock of ‘Hummingbird Heartbeat,’ meanwhile, opens with a hell of a line: ‘You make me feel like I'm losing my virginity/The first time, every time when you're touching me.’ And I’m pretty sure ‘What Am I Living For?’ is partly plagiarised from Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love.’ Even Pitchfork awarded Teenage Dream a rather tame 6.8 in their recent retrospective review.

By the time Perry released Prism in 2013 – her ‘darker, moodier’ record - she had shifted further into ‘inspirational anthems.’ There was the inescapable mega-hit ‘Roar,’ the saccharine power ballad ‘Unconditionally’ and the Eastern-tinged ‘Legendary Lovers,’ complete with wellness and spiritual motifs.

But it wasn’t without its bangers: ‘Dark Horse’ (featuring Juicy J) jumped onto the trap pop bandwagon just in time with its subterranean bass and eerie, otherworldly synths. Even the slick, 90s-indebted ‘This Is How We Do’ has a certain charm.

Prism also marked the point where Perry’s invincibility began to wear off. Where the masses once lapped up her candy-coated antics, they were now calling her out for wearing braids in the video for ‘This Is How We Do’ and dressing up as a geisha during a performance at the American Music Awards.

And they would only get louder during her era of ‘purposeful pop.’ Released in the aftermath of the 2016 US election, Witness was meant to cement Perry as ‘Artist. Activist. Conscious’ - as her Twitter bio read at the time. She had joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. On Instagram, she was quoting the likes of Socrates and Plato. She was Woke now, and she was telling anyone who’d listen.

Yet you’d be hard pressed to find much trace of this ‘purposeful pop’ on Witness, bar the first single, ‘Chained to the Rhythm.’ Written with Sia and Max Martin, the singer implores listeners to ‘put your rose-coloured glasses on and party on’ amid whirling, colourful synths.

The rest of the record, however, is made up of either soppy, overly sentimental ballads (‘Save As Draft,’ ‘Pendulum,’ ‘Into Me You See’), awkward lyrical turns and CHVRCHES/Purity Ring knock-offs (‘Hey Hey Hey,’ ‘Roulette,’ ‘Deja Vu’).

Funnily enough, Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick produced some of Witness’ better tracks: ‘Mind Maze’ and the soaring ballad ‘Miss You More, along with ‘Bigger Than Me.’

Final track ‘Act My Age,’ meanwhile, feels like a pre-emptive strike against the criticism Witness would inevitably receive (‘They say that I might lose my Midas touch/They also say I may become irrelevant/But who the fuck are they anyway?’).

Then there’s the godawful ‘Bon Appetit’ (featuring Migos) with its food-related double entendres. It was ‘Yummy’ before ‘Yummy’ existed. Seriously, I just wanna see Orlando Bloom say he likes this song with a straight face...

But I will still defend ‘Swish Swish’ to the death. Do the lyrics suck? Yeah, but Perry’s never been the strongest lyricist. But its pulsing 90s house beat does a lot of the heavy lifting, along with Nicki Minaj’s spitfire verse.

The promotional rollout for Witness, meanwhile, proved just as messy. Among the most infamous was a 72-hour livestream, where voyeurs got to witness Perry sleep, meditate, do yoga and welcome a random assortment of guests, including Gordon Ramsey and activist DeRay McKesson. Then there was the meme-laden video for ‘Swish Swish. She literally served herself up on a platter in the clip for ‘Bon Appetit.’ She tried reigniting her feud with Taylor Swift on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. Needless to say, it reeked of desperation.

Looking back, though, you can’t help but feel a little bad for Perry, trying so hard to please only for it to blow up spectacularly in her face. So devastated, it sent her to the Hoffman Institute, which offers an abridged version of therapy. As she later told the Guardian:

‘I think the universe was like, ‘OK, all right, let’s have some humble pie here […] My negative thoughts were not great. They didn’t want to plan for a future. I also felt like I could control it by saying, ‘I’ll have the last word if I hurt myself or do something stupid and I’ll show you’ — but really, who was I showing?’

But although Witness lacked the perkiness of Teenage Dream or the cartoonish charm of One of the Boys, it shines best on its darker moments.

‘Dance With The Devil’ has the kind of smoky allure that wouldn’t look too out of place on a BANKS album, while ‘Power’ is a revelation. Produced by Jack Garrett, what could’ve been yet another dull empowerment ballad is turned into a gritty, groaning slab of vaporwave pop, with sultry sax riffs that sample, of all things, Smokey Robinson’s ‘Being With You.’ It’s electric as fuck. You believe it when Perry sings: ‘’Cause I'm a goddess and you know it/Some respect, you better show it/I'm done with you siphoning my power.’

If the singer had just done away with the whole ‘purposeful pop’ concept and stuck with Garrett, Roddick and Terror Jr’s Felix Snow as her core producing group, Witness probably wouldn’t have been half the failure it was. It could’ve had a chance to grow on people, the kind of slow burn Perry could’ve gotten away with at this point in her career. The cyberpop dystopian feel also could’ve gone hand in hand with her newfound wokeness, echoing people’s fear and anger in the aftermath of Trump’s win. But alas, we’ll never know...

While the rollout for Witness over the top, Smile’s was lacklustre and wildly inconsistent.

First single ‘Never Really Over’ came out a whole 15 months before the release of Smile to little fanfare, along with a hippie-inspired video to match. ‘Harleys in Hawaii’ later followed, which also stuck with the flower power aesthetic. Other singles - ‘Daisies’ and the title track – seemingly came and went without a trace.

So how did Katy Perry get to this point? And is there any chance of coming back?

It’s hard to say. A lot of artists go through a rough patch or two:   Miley's twerking antics divided audiences when she released 2013’s Bangerz. Taylor Swift’s reputation divided audiences. Only in recent years has Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP been vindicated. Such is the nature of music and pop culture in general. It’s fickle, just one vicious cycle after another; an endless quest for trend-bait that'll never end.

Right now, disco pop is going through a renaissance, while hyperpop reigns supreme. Dua Lip and Charli XCX are basically untouchable at the moment. TikTok has taken over from Top 40 radio when it comes to breaking hits, while the gap between album releases has also grown shorter and shorter. Even the nature of fandom has changed, shifting from old-school elitism to the bloodsport that is ‘stanning,’ along with an unhealthy amount of ‘endless simping’ (to quote a close friend of mine).

Perry, meanwhile, has failed to keep up, choosing to play it safe in order to avoid further scrutiny. But in doing so, she strips away the humour, the mischief and other idiosyncrasies that fans fell in love with in the first place.

But what choice did she have? As Junkee’s Sam Murphy notes in his own piece about Perry’s rise and fall:

‘At that point, you have two choices as a popstar — hunt for relevancy or make what comes naturally to you. Perry chose the former and came unstuck. She inserted vague wokeness into her songs as cancel culture infiltrated pop, tacked on rap features as hip-hop became the dominant commercial genre, and worked with producers who may have been able to find her credibility.’

(Full disclosure: I started writing my piece on Perry back in December 2020, so the timing of Murphy’s piece and mine is purely coincidental).

Even if you don’t believe in cancel culture, no one actually wants to be cancelled. It’s just not good for PR, especially for someone with an image as glossy and as carefully put-together as Perry’s. Even now, she continues to atone for Witness, telling the LA Times: ‘Having more awareness and consciousness, I no longer can just be a blissful, ignorant idealist who sings about love and relationships […] Even my travels have afforded me a new perspective on cultures, class systems and the inequality around the world, not just in the United States,’ though she carefully avoids the subject of politics on Smile.

But redemption is possible. Swift – Perry's one-time nemesis - was a total pariah back in 2016, mocked for her Girl Squad, for diddling the Hiddles while on the rebound from Calvin Harris and criticised for remaining coy on her political leanings. Now she’s earning indie cred with two of 2020’s biggest albums, folklore and evermore, and has thrown her support behind a number of social causes.

The devil works hard, but Swift’s PR team work harder. I might not be her biggest fan, but Taylor works Kris Jenner levels of mastery when it comes to rebuilding public sentiment. Thanks to her newfound indie cred, you’ve almost forgotten about the pastel atrocity ‘Me!,’ her 2019 duet with that insufferable drama kid cliché, Brendon Urie. Shifting her songs away from petty grievances to more original storytelling was also a smart move.

But while Swift has managed to move on, Perry seems to have fallen into the same adult contemporary trap as Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and Pink, one that ensnares many female artists over 30 (Though many have also managed to escape – Gaga, Taylor, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kesha, Robyn...)

As ‘woke’ as the industry and fans at large might think themselves to be, they’re still pretty ageist. There's still an expectation to ‘mature’ your sound as you age, to become more ‘serious.’ No more fun, no more experimenting, boomer. But when you do end up filing away the edges, you’re called dull, generic and past your prime. Perry said as much on the aforementioned ‘Act My Age. You just. can't. win.

And yet, many female artists over 30 have created some of their best work yet in just the past year or so: Hayley Williams made the dramatic shift from pop rock to low-key, Radiohead-inspired tunes on her solo debut, Petals For Armor. Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters was hailed by critics as her most bold, urgent and visceral. Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? was a cut of understated disco pop elegance. Carly Rae Jepsen, meanwhile, released an equally stellar companion to 2019’s Dedicated.

At this point in her career, Perry could afford to follow a similar path to that of the Canadian singer. Once the meme value of ‘Call Me Maybe’ wore off, along with her mainstream appeal, Jepsen finally had a chance to discover real creative freedom, pushing her sound to greater heights and earning critical acclaim, all without having to compromise her love for catchy hooks and bold synth pop arrangements.

A couple of years ago, a Reddit user made a post about participating in a focus group held by Perry’s label to discuss why she’s ‘no longer one of the[ir] most notable female pop artists,’ and ‘what can [they] do with her image or marketing to make you care about her again?’

It’s depressing to think that an artist as accomplished as her needs a focus group to help solve her identity crisis. There really is no easy answer. Hopefully, Perry will be able to return more vibrant and assured than ever, on her own terms...

-Bianca B.

#music #katy perry #longform #opinion #new #Bianca B

[smarterhomemy]

7 Essential Gadgets for New Normal

The pandemic has been with us for more than a year and we are still fighting an uphill battle against the virus. Even though there is a glimpse of hope with the latest development on the vaccine, it is still not a sure thing. There are still chances the vaccination will not achieve the desired result due to mutation on the virus, the effectiveness of the vaccine itself, or simply due to low acceptance because of doubt or fear among the general public. Therefore, it is better to accept that New Normal will continue to be part of our life for some foreseeable future. The good news is I have compiled a list of gadgets that will certainly help you adapt to New Normal easier and hopefully make it more enjoyable for everyone.

1. Facebook Portal TV

Due to school closure and work from home order, video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet became indispensable. While many users rely on their smartphones, the experience can improve drastically if it is done on a bigger screen. Facebook Portal TV (Lazada, Shopee) allows you to do just that. Simply attach it to your existing TV and your virtual meeting/classroom will never be the same. It works independently from your phone, freeing your phone for other more important stuff. With a bigger screen, not only you can see more participants on the same screen, you will be sitting further from the device itself thus, participants can view more of you with the whole meeting room or if you are a teacher, the whole whiteboard. It also has some cool features like the camera can keep you in the frame even when you are moving around the room, enhances your voice while minimizing unwanted background noise, built-in Alexa, and comes with entertainment apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, and Pandora. It also has some cool AR effects to help you entertain your children even when you are far apart.

Video conferencing with Facebook Portal TV

While Facebook Portal TV sounds like the best option for virtual meeting/classroom, but it is designed to be used in a fixed location such as in the living room or a meeting room (for a company). If you prefer something more portable and yet bigger screen than your phone’s screen, tablets like the inexpensive Amazon Fire HD 8 tablets (Lazada, Shopee) may be more suitable for you. Other than using it for virtual meeting/classroom, it is perfect as a media consumption device. You can use it to watch your favorite movies or TV shows via apps such as Netflix and Youtube, play tons of free games, listen to music, or even browse the Internet. If you worry the kids spend too much time on the tablet, you can make use of the parental control feature.

3. Noise Cancelling Headphones

To be honest, not every home is ideal for the work-from-home concept especially when you have younger children. All the noises from children playing, TV and kitchen can be distracting. That’s why noise-canceling headphones can help you to concentrate better and be more productive at work. Headphones like Wyze Headphones (Lazada, Shopee) and VANKYO C751 Headphones (Lazada, Shopee) are comfortable to wear for long hours thanks to the soft memory foam, lightweight design, wireless connection, and long battery hour. Wyze Headphones even allows you to play songs using Alexa without the need to use your phone and you can engage in a conversation or listening to the outside world conveniently by covering the right earcup with your palm without taking off the headphones.

Noise Cancellation headphones increase productivity while working from home (Credit: Wyze.com)

4. Multimedia Projector

There is nothing more blissful than watching your favorite blockbuster in a cinema after a hard day at work. Unfortunately going to the cinema is no longer an option during the pandemic because it is categorized as one of the high-risk places to contract the COVID-19 virus. The good news is the prices of Full HD multimedia projectors have dropped significantly over the years. So instead of putting yourself and your family members at risk by going to the cinema, you can simply bring the cinema home! A projector like ARMax M19 (Lazada, Shopee) can ideally project up to a 120″ screen and only cost a tiny fraction of a TV with comparable size. The picture quality, color reproduction, brightness, and contrast ratio are so good, making it watching movies on this projector extremely satisfying. If you get the Android version, you can simply enjoy it right away without the need for an external source. It also has a built-in speaker that is loud enough for general usage.

Deserted cinema during the pandemic. Photo by Felix Mooneeram on Unsplash

Another projector you can consider especially if you are on a tight budget is Cheerlux C9 projector. In my opinion, Cheerlux C9 is the best budget HD projector. At around half the price of ARMax M19, you will get almost everything the same as M19 with only a little bit of sacrifice on the native resolution and picture quality.

5. Streaming Media Player

The built-in Android OS in the ARMax M-19 projector is sufficient for most people. However, if the projector is not the smart version or if you want to use a specific ecosystem like Amazon or Roku, you can plug in the desired media player into the available HDMI port. These players are meant to stream contents from the Internet to your home so that you don’t have to go out and purchase a physical disk like DVD or Blu-Ray and expose yourself to COVID-19 infection. Even if you don’t have a fast Internet connection, you still can use it to play games or media locally.

If you are an Alexa or Amazon user, you can consider the popular Fire TV media players like the inexpensive Fire TV Stick (Lazada, Shopee) or Fire TV Stick Lite (Lazada, Shopee) or the more capable Fire TV Stick 4K (Lazada, Shopee) or Fire TV Cube (Lazada, Shopee). Fire TV devices are based on Android. That means if the apps that you want is not listed in the Amazon App Store, you still can sideload the app using the app’s APK file. It works most of the time. If it doesn’t work, that’s mean the app is incompatible with the device.

Another popular choice is Roku and it comes in a few flavors namely; Roku Express HD (Lazada, Shopee), Roku Premiere (Lazada, Shopee), Roku Streaming Stick+ (Lazada, Shopee), and Roku Ultra (Lazada, Shopee). You can choose any of these players depending on your needs and budget. Please refer to the comparison chart between all the Roku players. No matter what flavor you choose, you will surely enjoy the simple and straight forward interface.

Roku Players Comparison Table (Credit: Amazon.com)

If you are looking for the ultimate streaming media player, look no further than NVIDIA Shield Android TV Pro (Lazada, Shopee). Powered by the new NVIDIA Tegra X1+ chip and 3GB RAM, it delivers outstanding picture quality at 4K resolution, immersive Dolby Atmos audio, and play the most demanding games without breaking a sweat. There are many cool features packed into this player like Plex server, Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band AC Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, a really cool remote control with backlit button, voice control, Bluetooth, and lost remote locator, built-in Google Assistant, and Chromecast 4K. If you think this is overkill and you don’t really need so much storage or RAM and you don’t need any USB ports and Plex server, you can just get the cheaper the non-pro NVIDIA Shield Android TV (Lazada, Shopee) streaming media player.

6. Reusable Face Mask

You cannot just stay at home all the time. You still need to leave the safety of your home to buy food, groceries, and to get some fresh air to keep your mind and body healthy. For times like this, you need to practice proper safety measures like wearing a mask. However, the major problem with the disposable mask is that it creates waste and it’s becoming a serious problem to the environment. That’s why reusable masks like Xiaomi Smartmi Face Mask (Lazada, Shopee) and Xiaomi Purely Electric Mask (Lazada, Shopee) are recommended.

Xiaomi Purely Reusable Electric Fresh Air Mask

For Xiaomi Smartmi Face Mask, you can wear it for a few weeks and wash it in between before you change to a new one. It comes in 3 sizes with size S for kids, size M for women, and size L for men. The more advanced Xiaomi Purely Electric Mask comes with a battery-powered fan with 3 speeds. The battery is rechargeable and once it’s fully charged, it can be used for 4 to 8 hours. The fan unit can be removed so that you can wash the outer fabric and to replace the Xiaomi Purely Mask Filters (Lazada, Shopee).

7. Hair Clipper

Cutting hair at home to ensure safety of family members.

Other than cinema, hair salon or barbershop is another industry badly affected by the pandemic. Due to close proximity between the barber and the customer, the barbershop is also classified as one of the high-risk places for COVID-19 infection. Therefore, all barbershops are not allowed to operate during the MCO. Therefore the only way to cut your hair is to cut it yourself at home. Thankfully, cutting your own hair at home is quite simple with the help of hair clippers like Xiaomi Enchen Boost (Lazada, Shopee), Enchen Hummingbird (Lazada, Shopee), or Enchen Sharp3S (Lazada, Shopee). Here are a comparison table and review video to help you decide on which model is best suited for you.

Xiaomi Enchen Boost vs. Enchen Hummingbird

Xiaomi Enchen Sharp3S, is it better than Boost or Hummingbird?

You may refer to tutorials on Youtube on how to cut your own hair with these hair clippers or you can simply go bald. Remember, the goal here is to stay safe while remain comfortable at home. Since you will be stuck at home most of the time, nobody will know even if you mess up your haircut. Even if you did messed up your hair, don’t be sad because hair can grow back.

Conclusion

There you have it, 7 essential gadgets to help you get through New Normal. I hope you will find my recommendations useful and ease your struggle during these trying times. Until we beat the pandemic, I wish everyone stay safe and healthy. Together, we can beat it!

#newnormal #essential goods #covid-19

[news-sein]