#every time i look closer into l's lyrics i see more depth

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

perfect now - a close reading

only pure and true love for this one. it’s soft and sweet because the one he wrote it for is and needs cheesy uncool romcom soundtrack-worthy affirmations and it’s the most wonderful thing oh my the flurries 

some album booklet art for your viewing pleasure

((just a warning for below: while the lyric analysis was kept fairly neutral and close to the words and their meaning, more and more parallels did ensure me larrying out by the time the analysis kicked off so if you’re not into that, you can skip this one!))

⟼ check out @bluewinnerangel​ ‘s magnificent post with all the parallels to 1d/h&l bc it’s exhaustive and was a source for mine <3 thank you again for your service <3 bc this song really is a fanpiece of every song that has been important to them throughout their career so far, whether they wrote it or not, and it’s honestly kinda impressive

SUMMARY

you’re sad and i love you so much i will do anything to make that undone but while you’re sad know that i sill very much love you and you’re also strong enough to conquer all of this on your own but i’ll be by your side anyway

lyric breakdown ft. the many parallels, incl. little things, through the dark and wmyb

what this says about louis, his partner and the relationship he is in

never gonna dance again frenzy

identity 

louis is a marvellous majestic sonofabitch basically <3

walls, track 10

～ little things “you still have to squeeze into your jeans, but you’re perfect to me”

You don’t feel pretty and it’s hard to miss

You don’t feel pretty and it’s hard to miss

later lyric: “like a neon sign” - i see through you trying to hide away your insecurities

I wish that you could see my point of view As someone staring back at you

“you” is also staring at him, but perhaps is too insecure to realise how mutual the adoration is

i wish i could get you out of your own negative spiral and give you a look at yourself from my perspective

～ wmyb “everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you” 

～ wmyb “right now i’m looking at you and i can’t believe you don’t know you’re beautiful”

～ little things “you never love yourself half as much as I love you, and you’ll never treat yourself right darling but I want you to. If I let you know, I’m here for you, maybe you’ll love yourself like I love you”

On Friday night when we’re all out I turn to you and you’re looking down And you don’t wanna dance I know you love to dance You never stop given half the chance

heavy echoes of kmm again, but the opposite: the “nightmare on the dance floor” doesn’t want to dance

when “you” is confident rlly not being subtle with who i think that is, they love to dance <-> tpwk “feeling good in my skin, i just keep on dancing”

“i know you love to dance” = i know what you love bc i love you

“given half the chance” 

～ tpwk “giving/given second chances”

given a chance tattoo, making another appearance (see below for more tattoo meltdowns)

Just keep your head up, love, keep your head up

term of endearment <3 

～ dlibyh

this album is full of encouragement to keep going and as much as it gives me life it ruins me 

Don’t hide away, don’t ever change

“be happy, proud”

～ “just hold on”

“pick someone who’s supportive”

Keep your head up, love, keep your head up Don’t look away, don’t look away

don’t look away from me

～ through the dark “and I can see your head is held in shame”

Cause everybody’s looking at you now, my, oh my

they have the stage to themselves / new career paths they’re doing on their own

could also mean ppl they’re going out with are looking at them, which “you” interprets as sth negative, which makes them self-conscious, while they’re actually admiring them bc they steal the scene

～ wmyb “you’re turning heads when you walk through the door”

I guess some queens don’t need a crown And I know why Even when your tears are falling down Still, somehow, you’re perfect now

“you” is royalty to louis, to put it simply 

they don’t need something on their head to make it known to everyone else - they’re a queen and everyone knows it

gendered: female - also used in drag contexts - the only time L has used any gendered word to identify his partner on the entire album (more on this below)

～ steal my girl "she's been my queen since we were sixteen" can't believe i forgot this one thank you @mortalenemiestolovers for reminding me!!!

～ falling

～ through the dark “you tell me that your tears are here to stay”

You never do, but if you asked me to I’ll tell the truth lying next to you

“you” never asks for affirmations directly, but by saying shit like their pants are too tight make it clear enough to L that they do need to hear once in a while that it’s not true

Cause you’re the only one when it’s said and done You make me feel like being someone 

Good to you even at your worst

～ always you

i love you so much you are a force of life to me, and even when you hate me i want more

～ drag me down “If I didn’t have you there would be nothing left, the shell of a man who could never be his best. If I didn’t have you, I’d never see the sun. You taught me how to be someone” (sung by louis first, harry second) 

～ through the dark “even if you scream and shout, it’ll come back to you and I’ll be here for you

You steal the scene and it’s unrehearsed

reference to working on a stage - their natural presence wins everyone over - that charisma is never manufactured

Don’t you wanna dance? Just a little dance I’ll never stop given half the chance

L keeps encouraging them, will also not pass by any chance to dance with them

Every insecurity, like a neon sign, as bright as day If you knew what you were to me You would never try to hide away

“it’s hard to miss”

L sees through them trying to hide their insecurities, pretend to be strong

～ through the dark “but I know you were only hiding”

SYNTHESIS

Perfect Now is not a fan favorite and I am so not here for that discourse, so please do not pester me with negativity about this chocolate drop of a song. 

As others have pointed out, the parallels with other songs written by Louis, Harry or for One Direction are extremely present. Especially Little Things is echoed loudly, but there’s so much more to be read, as you’ve seen. These are songs that are clearly near and dear to Louis, bc he wrote them or bc performing them was special, like with Little Things and What Makes You Beautiful. A lot of the same emotions come back in Louis’s writing, so much so that you can’t help but see the larger story behind it all. Throughout Walls you can hear him singing about not giving up and holding your head high despite hardships, and if you look back at his earlier writing, it’s always been there. Through the Dark is an early and striking example of this style of Louis song: you’re sad and i love you so much i will do anything to make that undone but while you’re sad know that i sill very much love you and you’re also strong enough to conquer all of this on your own but i’ll be by your side anyway 

basically through the dark’s chorus:

Oh, I will carry you over Fire and water for your love And I will hold you closer Hope your heart is strong enough When the night is coming down on you We will find a way Through the dark

It is very clear that Louis is faced with a partner - I can freely say it’s Harry now right? are the antis gone by now? i think so - that struggles with his body, with his identity, with how he wants to present himself vs how opinions on that might push him down and dampen his spirit. Louis, always the supportive boyfriend, then tries his best to make him see the light, while keeping that space for his sadness, his struggles, or their joint struggles. Accept the sadness but don’t lose your heart to it.

I’ve linked @bluewinnerangel​ ‘s post at the start of this post, but I need to stress how good it is once more as I also shamelessly insert a screenshot from it here bc it makes me feel a lot and summarizes perfectly just how deeply Perfect Now is woven into the history of their lives, relationship and especially “you”s/Harry’s personal struggle with their identity/body/confidence...

Because yes, i absolutely think these tattoos are being echoed in the song. “Never gonna dance again” as a lyric and then as a tattoo on Harry’s legs like shackles around his ankles represents the sensation of shame, of being stuck, bc of your desires, bc of your sexuality. Obviously we can never know why Harry got the tattoo, as in what experience pushed him to choose those lyrics or what exactly he recognizes in himself, but it’s safe to say it’s about the struggles of being queer and navigating relationships with that identity and with others.

Most importantly, the sense of shamelessly dancing, dancing like no one’s watching, dancing together with your lover, as a celebration of self, life, love, is the key here. Harry got that tattoo ages ago, at a time when he undoubtedly felt way more stuck. When he couldn’t dance freely the way he wanted to and with whom he wanted to. Perfect Now is a reminder to him, an encouragement to still dance if he wants to, no matter what people say or think. Significantly, then, Harry’s own Treat People With Kindness heavily features that same sentiment, but in an extremely positive light: i have found a place (in life and in myself) where i feel like i have given and was given second chances and now i dance bc i finally feel good in my skin.

Louis has obviously been there from the start, or at least from when or before Harry properly started experimenting with/questioning how he likes to present and how he identifies as. Before he ever dared to consider pulling on a pair of women’s skinny jeans, never mind a ball gown. Louis has seen him limit himself as well as being limited by others ofc and has always seemed to have been there, with a secure hand on Harry’s back, to encourage him. Even at a time when boys wearing nail polish or skirts was unthinkable. Just remember how much encouragement Harry needed when growing out his hair; Louis literally joined him. yes this might make me cry okay i need to stop bc i’m going off track and this is just becoming a larry breakdown while i was trying to hype up this beautiful song. 

What I’m trying to say is: Louis has always seen all of Harry. He’s always had his back, no matter what. He’s loved every part of him. And now, on a completely gender neutral album, in the sweetest, softest song off of the entire thing, Louis puts in the word “queen”, and that is so very deliberate it makes me want to scream. It’s Louis confirming his love again and again while affirming the multitudes contained by Harry, including everything involving his gender journey. brb crying

It’s a raw Louis, an honest, sweet, kind, loving partner, and both of them are fucking lucky to have each other, and I also wish that all of us end up in a caring and wholesome relationship like that. I truly do.

#wow i thought this one was gonna be easier #i always do why do i think that??? #every time i look closer into l's lyrics i see more depth #this is all just a perfect mushy mess so it's on brand for me #perfect now analysis #lyric analysis #my posts #parallels

[quindolyn]

hi can i request the maurauders going to see the reader do a musical like heathers or mean girls and they are just confused and turned on bc they didn't expect it to be this dirty (can lead to smut or not). luv you and hope you are taking care of yourself, if not go get something to eat, drink some water, take a nap, or do somthing you enjoy. or dont not trying to be pushy :)

Creature of the Night || Poly!Marauders

Word Count: 3029 (excluding song lyrics)

A/N: I think I liked how this turned out? I didn’t make it smut but it’s certainly suggestive, I went with Rocky Horror, I know that the musicals mentioned in the request are more modern but I fucking love Rocky Horror and I think it works with the request. When I first read this request I smiled so much because I love live theater, I don’t perform as much as I used to because as I progress with my education I’m focusing more on the stuff I can use to pad my resumes for college and stuff but I still love going to see productions. One of the worst parts of the pandemic for me has been not being able to go see shows, I miss it so much.

Warnings: theatre enthusiast reader, erections, suggestive material, song lyrics, slight teasing, wearing very little clothing in front of an audience, I believe that that is it

Masterlist

500 follower celebration

antici-

The magic of the stage was second to none. Sure, Hogwarts may have had witches and wizards, subjects like Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and ghosts that spent their time meandering about the halls but there was always a part of you that looked forward to the summer between your years at Hogwarts. Because no matter how magical Hogwarts was, the theater always made you feel completely and utterly alive. 

Every summer since the one after your first year at what all of your muggle friends thought to be a very prestigious boarding school up in Scotland, you’d taken part in your local youth theater’s productions. Your parents both being muggles thought that it would be a great way for you to be able to stay in touch with your muggle origins. 

The first year you’d been far too nervous to actually audition for a role, the very thought causing bile to churn in your stomach and threaten to make you sick all over your kitchen floor when your father first pitched the idea. So instead you’d done costumes and it was the most wonderful experience of your life. 

Who needed drugs when you had live theater? The hustle and bustle behind the scenes was electrifying but after two summers of costuming, of quick changes in the wings, learning how to use the ancient sewing machines they stored in the depths of the storage rooms, and pulling pieces for the actors to try on you decided that you wanted to try something more.

The moment you had stepped onto the stage it was like you’d come to life and you cursed yourself for not taking the risk earlier. You belonged on the stage, with the harsh stage lights on you and pounds of makeup plastered onto your face you could feel the magic thrumming through your veins and it was addicting.

If it was possible, you were even more excited to perform this summer, the previous school year you’d finally gotten together with your long time best friends the Marauders, turning them from friends to your boyfriends.

When your mother had sent word of the production being put on this summer you’d squealed while seated next to James and across from Remus, who had Sirius hanging off of his side. After explaining to them, mostly Sirius and James really, just what live theater was their first reaction was to ask if they could come see you perform.

“I don’t even know if I’m going to be cast,” You had explained gently, not wanting to get their hopes up in case you weren’t cast this year.

“Bull shit of course you’re going to be the cast,” Sirius had contested through a mouthful of jam and toast, waving his hand theatrically through the air, watching him that day was not the first time you’d considered how the way he acted often reminded you of an over enthusiastic theatre major.

Remus, the only one with any knowledge on muggle theatre had snorted, wrapping an arm around Sirius’ waist to pull him closer to his body, “She’s not going to be the cast Pads, she’s going to be casted,” He’d corrected gently, pressing a kiss into his long, dark tresses.

“Whatever,” The smaller boy had grumbled, taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

Which brought you to where you were right now, five minutes to curtain touching up your make up in the mirror of the shared make-up room.

“Hey (L/N),” One of your cast mates called settling into the makeup chair next to you as she plucked a tube of dark red lipstick from the small canary colored makeup bag she had previously abandoned on the counter, “Your boyfriends coming tonight?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Yeah, they are,” You responded, applying mascara to your lashes.

“Excited to meet them, that photo you showed us,” She smiled, fanning her face with her hand, “Smoking,” She smiled, making eye contact with you in the mirror.

Rolling your eyes you ignored her comment, “It’s five minutes to curtain, you’re just now doing your make-up?” You chuckled, noticing her black face.

“Oh, shove it,” She laughed as you pushed yourself from your chair, traipsing out of the room, giving her the middle finger on your way out.

“Break a leg!” She called after you as the door latched shut.

You weren’t usually this nervous before a performance but knowing that your three boyfriends were sitting out there somewhere in the audience had you pacing back and forth backstage wondering what they were going to think of the whole production.

“Rocky Horror?” Sirius’ confusion evident in his voice as he plopped down in his seat next to Remus, throwing his arm around the werewolf’s shoulders, drumming his fingers on his clothed shoulder hidden behind his knitted cardigan.

“Yeah,” James collapsed into his chair on the other side of Remus, tucking one leg under his body, “No clue what it’s about but I’m sure our angel will be wonderful. Can you guys see her?” He straightened himself up in his seat, craning his neck in attempts to catch a glimpse of you.

Remus being the only one with any ties to the muggle world knew a bit about the show and had to do his very best to suppress a smirk from overtaking his face as he knew exactly what he and your other two boyfriends were getting themselves into. 

“Just hush up you two, the show’s gonna start any moment,” He scolded, patting his large, scarred hand on James’ thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Rem,” Sirius whined, puckering his lips and closing his eyes, signaling to his boyfriend that he wanted a kiss.

“My needy baby,” He crooned, leaning in to connect his lips with Sirius’ in a quick liplock before pulling back, allowing Sirius to drop his forehead to smear against his shoulder.

“That’s mean,” Sirius murmured discontentedly.

“Poor baby Pads,” James cooed mockingly.

“Both of you,” Remus hissed as the lights in the theatre dimmed, “The show’s about to start, be good for me and be quiet yeah?”

Their response came in their silence as the crowd started settling down and the music from the orchestra pit began a voice coming from somewhere out of sight as it was played through the speakers,

“Michael Rennie was ill

The day the earth stood still

But he told us where we stand”

Not 20 minutes into the show all three of them were as hard as rocks, James had already made Remus check the playbill for the name of the character you were playing, not being able to remember what you’d told them as all of his concentration was focused on a certain place.

Janet Weiss.

Remus couldn’t remember either, but he was almost certain that’s the name he could make out in the dark theatre, printed next to a picture of your smiling face.

When you’d stripped down to your underwear the boys could barely focus on the plot line of the show, only being able to watch the way your bare skin shone under the harsh light of the spotlights. Watching as sweat glistened on your skin, making you shine as you moved about the stage. 

Enchanted by the melodic cadence of your voice they all felt a certain jealousy burning deep in the pits on their stomachs at the thought that there were dozens of other people packed into that theater, all observing you in your vulnerable state of under dress. Only they got to see you like that.

Sirius missed much of the first act glaring at members of the audience who he deemed as looking at you for too long for his liking, but if you were being honest a 4th year smiling at you in the hallway was sometimes too long for his liking.

It wasn’t like any of them had never seen you naked before, in fact they’d all seen you naked more than their fair share of times but something about you on that stage in a white bra with a matching slip was driving them all crazy.

Especially Remus, whose ultimate weakness was seeing you in anything white which was one of the reasons you’d been so excited to invite them in the first place, knowing that they would be horny messes the entire time.

On stage you did your very best not to look out into the audience looking for them, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to stop a ginormous grin from forming on your face and you couldn’t afford to break character. Not if you wanted the night to go your way.

As the opening notes to “Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me”, rose from the orchestra pit you had trouble stopping a small smirk from pulling at your lips as you opened them, inhaling deeply before singing the first words of the song,

“I was feeling done in, couldn't win

I'd only ever kissed before”

Despite yourself you caught a glimpse of long dark hair in the audience, quickly taking a glance at Sirius’ face, eyes glazed over in lust, legs shifting uncomfortably with his mouth hanging wide open. 

Out of the corner of your eye you noticed another raven-haired boy’s mouth dropping as you shrugged off of your robe

“I thought there’s no use getting, into heavy petting

It only leads to trouble and, seat wetting

Now all I want to know, is how to go

I've tasted blood and I want more”

It was impossible to miss the way Remus’ jaw clenched as you laid your palm against Rocky’s chest, he was being played by your good friends who’d been working with the same theatre company as you since forever, he was like a brother to you. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t lay it on extra thick tonight with your boyfriends in the audience.

Tracing a dainty finger down Rocky’s chest you pushed your body against his singing out the next lyrics of the song,

“I've got an itch to scratch, I need assistance”

You turned you and your cast mate so that looking over his shoulder you were able to meet Remus’ eye, sending him a quick wink before focusing back in on Rocky.

“Toucha, toucha, toucha, touch me

I wanna be dirty

Thrill me, chill me, fulfill me

Creature of the night”

Pressing your back up against Rocky’s chest you guided his hands with yours to your breasts, squeezing them as you followed the choreography you knew by heart.

You ripped your slip from your body with the help of Rocky leaving you in only your white bra, matching panties and a pair of small heels as you paraded around stage, belting the suggestive lyrics into the theater.

“Then if anything grows, while you pose

I'll oil you up and rub you down (down, down, down)

And that’s just one small fraction, of the main attraction

You need a friendly hand, oh i need action”

You smirked, thinking about all of the action you’d be on the receiving end of later that night as you sunk to your knees in front of Rocky, your hands grasping his thighs. Deciding to tease them perhaps a little more than necessary as you went through the number, curling your leg around his and pressing your bodies together so that there was no space between your two questionably clothed bodies.

As the number was brought to a close it was impossible for you to ignore the excitement bubbling up inside of you as you continued your way through the show you kept throwing glances at your boyfriends, always finding their eyes already trained on you. More often than not, on some body part other than your face.

If your boyfriends thought that they had a bit of a problem before that song they were in a terrible predicament now.

Remus caught Sirius on multiple occasions trying to move the hand that he was holding to grope at his crotch as he tried to buck up into his boyfriend’s hand. And much to his own dismay, Remus would pull his hand away, thinking it probably wasn’t the best idea to give his boyfriend a hand job in a crowded theater. Knowing that he wouldn’t have to worry about James touching himself because he would never dream of disobeying him, Remus divided his attention between you on the stage and keeping Sirius in check.

Each of the boys were counting down the seconds until the show came to an end and they could get out of there and relieve some of their tension.  As the curtains were pulled closed they all breathed a sigh of relief before they reopened, leaving all three of them bewildered and slightly annoyed, even more so when they noticed everyone around them standing as they applauded the actors.

Remus forced both of them up when you rushed to the front of the stage, curtsying as the crowd went wild, your boyfriends most notably. As you took your bow you blew a kiss to your boyfriends taking note of the uncomfortable way they all stood, trying to adjust their erections to make them less noticeable while simultaneously applauding you.

As you cleared the stage after curtain call you took your time, doddling towards the dressing rooms where you had left the clothes you’d arrived at the theater in along with a special outfit you’d brought for after the show. Usually you were one of the first actors to clear the theater after a show but tonight you took your time. Hanging up your costume with more care than anyone really should treat any garment with and certainly more than what it needed. 

You smirked mischievously as you pulled the you’d brought outfit from your bag and shimmied it up your legs before slipping the delicate straps up your shoulders. You glimpsed yourself in the mirror, the red satin of the dress clinging to your curves in an attractive manner, short enough to display miles of legs and low cut enough to show off a decent amount of cleavage and perhaps a sighting of the matching red bra you were wearing beneath it.

Slinging the back of your black heels over the heel of your feet you snatched your purse from the armchair in your dressing room before striding out to go meet your boyfriends in the lobby, where you’d told them to wait for you.

Their heads all turned as they heard the clacking of your heels against the tile of the floor, “Boys,” You greeted as they unabashedly took in your new appearance.

As he most often was, Remus was the first one to collect himself, “Puppy, you were wonderful,” He praised, walking to meet you as you approached him, leaning down to smear a kiss against your cheek, “You did amazing up there, so proud of you,” He threw his arm around your waist as you walked towards Sirius and James.

“We got something for you,” He explained, his grip on your waist tightening, “Jamie give it to her, yeah?” 

“Oh yeah,” The smaller boy grinned, remembering the bouquet he held cradled in his arms as he handed it over to you, “Here you go angel.”

“Thank you Jamie,” You said as you took it from him, closing your eyes as you buried your nose in the sweet smelling flora. As you opened your eyes you made eye contact with Sirius, who stood across from you, practically drooling as he took in your appearance without any shame, “They smell wonderful.”

“You okay Si?” You asked, looking up through your eyelashes, batting them innocently.

“Like you don’t know exactly what you did up there to us (Y/N/N),” Remus whispered in your ear, pressing his nose into your temple.

“You guys are the ones who wanted to come,” You lilted, rubbing one of the velvety petals between the pads of your thumb and forefinger.

“Could’ve warned us,” James mumbled, his eyes not leaving your thighs as he licked his lips, if it were anyone else you would’ve been uncomfortable but you couldn’t help but feel flattered whenever any of them ogled you. 

“And what’s with the dress Pup?” Sirius nodded his head appreciatively towards your dress, obviously admiring the way it hung on your body.

“What, you don’t like it?” You asked with fake hurt in your voice, knowing that he more than liked it, he fucking loved it. 

“S’not that,” Remus mumbled, nosing at your jugular, “Just that whole show, got us a little bit worked up. We didn’t expect it to be so sexual Puppy,” He nodded towards James and that’s when you noticed the erection he was still sporting. 

“Got us really worked up, can we go home now?” James asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, trying to distract himself from his little problem.

“Jamie,” You whined, smiling wickedly, “I wanted to celebrate, I was thinking we could go eat somewhere, I was thinking maybe Thai food?”

You watched as Sirius ground his teeth, conflicted between needing to get home and not wanting to deny you from what you wanted. 

“Having fun teasing us Bunny?” Remus asked you with a sly smirk, knowing exactly what you were doing.

“M’not teasing,” You insisted, turning indignantly to your other boyfriend.

“Sure you aren’t,” He chuckled, “Thai sounds great (Y/N), wanna talk with you about the show,” The idea of teasing Sirius and James even longer was very appealing to Remus and he was ready to make the sacrifice of being teased himself, knowing that he’d be able to get back at you later that night.

“But-” James began.

“You wanna argue with me Jamie?” Remus challenged, raising a singular eyebrow.

“No,” He moped, “Of course not.”

“Good,” Remus said, nodding his head approvingly, “We wouldn’t wanna deny our Princess would we?”

James shook his head, eyes pleading, desperately seeking Remus’ approval.

“Pads?” Remus challenged, turning his attention to the other raven haired man.

“What? Oh um, of course not,” He agreed distractedly, dragging his eyes from your form to meet Remus’, his reluctance evident in his voice.

“Good,” Remus said pointedly, his eyes cold, daring Sirius to question him. When he didn’t the werewolf continued, “Let’s get going then, there’s a nice little restaurant a couple blocks away yeah?”

As you all hummed your consent you made your way to the exit, “Ten galleons if you can make James cum in his pants at dinner,” Remus whispered in your ear quietly enough so that  James and Sirius trailing behind you wouldn’t be able to hear you, you could hear the smirk in his voice as you exited the theatre.

“Deal.” This was going to be fun, you considered that you might have to invite them to come see the show again.

-pation

tagging: @randomoutsiders @weasleyposts @kittykylax @amourtentiaa @superbturtlemakerathlete

#harry potter fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter #marauders #marauders x reader #harry potter imagine #james potter #james potter x reader #marauders fanfic #marauders fanfiction #remus lupin #james potter fanfiction #james potter fanfic #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin fanfiction #remus lupin fanfic #sirius black #sirius black x reader #sirius black fanfic #sirius black fanfiction #poly!marauders #poly!marauders x reader #poly!marauders fanfic #poly!marauders fanfiction

[sly-merlin]

C l a i r. De. L u n e

Pairing : angel reader x banished angel jaemin.

Genre : plotless comedy, fluff, mutual pinning

Words: 1.1k

Warnings: it's suweeeet. Mentions of fire, hell.

Prompt : mmm..it's warm

A/n : part of SEXC WRITERS COLLAB consisting of members - @raibebe , me and @ncteaxhoe

This fic is dedicated to the doyoung to this haechan, rai @raibebe ! 🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚💚

Thank you for beta reading @lofied . God bless whatsapp!

Perched on the soft and velvety enchanted cloud, you consciously fluttered your legs, letting your naked toes play with the flowing water. In the middle of the majestic ocean, the spotlight of the moonlight drenched your pristine white wings in the ruthless glow as if it had been waiting for your arrival only. It has been many moons since you last visited this entrance to the human world. Until last month,at the break of the darkness, every day, you and jaemin had been flying away from your home to this place to allow yourself a taste of thia foreign sphere that your serene, plain, disciplinary realm never provided and today you were here, waiting for the same boy just to see his face, a sentiment, that according to you,wasn’t worthy of being revealed.

Nevaeh realm was indeed and quite literally a dreamer’s paradise but for younglings like you and jaemin, it lacked the delight and colour that oh so beautiful underground Nrub realm's fires showed. You attributed your attraction for that fiery hell to the white and cream that engulfed you in tranquil and also because it seemed unattainable for you, just like the thought of underground was supposed to be for all the unsullied beings. All things considered, underground was forbidden for everything pure, including you and jaemin. But nobody remembers the last time jaemin had listened and the last time you had made any attempt to stop him.

Eyes lost in the depths of the sea, you felt your right wing folding itself into your waist. Pausing your movements, craning your neck, you saw jaemin flapping his grey wings, a captivating smile wrinkling his nose in some unknown shape.

Grey?

You tilted your torso a little more to look at his ruined feathers.

"What in the fairies have you done to these beauties?" eyes widened in disbelief, you queried.

Shooting you his infamous fake pouty bunny teeth, he responded as his hands danced every way to exaggerate his pain,

"The underground isn't a place for angels”, he spoke with a nasal voice, “The smoke spares none. You should be glad you are seeing me in full piece."

"I thought you would have been roasted by now but you look completely fine."

The sarcasm in your voice was nothing new for him but he had begun to miss it. Awfully! Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being at the other end of mother angel’s wrath.

Of all the younglings, him only?

Jaemin had been banished to the gates of underground for a few months as a penalty. Penalty for throwing mystic snowballs at the youngest son of the devil, which resultantly had him sick for a week.

"Make space for me." He pleaded and rolling your eyes, you extended the cloud seat with one twirl of your finger.

Oh how much he missed his baby magic!

"No one makes better clouds than you!" He exclaimed before sitting on the squashy seat but the sigh of relief that escaped him was something unexpected.

"What is it now?" Annoyed, you questioned.

"Even the underground gates are hotter for my buttocks. I don’t know how Johnny survives being the gatekeeper of that hellish place. It’s impossible to breathe in there, my wings are dirty, i’m grey, my hair have ashes in them, I no more look pretty, the little spawns make fun of me at any possible chance they get and because I can’t get past the first door, they don’t even hesitate while calling me brutal names!” he cried out with a pout.

"who had told you to play with him in the first place. their souls are weaker than ours jaem. Just because we can endure a little heat doesn-

"yangyang shouldn't have been wandering on the common grounds in the first place so it’s not my fault that i forgot about their souls or whatever. Nobody said a word to him but this beautiful boy was sent off without any apology!”

A giggle left your lips at his dramatics. He really had the audacity of acting like the purest being, which he undoubtedly was but he couldn’t look at his broken record of being a nuisance to the whole realm. Along with you and jungwoo of course.

“This cloud is so fluffy. No wonder you make the bestest clouds y/n” at the repeated praise, you straightened your back. Spreading your wings in their full glory, you proudly addressed him,

“Angel y/n, division third and rank second, jaem.”

“WHAT NO! CHEATER. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?”

“ha.ha. when you were busy being the assistant of johnny.”

Right then, you made a mental note for sending a gratitude gift for johnny. Had he burnt your letter, jaemin would have never met you today.

“THAT’S NOT FAIR. YOU ARE EARNING RANKS AND WHAT AM I DOING? EATING DUST?”

his statement turned your head towards his wings. The dirty ones. Raising your finger, you ordered him,

“get up. Let me clean your feathers first.”

“no!” he shouted again, “they’ll know I went out and Johnny would be in trouble with mother angel.”

Realisation dawned on your face and you slouched down, hands finding solace in your lap.

“I thought you were getting toasted. You seem to be happy with that johnny. Don’t you miss playing with us?”

The disappointment in your lyrics was patent and he felt something tugging his insides, something he had felt many times before and had chosen to ignore it each time.

A smile graced his lips watching your romantic face sparkling like the sheet of stars that he adored so much. ludicrous was his love for you, as jungwoo explained and he loved nothing more than being a fool for you.

“how can I be fine when that small place feels like those thousand firecrackers we once saw on this earth.”

“and you smell like that orange food place we visited once.”

“oh yeah? give me your hand!”

You screamed at him but he gripped your hand and planted it on his feathers instead.

“that’s how I feel when I’m toasting in there!”

“mmmh…it’s warm!”

Surprised, you immediately retracted your hand and hugged it closer to your chest.

“see! I’m not joking.” His lips were twisted grimly as he said those words. However tempting the other side was, he still didn’t belong there. it wasn’t home.

“let’s have a competition”

“what?”

Conjuring a few pebbles, you handed him half of them.

“stone skipping!"

Stilling the water just right for the skipping, you started with your stones and chuckles filled the quiet night with much needed happiness.

“is your butt cool enough now.”

Mindlessly, you asked.

“yeah. thanks to you, it is.”

Heaven: nevaeh , burn : nrub 😂 I'm not that creative plzzz🍿

A 🤏 feedback is always appreciated lovelies.

#neowritingsnet #cznnet #nct-writers #kafenetwork #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct fluff #nct drabbles #nct x reader #nct smut #jaemin scenarios #jaemin smut #nct dream smut #nct dream scenarios #nct dream fluff #jaemin x reader #jaemin imagines #nct timestamps #nct reactions #nct fanfics

[aio-rya]

My World

Azul x Fem!Reader 「Part 1」

「By: Aiorya」

A/N: you can listen to this if you want to get a little ambience on it. The romantic atmosphere~

"I wanna be where the people are... I wanna see~ wanna see 'em dancing... "

The soft, velvety voice echoed sweetly across the hallway, ocassionally interrupting the lyrics to hum instead of singing. Spreading through the wide open main door of the Lounge to the main hallway that connected it to the dorm building, accompanied by the piano gently played on the background. Music never stopped, the combination of both elements with the silence and loneliness of the place seemed ethereal, the unmistakable voice always clever had now the perfect tone for a lullaby; his owner was so immersed on his thoughts, daydreaming on every note of his melody to notice the quiet steps approaching, still on the corridor, guided by the most lovely voice she had ever heard. It was like listening to a mermaid, driving you further into the sea with an unbreakable harmony able to make your soul crave for the sweet chant of the creatures of the depth. Enchanting enough to intoxicate your senses, feeling it down to the core.

Her path blindly guided by the song as a sense of drowsiness took control over her mind, her eyelids were heavier and her lips barely opened in amusement, breathing the cold air of the empty, large hallway as she caressed the wall, tiptoeing as she moved closer to the origin of the music. Silently, she entered the Lounge looking for her merman, taking some time to appreciate the beauty of the place when the crowd disappeared, with low lights apart from the stage, crystal clear bubbles dancing with the calm of the ambience in the water behind the glass, wide space to move freely, to dance to her heart's content.

"Wandering free, wish I could be...

She started swaying, her arms fluttered around her body as she went round and round all along the center of the hall, dancing with herself at the pace of an invisible waltz written by the humming. She almost felt underwater, surrounded by the infinite blue as if she could merge on it. Becoming...

"Part of that world..."

The rhythm of the instrumental intensified, the keys were still played gently yet overflowed with passion, something fierce that ignited every piece of herself with the same fire the had on his heart. As he made music, she made a dance, even if they couldn't see each other yet, they were meant to be —two pieces of a puzzle created to fit together. Her eyes were closed as she left out any sign of shame or discretion, her blouse swirled as she moved showing a small part of the smooth skin of her stomach, her beautiful legs drew invisible forms on the floor and the air at the pace of her improvised ballet. His eyes were closed too as he felt now not alone, the heat inside his chest grew widely, somehow that song managed not only to remember him his homeland or his family, but himself.

Everything was perfect. Until he opened his eyes to come upon her slim body, heavenly twisting and turning as if the center of the Lounge was her stage; it also remembered him home, all those beautiful mermaids he saw into the distance when he was a child, free and beautiful creatures.

Creatures who hurted him.

"What would I do to live where you a--"

It was late when he tried to stop, he had already sang half a sentence —he was not bothered by her presence, he just felt vulnerable. The music broke with a chord, filling the place with silence once more, as if nothing has happened there. Even her steps turned heavier as she stopped tiptoeing to walk on her feet again. Ambience was not relaxed anymore, it was tense.

"Why are you here?", the owner of the Lounge asked in serious voice.

"I...", her voice was a bit broken by the surprise, she cleared her throat as her steps led her near to him. "I brought you what you asked for", [y/n] excused her intrusion, looking for a paper on her pocket, placing it over the lid of the piano.

Azul maintained his empty expression as he opened and read the paper, nodding once after putting it inside the pocket of his shirt. Then, he took his hat from the same lid and prepared to leave —surprisingly, the girl, the human sat by him, standing in his way. She caressed the surface of the white keys, ocassionally touching the back ones, carefully to not make a single sound.

Octavinelle's dorm leader was, somehow, breathless. How distracted he could have been to catch the attention of the only person in this academy who knew, besides Floyd and Jade, how broken he was once and how heartless he could seem on the outside, but how tender, kind hearted was he on the inside? He was nervous, that unspoken feeling both of them have had for a while was now floating around them, filling the air, consuming the oxigen of their lungs. She actually liked his music, his voice and now was touching the keys where his fingers were flying across a second before, as if she wanted to rescue every piece of the heart he left on that keys, on that old song of his homeland.

«I didn't know you could play human instruments so well...» , she longed to tell. But she couldn't, the knot on his neck will not allow that without shedding a tear. Instead...

"How...", Azul asked in a whisper.

She started playing, one key by one, the exact lyric pattern of the melody he was singing earlier. Her fingers were not as mastered as his, but they were delicate, pressing the keys strong enough to be heard but not to click with the wooden surface under them. Then, a soft humming echoed on the room again, her voice —despite not knowing the lyrics, the girl tried to repeat the rhythm. Azul couldn't do anything but stare, barely processing the scene before his eyes; that until she stopped and, with a silent sigh, intended to leave.

"And ready to know what the people know...", he started singing, pressing the keys one by one to accompany his voice. "Ask 'em my questions and...", his voice left its weakness aside as his fingers took control once more of the piano, making a soft change between lyrics to the entire melody once more, "Get some answers..."

His heart increased its beating, he almost felt it coming out of his chest when she leaned towards him, laying her head on his shoulder as her right hand moved to the cuff of his shirt. He felt her warmth very close, almost feeling her touch on his skin; rarely they could touch each other, part shame, part pretending, but now they felt safe —there was no more shame, they were now not pretending.

"What's a fire and why does it, what's the word?", he asked as if he meant it, waiting for her response. Never stopped playing, even if she took more than expected to catch it.

"... Burn?", she completed guessing the word under Azul's glance. A sweet smiled appeared on his face, the melody lessened its sound until it was only a steady, sweet barely perceptible sound for them.

"It is an old song from my home", the boy explained, gently playing a scale until his finger brushed against hers; she returned the smile to him, blushing as she could feel her heart "It... Well, the legend says it was the song that travelled all along the sea when the Princess, the one whom dream made real by the compassionate Witch of the Sea, fell in love with... With a human."

Yes, sure. She remembered that story, from her world too; different though the same in essence. Somehow... She felt part of it. As if that story were about to be told again, this time, she will be the little mermaid that lonced so hard to win the prince's heart.

"When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up above?", the voice of his... «L-loved one?», her surprise of the sudden adjudication snapped her out of her thoughts too. She blushed, madly, as he slightly moved his hand so her fingers slipped down to his skin, tangling over his fingers to play along, guided by him.

"... Out of the sea...?", her voice was still doubtful, yet confidence appeared at the moment she came upon his sky blue, brilliant eyes.

"Wish I could be..."

She finally understood. There was a place she belongs to, and maybe they could discover it... Together.

"Part of that world..."

～ Ξ ～

"Nee, Jade...", whispered one of the brothers.

"Eeh, Floyd...", answered the other at the same volume.

"Do you think this will be funny...?", the first one asked.

"If Azul doesn't take back what he did...", the second said melodically.

Both eels mischievously laughed, not an evil laugh but they had something on mind. What could it be? Nobody knew yet; both slipped out of the Lounge without being noticed. Only a pair of grey and yellow eyes gleaming in the dark.

#ツイステ #ツイステッドフンダラーンド #twst #twisted wonderland #オクタヴィネル寮 #octavinelle #azul ashengrotto #twst azul #twisted wonderland azul #twst floyd #twst jade

[free-pool-trash]

she - warren worthington iii

More Warren!!! He honestly makes me just 🥺 but also 🥵

Requested by the lovely @kurt-nightcrawler​: so,,,, Warren’s writing poetry for a class and he’s really struggling,, so someone suggests he writes about what makes him happy and it’s the reader and then y/n finds out he wrote this really good poetry about them and the reader is all like 🥺🥺

This is so cute thank you for sending it in ✨💕 hope u like it boo i changed it a little i hope it’s still okay :)))

Okay but the tea is I SUCK with poetry okay so I stole song lyrics from a song that I just think is so super cute and kinda goes with the request and that is She by Dodie 🥺 (but I changed it to be more poem like)

Word count: 1,891 :)))

Warning (s): tooth rotting fluff, swearing (obviously), I'm physically incapable of not including Peter in these, that good kissing shit 

masterlist

"Okay, class. Have that assignment for class on Friday." The English teacher spoke loudly to the room full of students and Warren had to fight to contain a groan.

Creative writing - poetry or the way that Warren saw it, torture. Not to get him wrong, he loved poetry. It was deep and it could say things without really saying anything at all, he was one of those people who just got symbolism, no explanations needed. 

However, that didn't mean that he was any good at actually writing poetry. And this assignment was due for Friday, which meant he had four days to figure out how to write a decent poem. 

The thought occurred to him to simply pull some shitty haiku out of his ass and maybe get some marks for effort, but, he dismissed it as English was pretty much the only subject that he had an active interest in, he didn't want his average falling because he handed up one shitty poem.

After the bell rang signalling the end of the class and the end of the day, the winged boy made his way to his dorm to work on his homework and make a start on the dreaded English assignment, where would he even begin?

"Hey man, you coming to hang out?" Warren's roommate, Peter, asked speeding into the dorm room.

Looking up from the blank page of his English copy, Warren cocked an eyebrow at his silver haired friend, "Who's gonna be there?" 

"The whole gang." Peter replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to which Warren nodded his head and got up from his bed, tossing his English copy onto the floor, he'd work on it some more tomorrow.

"(Y/n) was wondering where you were." Peter told Warren nonchalantly, as if it didn't even matter, oh if only he knew.

At the statement Warren's eyes widened and he was flooded with worry, "Why is she okay? Did she need me for something?" He questioned frantically, as Peter pursed his lips and made a face at him.

"No. She just wanted to know why you didn't come to hang out after class ended…" Peter replied heading out the door with Warren following behind him, a lot calmer now.

When the two boys entered the room, Warren caught sight of you immediately, the bright smile you gave him once he entered the room very nearly floored him.

It was no secret to anyone, not even you, that Warren Worthington III was absolutely crazy about you. You were soft and bright, you were the human embodiment of sunshine. To Warren you felt so familiar, like the cool release of fall coming in after a hot summer.

See, he absolutely understood symbolism, especially when it came to you: His girl that isn't actually his girl. 

Warren walked over to the seat you'd saved him on the couch, beside you, trying his best to keep up his cool exterior Warren sat down and threw his arm over the back of the couch, his hand brushing against your shoulder as he did.

"Hey, Princess." He reveled in the way the nickname brought a hue of pink to your cheeks, and the smile you tried to hide from him only made him chuckle.

"Hey, War. Where have you been?" You asked, scooting ever so slightly closer to him.

At your question Warren groaned and his head fell into your shoulder in exhaustion. "Ugh, I've got an assignment due for Friday. Have to write a poem- I was trying to work on it after class. It's hell." 

Laughing at him, you brought your hand up to play with his blonde curls that were brushing against your neck as he huffed about English. 

"I thought you loved poetry?" You wondered out loud, frowning as he shook his head against your shoulder.

You were sure he loved poetry, something about the symbolism and depth of words.

"Not if I'm the one writing it." He elaborated for you, noticing your frown and adorable furrowed eyebrows and he didn't even realize he was staring up at you until Peter let out an exaggerated groan from the end of the couch.

"Ugh! Would you two just kiss already? The tension is k-i-l-l-i-n-g me!" He exclaimed, dragging out the word ‘killing’ for as long as he could. 

"Peter! Shut the hell up they were being cute!" Jubilee shouted, throwing a handful of popcorn at the speedster who only shrugged.

Kurt looked at you, Warren, Peter and Jubilee confused as Jean and Scott watched you all in amusement.

"Are you two going out?" Kurt asked innocently, looking between each member of the group.

"Might as well be." Peter remarked causing your cheeks to heat and you only added to the teasing as you hid your reddening face in Warren's blonde curls.

"SEE!" Peter exclaimed, pointing at you and Warren accusingly.

You knew better than anybody that you and Warren acted like a couple, but you and him never had that conversation. But it's not like you needed to, it's not like you ever kissed or anything, you were just close.

"Shut the fuck up, Maximoff. You don't know what you're talking about." Warren said, irritation clear in his voice, he didn't even bother to untangle himself from you, you were both used to your friends acting like this. 

He cared a little less about the teasing than you did, however. Awkwardly, you cleared your throat and eased Warren's head off your shoulder before standing up, "I'm, um, yeah I'm gonna go… do homework or something." You stuttered out before practically running out of the room.

If looks could kill, Peter would've dropped dead from the glare Warren was giving him, "Way to go, asshole."

Come the next day everything went back to normal, Peter's teasing hadn't upset you, not really, it was just that fact that you were in some weird in-between phase with Warren where you both knew you wanted to be more than friends but neither of you had said anything yet and Peter calling you out had just sent you into a whirlpool of thoughts about you and Warren that just left you wanting to be more.

It was always the same, day in day out, you hung out with your friends, you or Warren saved each other the seat beside the other and then your friends teased you about what you already knew. "(Y/n) and Warren act like a couple." This and, "(Y/n) and Warren look so cute together." That. Well you were sick of it. You didn't want to just act like a couple, you wanted to be a couple.

The cycle continued until Thursday. Warren had denied Peter's attempts to get him to go hang out as he still had to write his stupid fucking poem. He hadn't made even a word of progress since the project had been assigned. It was getting frustrating.

He'd been slumped over his English work for about 5 hours, it was late in the evening now and sometime during his struggling to write the sun had gone down.

Warren was pulled out of his trance when you peaked your head through his door, smiling sweetly and glancing to Peter's bed to make sure he wasn't in the room before entering.

"Brought you a snack." You told him, handing him the plate of food and sitting down behind him, propping your chin on his shoulder and looking over it with a sympathetic look, "Still no luck with that poem, huh Birdy?"

Warren only hummed, leaning into your body for comfort, he was stumped.

"Yeah, I've got nothin'."

"Well," You started thoughtfully, "Why don't you try writing about something you like?" You suggested while Warren closed his eyes, "Something I like?"

You nodded against his shoulder, "Yeah, like things that make you happy!" You chirped as he opened his green eyes to look at you, your face so close to his. He could smell your shampoo and see every single detail of your face, like looking at a picture.

A smile broke his face, "I think I'll be able to think of something." He told you smugly.

Looks like he'd found some inspiration.

After you left, Warren didn't waste anymore time and quickly finished his poetry assignment and handed it up on time in his class on Friday.

The stress of the previously unwritten poem had evaporated and Warren enjoyed his weekend with you and the rest of your friends, he had to thank his English teacher for handing out the assignment, though. It made him realize everything he'd really been thinking, the little things he noticed often subconsciously.

When his teacher handed him back the graded poem, he couldn't have been happier, he got an A+ and honestly, it was all thanks to you.

His final product had been about you, after all.

After class he'd walked into the common room, to see that you were the first one there and by yourself.

"Princess." He greeted happily, plopping down next to you and shoving the piece of paper with his poem on it, into your hands.

"Ohhh, A+, can I?" You asked, glancing between Warren and the poem.

Warren nodded confidently, impatient and wanting to see your reaction to his poetry.

"Go on. Read it."

"Okay." You smiled and cleared your throat dramatically before beginning to read.

"Am I allowed to look at her like that?

Could it be wrong

When she's just so nice to look at?" You read out softly, a teasing tone to your voice that soon faded away as you continued.

"And she smells like lemongrass and sleep

She tastes like apple juice and peach

Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture

And she...

Means everything to me" Warren was biting his lip as he watched you read with a small smile, the lines making sense to you, he hoped.

"I'd never tell

No, I'd never say a word

And oh, it aches

But it feels oddly good to hurt" As you read aloud you knew exactly what he was saying, smooth bastard.

'And I'll be okay

Admiring from afar

'Cause even when she's next to me

We could not be more far apart

And she tastes like birthday cake and story time and fall

But to her

I taste of nothing at all." You finished, looking directly into his eyes, lip between your own teeth almost mimicking him.

"Not to be seen annoyingly oblivious or anything, but I have to ask… who is this 'she'?" You asked Warren shyly, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear.

"She is you." The winged boy stated clearly and you couldn't stop the relief filled laugh that left your mouth, followed by a muttered "thank God".

Warren barely had time to process what was happening before you had practically pounced on him, legs either side of his lap, both hands on either side of his face and your lips pressing against his.

Instinctively his hands grabbed onto your ass to keep you steady as he returned your passionate kiss, lips moving frantically against yours while he pressed you closer to him.

Little did either of you know that none other than Peter Maximoff was standing in the doorway of the common room, shaking his head disbelievingly, "Fucking finally."

#warren worthington iii #warren worthington x reader #x-men x reader #x-men #x-men apocalypse #ben hardy #ben hardy x reader

[onthewingsofpoesy]

Here Beside Me 4

“Vitya, your free leg is sloppy! Straighten it! You look like a drunk flamingo!” Yakov’s voice echoed across the rink where Viktor was just spinning out of a rocker choctaw sequence. The coach’s voice was made louder by the absence of any other skaters practicing on the ice. It was nearing 10 PM, but Viktor had decided to stay for a couple more hours to perfect his free skate step sequence.

“Poydom, khvatit nyt', Yakooov,” the Russian skater pouted, sliding to a smooth stop in front of his coach. “Flamingos are majestic creatures.”

“That’s not what I’m seeing on the ice from you. Even a Novice could perform that sequence better than you can. You’re not letting the music carry your movements and it’s hurting your performance!”

Viktor reached for the towel folded neatly under his water bottle, stubbornly refusing to answer the elder man. He’d been working on the sequence for months now and the moves were like muscle memory. But that didn’t mean they were expressive and worthy of the music piece he’d had composed for the program. He needed to feel Stammi Vicino in every weight transfer of his blade, every turn, every counter, every twizzle, until his entire body was thrumming with the music of loneliness.

Stammi Vicino was a call in the dark for life. His “L” words had slowly disappeared in his life as his skating career flared into existence. Now there was little else left of him than the shell of a once passionate dream. Viktor was losing himself to the media and its misery. Soon he’d be nothing. Just a distant, fleeting memory.

Stammi Vicino was his last chance to awaken the fire in his heart. When was the last time every nerve in his body had burned with fiery passion? When was the last time he was excited to step out onto the ice? When was the last time he’d skated and truly had fun doing so?

Now he was just a puppet to control for the sake of an audience. He was the headline that stories on the front covers of magazines glorified. He was the playboy, the mysterious womanizer. Living Legend, figure skating champion, the face of Russia, the face of the world.

And he was empty. Inside and out, he was just a tired man who had reached the end of his prime.

Perhaps Stammi Vicino would unlock that part of himself that wanted to skate just because it could. Once, it had been fun flying on the ice when there were no expectations or regulations to restrict him. Stammi Vicino was the shout into a void of emptiness, hoping for something (or even someone) to call back.

“Take a break, Vitya,” Yakov’s voice was unexpectedly gentle, although a bit gruff sounding and sheepish escaping from the coach’s lips. A warm, callused hand rested comfortably against his back. Viktor froze under the sudden gesture, unused to any casual expression of concern for his well-being. He relaxed under Yakov’s hand and then nodded, setting his water bottle down on the rink boards.

“Think of what Stammi Vicino means to you. You want something out of it. That’s obvious, but I don’t think even you know what you want deep down inside. Take some time to reflect. I’ll see you Monday morning, 5 AM. Don’t be late.”

Viktor sighed and, grabbing his skate guards, stepped off the ice.

Stammi Vicino was one of his more personal programs, but even Yakov could see that there was something missing from it. Some emotion that would make the skate medal worthy. Right now it was like a house with all the right foundations and walls, but no pretty decor to make it home. He needed to ponder the choreography, the story, the theme, and the lyrics of his music a bit more.

Something had drawn him to the composition and the program’s idea. Now he just had to flesh it out, tease out the bits and pieces he was afraid to uncover and admit to himself. No wonder Yakov had given him the weekend to think. Whatever was buried deep in his heart would probably hurt to admit aloud and would take time to come to terms with.

Viktor just had to be ready to be honest with himself.  

The Russian skater slung his bag over his shoulder and ambled out of the rink doors, taking the streets and sidewalks to his apartment rather than the late night buses. He may as well start thinking about his program now. Perhaps a walk would clear his mind and make room for the dust in his heart.

The night air was cold and crisp. Every breath Viktor drew in teased his lungs with little pinpricks of pain, as if he was breathing in actual shards of ice and feeling them catch on the back of his throat. The steam from his breath curled into the starry sky above like a lazy serpentine dragon unfurling its body into the air. The streetlights shone pale yellow on the snow encrusted sidewalks below, giving everything within sight an almost creepy ambience, like he was on the set of a horror film and about to meet his demise at the hands of a serial killer.

While St. Petersburg was a gorgeous city in the late hours, Viktor’s feet hurt and he just wanted to curl up on the couch with Makkachin and stew about his unsuccessful practice. Perhaps a warm cup of tea with jam in it would sooth his ragged nerves and give him peace enough to sleep tonight.

Perhaps he could call mama. Her soothing voice in his ear over the phone always made him feel relaxed, safe, and like nothing in the world could touch him. Maybe she could even give him a bit of advice about his program. Mothers often seemed to know their children more than the children knew themselves. She always had an answer for him.

Life seems to be full of hard choices and pain when we view it one piece at a time, like one dry spell after another after another after another. Live and let live, my Vitya. You deserve all happiness the world can give.

A muffled scratching broke Viktor out of his thoughts. He froze in place in the center of the sidewalk and peered around wildly, trying to place the direction of the sudden noise. It was coming from the alleyway next to him, behind one of the apartment dumpsters.

Probably a rat.

Viktor’s lip curled and he turned away toward his apartment again only a couple blocks down the street.

A quiet whine sounded behind him, the noise replete with pain and misery.

Viktor turned around again and picked his way carefully over discarded trash and puddles to the dumpster where the whine had come from. It didn’t sound like any rodent. In fact, it sounded like a cat or a dog in pain.

The skater’s heart raced as he set his bag down next to the dumpster and took hold of the cold green metal. The stench inside the garbage disposal was absolutely nauseating. Grit and waste long petrified to the metal sank under his fingernails as he gripped the edge of the dumpster and heaved. It gave way with a loud screech and Viktor tugged it away from the wall.

Wedged into the space between the brick wall of the apartment and the dumpster was a small cardboard box, bent and ripped and soaked through with water and probably waste. Viktor sidled as close as he could against the wall, jamming his body into the open space made by moving the dumpster. He winced as the wet brick soaked through his training shirt and hit his bare skin with ice.

Finally he could move no more. Viktor stretched his fingertips toward the box, catching the rim on one of the sides. He tugged the cardboard gently toward him, straining against the weight of something inside.

Upon closer inspection, he could catch sight of a little ball of soaking black fur curled against the corners of the box. Viktor gasped, pulling at the flaps to reveal the miserable, broken animal inside.

The mass of black fur shifted and roiled as a narrow head turned around to reveal a pair of beautiful chocolate brown eyes flecked with gold. The animal blinked at him muddily, great big luminous eyes holding pain and tiredness in their depths.

#yuuri katsuki #viktor nikiforov #victor nikiforov #yuri on ice #yoi fanfic #hbm au #kitsune #victuuri #viktuuri

[moonsandmelodies]

My Top Albums/EPs of 2018, Part 1 / 2

Like with my end-of-2017 list in December, I don’t intend this to be an in-depth recap. These releases are only what I’ve been able to hear so far, and there’s always some good stuff out there I happen to miss.

I’ve discussed before that I’ve had a lot of issues with the current music scene since around 2015, and not a lot of those issues have calmed at this point. This kind of obligated that I wouldn’t be crazy about this year’s music so far, and I haven’t been. The seeming exact same cliches and trends have persisted, some of them getting even worse. I’d elaborate some more, but it’s too complicated to get into for now.

That said, I have hope for the music to come in the next half of 2018, since I did hear a lot of albums that were close to being overall-strong from these past six months.  And I have to say that that’s an improvement.

I’ve also included a song link for each release, including for the honorable mentions under the cut - every chosen song is a personal favorite of mine. Stay tuned for more of my favorite songs of the year in my upcoming playlist!

Top 4 albums

4. Angelique Kidjo - Remain In Light

afro-funk

I was surprised and very intrigued when I learned Angelique Kidjo from Benin was to revamp the entire Remain In Light album by Talking Heads. According to her interview in LA Times, she heard “Once In A Lifetime” long ago and recognized the African influence in it’s sound, which is what eventually led to this cover album. Although part of me wishes some covers were a bit closer to the originals than they are, most of the interpretations are still very interesting and enjoyable with an excellent sense of energy and rhythm.

Listen to “Born Under Punches”

3. Music House - Scandi Disco compilation

electro-disco / synth pop / electropop / synthwave

If you’re bored of the sheer quantity of 80s retro music out there, maybe don’t listen to this. But if you’re like me and love this music enough to still give the continuous new releases a chance, I highly recommend this recent library album. I enjoyed near every song on this one, which is surprising seeing how it has no hype at all surrounding it. I only found it because I was looking through other, older releases by this label, Music House and this happened to be their most recent album. Everything about this album is shiny, stylish and fun with plenty of energy and melody. The production is impressive as expected from a stock music label, and while it has a prominent modern polish they channel the huge potential and legacy of electro-disco very well.

[note: the cover doesn’t seem to exist in a bigger size, hence it being smaller than other covers shown here.]

Listen to “37th Parallel”

2. U.S. Girls - In A Poem Unlimited

psychedelic pop / art pop

Bros are really into U.S. Girls’ music for whatever reason. But don’t let that scare you off - after all, it’s not like musicians choose what kind of audience they get. While I did find the previous U.S. Girls album Half Free a bit inconsistent, In A Poem Unlimited feels like a step up - there were only about 2 or 3 tracks that I didn’t enjoy. The album has a warm semi-70s feel thanks to the band put together for it. There’s also a sense of eclecticism that’s executed better than on a lot of other albums with similar ambitions. The voice of Meg Remy, the one true ‘member’ of U.S. Girls, can be quite twangy and takes a bit of getting used to at first, but it’s somewhat grown on me since then, and it got some time to shine here. This is most often when she does a kind of nervous falsetto like in two of my favorites, “Rosebud” and “L-Over”. While the many styles that Remy explores here aren’t much new (70s funk, jazzy rock, general quivering psych weirdness, a bit of synth pop), the variation of it all and the will to experiment helps keep things interesting, and most of them evade the boring cliches that tend to pop up in so much music lately.

Listen to “Rosebud”

1. Fishdoll - Noonsense

wonky / dream pop / electronic / downtempo

Fishdoll, a new artist from China, somehow manages to recall nearly everything I miss about electronic music of the earlier 10′s. I thought of 'wonky’ producers like FlyLo and Teebs who had such interesting and creative taste in electronic production and samples. Take a gander at the amazing operatic vocal/harp sample that ends “Beijing Well” or the spacey fluttering chords on most of the songs, for example. Fishdoll’s vocals are treated to subtle effects and manipulations that say, Grimes or Washed Out became popular for, channeling a similar kind of surreal sleepiness.

It doesn’t do enough justice to Fishdoll to make so many comparisons, though, since this album really does feel unique. And that’s exactly one of the reasons it’s my #1 of the year so far - it’s an electronic artist doing something unique and doing it well.

I’m looking forward to Fishdoll’s next musical move, and I’m convinced Noonsense deserves more than a bit of Bandcamp popularity, which seems to be all it got upon release.

Listen to “Blueeyce”

Top 4 EPs

4. Elaquent - Celebrate Life!

glitch hop / instrumental hip hop

Elaquent has retained a very good taste in shimmering, jazzy sounds like electric piano and even synths over the years that make his new EP very pleasant BGM. It’s not quite his best (his album The Midnight After would deserve that praise) but I enjoy it much more than his past few releases, so I have some restored hope for his future work. My favorite has to be “Sao Paulo”, which happens to sound more like a modern lounge instrumental than what I’ve come to expect from Elaquent.

Listen to “Sao Paulo”

3. D A V I C I I - W sercu pozostaje tylko to, co wypalone ogniem

hypnagogic pop / synth pop

This musician’s sound is similar to that of Adonis listed below - a kind of lo-fi, airy synth pop, but it makes sense since they’re on the same label. This EP is a bit more ghostly and empty, though - D A V I I C I puts his voice through what seems to be autotune to a very weird, even creepy effect. This is most noticeable on the songs “Skruszone serce“ and “Czas przez pryzmat“ which are also my favorites of the bunch. I have to say that while I like the idea of ‘hypnagogic pop’, it’s often bored or disappointed me; D A V I I C I and Adonis, though, have impressed me to an extent I didn’t expect.

Listen to “Skruzone serce”

2. Ravyn Lenae - Crush

neo soul / R&B / pop

Ravyn Lenae happens to be both a very good vocalist and just 19 (which is hardly older than me). This EP has an organic soul sound with some twists that help to distinguish it from the flood of gritty 'alternative' R&B that tends to get the sole approval from critics lately. It's also very concise, which helps. I figure she has a bright musical future ahead.

Listen to “Sticky”

1. Adonis - Wiosenna ofensywa nie trwa dłużej niż do letnich wakacji

hypnagogic pop / synth pop

I only came across Adonis through Bandcamp recommendations and he's still a bit of a mystery to me. This is in part because all the info and lyrics are Polish. But I'm glad I found this EP, since I enjoyed every one of these five songs - while I’ve been blasting the incredible title track all June. In a similar situation to Scandi Disco, it may not be very new, since it’s pretty much a collage of 'alt 80s’ sounds, but if you love the sort of music that entails (e.g. synth pop/shoegaze/dream pop) like I do, than I certainly recommend it.

Listen to “Wiosenna ofensywa nie trwa dłużej niż do letnich wakacji”

Honorable mentions

Gwenno - Le Kov

art pop / new wave / psychedelic pop / dream pop

I thoroughly enjoyed Gwenno’s previous solo album, and while this one has a similar sound, the songs do begin to feel too similar to each other, which is my main issue with it. Her unique style is still very pleasant to hear, she sings the songs in the revived Cornish language, and there’s a handful of songs I know I enjoy, but I couldn’t help but feel something was missing. I figure it could grow on me. Either way, it came close, hence my inclusion of it here.

Listen to “Tir ha Mor”

SOPHIE - Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides

bubblegum bass / experimental / post-industrial

There’s little doubt in my mind that SOPHIE is very talented and has a lot of promise as a musician/producer. I also find that while many of these songs are a bit too abrasive for my tastes, most of them still have interesting elements or ideas going for them. I just wish that there could’ve been a little less of the stressful industrial parts and more of the sort of aquatic sounds found in “Infatuation” and “Is It Cold In The Water?”. Or maybe even some more poppy songs. It could’ve gone either way, and I’m sure that either would still be interesting to hear from her. So while this album is not quite up my alley, I’ll be keeping an eye on what SOPHIE does in the future.

Listen to “Infatuation”

JQ - Invisible

new age / ambient / electronic

Seeing how this could be New Atlantis’ most gorgeous cover art yet, I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit disappointed in this. JQ has an interesting taste in sounds and I enjoy most of the ambient/new age tracks on here. However, elsewhere the album devolves a bit into other experiments that don’t always work. The album is split into two, with the first being lighter and the second darker. Overall, like New Atlantis’ previous releases, this does have a lot of good things going for it, which is why I include it here. It helps that most songs (minus two surprisingly pretty 7-minute-plus tracks) are short and digestible.

Listen to “Gold”

Mary Lattimore - Endless Days

Mary Lattimore plays the harp very well on this album and most of it works for peaceful BGM. Some songs do get a bit long-winded though and while I’m not opposed to the idea of harp combined with synths, that doesn’t sound very interesting here. The harp playing itself is still very impressive and I did enjoy around half the songs, which is why I wound up including it. I’ll have to look into her previous work since I’ve developed a much bigger appreciation for harp in the past year or so. My favorite song is without question “Hello From The Edge [...]”, maybe the most tender moment on the album.

Listen to “Hello From The Edge Of The Earth”

Beach House - 7

dream pop / indie pop

With this album I continue to enjoy Beach House at times and not get their immense hype other times. I have to admit I enjoy a lot of 7′s first half, which has a more moody, shoegazey sound than expected from BH. The second half, though, devolves into more twee territory that just doesn’t sound near as interesting. The instrumentation and the ideas sounded less creative, and it culminates in “Girl of the Year”, a bland slow jam with such generic, dreary lyrics as ‘Baby’s gone / All night long’. For this reason, I suggest hearing the first 6 - 7 songs myself, and only include it as an honorable mention.

Listen to “Dark Spring”

Melody’s Echo Chamber - Bon voyage

psychedelic pop / dream pop / progressive pop

Bon Voyage is often similar enough to the Melody’s Echo Chamber debut, but a lot weirder. The longer songs morph and evolve several times, sometimes in very unexpected ways. For the most part this makes for interesting, multilayered results, but in places it does wander a bit too much for my liking. This is most evident on “Desert Horse”, which is my least favorite on the album with it’s unfitting additions of turntable scratching, 808 drums and a general rambling feeling. If I ignore that song and a few other iffy moments, it’s nearing a #5 or #4 position in my above Top 4.

Listen to “Shirim”

#best of 2018 #2018 music #best of 2018 halfway #2018 favorites #2018 #2010s #10s #Fishdoll #Adonis #U.S. Girls #US Girls #Angelique Kidjo #Ravyn Lenae #D A V I I C I #Elaquent #Music House #SOPHIE #Melody's Echo Chamber #Mary Lattimore

[android-for-life]

"How AI is powering a more helpful Google"

When I first came across the web as a computer scientist in the mid-90s, I was struck by the sheer volume of information online, in contrast with how hard it was to find what you were looking for. It was then that I first started thinking about search, and I’ve been fascinated by the problem ever since. 

We’ve made tremendous progress over the past 22 years, making Google Search work better for you every day. With recent advancements in AI, we’re making bigger leaps forward in improvements to Google than we’ve seen over the last decade, so it’s even easier for you to find just what you’re looking for. Today during our Search On livestream, we shared how we're bringing the most advanced AI into our products to further our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Helping you find exactly what you’re looking for

At the heart of Google Search is our ability to understand your query and rank relevant results for that query. We’ve invested deeply in language understanding research, and last year we introduced how BERT language understanding systems are helping to deliver more relevant results in Google Search. Today we’re excited to share that BERT is now used in almost every query in English, helping you get higher quality results for your questions. We’re also sharing several new advancements to search ranking, made possible through our latest research in AI: 

Spelling We’ve continued to improve our ability to understand misspelled words, and for good reason—one in 10 queries every day are misspelled. Today, we’re introducing a new spelling algorithm that uses a deep neural net to significantly improve our ability to decipher misspellings. In fact, this single change makes a greater improvement to spelling than all of our improvements over the last five years.

A new spelling algorithm helps us understand the context of misspelled words, so we can help you find the right results, all in under 3 milliseconds.

Passages Very specific searches can be the hardest to get right, since sometimes the single sentence that answers your question might be buried deep in a web page. We’ve recently made a breakthrough in ranking and are now able to not just index web pages, but individual passages from the pages. By better understanding the relevancy of specific passages, not just the overall page, we can find that needle-in-a-haystack information you’re looking for. This technology will improve 7 percent of search queries across all languages as we roll it out globally.

With new passage understanding capabilities, Google can understand that the specific passage (R) is a lot more relevant to a specific query than a broader page on that topic (L).

Subtopics We’ve applied neural nets to understand subtopics around an interest, which helps deliver a greater diversity of content when you search for something broad. As an example, if you search for “home exercise equipment,” we can now understand relevant subtopics, such as budget equipment, premium picks, or small space ideas, and show a wider range of content for you on the search results page. We’ll start rolling this out by the end of this year.

Access to high quality information during COVID-19

We’re making several new improvements to help you navigate your world and get things done more safely and efficiently. Live busyness updates show you how busy a place is right now so you can more easily social distance, and we’ve added a new feature to Live View to help you get essential information about a business before you even step inside. We’re also adding COVID-19 safety information front and center on Business Profiles across Google Search and Maps. This will help you know if a business requires you to wear a mask, if you need to make an advance reservation, or if the staff is taking extra safety precautions, like temperature checks. And we’ve used our Duplex conversational technology to help local businesses keep their information up-to-date online, such as opening hours and store inventory.

Understanding key moments in videos

Using a new AI-driven approach, we’re now able to understand the deep semantics of a video and automatically identify key moments. This lets us tag those moments in the video, so you can navigate them like chapters in a book. Whether you’re looking for that one step in a recipe tutorial, or the game-winning home run in a highlights reel, you can easily find those moments. We’ve started testing this technology this year, and by the end of 2020 we expect that 10 percent of searches on Google will use this new technology.

Deepening understanding through data

Sometimes the best search result is a statistic. But often stats are buried in large datasets and not easily comprehensible or accessible online. Since 2018, we’ve been working on the Data Commons Project, an open knowledge database of statistical data started in collaboration with the U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, World Bank and many others. Bringing these datasets together was a first step, and now we’re making this information more accessible and useful through Google Search.

Now when you ask a question like “how many people work in Chicago ,” we use natural language processing to map your search to one specific set of the billions of data points in Data Commons to provide the right stat in a visual, easy to understand format. You’ll also find other relevant data points and context—like stats for other cities—to help you easily explore the topic in more depth.

Helping quality journalism through advanced search

Quality journalism often comes from long-term investigative projects, requiring time consuming work sifting through giant collections of documents, images and audio recordings. As part of Journalist Studio, our new suite of tools to help reporters do their work more efficiently, securely, and creatively through technology, we’re launching Pinpoint, a new tool that brings the power of Google Search to journalists. Pinpoint helps reporters quickly sift through hundreds of thousands of documents by automatically identifying and organizing the most frequently mentioned people, organizations and locations. Reporters can sign up to request access to Pinpoint starting this week.

Search what you see, and explore information in 3D

For many topics, seeing is key to understanding. Several new features in Lens and AR in Google Search help you learn, shop, and discover the world in new ways. Many of us are dealing with the challenges of learning from home, and with Lens, you can now get step-by-step homework help on math, chemistry, biology and physics problems. Social distancing has also dramatically changed how we shop, so we’re making it easier to visually shop for what you’re looking for online, whether you’re looking for a sweater or want a closer look at a new car but can’t visit a showroom.  

If you don’t know how to search it, sing it

We’ve all had that experience of having a tune stuck in our head, but can’t quite remember the lyrics. Now, when those moments arise, you just have to hum to search, and our AI models can match the melody to the right song.  

What sets Google Search apart

There has never been more choice in the ways people access information, and we need to constantly develop cutting-edge technology to ensure that Google remains the most useful and most trusted way to search. Four key elements form the foundation for all our work to improve Search and answer trillions of queries every year. These elements are what makes Google helpful and reliable for the people who come to us each day to find information.

Understanding all the world’s information We’re focused on deeply understanding all the world’s information, whether that information is contained in words on web pages, in images or videos, or even in the places and objects around us. With investments in AI, we’re able to analyze and understand all types of information in the world, just as we did by indexing web pages 22 years ago. We’re pushing the boundaries of what it means to understand the world, so before you even type in a query, we’re ready to help you explore new forms of information and insights never before available. 

The highest quality information  People rely on Search for the highest quality information available, and our commitment to quality has always been what set Google apart from day one. Every year we launch thousands of improvements to make Search better, and rigorously test each of these changes to ensure people find them helpful. Our ranking factors and policies are applied fairly to all websites, and this has led to widespread access to a diversity of information, ideas and viewpoints.

World class privacy and security To keep people and their data safe, we invest in world class privacy and security. We’ve led the industry in keeping you safe while searching with Safe Browsing and spam protection. We believe that privacy is a universal right and are committed to giving every user the tools they need to be in control.

Open access for everyone Last—but certainly not least—we are committed to open access for everyone. We aim to help the open web thrive, sending more traffic to the open web every year since Google was created. Google is free for everyone, accessible on any device, in more than 150 languages around the world, and we continue to expand our ability to serve people everywhere.

So wherever you are, whatever you’re looking for, however you’re able to sing, spell, say, or visualize it, you can search on with Google.

Source : The Official Google Blog via Source information

#jeprog

[writingforthethinkers]

Songs at Mermaid Lagoon

Once Upon A Time

Pairing: Peter Pan X Reader

Word Count: 1303

Warning: N/A

Summary: Reader loves to slip away from camp, and frequently goes to visit the mermaids down by the lagoon. She sings to them, but doesn’t realise a certain boy was also listening in.

A/N: Inspired by the song Under The Same Sun by Ben Howard. I recommend listening to it while you read because it is SO GOOD.

Sneaking out of camp now felt like instinct from all the times I’d done it. I could easily go unnoticed and disappear into the forest when no one was looking, and reappear just as easily whenever I pleased. It was a talent of mine. Either that or Pan wasn’t very observant.

I had no real reason for sneaking away, I would have been allowed to leave if I’d just asked, but there was no thrill in that. Slipping away without people knowing was entertaining whatever the circumstances; rain or shine, night or day. So, that’s what I did.

On this particular occurrence, it was the evening, after dinner, as the lost boys continued their normal routine of throwing themselves manically around the raging fire while Pan played out the hypnotising melody on his flute. The tune pulled me in too, but I resisted, deciding my trip to the lagoon was much more thrilling.

Standing from my place on a log, I gave a yawn, signalling at Pan that I was heading in for the night. He understood, and gave a light nod, his lips never leaving his flute. I began to turn towards the tent the two of us occupied; however, before my back was completely turned the boy gave me a wink. A smirk appeared from behind his flute as he moved it from in front of his face. I shake my head, smirking too, and continuing to mouth the word “later” before turning and walking towards the tent, pushing my way through the opening. 

Once I was cloaked in the dimness of the tent, with only a few flickering candles for light, I wasted no time in using my magic to disappear from the tent; reappearing moments later at the edge of Mermaid Lagoon.

I walk closer to the water, sitting on a rock that’s edge looms over the edge of the crystal-clear water, I cross my legs and let out a high-pitched whistle. Silence is all that answers for a moment, before the far-off splashing of water is heard. I watch the water as it ripples, the outlines of mermaids becoming clearer as they swim closer.

Making their way closer, a few break the surface of the water, calling out to me.

“(Y/N)!“ one cries, excitement evident in her voice.

“You’re back!" calls another; dipping under the water to swim the last distance to reach me.

“Hey girls," I reply, waiting patiently for them all to reach me. Many begin to surface, their perfect skin, luscious hair and perfectly-sculpted face emerging from the watery depths.

I’ve always been friends with the mermaids. The first time I met them was when Pan brought me to meet them, to show of the ferocity of his island and its inhabitants. The complete opposite of what he expected would occur happened, as the beautiful creatures took a shining to me. As of now, I frequently visit them at the secluded lagoon, spending hours on end in their company.

By now, the majority of the mermaids are gathered around me, and one reaches her hand out of the water to place it on my bare leg, pulling slightly as a request for me to dip my legs into the cool water. I oblige, uncrossing my legs and slipping my shoes off, emerging my legs up to the tops of my calves. Their eyes train on me, and we begin our usual chatter.

“Did you miss us?" a mermaid with long brown hair that pools on the surface of the water, asks.

“Every second I was gone,” I reply, grinning and looking into her vibrant green eyes. She seems pleased with the answer, letting out a small giggle and blushing lightly.

“How have you been, (Y/N)?" another questions, moving her arms gently through the water.

“Spectacular, how have you all been?” I enquire, leaning towards them slightly.

A chorus of sweet voices reply, each giving different joyous answers of how their last few days have been. The conversation continues, questions going back and forth between us all as the minutes tick by.

Later, another mermaid perks up above the rest. Her voice raises to be heard over the others.

“Will you sing to us again, (Y/N)? We do so love your voice."

The others all give words of approval, and I can’t seem to say no to them.

“Of course," I beam, “what do you want me to sing?”

“Anything!”

“You pick!”

“Okay, okay, let me think," I pretend to ponder the question for a moment even though I know exactly the song, floating through my head.

“I have one!" I say triumphantly, and they all draw closer in anticipation.

I clear my throat, reposition myself where I sit, before taking a deep breath and beginning.

”I lie in you charms, though it harms the best of me..."

I try to think about the artist who wrote the song. His name swimming in the back of my mind. I grasp for it and repeat it in my head when I have it.

Ben Howard. That was it. Before I came to Neverland, his songs were always my safe place.

I continue the song, slipping into the warmness the lyrics supply me. Hearing his voice in my head gives a certain reassurance that everything will be okay. It always had. I continue to the chorus, feeling the words roll of my tongue with ease.

”Will you be there when the day’s done, will you be there, under the same, under the same sun…”

I continue to lose myself in the lyrics, looking from the mermaids off to the horizon, drifting away from it all. I hear the guitar strum in my head as the beat picks up, I hum along before the lyrics kick back in.

”Lalalala lovely as you are…”

My heart beats in time, the blood in my veins carries the rhythm through my being.

”Lalalala lovely as you are, my dear…”

The song begins to slow within my mind, and my voice carries with it, lowering in volume as the song comes to an end.

”Lalalala lovely as you are.”

Everything goes silent. I’m pulled back to where I was sat at the beginning of the song, and I realise I haven’t gone anywhere, though I felt so far away. I look to the mermaids, and see they’re all silent with awe.

“You’re a truly beautiful singer, my love.” Peter’s voice shocks me as it pierces the silence and I turn to see him leaning against a tree. He smirks, as per usual, but it’s not menacing like it so often can be.

“Thanks,” I say breathlessly, the effects of the song still cradling me in its grasp.

He comes to sit by me, and the mermaids say their goodbyes, passing compliments my way before diving below the water. I bid them all goodbye and watch their figures swim away below the surface. Soon it’s just me and Peter.

“You realised I sneaked off,” I state.

“You think I didn’t? You’re good at giving us all the slip, but I always realise you’re gone before you get back,” he replies, looking at me.

“Oh, I thought I was a bit stealthier.”

“You are, I don’t know you’re gone until I come looking for you,” he places a kiss to my forehead, “you do have a slight advantage though with that magic of yours.”

“True,” I smile.

“C’mon, it’s getting cold, and I believe you promised me something earlier,” he smirks, I turn to face him.

“It is, in fact, later,” I smirk back, leaning in to peck him on the lips.

Pan takes that as go, and deepens the kiss, pulling me into him as we disappear from the lagoon, reappearing on our bed.

“You should sing more often,” he tells me between kisses.

#peter pan #peter pan x reader #peter pan imagine #ouat #once upon a time

[reactingwithexo]

Personality Analysis : Park Chanyeol (EXO)

A/N: I wanted to do something like this for a long time now, I’ve searched it and I couldn’t find a lot of in depth analysis of the members’ and well, I’ve been an EXO-L for a few years now so I feel confident enough to write some of my pov about the members individually. And these type of stuff helps a lot of new fans to understand them more and maybe change some opinions about some members.I’ll be writting indivudual profiles for all the original members.

Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist of any sorts and I have absolute no personal connection with the EXO members, so all displayed here it’s just a result of my observation and opinion. Long post ahead.

This will be divided in topics so it can be less messy.

First Impressions

In depth impressions

Development

Final thoughts        

 1. First Impressions : 

   I’ve noticed watching several reactions, that when people watch EXO mvs for the first time, they’ll think that Chanyeol is the ‘bad boy’ of the group, the one that must get in trouble all the time, and well, we know that’s not true , when I first met EXO, I was impressed by Chanyeol’s rap but I only really noticed him when I watched the 2013 Happy Camp episode , maybe it was the ears but I remember thinking ‘what a nice and funny guy’, at the time he was known as the ‘reaction king’ in EXO and he really lived up to his nickname, it was almost as a reflex (and he still does this in interviews, even if it’s in a minor scale) , he always nods or hums, just does anything to ‘react’ to what the other person is saying, I think this is partially due to how active he wants to look on camera and partially due to his own need of showing that he is indeed paying attention to the other party. Besides that, other aspects of his personality started to show, even if subtly, like his tendency of wanting to be one of the main features and the obvious playfulness. His basic public image is being one of the members that lift up the others’ moods and a jokester in general, the one who always has energy and a smile on his face.

 2. In depth impressions :

       There’s much more to talk about it on this topic, I actually only ‘figured out’ Chanyeol not so long ago, you can be easily fooled by the sunshine/happy virus image that he works so hard to show us all the time but there’s actually (and this is something I’ll probably talk about in every EXO member analysis) , there’s so much more behind it , one of the main points that really changed my view on him is the fact that he is actually very ‘moody’, the other members and himself have acknowledged this , that could possibly make him a more difficult person to live with on a daily basis so the secret is to have patience with him, since he’s very sensitive to criticism and you can see that he really values the public’s opinion AND the people’s around him opinions about him and his work in general, even if he gets shy about it, he generally shows that he is really proud of his own work and effort, a good example of this is when he was asked on a showcase about being the lead actor on ‘EXO next door’ (here: about minute 20:50).

I think that need for approval shows the most on him out of all the EXO members and honestly, a lot of people say he is a ‘show-off’ but that’s not the case, he has said on several occasions that he likes watching himself on screen and stuff like that (like here) , but generally he is just giving himself confidence so he can play his part more easily.

It is known that Chanyeol is a multitalented guy, he is safe to say the member that most produces (and writes) his own stuff along with Lay, and he is always seen with his equipment and posting stuff that he is working on, that said, I can 100% say that he loves what he does, he loves performing, either rapping, singing, acting, playing instruments or writing songs and it is where his heart mostly is, I’m aware that he listens to a wide variety of musical genres and he picks up on melodies really quick when it comes to playing a song. 

This is related to how much of a hardworker this guy is, I still remember watching the behind the scenes to the growl MV ( I couldn’t find the link, sorry), where he was being told that his dancing wasn’t good enough so he tried his 110% for the following shooting day and got praised, he later on said he was worried that his dancing would look really bad on screen, another example are two of the MAMA performances, the 2014 and the 2015 one , on the 2014 one, you can clearly see here that he was almost fainting and vomiting but he kept going for the sake of the performance, specially since 2014 was a year that held a lot of pressure against EXO in general so they all had this will to prove themselves as a group, now in 2015, after they performed ‘drop that’ and Chanyeol was jumping like crazy in a big ass coat , you can see here that he was completely exhausted after the performance, that only shows his perseverance once again and that’s a factor about him that everyone should respect.

A really important Chanyeol trait too is the way he handles himself around fans and around the other members, it is safe to say that all EXO members have grown closer over the years and they have said that in the begining they used to argue quite a lot but nowadays they just know each other’s limits , I think Chanyeol always showed a close relationship with most members, from Kris till Kai, I guess he always thought about them as friends and not just work buddies, there have been several occasions where he helps the other members to answer awkward questions or change the mood of the interview, diverting the focus to him when another member is going through a hard time, besides, he’s always showing support to other members’ projects, he has posted photos congratulating them on the release of their music , has supported their movies and etc. He is also the member who ALWAYS posts photos on the other members’ birthday, either being screenshots of him trying to be the first to wish them a happy birthday, or just photos with said birthday member with a cute caption.

As for his relationship with fans, Chanyeol stans are really lucky , this boy is always wanting to do broadcasts for the fans, even if he’s not doing anything special on them and he even has his own yt channel now (he only uploaded one video but anyways hah), he shared his soundcloud account , where he posts covers and stuff he is working on + being active on IG, this only shows that he is willing to reach to fans , and in person he is almost always interacting with fans, if you observe him during concerts, he looks extremely grateful, during songs and ments, I honestly never saw a concert where it looked like he wasn’t having it or something, also let’s not forget he wrote his rap part on promise, a song written for fans by EXO (you can check the lyrics here) , he asks for the fans’ forgiveness and asks if he can spend forever with us.

      3. Development :

  As all the other members, we can see Chanyeol developing throughout the years and opening himself more for the public eye, getting out of that basic image we get on the first impression, there are a few  things I wanna highlight on this section of my analysis.

 Let’s start with something he explained on the star show 360 episode with EXO, that it is that he is actually very ‘vulnerable’ to mood change, so he can easily adapt his behavior and actions in different enviroments to match other people, that to me shows again how he is a very social person who’s in need of company and reassurement , I’m relating this to how sweet he seems to be, putting your own emotions in display like that is not an easy task, he is willing to change in a matter of seconds so he can fit along other people, people who say he is selfish aren’t aware that even when he is having his bad days, he prefers not to tell other people so he won’t spoil the mood for them , as said here (starts minute 0:05), so basically he piles up his bad emotions to himself and keeps all the stress to himself, which could result on his mood changes that I’ve talked about on item 2.

Now I’ll adress a controversy, till this day people have been hating on Chanyeol because he is one of the members who most make jokes about Kai’s skin tone and stuff, I don’t have a lot to say about that other than the fact that I personally think him (or any other EXO member who jokes about it) don’t make these jokes to purposely hurt Kai’s feelings or anything of this sort,it is unfortunately a cultural thing in South Korea.

Chanyeol debuted in EXO when he was 20, now he is 24, so it is natural you can see him being more mature now but still keeping his personality essence within.

     4. Final Thoughts:

  Now for my final considerations, Park Chanyeol is throughtout an amazing guy. this man does anything for his group and for the fans, even when he is broken , he’ll still give his everything and hide all of his bad sides, whenever he makes the slightist mistake, he keeps going on and on about it because he can’t bare the possibility of screwing up , and no, he is not an attention seeker, he is just naturally bright, he is actually a very serious guy and people should respect him as such, he wants to develop professionally in all fields and always continue to make his own music and getting better at what he does, he is definetly someone who deserves all the fans he has and i’m proud of how we’ve gotten to know him more often during the years and he has came out of the superficial shelf created during rookie days.

He deserves so much love, I hope y’all rethink if you have something against him, honestly.

A/N: I’m sorry if this sucks, don’t come after me please, I plan on doing this for the other members, but if you guys hate it, please tell me, I can’t help it but think I left some stuff out but still.... who is your choice for next one? If you wnat me to continue , of course, thanks if you’ve read till here <3 I also apologize for grammar errors

#exo #exok #Park Chanyeol #chanyeol #exo personality #personality analysis #ot12 #kpop #exo analysis #yeollie #exo chanyeol #protect him #exo stuff

[tellytantra]

Prerna entered their room and found her husband Mr. Rishabh Bajaj standing near the window. She stood leaning at the door to look at her husband. He was lost in thoughts about a rival company take over, and she was lost in him. Looked like he had just came out of the bathroom after a bath. His hairs were still wet and she noticed a drop of water made its way behind his ear, on his perfectly sculpted neck and entered into his Grey T-shirt. Prerna painfully restricted her imagination of how it would feel to touch the skin under that T-shirt.  **** She shook her head and walked towards him slowly. She reached him and snaked her arms around him, hugging him from back. She leaned her head on his back, and closed her eyes relishing the feeling of being near him. Rishabh smiled as she hugged him. He held her hand, pulled her ahead and locked her in his embrace. She hugged him tight and rested her head on his chest, making his smile grow wider. They stood like that for a while, just holding each other and feeling the other's presence.  ‘Kya baat hai Mrs. Bajaj? Lagta hai aap mujhe miss kar rahi thi..?’, he asked and she nodded still hiding in his chest. He had been to Dubai for two days for a business conference and she had missed him terribly. Rishabh broke the hug and held her shoulders. She didn’t look at him, so he hooked a finger down her chin and made her look at him. She looked at him and found pure love in his eyes for her.  ‘Ab toh main aa gaya hu na’, he said and kissed her forehead. She nodded at him. ‘Toh kya ab mujhe ek smile mil sakti hai?’, he asked sweetly and she couldn’t help herself and smiled at him. ‘Agli baar aap apni business trips par Kuki aur mujhe bhi sath le jayenge’, she ordered him. ‘Vaise bhi business ke waqt aapko meri ki yaad toh aati nahi hai’, she complained and made a face. Rishabh found her antics really cute. ‘Aur ye aapse kisne keh diya Mrs. Bajaj?’, he asked. ‘Bas mujhe pata hai’, she looked sideways out of the window.  ‘Kuch nahi pata aapko… In do dino me ek bhi pal aisa nahi tha jab maine aapko miss nahi kiya. I really missed you Prerna’, he said and a smile graced her lips. She looked at him and he nodded.  ‘I love you Rishabh..’, she said and put her arms around his neck. ‘I love you too Mrs. Bajaj’, he encircled her waist and pulled her closer. **** Prerna was snapped out of her dream as she heard the music on the radio. She shook her head as she realised that she was dreaming. She slapped her palm gently on her forehead and smiled sheepishly at her stupidity. She looked at her husband and realised that the song was not playing on the radio, but on her husband’s mobile.  Tune O rangeele kaisa jaadu kiya, Piya piya bole matwala jiya Tune O rangeele kaisa jaadu.. Kiya, Piya piya bole matwala jiya Bahon me chhupake ye kya kiya.. O re piya..ooo Tune O rangeele kaisa jaadu.. Kiya, Piya piya bole matwala jiya She was amazed at realising that the lyrics conveyed exactly what she was feeling now a days. Her husband Mr. Rishabh Bajaj has surely done some magic on her. It had been almost three months to their marriage now. True that he had compelled her to marry him in exchange of Anurag’s freedom, but that was just a small part of Rishabh Bajaj’s personality. And she had seen many shades of this man in these three months. A doting and caring father, an extremely respectful husband, a humble and respecting son-in-law, her saviour, a son who misses his mother… and yet a man of power in business. He had a golden heart, which he hides from the world. There was a depth to him, that she was yet unable to reach, but she wanted to badly. He had surely done some magic on her, that her heart now beats for him only. Pass bulake gale se lagake , Tune toh badal dali duniya Naye hai nazare naye hai ishaare, Rahi na wo kal wali duniya Pass bulake gale se lagake , Tune toh badal dali duniya Naye hai nazare naye hai ishaare, Rahi na wo kal wali duniya That was completely true. By making her come to his house as his daughter’s mother, he had completely changed her world. There was everything new here. New home, new responsibilities, new level of freedom and respect that she had never received in her previous life. Yes, after a few weeks of stay in the Basu badi with her husband, she had realised how naive she was to not see the stark contrast of lives she had experienced with the two men in her life. With Anurag, it was always a fight and perseverance of proof for her character, specially because of his family. His love had made her self sacrificing, self harming, foolish girl, who had shackled and consumed herself in the destructive fire of his love. She had forgotten herself for his happiness. Though she hated to say this now, but it had been a painful and exhaustive journey for her.  On the other hand with Mr. Bajaj, it had always been a path where she was given the right to have her own choices. The decision of marrying him, was also presented to her as a choice. Even if as the only choice, but a choice. She had always received the level of respect, that every woman should, at his hands. She realised recently, that she had more freedom to become what she wants in this relationship. She was not expected to be sacrificing, ideal daughter-in-law of the house as in Basu family. But a strong, independent and powerful queen of the empire known as the Bajaj family. She was not supposed to forget herself for other’s happiness. Instead she was supposed to be evolving as herself as she spread happiness and love to him and his daughter. At first she couldn’t understand, but as time passed and the layers of his personality evolved, she realised that he really cared for her. He respected her and puts her on the same level of priority as his daughter. As she started to understand and discover him, she couldn’t help herself to fall in love with him. And this love was not painful, but relieving and uplifting. It didn’t have the fire to burn, but the warmth to cuddle. It was not exhausting, but refreshing and full of hope. It was not consuming, but life giving.  Sapne dikha ke ye kya kiya.. O re piya...ooo Tune O rangeele kaisa jaadu.. Kiya Piya piya bole matwala jiya She had accepted him as her husband wholeheartedly. That is why she was dreaming of him now. She had dreamt of a happy and loving life with him. She desired to be a part of his world, a part of his heart. The only thing remaining was confession. She wanted to let him know that she had fallen unconditionally in love with him. The difficulty was her nerves. She was nervous to confess that to him. What if he gets angry? What if he didn’t accept it? What if he rejects her love?  Prerna snapped out of her thoughts as she saw him comb his wet hairs with his fingers. She smiled to herself and walked inside the room. She went and stood beside him near the window. He looked at her and gave her a thin smile. ‘Good evening Mrs. Bajaj’, he greeted her. ‘Good evening Mr. Bajaj’, she greeted back. ‘Mujhe nahi pata tha ki aap puraane gaano ka bhi shauk rakhte hai!’ ‘Mere bare me aisi bohot si baate hai jo abhi aap nahi janti Mrs. Bajaj’, he smirked at her. ‘Toh aap batate kyun nahi?’, she asked and it surprised him. ‘Aap bhi toh nahi puchti’, he replied. He walked towards the couch, sat there and motioned for her as well to sit beside him. Instead she walked towards the bed surprising him. ‘Agar main puch liya karu, toh aap batayenge?’, she asked hopefully.  ‘Har cheez agar sahi waqt pe batayi jaye, to uska maza alag hota hai… agar us cheez ka sahi waqt ho, toh jarur bataunga’, he replied and she nodded. She then picked up his towel from the bed and walked towards him. ‘Aapki conference kaisi rahi?’, she asked as she approached him. ‘It was good. Quite informative’, he replied and saw that she went to stand behind him. She nodded and lowered the towel over his wet head. But before she could do anything, he held her hand. ‘Prerna ye aap kya kar rahi hai?’, he asked looking at her shocked. ‘Relax Mr. Bajaj, aapko hurt nahi kar rahi hu’, she said with a smirk. ‘Raat ko baal jyada der tak geele nahi rakhne chahiye, aapko zukaam ho sakta hai. It’s better that they are dried’. ‘Par ye aapka kam nahi hai. You don’t need to do it’, he said. ‘But I want to’, she replied simply and started to dry his hairs leaving him stunned. He sighed inaudibly as he relished the feel of her hands moving on his head. For a few moments there was silence as neither said anything. But then Rishabh broke it. ‘Uhh… Kuki aaj itni jaldi kaise so gayi?’, he asked trying to break the awkwardness. ‘Wo school se ane ke baad aaj hum bohot masti kar rahe the… Aap aanewale hai ye jaankar bohot excited thi, par itna khelne ke baad wo thak gayi aur use jaldi neend aa gayi’, she replied and he didn’t fail to notice the fondness in her voice, when she talked about their daughter. ‘Aur aap Mrs. Bajaj, aap bhi toh thak gayi hongi na?’, he asked. ‘Nahi, main toh aapka wait kar rahi..’, she bit her tongue at her slip, and it made him smirk. ‘I.. I mean, main nahi thaki hu. But thanks for asking’, she said. She quickly dried his hairs and started to leave from there. ‘Mrs. Bajaj’, he called out to her and she stopped in her tracks. ‘Aap kuch kehna chahti thi mujhse?’, he asked and she turned slowly to look at him. ‘Kuch kehna toh nahi tha.. Par.. kuch..kuch puchna chahti thi aapse?’, she said uncertainly. ‘Sure. Puchiye na?’, he prompted her. ‘I uhh… I don’t know if I have the right to… but.. agar aap bura na maane toh… toh kya main aapko Rishabh bula sakti hu?’, she asked hesitantly. He was really surprised at her question, but it also made him happy. He stood up and came to stand before her with a smirk.  ‘I would be honoured’, he said blinking his eyes once. ‘Aap meri wife hai. And you have every right to call me Rishabh, Mrs. Bajaj’, he said assuring her. As soon as she realised the meaning of his words, a smile started to grow on her face.  ‘You had a long flight… Aap thak gaye honge. Baithiye Rishabh, main khana yahi lekar aati hu’, she said enjoying the feel of calling him by his first name for the first time. He smiled at her and she left the room with a new hope and confidence in her heart. A hope that he might love her as well, and a confidence to confess her feelings soon. Niki

http://jodifiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/prerish-ss-hearts-desire-kasautii.html

#SEO #Local SEO training PreRish SS: Heart's Desire | Kasautii Zindagii Kay SS | Prerna | Rishabh Baj

[alexa-emilia]

Evolution of Disney Princesses

From young children discovering the magic of imagination, to adults who need to be reminded of simpler times, Disney is a large part of people’s lives. Whether it’s the magic, the characters, or the songs, there is something in Disney movies that makes people keep watching. As times have changed from the first movie, Disney has framed their characters to parallel what we see in society, especially for the female leads. From victim to heroine, Disney princesses have traded in waiting for their prince to save them for finding an adventure of their own and saving the world.

Walt Disney Pictures is split up into “ages” (Mahne) where every movie can be placed. The original Disney movies can be sorted into “The Golden Age”, the movies that Walt Disney was most involved in creating. The original Disney princess in The Golden Age was Snow White. On the surface, Snow White is known for being proper, soft-spoken, and nurturing; all traditionally feminine characteristics. While the dwarfs went to work, Snow White stayed home, cleaned the entire house, took care of the men, and got poisoned by an evil queen. She fell under a sleeping curse that only “true love’s kiss” could wake her from. Her only hope was for a man to come along and save her. I interviewed some younger girls about the Disney princesses. According to Emma, one of the girls I interviewed, “[Snow White] is not the brightest...why would you take an apple from someone you don’t even know?!” (Muir). Little girls nowadays don’t perceive the older princesses as very smart or powerful. Snow White was released in 1937, while World War 2 was in full swing; the men went to war while the women stayed home cleaning and taking care of the family. The role of women in society at that time matched Snow White’s role in the movie, however society now views Snow White’s characteristics as degrading.

Nearly ten years later, one of the most recognizable princesses came to the big screen. Cinderella, which came out in 1950, is part of “The Silver Age”. Cinderella’s conflict was with her family, an issue that closely mirrors society. She was forced by her stepmother and sisters to stay home and clean; she didn’t have much of a voice. Something to note is the importance of female relationships in this movie. There are distinct “bad guys”, the antagonists to Cinderella. However, there is also the fairy godmother who helps her. The camaraderie between the women is a small but important detail that portrays to little girls the importance of building those relationships. In the end, however, it is a man who must save Cinderella, making this a love story that ends with a marriage to a prince she knew for only a few days.

Progressivism in Disney movies really started to become apparent during the “Disney Renaissance”, which included a multitude of progressive princesses, including Pocahontas. Pocahontas, which was released in 1995, was the first Native American Disney princess. Pocahontas is strong, adventurous, and shows little girls what girls can become. Kasey, another girl I interviewed, said her favorite princess was Pocahontas because “she’s really strong and adventurous. She really shows that girls can be brave” (Burkett). In the movie, two men fall in love with her. In the end she follows her heart and doesn’t succumb to what her father wants. Pocahontas is rebellious in that sense, which is a change of pace from the older Disney princesses. She taught John Smith about the land and how to be respectful to the earth they are on. She appreciates all that’s around her. When she had the opportunity to go home to England with her true love, she decided to stay in her home with her family. She had a duty to her tribe as the princess and took on the responsibility to lead.

“The Revival Era” of Disney movies mirrors society's views of women very well from the year 2010 up to present day, starting with The Princess and the Frog. Tiana doesn't start out as a princess, she is an African American woman living in 1920's New Orleans. She has a dream of following her father's footsteps and becoming a successful cook and opening her own restaurant. Tiana has a strong sense of work ethic and she won't stop until she reaches her dreams, despite what challenges face her, including being turned into a frog. When she meets the prince who turns her into a frog on accident, they get lost in the swamps of Louisiana. They go on an adventure to get home and find the sorcerer to turn them back into humans. Love was not the main focus in this movie, it just happened on accident. Tiana and the prince got their happy ending. The Prince found a wife in Tiana and Tiana got her restaurant (and getting a husband that's a prince isn't a bad ending either). At one point, Tiana’s mom talks to her about finding a man and settling down, but Tiana doesn’t want that at this point in her life. In her song, “Almost There”, Tiana sings:

“I don't have time for dancin'

That's just gonna have to wait a while

Ain't got time for messin' around

And it's not my style. This whole town can slow you down

People takin' the easy way

But I know exactly where I am going

Gettin’ closer 'n closer every day”

She doesn’t have time to find a man and mess around. She needs to work and reach her goals. This movie teaches little girls about adventure, to dream big, and to never stop working towards your goals. As opposed to Snow White’s song “Some Day My Prince Will Come”, where she sings:

“Some day my prince will come

Some day I'll find my love

And how thrilling that moment will be

When the prince of my dreams comes to me...

I'll find my love some day

Some day when my dreams come true

Some day I'll find my love”

Snow White sings about her prince falling in love with her, and that is the extent of her dreams.

A new, entertaining movie with a strong life lessons is now the focus of “The Revival Era” of Disney movies. Moana is the newest installment in Disney princess movies. Moana is a South Pacific islander who, for her entire life, has dreamed about exploring the ocean. Her father, the leader of their tribe, does not want anyone to leave the island because he believes the open ocean is dangerous. Moana is the only child of the tribe leader, so she must grow up to lead. No one questions her leadership abilities because she is a woman; everyone accepts her. She ends up traveling the ocean with a demigod to save her island after it becomes sick with a curse that causes the islanders to run out of food. Moana’s ancestors were voyagers and Moana believes it is her destiny that she was chosen by the ocean to save the islands from extinction. Even during the time period of this movie, about 2000 years ago, the women are portrayed as strong and wise. There is no love interest in this movie; it’s all about Moana having her adventure.

As our society becomes more progressive and traditional gender roles are questioned, it is important for the younger generation, whether it be little girls or boys, to have strong women to look up to. A research journal of sex roles released a study on gender roles in Disney movies and concluded that “exposure to gendered material may influence children’s gender role acquisition and expression. Consistently portrayed gender role images may be interpreted as ‘normal’ by children and become connected with their concepts of socially acceptable behavior and morality. For example, when children see villainy in a character illustrated via gender transgression (e.g., a male villain appearing effeminate), they may develop lasting negative associations with non-stereotypical gendered behavior” (England). The earlier Disney movies had traditional gender roles assigned to their characters. Children growing up watching the newer Disney princess will question those gender roles and view women as strong and adventurous people with real potential to be successful in life. “I feel like the new princesses are more confident in who they are and they’re not as dependent on other people. They work hard to do what they need, they don't just sit around and wait for someone to come and help them.” (Muir). When I asked Burkett if she thought Disney princesses were good role models, she responded with “Yes, because princesses like Pocahontas show that girls can grow up to be anything.” Disney movies are fun and magical for all ages. As society progresses, Disney princesses have grown as well, becoming better role models for kids of all ages and having more depth to their characters. 

Works Cited:

“Almost There - The Princess And The Frog Lyrics HD.” YouTube, uploaded by           UkLuvsDisneyLyrics, 12 Mar. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?                 v=BUw5mnfQwfw.

England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek.                       "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses." Sex Roles. Vol. 64,               no.7, 2011, pp. 555-557. https://link-springer.com.ezproxy.lib.calpoly.

        edu/article/10.1007/s11199-011-9930-7. Accessed 24 March 2017.

Burkett, Kasey. Personal interview. 17 Mar 2017. 

Mahne, Keith. "The 7 Eras of Disney Filmmaking." Disney Avenue. 13 Aug.                2015, http://www.disneyavenue.com/2015/08/the-7-eras-of-disney-                    filmmaking.html. Accessed 24 Mar. 2017.

Muir, Emma. Personal interview. 17 Mar. 2017.

“Some Day My Prince Will Come.” YouTube, uploaded by hannah l, 14 Sep.               2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=394jSMBM60Q