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thiswasinevitableid · 3 years

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For the meet Ugly- 13 with Danbrey?

Here you go! I went SFW on this one

13: we make contact before trying to steal the last seat on the subway/bus/train and I end up in your lap and fuck you, I’m going to stay here because I’ve had a really long day and this seat was mine

The bus is not as fun as she remembers.

When Aubrey was a little kid, her mom would use the bus to take her to the museum or the movies or, on the best days, the magic store. Yes, the Little’s had a nice car, but her mom believed that not only was the bus better for the environment, it was a way to remember that there was nothing scary about being around people who come from all sorts of circumstances (Aubrey later learned this was due to her mom once being at a PTA meeting where hands were rung over children using public transportation being exposed to “unsavory” people).

“The world is full of all kinds of people, firebug. That’s not something to be scared of.”

She wipes her eye surreptitiously under the West Virginia sun. You’d think she’d have learned not to think about mom in public by now.

The bus line she’s using for her tour is inexplicably crowded; half these towns are on their way to being ghosts but somehow she’s always fighting for a seat. She doesn’t like her chances for this leg of the ride, since she got distracted reading about the history of Doc Martens and ended up towards the back of the line.

By some luck, there’s one seat left as she squeezes onto the bus, using her body to keep people from elbowing the fabric carrier containing Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD. But in the time she takes to turn to sit, someone else slips into the spot, so fast it’s almost inhuman.

“Um, excuse me, but this was my seat.” She turns to confront the thief and finds herself looking at a young woman about her age, with honey-blonde hair and hazel eyes which, were she not tired and grumpy, Aubrey would have lots of compliments for.

“No, it wasn’t. I got here first. You’ll just have to stand.”

“That’d be fine if it were just me.” The bus pulls away from the curb, “but it’s bad for Dr. Harris Bonkers to be suspended for too long.” She adjusts the bunny bag, hoping his big brown eyes and wiggly nose will make her case for her.

“Awww” the blonde coos, booping him through the mesh, “don’t worry little guy, you aren’t going too far. You’ll be fine if your person stands for a little bit.”

“It’s not a little bit, it’s twelve hour trip to my next stop!”

A smile full of understated charm and triumph, “It’s thirteen to mine.”

“Aw beans.”

“......are you going to get out of my lap at any point?”

“No” Aubrey turns her head to look out the window, “this is a good seat, even if there’s someone in it. I’m staying.”

It’s not her finest moment, to be sure. But she’s tired and heartsick so she is staying in this seat, damn it. The other woman grumbles something and slumps back against the black seat.

They hit the next stop, but not enough people get off, so she stays in her mystery lady’s lap. Her seat(mate) pulls a baggie of granola from the pocket of her definitely-not-cute-at-all overalls and crunches it louder than necessary by her ear.

“Uh, your rabbit is trying to get out.”

Aubrey glances down to see the mesh front straining as Dr. Harris Bonkers attempts to reach the granola.

“Don’t beg, young man, it’s rude.”

“Can he have a piece?” She holds up a dried strawberry.

“Um, sure.” Aubrey watches as she unzips the top of the carrier and let’s the rabbit nibble the treat from her hand. Aubrey’s a little jealous.

They don’t say anything to each other, but the rabbit gets two more treats before they reach the next stop. The person who’s spent the whole trip asleep in the window seat next to them jerks awake and hurries off the bus. Aubrey scoots into it before anyone can dare challenge her.

They’ve just turned onto the highway when she says, “Thanks. For, um, for sharing your granola.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And I’m, um, I’m sorry for sitting on you.”

“Yeah that wasn’t great, but if someone was going to sit on me I’m glad it’s the cutest passenger on the bus.” She points at Dr. Harris Bonkers, but keeps her eyes on Aubrey.

“We’re both kinda tired. We had a show late last night and we’re nervous for the one tomorrow.”

“Show?”

“I’m a magician and he’s my assistant. I’m known as the Lady Flame” she snaps and finger-guns, setting off a flashpaper, “but you can call me Aubrey.”

“Ma’am, no smoking on the bus!”

“Sorry!” She calls to the driver.

“I’m Dani” the blond boops Dr. Harris Bonkers again, “whose this guy?”

“Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD.”

“Nice to meet you, doctor.”

“Are, um, are you just traveling for fun?” She unzips the carrier enough for them both to pet him.

“Not really. I was running an, uh, an errand. I’ll be glad to get back to Kepler.” She fiddles with something in her pocket, “could I see more of your act?”

“I think that might get me thrown off the bus.”

“Don’t you have pictures?” Dani smiles.

“Oh duh, right, here, I even got someone to take some videos.” She scooches closer, Dani closing the remaining distance to rest their shoulders together. As they move through the videos, Dani is noticeably excited, even claps a few times. When Aubrey’s battery dies, they say “fuck” in sync.

“...want to play ‘I Spy?”

“Hell yeah.”

The next three hours pass in a flash, the two of them laughing and trading stories, all the while both cuddling closer to the window (to better play the game, of course).

They reach a travel hub, the driver informing everyone that they’ll leave in an hour on the dot. The two of them select a Dennys, since in Aubrey’s experience they tend to ignore her bringing in an eighteen pound rabbit.

She charges her phone while they eat, Dani getting corned beef hash, (“not as good as the one my friend makes back home”) while Aubrey has pancakes. She gets a little syrup on her cheek and nearly asks Dani to clean it off for her. With her tongue.

It’s dark when they get back to their seats, but the driver keeps the A.C cranked to the point that Aubrey is shivering. Dani pulls a shawl from her backpack, draping it around them both like a blanket as the trees become nothing more than vague shapes in the dark.

They talk about Aubrey’s tattoos, about the garden Dani has back home (“lots of veggies, you’d like that, wouldn’t you buddy?”). Last night starts catching up with Aubrey, yawns threatening to steal her attention from the way the light catches in Dani’s hair.

“Wanna see more videos?” That’s low energy flirtation, right?

“Of course.”

As she opens the videos, she hits an older album and an image of her and her mom fills the screen. She freezes, like the highbeams of the past are barrelling towards her and all she can do is watch.

“Aubrey?” Dani touches her cheek.

“Um, sorry.” She shoves the phone in the pocket of her jacket, “I, my, my mom died a little while ago. That was her. Um. I guess that was obvious. Sorry.”

Dani’s fingers find hers, interlacing them gently, “I’m so sorry, Aubrey. I...I get it. My family is, well I made some choices that mean I’ll never get to see them again. I, the reason I went on this trip was because I heard one of my brothers might have, uh, done the same thing. He hadn’t.” She sighs, “I don’t even know if they’re all still alive.”

“That sucks. This all. Fucking. Sucks.”

Dani nods, rests their heads together, “You know what doesn’t suck? Meeting you.”

“Pfffft” Aubrey smiles through her tears, hoping the joking noise will hide her blush.

Dani cups her cheeks, “I’m serious. Getting to know you feels like, like rounding a corner and seeing your house after years away. I, this is going to sound silly but please tell me you’re stopping in Kepler for a show?”

“I’m not but I, um, I guess I could still stop off there? If you really wanted me to.” Something about Dani’s smile, the warmth in her eyes, soothes her grief to sleep for now.

“I do, fireblossom, so much.”

Aubrey blushes, “Think you might be my first fan; no one else ever requests a show.”

Dani kisses her cheek, “I might even request one in private.”

“I could get into that” she yawns, “damn it, I don’t wanna sleep. I wanna keep flirting with you, cutie pie.”

Dani shifts their luggage, scoots sideways and guides Aubrey’s head down into her lap, “Get some rest, Aubrey. Just being able to look at you is enough for me.”

“Awww” Aubrey nestles against her stomach, “you’re so cute...just a...cutie...pie...zzz”

The last thing she feels is a kiss on the forehead and Dani tucking the shawl around her.

-----------------------------------------------

Aubrey does not want to get off this bus; Dani is cuddled up next to her, telling her about what kind of flowers she’d grow her, when he stops come up.

“Whelp….this is me.”

Dani helps her off the bus, passing her the carrier containing a sleeping Dr. Harris Bonkers. Then she smirks, “is your balance pretty good.”

“Yeah? Wh-mmphhoh” She holds tight as Dani nearly knocks her off her feet in a kiss. She tastes like the strawberry poptart they split for breakfast and is not making it any easier to say goodbye.

“Promise you’ll come see me in Kepler?’ Dani murmurs against her lips.

“Promise.”

A kiss on the nose, then a longer one on the mouth that makes Aubrey feel like she’s going to go up flashpaper. Then Dani is gone, off towards Kepler. A town Aubrey has no knowledge of and no idea how to navigate. And she didn’t get Dani’s last name.

“Fuck.” She says to the rabbit.

The rabbit simply snuffles in reply.

-------------------------------------

A few hours after her most catastrophic show to date and getting a gun pointed at her, Aubrey walks into Amnesty Lodge and finds a certain face, haloed with golden hair, waiting for her by the fireplace.

#Aubrey little/dani #danbrey #TAZ Amnesty #meet ugly

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darklightmiwxo · 3 years

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MIW history

Hello I want to make a history and facts post of MIW. I been a fan for a few months so I may miss some stuff out. New fans can check this out to understand more of the band.

Motionless in white members:

[IMG=OAA]

Name: Chris motionless (cerulli)

Full name: Christopher Cerulli)

Age: 34

Birthday: October 17 1986

Zodiac: Libra

Birth place: Scranton Pennsylvania

Height: 6'1

Role: main singer

Relationship Status: single

Chris says he doesn't want to get married.

Fear: heights and flying

Personality: a really kind person who cares for his fans he's funny and has a dad humor. Everyone just see him as a dad to them.

Interest: Chris really loves dogs. He plays video games halo and call of duty he plays it all the time. His fave bands is slipknot,marlin manson,korn,HIM,and more rock bands.

[IMG=EOZ]

Name: Ricky Olson (horror)

Full name: Richard Alison Olson the third

Nick name: Rick

Age: 32

Birthday: September 1st 1988

Birth place: Seattle WA

Lives: Scranton Pennsylvania

Zodiac: Virgo

Height: 5'6

Uni: he studied film production in college but dropped out for the band.

Role: rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist

Relationship status: taken by Jamie L

Fear: dying alone,being hated,failing

Personality: he's a calm sweet person he's very smart and also really kind. He's a good caring friend. However he can be a troll sometimes and mess around with everyone because he loves doing it. He loves his fans so much. He's a shy boy.

Interest: he loves to write,draw,edit,take photos, record videos,run his YouTube channel,create a mini sketch video to post on his channel, being a director,he loves cats and reading books.

Ricky fave bands is: muse,HIM,afi,slipknot,BMTH,Ariana grande,Ellie goulding.

[IMG=NEP]

Name: Vinny Mauro

Full name: Vinchenzo Mauro

Nick name: vin,chenzo,sachetti

Nationality: Italian American

Age: 27

Birthday: Nov 22 1993

Birth place: jersey shore Pennsylvania

Zodiac: Sagittarius

(he's also a Sagittarius Scorpio cusp)

Height: 5'6

Uni: vinny study computer programming but he dropped out of college to join the band in 2014

Role: drummer

Bands: MIW,suffer club,trap demon

Relationship Status: single

Fear: being hated by people

Personality: in most of Ricky vlogs vinny seem extroverted he is loud around friends and has lots of fun being silly. But in reality there is a side to him that isn't easy to see you can see it in his twitch stream. He's actually really introverted he said this himself. He's calming and sweet he interact with fans a lot and making sure fans respect each other. He loves to be alone in his room for many days avoiding human contact. Vinny mention being too shy to go up to new people but he is fine if people go up to him. He doesn't feel comfortable talking to new people. He likes being alone.

Interest: creating rap beats,playing video games,making music,dogs and cats,playing drums.

Vinny fave artist are: Fall out boy,paramore,korn,panic! At the disco,HIM,my chemical romance,arch enemy,maroon 5,emeiem,Ariana grande,dua lipa,Mack millo,doji cat,bring me the horizon,pierce the veil,sleeping with sirens,all time low,black veil brides,Rihanna,linkin park,green day,evanescences.

[IMG=XHH]

Name: Ryan Sitkowski

Age: 30

Birthday: Jan 8,1991

Zodiac: Capricorn

Birth place: Pennsylvania

Height: 5'11?

Uni: he dropped out of college to join MIW

Role: lead guitarist

Relationship Status: taken

Fear: spiders

Personality: Ryan is a chill person he's shy and caring to fans. He's also a troll he loves to mess around with his friends.

Interest: guitar,video games,trading card games.

Bands: the same as the rest of miw probably.

[IMG=QFE]

Name: Justin morrow

Age: 32?

Birthday: May 11th

Birth place: Caledonia, New York

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 6'1

Role: bassist

Relationship Status: married

Fear: ?

Personality: Justin is a kind chill person who cares for his fans and his friends. He left ice nine kills to right away help MIW on tour. Justin is also a troll he loves trolling his friends.

Interest: videos games but not a nerd like the others,bass,cosplaying,putting makeup on.

Bands: the same as MIW

Motionless in white history:

The band started in high school of 2005

Chris,Angelo,Frank p,Kyle white being the first members of the band. Later after college and the bands demo releases Josh joined the band. Frank moved to bass. Micheal and TJ join as guitarist. Later on micheal left the band and Chris met Ryan. Ryan then joined as guitarist of the band. Chris met Ricky in 2009. Frank left the band and Ricky was the new bassist for MIW.

MIW got more popular in 2009 when they tour around the state's in a van. Tj left the band a year later to join escape the fate (Ronnie radke of falling in reverse old band and bless the fall singer Craig band) Ricky then became the new rythmn guitarist of the band. Ghost (Devin) join as the bass player of the band. During the infamous album creation Angelo was feeling ill he couldn't play drums well anymore he gets tired easily and his drum skills wasn't good at all he was eating bad that it make him weak. He couldn't drum anymore so he left the band. The band had other drummers help record their albums. Brandon was the touring drummer for the band till the end of the reincarnated album. The band met vinny and he became the new drummer he was in the reincarnated music video playing drums but you can't see him much in the music video. Vinny then became a member of MIW not a tour drummer anymore but a actually member of MIW. Josh left the band around this time. In the graveyard shift era after the making of the album the whole band kicked ghost out of the band because the fans told the band what ghost did to fans which was very gross. The band kicked him out and Justin from ice nine kills join the band as bassist then he quit ice nine kills to be working full time for MIW. Disguise is the first album where the whole current members of the band created songs without other people doing it for them.

Chris history from high school to now:

Chris grew up in Pennsylvania. He met his friends who end up being the band members of the band he wanted to create he wasn't expecting to be the main singer. At a young age Chris started getting tattoos everywhere.

Chris cared about the band and just went for it.

Demos of the band was created. Chris is a perfectionist he wants the album to be perfect so he was judging everything in order to make a album he liked. Band members left but he didn't quit the band he try to find new band members and try to meet new bands. He worked hard for the band he carry the whole band and make sure the band was doing well. Chris thanks Ryan and Ricky for being the most loyal band members staying with him all these years and not leaving him. Chris had the fear of failing the band breaking up and Chris dreams crushing down but Chris didn't let that happen at all. And here we are today.

Ryan Sitkowski college to now:

Ryan dropped out of college to join MIW at age 17. He was new to the band and Josh didn't like him at all. Ryan was at a young age traveling all over the state with the band. Ryan haven't shared much of his life on the internet he kept it more private. Ryan got a girlfriend and then when the lockdown happen he started streaming on twitch to interact with fans and made a discord too.

Ricky Olson high school to now:

Ricky is the oldest of his siblings. When Ricky was young he was playing with his friends sports and something hit his tooth so half of Ricky teeth is fake. He mention he cry to his mom on the phone because of it. Ricky in middle school wanted to be in a band because his friends played instruments and he wanted to join them. Ricky in high school was a shy boy who had a few friends but they were mostly fake friends. Ricky Olson begin to play guitar and write stories because of the inspiration of Ville Valo from HIM. He became obsessed with HIM. Ricky was in a band in high school as the lead singer but was kicked out for sounding like Ville valo. One of Ricky dreams was to be in a band and also a film maker. In college he study film production. While also working in band merch booth selling band merch to people. But since Ricky was too shy he got yelled at for not speaking up and selling more. Ricky was in a bad time around 2008 and 2009. He share this in a blog years ago about this. He was in a lost place had a bad past and he was thinking of the past all the time and future worrying about failing the future he wanted to be in a band but he was so lost he had no idea what to do in his life. He would day dream about being in a band and then cry to sleep every night about his life. He had depression and gave up with everything in his life. He drank achoul every day. One day on his sister 16 birthday Ricky was drunk coming home from work to go to his parents house his sister was sleeping in her bed.

Tw// self harm and suicide attempt:

Ricky was laying in his sister's bed he cut his arm with a knife it was a lot Ricky was sobbing while watching the blood going down his arm to the floor his dad saw what happen and ask Ricky what happen. Ricky was sobbing and yelling he wanted to die many times. He passed out and went to the hospital he lost a lot of blood and the achoul level was really high he drank way too much. He almost died. He end up getting better and went to see a therapist. He went to see MIW with a friend. Ricky met Chris and the band thought Ricky was cool so he invited them to stay at his house. Chris text Ricky being like should join our band. Ricky would often say idk if I should he didn't know if he would be good enough for the band.

He later on join and quit college but Ricky mention still feeling depressed while in the band. Josh ballaz disliked Ricky when he joined too. 2 years later Ricky moved to rythmn guitarist but he wasn't used to playing guitar since he mostly did bass so he often made mistakes on guitar. He was still learning to play guitar. Things got better for Ricky. But his dream job was always filming he does some film stuff on tour and at home. Though he knew he probably won't be a film maker for movies like he dream of doing he makes whatever he can make. Ricky has stomach problems he often went to the doctor because of it.

Vinny Mauro childhood to now:

Vinny is one of the youngest children of his family. He has many siblings. Vinny mention on stream that he had a bad past. He mention that his dad would take achoul all the time and not give a fuck about vinny. Vinny mom would always go after Vinny. Vinny as a kid was a trouble maker he would disobey his parents and think it was funny. His mom would throw stuff at him and threaten him. His dad gave him a drum set so vinny end up learning to play drums he self taught himself to play drums. He listen to music and got into new types of music he likes all types of music. In middle school a girl that he liked asked him if he can play paramore on drums and vinny played it for her.

In high school vinny was a outcast and loner he made friends in his neighborhood but at school he had no friend. He didn't fit in with anyone. He mention in Ricky Olson podcast his high school life. Ricky ask him how he didn't find friends in high school. Vinny mention saying he didn't fit in with anyone he is also a shy person so he doesn't go up to new people. He was more a loner and was fine with it. Vinny went to uni to study computer programming but he didn't like it at all he was often bored he posted videos of him drumming on his YouTube channel. He knew a guy who knew MIW. MIW was looking for a drummer and they asked vinny to try out for drums in another country which was Australia. Vinny dropped out of college and told his parents what he was doing they weren't happy about that but he end up going over there trying out drums but he was very nervous. He met the band and then went to start drumming. Chris and Ricky were in the same room as vinny they were watching him play drums. Chris being very judgemental. He often scares Ricky when he's on guitar and Ricky fear to make a single mistake in front of Chris and vinny felt that fear. He even said I think I mess up a few times on drums. After he finish drumming. Ricky and Chris went to talk said not a single word and vinny was sweating so much thinking he made a mistake and he won't be part of the band. Later on Chris made vinny part of the band. Vinny became the tour member of the band then he became a member of MIW.

Years later vinny decided to interact more with fans since he had time to so he livestreams on twitch and has discord to interact with fans.

The lock down happen and vinny spend time interacting with fans. He lives with his friend in a house together. But something about vinny these few years mostly months to now that was starting to show. Vinny was suddenly showing signs of depression he often tweet depressing stuff but each year got worst for him. 2020 was the start of vinny's down fall. He had so much self hate he hated his hair,his body,his looks everything about himself he hate. He even tweeted saying I'm sad so I'm going to make a song. He release alone. Even he tweeted about something sad saying 2020 was a bad start for him and Ricky ask if he was ok and hoping vinny was just joking around. During December vinny had back pains because of a sneeze that hurt his nerves so vinny was in so much pain and he didn't see a doctor he thought he could fight it himself just taking pain meds to him. In Jan of 2021 the start of vinny down hill. He was in so much pain he couldn't leave his room or chair he couldn't even drum. He was very depressed. He hated life so much. A month later he got better and went back to streaming but still he was struggling there was some bad stuff happening anyway with him. The covid shot made him sick Saying he didnt eat anything for 4 days he felt like throwing up he even woke up in the middle of the night thinking he was going to do it and other stuff that made him depressed. Around April of this year small amount of fans notice something was going on with vinny he mention so much self hate about himself. In May he mention he was fine but a week later he said he was depressed and talking about what happen months ago and years ago. Sharing something about his family past and he stopped himself saying he doesn't want to get too into it. Vinny mention that he was eating food once a day because he felt like he is fat for over eating food all the time so he end up just eating dinner only everyday. He done it since the beginning of March and still is doing it. He wanted to loss weight. So he doesn't want breakfast and lunch but he eats dinner.

Around may vinny was in rock bottom he talk to no one at all even Ryan was 30 mins away from vinny and he ask him why he didn't go to see him and vinny said he didn't know why. Vinny mention saying he talked to no one for a week straight he also mention he isn't the kind of person to go up to people he said he's very introverted. he stopped streaming for weeks because he was doing bad. He said he felt burnt out and tired.

He took his break off social media for many weeks. Around this time many fans notice vinny was really not doing well.

Then he return to streaming around the 18th of June. Just to say hi he said he miss his fans but he plans to stream again a few weeks later. He mention that he have been avoiding all human contact and was staying in his room playing video games and drums all day still with the once a meal thing he does. Vinny said he's not depressed but people ask him about his depressing tweets and he said is it really depressing. Someone ask him why he is listening to sad music and he said am I not allowed to enjoy music. Now more fans are worried about him. Many more fans noticing that vinny isn't ok and he's hiding it.

That's basically all of MIW history I could give.

I will update and add more to the list later when something new happens. The vinny stuff is true I been watching his streams a lot and he mention those stuff so I just wanted to share what he said. I been a MIW fan for 8 months so I may not know Ryan and Justin as much as the others. Since they don't share much about themselves.

Hoping you enjoy this. Free feel to comment somethings I forgot to add.

Please don't argue about ghost ok. Ty

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unholyhelbig · 3 years

Text

Title: Centerfold [Pt.2]

Ship: Beca Mitchell/ Chloe Beale

(Read Part one here)

Beca Mitchell’s phone was a box of constant communication. She had her emails redirected so that she could feel every single time she needed to address something at the office, even if she was there and the soft pinging culminated in the very screen she stared at. She had a multitude of contacts and would video chat with the team in Italy, and sometimes L.A.

So, what she knew deep down, was that it was impossible for her not to look at her phone all day. Physically she had to check the notifications to keep her world running. Emily intercepted most of them, keeping her deep stare on her own screen before glancing up at her boss every couple of minutes. They were both on edge and Beca didn’t much appreciate the tension that sparked between them.

She held her breathe each time a new ping sounded off until eventually that lull of anxiety was hushed to a dull ache in the pit of her chest. She went through her morning meets and a new presentation to her team about how their coding for a new watch wasn’t up to parr- they had a few days to fix it before it dropped, and the CEO made sure she knew that.

When the notification from Chloe did finally come through, Beca almost didn’t’ notice. She registered the pink of the logo that slowly shifted to a deep purple. But the name? Oh, the name she hadn’t clocked for a few seconds after that. And even then, Chloe Beale? Her Chloe, actually responded.

Beca lilted the computer screen and frantically looked up at Emily, who was already at her door. She didn’t bother to knock. Instead, she situated the office and closed the blinds and very coolly, but not so coolly, pressed her back against the wood and breathed.

“Dude,” Beca said.

“I know,” Emily said “Did you read it?”

She hadn’t read it. She hadn’t even thought to read it because her mind got stuck behind the massive roadblock that was Chloe Beale and her stupid pun username. She opened the application and hesitated over the message icon. She was supposed to be playing it hard to get like she didn’t’ care if she even got a response. But she did care and apparently so did her assistant because she was right behind her, blindly gawking like her halo fell into her eyes and blinded her from right and wrong.

“If I click this she’ll see that I read it and then there’s no going back.”

“You don’t want to go back, do you?”

“You told me to keep her guessing,”

“Truthfully, I didn’t think you’d even get a response.” Emily shrugged sheepishly “Figured you would forget about it in a few days and… open it.”

Beca frowned but hovered the mouse over the message. She wanted to close her eyes but felt like she was watching a car accident, complete with the red and blue flashing lights and the metallic crunch of metal. Either way, she couldn't avert her stare. She didn’t want to.

Chloe: Hey stranger. I must admit that I was never expecting to hear from you again, big shot manager. I’ve kept my tabs on you… New York is my home, so if you’re serious about coffee, so am I.

Her breath caught in her throat. Chloe Fucking Beale had said yes. Her childhood love had agreed to coffee that neither of them could probably stomach. Chloe Fucking Beale who was a playboy model with more than a million Instagram followers, and Chloe Fucking Beale who she was pretty sure she still loved.

There had been other people, men, and women that she had thought she fell for. She folded into soft touches and stronger commands. She was happy for months at a time and on one rare occasion a full year with a man who ran his own tours of the city. But none of those relationships had ever been like the one she had with Chloe.

Beca pulled in a long breath that filled her lungs with stale coffee and copy paper. She tilted her lid and looked to Emily because she was the expert. And Beca was frozen. That same cold excitement filled her and it also rocked her ever-loving shit. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think.

Emily looked at the darkened screen, then at her boss, then back at the screen before lunging forward and typing back a reply. Perfect. Are you free this Saturday?

It turns out that Chloe was free that Saturday and if she wasn’t, she didn’t’ say a word and quietly cleared her schedule. The day was quickly approaching and Beca really wanted to know why the New York Branch put her in charge of everything when she could barely figure out what to wear to a simple cup of coffee.

This felt more like a simple cup of coffee.

Emily eventually got tired of the barrage of pictures she was getting and took a cab to Beca’s apartment an hour before the actual date. They settled on black jeans and a blue button-down that Emily pulled closer to her chest for extra measure because according to her “You look good in anything and Chloe won’t be able to make eye contact with you.”

Then she was on a subway that smelled like stale snow and hot morning breath. They picked a small shop downtown that not many people knew about. It was a feat in the city to find a place that wasn’t packed like a sardine can and Beca trusted Chloe’s judgment tenfold.

Beca got there first, and her palms were sweating despite the cool atmosphere that swept through the little shop each time the door opened. It was a meta cross between a thrifted bookstore and a café. People sat and ate and read and the scent of what Beca imagined old magic to be, mingled well with coffee grinds and fresh pastries.

She ordered a simple black americano and settled by the front window, the glass fogged from a warm contrast with the cold of the busy street and curved lettering faced the patrons. There was a simple logo and one barista behind the counter. She chose a random book and pretended to read, but only skimmed the same paragraph over and over again.

Her main focus was on the door and the bell that chimed each time it was opened. One of those times, after a businessman and a hipster kid hugging his laptop close to his chest, it was Chloe. Soft and vibrant compared to the rest of the dim academic setting.

Her hair was pulled behind her ears and a pair of golden framed glasses rested on her nose. She had aged like wine and the wind that blew in behind her carried the sweet scent of southern peaches through the front door. She wore a white sweater with a plaid peacoat and high wasted jeans, and Beca knew she was staring.

Everyone was, they couldn’t’ help it. She overtook the room with a warm and sparked presence. If anyone recognized her they didn’t’ say a thing, out of saving their own face or because the girl in the centerfold of the latest playboy was wildly different than the one standing in front of her. This… this was her Chloe.

She didn’t’ know if she could hug Chloe, if touching was okay, but as she stood to greet her, she was pulled into the warmth of the woman. She was wrapped in overwhelming touch and emotion and she buried her nose into Chloe’s hair as they held onto each other, not quite willing to let go of the familiarity before realizing that it was inappropriate not to.

“Wow,” Chloe ran her hands down Beca’s arms, stopping at her elbows “You haven’t aged a day, have you?”

“It’s the lighting in here, I think it’s one step up from basement overhead.”

Chloe laughed and it was a magical sound. The only thing more intoxicating was her smile, which never seemed to leave her lips as she ordered her own drink, something loaded with sugar and caramel, and leaned forward across the table to get a better look at her date.

Beca sipped her coffee and quirked an eyebrow “What?”

“I haven’t seen you in ten years, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for me to study you.”

“There’ll be plenty of time for that,” She tested “What have you been up to all these years?”

Chloe leaned back in her seat and cupped her mug. It was a russet red and steam rose from the pale liquid that soaked inside. There was a sickeningly sweet odor to it and part of Beca regretted ordering nothing but a black coffee. It seemed like a disservice to the atmosphere of the shop.

“Oh, a bunch of stuff here and there. I used to be based out of LA, I did a lot of acting there. Little stuff like soap operas and a couple of commercials. It wasn’t for me, though so I moved here to pursue modeling and it’s been going well. Really well.”

Beca didn’t’ want to mention the playboy magazine or the curve of Chloe’s legs and the way her skin shown under the bright summer sun. She never returned it to Jason because he never asked for it back. It was an unspoken solidarity between the two.

“That’s amazing,” Beca smiled, feeling excitement in her chest “Anything I would recognize?”

Chloe hummed into her drink “Mm, maybe a few things. It depends on how you feel about Playboy. I never thought you were much of a reader.”

Beca looked down dejectedly at the old spined book to her right. It was true, she hadn’t read the Catcher in the Rye and she barely got through the introduction paragraph because of the nerves and the heartbeat that beat so strongly against the inside of her wrist right now.

“I’m not usually. But I do enjoy looking at the pictures.” Beca flicked her stare back towards the woman across from her “Though, that’s not the reason I reached out to you.”

“Truth is, I’ve always wanted to message you, but you looked like you were doing so well. Like you were so happy. I didn’t want to throw you off or seem like I was chasing something that we used to have.” She said, “So I waited.”

It was Beca’s turn to laugh, “I felt the same exact way. We’re both pretty stupid, then huh? Waiting like this for something we knew… for something we knew we wanted.”

Chloe smiled wider and clinked her mug against Beca’s yellow one, not spilling any of the mostly full drink. “To being stupid. And getting to know each other all over again.”

And that’s exactly what they did. They sat and talked until they were the only two in the coffee shop and Beca even dared to kiss Chloe when they got to the subway platform. She tasted like caramel and sunshine if such a thing was even possible.

But it was because she had found Chloe. Centerfold Chloe. High school Chloe, and most importantly, her Chloe.

#Beca Mitchell #chloe beale #bechloe #bechloe fic rec #pitch perfect #pitch perfect fandom #pitch perfect fanfiction #Bechloe Fanfic #Bechloe fanfiction #Request #au

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ridiculousn3sswrites · 4 years

Text

Closer

*Thomas Jefferson x Reader

*Summary: Reader is very into one of her housemates. After a couple house parties, she finds out he’s very into her.

*Warnings: Swearing, drinking, (mentions of) weed smoking, jealousy, insecurity, smut, grinding, hickies, tiddy sucking, fingering, vaginal sex, (my attempt at) dirty talk, a lot of consent check-ins, morning after awkwardness

*A/N: I’VE FINALLY BEEN DRIVEN TO WRITE SMUT. Like, this was hard for me but I had fun writing it (this fic is 8k words oops). Also sorry if it’s not the best, I really did try.

My Ko-Fi

**********

You had two major rules for living with people: never sleep with them, and definitely never develop feelings for them. In your two years of living in the dorms you’d managed to abide by those rules, but you faced the biggest challenge to your rule the second you stopped living in the dorms. In your third year, you moved into a housing option that was a lot cheaper than the dorms or a regular apartment. The house you moved into was pretty small - only 12 people - so everyone saw a lot of each other. Cue the start of your troubles.

When you first had a video call with the other members of your house, your eyes immediately were drawn to one corner of the screen. Sure, you’d joined in the middle of a conversation so his box was highlighted, but you were sure you would have been watching his little screen anyways. You could tell he was sitting in bed - wherever he was - and he was already familiar with a few of the people in the call from the way he was chatting with them. He had a neatly trimmed beard, curls forming a halo around his face, a bright smile, and a pair of black glasses just pulling the look together, even if you didn’t really know what look that was.

When he gave his little introduction piece, you knew this would be trouble. Not only was his voice attractive, he also had a bit of a southern accent, which just doubled his attractiveness. Everyone went through their introductions, you being one of the last people because you didn’t volunteer until a lot later on. When people had the chance to ask questions, the guy - Thomas - decided to speak up. “Is that a (favorite show) poster behind you?”

You looked back at your wall like you didn’t know exactly what he was talking about. You were just surprised he pointed it out. “Oh, uh, yeah! It is!”

“Nice!” Thomas told you, giving you a bright smile. You could feel your breath catch at the sight, but you managed to smile back. As the call ended with one other person giving their introduction, you could already tell you were in trouble. You knew you couldn’t pursue anything with Thomas even if it happened that he also found you attractive. It wasn’t only that you’d be living with him, no; he was also one of the house managers, so if things ended bad, he could really make your living situation not the best. But still, there was nothing stopping you from finding him attractive.

When you moved in, you immediately ran into Thomas. You knew you were supposed to check in with Angelica so she could get you your keys, but she was helping someone else at the moment. “Hey, you’re (y/n), right?” Thomas asked, sitting at the dining room table as you just stood there waiting for Angelica.

“Y-yeah, I am,” you stuttered, silently cursing how nervous you were around him. This was your first time meeting the guy in person, and you were really going to make a fool of yourself, weren’t you. You looked back to where Angelica had disappeared upstairs, wondering just how long she would take.

“Well, I’m Thomas,” he introduced himself, standing from his seat. “I can take you on a tour of the house while you wait for Angelica if you want.”

“Uhm, sure, that’d be great!” You immediately accepted, feeling your face warm from the entire interaction. Thomas walked up next to you, nodding for you to follow him. Your parents were waiting outside for you to get your keys so they could help you move in, but since you had some time, why not?

**********

It didn’t take long for everyone to start feeling comfortable around each other. The only real issues there were in the house were arguments Thomas and Alexander would get into, but even those wouldn’t get too bad. Within a month of everyone moving in, it really started to feel like a little family. Which made your attraction to Thomas that much worse. You thought it would go away once you got to know the guy and it would fade into a friendship, but you were dead wrong. The more you got to know the guy, the harder you fell. The way he joked, the way he made sure you weren’t talked over (and if you were, he always made sure to come back to you and ask what you were going to say), almost everything about him made you realize it wasn’t just surface level attraction.

By the end of the first month, a few of your housemates - John, Alexander, and Laf - planned a little party in the living room. It was just for your house, but it really sounded like they were planning to throw a rager. You weren’t really one for parties, but it sounded like it could be fun. The fact that Thomas said he would be going had nothing to do with it.

When the day of the party came, you didn’t really know what you were going to do. You knew Thomas was going to be there, and Peggy really wanted to go, so after spending the afternoon deciding, you started getting ready for the party. You showered, pulled on a dress you saved for going out (not that you really went out in the first place), put your makeup on, and just sat there waiting for Peggy to get ready.

“This is gonna be so much fun! I saw Alex and John come in with the drinks for later and they bought so much,” Peggy gushed as she tried deciding between dresses. She finally turned to you. “Which one looks better?”

“Depends on the look you’re going for. The one on the right is definitely cute, but the one on the left is great if you’re trying to look hot,” you told her after a moment of looking at the options. She put the dress on the right back in the closet. Once she actually knew what she wanted to wear, she quickly got ready. As she was getting ready, there was a pounding on the door. Peggy went to go look, but whoever had done that was already gone. You already knew you were running a bit late, but who ever really showed up to parties on time?

The music wasn’t too loud when you and Peggy got to the living room half an hour after the party was supposed to start. The lights were off, save for one of those multi-color party lights, balloons were all over the floor, and some colorful YouTube video was playing on the TV. Alex and John were already drinking, quickly pulling Peggy to the booze table to make her something. Herc and Laf were sitting on one of the couches, just chatting, and Thomas was hanging near the pool table, talking to Maria. Maria looked gorgeous, red satin slip dress hugging her figure and sheer thigh-high stockings creating an image you could only hope to compete with. You left the living room, going to get yourself some water from the kitchen.

Just going across the hall was a huge difference. Aaron was sitting at the table, laptop in front of him as he worked on something. Angelica and Eliza were in the kitchen, making something that you were definitely going to try later. “Do you know what they’re making in there?” You asked Aaron as you filled your cup.

“No idea, but I know I’m going to have to clean it afterwards,” Aaron complained, looking up from his work. “You look nice.”

“Thanks. Are you going?” You nodded your head towards the living room.

“No, I have work to do tonight. Have fun, though.” To be honest, that was probably the longest conversation you’d had with Aaron. He normally kept to himself, except when he was dragged into hangouts with the house by other people. You took your cup of water and went back to the living room, seeing Peggy, John, and Alex huddled around Alex’s phone as they put more songs in the queue. Thomas was drinking something from a mason jar, though in the dim light you really couldn’t see what it was.

“Hey, (y/n), you look cute,” Thomas said as he walked up to you. You immediately looked down at your cup and mumbled a thank you. There was just something about being called cute that hit different, especially when it comes from someone you were very attracted to. “Do you want something to drink?”

“I’m good, I’m playing adult tonight,” you told him, holding up your cup a little. You finally looked at Thomas, the colored lights casting a mix of reds and blues on his skin. He was wearing a button up shirt, different from the t-shirts and tanks you’d seen him in before. When you looked a little further down, you saw he was wearing basketball shorts. That would just make it easier to- you stopped the thought there. You didn’t know where it came from, you couldn’t even blame any alcohol in your system. Instead, you blamed it on the colored lights in the dark room, creating an almost intimate atmosphere.

“Thank you. Would you mind cutting John off when he starts getting a little, you know?” You nodded. You did know. John was a bit of a sloppy drunk, but he hated when anyone pointed it out. That’s why every drinking night needed a designated adult. Thomas took another drink before nodding to the empty couch. “You wanna sit? No one’s really dancing yet.”

You nodded again, following Thomas to the couch. Even when the music picked up, only a few people were really dancing. Thomas got up a few times to refill his cup, but he never really left your side. The two of you talked through the night, and you found yourselves getting closer as the night went on. His attention was entirely on you, even brushing off Maria when she tried to pull him to dance. There were a few songs where you actually wanted to dance, and Thomas practically jumped at the chance to dance with you. Eventually the music changed to slower stuff, and you went back to sitting down with Thomas.

You really tried to stop your mind from racing at the proximity, but you couldn’t help it. As the two of you talked, the lights still dancing across his skin, you could see yourself closing the small gap, kissing him. Every now and then he’d brush his fingertips across your skin, but you couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not. Your skin burned with the slight brushes. Your mind ran to what his touch would feel like if it was more purposeful, how his skin would feel under your fingers. When he leaned forward, brushing some hair from your face, you wondered if he would always be this gentle.

Thomas was mid-sentence when it finally became too much. You took the chance, leaning in and pressing a questioning kiss to his lips. He tensed, and you immediately went to pull back. When he realized what you were doing, he brought his hand up to the back of your head, holding your face to his. The kiss started gentle, but it got more insistent as it went on. You could feel the party around you just melt away as the two of you kissed, your hands feeling his arms as you let yourself fall victim to your wants. You couldn’t tell if the kiss had lasted for minutes or hours, but you knew you must’ve looked a mess.

“Do you want to come up to my room?” Thomas asked, breathless and low enough for just you to hear. You nodded, and Thomas immediately stood, leading you by the hand. You could hear John’s drunken cheers as you and Thomas went up the stairs. His room wasn’t far from the stairs, and it didn’t take long for you to end up in his bed. His body lightly pinned yours on the bed, one of his thighs between yours. Thomas broke the kiss, only to trail kisses down your neck as his hands ran up and down your body.

“Thomas, please,” you said, not really sure what you were asking for.

“I know, Sugar.” You could feel his smirk against your skin. “I want you too.”

“I think I’m going to call it a night,” Thomas said, standing up. You were shocked at his sudden announcement. It wasn’t even just to you, he announced it to the whole party. He gave you a small smile before turning to leave the room. Just before he left, he turned around once more. “Reminder that quiet hours start in an hour, adjust the music accordingly.”

As soon as Thomas left, you could feel your social battery dying. You should’ve known better than to allow yourself to fantasize about what could’ve happened that night, just because he was paying attention to you. It didn’t take long for you to call it a night after that, just feeling exhaustion that wasn’t there before as you took off your makeup and changed into some sleep clothes. As you laid in bed, waiting for sleep to come to you, you couldn’t help as your mind replayed the night and your fantasies. The last thought you had was of the way Thomas looked in the colored lights, and the phantom feeling of his lips on yours, even though you never actually felt them.

**********

In the week following the party, you and Thomas went back to just how you were before. You were a little disappointed, but your mind immediately went to justifying the change. Or rather, lack of change. He’d been drinking a bit. He knew you felt out of place with all the drinking and weed smoking going on. He probably wanted to make sure you were feeling okay since you’d had a few conversations about how quickly your social battery died. There were all of these possibilities, but nothing was ever confirmed. So you just went back to how things were.

Then Laf planted a seed in your mind. It was delivery time - that time of night when everyone’s packages got delivered and people would either grab their packages and open them in their room, or open them in the dining room in front of everyone else. You’d just ordered a cute romper in an attempt to feel something, so you opened it in front of the rest of the group. “That’s so cute! You know, it seems like something the type of girl Thomas goes after would wear,” Laf announced when you held up the romper.

“What are you talking about?” James asked as he opened his own package, not even looking up. It was some lights for the little garden he was starting in his room. Maria was very invested in the new shoes she’d ordered, but you could tell she was still listening.

“They’d be cute together! You guys should go on a date, I’ll set it up,” Laf continued, focusing his attention on you now. “I ship them! They’re my new ship!”

“What’s going on?” Thomas asked, coming out from the kitchen. You looked down, folding the romper as fast as you could.

“Nothing,” Laf said. You looked up just in time to see Laf wink at you.

“Alright.” You could tell Thomas didn’t believe him by the side-eye he was giving him, but you were glad Laf didn’t announce it any louder than he already did. When you and Peggy got back to your room, you couldn’t help but tell her about the seed Laf had planted. Sure, you found Thomas very attractive, but the concept of a relationship with him had never entered your mind. Until now. Of course Peggy just made fun of you, but you knew it was all in good fun.

It took two days for that seed to be completely destroyed. You started to notice Thomas and Maria hanging out a lot more than they did before; they were almost constantly talking to each other, and there was once that you went upstairs to use the bathroom and saw Maria leaving Thomas’s room. You were in the living room watching a movie with the Schuylers when Thomas came in. “Hey, Maria and I want to watch something after, can you text me when you’re done?” Thomas asked Angelica, not even acknowledging anyone else.

“Yeah, sure,” Angelica told him. With that, he left the living room.

“Your boyfriend’s cheating on you,” Peggy teased, not loud enough that anyone else could hear her.

“Can we not do this right now?” You whispered, already feeling your chest tighten. Of course you should’ve known. People like Thomas never went for people like you, they would always end up with people like Maria. Why would you let Laf even give you the slightest bit of hope that things would be different? Peggy’s face immediately fell when she saw just how you looked.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, but you just shook your head. Why was she sorry? It wasn’t her fault. This was just on you.

For the next week, you avoided Thomas and Maria as much as you could. You took your dinners to your room to just eat and watch (favorite show), you didn’t really talk to them if you were in the same room as them, you didn’t go out of your way to hang out with them. If they noticed, they never said anything to you. Then again, it wasn’t really like you gave them the chance to.

**********

You wanted to keep your distance from your housemates, but John pulled you into agreeing to go to yet another house party. It would just be for your house again, but this time he’d managed to get everyone to agree to come. He didn’t even let you be late, grabbing you and Peggy from your room as soon as the party started. So there you were, standing by the pool table, sipping some drink that was way too strong (Aaron was designated adult this time), just watching the party around you. Maria was already there, wearing yet another dress that made her look absolutely gorgeous, but Thomas was nowhere to be seen.

“James, where’s your friend?” John practically yelled over the pounding music.

“He’s coming, don’t worry,” James said, rolling his eyes. You tensed at the confirmation, even though you knew he was going to be there. Before you could really think about it, Laf pulled you onto the dancefloor. Laf and Herc made sure that you were enjoying yourself, dancing with them and making sure you didn’t have the chance to think about it too much. Laf knew everything that was going on, trying to tell you that he was sorry about the entire ‘shipping’ thing. You just waved it off, not wanting to let it ruin the fun you were having.

You don’t know how many songs you danced with them before you needed to take a break and get some water. They finally let you out of their sights as soon as you promised to come back the second you were done. You appreciated their concern for you, but it was starting to get a little stifling. As you stood by the sink, glass stained with the red of your lipstick, you let your mind wander once again. You had been too busy dancing to pay attention to the party around you, but you guess Thomas must’ve arrived at some point. Had he been dancing with Maria? Did he even care you were there?

It was like the universe took your questioning as manifestations, and you wondered why it didn’t do that for literally anything else you tried manifesting as Thomas walked into the room. “I thought I saw you leave. You look really cute.”

You looked down at your outfit, taking in the romper that you’d bought not too long ago - a button down with a thick belt at the waist. You tried to ignore the way your heart fluttered at that, tried to remember the past few weeks where Thomas was completely focused on Maria, but your heart seemed to not get the message. “You know, you never compliment me outside of parties,” you decided to address the situation head on. “Is Maria waiting for you?”

“What?” Thomas seemed like he genuinely had no idea what was going on. You narrowed your eyes at him.

“I mean, the two of you have been spending a ton of time together, I’d expect you’d come to the party together,” you almost snapped.

“What about Laf and Herc? You seemed pretty close to them tonight,” Thomas immediately argued. You should’ve known he wouldn’t just let you snap at him without biting back.

“They’re just making sure I have a good time. Like you did last time,” you said, taking a deep breath. “I’m gonna go back.”

You heard Thomas say your name as you went back to the living room, but you kept walking. When you got back, Laf and Herc were immediately by your side. You gave them a soft smile, which they quickly returned. It didn’t take long for exhaustion to start to set in, your legs starting to hurt and your eyes starting to tire. You sat down in the corner of the couch, watching the party continue around you. It didn’t take long for Thomas to take the spot next to you. “I’m sorry.”

You just looked at him, waiting for him to continue. “Maria needed help with her statistics class and we’ve been spending time together because of that. I didn’t realize you’d take it the wrong way.”

“I’m so stupid.” Thomas looked confused. “I should be the one apologizing. I just kind of decided you didn’t like me.”

Thomas scooted closer, taking your hand in his. “Yeah, I kind of realized that. I really do like you, though.”

“Cool,” you said, not knowing how to really react in this situation. Thomas laughed, shaking his head as you felt the heat rise in your face. “I… uhm… I’m kinda feeling tired. I think I’m gonna head to bed.”

Thomas looked dejected before understanding crossed his features. “Your social battery?”

You nodded. “Yeah. Is it even midnight?”

Thomas checked his phone. “Just about. Do you want to come to my room?”

You stared at him blankly, your heart racing at the question. It was almost exactly like your fantasy at the last party, not that he’d know it. He had to know how that sounded, right? It seemed to take him a second to realize it, eyes widening. “I mean, just to hang out somewhere calm. I want to spend more time with you.”

“And what’s wrong with my room? People will notice if I go upstairs instead of just down the hall,” you argued, leaning closer to him.

“I know you have a bunk and I don’t want to sit on Peggy’s bed.”

“You could sit at my desk.”

“Under your bunk? That kind of defeats the purpose of hanging out.” Thomas rolled his eyes at your obvious deflection. You were just giving him a hard time at this point, still a little vindictive even if the only real issue over the past few weeks had been because of you.

“Alright, but don’t be surprised if I end up just passing out,” you agreed. Thomas gave you a blinding smile. “How are we gonna do this? If we leave together people are gonna talk.”

“Let them,” Thomas said, standing up and offering his hand to you. You took it.

Amazingly, no one seemed to notice the two of you leaving except for Aaron who shot you a pained look. You felt kind of bad for leaving him alone to everyone else, but your social battery really was dying and Thomas was offering an escape. He lead you up the stairs, down the hall a little to his room. The door was already slightly open - just so he wouldn’t have to carry around his key - but he opened the door further to let you in first. It was your first time seeing Thomas’s room, and it really fit him. He had a few pictures on the wall above his desk, the desk itself was neatly organized - textbooks stacked on one side, laptop in the center, a few pencils next to it. His bed was pushed to the corner near his desk, black comforter and deep magenta pillowcases different from the typical college dude bedding.

“You can sit down if you want,” Thomas said, walking over to his closet. He grabbed a t-shirt from one of the drawers. “I’m just gonna go change my shirt, you can sit on the bed or the chair, whatever you’re more comfortable with.”

Thomas left the room, and you decided to sit on the bed, still unsure of what you were doing. Your fantasy from the last party kept replaying in your mind, reminding you of just how different these circumstances were. You pressed a couple fingers to your wrist, feeling your racing pulse. You didn’t know why you were so nervous. You were pretty sure nothing was going to happen, but the images of Thomas kissing you, him touching you, it made your mind go crazy. Before you could talk yourself out of it, Thomas came back. “So, uh, what do you wanna do? We could listen to some music, or watch a movie…”

“Can we just listen to some music? Like, something softer though,” you said. Just listening to music seemed less intimate than watching a movie on his laptop with him, even though you really didn’t know why. Thomas nodded, turning on his speaker on his desk. He handed you his phone.

“You can choose,” he told you, sitting on the bed next to you. He pressed his back against the wall, watching you as you shared one of your playlists to his phone. Even though you could feel him watching, you missed the way his eyes took in your profile in the harsh light of his room. “Do you mind if I switch off the main light and turn on my desk light instead?”

“You know, this is sounding more and more sus as you keep talking,” you told him as your music started playing from his speaker. You turned the volume down a little, letting the music be just loud enough to provide some background noise. It was just what you needed to recharge. “But yeah, the ceiling lights are really harsh.”

Thomas got up to fix the lighting situation before taking his spot next to you once again. The two of you just sat there quietly, close but not quite touching, letting the soft sounds of your music wash over you. A few songs passed before you decided to just make your move, scooting closer to him to rest your head on his shoulder. You were still pretty drained from the party, and the excuse was ready if he was going to question you. He didn’t.

When he brought his hand up to play with your hair, you didn’t say anything. You enjoyed the gentle brush of his hand, almost as if he was afraid to disturb you. You closed your eyes, focusing on his touch. He started near your hairline, his fingers tracing a curve behind your ear, whispering down your jawline for a second before repeating the process. Time wasn’t real in your little bubble, the only clue being the songs changing in the background. “(Y/n)?” Thomas asked, voice low like he was trying not to break the atmosphere.

You hummed in response, eyes still closed, and you could feel Thomas’s soft laughter more than you could hear it. “I thought you fell asleep.”

“If you keep playing with my hair I just might,” you teased, smiling as you opened your eyes to look up at him. You were slightly taken aback at the way he looked at you, but you tried not to show it. It took you a second before you could finally place it - adoration. It was completely soft, something you never really saw on him before. You could see him leaning in, but he stopped a hairsbreadth away. You waited to see if he would close the miniscule gap or if you should, but then he spoke.

“Can I?” He practically whispered, bringing his hand up to caress your jaw. You nodded even as your heart pounded in your chest. Thomas stayed for a second as though he was giving you a chance to back out, and when you didn’t take it, he closed the gap. The kiss started out gentle, like he was still worried you would change your mind. You were enjoying yourself and the slow pace, but when your mind started taunting you with the things that could happen, you decided to take a chance. You brushed the tip of your tongue against his bottom lip, and he gladly took your sign to deepen the kiss.

Thomas kept one hand cupping your jaw, but the other moved to rest on your hip. The feeling of his hand sent a jolt through you, even through the layer of clothing still separating his skin from yours. You put a hand on the bed to reposition yourself, but Thomas pulled you onto his lap, your core resting on him. You let out a small gasp at the sudden move. Thomas pressed a kiss to your jaw. “Is this okay?” He mumbled against your skin.

“Y-yeah. Yeah, it’s good.” You were a little flustered at the position, but you definitely weren’t complaining. Thomas grasped your chin, tilting your face to look directly in your eyes. Your gaze darted down to his lips, trying to look anywhere but his eyes. You could tell he was studying you, your reactions. He brushed his thumb against your bottom lip, dragging it down just slightly.

“You’re so damn cute,” he murmured before kissing you breathless. Your hands went up to cup his jaw, holding him to you, while his settled on your waist. You went to adjust your position, accidentally grinding against him. Thomas let out the most sinful groan, breaking the kiss to rest his head on your shoulder. “I’m sorry, it just felt so-”

He was cut off by another groan as you grinded against him again. You bit your lip, feeling him harden underneath you. “Don’t apologize.”

Thomas brought you back down for another kiss, his hand on your hip now guiding your movements against him. You softly whined into the kiss, every sensation heightened by the dim room, the soft music. He broke the kiss, laughing slightly as you tried to chase his lips. Before you could say anything, he started kissing down your neck, nipping and soothing the spots with his tongue. As he worked, you started grinding against him faster, needing something to ease the heat pooling in you.

“I need you so bad,” you whined as he worked a spot on your collarbone. Thomas let go of your skin with a wet noise, looking up at you with hooded eyes.

“You sound so pretty when you’re needy,” Thomas said, smirking up at you. He brought his hands up to the buttons of your romper, the question evident in his eyes. You nodded, and he started slowly undoing your romper, pressing a kiss to each inch of skin revealed to him. “You’re gorgeous, Sugar.”

A shiver ran through you at his words, but you ignored it, instead opting to reach for the hem of his t-shirt. “What’s fair’s fair?”

“Of course.” Thomas took the chance to flip your positions, taking off his shirt as your back bounced slightly against the bed. You couldn’t help your sharp inhale as his shirt hit the floor. You knew he was built from what you saw around the house, but seeing him without any barriers was a completely different situation. His abs were solid, something you saw briefly the one time he lifted his shirt to clean his glasses in front of you, so you took the chance to drink in the sight. As your eyes trailed back up his body, he saw him looking down at you with a smirk. He was attractive and he knew it.

He was getting a little too smug for your liking. You wouldn’t normally consider yourself a bold person, but your next move definitely was. You slightly lifted yourself up, undoing your belt and smoothly sliding it off. You pushed the top of the romper off your shoulders, taking a quick glance to see Thomas’s attention completely on you. His smirk had fallen, but his bottom lip was caught between his teeth. You reached behind you, unhooking your bra in one movement (a silent victory on your part). Thomas eased himself down beside you, trying to hide his eagerness, but you could see it in his eyes. The second you tossed your bra to the side, Thomas was back on you, kissing you deeply as his hands explored your chest.

Whatever upperhand you had was gone as Thomas’s thumb ran back and forth over your nipple, drawing a keening whine from the back of your throat. You could feel his smirk as his lips left yours, kissing down your neck again. He nipped at your collarbone, licking at the spot before trailing his tongue across the tops of your breasts. Your hand flew up to hold the back of his head, needing to feel more of his mouth on you.

“You’re so responsive for me, Sugar,” Thomas hummed. “The way your body just acts on its own, the little noises you make for me, it’s intoxicating. All I’ve done is kiss you, we haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet.”

“Do you get off on the sound of your own voice?” You asked, gasping as his hand kneaded your breast. His movements were lazy, like he was ready to just have a conversation about this while teasing you to the point of madness.

“No, but I can tell you do.” He wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t need to point it out like that. Your silence spoke volumes. He decided to take pity on you, kissing and sucking on the breast he wasn’t kneading. Thomas’s first licks across your nipple were teasing, watching your reactions. You knew you couldn’t be loud - you couldn’t even step in the house without someone hearing you - but the electricity running through you at his touch was making that insanely difficult for you. When he used just the right amount of teeth, even you were surprised at the moan you let out.

Thomas didn’t make any move to quiet you, instead switching over to the other breast. You didn’t know what to do with your hands, switching between holding him to your breast and fisting your hand in the blanket beside you. You tried pressing your thighs together, but Thomas’s body on yours made that almost impossible. He grinded down on you, letting out his own little groan at the slight relief the pressure offered. Thomas brought one of his hands to your waist, teasing at where your romper was still on your body. You whined when his mouth left your skin, not that you’d admit to it. “Can I take this off?”

“Yes, please,” you told him. Thomas sat up, watching you for any signs of discomfort as he fully took your romper off. As he went to shed his own shorts, you leaned back on your elbows, watching. Even though his basketball shorts had already done little to conceal his arousal, seeing the tent in his boxers sent another rush of arousal through you. You spread your legs for Thomas to take his rightful spot between them, which he quickly did. He brought his hand to your core, running his fingers over the fabric there.

“Fuck, you’re soaked,” Thomas groaned, rubbing a little harder. “This all because of me?”

“You know it is,” you tried snipping, but his thumb finding your clit through your panties made it sound more like a plead for something. “Thomas, please touch me.”

“I am touching you,” he teased. “You want more already?”

You nodded. It was almost comical how fast your panties came off, but feeling his fingers against your lips quickly threw any humor you found in the situation out the window. He ran a finger along your slit, watching as you threw your head back against his pillows. You didn’t see the smirk that graced his lips again, watching the way you quickly fell apart under his touch. He hadn’t even done that much, but he wanted to see what’d you do when he actually took you apart.

The wetness between your legs glistened even in the dim light, and Thomas unknowingly licked his lips. There would be time to taste you later - he had the feeling if he went now, he’d be there all night. He dipped his finger into your entrance, teasing like he had been all night. You let out a soft whimper, half ready to beg, but then he gave you what you needed. He carefully inserted his finger into you, feeling around for your spot while his thumb worked your clit. Your soft noises were driving him crazy; even though they weren’t loud, they were mesmerizing, and he wondered how you’d sound if you didn’t have to worry about being overheard.

As he pumped his finger in you, he made sure to drag it along your wall, dragging out every little whimper he could. You tried to close your thighs on his hand, but he held them open with his free hand. Thomas wanted to see what he was doing to you, see your arousal glistening on his finger. Once he was sure you were ready, he slid another finger into you, drawing your loudest moan yet at the stretch. He curled his fingers, sending a shock of pleasure through you. He smiled when he felt you shudder, knowing he found it.

Thomas’s attention on your clit and the pressure on your spot was bringing you to your edge and fast. Your fisted hand in his sheet was pulling it down, your other hand trying to muffle the noises you were making. You weren’t normally so vocal in bed, but the way Thomas was playing your body just brought out this side that you never knew about. “I’m close,” you panted out the warning.

“Then cum for me, Sugar. Cum on my fingers.” It wasn’t an order, but your body listened to him like it was. You bit into your arm to hide your moans, and you swore you were close to breaking skin. Thomas worked you through it, his fingers slowing considerably but not quite stopping until the last shudder wracked through your body. He pulled his fingers out, looking at them covered in your juices. “Look at that, Sugar. You got me all messy.”

Before you even had the chance to be embarrassed, Thomas took his fingers in his mouth, making sure to completely clean them of your essence. You thought he couldn’t get more attractive, but the blissed out look on his face as he tasted you proved you wrong. You let out a soft whisper of ‘fuck’ at the sight. Your body was weak from your orgasm, but that didn’t stop you from sitting up so you could kiss him properly. You pulled back from the kiss, holding his face in your hands. “Thomas… do you want to?”

“Yeah, if you’re okay with it,” Thomas said, bringing one of his hands to cover yours. You rolled your eyes.

“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t,” you sassed. You let out a shriek as Thomas pinned you back down to the bed.

“You’re so annoying.” Thomas kissed you, grinding his still-covered erection into you for a second before he got back up to dig in his desk drawer. He emerged a few seconds later, condom in hand. “Perks of being a manager.”

“Aren’t those supposed to be if we need them, not your personal use?” you decided to tease him.

“Technically this is you needing them,” Thomas laughed as he pulled down his boxers. His length stood proudly, precum beading at the tip. He stroked himself, watching you squirm on his bed. You could feel your body growing hot at his intense gaze, slight embarrassment making you want to cover up, but heavy arousal beat that out. You couldn’t pull your eyes away from his hand on his dick, his thumb rubbing the head, smearing the precum. After what felt like ages of the agonizing tease, Thomas finally rolled the condom on.

Thomas climbed back over you, caging you in between his arms. He dipped his head, catching your lips in a kiss that was softer than any of the ones you’d shared before. When he broke the kiss, he only separated a breath away. “Are you ready?”

“Please, Thomas, I need to feel you.” Thomas slowly dragged one hand down your body, reaching between the two of you to line up with your entrance.

“Tell me if you need me to do anything,” he said before finally sliding into you. You whined at the stretch, just bordering on the right side of uncomfortable. Thomas kissed you as he stayed still, waiting for you to get used to his size. After a second, you rolled your hips, needing him to move. Thomas picked up on your movement, giving a testing thrust. “Fuck, you feel so good.”

“Please, Thomas, move.” Thomas nodded, keeping his pace slow, but still hitting every spot that had you crying out for him. You tried to cover your mouth to muffle your noises, but Thomas stopped you, instead threading his fingers with yours and holding your hand to the bed. He kissed at your neck, and you could tell he was leaving marks, but you really didn’t care. The feeling of him inside you was driving you wild, but you needed him to move faster. You wrapped your legs around his waist, pulling him closer.

“What is it, baby? You want me to move faster? But I like feeling you around me, gripping my dick so nice,” Thomas panted into your ear. Even though he was teasing, he still sped up his movements. You knew you were talking, but you didn’t really know what you were saying. The only thing you really registered was a stream of curse words and pleads for more, even though you really didn’t know what more you were asking for.

You could feel the heat pooling in you, so close but not quite there. You choked out a warning, your walls squeezing around him. His thrusts were getting faster and sloppier, just hinting that Thomas was nearing his end. “C’mon, baby, just a little longer. I’m almost there too,” Thomas panted into your ear, pressing his face into your neck.

You scratched your nails down his back, working your hips against his as you tried to reach your peak. Thomas nudged the side of your face, bringing his lips to yours. He brought a hand down between your bodies, feeling blindly for a second before finding your clit. You moaned into the kiss, unable to control it any longer. You broke the kiss, moans filling the room as Thomas worked you through it. Thomas followed soon after, unrestrained groans mingling with your own noises. He pumped into you a few more times before easing himself out of you, laying down next to you.

You laid there, letting the pleasant soreness settle in your body. You looked over at Thomas as he threw out the condom before sitting up and looking around for your romper. You saw it crumpled near the foot of his bed, and as you were pulling it on, you couldn’t help but make a little quip. “So that was fun.”

“Yeah, it really wa- why are you getting dressed?”

“Because I need to go back downstairs?”

“Stay with me,” he said, climbing back in bed beside you and wrapping his arms around you. “I”ll get you a shirt, you can go clean up in the bathroom, we can stay and cuddle…”

You had to admit, that all sounded very tempting. Then again, you had to think about the walk of shame you’d be doing. Either you could do it now when it wasn’t likely anyone was awake still, or you could do it in the morning before anyone else was up. Thomas pressed a kiss to your neck. “Alright, I guess I can stay.”

He gave you a bright smile before hopping up off the bed again. He grabbed his boxers from the floor and pulled them on before going to grab you a shirt. Once the shirt was on, you checked the hallway and bolted to the bathroom to clean up. By the time you got back to Thomas’s room, the music was off, and Thomas was in bed, scrolling on his phone. He looked over at you, the same bright smile on his face again.

“Hey,” you said, suddenly feeling shy. You’d just slept with the guy, and you were wearing his shirt, but now you didn’t know what to say.

“Hey.” He put his phone down on the desk before pulling his legs in so you could climb in next to him. Once you were in bed, you sat there, trying to figure out what to do. He wrapped his arm around your middle, pulling you into him. You took a deep breath, letting yourself relax into his hold. He pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “Stop worrying so much, go to sleep.”

You couldn’t help but listen to him.

**********

The first thing you registered was the fact that you were not in your bed. You knew the sheets felt different, your stuffed bear was not next to you, and there was definitely someone sleeping right beside you. It took a second for your half-asleep mind to piece together what had happened the night before, but once it did, you couldn’t help the word that slipped from your lips. “Fuck.”

“We already did that, Sugar,” Thomas mumbled from beside you, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you close to him. He nuzzled into your neck, and you’d be lying if you said that didn’t make you melt.

“Thomas,” you trailed off, not knowing what you were supposed to say. You lived with this guy, and would for at least 7 more months. Not only did you live with this guy, he was a manager for the house you lived in. That broke some of the most major rules you had for not only living with other people, but dating in general. Wait, were you even dating now?

“Shush, it’s still before noon. We have some more time.” You didn’t know what exactly he meant by that, but you let yourself relax into his hold. You should probably have this conversation with him when he wasn’t half asleep.

You stayed in bed with him for another hour before you finally went down to your own room. You waited for the hallway to go completely quiet and made your way down the stairs, only to see Peggy, Alex, and John sitting at the dinner table. “Look who finally made her appearance. So, how was Thomas?” John asked, a sly smile on his face.

“I just ended up passing out in his room after the party,” you tried lying, not meeting any of their eyes.

“So that’s why you’re wearing his shirt?” Peggy jumped in. Before you could even try to defend yourself with more lies, Alex spoke.

“The walls here are way too thin to try lying about things like that.”

#thomas jefferson x reader #thomas jefferson imagine #hamilton imagine #reader insert #smut

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mitchellsbeca · 5 years

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Chapters: 1/? Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell Summary: A collection of prompts/tumblr requests. Bechloe for now but may change later.

prompt 18. “I shouldn’t be in love with you.”

In all honesty, it was the last person Beca expected to turn up, her arrival always catching Beca off guard and tilting her center of gravity.

It had been about six months since she’d officially signed with Khaled, six months since the Bellas had split and gone their own ways and Beca had moved to Florida. But she’d still invited them all to the release party for her first album, something she’d worked tirelessly on to get it completed as soon as possible (and she already had a repertoire of songs and beats saved on her computer so there hadn’t been a great deal of work to do, just plenty of fine-tuning).

Understandably some couldn’t make it; Jessica and Ashley were busy at a different event in California doing... something (she should really ask them what they’re doing now), Cynthia Rose was in military training and couldn’t get the leave, Lilly or Ester or whatever her name was now was off somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, Fat Amy had flown herself over since she had the money now, along with a Aubrey, Emily, Flo and Stacie (who had actually brought Bella with her and made motherhood look cool and easy at the same time). But Chloe had reluctantly declined, her studies taking up most of her time now that she was at vet school with an unavoidable exam taking place the same Friday. And she was the one Beca had been most looking forward to seeing.

It was a red carpet event so everyone was dressed particularly nicely. Beca had been assigned a blazer slash play suit piece, dark red with cut-off shorts in matching fabric and heels. Hair and make up had been done - maybe even over done for Beca’s liking - but done nonetheless. And she did look killer, she wouldn’t disagree. Beca was actually feeling good.

But even in the sea of people at the venue, alongside influencers, other artists and photographers, Beca pulling attention from all corners, her focus wasn’t with anyone else but who’d just walked in.

It was like a parting of the ocean, Beca’s direct line of sight guided by a line of emptiness with people either side and all sound plunging to mute.

A blue gilded dress with a deep neckline held the woman tight, hair braided like a halo around her head with strands falling to frame her face. And the sky. The endless gorgeous sky that Beca always saw in her eyes, even from halfway across the room it was like daylight and the height of summer and the endless possibilities that could be. Could have been.

Beca excused herself from the group she was surrounded by, one of them a journalist who was halfway done with asking Beca questions about the album and attempting to pry into her personal life.

Chloe looked lost, eyes wandering across the vast, dark room in sight of any face she might find familiar with clutch caught in front as her body turned. Beca wove through bodies on the approach, smile growing ever so slightly larger as she neared.

And Chloe beamed, spotting the brunette head towards her and she moved forward, arms outstretched and ready to embrace her best friend. Laughter escaped them both when they hugged, Chloe’s warmth seeping into Beca, dissolving her stress and settling some of the underlying anxiety she’d been suffering from all day.

“I thought you couldn’t make it?” Beca asked.

“Amy flew me over from New York. You know she has her own private jet now, right?”

“I do.”

“Well, she didn’t take no for an answer, so she got her pilot to fly back and pick me up after my exam and I got ready on the plane.”

“Yeah, you look like you got ready on a plane,” Beca jested with a playful smirk.

“Please. This is Mile High Couture, thank you very much,” she said, splaying her arms out as she showed off her out and stroke a pose, “And I was going to say I look better than you but that would be an outright lie. You look... stunning, Beca, honestly.”

“This? It’s just people doing their job to make me look good. Turns out you can only do so much with an actual potato. But yours is all natural, you don’t even need to try; you always look incredible.”

“You’re not a potato. But we’ll leave the ‘all natural’ comment out for discussion.” “Dude, I’m not kidding.”

The grin on her face faltered, like a sudden thought had popped to the forefront of Chloe’s mind and escaped to her expression. She eyed someone next to them before she leaned in, pulling at Beca’s wrist and asking in a hushed voice, “Is there somewhere we can go that’s a bit more... private?”

Beca turned to who Chloe had been eyeing; a tall guy with heavy duty camera equipment that was beginning to snap pictures, flash almost blinding. A small group of people lingered behind him too, so Beca nodded in response and grasped the wrist of the hand holding her own, pulling Chloe behind her. She knew where to go. There was a secret balcony down a corridor next to the restrooms that she had scouted earlier that day. So Beca lead them there, out into the Floridian air that was more humid than inside but fair quieter.

“Sorry about that,” Beca apologized.

Chloe shook it off, “You’re a big celebrity now. People want to know you.” “I’m just making music, like I’ve always been doing. Just... more people are listening to it now.”

A silence fell. The thumping bass of the music inside was the only thing that could be heard but the air was still around them. They were both leaning against the edge of the balcony, solid stone wall cool on their skin.

Beca was about to speak when Chloe jumped in before her, “I listened to it. The album, I mean. As soon as you sent it over I listened to it in one sitting. I’m not going to lie to you when I tell you I cried a little bit.”

“You cry at videos of dogs.”

Chloe chuckled, “So it wasn’t necessarily a hard task, okay? But still... it really moved me, Beca.”

“Good. I’m glad you like it.”

“Especially the hidden track.”

The brunette’s posture went rigid. She doesn’t know how, but Beca had been hoping Chloe had missed it, that dumb song she’d unknowingly recorded on her down time (thanks to Theo, once again), stripped back and acoustic. “Yeah?” she asked.

“I don’t know why, but when I first heard it I was kind of... I don’t know. I had to listen to it again. But when I did, I was just... crying and I couldn’t work out why, but I felt like it was a piece of a puzzle that I didn’t even know I had that I’d been missing. And I asked Amy if she’d heard it and what she thought of it and she told me. She told me it was about us. And how you felt about me.”

“Feel,” Beca corrected, staring at the street below them.

A beat, too long too be promising, “...what?”

And it was now or never, Beca decided. Because if she owed Chloe anything, it was the truth. She didn’t have the energy to keep tip-toeing anymore. Chloe had her life sorted now so it wouldn’t make a difference, but she deserved to know, “How I feel about you. Because I love you. And I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t be in love with you because it’s not my place to be in love with you—”

“Beca...”

“The truth is, Chloe, I’ve loved you since Freshman year; starting from when you broke into my shower and invited me to audition for the Bellas. When we sang together for the first time?” Beca asked like she thought Chloe wouldn’t remember. “It just took me too long to realize, and when I did... it was too late. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was too slow and gave too little. I didn’t just break up with Jesse because of the long distance. He wanted me to move with him to LA and I said no, but as soon as you said you were going to New York the thought of not seeing you on the daily made me feel like I was going to drop off the planet. So I agreed to move with you and make it work. I knew I couldn’t ask you to be with me the same way as I was with Jesse, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because I was still saw you every day. And even on the USO tour I didn’t say anything because... because I already knew I was too late...” she looked up at Chloe with a sad, gentle smile, but blue eyes were covered by eyelids pressed shut, cheeks glistening in the dark, “and that was okay. I made my peace with that even before we moved. I just wanted you to be happy, and Chicago made you happy, so I didn’t interfere. And all the Bellas wanted me to take this opportunity so I did. And it was a perfect way to move onto the next chapter.”

“We’re not... together anymore. Chicago and I.”

It was Beca’s time to be taken aback, “What?”

“I didn’t really work out. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but he would have been working away from home a lot and I barely know him already so that’s... not what I want.”

“I’m sorry, Chloe.”

The redhead moved to Beca, clutch left behind resting on the flat of the ledge so she had two delicate hands free. And they reached for the hands across from her, pulling them closer and making Beca turn to face her, “What I’m trying to say is... that chapter? It didn’t start for me when we left Spain, but it ended on a cliffhanger when I heard your song. And I don’t know what the next one is going to be.”

And they were both so close. As close as Chloe had pulled her on hood night all those years ago, but this time Chloe’s eyes were red and puffy and there was a million things swimming within them that Beca had only dreamt about seeing half of. And just when she thought she was used to all the ways Chloe could make her feel...

Clear music erupted from the door behind them. Chloe pulled away, turning away from whoever it was that interrupted them and regaining her composure.

“Beca! We’ve been looking everywhere for you; we need you for the speech,” Theo said, his British accent grating Beca’s neck moreso than usual, “Come on, you’re already late.”

“Two seconds. Just two, I’ll be with you soon. Just... tell them I’m coming.” “We can’t, Beca, we’re already running late,” he replied, holding the door open. “Dude, I was having a moment!” she near yelled and she heard a chuckle from the side of her. She turned to Chloe.

“You should go. I’ll be fine. Don’t want to keep them waiting any more, Miss Hotshot Artist,” the redhead said, eyes twinkling still but the smile she offered not quite reaching them.

“I don’t care. They can wait, but you can’t. I won’t make you,” Beca whispered, even over the music, so that only they could hear. And she cupped the bottom of Chloe’s jaw, thumbs stroking damp cheeks before pulling her close and pressing lips together. And Chloe? Chloe was everything Beca had imagined her to be. Soft, gentle, perfect. Her perfume smelled divine. She could smell the sweet scent of her hair as it danced into her senses and enveloped her completely.

And before she knew it, Chloe’s arms were wrapped across her shoulders, the crook of her elbow pulling her body closer by the neck. They were pressed so close. So close like when they sleep but this time they were both so awake and vibrant and alive.

Chloe pulled away and Beca craved to follow but the redhead pressed delicate fingers against her lips, “You’ve done enough. I can wait ten more minutes. Go and knock ‘em dead, Becs.”

The brunette couldn’t be beaming brighter if she tried. She pressed a gentle kiss against Chloe’s fingers and pulled away, making her way to the door. She didn’t escape without a pat on the ass from the redhead, though.

And whatever the rest of this chapter had, Beca thought, it was going to even more brilliant.

#bechloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale #bechloe fanfiction #pitch perfect #prompt #this is kind of old but im like #super happy with it #writing #my writing #our little universes

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kalluun-patangaroa · 5 years

Text

Suede

SKY magazine, December 1993

written by Simon Witter

"HELLO! WHAT HAVE WE GOT HERE?!" asks Brett Anderson rhetorically, staring at the fluff he has just removed from his ear. "I haven't taken these earrings off for about nine years."

It may seem an incongruous moment to ask the 27-year-old indie pin-up about his personal style, but hey, that's the kind of guy I am. "Tatty," replies Brett with a wry smile. "I haven't been able to get out and go shopping."

Brett Anderson, frontman of Suede – the British pop sensation of 93 – is hotly rumoured to have a great dress sense. Today however, perched uncomfortably behind an executive desk at the central London HQ of his record company, his head inadvertently framed by a halo of Right Said Fred promotional balloons, he is sporting a navy blue jeans'n'top ensemble he accurately describes as "just anything". Brett has been telling me how he spends most of his time with people who work in shops or are unemployed – "real people, not in the business" – so I presume this boutique bonding provides a clue to his supposed, though temporarily non-evident, style savvy.

"Oh no," he gasps. "Not clothes shops! Most of my friends are in food shops. So I know a good bit of brie when I see it."

The thought of Brett Anderson having, at any point in his life, ever eaten food, conjures images of pigs flapping their trotters as they sail past this second floor window. But we press on with the personal style enquiry.

"I want to change it at the moment," he says. "I'm sick of wearing second-hand things. I used to have a grudge against new clothes because I don't like wearing things that another thousand people are wearing. It's nothing to do with being into clothes from years ago, or tatty clothes at all. I'm quite keen to toy around with my style until I eventually find something, to have clothes made for me. There's never anything, when I go out and look for clothes, that I really love. I've got quite a strong vision of what I want, which would be very, very well fitted things. I don't like baggy things. I like lots of ethnic looks. I really like the Spanish look, that sort of matador thing." By way of explanation, Brett strikes a pose, clicking imaginary castanets above his head. "I like that shape. Prince wears a really brilliant little thing sometimes. When I kept getting my bellybutton out, it was really a desire to achieve that shape more than anything, nothing to do with flaunting my navel."

It's well worth flashing your bellybutton while you still can, I assure him, a rueful hand on my own expanding waistline.

"Yep," he smiles. "Well I can't anymore. Not after that chinese last night."

In May of 1992 Suede released their first single, 'The Drowners'. They had already been on the cover of Melody Maker – before they had a record out – and would grace 18 other British magazine covers over the next year, including the cover of Q on just their second single. Their eponymous debut album, released last March, went straight to No. One in the charts and went on to win the Mercury Prize, and last autumn they released a full-length concert video Love & Poison. At this rate, it will be time for their memoirs by easter.

Within the bizarre, incestuous fishbowl of the British music media, Suede have become almost self-damagingly important. After a couple of wilderness years spent faffing about, finding their feet and being universally loathed, their overnight transformation into the most hyped band in the world was nothing short of miraculous. Yet it created impossibly high expectations of their music. A German friend told me how surprised he was, after long distance exposure to their media glare, to discover how average Suede sounded – a judgment that casual discovery of the first album would hardly have elicited. And while touring America, their support act the Cranberries famously outshone them by an enormous factor when it came to album sales. Yet phase one of Suede's career has been – or appeared to be – so extraordinary, that they are going to be hard-pressed to follow it up with anything similarly momentous.

For now, we have 'Stay Together', a new, epically long single. As a measure of Suede's magnitude in the reality-starved world of British indie pop, I am treated to an absurd preview of the track the day before meeting Brett. Before entering the listening room I am subjected to a bag search to check – I kid you not! – that I'm not carrying a concealed tape recorder.

In LA, the world capital of muso control freakism, I was played U2's Desire, the immediate-follow up to their 15-million selling Joshua Tree album, eons before its release without anyone thinking twice. Yet now, without a hint of humour or irony, I am being treated as if I not only know anyone who cares what the next Suede single sounds like, but would be willing to pay for a tape of it recorded through a leather bag.

After regaining consciousness, I join in the fiasco, insist on a full body search (well, at less reputable establishments you'd have to pay good money for this touchy-feely experience) and am seated. The label boss places two speakers on each side of my head, facing my ears from about 20" away, turns it up LOUD, and begins to do that embarrassing, pseudo appreciative in-chair grooving that only people who work in record companies and recording studios have the gall to indulge in. "It's not pompous," he assures me, "even though it's eight minutes long."

Of course any pop song – as opposed to dance record – that lasts eight minutes is by definition pompous. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was gloriously, defiantly pompous with a side order of pomposity to go. But, despite the circumstances, 'Stay Together' sounds like a fine, many-hued song, liberally doused with Bernard Butler's life-saving guitar, that is destined neither to win many new fans nor shock the devotees.

"It's about a sense of unrest I feel about the world," Brett tells me the following day, in an ill-advised shot at an explanation. "An attempt to make some sense when everything seems to be going slightly insane. I do get a real sense of impending doom, but not in a depressing way, not like we're all gonna die, let's go and rape people. I feel quite content with it. We're living under some shadow, and I'm not quite sure what it is. It's a bit like the fears I felt when I was growing up, when things were unstable and there was the threat of nuclear war, or the fear that your parents could die of aerosol poisoning."

Brett grew up, together with Suede drummer Mat Osman, in the soulless satellite town of Haywards Heath, between London and Brighton. According to Osman, if they'd been the tea party fops people make them out to be, they would've formed a grunge band. They only wanted to be really glamorous because of their stultifyingly dull working class backgrounds. Some might say that that would lead to the three-Es-a-night, dance-and-forget syndrome, rather than the formation of a glam rock band.

"Hopefully we're not a glam rock band," Brett shudders defensively. "You can escape those surroundings by taking a load of Es and ignoring it. Another way is to create your own myth, to try and become romantic in your own eyes, to create something beautiful out of the rubbish and the shit. It all sounds very Oscar Wilde, but that's the way we did it. None of us were brought up in workhouses, but we haven't had easy lives at all."

Suede claim to be obsessed with fame because they were excluded from it. Yet surely fame is the one classless thing people aren't born into?

"Lots of people are constantly privileged," says Brett, who has clearly spent an unhealthy amount of time pondering the abstract qualities of fame. "If you're born in Soho to rich professional parents, and you've got Jonathan Wotsisname coming round to your house every night to see your father, then you've got this world that you slip easily into. When you're excluded from it there's a desperation, you're desperate to have it. It doesn't come as second nature to you, like professionally famous people who hang out in Beverly Hills. It's not something you're comfortable with, but that mutates it into something far more interesting, a bit prickly and far more creative, because you're not just sitting there lapping it up."

Suede's appearance coincided not unfortunately with the post-Madchester 70s revival. But was their styling something more than just the result of being unable to afford new clothes? Personally, I had thought the emergence of Gary Numan had killed off the idea of anyone ever again wanting to be David Bowie (not to mention Bowie's recent records). Then along came Suede, with their rough guitars, their androgyny and their theatrical singer.

"I never thought of ourselves as '70s," Brett insists. "David Bowie is a genius, but the rest of all that rubbish I always found laughable. As for the clothes, I always thought we looked more 60s than 70s. It's all tied up with this whole kitsch thing, this Magpie and Porridge and rediscovering the culture of British music journalists' youths. Kids of 14 didn't know what anyone was talking about, it was just that the people in power had reached a certain age where they were getting sentimental about their youth and started remembering Magpie. That's all it was, all a complete load of rubbish. As soon as we were aware that this scene was going on, we wanted nothing to do with it."

Brett's voice is a highly variable instrument, perfect and beautiful on slow numbers like 'The Next Life', but occasionally, when he affects that archly operatic Bowie yodel, a whiney, sneering sound like Rik Mayall on speed boring into your brain – absolutely maddening. It goes without saying that his delivery owes much to the most overrated British pop star of the last decade, Morrissey.

"I forced my voice in that way because of how we were born, musically, playing shitholes. It was the only way I could make myself heard. I didn't want to sing in the murmuring way that was the style of the time. I wanted to project my voice, because I was writing songs that I wanted people to hear the words of. I wasn't just writing about fluffy little clouds, which is what everyone was doing at the time. People read into my intonations a theatrical seventiesness, but it was a complete accident."

Overworked as the subject is, it's hard to avoid asking why Brett thinks his androgyny caused such a fuss. It's not the first time it has been done; it's not even the tenth time. Genderless, mincing fops are to classic British pop what hairspray is to American rock, a staple ingredient. Brett, by comparison to most, is pretty tame.

"I don't know," he sighs. "We certainly weren't thinking 'oh let's be androgynous', it's just the way we are. I'm naturally quite an effeminate person – not all the time, I do play on things. I think it was because, at the time, people were so incredibly boring. We had been through five years of the cult of non-personality, and we never wanted to go with the flow. When everyone had their heads down, chugging away, we wanted to twist things a little bit. It's like at school, when you find that something annoys someone, you keep on doing it more and more. And that's what happened really."

A female psychologist wrote recently about the overt sexual expression of pre-pubertal girls at pop concerts, the way in which, amidst the non-contact hysteria of the pop experience, they could sometimes experience their first orgasm. She was, admittedly, talking about a Take That show, but I can't help wondering if it looks like that from the stage to Brett Anderson?

"No, nothing like that," he purrs, "nothing sexual. I always feel like people are putting it on."

Having their first fake orgasm?

"It's a bizarre thing in my head. I know they really like me, but I can't really take it seriously. When I'm onstage, and it's working, I feel like I can do absolutely anything. I feel as though there's no limit, even in the sense that I could fall asleep if I felt like it, because I'm that relaxed. I feel much more comfortable on stage than walking down the street. I could go off into a corner and do a crossword or shave my head. I feel ridiculously relaxed. I really enjoy the power of being onstage. It's to do with the circuit of the flow between the audience and you, when it's an audience willing you to be good. Your own power is an expression of how the audience is feeling, but I can't say I ever feel sexual, even if it looks that way. I think that to call the power purely sexual is to belittle it. When I've been to incredible gigs, it hasn't been a sexual thing, it has been something far more magical than that. "

Brett and Osman came to London in the mid 80s to study, respectively, architecture and politics at UCL and LSE. Suede began after they placed an ad in the NME in 1989, but initial concerts had audiences shouting "Fuck off!", critics calling them effete wankers and record companies running for the hills - a three-pronged invitation to eat shit and die that would have spelt the end for most bands.

"That X factor that made people despise us," muses Brett, "was something we managed to turn around in our favour. It's like being in love with someone, and exactly the same things you adore about them, completely horrify you when you've fallen out of love. We went away and learnt how to write songs, and came back transformed. And those qualities that originally pissed people off, we transformed into something provocative. I think the fact that we went through all that rubbish was a fucking good thing for us. People forget that the Beatles spent five years in Hamburg. No one would touch them in England, cos everyone thought they were an utter load of shit. They spent five years getting it together, suffering a bit and fighting for it."

A typical lyric from those hard years was Brett's line about "shitting paracetomol on the escalator". When they were recently described as chemically saturated, I had assumed more interesting chemicals were involved.

"That's about pure mundanity, being off your face every night and your staple diet coming from your bathroom cabinet. It's a metaphor for a humdrum life, going up and down the London underground, which I spent five years of my life doing."

In many ways this – Suede's poignant soundtracking of new depression Britain – is their strength. But if they are Her Majesty's equivalent of slackers, it hasn't made America any more amenable to their cause. Indeed, despite Brett's avowed loathing of the British character – "negativity, small-mindedness, lack of faith" – there may well be a Britishness about Suede which prevents America from getting the point.

Brett makes the mistake of quoting a Smiths song to me – something about innocence, fragility and trust – forcing me to point out that American audiences don't want to be trusted with something precious, they want to rock out with their cocks out. Evan Dando may wear a dress and pigtails, but the wider American market is notoriously unkeen on sexual ambiguity. Queen were big in America until the early 80s, when Freddie Mercury started appearing in full clone gear. They never toured America again, and didn't have a single hit until after his death (and then only thanks to Wayne's World). In fact, America's association of guitars and manliness make Suede fundamentally unsuited.

"No!" storms Brett. "I don't think we're fundamentally unmanly. All you have to do is come and watch us live. We're about sexuality, power and emotion, things that everybody feels."

Whether or not America is destined to fall for his Morrissey-meets-Larry Grayson stage persona, Brett's much-aired desire to move to America (and less well-known plan to live in Paris) has, for now, been replaced by a much smaller act of bedouinism.

"I've moved from Notting Hill to Highgate," he announces proudly, "from a fashionable place to a place where you're living in the last century pretty much. I was living in a very small flat in Notting Hill and it was driving me insane, I couldn't write and was being bombarded with nonsense all day long. I needed the peace and quiet, and now I have a bigger flat with a studio room in it and I'm writing quite prolifically. It's more serene, there's more space to think. It's quite a beautiful place, but you do feel like you're living in the last century, like you're some sort of oddity, or in a play. You keep going into these odd characters. But it's a great place."

In person, and despite the affectation of much of his thought processes, Brett Anderson is quite charming. An endearing smile – which seems to hibernate when cameras are around – plays constantly around his face, suggesting shared confidences which, to some extent, he delivers. Like so many people cocooned by over-protective minions, he is refreshingly open and approachable. I like him. But he is deeply shocked and incredulous when I paint a picture of the special treatment afforded him by those he works with.

"They treat me with the respect I deserve," he jokes defensively. "I don't have tea with Lenny Kravitz. My best friend works in a chip shop, and that's why I like it, it's a complete escape. One of the beautiful things about being successful is that it can rub off onto your friends as well. Not fame and all that bullshit – the really brilliant thing about being successful is the self-confidence, the sense of life having a purpose, that life is a wonderful thing. You open the shutters in the morning and the sunshine pours through. That sense of vitality about life can completely rub off on your friends. Sometimes it doesn't, it can go the other way, with friends ignoring you cos they think you don't have time for them, but that never happens with your proper friends."

And yet, engulfed in the sweltering perversity of his peer group, Brett has come to hold some pretty crap views, views that seem utterly irrelevant beyond the borders of saddo indie land. He worries about being thought a sell-out, thinks Suede are radically honest because they admit to having ambition – as if people didn't get over all that bollocks a decade ago – and, worst of all, that people don't talk enough about music in interviews. Oh dear!

But, despite all this, Brett's public image remains unshatterably cool. He exudes waves of sultry, sulky hipness. I feel an urge to know what naff items lurk in the corners of Chateau Anderson, his ownership of which will shock Suede devotees to the core. Brett tells me he's been to see Aladdin, listens to jazz music, likes The Orb and Verve and has just bought the new Shamen single. To prove it, he even does his Mr C impression - "Comin' on like a vibe, y'know!". This won't do at all.

"I like Terence Trent D'Arby," he admits, trying harder. "I think he's really good."

It's good, but it's not right.

"I bought Billy Joel's River Of Dreams album. I like that one."

Aha – as Inspector Clouseau used to say – now we are getting somewhere! What about films?

"No, I've got impeccable taste when it comes to films."

No feature length On The Buses video stashed chez Brett?

"No. I have got Crocodile Dundee."

Bingo and Bullseye! So much for impeccable taste.

"Well, my perennial favourite is Performance," he flusters wildly. "I can virtually quote the whole film from start to finish. And there's a brilliant film which I've just discovered called The Shout, with John Hurt, Alan Bates and Susanna York. It's about a man who has spent years in the Australian bush learning the secrets of the bush doctors coming to this ridiculously reserved Cornish village and turning two people's lives upside down. It's like an animal alive within this village, and when he shouts, everyone within a mile radius dies. If Alan Bates' part had been played by Vincent Price, it would've been laughable, but it's incredibly powerful, one of those great lost films."

It's a nice try, but nothing can erase the impression created by Billy Joel and Crocodile Dundee.

#suede #brett anderson #press #interview #sky #1993

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twopoppies · 4 years

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Last time Harry went on tour he had like an A stage and a B stage. Which do you think are better seats to have?? I’m really nervous because obviously I love him so much and he inspires my gay self so much to accept myself and so I want to really be near him but I didn’t get to go to his concert last time (re: closeted and with abusive parents) and now I’m free I want to have a good experience....

Oh sugar. I’m so sorry about that but it’s wonderful to know you’re free now! I hope you get tickets and get to sing and dance your gay heart out with Harry!

So...I don’t know if the set up is going to be the same this time around. We haven’t seen anything but the set up for the LA Forum single night which has an enormous GA floor and no B stage. But that might just be this one show. For me, I prefer to be closer to the A stage because the bulk of the concert is happening there. But in arenas you’re going to get great video projections anyway, so no matter where you seat you’ll be able to see. I just REALLY prefer to be able to watch the stage and not the screen if that’s possible.

I know @dimpled-halo had an amazing seat in front of the B stage so she got almost a personal concert when he did that part of the show. She might be able to chime in.

Good luck getting tickets! ❤️

#rocketdocket

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fandom-glazed · 5 years

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music asks!

FAVORITES 1. what are your favorite bands? Lord Of The Lost, Porcupine Tree, Nightmare, Frost*, newer: Scarlet Dorn 2. what are your favorite singers? Lady Gaga, Steven Wilson, Zia, Lorde, newer: Down To Eden 3. what are your favorite albums? Thornstar by Lord Of The Lost, In Absentia by Porcupine Tree, To The Bone and Transience by Steven Wilson 4. what are your favorite songs? Six Feet Underground by Lord Of The Lost, Trains by Porcupine Tree, What I’ve Done, In The End and Numb by Linkin Park, My Demons and Ricochet by Starset, From The Flame by Leprous, Lovesongs (They Kill Me) by Cinema Bizarre, Would It Matter by Skillet, Hyperventilate, Experiments in Mass Appeal and Snowman by Frost* 5. what do you think the best popular song of the year is so far? I honestly don’t know. 6. which genres of music do you tend to like the best? Prog, Metal and any heavy stuff (not including “brutal” Death Metal - on a daily basis), Indie, Alternative, Soundtracks 7. what is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Either the Steven Wilson To The Bone Tour concert(s) in Hamburg 2018, or the Lord Of The Lost MEGA tour concert in Munich 2016 8. song of the year? My personal songs of the year (not released in 2019) at the moment: Kiss Me by Rob Vischer, While This Way by Árstíðir .2: 2019 still has to deliver! 9. album of the year? See 8.2 10. what are the best songs your parents have gotten you into? Anything by Keane, Evanescence, Depeche Mode,... 11. how did you first find out about your favorite band/singer? My own, like, nothing I inherited from my parents, favorite band was probably Cinema Bizarre and I found them through their first single being played 24/7 on Viva. 12. when/where do you first remember having heard your favorite song? I don’t remember anymore, sadly. I first heard Trains on a train station. 13. about how many times have you listened to your favorite song? I have absolutely no idea, any number I’d name would be too low. 14. if someone asks you what music they should check out, what are your go-to recommendations? I always assume my taste in music is nothing most people would care to listen to, but I’d say everyone should check out Steven Wilson(’s projects) at least once. And I’d promote my favourites in Lord Of The Lost till I die.

NOSTALGIA 15. what songs give you the most nostalgia? Anything by Evanescence, Keane, 80s music in general, The Corrs, Kylie Minogue, HIM... 16. what kinds of music were you raised on? Mostly 80s stuff, some rock, much pop, my mother brought some jazz as well, unfortunately. 17. what are your favorite songs that have ever been popular? See 15., probably :D I love almost every song by Gaga, I’d say she’s definitely popular! 18. who were your favorite musicians as a kid? I adopted my parent’s favorites, mostly The Corrs, specifically their drummer Caroline. Eisblume. Cinema Bizarre. Though that was already in my teens. 19. how did you feel about music as a kid? Music is and has always been my love and a great hobby. 20. what was your first concert? if you haven’t been to one, what do you want your first concert to be? I was six years old and I remember my dad telling me to say I’m seven so the security would let us in. It was The Corrs and I think it was either in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, or in the Olympiahalle Munich. We went to several concerts in that year. (So that’s where I got that from!)

PERFORMANCE 21. how do live performances, whether they’re from your friends or professionals, tend to make you feel? Like in another dimension. 22. singing in the shower or singing in the car? I don’t drive, so, rather in the shower. But mostly at my desktop, extremely loudly. 23. if you were to become a musician, what kind of musician would you be? I am a pianist/multi-instrumentalist, but I think I’d never want to be a professional. 24. if you could pick one instrument to learn how to play, what would it be? If improving on the piano doesn’t count, like, learn something completely new, I’d say, maybe the harp, the cello (though I tried it some years ago). 25. what is your singing voice like? what singers do you remind yourself of? I don’t have a super special singing voice (I’m told otherwise), but I hit all the notes thanks to my trained hearing. I don’t really remind myself of someone particular, but I can make my voice sound like different singers like Scarlet Dorn, Lorde or the singer of a band, I just discovered, Trees Of Eternity. 26. have you ever been involved in any music programs? which ones and for how long? I have been member of my music school’s programme/ensemble. 27. which instruments do you know how to play? what’s your skill level? I’ve been playing the piano for 13 years, if I’d kept up the hard work I put in it until 2016, I’d be rather high-skilled, I started to play the guitar some years ago, but I was never really sufficiently active. I also began playing drums and even cello, but due to price and neighbours I couldn’t continue. I am an autodidact singer and I can play the bodhran. 28. if you took music lessons as a kid, are you glad you did? if not, do you wish you had? I am glad I took piano lessons, but I wish I had started taking guitar lessons sooner. I’d be much better by now and I also adored my teacher as a person. He kinda reminds me of my actual mentor now.

SOUNDTRACKS 29. how do you feel about video game soundtracks? I love video game soundtracks. 30. what soundtracks do you enjoy listening to the most? It changes from time to time, but at the moment I love the Mass Effect: Andromeda soundtrack and also the Dragon Age soundtracks, as well as most of the Marvel movies’, Ghibli movies’ and Game Of Thrones’. 31. which soundtracks do you think are objectively the best (or what are some that you think deserve appreciation)? I’d say check out Trevor Morris, Joe Hisaishi and Ramin Djawadi and you’re on the right scent. 32. how do you feel about musicals? I absolutely love musicals and used to visit some as often as I could with my aunt. 33. do you have any favorite composers, including classical ones? See 31, as for classical ones, I love Rachmaninov, Bach and Chopin. 34. are there any soundtracks or kinds of soundtracks that you just can’t stand? Can’t think of any at the moment. 35. what are your favorite songs/soundtracks from movies? I stared to obsess with Under Stars by AURORA from the ME: Andromeda credits, I love the Misty Mountains, The Marvel Avengers theme and the Harry Potter soundtrack, actually I can’t possibly remember everything to write it down.

LYRICS 36. what are some songs whose lyrics you relate to? Ou, that’s a personal one. There are many. But to name a few: Would It Matter by Skillet, Covered In Gold and Walls Of Utopia by Oh Fyo!, Don’t Hate Me and Prodigal by Porcupine Tree, Pariah and Hand Cannot Erase by Steven Wilson, No Me No You by Frost*, almost everything by Scarlet Dorn as well as Black Halo and most of all Cut Me Out by Lord Of The Lost 37. pick a song and analyse its lyrics. Can’t do, shouldn’t do, probably. 38. which songs do you think have the best lyrics? There’s just SO many. 39. what are some songs whose lyrics you think most people just don’t get? Six Feet Underground by Lord Of The Lost, not your typical love songTM, Harmony Korine by Steven Wilson, also so much by Steven Wilson. 40. are there any musicians whose lyrics you particularly tend to like? Steven Wilson. Next! :D 41. do you prefer songs that have good melodies or songs that have good lyrics? Good melodies, generally. But once I got hooked on by the sound I live for good lyrics.

CHALLENGES 42. name five songs you like that were released in the 90s. Join Me In Death by HIM, Walking In My Shoes by Depeche Mode, Rosier by Luna Sea, Viva Forever by Spice Girls, Enter Sandman by Metallica 43. name five songs you like that were released at least 50 years ago. I could name you some classical compositions... 44. write a parody of at least a verse of any song you’d like. Reign, reign on me, reign on me, reign on me. Reign, wash away, triangles and tears, blur all your plot and reign on me. 45. name 5 songs you can’t stand. Despacito, Despacito, Despacito,... 46. look at your country’s song charts, listen to the first unfamiliar song you can find, and share your opinion on it. I didn’t know and didn’t like any of the first eight I looked at. That’s how much I love chart music! 47. turn a song lyric into a pickup line. Until the end of night... (listen to Blood For Blood by Lord Of The Lost. I won’t explain any further.) 48. name the last 5 songs you listened to. While This Way by Árstíðir, Loreley by Lord Of The Lost, Ten Feet High by Andrea Corr, a song I mixed and mastered, Sinking Ships by Trees Of Eternity

RANDOM 49. what are your favorite album covers? In Absentia by Porcupine Tree, Thornstar by Lord Of The Lost, Hand Cannot Erase by Steven Wilson, Resist by Within Temptation, Milliontown by Frost* ... 50. any cover versions that you think are better than the original? I mostly like the cover version and the original. 51. how often do you listen to music? 24/7 52. do you collect vinyls? if so, what have been your best finds? I do have some by Lord Of The Lost and Steven Wilson. 53. if you could meet any musician you’d like, who would it be? Steven Wilson. By faaaar. 54. how do you feel about classical music? I love classical music. 55. would you ever want to have a career in music? I am, in fact, an aspiring audio engineer. 56. if you had a stage name, what would it be? My stage name for audio productions and art is nadzumi. 57. on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is music to you? 11. 58. how do you feel about rap music? Don’t like it. Only a few songs. I like Eminem. And I found the influence in Linkin Park very interesting. But I’d rather stay away. 59. what do you think the best “era” for music was? I’d say the 80s, some of the 90s and now, because there’s such a diversity, everyone will find something they can love. 60. how has music affected you as a person? I’d say I am music. (Music has affected everything.) Feel free to ask away any number if you want me to answer it in more detail!

#other #tagging games

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anotherdoor · 7 years

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The next few days in Rome were a bit more exciting than our first night there. Although Shaun was still sick for the duration, we managed to have some adventures. The first stop that morning being the Vatican City – it was pretty impressive. We went as part of our tour group. Interestingly, even though we were a supposed “skip the line” group, we were still standing in a queue (in the rain) for half an hour (while street vendors walked us up and down, trying to convince us to buy umbrellas, rain ponchos, water and other various knick-knacks – they knew we couldn’t escape them if we wished to enter the Vatican. Normally the best thing to do with street vendors is to give them a wide berth and don’t make eye contact! In this situation all you could do was stare at the ground and ignore them, or turn away from them and pretend to be deeply engaged in a conversation.). So if that’s a “skip the line” queue then I dread to imagine how long you’d have to wait otherwise (being pestered by intrusive street vendors)! But we made it in eventually.

Guys, there is so much art in the Vatican Museum, who knew? You’d walk into a room and it would be impossible to even take in all the paintings/sculptures/frescoes/mosaics/whatever that were contained within any given room, let alone examine each one individually. Seriously. You’d need to have a lot of time on your hands if you wanted to appreciate all the art there. A lot of time! (Note from Shaun: if you looked at every piece of art for 60 seconds, you’d be there for 17 years). As it was, we rushed through in about 2 and a half hours, stopping only to appreciate the most famous pieces of art. Our guide for the Vatican was an Italian women who was clearly very passionate about the art and artists, so she added a lot of value to the experience, despite it seeming rushed. We did get a whole ten minutes or so in the Sistine Chapel. Which you actually really need if you want to be able to examine it in any detail. SO many panels. Here are some photos (not of the Sistine Chapel though, because that’s a strict no-no):

That was the big event for the day. (Shaun’s note: not quite, this was the big event for the day:

This painting of a dove firing holy light into a saints head and granting him a halo at the Vatican captivated me until I was able to track down more clues at Saint Andrew’s cathedral in Amalfi town. Look forward to that blogpost because I get excited.)

The rest of the day was spent finding food and getting Italian sim cards. Just as a note, if you need a sim card in Italy go with Lycamobile – we spent nearly 3 hours going into different phone provider stores, hearing about really terrible and expensive deals, before we went back to what was essentially a tourist info store and for 15 Euros each got a sim card, 2 GBs of data, with the ability to text and call nationwide. To compare, Vodafone wanted us to pay 25 Euro each for basically the same deal, but without the texting or minutes. And 3 wanted us to pay 30 Euros for 30GB of data. Again, just the data. I don’t know why they think anyone would need that much data on their phone. Like, what are they planning on doing with it all? Watching Youtube videos all day? I mean, you’re on holiday – you should be exploring. Mostly you just need to be able to use Google Maps! 2 GBs is more than enough to get through a month. Most hotels/airbnbs have free wifi anyway!

That day in Rome we also learnt that not all gelato is created equal. If you’re going to get gelato, get it from a proper Gelateria – it’s much lighter, fluffy and made from proper ingredients. Italy has some amazing Gelato shops – the best in the world. But there are also some duds. Don’t go to a Bar for gelato, it’s not the same, as we learnt that the hard way (it was the only place that was open near us).

On our third day in Rome, we broke off from the tour at last, ready to strike out on our own. We moved from our hotel (which was near the Vatican), to a little guesthouse (the Mersede Guesthouse) that was located very near the Termini Station.

It was nice, except for the shared bathroom. At least there was a toilet seat I suppose. It’s really weird, but in most public/restaurant bathrooms they seem to remove the toilet seats. It was so baffling that Shaun and I decided to look up why that was the case. There are multiple purported reasons – one is that people stand on them and they break so it’s easier to just remove them, and the other main one is for hygiene purposes. Either way, it’s incredibly annoying. But that wasn’t what I was going to write about.

Anyways, for the sake of convenience [mine] I’m just going to lump our last two days in Rome together. On those free days we did many wanderings around the streets, we visited the Villa Borghese, which is a lovely park up from the Piazza del Popolo, which is quite a cool Square to visit too - there’s an obelisk (stolen) and lots of churches and statues too. (Shaun’s note: please acknowledge the Chiesa of Santa Maria del Popolo, which also has a massive Samsung phone advertisement hung on the front. This encapsulates my feelings on Rome nicely.)

We also went to the Bioparco di Roma (the zoo). That was probably a highlight for me. I got to see wolves! And an adorable fennec fox. The Reptile House was pretty cool too.

We did the obligatory touristy things – we threw a coin in the Trevi fountain, took selfies with the Colosseum, gazed on the Pantheon, drank espresso and ate gelato. I found a fantastic gluten-free bakery called Pandali and had a calzone and pastries. It was good. We tried to avoid most of the attractions that involved long queues.

Rome has so many things to see – there will be random excavation sites in the middle of streets for uncovered ruins and artefacts, and there are statues and busts everywhere. We also found Groot.

That said, Rome does have a rather unkempt look to it that was surprising for such a touristy city. The sidewalks and cobbled streets were not well maintained at all. And it was very crowded. So we were looking forward to heading to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, and its relative ‘smallness’ by the end of our time there.

Oh, I almost forgot! We got to meet Pope Francis and he gave us a parrot! We called her Sparky.

True facts.

- K

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autumndesert · 7 years

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BTS WINGS TOUR JAKARTA FANACCOUNT

I’m sorry for neglecting my page for so long but this time I want to share this because I'm so happy that I want to write it all so I don't forget x'D I probably miss a lot of things, so there might be different things happening than those that are recorded and posted on net. I can't remember all, but ALL THE EFFORT I PUT. ALL THE THINGS. IT'S ALL WORTH IT. NOTHING IS WASTED. IF THEY MAKE A CONCERT AGAIN, I WILL DEFINITELY WATCH IT.

Okay, so first I'm gonna call out on the promotor. They're kinda shitty :( A lot of mistakes and a lot of unclear things happened :( I hate that they don't even clear up the lining. We ARMYs are neat and civil but they kept telling us to stop pushing and running but there's actually no clear information from the start :"( A lot of (almost all) of the ARMYs were disappointed with the promotor's service.

BUT AT LEAST THE CONCERT WAS WORTH IT.

I came with my friend and we both got Sound Check benefit. IT WAS GREAT. AWESOME. MAGNIFICENT.

Imagine a place that can hold 15.000 people. In a section where there should be 3.000 people. Only 500 was selected. Only about 450 got in (poor 50 people :"( blame the promotor). IT FEELS LIKE AN EXCLUSIVE CONCERT. They were all very relaxed. And actually they seemed kinda tired but they still smiled for us :")

The moment we got in, we're greeted with someone saying "Selamat siang, tidak usah dorong-dorong ya," [Good afternoon, please don't push each other, okay? --- in Bahasa Indonesia]. I thought they must have brought a translator, but it turned out that NAMJOON was the one saying that. Let me tell you that the sentence wasn't something you pick from a book. It's conversational language. THEY MUST HAVE REALLY STUDIED INSTEAD OF JUST GOOGLED OMG I LOOOOOVE THEM SO MUCH.

THEY WERE ALL BAREFACED, IN CASUAL CLOTHING, AND WERE COMPLETELY STUNNING. OMG. YOONGI EVEN LOOKED SLEEPY AF AND TAEHYUNG WORE HIS USUAL LOOSE OUTFIT BUT THEY ALL LOOK SO DAMN H A N D S O M E .

The camera catch them close up and their bareface wasn't smooth x'D They have acnes and such but they're STILL BEAUTIFUL WTF AAAH. I CANT WITH THEM. But there's strictly no camera allowed at the soundcheck so you probably can't find the footage everywhere :")

Tbh it made it feel so much more special because ONLY US got to see them like that x'D GOSH IT'S WORTH IT.

Jimin wore sunglasses and I wanted to laugh so much because he looked so ridiculous bc the venue was very dark and he wore sunglasses like why bro x"D I know he was probably insecure about his bareface but still, it looked funny to us because the sunglass was very big and square that it's flooding his face x'D he looks cute tho.

Then some of them started talking in Korean. The mic wasn't that loud yet that time, so between the screams we couldn't really hear what they were saying. (I couldn't catch anything) But they murmured things here and there. And since none of us understood, we just kept screaming x'D

They played Baepsae first. They just stood and walked around without dancing it xD They went around everywhere and say told us to sing. I really liked it. The fans were SO HYPE. They kept NOT SINGING AND GAVE US THE MIC AHAHAHAH. Taehyung gave us the mic and HIS EXPRESSION when we sang along was sooooooo proud and smug like "Oh yeah, that's my ARMY~" OMG I'M SO PROUD TO BE AN ARMY.

Then they got to Dope, and they still didn't dance. xD Jin moved as if he wanted to dance but the others didn't so he just fidgeted around SO CUTEEEE.

DOPE WAS DOPE AF WHEN HEARD LIVE. JUNGKOOK'S VOICE WAS SO AMAZING. I CAN'T.

But they were worse than when in Baepsae x"D They didn't even sing that much because they kept telling us to do it. And daaaaaamn they were so happy we did. Gosh it's the best thing <3

And then they performed 21st Century Girl. This time they danced it. XDDD I really liked it, they clearly told us to have fun and WE DID. The song was really fun to scream into and THEIR DANCE IS EVEN MORE PROMINENT LIVE. I got to see Taehyung's dance style and it's true that he really does dance ANYWAY HE WANTS. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OMG.

In between the songs, the members talked Korean in which we didn't understand. We kinda hoped Namjoon would translate but he was blissfully ignoring the others like okay mon, okay :") We only understand when Hoseok said "Next song~!" to indicate the next song :")

I HOPE I UNDERSTAND KOREAN GOSH

After 21st Century Girl, Hoseok told us, "See you next song," but then they left and we were ushered outside :") such a tease. I forgot when in the checksound this happened but.

TAEHYUNG NOTICED ME. He went to the side stage and crouched, and then SMILED THEN CLOSED ONE EYE AND SHOOT A FINGER GUN TO US OMG. I'M DEAD. MY BIAS NOTICED ME MY LIFE IS COMPLETE.

Jimin also teased us. He crouched and pushed down his sunglass a bit and WINKED AT US HOW DARE HIM. BLESS HIS PURE SOUL. Jungkook played around and bouncing all the time omg such bunny. Seokjin and Hoseok played around with each other A LOT X'D it was really cute. Seokjin even MADE POUTY-KISSY FACE in which the others made fun of but he was like "Whatever imma do what I like" X'DDD

Yoongi was so inactive, like he was still sleeping and would appreciate it if he could be back asleep lol THE LAZY IS REAL. Namjoon was being really chill too but he was smiling a lot and HIS DIMPLE OMG IT'S EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL REAL LIFE AAAH.

Okay the soundcheck part is ending. Then we had to wait outside while they rehearse and practice again :") We literally could hear the music from outside and their voice when they were training. Such hardworker, such love put for us :") They practiced Cypher pt 4 a lot. Like a looooot. Since we first waited, they only practice other song for like once or twice on some song but they practiced Cypher pt 4 for like 5 times :") I'm so touched the rapline were working so hard for us.

Okay skip to the actual venue.

We got in at about 18.00 and they played the MV on big screens but in low voice xD We sang and chanted to it anyways because by now the ARMYs remembered the MV by heart so they all know when to sing what even when it wasn't audible lol. Then it switched to black and we all got impatient xDDD Then it went into safety explanation. I was so impressed that the ARMYs generally stayed quiet and paid attention, despite being so hyped just a moment earlier :") ARMYs are so good mannered I love them <3

After that Indonesia's National Anthem was playing. We all stood still and sang it even though no one told us to. X'D I was so impressed by this OMG. I secretly hoped that Bangtan would hear that and be proud that we sang it so beautifully :") I hope they came to know our national anthem as well.

THEN THE VCR VIDEO. I got all the videos jumbled so I didn't really remember but all the VCRs are about all the stories before Spring Day. On one moment it showed Seokjin holding a video camcorder, recording 7 bangtan lined up, but then zooming in to Jungkook close up in the middle, but when it zoomed out JUNGKOOK WAS ALONE QAQ It's like RUN but they were all just standing instead of partying and it was clear that JIN was the one recording them. What is this mystery again omg. They really liked to make us confused. At almost the end of the video, I could see the sillhouette of the members standing in white outfits and I screamed like "BANGTAN IS THERE!!!" and I think everybody realized and started screaming as well. xD

The first song was NOT TODAY and it was literally ON FIRE. They put on fire at the front stage and IT WAS REALLY HOT. I stood so close to the stage that I could feel the incredible heat OMG IT MADE THEIR STAGE FELT EVEN HOTTER. It was fun, we screamed along to "TODAY WE FIGHT" and I think they didn't expect it x'D

Then they played the same song as the rehearshal (Baepsae, Dope, 21st Century Girl). But this time they danced it all xD They looked SO COOL AND THEIR VOIZ DAYUM OMG OMG AND THEIR SWEAT AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH I COULD SEE THEIR SWEAT IN HIGH DEFINITION OMG IT'S A BLESSING.

Then at some point they stopped and greeted us xD

I forgot the order, but they all introduced themselves IN BAHASA INDONESIA. OMG. It was just "Halo," and their usual greetings but it was very sweet x'D As I said, they must have REALLY STUDIED because their language wasn't stiff, it's really almost slang, to be honest xD The last one to introduce was Hoseok, and he said, "Harapan, J-Hope" [Hope, J-Hope, it doesn't sound special in English but the way he pronounced it, the way he even KNOWS the word, that was so sweet and we SCREAMED SO MUCH] x'D

Then they performed Am I Wrong. And I forgot the rest and probably got the order mixed up but then they moved to the next stage performance. NEXT WAS SOLO PERFORMANCE.

VCR was shown before, but I couldn't remember much x'D The first to go was Jungkook. We all expected it since Begin was the first line up of the solo stage. He sang it in jazz-style, with beautiful dance and sparkly suit. He's so cool. I can see for myself his determination to be number one, his full intention towards making the song perfect. The backup dancers are cool too, and the stage was emotional it was beautiful :")

Next up is Lie, Jimin. We screamed so much when we realized the song. There is actually a beautiful transition between all the solos, but I kinda forget what this one was x'D I guess it was a little VCR and just getting the backup dancer ready. I know Jimin said he couldn't have sing this in live because the note is too high and the dance is difficult. Let me tell you that IT'S ALL LIE. Jimin SANG AND DANCED so BEAUTIFULLY. I mean it. His voice was like flowing water, so emotional and heartwrenching, and his dance was LIKE AIR ITSELF. It's really really really beautiful. He didn't sing the 'caught in a lie' part but he sang everything else and if anyone ever accuse him of lipsync FIGHT ME HIS VOIZ IS SERIOUSLY LIT. The backup dancer created echo around him and making the performance grand :") Then there's a moment where he PUT ON A BLINDFOLD AND CONTINUED DANCING OMG. We screamed so much because lfkasjdlfakjsldkfj reference to BST adkfjalksjdf. And then he removed it again but then he was being LIFTED while there was a CANDELABRA GOING DOWN OMG I swear Jimin is so extra. The stage ended soon after but it was really beautiful reallllly.

The next one is VCR and melody about Suga. It's like all of his best scene in previous videos, compiled. It's really emotional and aesthetic, moreover when we see that there's scenes of Yoongi playing piano with metronome on top of it, slipped in between his best scenes. The metronome remind me so much of Rap Monster's solo mixtape, Do You. And it was emphasized as the Yoongi scene ended, the metronome got bigger and became animated, playing as the back ground over and over. Then the violinist that had previously prepared themselves there got spotlight, and Yoongi appeared from the middle WITH A PIANO. It's a beautiful piano, brown and tiny, like the one he played in the video, like the description he got in the song, like the one he got his first love with :") He didn't play it and didn't even stay on the seat for long, but it's seriously so emotional and aesthetic. It's so heavy with story and emotion that I was almost suffocated. Suga is so INTENSE I can't.

After being heavy with Yoongi, the song switched to VCR of psychedelic butterfly. To be honest I think Hoseok's story is the most painful ones. The VCR showed distorted butterfly with a lot of changes, then J-hope in butterfly wings, which got distorted and broken. Then J-hope in short film setting, with brick wall behind him and a lot of "placebo" appearing and disappearing behind him. Okay so I CHECKED. There's a reason I used PSYCHEDELIC and the word PLACEBO appeared. Psychedelic means "Of, containing, generating, or reminiscent of drug-induced hallucination, distortions of perception, altered awareness, etc; (of graphics, etc) Having bright colours, abstract shapes, etc." and Placebo means "(medicine) a dummy medicine containing no active ingredients; an inert treatment" and additionally, Placebo Effect means "(pharmacology) The tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work."

THIS IS A BIG REVELATION. Because we know that since I NEED U, J-Hope was so close to drugs. But the words PLACEBO itself just appeared on WINGS TOUR (or I’m the only one being left behind lol). IMAGINE THE SIGNIFICANCE. ALL THE MEDICINE HE TOOK. ALL THE THINGS THAT HE THOUGHT MADE HIM CRAZY UNTIL HE EXPERIENCED THE PSYCHEDELIC IN SHORT FILM AND BLOOD SWEAT TEARS. THOSE ALL ARE INERT TREATMENT. THOSE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANY EFFECT AT ALL. HE JUST BELIEVES THAT IT WORKS AND IT aCTUALLY WORKS. IMAGINE HOW FUCKED UP AND TWISTED THAT WAS.

IRONICALLY, his song is Mama, a serenade song for his mom who have raised him to be the Hoseok he is now. Isn't it strange? Of all the solos, Yoongi's and Hoseok's are probably the only two that got the least relevance to the story BUT. WHAT IF his mom itself is an illusion. What if all of his happy memory is just an illusion? JUST AN ALTERED PERCEPTION?? Isn't it strange that J-hope's the only one with cheery-themed song? The only thing I can imagine is that he's HIGH.

Okay so I didn't think about this at the concert lol. I just got the word placebo on my mind and looked it up when the concert was over. IT BLEW MY MIND :") His stage itself is AMAZING. It started with the dancers appearing on the center stage. They played around as if saying, "Where is Hoseok? Where will he appear?" It was cute af and adorable, and then suddenly Hoseok appeared between the dancers, and they placed white jacket and white cap to him xD it was cute. The performance is full of cheerful dance, and it's soooo cute, just as expected of J-hope. And while he danced, the screen portrayed his YOUNGER PICTURE. FROM HIS NEWBORN PHOTOS TO SCENES OF PREDEBUT JHOPE TO HIM UNTIL NOW. It was touching, and at some point he removed the white jacket to reveal sparkly jacket inside. It's cute, really, like he really wanted to put on a show. xD I really like it tbh.

When the performance ends, Lost started. The four vocals appeared in the center stage with casual red and white outfit combination. Lost was beautiful, I still prefer they sang House of Cards but honestly Lost is beautiful too :”)

Then they sang SAVE ME. There was a project that was distributed before the concert. It is to hold out a handbanner with part of SAVE ME lyrics, "In this pitch black darkness, you still shine this much" during SAVE ME. I was so proud that all the ARMYs did it very beautifully. That moment, I really think that all ARMYs are family, and that we really want to make Bangtan happy :") Because of the banner, I couldn't see much, but I knew the members were kind of distraught and touched. They were distracted when singing and dancing, and from my spot, I could even see Jimin looking at us (ME!!!! XD) holding our banner and covering his mouth, like he wanted to cry but couldn't. All the members looked around to see us all really holding the banner, it was so sweet :")

I forgot if they said something directly after the song, but I think they didn't. The song continued into medley of N.O, No More Dream, Boy in Luv, Danger, and RUN. Then, they performed I NEED U. In the medley, the members run around so much and we all sang and had fun xD

Then it's back to solo songs. There's VCR about Rap Monster, and the interesting thing is, aside than him between glasses and reflection, is the visual of him approached by whale, which is WHALIEN 52. GOSH WHAT IS THIS AGAIN. DOES THIS MEAN THAT NAMJOON'S ISSUE IS LONELINESS??? There were a lot of props going around, and there was three section of stage being lifted, with the rightmost containing a phone box littered with writings. I suspect it's either quotes from Catcher in the Rye or Demian, or even their own translated lyrics. It's beautiful, Namjoon appearing with the background screen showing night stars, so beautiful. His outfit is simple patterned white shirt and loose-taehyung style black pants x'D In Indonesia, his style is so similar with "remaja masjid" (mosque youth), so my friend and I got hysterical for awhile because he looked SO HANDSOME IN IT. In the instrumental interlude, we chanted "Kim Namjoon! Kim Namjoon! Kim Namjoon!" over and over and I swear I saw his expression was so at peace :") Namjoon is one of the member that receive fewer love than he deserved so I was SO PROUD that ARMYs show them that much love. Then, when Namjoon sang "I wish I could love myself" we all sang, "WE LOVE YOU", and at that moment I really wanna cry, it was so touching :") I think Namjoon wanted to cry too but he didn't, he finished the song and ENTERED THE PHONEBOOTH....

ONLY FOR THE UPLIFTED STAGE TO SHOW VANDALIZED ROLLING DOOR AND TAEHYUNG SINGING FROM INSIDE THE PHONEBOOTH. This once again emphasize the significance of Namjoon, Taehyung, and the phonebooth that connected them. There is no "Liar" writings like in the short film, but seriously, Bangtan's theory fucked me up.

Taehyung sang STIGMA so beautifully. It was so. BEAUTIFUL. I mean. His voice. I can't. It's so emotional live. IT'S SO DAMN SOULFUL I GOT MY SOUL SUCKED OKAY. I LITERALLY STOPPED SWINING MY ARMY BOMB AND JUST STARED AT HIM FOR THE DURATION OF THE SONG. Then he came out of the phone booth, down, towards the center AND SANG HIS HEART OUT. He's so concentrated I really love him so much :") Everytime the monologue appeared we SCREAMED SO MUCH OMG HE'S SO SEXY There's a stand mic appearing and he put the mic there and continued singing until the end. HIS HAND IS LITERAL SEXINESS OMG. But then a stupid thing happened x'D He came forward, leaving the stand mic in favor of stage gimmick, and went back, but then he HIT THE STAND MIC OMG TAE :") I CAN'T WITH YOU. But then he just acted like there was nothing happening and stayed cool, like, okay, bruh, scool x'D

Then the violinist came up again, and the phonebooth was removed. The stage came a little up, and I think there was VCR but I forgot. Then Seokjin came forward with AWAKE. It was beautiful. When he entered the chorus, there is five parts of the stage, with him in the middle being the lowest, while the others beside him rose higher, forming a wing, with the background screen as feathers and sky :") It's like a representation of flying, that even if he says he can't fly for real, but he flied in the stage, he's floating, he had wings :") It's probably also a satire to his song's implication, that he himself doesn't rise, but he let the others beside him rise up :"))) He's so sweet. I can't. AND HE'S SO HANDSOME OKAY ALSDKFJLAKSJDF

Then the rapper line came up with Cypher pt 4. It's really cool if not for the outfit x'D Namjoon wore sunglasses that really made him look like a lame nerd and he looked hilarious af. All of them wore thick colored oversized robe and Suga's was so large that it looked like pajamas x'D He looked like he was about to sleep here and there. But then at the chorus he SPRAYED OFF WATER TO US ALSKDJFLAWLKLSJRIU I GOT SUGA'S HOLY WATER OMG I'M BLESSED LAKJSDLFKJALSKDJF THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE. Okay I didn't get it, the water just reached the ones at the frontmost and I got back for better viewing pleasure but still x"D

Then VCR again. I think I omit a lot of things but okay x"D This VCR is the most beautiful thing here. Let me tell you. It is scenes of all the videos before but with proper storytelling and NARRATION. IN INDONESIAN. THE LANGUAGE IS BEAUTIFUL. LIKE. I AM SURE THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY TRANSLATED FROM KOREAN BUT IT'S SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL. TOP NOTCH TRANSLATION.

My friend recorded the whole thing and I'll put what I can get here :")

Sekolah, rumah, jalan kecil, lautan Menutup langit masa muda, sia-sia Jalan buntu ini jalan masuk ke jalur berliku Bagai stigmata berlumur darah, di telapak tangan Sakit yang menusuk merambah sayap yang membentang Mimpi yang menjulang tinggi Mencari lautan yang tak kunjung ditemukan Sang anak berjalan Sang anak dengan bukan satu tapi tujuh jantung Tujuh detak dan Satu langkah ke depan Perspektif baru dan Satu adalah Tujuh Berlari akan terjatuh Menantang tebing Di dunia yang penuh rayuan Apa yang dicari dengan mata tertutup? Ketika tirai terbuka untuk memecahkan cermin Munculkan jalan setapak menuju serpihan Luar ke Dalam, Dalam ke Luar Dunia bertautan Persimpangan jalan untuk semua Dua dunia satu di balik yang lainnya Tanpa henti menyatu menjadi satu Kini Tujuh anak lelaki di perjalanan Tujuh, tapi Satu Tujuh anak lelaki dengan Satu jantung Satu anak lelaki dengan Tujuh jantung Satu dan Tujuh, refleksi satu dengan lainnya Berapa banyak jalan harus dilalui sebelum anak lelaki menjadi dewasa Jalan adalah nama lain untuk dunia Siang dan malam, persimpangan jalan dan terowongan Jalan dengan persimpangan tanpa akhir Dan selalu sendiri saat mengambil keputusan Berbelok di pojok Dan apakah bunga merah masa muda masih merekah? Kemana mimpi ini melangkah? Ketakutan adalah nama lain untuk harapan Air mata adalah cara lain untuk tersenyum Sang anak lelaki tersenyum Dia bisa tersenyum bila dia utuh satu Sang anak lelaki terus berjalan

School, home, narrow street, sea Covering the young sky, in vain This dead end is an entryway to sinuous road Like the bloody stigma on your palm The piercing pain reaching your stretched wings Dreams rising high up Looking for a sea that can't be found The boy walks The boy with not one but seven hearts Seven beats and One step forward New perspective and One is Seven Running will get you hurt Againts the valley In the world full of temptation What will you find with closed eyes? When the curtain opens to crash the mirror Outside In, Inside Out The world coincides Intersection to all Two worlds one aside the other Keep colliding into one Now Seven boys is on their way Seven, but One Seven boys with One heart One boy with Seven hearts One and Seven, reflection of each other How much path should be passed before the boy can mature Road is another name for world Day and night, intersection and tunnel Road with a neverending intersection And always alone when you have to decide Crossing the corner And does this red flower of youth still bloom? Where does this dream lead to? Fear is another name for hope Tears is another way to smile The boy smiles He can smile if he's whole The boy keeps walking

(original Indonesian that I saw at the concert and rough translation that you probably will get when the DVD is released)

GOSH THIS EXPLAINS A LOT. alkdjflaksjdlkfjalskdjf seriously I wanted to cry. I know the tour VCR is made BEFORE Spring Day was out and ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL THAT THE LAST SENTENCE IS "The boy keeps walking" and the title of the next album is YOU NEVER WALK ALONE. It's so aflksjdlfkajlskdjf alksdj bangtaniswear.

Then they performed Outro: Wings. We're still in shock and in emotional roller coaster so we weren't as loud but we still screamed from the top of our lung :") At the instrumental break of the song, J-Hope told the members to dance x'D I didn't remember all but they either did sexy dance or ridiculous dance. Suga did his grandfather dance and Jin attempted proper dance (he didn't look like a disaster live HAHAHAHHA).

Then it's talk time. THEY ALL SPEAK IN INDONESIA LAKSDJFLAKJSDF I CAN'T. IT'S NOT EVEN FORMAL INDONESIA OR GENERAL PHRASES. WE ALL COULD TELL THAT THEY LEARNED TO SAY WHAT THEY SAID.

Okay I forgot a lot but here's what I remember:

V: Akhirnya malam ini sudah hampir selesai. * Kalian pasti berharap malam ini tidak pernah berakhir, kan? * Aku juga!! * Apakah kalian suka (konsernya)? * Aku sukaaaa!!! * Aku cinta kalian! [Finally this night comes to an end. You must have wanted this night to never end, right? Me too!! Do you like it (the concert)? I liiiikeee it!!! I love you!] * is for ARMY’s scream lol

Jin: Aku pernah ke Sulawesi tetapi.... A: HAAA??? Jin: Tetapi Jakarta juga indah! Aku cinta Jakarta! [I've been to Sulawesi but.... but Jakarta is beautiful as well! I love Jakarta!]

Suga: Karena kalian, kita bisa menampilkan Not Today PERTAMA KALI di Wings Tour Jakarta. Ini semua berkat kalian! Mantab! [Because of you guys, we can perform Not Today for the FIRST TIME in Wings Tour Jakarta. This is all because of you guys! Great!] When he said Mantab, it actually was a slang and it's kind of appropriate translation to the phrase he likes so much, kkaepjjang x'D We were so excited he knew our slang

RapMonster: Ini adalah Episode terakhir dari Tour kita. Dari Episode II: The Red Bullet, Episode I: Begins, dan sekarang, Episode III: Wings! Kita tidak bisa melakukannya tanpa kalian! [This is the last episode of our Tour. We can't do it without you!]

I forgot what Jimin, J-hope, and Jungkook said x'D but both Jimin and J-hope said something cute and Jungkook stuttered like he didn't really memorized his part (but succeed anyways) it was so cuteee.

Then Namjoon talked about the project, RM: Do you guys remember the small paper, the one you raise during Save Me? (he said it in English) A: YEAH! *some raised the banner JM: *sings that part i kkaman eodum sogeseo, neo neun ireohke bitnanikka A: *sings along geut soneul nae mireojwo Save Me Save Me, I need your love before I fall RM: It's very beautiful! We were very touched, it was very beautiful A: AAAAAAA RM: But sadly we've come to the last songs. (basically he praised our projects and said farewell)

Then they performed FIRE (cue real fire coming out again!!!) and then Boy Meets Evil. Boy Meets Evil was only performed for a short time, but JHope was dancing and wasn't rapping. He danced up to "too bad," and then the instrumental switched to Blood Sweat Tears and the venue EXPLODED. I think us Indonesian ARMYs still like this song SO MUCH xD They were SO SEXY LIVE ALKSDJFALKSJDF too bad Jimin didn't do his "accident" but then again they're already TOO SEXY I CAN'T. After that, they exited the stage, and the screen turned to WINGS LIVE TOUR text.

We were shouting for encore and of course, we got it after awhile xD They came out with Spring Day outfit, the oversized shirt and plain tshirt. They sang I NEED U and we all did our projects again xD The festival ones which are the nearest to the stage covered their lightstick with pink plastic bag, and the seating created the color of red and white, our national flag. We celebrated the one year anniversary of HYYH so we used pink x3 I could tell that they were touched as well x'3

And then they talked again, they basically told their farewell again and I thought they wanted to address the project but didn't know what to say (I don't think they know what it means but whatever x'D) And then they told us that it's really the last and at the end, they sang 2!3! and we all did our projects (again! We had 4 projects, honestly lol). We chanted "Saranghae!" instead of "Gwaenchana", and the real chant included sentences that answered Bangtan's doubt in that song, but we couldn't pronounce it well so I think Bangtan only recognized the "Saranghae" :"D I could tell, they were puzzled but I know they recognized the word saranghae. Then we kept singing even at the end of the song, even when the light dimmed and they got ready for Spring Day formation. I think they waited until we finished singing then started Spring Day. :")

Then they performed Spring Day, and, as per the project, we lifted up the yellow rose x'3 I didn't know what this one meant, but Bangtan was touched as well :") I think they were speechless because we did so much projects. Their expression was NO JOKE THO. Their sadness filled up the venue :") Maybe that's what the yellow roses were for.

At the end, we kept singing the uoooh oh part and that's the part when they said their goodbyes :") They went around the stages a lot, all of them. I got noticed by Jin, Rapmon, and JHope the most. During the whole concert, I got a lot of Jin blowing kisses at us and dancing in front of us; Namjoon smiling around goofily and danced too; Yoongi pushing out his mic telling us to dance; Taehyung walking around and dancing and crouching; Jimin and Jungkook just walking around and JHope TEASING US, smiling at us and winking and generally becoming a horrible human being that doesn't have mercy on our heart. At this encore JHope came SO CLOSE to where I stood and reached out to pick the banner. He picked it with SUCH GENTLE FACE I CANT. He read it, POSED IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA WITH IT, AND GAVE IT BACK OMG SUCH ANGEL. He did it again with the yellow rose I CAN'T. Jungkook picked up fans with Jin's and Jimin's derp face and put it on his shirt HAHAHAHA. He did it SO PROUDLY and he was happily jumping and showing it around LIKE A CHILD OMG THIS BUNNY. Jimin crouched down CLOSE TO US but then he was like, "Okay, I'm near, no need to push around, hello, it's okay" Taehyung went SO NEAR the camera and did aegyo and picked a box with V on it OMG this cutie x'D Namjoon picked a pink dolphin stuffed animal and happily played with it. At the end of the farewell every member had came to the stage (AND TAE NOTICED ME AGAIN MY LIFEU IS COMPLETE) and went around. When they gathered again at the stage, I saw Namjoon struggling to put the dolphin on top of his head and was so proud that he finally did it and crossed his eyes x'D it's so cute. Jin played with Jungkook's collection and blew kisses with his derp-fan-face lol. Jimin just looked 100% done with maknae like always but he played with the fan anyways lol.

In the end, they all bowed and left the stage.

There was one more VCR, about the backstage and practice, and they are were sweet basically :")

In the end, we all went home safely, I think. My friend and I were so tired that we slept right after. We met up with our other friend at the airport and we ended up CRYING A LOT at the plane :") because of Bangtan omg. It's an emotional trainwreck, honestly.

WINGS TOUR JAKARTA IS MAGNIFICENT. GRANDIOSE. AWESOME. DEFINITELY WILL COME AGAIN TO BTS CONCERT. ALL THE MONEY I SPENT WERE WORTH IT. NOT A SINGLE MOMENT, NOT A CENT, WASTED.

#BTS #Wings Tour #Jakarta #personal #bangtan seonyeondan #lovely #AMAZING AF #fanaccount

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darkbeauty100 · 7 years

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Chris Motionless Imagine Featuring

~Y/N~POV~

It was the first day of Warped Tour and your band was super excited. You and your boyfriend Chris Motionless could finally preform together. Since you guys started dating you both were featured on each other’s albums. You were featured on Motionless in White’s album Reincarnate the song Contempress. And Chris was featured on your album Victim to Villain the song Angel Eyes. Chris made another appearance in your music video for the song Whore. But today you guys can watch each other’s performance.

You get off your tour bus and walk to Motionless in White’s bus. You knock on the door and Ricky answers the door. “Hey y/n! Long time no see.” “Hey! Ricky I missed u guys is Chris here?” I asked as I walked onto the bus. “Yeah he’s here him and Vinny are playing Halo.” I followed Ricky to their front lounge. I jumped right onto Chris’s lap. He wrapped his long arms around you and kissed you. “Hey! Babe I missed you and you look fucking hot!” “Hello to you Mr. Motionless and you look hot as well.” We cuddled for a moment before my phone rang. It was my tour manager she said we preform in an hour. “Baby I have to get ready I have to be at staging in an hour.” “Aww you just got here oh well at least I can sing with you u know I’m gonna watch your whole set.” “Ok bye I love you Mr. Motionless.” I said as I got up from his lap I kissed him one more time. As I walked away he smacked your butt and I jumped and squeaked. “I love you too princess.”

-Back on your bus-

Your band is all girls so you guys are super close. You changed into your performance clothes which is a short tight pastel pink dress that flaired at the skirt. Some black vans and a pink and black bow in your bubble gum pink hair. You did your makeup which was some eyeshadow a maroon lipstick and some false eyelashes. Now you and your girls were ready for the stage.

You guys were preforming on the main stage which was an honor. Your band made it to the stage you stretched. Motionless in White showed up and Chris hugged you from behind. “You look absolutely stunning princess you guys are gonna kill it!” He said as he kisses neck. Our tour manager were on in 2 minutes. The girls and I gather did our band chant. “Good luck girls we’re gonna kill it!” I screamed your band is called The Wolf Pack but your stage name is the Wolf Princess. Before we go on stage we howl like a pack of wolves it gets the crowd pumped.

We ran on stage and started howling into the mic. The crowd howled back with us. “Are you ready to rock!!! With The Wolf Pack!!!!” I screamed in the mic. We started playing then we got to Angel Eyes the crowd doesn’t know that Chris is preforming with us.

~ Some thing about you, I cannot explain I just want to know you, I just want to know your name It’s not what you said Not the way you said it, I’m under your spell and I don’t regret it Take my breath, Baby reach inside my chest You can have whatever’s left Cause baby I’m possessed Don’t you try to hide with those angel eyes -Chris Motionless- If you let me inside I won’t hold back this time! -Y/N- Such a deep disguise,the devil’s right inside! -Chris Motionless- I don’t care how many times it takes to get through to you, This is a force that not even God can stop! YOUR FUCKING MINE!! ~Y/N~POV~ You and Chris were having so much fun singing with each other. You began to grind on Chris. This earned some whistles from the audience. When the song ended you hugged Chris and thanked him. “Give it up for Chris Motionless from Motionless In White!!” You screamed in to the mic. Chris hugged you one last time before kissing you. The crowd awwed and whistled. “I love you princess” “I love you too Mr Motionless!” You said as he walked away. After about 4 more songs your set finally over. “Thank you so much everyone you guys were amazing tonight. In a few hours go watch Motionless In White!! I love my wolf pack!!!! You howled again then walked off the stage. “Babe I love watching you preform you did so good!” Chris said as he hands me a bottle of water. As we were walking to our tent. An interview person stopped us and asked if we could do an interview. We agreed we always wanted to do a couple interview. -Interview Time- “Hi this is Macy with AP new and I’m here with Chris Motionless from Motionless in White and Y/N from The Wolf Pack.” “So how are you guys? And Y/N you just got finished preforming right?” Y/N:“We’re fabulous and yes I just walked off stage!” M:“You did amazing and you sang with Chris aww relationship goals!!” Y/N:“Yes! He did sing with me and I thank him for that he did so good!” C:“Thanks babe!” M:“I wanted ask you guys some questions. First question where was your first date?” C:“Well our first date was here on Warped Tour we watched some bands together and went to my bus and played some Xbox. It really weird because the guys were there so yeah. Y/N:“Now the first official date when it was just the two of us we went to Universal Studios. It was so cute we made out a lot that day! M:"Aww cute next question what’s been the weirdest thing that a fans said to you?” Y/N:“Umm someone told me to take my panties off and show my boobs. Yeah it was so weird like how strange is that! C:"Wow that’s fucking weird… Did you do it?” Y/N:“OMG Chris no! Shut the hell up!” M:“Wow that’s crazy, that’s all we have time for it was a pleasure talking with you two. Before you guys go can you kiss for the camera?” We kissed and Macy awwed and we said our goodbyes. We should get something to eat before MIW’s set. After eating and a quick signing it was almost time for Chris’s set. ~Chris~POV~ It was almost time for our set we were back on our bus getting ready. I needed to do my makeup and straighten my hair. Y/N was sitting in the front lounge playing on her phone. “Hey babe can you do my hair and makeup please?” She smiled and nodded she started with my hair. Next my makeup I had a perfect view of her cleavage. She is so fucking busty God her body is so beautiful. We were all ready to play on the main stage we walked over to the stages. We started to warm up and stretch. We could hear the crowd start our chant. Hearing this gets us so pumped and excited. We ran on stage and opened with our song America. A few songs in we got to our song Contempress. I glanced over to Y/N she had her mic in her hand and waved at me. -Chris Motionless- ~In darkness, your all around me I know our future, I feel your body What if I told you I plan this? What if I want to lose control? What if I take the blame become the drug dissolve as you swallow? Covered in your silhouette Elated for your bitter end Don’t hide the shame from our lips Burning in amber,burn in sin Against the wall,we fall from grace The pain we love is taking shape A burning lust to touch the flame Over and over again We played this role a thousand times The same old script,just different lies You disappear without a trace Concealing the crimes on your face -Y/N- Beneath all your pleasure,all you are is pain. And all you deserve every second of your suffering. But yet I can’t stop,crawling to your doorstep. Every time you beckon I’m self destructing,trust in nothing Save me! ~Chris~POV~ When Y/N came on the stage the crowd went crazy. We sang and she danced and was grinding on me. I grabbed her and bent her over in front of me. I got a glance at her mint green lacey panties. I grabbed her by her throat and screamed I AM THE KILLER. Close to the end of the song she stood up above me. I was on my knees next to her I ran my hands up and down her legs. At the end of the song I kissed her hard. We turned to face the audience I thanked her. "Give it up for Y/N from The Wolf Pack!!!” I picked her up and spun her around she started to laugh. When I picked her up I forgot she was wearing a dress. She was pulling on the end of her dress trying to keep her underwear from showing. "Chris please put me down! My undies are showing!” She laughed. “Sorry babe!” I put her down and kissed her one more time. Before she could walk away I smacked her butt. She jumped and squeaked she glared at me. “That is one hot piece of ass!! I know from experience!!!” I laughed. “That’s my amazing girlfriend!! I love you princess!” “I love you too Mr Motionless!!!” We finished our set and thanked the crowd. It was pretty late so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings.we all had a great time. After dinner Y/N came to my bus she was wearing some yoga pants and a Motionless In White tshirt. "Can I spend the night with you?” “Yeah of course babe.” We cuddled in my bunk. We watched some nexflix and talked. She was dozing off she looked so cute. I kissed her lips and whispered. "Goodnight babe I love you.” Then I drifted into a deep sleep. This is how I want to spend the rest of my life.

#chris motionless #imagine chris motionless #motionless in white #motionless in white imagine

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amazingviralinfo · 7 years

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Beyoncs new tour finds her at the height of her artistic powers. What makes her sound, her dance moves, her image and her feminism so distinctive?

The sound: It sounds like a push to dominate all of pop

Of late, some music writers have got into the habit of referring to Beyonc as Queen Bey. It doesnt exactly imply a great deal of critical distance, but you can see why the nickname has stuck. It is hard to think of a recent album that feels more commanding and imperious than Lemonade, not just in its lyrics where defiant woman-scorned wrath meets righteous social anger but in its music. It sounds not like an R&B record, but a push to dominate all of pop. Country, alt-rock, left-field electronics, hoary Jack White blues-rock? I can do the lot. That seems to be one of its messages.

So pervasive is the Queen Bey persona that it is easy to forget that there was a time when Beyonc didnt seem to know what she wanted to be, at least musically. Her solo career never faltered commercially she continued the run of peerless pop hits that had begun with Destiny Childs No No No as if the groups dissolution were a mere formality, as if she had been the only thing that mattered about them all along but she also gave the impression of being torn between a career as an R&B diva and the desire to be an MOR entertainer.

Many of the best tracks on her first two solo albums tended to point up her voices similarity to R&B singers of the 60s and 70s the raw drums and see-sawing organ of Freakum Dress, the funk-rock of Suga Mama, Crazy in Loves blaring Chi-Lites horns but they were surrounded by stuff that erred on the sickly side of perfect, as if she were quietly investing in a future that might have more to do with cabaret than clubs.

Beyonc at the BET awards in Los Angeles. Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BET

The sense of an artist being pulled uncomfortably in two opposing directions reached its peak with 2008s wildly uneven I Am Sasha Fierce: one disc full of self-help-motto power ballads and tracks that sounded as if they were following trends (Halo was audibly made in the image of Rihannas Umbrella), and another that suggested, for the first time, a willingness to experiment the percussion battery and oddly doomy minor chords of Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), Video Phones minimal fusion of crunk rhythms, sampled groans, and needling synthesisers.

I Am Sasha Fierce sold 8m copies, but its follow-up suggested a rethink or at least a focusing of her approach. Made after she had severed ties with her manager and executive producer father, 4 built on its predecessors more experimental aspects, and introduced the I-can-do-anything musical expansiveness that you hear on Lemonade. There were influences drawn from Afrobeat, dancehall and alt-rock; thrown together with Kanye West collaborator Jeff Bhasker, the Sleepy Jacksons Luke Steele contributed the psychedelicised Philly soul of Rather Die Young.

Destinys Child had largelyshied away from the kind of ultra-futuristic R&B sound big in the late 90s and early noughties their singles were always about the chorus rather than the novelty of the production but, just at the point when the charts were awash with R&B stars making tinny pop-house tracks, Beyonce released Run the World (Girls), based on Major Lazers Pon De Floor, a battery of drums, dancehall rhythms and squealing noise. It was refined on Beyonc, the album on which she finally abandoned the last vestiges of conservatism. The sound was rooted in hip-hop, but dragged everything from chillwave to the Aphex Twins abstract electronica to doo-wop into its orbit. It was filled with tracks that stopped abruptly, as though she was impatient to move on to the next idea. There were songs that sounded like suites (Haunted, Partition), even, on No Angel, an audibly off-key vocal allowed out into the world.

A gushing profile in Vogue found her joking that she might take on jazz or even country next time. As it turned out, she wasnt joking. Alexis Petridis

The dance icon: She and her troupe move as one unit a drill team, an army

Beyonc performs at the Super Bowl in 2016. Photograph: Thearon W Henderson/Getty Images

Beyoncs music, style and message make her an untouchable ruler at the top of the pop-culture pyramid. Her dancing, however, is what makes her feel reachable.

We have watched Beyonc grow from seductive showpiece to sexually empowered woman. She has graduated from the male-gaze booty-shaking of Crazy in Love to the unapologetic, hard-hitting struts of Formation. Sure, all the action still happens in her pelvis and chest, but the execution is different, with a sway back, upturned chin and heavier step. Something about it says: This dancing is for me and no one else. Not for your eyes; not for Jay Zs.

Notice that Beyonc is rarely without her all-female squad of dancers, and that she doesnt usually deviate from their choreography. That is completely deliberate, because Beyonc can certainly carry a stage alone. Instead, she and her troupe move as one unit a drill team, an army in the name of black pride and girl power. Allow your eyes to blur and it is as if Beyonc is multiplying, until 50 of her are swarming the stage.

More from the Super Bowl show. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Refocus your vision and she is just one woman among meticulously organised rows of dancers. She might be the point of a pyramid or centre of an X, but she is always standing with them. It helps convey the idea that Beyonc is your spokeswoman; that she is in this with you, fighting the same fight. That no matter how rich and powerful she is, she is a girls girl, the Everywoman. That she walks, spins, and grinds like each dancer behind her. Because what anchors Beyonces persona once a shiny display, and now a little more vulnerable isnt the dancing itself, but the staging. She does not underestimate the simple and persuasive power of movement in unison.

That is not to say that the actual movement that Beyonc and her team puts out is particularly inventive (though they have certainly come up with some great hairography). While Beyonc has become more radical in message, she has actually toned down the creativity of her dancing since the days of the Bob Fosse-inspired Single Ladies video. Formations punchy isolations, booty-bouncing and chest-popping are evenly set with the beat and the melody, with knees twisting in and out. At its most basic, its a heightened, polished version of something you would do in the privacy of your own living room, music blasting, two glasses of wine in a feel-good romp. Its another way to connect with her fans. For modern-day Bey, dance is no longer a main event; its there to serve her highness. And sometimes, that is all dance is supposed to do. Kristin Schwab

The brand: She doesnt release albums; she creates cultural events

Beyonc and Jay Z at the Met Gala in New York. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Theres the A-list, and then theres Queen Bey. Beyonc has risen to a rare level of fame where she has surpassed mere celebrity and become an archetype of achievement. When she dropped Lemonade, the world dropped everything to listen Beyonc doesnt release albums; she creates cultural events.

Beyonc has been famous for almost 20 years, but, it is only in the last eight that she has gone from phenomenal to phenomenon. This is no accident, but the result of strategic brand-building learned from Madonna and Apple.

Her metamorphosis into a brand can be seen in three key milestones. First, she married Jay Z. Then she killed Sasha Fierce. Finally, she fired her father. Strategic partnerships can be a highly effective way to build a brand and, leaving romance aside, Beyoncs 2007 marriage to Jay-Z was as strategic as you can get. Both benefited from the merger I mean marriage, gaining new fans and elevating their respective statuses.

When Beyonc married Jay Z, she was going through a period of transition. You can see this play out in the character of Sasha Fierce, an alter-ego that let Beyonc experiment with a more risqu sexual persona while maintaining her traditionally wholesome image. The 2008 album I Am Sasha Fierce reflected this tension. One side had more mainstream songs for new fans, the other was aimed more at old fans.

The I Am Sasha Fierce album cover

In 2010, she announced she didnt need to separate her persona from that of Sasha Fierce any more. Killing off Fierce signalled a Beyonc newly confident in what she stood for. This was reinforced shortly after, when Beyonc made arguably her most important move ever: she dropped her father as manager and seized control of her brand. When I decided to manage myself, it was important to me not to sign to some big company, she said. I wanted to follow in Madonnas footsteps and be a powerhouse.

Part of becoming and staying a powerhouse was exerting painstaking, Apple-like control over her brand. Its a mistake to call Beyoncs notorious attention to her image diva behaviour; its businesswoman behaviour. Beyonc understood that she couldnt let Beyonc-the-person encroach on Beyonc-the-brand. So she stopped saying much, and rarely gave interviews. In 2013, she made waves by appearing on the cover of the September issue of Vogue without deigning to give the customary interview that went with it. Her silence made her voice even more powerful, and reinforced the mythology she was creating.

A couple of months later, Beyonc really dropped the mic when she launched her fifth album, eponymously titled Beyonc, unexpectedly on iTunes. The launch broke all the conventions of music marketing and announced to the world that she only played by her own rules. The next year, she was on the cover of Time for their most influential people issue.

Today, Beyonc is more influential than ever. She has become a voice for feminism and civil rights. While this move to the left may seem to run the risk of being polarising, remember that her timing has always been flawless. She understands exactly when she can activate activism for her own benefit. Further, the sign of a strong brand is that it can evolve with culture, and weather the occasional controversy. The strength of Beyoncs brand is such that, at the moment, it seeems she can do no wrong. After all, to err is human but Beyonc is divine. Arwa Mahdawi

The feminist: She calls out to the masses to rise up

The Lemonade album cover

Its all Maya Angelou in those now iconic first 15 seconds of Beyoncs visual album masterpiece Lemonade. As the most famous pop star on the planet, golden cornrow coiffed, and supine on the back of a sports utility vehicle, comes up off the back of her ride in haunting slow motion, the spirit of legend Angelous classic 1978 poem And Still I Rise pulsates like an undercurrent: You may write me down in history/With your bitter, twisted lies/You may trod me in the very dirt/But still, like dust, Ill rise. Our heroine has taken Angelous words (that many a black girl has memorised) to heart, turning the wisdom of her lyric anthem into a long-form visual and sonic meditation. The result is a feminist breakthrough in the world of stadium pop. It is 18 million cracks in pop music cultures glass ceiling delivered by a sister wielding a baseball bat in a marigold sundress.

One of the biggest pop-culture events of the year so far, Lemonade has nonetheless weathered some high-profile handwringing from feminist scholars such as bell hooks, a notorious Beyonc hater, who conceded that the albums visual imagery shifts the gaze of white mainstream culture challeng[ing] us all to look anew, to radically revision how we see the black female body while nevertheless continuing to warn of her oppressive ties to capitalism and patriarchy. These sorts of concerns about Beyoncs brand of feminism are nothing new.

Beyonc at the Super Bowl in 2013. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

If you are a woman whose independence depends on making money, as Yonc and her fellow children of destiny would sing about in the year 2000, can you ever really be free of the systems that have historically oppressed women and people of colour? If, in your celebration of the single life, you are still chastising your ex for not having sealed a commitment with a rock, are you more of a material girl than empowered woman warrior?

The ambivalences in Beyoncs pre-Lemonade musical repertoire have led some, such as critic Andi Zeisler in her razor-sharp new book We Were Feminists Once, to characterise the superstars relationship to the F-word as a form of marketplace feminism, a mainstream, celebrity, consumer embrace of feminism that positions it as a cool, fun, accessible identity that anyone can adopt But Zeisler is also quick to point out that we need not hate the player, but rather the game in which our reigning queen of pop is ensnared.

The difference that Lemonade makes in Beyoncs career-long, increasingly sophisticated engagement with feminist politics is that it is an album that ambitiously aims to address the game of large-scale, deeply entwined racial and gender oppression, even as it foregrounds a tale of intimate deception and duplicity. True, this is still the Bey weve come to know who extols the virtues of revenge by way of paper, when many a feminist longs to hear her say instead that best revenge is dismantling patriarchy in all facets of modern life. But Lemonade is ultimately an album that moves well beyond a focus on being black Bill Gates in the making.

Just when a series of pop starlets from Taylor Swift to Emma Watson and Chlo Grace Moretz were willing to embrace a kind of feminism that oversimplifies its meaning, that thinks in limited and sometimes twisted ways about girl squads, making womens equality welcoming for men, and gender neutrality, along comes Bey with a new album that demands that we think about feminism as a sophisticated and multilayered practice rather than a slogan. The album encourages black women, in particular, to examine the wholeness of their beings and the complexities of their identities.

Beyonc and her team of artistic collaborators turned what had been an initial embrace of feminism into an epic sonic event. It demands that mainstream popular culture reckon with the conditions of being a modern black woman in ways never before seen and felt.

Beyonc and Coldplays Chris Martin at the 2016 Super Bowl show. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

For the first time, a superstar black female musician aligned herself with intersecting racial and gender freedom struggles by way of a concept album, as well as the Super Bowl halftime routine watched the world over.

Most would be hard-pressed to recall the last time a black female pop star had enough cultural capital and sheer recording industry power to boldly weave together critiques of racial and gender inequality into a full-length recording. The go-to reference for many is still Atlantic Records-era Aretha, crowned the iconic foremother of the feminist pop anthem. Others might cite the audacity of Lauryn Hills ferociously introspective narratives of self-discovery and personal redemption, the biting lyricism and sophisticated instrumentation of Meshell Ndegeocellos or Erykah Badus finest releases, or the recent Afrofuturist liberation odysseys of Janelle Mone. But none of these artists, not even the Queen of Soul, have commanded the kind of multimedia global platform that fourth-wave Bey has been able to seize upon in this rapidly changing digital age.

And so enter Yonc with her Run-the-World army of women: an all-female dance troupe, backup singers, her celebrated Suga Mama band, and her pathbreaking alliances with diasporic black feminist intellectuals such as Warsan Shire and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. At the height of her artistic powers and political vision, she calls out to the masses to rise up, Angelou-style, and ride with her as she sits behind the wheel of a Hold Up video demolition monster truck, driving pop culture forwards and into the future with no turning back. Daphne Brooks

The celebrity: Even sneezing on stage gets her coverage

Beyonc on tour in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Larry Busacca/PW/WireImage

Pop superstars fall into two camps: the boy or girl next door, or the character who would buy the house next door, evict the family and erect a neon and diamant castle in their own honour. Britney, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift would have you believe they would pop round for a cup of sugar; Kanye, Gaga and Madonna appeal because you know they would send in the JCBs. Fans engage with all those artists with a similar intensity, but we attach ourselves to the humanity of some and the audacity of others.

Most artists stay in one lane, but during her two-decade career, Beyonc has deftly segued from sugar (early interviews show an artist with little to say maybe, we might now speculate, she simply wasnt being asked the right questions) to steamrollers: Aprils Lemonade addressed, owned and even exacerbated rumours surrounding her marriage to Jay Z in the pop equivalent of a controlled explosion, by an artist now able to unleash, control and manipulate her own celebrity on her own terms.

Tech companies pivot when their original proposition goes wrong: Beyonc did it when things were going right or, at least, before diminishing returns set in. And she did so while achieving critical and commercial success.

The shift in Beyoncs celebrity status didnt happen overnight. Her relationship with Jay Z created a celebrity whole far exceeding the sum of its parts, while the aggressive sound and styling around Run the World (Girls) put a hard edge on the broad-stroke feminism of early Destinys Child tracks. But 2013s surprise album really saw Beyonc take control. The power of instant releases shouldnt be underestimated: by stripping critics of any meaningful role in an albums release, Beyonc and others have allowed for a frictionless exchange of celebrity energy between fan and artist.

Jay Z and Beyonc in San Francisco in 2014. Photograph: Mason Poole/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment

Six months later, Beyonc topped the Forbes celebrity power list, based on mentions in print, radio, TV and online, for the first time since her initial appearance on the list a decade earlier. This reflects shifting, click-driven priorities of the global news agenda, but Google Trends echoed Beyoncs role in that shift: before 2013 there were clumps of interest around album campaigns, but in December 2013 Beyonc began prompting huge peaks in interest that wildly outstripped any that came before.

As her politically charged Super Bowl performance earlier this year showed us, Beyonc understands tentpole moments, but she also understands the smaller details, the pegs without which tentpoles wouldnt hold up. She knew this early on. Consider Question! in Independent Women, Pt 1 or I aint gonna diss you on the internet when the world was still on dial-up lyrical proto-memes that now seem like Beyonc staking her claim on the modern world of social-driven celebrity culture.

Fast-forward to 2016 and Becky With the Good Hair the woman rumoured to have been a third party in the Beyonc-Jay Z marriage is a celebrity in her own right, while restaurant chain Red Lobster reported a 33% boost in sales after being namechecked in Formation as the ideal location for a crustacean-themed post-coital lap of honour. If that is interesting in itself, interesting, too, is how widely that news was reported. But this is an era when Beyonc sneezing on stage can guarantee coverage from Time, Vanity Fair, Mail Online and the Hereford Times. That, as much as anything else, defines the meaning of celebrity in 2016. Peter Robinson

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rockrevoltmagazine · 7 years

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SHOW REVIEW: Starset Vessels Album Release Demonstration

January 20, 2017. A day that will go down in history for many reasons. But, for this rock and roll writer, that day meant Starset at Express Live! in Columbus, Ohio. Not only was this the first concert for the year for me, but it was also a grand celebration for the hometown favorites – Dustin Bates, Brock Richards, Adam Gilbert, and Ron DeChant – and their new release, Vessels, which currently (as of this write up) sits at number one on iTunes.

I had the foresight and fortune to be able to purchase VIP for this event, and if you are on the fence about whether or not you’d like to go about this, I highly recommend it. Not only do you get to get a picture with the guys and a bit of conversation along with your autographs, but they also put on a short acoustic set that you only get to see if you’re VIP. That perk alone – and it is a perk, as they sound fucking phenomenal acoustic – is well worth the price tag for the pass. I recommend it 110%.

As both groups of VIP passholders finished up their sessions with the group, I watched the Express Live! venue fill up quickly around me. The atmosphere was still a bit laid back as people wandered about, chatting with friends – both old and new – and purchasing merch for one of the four bands we would see that night. That’s right, friends. Four bands. One night. Epic awesomeness was sure to ensue.

I made my way to my usual spot, right on the rail in front of the stage, and got ready to be blown away by the evening. It didn’t take long for the air to start buzzing, and not that way, ya heathens (at least, not at this point in the night, but I digress). The first band was Liberty Deep Down out of Powell, Ohio. Man, let me tell you, that band is going places. I instantly became a fan, and not because they sang their own version of “Everybody (Rock Your Body)” from the Backstreet Boys. They played a short set that really left me wanting more.

Next up was Harmless Habit, a pretty great band with a sound a bit edgier than Liberty Deep Down. Harmless Habit got the crowd moving, jumping, and singing along. They were really good, and I was a touch more excited than I should have been when they sang another Backstreet Boys hit, “Larger Than Life” along with the vocalist from Liberty Deep Down, Dom Frissora. I wondered if this would be a theme for the night; would every band bust out some BSB for us to enjoy? Alas, no, Harmless Habit was the last one to do that for us. However, they did cover a song, “Sleep” from Starset frontman Dustin Bates’s former band, Downplay, which was really, really well done and good to see. It was a killer rendition, and one that longtime fans of all Dustin Bates projects could appreciate!

Followed by Harmless Habit was 8 Lb. Pressure, another local band out of the Columbus area. I was told that they’re a semi-regular act on the scene for supporting bigger artists, and I can understand why. The crowd was eating them up, singing and rocking their faces off. They got us all more than ready for Starset to come out and do what they do best. Give them a listen, if you haven’t.

After the supporting acts cleared the way for Starset, and the final stage setup was completed, the place filled up. I mean, FILLED UP. I became good, fast friends with the girl beside me, and thank God since we didn’t have much choice. We were on top of each other for the rest of the night. It was clear that all of Columbus came out to support Starset, and man, it was incredible to witness.

Even more incredible was the stage setup. Adam Gilbert, on drums, had his very own Pandora’s Box to play from, flanked by two large screens for video and lights. Dustin’s prized emulator sat front and center, and both Ron DeChant (bass, keyboard, backing vocals) and Brock Richards (guitar, backing vocals) had their spots on either side of the stage. I was so pleased to see a cellist and violinist touring with them, as those two play very important roles in the sound of Starset. Once the lights went down and the new Starset logo comprised of three parallel lines shone from the back of the stage, we knew. It was time….

Leading off with “Into the Unknown,” Starset wasted no time getting the crowd acclimated to their new tracks from Vessels that had just dropped that day. The crowd went absolutely apeshit as Dustin belted out the lyrics, including those growls that I have really grown quite fond of, and the others did their parts as well to completely rock the crowd to the core. Dustin took sporadic, very short breaks in between each song where he thanked the crowd, pointed out that he had been able to walk to the show from where he lives, and took the time to show appreciation for a few key people who were there in the audience (including representatives from their label, Razor and Tie, and local radio station, The Blitz). I always appreciate that touch as a concert-goer. I like it when artists take the time to show appreciation, and the fact that Dustin said, “thank you” after almost every song was not lost on me. Midwest manners at their finest, folks, and a meaningful gesture to boot.

Their set was nonstop energy and driving, pulsing force. From “Down With the Fallen” to “Richochet,” (oh, that song is so damn good live) and “Dark On Me” to “Carnivore,” Starset took the crowd through a more-than-impressive seventeen-song set that was an excellent mix of prior releases and tracks from their new album. I was honestly super pleased to hear “Everglow” and “Frequency” live, since they’re two of my favorite tracks from Vessels, and “Monster,” of course, since it’s such a smash hit on radios. “Everglow” would be the song I’d choose for my first dance at my wedding, if I wasn’t already married. It’s so, so good on the album, and I promise you it’s even better live. From start to finish, their set seemed flawless; I don’t think anyone who was paying attention would disagree.

Every single person around me – and including me – seemed to know every single word and wasted no time proving it. At one point, I stopped moving and just listened; it was such an interesting symphony, coming not only from the stage but also from the crowd, and goosebumps rippled over my skin. I had to imagine that this is what musicians do this for – the love and energy of the crowd. It was electric.

Speaking of electric, the video images on the screens, alongside the light show on the Pandora’s Box, brought such an awesome aesthetic to the show that many fans of the band have come to rely on. Even the new white suits worn by Adam, Brock, and Ron garnered attention from the crowd. It was easy to see why they were chosen – they simply glowed underneath the stage lights. You don’t just get a concert at a Starset Demonstration; you get a live experience for the ears and eyes that you won’t soon (or ever) forget.

The band was tight, Dustin’s vocals were even more incredible than I’d remembered them from the last time I saw them, and the entire night was absolute magic. Starset is a band that is definitely amazing recorded, but you have to see them live to fully appreciate their sound and what goes into them being as successful as they are. I’m still waiting (along with others, I am sure) for an acoustic album or a live album. I’ll take one of each, thank you very much.

As the final notes of their usual show-closer, “My Demons” ripped through the air and the band said their goodbyes, it was like I’d come down from a cloud of pure, exhausted bliss. My body was rocked, my voice was completely gone, and my ears were ringing, but man, I’d do it all over again, again and again, since every time I have seen them has been so different and so incredible. I am STILL enjoying a little post-concert hangover (they’re totally real, folks!), and I have no regrets. If these guys are coming to your area, and for many of you they are, do yourself a favor and go. You will not be disappointed. Not one bit. And spend a little extra coin and get the VIP. Tell ’em I sent ya.

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Review by Devon Anderson, RockRevolt Managing Editor/Journalist Photos by Tara “Pit Princess” Williams, Play It Loud Media Group

Starset Set List 1. Into the Unknown 2. Halo 3. Down With the Fallen 4. Antigravity 5. Ricochet 6. Dark On Me 7. Rise and Fall 8. Telescope 9. Frequency 10. Satellite 11. Everglow 12. Carnivore 13. Bringing it Down 14. Back to the Earth 15. Monster 16. The Future is Now 17. My Demons

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SHOW REVIEW: Starset Vessels Album Release Demonstration was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

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