#sixth page style

[strxwberrymllk]

source

#upload #aesthetic #pretty #pink #pink aesthetic #peachy #pastel #cute #kawaii #instagram #zara #blazer #page 6 style #sixth page style #wears #outerwear #zarafashion #zarada #khabren zara hatke #zara phillips #jee le zaraa #fashion #couture #runway #style #fashion photography #menswear #pastel fashion #high fashion #shoes

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

Drawings: cbf!soap x reader

On the walls in your room are drawings from Johnny.

Ever since you met him all that time ago in kindergarten, he had been drawing art. It seemed like any moment he wasn’t doing his homework or work in class he was drawing.

You watched all the time, since you sat next to him in every class, and admired his work with a deep sense of wonder.

In the fifth grade he drew you a picture of your favorite Disney princess. In the sixth he drew you a picture of your favorite music artist. Every drawing he gave you in middle school was something that you liked, something that you told him you enjoyed.

In high school his art style changed. He started drawing more realistically, with more purpose and soon his art started looking pretty professional.

Freshman year he drew you your favorite flower. Sophomore year he drew you a beautiful landscape.

Junior year he drew a picture of you but didn’t expect to give it to you.

It wasn’t the first time he had drawn you. In fact, since he could remember he was always drawing you when he knew you weren’t looking at him.

You were his favorite muse. He studied you any chance he got and lost himself in your eyes. He had so many drawings you he could almost make a timeline of you growing up with them.

Every sketch of you was another piece of him he wish he could give you.

One day he made a mistake.

“Draw…a cat!”

“On it.”

Johnny had asked you to give him something to draw, semi-stuck in art block due to the stress of school. He flipped through his journal and a piece of it he had torn fell on the ground.

Before he could pick it up, you had and he felt his stomach hit the hells below.

“You drew me?”

You were staring at the page with unreadable eyes that were stuck to the sketch of you smiling. He didn’t have to look to know that’s what it was because he had ripped it out to hide it from you.

“Yeah…” He couldn’t say anything as he fidgeted with his pencil, nearly snapping it in half.

You were quiet and he felt like he was going to have a heart attack.

“Can I keep it?” You wondered and his eyes widened.

“What? Why?”

“Because…I really like it.”

You rubbed your thumb over the sketch, a small smile pulling at your lips as he watched warmth spread in your eyes. You looked giddy, like he had gifted you something priceless and it made his cheeks burn.

“Ye can have it.” He couldn’t even distract himself with drawing.

“Is this the first time? This can’t be, there’s no way.”

“It’s not.”

Johnny’s mouth went dry when you looked at him with shock. He was really hoping you didn’t find him weird for doing drawing you and he refused to let you know how many times it took him ti perfect you on paper.

“You made sure to get my good side right?”

Johnny couldn’t help but laugh at that. Relief washed over him at the admiration in your eyes and he shook his head.

“Every side is your good side, bonnie.”

That picture is the only one framed on your dresser.

A/n: figured I’d give some fluff

Tags: @elysian0612

#childhood best friend!soap #cbf!soap #john soap mactavish x reader #john soap mactavish x you #john soap mctavish x reader #john soap mctavish x you #john soap mactavish #john soap mctavish #soap x reader #soap x you

[bluejayblueskies]

Red, White & Royal Blue Rebind

[ID: Eight pictures of a hand-bound rebind of the book "Red, White & Royal Blue." The first shows the cover, which has been bound in light gray bookcloth and is decorated to look like a suit with a union jack tie. There are two cardstock buttons, one that says "Vote Claremont" and the other that says "History, huh?" On the right side, the title "Red, White and Royal Blue" is painted on in red, white, and blue paint respectively. On the left side, the author name "Casey McQuiston" is painted on in white paint. The second shows the spine, covered also in gray bookcloth. It has the title "Red, White and Royal Blue" painted on in red, white, and blue paint respectively and the author name "Casey McQuiston" painted on in white paint. The third shows the book from the top so the headbands, sewn with red, white, and blue thread, can be seen. The fourth shows the title page of the book, which has the title "Red, White and Royal Blue" in red, white, and blue ink respectively, as well as the author name "Casey McQuiston" beneath it. The fifth shows the colophon page (left) and dedication page (right). The colophon has details about the book, as well as the binder logo for Blue Skies Books (a bluejay) and the logo for Renegade Publishing (a bookpress). The dedication page says, "For the weirdos and the dreamers" in a sans serif font above a black and white drawing of a reflective lake with pine trees around it. The sixth shows a chapter header page, which has a gray skyline that merges the skylines of DC and London across the top of it. The word "One" is in all caps in white on the lefthand side of the skyline, and body text is beneath it in a serif font. The seventh shows the inside of the book, drawing attention to the formatting of the emails throughout the book. The emails include icons for both Henry and Alex, email addresses, timestamps, and subjects. The eighth shows the inside of the book, drawing attention to the red, white, and blue heart page divider and the handwriting fonts used within the regular body text for certain words. /End ID]

When the Red, White and Royal Blue movie came out last year, I rediscovered my love for this book and these characters and just had to do a rebind of it! This is a full rebind, so I've done the typeset myself as well as the cover. I had a delightful time coming up with the cover design (I imagine this is modeled after a theoretical Alex suit, though it could be Henry's as well!), and I had an especially fun time doing the typeset. There are so many fun formatting elements in this story, and it was great getting to put my own spin on them.

Logistics-wise, this bind uses Lumeiere fabric paint and a Silhouette-cut stencil for the words, Silhouette-cut cardstock for the decorative elements, handmade cotton bookcloth for the cover, cotton embroidery thread for the endbands, and regular Hammermill cream paper for the textblock. (Once I've saved up for it, I'm looking forward to getting some short-grain textblock paper! This is still long grain.) The body font is Cochin and the title font is Montserrat.

And finally: my bind versus my trade paperback copy!

[ID: A picture of the hand-bound version of "Red, White and Royal Blue" from above held next to the mass-produced paperback version of the same book. They are made in different styles with different color schemes, but both have a fun and slightly whimsical appearance to them. /End ID]

#fanbinding #bookbinding #red white and royal blue #rwrb #jay's bound books

[squids-and-waffles7]

thinking about the possibility of belos ending up in the inbetween realm after being stomped and finally getting what he deserves... 

[ ID: A digitally illustrated comic mainly featuring Philip Wittebane from The Owl House. The first panel on the first page is a birds eye view of the inbetween realm, with cubes floating everywhere and a slight disturbance in the water below. The second panel is a close up of that disturbance, which looks to be a whirlpool of some sorts. The third panel follows that, and Philip’s hand is shown forming on the water, with a ““splat” beside it. The fourth panel is a behind view of Philip kneeled over, head to the ground and face obscured. He is in his human form, like how he is seen in Elsewhere and Elsewhen, and is breathing heavily. The fifth panel is still of Philip kneeling, except he has popped up his head and is looking around. He asks, “What is this” but is then promptly cut off by the next panel, which shows a grimwalker hand rising out from the water with a splash. He looks at this with a confused look.

The first panel on the second page is a close up of Philip’s face, a concerned and fearful expression on his face. He blurts out the word “No”. The second panel is spliced into three pieces, and each shows more dead grimwalkers rising from the water. The first shows another hand, the second a fully formed grimwalker with a broken mask crawling towards and reaching out to Philip, and the third yet another hand. The third panel is of Philip trying to back away by crawling while more grimwalker hands shoot up around him. He shouts at them, “G-Get Away!” The fourth panel is a view of Philip crawling back from behind, and a head of a grimwalker can be seen behind him. He yells again, saying, “I said-” but is cut off by the fifth panel where the grimwalker behind him suddenly grabs his arm. The sixth panel is of him looking over his shoulder, surprised. The seventh panel is an above shot of Philip sitting on the water, grinwalkers surrounding him and grabbing each of his limbs. The water swirls below him in a whirlpool motion. He shouts, “Get off me!! Go!!” The eighth panel is a closeup shot of an arm grabbing his shoe and pulling him down, the ninth panel showing the fear in his eyes.

The first panel on the third page is a wide shot of Philip being dragged down under the water, his arm straight up desperately trying to grab something. The water cascades around him, pushing him down even more. The second panel is a closeup of Caleb’s eyes, which are glaring with anger. The third panel is a below view of Philip being dragged down, with Caleb’s hand still tightly grasped around his foot. The fourth panel is a closeup of Philip’s eyes, which are staring in fear. The fifth panel is from Philip’s POV, where Caleb is seen still pulling him down by his ankle, glaring at him. Other grimwalkers are beside him, hands reaching up towards Philip to also help drag him down.

The first panel on the fourth and last page is of Philip being dragged down, a fearful and almost angry expression on his face. He screams, “Caleb! Let-” but does not finish his sentence. The second panel is of Caleb still glaring at him, not saying a word. The third panel is Philip looking at his brother with an unreadable expression on his face, as though he just realized something. The fourth panel is an above shot of Philip finally being dragged down into the depths Dr. Falcilier style, arm out stretched and he sinks. Broken masks of grimwalkers can be seen below him, pulling him down too. The last panel shows the surface of the water in the inbetweens realm, the surface still and finally tranquil. The word “Fin” is written at the bottom of the page. End ID. ]

#the owl house #toh #toh belos #belos toh #toh philip #philip toh #philip wittebane #wittebros #toh caleb #caleb toh #toh grimwalker #grimwalker toh #AA!! watching and dreaming was SO GOOD but i am a little dissapointed with the ending of philips and calebs story #like i get they ran out of time but i wish they did one last thing with caleb 😭 they built it up so much and then it just kinda went out> #> with a fizzle sobs. same with belos’ death like i love that he died pathetically but i wish he realized what he had actually done before> #>he died u know?? #like he died thinking he was right and we never got to see that facade of lies crumble and aughhh. aghh! #anyways drew this because if it is true that ppl who die in the bl end up in the inbetween realm they could hypothetically meet there #and that fact has me brainrotting SO HARD #owl house #my art #fanart #this is now canon <3 /j

[lowkeyrobin]

if your taking requests then can i get an mcyt hcs of a s/o with long hair that's curly but like in a taylor swift debut type curly not like a barrel curls type way. anyway so their s/o's hair is like mega wild and they just never really style it, they brush it and take care of it but just not like sit down and style it, and so their hair is almost always down naturally and just how they'd react to it

yes of course!! thanks for the request, I rlly like this one :D hopefully I got everyone you're looking for here lol 🫶🫶🫶

MCYT ; you have long & curly hair

includes ; tommyinnit, tubbo, ranboo, freddie badlinu, niki nihachu, quackity, and foolish gamers

warnings ; language

y/f/c = your favorite color

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

absolutely loves your hair

he loves playing with it & he loves losing his hands in the density

he never asks to style your hair or anything because he doesn't know shit about it, but he likes being walked through how you care for it

at one point he randomly blurts out "you know, I've never seen you style your hair before"

"What, do you want me too?"

you guys have this whole little (civilized) conversation about your hair and how you prefer to wear it down instead of trying to fight with it

he gets interested if he can try and style it himself for you because he thinks you'd look so awesome with some styles

you shrug and let him

he does some simple stuff, needing your help to braid and whatever

he does a waterfall braid, then tries out some small, simple updos and two French braids

after that you go outside while the sun is sitting and take a bunch of pretty pictures of each other

he absolutely loves your hair, natural or styled

he loves learning about how you take care of it and you let him help you do so as well

he just likes watching you do stuff with your hair in general, and likes asking questions on what everything does

such a sweetheart fr

TUBBO

he sees, even the fact you never style it, your hair as a way that you express yourself

he swears when you're having a sick, sad, or tired day, your hair reflects it. it's a little less shiny and bouncy, as he says

idk he's got some weird sixth sense for you and your curls

but he also loves learning about how you take care of your hair and what everything in the products and what all the tools do

"have you ever thought about styling it?"

you shrug "I guess, I just don't like having to tussle with it everyday, I'd rather just pull it back or wear it down how it is"

he nods in response

he has a whole notes page of everything you use and when you're running low, he reorders it just in perfect time

he makes sure to get the exact same thing bc he knows that different brands use different shit and he doesn't want you getting stuck with something you don't like

he likes learning about different curl patterns and textures

atp just get him into cosmetology school

you may have to teach him the same thing 3 times but it's okay, cause it's the fact he listens and actually takes it all in because he loves you yk?

"You think that'd do the same thing for my hair?"

"you wanna try?"

"sure"

RANBOO

bro you literally saved their dead, fried ass hair /lh

it first started over the fact that you pointed out how fried their hair looked and that they needed to try new products so they took advice from you, obviously

literally spent 5 hours in the bathroom teaching him all about the products you use and what they do for your hair

and obviously they'd work different for both of you because you have totally different hair, but it'd still definitely help his hair

you introduce him to some more clarifying shampoo and massage-in cream/lotion to help his hair not get really dry or overly greasy and excentuate the fluffininess of their natural texture and the layers in their haircut

genuinely doesn't trust anyone with his hair other than you

always asks you questions about his hair, considering you know best

he likes watching you take care of your hair as well, like when you massage your scalp with oil or detangling, or diffusing it after a shower

he also helps you with a lot of this because he genuinely wants to and reaching the back of your head is a struggle sometimes

like when/if you have to section it and clip it up, he'll be there with the hot pink clips and a dream

you teach him all about different combs and he just nods the whole way through

he did actually retain that information

tweeting out shit like "ranboo just learned what a wide tooth comb is today, #parenting #momlife #dadlife #millenial"

FREDDIE BADLINU

loves learning about your hair texture

he also loves taking care of it for you

if you're too sick or tired, just sit down in the bathtub

he's got the detachable shower head, a towel, your products, and a dream

a dream to just make you sit down for 3 seconds and chill, God damn

anyways, you teach him all about the different products you use, how often you use them, why you use them, etc etc

you let him play around with your hair sometimes, but not that much

he likes braiding like 3 strands of your curls together to make some little braids and whatever to frame your face but that's really it

when you're cuddling and stuff, he totally like massages your scalp and loves getting his hands tangled in your curls

it's like a nap when you wake up with lines on your arms/face and your mouth is all dry like you've been drooling

best feeling ever

"wait, what's the difference between almond oil and coconut oil again?"

"the diffuser is this thing, right?"

after a while, he knows all the words like a second language

he ends up getting bored one day and doesn't wanna do the dishes so he decides to organize all your stuff for you

you already had little system but after a while you just threw things back in the general vicinity where they belonged so he was like "eh fuck it this is more fun than doing dishes"

he makes sure to sort by the order you use them and how often instead than in color order which

you walk in, see him organizing and just walk out bc no way in hell were you disturbing him nor were you gonna organize it yourself LMAO

QUACKITY

he really doesn't understand all the different products and tools but he does his best to learn

he just likes helping you take care of it and stuff

he notices literally all your combs and brushes are like breaking at the seams so he's like "fuck it I'll buy you new, more high quality ones"

he's a gift giver/acts of service guy what can I say

he makes sure they're either in black, white, or your favorite color, whatever you prefer

even gets you a new water bottle for backup bc the old one barely functioned

also reorders anything when you're running low asap

will gladly spend 200 dollars on hair care products and replacing old stuff

your happiness matters more than how much money he has in his pocket to him

also helps you organize all your stuff once you get a good little setup going

deadass streams it too

"wait, why aren't we doing it by color?"

"Why would that make sense? you always organize this kinda stuff by the order in which you use it"

"Okay Hermione Granger"

"bro what"

the silence 💀

he barely knows the difference between a fine tooth comb and a master sketcher but it's okay

don't even try to ask him the difference between all the different types of oils

literally gets embarrassed like "no! I knew that, I thought you were talking about something else!"

he's a lawyer and a streamer, not a salon professional dude 😭🙏

NIKI NIHACHU

she loves your hair no matter what you do with it

she loves being able to comb through it with her fingers or help you just tie it back if you're gonna get messy or stream for a bit

don't even worry about having to take care of it out of the shower, she's got you

she knows the whole routine front to back

you guys share some products

especially combs and brushes but duh

it's a mix of black, purple, and y/f/c LMAO

she frequently disinfects all your combs and brushes and everything for you too

after time she labels all the combs and brushes and whatnot so just in case you guys don't mix anything up, especially if you'd rather just not share certain things just in case which is totally fine!

she loves putting clips in your hair to push the front bits away from your face

she's got those cute, little, silver star ones

absolutely loves the smell of the stuff you put in your hair

when you're snuggling, she'll always hide her face in like the crook of your neck or in your hair cause it's genuinely soothing

she also likes braiding 3 strands to just frame your face and to add a cute little sign of her so you carry her around all day basically

FOOLISH GAMERS

has no idea of what's ever going on in the bathroom

but he'll help you if you need it anyways

"whats this one for again?"

he's got a hairbrush, a comb and some clips for any backup random shit

he has no idea what eggshell infused keratin etc etc means (I was trying to thing of my shampoo but can't remember other than the eggshell part LMFAO)

he does like asking questions about everything and learning what it does

"Why do you only use some like less than others?"

he's just here for the learning experience

notices some tattered tools in drawers/cupboards so for your birthday he gets you a whole new set of stuff from a really fancy brand

"Holy shit, how much did this cost??"

the silence afterwards was SO LOUD before you heard quackity literally cackling behind you

tweeting shit like "foolish just learned what a rat tail comb is. holy shit" and "foolish just learned about shrinkage today?"

in his defense, he never really though about shrinkage that much, he totally didn't put it into perspective and forgot your hair is technically double/triple the length of what he usually sees

like you'll pull it away from your face to demonstrate and he's just like "damn how long have you been growing your hair??? how have I not noticed?"

also a photographer when it comes to you

loves posting pics where your hair is a defining subject and just really perfects your presence and beauty <3

#lowkeyrobin #mcyt preferences #mcyt x reader #tommyinnit x reader #mcyt oneshot #quackity x reader #ranboo x reader #badlinu x reader #charlie slimecicle x reader #tubbo x reader #nihachu x reader #foolish gamers x reader #gn reader #gender neutral reader

[tailschannel]

New zones, customization options, and Emerald Powers: a recap of the Sonic Superstars cover story

Issue 358 of the Gameinformer magazine was published this Tuesday, and its 12-page column on the upcoming Sonic Superstars revealed a new look into its development, and previewed a number of in-game features and zones.

Here's everything you need to know.

Major takeaways

New zone names: Sky Temple, Pinball Carnival, Lagoon City, Sand Sanctuary, Press Factory, and unannounced Golden Capital.

New Emerald Powers: Avatar, Bullet, Water, Ivy, Vision, Slow, Extra, Super.

Expect vast character customization options in the brand new Items shop.

Select stages in a Generations-style World Map.

New zones

Characters have the choice of going through a normal act or a character-specific act. For example, finishing Act 1 of Speed Jungle Zone as Sonic allows you to choose between either playing the second act of Speed Jungle or an "Act Sonic," an alternate act of Speed Jungle where you zoom as Sonic, running away from a terrorizing Fang the Sniper.

There is reportedly a World Map similar to Generations where you run in a 2D-plane to select a stage.

There is also an items shop where you can trade medals in for customizable parts. Apparent, you can customize your "head, body, arms, legs, accessories color, and something called prototype."

The third zone of the game is reportedly called Sky Temple Zone.

In the zone, there is a mini-game similar to the game "Breakout," where you turn into a ball and aim to break bricks.

The climax or the ending of the zone is a massive storm.

The fourth zone is called Pinball Carnival Zone.

As the name suggests, "a giant pinball arena and fast sequences with fireworks setting off."

The fifth zone is called Lagoon City, which is filled with submerged city ruins and water slides.

Act 1 is mostly above water whereas Act 2 has several underwater sequences.

Amy's character-specific act of Lagoon City is fruit-based, with several gimmicks like a fruit based robots and such.

Sand Sanctuary Zone is the sixth zone of Sonic Superstars and a seventh zone reportedly called Press Factory Zone.

Filenames in the newly released screenshots also disclosed the officially unannounced Golden Capital Zone.

Emerald Powers

Emerald Powers were inspired by the Wisps mechanic from Sonic Colors.

Every stage has a giant gold ring and a giant blue ring. Completing the giant gold rings rewards you a Chaos Emerald and the the blue ring rewards you a medal.

Both special stages have the same central gameplay mechanic: swing from floating bubbles toward the moving objective.

Emerald Powers can be used by using the right stick and operate on a cooldown, with each star post checkpoint replenishing your cooldown meter.

Avatar (Blue Emerald)

Allows you to create clones of yourself.

Useful for defeating any enemy that lies on you path.

Bullet (Red Emerald)

Allows you to direct and shoot your character at a specified direction.

"It's an extremely useful action; it's probably the most useful action for this kind of game," Iizuka said.

Water (Cyan Emerald)

Allows you to interact with any body of water, like swimming freely underwater or climbing up waterfalls.

Ivy (Green Emerald)

Allows you to grow upward vines.

Helpful in reaching higher areas.

Can also be utilized to help your teammates in co-op mode.

Vision (Purple Emerald)

Allows you to see hidden objects like platforms, rings, or items found in the level.

Slow (Yellow Emerald)

Allows the player to slow down everything on screen.

Helpful in tighter platforming sequences or boss encounters.

Extra (White Emerald)

Unlocks character-specific actions.

Sonic – Homing Attack: Unlocks the Homing Attack from the modern titles.

Tails – Tornado Spin: Unlocks a devastating tornado attack that can destroy enemies in front of you

Amy – Hammer Throw: Unlocks the ability for Amy to throw hammers instead of the usual Hammer Swing.

Knuckles – Punch: Unlocks the ability to punch for Knuckles.

Super Form (All 7 Emeralds)

Characters can turn into their Super form after collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds.

Characters won't have any specific abilities outside of being invincible and becoming faster.

Emerald Powers can still be used in Super form.

Development

The concept of Superstars came from a Zoom call by Naoto Ohshima during the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Ohshima and Iizuka held producer roles for Sonic Superstars.

Despite hinting at a short development time than expected, Ohshima was impressed by Sonic Team and Iizuka.

"Though Arzest and Ohshima led development efforts on Sonic Superstars, Sonic Team collaborated frequently, with Iizuka and Ohshima constantly sharing ideas of and production duties."

There were talks between Iizuka and Whitehead's team following the release of Mania where concepts were considered, but the project fell through; however, Iizuka does states that he is "pleased that the next generation of Classic Sonic that we talked about with them has been achieved with Superstars."

Iizuka said that the programming for Superstars "is completely unique and done from scratch by Arzest."

(Story contributed by Spectre and Scarlett from the Tails' Channel Newsfeed)

#sonic superstars #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #tails the fox #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #sonic #sega #gaming #gaming news #game informer #sonic news

[autisticredhood]

In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado page 5 / Batman #614 / Detective Comics #790 / In The Dream House / Detective Comics #790 / Batman #614 / In The Dream House / Batman #410 / Batman #428 / In The Dream house / Batman #617 / Detective Comics #790 / In The Dream House / Detective Comics #790 / Batman #618 / In The Dream House / Detective Comics #790 / Batman #614

ID under

[ID: Several photos weaving together text and comic panels. 

First image is of text that reads “The memoir is, at its core, an act of resurrection.”

Second image is a panel of Jason’s face on the ground in watercolor art style from Batman: Hush. He is wearing the Robin domino mask and his mouth is parted open. He is splattered with blood. A blue caption reads “Jason.”. The panel is overlaid in red. 

Third image is a cropped panel of Bruce and Cass in front of Jason’s grave. Bruce is saying “He would have been eighteen today.” 

Fourth image is of text that reads “Memoirists re-create the past, reconstruct dialogue.”

Fifth image is of Bruce and Cass surrounded by graves as Bruce is saying “But he was brash. Impulsive. Headstrong. Never looking before he leapt…I knew that, but I didn’t stop him because he wanted it so badly. He wanted too much to prove something.”

Sixth and seventh images are cropped panels from Batman: Hush with Batman in watercolor art style. The sixth image has blue captions that reads “No matter what differences we’ve had through the years, I’ve always known that Dick had a gift. Jason only had…rage.” In the seventh image the captions are “Jason never had the skills that Dick had. I should never have let him put on that costume.” 

The eighth image is text that reads “They summon meaning from events that have long been dormant.”

The ninth image is of two panels from Jason’s post-crisis Robin run in the 80s. The first panel is of Bruce’s face with the Batman cowl pulled down. He’s saying, “Hardly, the other Robin would’ve done the same thing…You two really are two of a kind.” The accompanying panel is an up close shot of Jason’s grinning face in the Robin suit. He’s saying, “Thank You, Mister Wayne. Mind if I stay up awhile and do some homework?”

The tenth image is of two panels from Death In The Family of Bruce cradling Jason’s dying mother, Sheila. In the first panel Shiela is saying with many ellipses between her words, “He turned out to be such a good kid all his problems and he still turned out good.” In the second panel she is saying, “He threw himself in front of me. He took the main brunt of the blast.”

The eleventh image is text that reads “They braid the clays of memory and essay and fact and perception together, smash them into a ball, roll them flat.”

The twelfth image is a panel from Batman: Hush that is cropped to only show a caption that reads “Jason saw being Robin as a game. It’s probably what got him killed.”

The thirteenth image are of two panels from Bruce and Cass at Jason’s grave. The first panel is a cropped shot of Bruce saying “Yes. Maybe if I’d put an end to his attempts, he’d be getting ready to go off to college…” The following panel is of Bruce and Cass standing as dark silhouettes against a red sky with the angel statue of Jason’s grave looming over them. Bruce is finishing his thought from the last panel and saying, “Or just having a normal life…”

The fourteenth image is text that reads “They manipulate time; resuscitate the dead.”

The fifteenth image is of two panels from two different comics. The first is from Batman: Hush in modern comics art style and not watercolor. It’s a cropped panel of Tim Drake in the Robin suit yelling, “No matter what he says, Jason’s death still haunts him. Why else would he keep Jason’s costume so prominently in the cave?” The second panel is a cropped image of Barbara Gordon on the BatComputer screen from the same issue of Bruce and Cass visiting Jason’s grave. She’s contacting Bruce before he goes to the graveyard, saying, “Maybe you’re busy...Look Batgirl just came by. She seemed…upset. I don’t know what happened, but…if this is about what today is, then…Just Know I’m here if you need…”  

The sixteenth image is of text that reads “They put themselves, and others, into necessary context.”

The seventeenth image is a panel of Bruce and Cass in the graveyard. Bruce is saying, “But he’ll never have that. Maybe it’s not too late for Stephanie.”

The eighteenth and final image is an edited panel from Batman: Hush in watercolor style again. It is a close up of the R symbol of the Robin suit with blood stains on it. The panel is overlaid in red again. The edit is a blue caption from the same issue that is added to above the R symbol. It reads Batman’s inner monologue of “For these reasons, I’ve carried the burden of responsibility for Jason’s death.”

End ID.]

#um. SCREAM. coping w stress by sexualizing alfred & weaving bruce grief #jason todd #bruce & jason #bruce grief #you know!! you know?? do you get it. bruce's speaking of jason is a memoir & he changes the story of jasons life in context of making him a #cautionary tale in #relation to stephanie & in context of alleviating the heavy burden of his guilt he blames himself which is unbearable so he tries to rewrite #it as jason being a bad robin so that he can pretend for a few moments that it isnt his fault as he believes #took great satisfaction doing the hush panels where hes slandering jason as not being like deck then putting in the panel where he tells #dick* #robin jason he did what dick would have and they are two of a kind :] heehee #and him being like jason had problems!!!!!!! @ cass followed by sheila saying all his problems and he turned out to be such a good kid #he rewrites it that jason got himself killed or that bruce could have stopped him (ignoring the fact that stopping him from being robin LED #JASON TO HIS DEATH) and he'd be alive and in college #anyway you know!!! #my very correct opinions

[sgiandubh]

So about TCND. NO I'M KIDDING. Don't throw me away. What else are you watching or reading or interested in lately? There isn't actually anything to talk about regarding OL (the show or actors therein) and TCND is off the table until someone has actually seen it. Anything interesting going on?

Dear What Else Anon,

Oh, I am definitely not going to throw out such a wonderful question! I do think there are more things of interest regarding OL and actors therein (more on this, tomorrow and mood/current drama allowing). But your ask reminded me (and should remind anyone) there are other things happening under the sun than this.

I am still fighting with The Fiery Cross. Sometimes, I get tired of its unjustified slow burn and briefly seek solace somewhere else. While I quit the horrible habit of reading two books simultaneously years ago, I find soothing to sometimes take a break with a good poem.

This one, for example: Brecht's Questions From a Worker Who Reads (translated into English by M. Hamburger - probably the most satisfying version I could find on the Internet, right now - the original is um, more complex)

Who built Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the name of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock? And Babylon, many times demolished. Who raised it up so many times? In what houses Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live? Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song, Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis The night the ocean engulfed it The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not have even a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep? Frederick the Second won the Seven Years' War. Who Else won it?

Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten years a great man. Who paid the bill?

So many reports. So many questions.

Speaking of Byzantium, this reminded me of Bissera Pentcheva and Jonathan Abel's absolutely remarkable experiment into reconstructing (by computer) the acoustics of Constantinople's Agia Sophia and use it as an audio filter for sacred music recordings. In order to do that, she simply had to pop a balloon inside the cathedral (with special permit and adequate measuring and recording equipment) - it took her five days to get the perfect pitch. As a result, we now can hear those hymns the same way someone would around 1400, AD. This is probably the closest we could get to time travel:

Oh, and I am also watching The Crown's sixth and last season, as many in this fandom, I suppose. More on this, when we are completely done with it. OL was the only exception to my read/listen/watch it all before discussing it rule.

You are obviously Anon but I have to thank you for this! Brought up wonderful memories of week-ends in Constantinople, staying at the Hagia Sofia Mansions and nearly touching its roof from the window of my room in the Yeșil Ev villa. Today, it's over: the Hilton guys took the whole complex and revamped it, Mafia style.

But this memory will never go away:

... a room

....with a view:

Would it be a good idea to make a new, weekly series out of your ask, perhaps something along the lines of Life Beyond OL? I am seriously toying with it, if that's what it takes to try and keep a modicum of sanity during promo: you decide on this one, here is a poll.

#anon #poll

[watatsumiis]

hey! ty for liking my tsaritsa so much!!! i'd love to hear more of your thoughts on her, if there are any!

omg of course, she's absolutely stunning, your art style does her so much justice (and honestly is just an awesome gorgeous style in general!!) and tbh your design is how I picture her in my head now !!

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas about the Tsaritsa, a lot of them are just kind of ~vibe~ based and hard to convey, but i'll toss them beneath the cut!

I really like the theory that her 'ideal' is love, like it's such a fun and interesting concept

like, to begin with i imagine she was a very kind deity, not in a familiar way, but in a general sort of .. benevolent to her subjects and open to those that sought an audience with her. Not exactly 'warm', but not entirely shutting them out either

though i imagine that sort of hollowed out as time wore on and she realised that even being an actual deity didn't give her the power she needed to be able to make any real tangible changes to things or help those who were doomed from the start (which is probably a big part of why shes so anti-celestia or whatever)

despite her despair and attitude towards romantic love sort of withering, she places a heavy emphasis on familial love (including found family) and on forming bonds that will stand the test of toil and time

she comes off very aloof, especially to those beneath her, and will actively try to avoid being around others if she can help it. She dislikes forming close attachments

this isnt to mean that she doesn't care. she just cares so much that the only way she can deal with it is by distancing herself, or else she's just setting herself up for repeated heartbreak when her loved ones inevitably die.

the exception to this ? pierro.

pierro is cursed with undeath, and even before that he was someone with a fiercely loyal (and stubborn) streak.

they both told themselves theyd never allow themselves to become attached to someone else after all the losses theyd been through, but in making this pact alongside one another they basically sealed their own fate

there are no simple words for the kind of intertwined, codependent, epic-spanning love-hate they have for one another.

their bond was one forged in the fires of loss and hardened by the ice of grief. despite what they both may say, they're in it for the long haul. Tsaritsa has slowly become accustomed to this idea. Pierro has not and will still vehemently deny it.

i guess to really shave it down id call it a queerplatonic relationship. something unholy and gorgeous. two flowers holding onto a cliffside by the tips of their roots and growing around one another.

the second 'exception' is columbina. i imagine she's like a weird nibling to the tsaritsa. she was picked to be amongst the harbingers because of her ability to light up any room she's in (i imagine tsaritsa secretly has a nickname for her that's somewhere along the lines of 'songbird' because of her voice ngl)

outside of this, the tsaritsa is cool and aloof and works very hard to maintain her composure, especially when under scrutiny. she is brilliant at keeping this facade in place.

until she's no longer in the public gaze, that is.

i like to think she's a tiny bit of a goofball, she has a soft spot for 'dad jokes' that make pierro roll his eyes and rub his temples, and she quite enjoys wine (im sorry but if she were a facebook mom her page would be minion memes and posts talking about how its wine o-clock)

she also rather enjoys slapstick humour - there are a few dottore clones running around who have perfected it enough so that she has to cover her mouth with a hand to stop her subjects from seeing the way her lips twitch upwards as she holds back her laughter

she's also really, really petty. not that she'd ever do anything about it, but more than once pierro has found himself in her chambers late at night, watching as she paces back and forth, her sixth glass of wine in hand, and complains about how that 'brick-brained geo archon just won't sign the damn contract! isn't that his entire shtick?!'

she also has a soft spot for kids, or people who have a youthful energy about them. it reminds her that maybe not all is bad in the world, and that she's going to change it for the better for their sake.

I like to think she's extremely good at various sports - i love the idea featured on the asker's blog about her having an elk instead of a horse. that's so cool and lives in my brain rent free and forever tbh. her and pierro on their steeds racing through a snowy forest on a rare free afternoon

i think she would've once been the type to enjoy prosey, flowery words, long poems, romantic tales of star-crossed lovers, that kind of thing. she read a lot and even wrote some. not any more though.

she has a very stern and strict air about her and won't hesitate to play into that if she feels like she needs to, but honestly she's got a good sense of humour on her. things that pierro scolds the other harbingers and such for are often things that she secretly finds really funny

though ALSO she's a stickler for good manners. i like to think that has extended to the snezhnayans , who are, when dealing with those outside of their immediate familial circles, are super duper polite (even if their tones may come off as abrupt). there's also a very heavily laid-on vibe of 'respect your elders' in snezhnaya.

she has such motherly vibes, but in a really standoffish way. she wont tell someone directly that she cares about them or what happens to them, but it'll be rerouted through like three other people like a game of telephone. like, yeah, that one person she caught shivering while on guard is gonna get a nice new pair of gloves but it will be from an anonymous donor (or just shoved into their hands by pierro with an annoyed grunt)

honestly now ive started im kind of finding it hard to stop but i just adore the tsaritsa so much and i love love love how you draw her so much, she's just so amazing and feels so like.. real, y'know? thank you so much for this ask, i really enjoyed rambling and thinking about the tsaritsa some more. i think your design and ideas should be canon actually

#asks #general barks #(uses this ask as an excuse to go look at the milfy tsaritsa art on your blog for like 40 minutes) #SHE GIVES ME VIBES OF. THAT FROST QUEEN FROM NARNIA. #SHE TOTALLY LIKES TURKISH DELIGHTS I THINK #the tsaritsa #headcanons #my writing #tsaritsa #gosh golly gee darn tootin Arden (is it ok if i call u that. its a banger name btw) i think your take on the tsaritsa is simply swell (/ge

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend

This weekend we are wrapping up Nicholas Rowe’s (1674-1718) The Work of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes. Published in London in 1709 by Jacob Tonson (1655–1736), this second edition holds an important place within Shakespearean publication history. The Work of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes is recognized as the first octavo edition, the first illustrated edition, the first critically edited edition, and the first to present a biography of the poet. 

Volume six is a collection of Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies including several plays that are a part of the Shakespeare apocrypha that bear Shakespeare’s name, but do not appear in the First Folio and of which there is question about his role in writing them. Apocrypha in the sixth volume include Pericles Prince of Tyre, London Prodigal, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and Locrine. Volume six also includes confirmed Shakespearean plays Antony and Cleopatra and Cymbeline. 

A full-page engraving by the French Baroque artist and book illustrator François Boitard (1670-1715) and engraved by English engraver Elisha Kirkall (c.1682–1742) precedes each play. Boitard’s illustrations often place readers at the pinnacle of the plays depicting high drama in his classic Baroque style. 

In addition to Rowe’s editorial decisions to divide the plays into scenes and include notes on the entrances and exits of the players, he also normalised the spelling of names and included a dramatis personae preceding each play. The only chronicled critique of Rowe’s momentous editorial endeavor is his choice in basing his text on the corrupt Fourth Folio. 

View more volumes of The Works of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes here. 

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

#Shakespeare Weekend #william shakespeare #shakespeare #mr. william shakespear in six volumes #nicholas rowe #jacob tonson #Shakespeare apocrypha #apocrypha #francois boitard #elisha kirkall #antony and cleopatra #cymbeline #pericles prince of tyre #london prodigal #thomas lord cromwell #sir john oldcastle #the puritan #a yorkshire tragedy #locrine

[llzrabin]

A recent interview of Alison Mosshart from The Kills for music magazine Dans Ta Face B. Full interview under the cut and French version on their website.

La Face B : You’ve just released your sixth album, God Games, twenty years after your first record. Which means you’ve been making music together for two decades now. You’ve mentioned a few times in recent interviews being ‘terrified’ of the process of recording this album. Obviously, danger is inherent to creativity and passion. What were you scared of in particular, regarding your own history as a band? Can one as a musician actually ever get rid of this fear? Alison Mosshart : I think as an artist, fear is good. Fear keeps one alert and desirous to discover something new in oneself, in one’s work, and about the world. Fear is a simple word to describe “facing the unknown.” At the start of every album, you are facing the unknown. There is nothing, a blank page... and you have to muster up the courage to turn this nothingness in somethingness. And not just any old thing. But something truly great. Even though we’ve been writing music together for 20 years, nothing is a given. Nothing is taken for granted. We constantly must prove to ourselves and to one another that we’ve got the goods. Every record is as important as the first, at least to the artist.

La Face B : When I first heard the album, I was under the impression that I was listening to a movie sequence or a journey, with some kind of movements. You kept the traditional verse-chorus structure in most songs, but they also sound like something else. What do you think evolved the most in your music over the years? And on the other hand, is there something that definitely stayed true to your first sound?

Alison Mosshart : A couple of things. We both think the traditional verse chorus structure is a little at odds with the mind. Whereas novels and poetry and film... can veer around elegantly, it’s a little hard with rock n’ roll structure sometimes. It’s nice not following the traditional rules and allow some abstraction.

Thoughts by nature...zig zag, skip, don’t really work in liner or predictable order. Thoughts lead to thoughts lead to other thoughts say “california can’t be trusted” to “I love rollercoasters” to “Thursday’s good for me,” to “I wonder what happened to Bob?” “Green car,” “dog bit my face,” “phone’s dead again” “papercut!” And on and on and on.

Having said all that, I do think our music is very visual. It seems to contain its own colours and shapes and tactility. I know when a song is done by listening to it and seeing it from start to end. When it feels like I’m watching a play or a short film and I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen, I’m happy with the song. If I’m listening and the scene freezes, there is still work to do.

La Face B : Did having another person involved in the studio give you a different perspective on your music?

Alison Mosshart : Having another person in the room always gives you a different perspective. You know right away if a song is working by feeling the energy of that person hearing it for the first time. They don’t have to say a word. The truth is just there.

La Face B : Your lyrics almost always address another person, like a dialogue between two people. Love and hate, hope and failure, tenderness and violence blend into each other in the stories you tell. They also almost always convey a sense of urgency. Alison, do you still record and write your lyrics in your car while driving at fast speed, CARMA-style?

Alison Mosshart : Sure. We’re all contending with one another and ourselves. There is surely a lot of back and forth and push and pull going on in the lyrics. The war is never won, right? About cars, I love to drive. It’s very meditative for me. A lot of ideas come when I’m behind the wheel. I do still have a little Dictaphone in the car that I keep handy. It’s a safer option then a pen and pad.

La Face B : When I first saw you in 2011 at Rock en Seine during the Blood Pressures tour, there were two other musicians with you onstage. Lately, it looks like you’ve gone back as a two piece again. Is it important to you not to depend on anyone? Is it a way of not having to compromise?

Alison Mosshart : Different times call for different measures. We love playing with other musicians and we love playing as a two piece. During certain records, it made a lot of sense to have the back up. But it was a different time in the music industry too. We’re in a different world now 6 years later. Streaming has made it unaffordable to hire extra musicians. Which I think is ultimately a very bad thing. I hope one day things change.

La Face B : The Kills have always been a very visual band. Alison, you’re also a painter, and Jamie, I’ve heard in a recent interview that you would have loved to collaborate with Lucian Freud… Do you feel the need to explore other art forms to maintain this global approach to music?

Alison Mosshart : We’ve always painted, drawn, taken photos, filmed things. I love every art form. I don’t think it’s important to do all these things to maintain a global approach to music. I’m not sure what a global approach to music even is. I just love making art. It all comes from the same place I think.

La Face B : A friend of mine who doesn’t like rock music was telling me the other day how he thought he witnessed the best rock concert he’s ever been to after seeing you live in Paris, precisely because your music didn’t sound like rock to him. I found that very interesting because you do have that kind of bluesy-guitar signature style, while also playing with noisy textures that could come from a cut-up approach, like hip hop music does. Do this kind of approach inspire you? Do you pay any attention at all to genre while writing?

Alison Mosshart : We see ourselves as an electric guitar band before a rock n’ roll band. With an electric guitar and a vocal, you can do anything, any genre, any style, fuck around with any rhythm you want. Being a two piece is the only limit we have, everything else, every idea that we can conceive of starting from that point, is fair game.

La Face B : Lastly- I recently came across these images and immediately thought of The Kills. A series of photographs by John Divola titled ‘Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert’, which he took in 96-98 while driving in the Southern California desert, conjuring existential themes like isolation and desire, man versus wild, joy versus fear. It made me think of God Games’ cover, with the bull and the matador, but it also reminded me of Don Van Vliet’s painting retreat in California after Captain Beefheart’s ending, and of Vanishing Point’s iconic car chase. Basically a lot of the things you’ve often mentioned as an inspiration. I wanted to point it out to you, see if you knew this photographer. What does it evoke for you?

Alison Mosshart : I love this photo series. Meditative again, like driving a car. It’s cool to see stills of animals running, their shape, their sleekness, the body transformed into a bullet. I don’t know why but it makes me think of Benton Harbor, Michigan in the snow and the dogs at Key Club (a recording studio we worked at a lot)  running down the desolate main street in a town that time forgot. These photos look like love and loyalty to me. 

#alison mosshart #the kills #interview #music interview #music writing #god games #jamie hince

[sorry-moots]

Inversion of Genesis But I Changed It

i humbly toss my crumbs unto thee pigeons characters featured: scaramouche, childe/tartaglia, dottore cws: dottore is mildly creepy but when isn't he tbh wc: 1,102

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Chapter Three

The past few months working with Lord Scaramouche have actually been really nice.

He doesn’t yell like you thought he would. He’s only threatened to kill you once and he sounded sort of half-hearted? There’s never blood on his clothes or a predatory grin on his face. He doesn’t stand uncomfortably close to you to “monitor your progress”.

You like your new routine. Every morning at eight o’ clock, you come in and sort through the dozens of letters on your own. At nine o’ clock, Scaramouche comes in and the two of you put together his agenda for the next several days.

At first, you’d read through pages and pages of formal requests only for him to toss them in the trash less than five seconds after you passed them to him. Now, you call out a name and wait for his signal to discard the documents.

Sure, he scowls at every other question you ask but once he answers them, he goes about his business like normal. In the silence, the shuffling of papers and the crackling of the fire would often create a soothing ambiance as you both worked diligently.

Today, though, that routine is broken.

The guards outside could be heard speaking, which is odd in itself. In a moment, a knock followed the brief conversation.

“Go see who it is,” the Harbinger instructs without looking up from the stack of papers on his desk.

You’ve barely cracked the door open when Tartaglia forces his way in.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!” His energy is incredible for the hour. “I have come to personally deliver an invitation to a dinner party for the Fatui Harbingers to none other than the sixth Fatui Harbinger, Lord Scaramouche! The event will take place next weekend at 6pm in the Zapolyarny Palace dining room.”

Scaramouche perked up. “A dinner party? [Y/n] check my schedule.”

As you look for the date on your calendar, Childe asks Scaramouche if you’ll be his plus one.

The latter sneers. “Ha, what use would I have for a plus one? [Y/n], get this airhead out of here.”

You place a marker on the date on your calendar and walk over to Childe. “His lordship would appreciate your immediate departure. May I escort you out?”

“Why, yes, of course,” he chuckles. “You know, [Y/n], you can always be my plus one if ol’ Scarapoo won’t take you,” he finishes with a wink.

It’s hard not to laugh as Scaramouche berates Childe. Your superior looks to be ten seconds from chasing him out the door, but the redhead persists in pestering him. Though he would likely never admit it, you’re almost certain Lord Scaramouche is friends with his rambunctious colleague.

*****

“Don't look at anyone, don't talk to anyone, don't even bow your head at anyone,” Lord Scaramouche commanded. “You're just here to make a note of any important information.”

“Does that include you, sir?” you quipped back with a grin.

“Obviously not, you toad.”

Today is the day of the dinner. You're still in your uniform from earlier but you’ve styled your hair differently and shined your shoes. Even the notepad and pencil you brought were chosen to match your clothes, black with red accents.

Being the poverty-fearing wage slave you are, you heed your boss’s warning and do your best to avoid calling attention to yourself. No one really pays attention to you until you are greeted with a raucous shout.

“Hey, [Y/n]!” Childe yelled, waving excitedly. “What happened to being my plus one?”

You nearly responded but remembered that you weren’t supposed to speak. Instead, you turned and looked to Scaramouche for instruction.

“She’s here on official business,” he explained rather cordially before saying under his breath, “so don’t talk to her.”

Childe pouted before a mischievous grin made its way onto his face. “That’s okay, [Y/n], I’m sure Mouchie could use the fun.”

Once he left to mingle with the other harbingers, everyone went back to their own conversations and Scaramouche went to grab a drink. Apparently, they had his favorite sake.

Just as you were beginning to think you would be left in peace, you heard a deep, velvet voice behind you.

“So, this is why you ran off, [Y/n]?” Dottore prompted coyly. It was difficult to keep yourself from recoiling. “It’s been quite lonely in the laboratory… After all, I’ve only myself to talk to. Or rather, my selves.”

This time, you stayed quiet out of fear, not obedience.

“Oh, how silly of me,” he hummed in amusement. “My dear friend, Lord Scaramouche, forbade you to talk.

“Well, then.” He stepped in front of you and crouched to look at your face; you turned away from him. “I’ll do the talking.”

Just when you begin to feel tears pricking your eyes and your throat tightening, Scaramouche returns with his drink. He nods his head respectfully. “Was there something you needed to discuss with me, Dottore?”

The man smiled that smug smile of his. “No, no, not at all, Scaramouche. I was just telling our darling [Y/n] how exhausting it’s been working in the laboratory since she left.”

“I’ve found the new arrangement to be quite agreeable, even considering my own shortage in staff. If I recall correctly, I have one of the smallest forces under my command,” he remarked with all the uncertainty of a professional gambler. “Much smaller than yours, isn't that right, Dottore?”

The Doctor's face became a cloud of darkness and thunder, ominous as the end times. Within seconds, the faux cheeriness beneath his mask is extinguished and then revived. “You’ve seen right through me, Balladeer,” he chuckled. “I suppose it's the loss of [Y/n]’s company that has caused me the most bereavement.”

“That's tragic, Dottore, really,” Scaramouche said in a voice that almost sounded sympathetic. “I, too, have grown rather fond of her, so I can't imagine what losing her would do to me. I’ll just have to safeguard her from the other harbingers,” he continued to mock. “No hard feelings, right, Doctor?”

“Of course not, Balladeer,” the harbinger gritted through his teeth. “I can hardly fault you for something I would have done myself, had I thought it necessary.”

At this, Scaramouche beamed and jokingly told the other harbinger to back off. The Doctor finally leaves and you breathe a sigh of relief.

You open your mouth to speak, but Scaramouche beats you to it.

“Don’t thank me. That guy pisses me off.”

He starts moving in the direction of another harbinger and, as you follow him, you can’t help but smile and thank the Archons he’s your superior.

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#genshin impact scaramouche #genshin scaramouche #scaramouche x reader #scaramouche x y/n #scaramouche x you #genshin impact x reader #reader insert #slow burn

[howtofightwrite]

My character learned to fight with staves and spears, what would it be better for her to take to a “DnD style” dungeon? (The world is similar to DnD world, although the spear is seriously underpowered in the rules)

So, I'm going to start with a couple nitpicks.

As someone with tabletop RPG experience, labeling it as, “D&D world,” is a really weird thing to read. D&D is primarily three distinct things. The rule systems themselves, and at this point we're up to the sixth or seventh major rules iteration. D&D as settings, except you'll almost never hear this one phrased that way. Finally, D&D as branding, which is extraordinarily nebulous, and tends to pick iconography out of the rules or settings. Simply identifying something as D&D could refer to any of these.

Officially, D&D has roughly 20 campaign settings. Any one of those could be categorized broadly as, “a D&D world.” Depending on the edition, the default setting is either Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. These are entirely different worlds. Greyhawk is more of the conventional medieval fantasy world, while Forgotten Realms is a setting with mountains (in some cases, literally) of fallen empires, and the world is filled with ancient ruins, in addition to the current civilizations. Both of these are extremely detailed settings with thousands of pages of background lore.

Beyond that, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape, Ravnica, Eberron, Spelljammer, and Urban Arcana, all come to mind as official TSR/Wizards of the Coast settings. And it's extremely likely that even players with an extensive familiarity with the ruleset missed at least one of the above names. This isn't even counting a lot of minor settings, or the fact that Planescape and Spelljammer are both multi-world settings, and the fact that a lot of these settings technically cross over. There are Spelljammer ports on Faerun (the main continent of Forgotten Realms), and races native to Planescape (in particular the Tieflings) have become a mainstay of the games, as they wander across the planes, to the point that Planescape's Tieflings and Aasimar exist in Pathfinder.

So, “The D&D world,” doesn't really say much.

With a lot of tabletop RPGs, the setting is analogous to the ruleset. When you're talking about running a Shadowrun campaign, or a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle, those are specific worlds. The biggest ambiguity is which edition. However, when you say you're participating in a D&D campaign, that doesn't tell you much on its own.

If you're asking from a rules perspective, that's going to depend on the edition, and this is where stuff gets a little complicated.

If you're working with the idea of a D&D style dungeon, it's probably best to consider what era of game design you're looking at. There are a couple ways you can approach dungeons.

So, basic thoughts on dungeons.

Small dungeons are designed to be finished in a single session or two. You're probably looking at a few combat encounters. But, the main arc is that your characters travel to a dungeon, they do whatever they were planning to, and get out. You might have as many as four rooms, but generally these are pretty compact spaces.

Large dungeons can either be designed around the adventurers spending multiple days in the dungeon itself, or they may be traveling in and out and resting somewhere outside. (In some cases, you'll even have towns or inns set up over the dungeon. So your adventurers are all in one compact space.)

Additionally, large dungeons can be designed around the idea that the players will penetrate a few levels at a time, gradually working their way deeper over time (as they deal with other events and problems), or it can be a very long excursions, with adventures scavenging and hunting in the dungeon for days or weeks as they progress.

In the case of truly monstrous dungeons, they might even be bringing enough personnel and resources to set up various base camps and have a full supply lines running back to the outside world, as they gradually expand their control over the dungeon.

Sort of in parallel to this, it's worth thinking about what the dungeon is. The basic concept is often, as the name implies, some kind of semi-ruined castle prison. But, you'll also frequently see crypts, and caves as dungeons. Especially as small ones. At the same time, it's worth considering expanding your concept of a dungeon a bit. Ancient ruins, old fortresses, necropolises, abandoned mines, and sewers are common. (Sewers are a little unrealistic, as real ones don't tend to be massive underground pipes you can walk in.) What's less common are massive shipwrecks, overrun cities, entire islands with dangerous flora and fauna (or just pirates), fallen cities (where entire city districts collapsed during an earthquake and now exist below ground), plague ridden city districts (plagues can actually be a lot of fun, because it will let you transform familiar territories into hostile ones as the campaign progresses. Pathologic does this extraordinarily well.) In a rather famous D&D adventure (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks), one of the dungeons is a downed spacecraft. This is before we consider dungeons with impossible geometry, such as ones that leak over into another dimension (possibly as a result of magical experiments gone wrong, or ones that exist in the dreams or psyche of an individual. (For the record, I'm not a huge fan of psychic dungeons as a play experience, but they can be done well. I've simply had some bad experiences with the concept.) Shadowrun had a related concept, with cyberspace (called, “the matrix”), as a parallel space where hackers would engage in combat parallel to the events happening out in the real world. It's weird concept, but one that you might get some millage out of, and having a parallel battle on the astral plane wouldn't be that weird for D&D.

Moving beyond that, there are some semi-common dungeon settings that you don't often see in D&D, for obvious reasons, but might fit if your setting accommodates them. Abandoned research labs, abandoned industrial areas, abandoned villages or suburban areas at the edge of a city. Bonus points if the reason it's abandoned is related to why your players are wandering into it now. City districts under lockdown, usually this will either cater to a stealth focus, and might work if you have a group of thieves or something similar, (though, at that point, Blades in the Darkmight be a better RPG pick), this setting also works when the group enforcing the lockdown are acceptable targets, such as gangs or cultists, and for bonus points you can organize these setups with multiple factions and your characters may even be able to play groups against one another, all of this also works for feral cities (which also work as large area dungeons.)

With any dungeon, you probably want to consider how it fit into the world before it became a dungeon, and how long it existed as a dungeon before your players wandered in and started ripping the place apart.

So, ultimately, the question is about the spear and staff in the rules, as you're probably looking to approximate the rules to some extent. The problem is the rules have changed a bit over the years. One problem is that the default spear is not a reach weapon, meaning you can't use it to hit targets more than a space away from you. D&D splits that into the longspear, which is a reach weapon, and you can hit targets two spaces away from you, though you do need to use a 5ft step to back away from someone in an adjacent space before you can attack them. Both spears and staves are simple proficiency weapons though some editions do let you use the staff as a double weapon (meaning you can effectively treat it as dual wielding, if you have the feats.) If you do have a second attack with the staff, or you expect to be dealing with enemies that resist non-blunt damage (like skeletons) the staff starts to become a lot more attractive.

If you're using a different ruleset from standard D&D, there may be other considerations. I'm thinking of Total War's Anti-Large rules in particular, which do make spears very attractive against larger foes as they'll deal additional damage, similarly if you have some kind of homebrew piercing damage bonus against armor, that could make the spear conditionally more appealing. And, if your character is expecting to face down minotaurs or giants, then a longspear would be a much better choice with those modified rules. Though, this comes with another consideration, back in 3.5e the longspear was a simple proficiency weapon (just like the staff and spear), but was upgraded to martial proficiency in 4e, and seems to be missing in 5e (or it was replaced with the pike, which is also a martial weapon.) The longspear (and pike) do have special rules which allow them to be braced against a charging foe dealing increased damage. So, that might be worth considering for your choices. But, again, unless you're getting proficiency for the entire spear family, this might not be a practical option.

Usually, when you're arming characters for D&D, the primary consideration is going to be the overall thematic style of the character. Sometimes you do need to go out of your way to ensure a character gets the relevant proficiency (such as a rapier wielding wizard), but generally speaking, that theme is going to inform whether a character gets a spear or staff. If you've got a druid, then the spear might make more sense. If you have a wizard or sorcerer then maybe the staff is preferable (particularly if you can use it as an arcane focus.) (Though, wizards and sorcerers don't get spear proficiency in 5e, so, that's a factor.)

That said, you're not wrong, D&D has not done a good job with the spear. Part of that is because the default D&D spear is remarkably short. In 5e, the weapons are mostly interchangeable aside from the damage type, but the staff has more potential utility (specifically the ability to get staves crafted as arcane focuses, and a wider range of enchantments for staves.) Both are 1d6 with 1d8 versatile (if wielded with 2h the damage die is increased.) This is in contrast to 3.5 where the staff was 1d6, but was a double weapon, while the spear was 1d8, had the ready against charging characters action baked into the item (without the reach keyword), and had an increased crit multiplier (x3, meaning the weapon did triple damage on a crit, though it shared this with most axes), but it was a two-handed weapon.

I suppose if your character is a spellcaster, the staff is a better choice, as it gives you more options. But, when you're talking about someone who spends a lot of time out in the wilds, a spear might be a better thematic choice. If you're working within some version of 3rdedition, then the spear does look more valuable, but in 5e it is an underwhelming choice.

-Starke

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#howtofightwrite #D&D #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #Starke answers

[ven10]

hello :D! i'm curious that with the quagmires being your favorite characters, do you have headcanons for them, pre and/or post canon?

Hiya! :) I have SO MANY hcs about them so thanks for asking!!!! :D

Pre-canon relationship dynamic:

Quigley was closer to Isadora than to Duncan before the fire although he still was really close to Duncan too. I mainly think this bc in ‘The Slippery Slope’ Quigley mentioned Isadora on her own a few times, even quoting a couplet she wrote, whereas he only mentioned Duncan when talking about both of his siblings.

In order of most to least mischievous growing up I feel like it’d go Quigley, then Isadora and lastly Duncan.

Games/How the triplets would play when they were young:

Duncan: Would grab any random object of *aproximately* the right size (could be one of his mother’s shoes or it could be a spatula) and pretend it was a microphone. He’d follow people around “reporting” (more so narrating,really) what they were doing. This would REALLY annoy Isadora bc the worst thing when having writer’s block would be to have someone right beside you describing how you “stare blankly at a page in anguish. No inspiration detected for at least another treacherous week”.

Quigley: Strikes me as the kind of guy to climb trees, regardless of age tbh. He just has the vibe.

He would build forts at EVERY opportunity. Duncan once challenged him to build one in every room of the mansion and he almost did, with the exception of his parents’ office which was always locked.

He’d also draw loads. His drawing of a cave in TSS was described as an “elegant rendering” so I imagine he started doing art young. He’d get too passionate with a box of crayons and end up snapping most of them though. For his sixth birthday he’s gifted one of those pencils with multiple colours in the led and somehow angles it so that all the purple is used up first.

Isadora: She’d write plays for her+her siblings to perform for their parents+their parents’ friends that had surprisingly dark plot lines, especially for a 7 year old. Oh, and all the lines would rhyme, of course. She’d get annoyed when people read the script and asked if it was all one long song rather that the masterpiece of poetry she intended it to be perceived as.

Quigley would really enjoy acting in her plays+pour his heart and soul into the performance. Duncan would get really excited about it and do great when practicing with just the three of them but when it came to the actual performance he’d get shy+back out meaning Quigley or Isadora have to fill in for his role.

🎃 Halloween:

For Halloween one year, Isadora thought it’d be an amazing idea to dress up as Evelyn the conjoined twin bc she loved the song ‘Evelyn Evelyn’ based on her but Quigley found their story too depressing and Duncan didn’t like that it meant one of the triplets would get left out. Quigley suggests ‘Alvin and the chipmunks’ as a group costume earning instant “no”s from his siblings. They end up dressing in individual costumes based off historical figures (A poet, an investigative journalist and an explorer) but create their own story involving time-travel that connects the 3 characters.

Isadora loves Halloween as she is a goth(headcannon) so it really goes with her vibe. Quigley takes information about monsters/spooky creatures like vampires or werewolves and uses it to decide on which part of the world would be best for them to inhabit. Duncan then uses Quigley’s theories to research newspaper articles from the area, searching for any sign of the creatures.

Style/Fashion sense 🌟🧥

Duncan 📰:

Comfy green jumpers/sweaters or sweater-vests, white short-sleeved dress shirts and dress trousers/pants. (Pre-canon)

Comfy green polo-neck jumpers and (usually brown) corduroy pants/trousers and either dark green or white high top shoes. (Post-canon) Occasionally wears neatly applied eyeliner. The slight change in style is bc Duncan doesn’t want to wear clothes that feel so similar to a school uniform after spending so much time with those as his only clothes at Prufrock. He’ll occasionally wear hoodies but not if he’s to be seen in public.

Owns a few T-shirts with Dorothy Parker quotes which he cherishes and wears daily, even if they can’t be seen under the jumper/sweater. One quote he’d have is: “The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue”

Isadora+Quigley once bought him a quirky reporter’s hat with a feather in it as a joke but Duncan ended up adoring it; convincing himself it gave him an extra boost of inspiration when writing articles. 🪶

Has a Polaroid camera looped round his neck 📸

Quigley 🗺:

Initially, he struck me as a rucksack guy but I was reading over TSS yesterday and discovered he canonically uses a totebag, “I was putting an atlas in a totebag I found”-Quigley Quagmire (‘The Slippery Slope’ Chapter 8, page 148) so technically that’s a canon not a headcanon but oh well 🙃

Wears clothes more so for practicality than for style, although if he has a choice he’ll get things in dark purple.

He’d wear cargo pants bc of all the pockets; this would inspire Isadora to write a poem titled ‘Two and a half’ about a scientist who was trying to clone someone twice but messed up, resulting in one of the copies (Quigley) having no legs.

He would also wear a jacket with tonnes of pockets bc it’s practical for the explorer’s life he leads plus it looks cool. Although, it looks a little less cool when he stitches on a hood with fabric that doesn’t even match.

He drew maps on a couple of T-shirts and wears those, unfortunately he has to redraw them every time they get washed.

Wears exclusively boots bc of their grip+durability, one boot would have purple laces and the boot on the other foot would have black laces bc the original lace got stuck in a thorn bush so he stole borrowed one of Isadora’s.

As for accessories; a compass on string looped round his neck, clips shoved in at random to keep hair from falling in his face as he climbs, a hat/beanie with pins on it

Also: Frayed fingerless gloves!!! I saw this in one of Quill’s art pieces of Quigley and like the idea immensely ( @lemonysnicket ) :))

Always has the most RANDOM items in his pockets; will reach in looking for a packet of gum and come out with binoculars.

Isadora 📜:

Goth.Goth.Emo.Goth.

Wears almost exclusively black: Black boots or high top converse (with doodles on the white toe bit in sharpie),

Wore black nail polish pre-canon. At Prufrock she improvises using black markers+pens on her nails. She once tried the same trick for mimicking eyeliner…it did not turn out well and Duncan brings it up at the WORST times.

Wears winged black eyeliner, smudged under the eyes.

Likes long swishy skirts (midi skirts). They’re sometimes a bit impractical but if she’s just spending the day writing poetry it’s fine. Otherwise she likes cuffed shorts with leggings underneath.

Violet once bought fishnet gloves bc she liked how they looked but gave them to Isa after they kept getting caught in her inventions. Isadora loves them even more bc they’re from Violet.

Has a really cool leather jacket but doesn’t wear it much bc she secretly worries that she isn’t cool enough for the jacket.

Has a T-shirt with all of Sappho’s poems printed out really small and arranged into a picture of Sappho herself. Quigley owns a similar one but his contains the bee-movie script.

Cooking abilities ranked🍳:

1: Quigley 🗺- he’s the best bc he had to cook for himself while “dead”. Granted, he did just eat canned peaches, toasted marshmallows, almonds and carrots but he had to find his own food anyway so that’s a start.

2: Isadora 📜- Her meals at Prufrock were cooked for her but it’s possible she had to cook for Duncan and herself at previous guardians. This task would fall on her as Duncan used to be afraid of stoves for a while after the fire

‘ “For a long time,” Duncan admitted, “I was afraid of any kind of fire. I didn’t even like to look at stoves.”’ -The Austere Academy, Chapter 3, page 47.

3: Duncan 📰- For the reason above and also bc he seems like the kind of guy who would mess up simple dishes by trying to apply extra information, “I read in a news article once about a famous chef who’d put mozzarella in porridge for extra flavour, let’s try that!” (Made-up quote)

Choice of stationary 🖊

Isadora: Fountain pen ✒️ bc it makes her poetry look fancy

Duncan: Biro bc it doesn’t smudge easily and he needs to writes down a lot of info quickly for his journalism 🖊

Quigley: Coloured biros bc they make maps easily decipherable+they don’t smudge easily which is useful for accuracy

In a modern AU Quigley has a 6 hour screen time average and it is ENTIRELY Google maps. Duncan listens to podcasts. Isadora’s Pinterest is made up completely of quotes.

Books/Literature 📚:

Apart from atlases, Quigley reads fantasy books with maps. He would adore books in the Grishaverse bc of this, especially obsessing over the canal system of Ketterdam which can be seen in detail in a map in ‘Crooked Kingdom’ by Leigh Bardugo. 📚 🧙‍♀️ However, with the Grisha triology (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm + Ruin and Rising) he would be disappointed by how little the cartographer/ex-cartographer protagonist mentions maps.

Duncan would enjoy the ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ series due to the strategic, organised layout alongside Pip-the protagonist- ‘s note-taking skills. As Duncan aspires to be an investigative journalist he’d be enthralled by the investigations that are central in these books. He would annotate the books as he reads them; filling them with his own theories as well as highlighting important information.

The poem ‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison doesn’t consist of rhyming couplets but I think Isadora would find its portrayal of grief powerful regardless of whether it’s in her preferred poetic format. Especially as it’s about the loss of family members.

Quigley would create his own fantasy map using tea-stained paper with rice spilled on it, drawing around the rice to get the outline of a country. He’d be really strategic about the details he draws though; having mountains before rivers so the water runs off of them etc. 🗺

Favourite Colours 🎨:

Isadora: Pitch black 🖤

Duncan: Dark green 💚

Quigley: Dark purple💜

(Bc of their notebooks 📓)

Thanks for the ask!! :) <3

I wasn’t sure what to include so I wrote quite a bit, this was me restraining myself tho. I think about the Quagmire triplets a LOT :). This is only the tip of the iceberg ;)! :) I also have kind of detailed hcs about injuries the triplets would have after the eagle fight if u want to hear about that.

Please send more asks if you like! You can be as specific as you like, especially if it’s about the Quagmires! :D

#asoue #thanksfortheask:) #a series of unfortunate events #quagmire triplets #duncan quagmire #quigley quagmire #isadora quagmire #headcanon #hcs #pre canon #asoue post canon #i love these guys #in depth #pls ask me more about them :)) if u would like to :D #soue #series of unfortunate events #quagmires #quagmire triplet #quagmire triplets hcs #Isadora Quagmire hcs #Duncan Quagmire hcs #Quigley Quagmire hcs #asoue hcs

[whatcha-reading-today]

Fanfic spotlight: Intern the Sixth | apocalypticTaco

This is so fucking funny and such a good time--especially if you're waiting for Alecto... I am having the best time reading this story because I love Camilla and Pal (who doesn't, though?) and all of the grief Gideon dumps on Harrow. It's a great time, super fun in its writing style--love the epistolary nature.

See the fic here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46868482/chapters/118058461

Fandom: The Locked Tomb Series

Main characters: Camilla Hect, Palamedes Sextus, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Gideon Nav

Author's description:

ADDRESSING THE HEIR TO THE NINTH HOUSE, OR PRESUMED EQUIVALENT: PALAMEDES SEXTUS, HEIR TO THE SIXTH HOUSE, PRESENTS HIS COMPLIMENTS TO THE NINTH AND REQUESTS A FORMAL ARRANGEMENT WHEREIN HIS MASTER WARDEN AND CAVALIER APPRENTICESHIP UNDER THE NINTH FOR FOUR YEARS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE SIXTH’S SERVICES.

*Details to be discussed. Please turn to back page.

Timeframe variable. Services and agreements variable upon the Ninth's request. An internship of this caliber is highly unprecedented and likely unheard of, but any information valuable to the Ninth and into the Tomb will remain undisclosed upon request; Primary experience and study is required as the Master Warden has already decided upon such being his final thesis prior to his end studies.

No takebacks, no denials. Pleased to meet you.

Palamedes Sextus, Heir to the Sixth and Master Warden

and

Camilla the Sixth, Cavalier Primary and Warden's Hand of the Library

TO THE MASTER WARDEN:

FORMALLY REJECTED.

Rating: T

Wordcount: 41,041

Complete: No

#gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #fanfic rec #apocalypticTaco

[crmsndragonwngss]

Rehosted from rocksound.tv. Be sure to visit the page and support rocksound and the author, and to see the digital feature, which includes photos of the band!

ERRA, ‘Cure’ | The Album Story

by Jack Rogers | March 28, 2024

ERRA return with their highly anticipated sixth studio album ‘Cure’, featuring recent singles ‘Pale Iris’ and ‘Blue Reverie’ and set for release on April 05 via UNFD. Ahead of its arrival, we chatted with vocalist JT Cavey and guitarist and songwriter Jesse Cash about the process behind the record, from capturing their modern metalcore sound to lyric writing, choosing the artwork and more.

Read ERRA ‘Cure’ | The Album Story below:

ERRA are still determining what it is about the last few years that has allowed them to rise to the top of the modern metalcore ladder, but they aren’t complaining. Thanks to this shift in scene perception and passion, these have been the most successful and exciting years of their decade-and-a-half career. And with that success and building a ravenously passionate fanbase, they have felt the most at ease with their creativity. They can do whatever they want, and that’s a fantastic spot to be in.

“The biggest thing we have taken in is that we are blessed to be able to do our own thing,” vocalist JT Cavey smiles. “We have always been hyper-focused on ourselves within self-improvement and creating stuff that we like, but now we are lucky to have cultivated a fanbase that just trusts us. We’ve grown substantially post-COVID, and I can’t explain why things like that have happened, but we are grateful. We can continue to be ourselves while making the things we have always been working on. It’s really nice.”

It’s with this openness that they have been able to create a record as dense, destructive, and dizzying as ‘Cure’. Weaving gleefully between all-out sonic battery, ethereal atmospheres, and experimental expansion, it is a collection of songs that pushes what is expected of the band without losing any of the phenomenal technicality and vigour that has defined them all these years.

“I think part of why this album is cool is because it does sound more accessible to us, but it doesn’t sacrifice anything,” guitarist and primary songwriter Jesse Cash expands. “It gets tricky when accessibility becomes an objective. It ends up backfiring a lot. We hoped that it would sound easy to listen to whilst still managing to be personal and profound. Hearing the end result made us realise that’s what we did. More than anything, this sounds like an ERRA record.”

To dive deeper into everything that makes ‘Cure’ what it is, Rock Sound sat down with JT and Jesse to discuss the ebbs and flows that go into crafting such a gorgeously gritty piece of art.

THE SOUND

Historically, when it comes to ERRA heading into the studio to commit a record to tape, most of the music is already in place. That comes down to meticulous pre-production and demoing from Jesse, serving as a foundation of what he anticipates that particular chapter of the band to encompass. In the case of ‘Cure’, rhythm was the focus, with more attention being put on what the right hand was doing more than the left in terms of guitar playing. The result is groove, and lots of it.

“Because of the time that had passed since our last record [2021’s ‘ERRA’], this album was going to sound different no matter what,” he muses. “I really wanted to focus mostly on groove because that is what I listen to and enjoy more recently. Bands like Tool and Gojira and Meshuggah, a lot of the technicality of those bands is just crazy rhythm. It’s way more of a workout on the right hand. So that is how my guitar adapted to the riffs I wrote. It just naturally happened, as that was the style of metal I was listening to.”

That’s how you end up with the pulsating brutality of ‘Slow Sour Bleed’ rubbing shoulders with the shimmering gorgeousness of ‘Past Life Persona’. The painstaking intensity of ‘Crawl Backwards Out Of Heaven’ slots perfectly next to the all-seeing power of ‘Glimpse’. It is a tapestry of technicality and tenacity that feels as grand as it does natural. By focusing on how their creativity can serve the individual song rather than the broader picture, the possible leaps and bounds felt all the more endless.

“I feel like we had more fun with these songs in the risks we were taking, even if you could call them a risk,” JT adds. “As long as people trust in and have faith in that, including ourselves, then we can’t go wrong.”

THE COLLABORATORS

One of the most significant changes from how ERRA have previously functioned is introducing an external producer. With Jesse being so hands-on throughout their career, they knew that if they would let somebody else into the fold, they needed to know exactly what this was all about. That’s where Daniel Braunstein comes into the mix. The man behind the desk for bands such as Spiritbox, The Ghost Inside, Volumes and Silent Planet, he is as close to modern metalcore royalty as you are going to get. Being so intertwined into understanding what it takes to write a song that is as boundary-pushing as it is wonderfully heavy, there was nobody else better on their list.

“Just the simple notion of having a producer involved meant that [this album] would be different,” Jesse explains. “There’s more space for the songs to change and evolve. And Dan was the right producer for us. He understands the assignment more than anyone else would because he is in the middle of the genre—creating a more nuanced version of metal.”

Even with such high regard and understanding for what he was capable of, Jesse went to extra lengths to ensure they were all on the same working page when it came time to hit the studio. With both him and Dan living in Los Angeles, it was easy to pop around and see how he functions whilst sitting in on a handful of sessions with other bands, one being their close friends Kingdom Of Giants as they worked on their track ‘Wasted Space’. Over two years, they built a relationship that allowed the creation of ‘Cure’ to be as seamless as possible.

“I feel like Dan allowed Jesse to be pretty experimental within this record,” JT points out. “He’s not a yes man, and he will tell you when he’s not feeling something, but he also has a lot of great ideas and is incredibly supportive. He’s very diplomatic like that. We couldn’t ask for more.”

THE LYRICS

So often in heavy music, the lyrics take a backseat. This is something that ERRA make sure is far from the case, even putting more emphasis on what their songs are saying at times than what it sounds like. Making sure that whatever direction they were heading in sonically, the words attached served them. Because of this, ‘Cure’ became quite the dark record in the grand scheme of things. Dwelling in the darkness is something that Jesse and JT are used to and more than happy to express. This time around, much of their expression came from the other forms of media that Jesse was consuming. One such morsel was the 1997 film Cure, a Japanese atmospheric crime picture that wallows in the depths of unhinged brutality and philosophical questioning. Though nothing on the record is actually inspired by the movie, despite sharing the title, the atmosphere and pondering of existence, and the pursuit of purpose within that questioning, is draped throughout.

“Records are an imprint of a time and place of where you are at,” Jesse muses. “So, when we were tracking this one, I dipped my toes into the darkness and stayed there for a few months with the content I was ingesting. It enforced the way the record sounded and felt. Because of that, the record is pretty dark but ends on a positive note. It’s the idea of focusing on the darkness, but then somebody turns on a flashlight. I like how it is focused in that way.”

Though much of what Jesse was being inspired by could be seen as nihilistic and bleak, that’s not to say it reflects on who the band are as people or how they want their mindsets to be interpreted. It’s more of a case of understanding that these ways of thinking exist and that it is possible to approach life from these angles and feel like you have everything figured out through this lens. Every person making their way through this life views their everyday differently, and that is as beautiful as it is overwhelming when you think about it too much. Using ERRA to try to interpret these different strands of humanity, no matter how pitch-black they may seem, is how Jesse learns more about himself and his own way of seeing things. It’s also so he knows that the band have done enough to cover every base they can.

“We’re making songs; it doesn’t always have to be a direct reflection of us,” He expands. “This isn’t us saying we are super dark people, but I just want to go there and see what I find. Any kind of art is about trying to nail down a relatable feeling. Something to make you understand what you are going through and feeling. That’s why I take it so seriously, and it’s what I obsess over the most during the process. Let’s make these lyrics as good as they can be. We’re going to be a band that does that.”

THE TITLE AND ARTWORK

If this album wasn’t going to be called ‘Cure’, another option batted around was ‘Wish’. Though it ended up being the former, ‘Wish’ is still an essential word to the record’s anatomy. It is not just the title of the ethereal introduction to the stunning ‘Glimpse’ but also a word that appears in a particular lyric alongside cure in the sprawling title track. In many ways, both go hand in hand. The idea of a cure is rooted in positivity, but what if the cure that ails our existence is that nothing truly matters. What if all we were wishing for was to exist in the grey rather than spiral and bounce between the black and white?

That ambiguity stretches into the eerie artwork, showing off distorted human-like figures clinging to each other like their lives depend on it. As you move further away from the details, you see how these figures make up a gigantic earth-shaped structure. Such a foreboding structure feels otherworldly in scope, but on a smaller scale, it almost represents how much we depend on connection to make it through the day. It’s as human as it is alien, depressing as it is enlightening, and that is absolutely the point.

“This collection of beings forming a sphere—it’s pretty interesting and exciting,” Jesse explains. “This broad view of humanity that, at times, can be bleak. At other times, it can be very beautiful and connecting. There’s a lyric in the title track I like where we say, ‘We are connected by loneliness, through a kinship of detachment. The juxtaposition in these words that defile one another—those are my favourite kinds of themes.”

Though many of the themes within the record come from a pursuit of understanding, Jesse realises that being able to sit and question what everything means and what purpose is within that is a luxury. Many people are just trying to make it from dawn to dusk, getting enough food, sleep and shelter. In many ways, that is what all of this is about. Being content in what we are capable of and understanding that our neighbours are just trying to do the same.

“I don’t think the record declares any answer or preaches anything. It’s a bit more open and ambiguous,” Jesse admits. “I think we are always doing that. It’s a dicey place to be, as everyone is right and everyone is wrong at exactly the same time. It’s a difficult thing to carry around and show off, but there is a sweet spot to it. It’s about not letting your mind dominate you within the ambiguity.”

THE FUTURE

On a professional level, ERRA are having the time of their lives right now. They have more eyes on them than ever before, and as they approach their biggest-ever headline tour, even more will be facing their way. Though on that more profound level, this era of the band will allow the variety of eyes and ears engaged in their output to expand. Described by JT as a “Delivery service for whatever you want from us”, it means that within the ambiguous scope of what they have achieved with ‘Cure’, the potential connection will be even more prominent. From searching for your calling to simply trying to make your brain quiet down a bit, ERRA is the cure. Though that might not have been the intention, it’s a pretty extraordinary place to be.

“The album we have made is so full of variety; the avenue you want to travel down is up to you,” JT smiles. “That’s the same across every song on the record. It’s just really fun to be able to do that. I feel like with any artist, a part of their journey is presenting a practical thing impractically and hoping it clicks with somebody. We are all on a different means of connecting and trying to meet in the middle. That feels like a global goal, and we’re having fun participating in that.”

#Erra #jesse cash #jt cavey #progressive metalcore #rocksound