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nights-flying-fox · 7 months

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a short tidepod duo sickfic gift for @little-banjo-frog & @spacemimz :] hope you guys feel better soon!!

Word count: 1283 ☆ fandom: rottmnt ☆ ao3 link: n/a (yet)

Leo really hated being sick. It was always boring. Especially if he was the only one who got sick. Raph would get anxious and act like a mother hen, and Donnie would never let him leave his room if it was not necessary (and mind you, it is not because Leo has to rest, it is because he’d end up spreading his sickness in the lair), and would be a snitch whenever Leo tried to sneak out. At least Splinter had the experience and always knew what Leo needed.

The thing was that his dad seemed to miss the fact Leo had slept the whole morning, and then the whole noon, and now he couldn’t sleep. To be honest he didn’t want to either. Being sick was bad, but staying in your room and not being able to do much was also bad. The first was okay. He read comics, scrolled on his phone and read some fanfiction, played some video games... Yeah, he had company too but... He wanted to do something other than lying down all the time! He was well enough to walk around, and he was pretty sure his sickness wasn't contagious so he should be able to leave the room, right?

So he got up. It was slow and careful steps, mostly to not wake up others. Thank Pizza Supreme in the Sky, he didn’t cough anymore. He could just have a tour of the lair, maybe even find something interesting to do—

“Leo?”

He turned to see Mikey standing at the entrance of his room. He had his blanket wrapped around him, and his eyes were tired. Uh oh.

“Don’t tell me...” Leo started.

“It is your fault.” Mikey glared.

“...Is this why you came here?” Leo asked. “To accuse me of spreading sickness.”

Mikey whined, “Noooo, I can’t sleep.”

Leo tilted his head, “Why?”

“Because—” He began coughing. Leo watched, feeling terrible. Maybe this was his fault, alright. After his coughing fit was over, Mikey continued. “Well, this...”

“Eugh boi... Yeah, let’s make you some warm tea.” Leo grabbed his blanket as well. It was cold out of his bed.

“That sounds good, but I was wondering,” Mikey was looking at him pleadingly. “Could I stay with you tonight?”

Leo understood his pain very well. Sickness alone was boring as heck. “Sure, but we will visit the kitchen first.” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled his blanket and walked out of the room.

He’d consider himself fast for someone sick, considering how Mikey had yet to join him. Except he wasn’t aware that Mikey was watching him walk, pulling his plushies on the blanket at the same time. The youngest smiled to himself as he followed his brother, deciding not to say anything.

Eventually, the two reached to the kitchen, Leo making two mugs of linden tea. Meanwhile, Mikey leaned on the counter, watching him. As Leo poured the warm tea into the mugs, he noticed something: “Hey, isn’t that Dad’s soup?”

Leo looked at where Mikey pointed at. A big casserole, which Leo knew that Splinter used it for when he made one of his famous soups. “Yeah, it is...”

“Shouldn’t he have put it into the fridge?” Mikey muttered.

“I dunno, you are the chef here.” Leo shrugged.

They looked at each other for a second before Mikey said “I’m reheating it.”

“I’m getting the bowls.”

And so the two warmed the soup, poured it into bowls, and headed out of the kitchen with two trays of soup and tea. The slideer had yet to notice his plushies on his blanket too, so they came along with the turtles as well.

Leo pointed out that Mikey’s room was the closest one, so they quietly headed there. However, Leo had forgotten that Mikey lacked a bed. Good thing Mikey had unreasonably a lot of pillows. Since Mikey had even less energy and was coughing a bit more now, Leo decided to handle putting the pillows down to make a comfortable place they could sit. As he did the task, he noticed the familiar purple tablet on the ground. “Is that Donnie’s tablet?”

“Mmmhmm.” Mikey murmured.

Well, they could use this! “Wanna watch a lame movie until we fall asleep or Raph finds us?”

“Yeah,” Mikey replied, enthusiastic but tired. “One of the lame horror movies?”

“No, you won’t be able to sleep.” Leo said as he placed more pillows on the ground.

“Nuh-uh.”

“You literally couldn’t sleep after watching those fake ghost stories youtube videos for a week.”

“Lies.”

Leo rolled his eyes. He didn’t say anything though, because he got distracted once he pulled his blanket over the pillows. “Wha- are those my plushies?”

“Yea, you’ve been dragging them along with your blanket the whole time.” Mikey snickered.

Oh. Okay, Leo maybe hadn’t recovered enough, how had he not noticed that? Eh, who cared. He took them and placed them on the pillows. “Bring yours too then.” He told Mikey as he sat down and pulled the trays closer, opening space to put the tablet on. Mikey did as he was told, and then sat next to Leo. They chose a movie and drank their soup and tea as they watched it in the dimly lit comfy room. The fairy lights and the way they were lying on the many pillows sleepily really made it feel like they were in a pillow fort. It was nice.

Mikey eventually got into his shell, only leaving his head out to see the screen. Leo held him close, circling gently his shell whenever his brother had a coughing fit. They both weren’t feeling their very best, but it seemed that the warm stuff and the comfort helped.

The youngest was the first to fall asleep. Leo didn’t remember when, but he fell asleep too. In the morning they found themselves in Leo’s bed, surrounded with some pillows and stuffed animals. And there was grumpy Raph watching them- no, glaring at them, sitting next to them.

“Hey big guy,” Leo smiled. Mikey was still sleeping beside him. “For your information, Mike’s joined the sick club.”

“I know.” He huffed. “What were you two thinking laying on the ground the whole night?”

“On pillows, Raph.” Leo corrected.

Raph glared at him even more, if it was possible.

“Relaaax, I was restless and he wanted company. I thought tea would help with his coughing, and his room is closer than mine...” Leo explained.

Raph sighed. “What am I gonna do with you two...”

“Bring us a very good breakfast?” He suggested.

“How are you feeling?” Raph asked, ignoring Leo’s suggestion. But he had smiled, so he might’ve brought them a good breakfast. Or maybe it was already on the way.

“Still not feeling too hot, buuut kinda better.” Leo answered. “No coughing, a bit tired tho.”

“Yeah, good.” Raph smiled, then put his hand on his forehead. “Your fever seems to be better. But don’t you dare to leave the bed yet. Not alone.”

“Why, where are you going?” Leo asked.

“Didn’t you ask for breakfast?” Raph smiled as he walked towards the door.

“You’re the best Raph.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Raph waved his hand. As he left, he added, “Get prepared against Donnie’s rant of careful usage of his stuff and whatever Pops has to say about soup.”

When Leo groaned, Raph had already left.

But now Leo wasn’t sick and alone. Yeah, maybe being sick was boring, and so was being stuck in your room, but hey, at least he had his family that made his days better. He smiled to himself, closing his eyes to fall asleep before his twin or Splinter paid a visit.

#this was supossed to be a mini comic #but i cant draw a thing the way i want today so #writing it is #heavily inspired by banjos drawing btw :]#it made me so happy #oh right tagging #rottmnt #rottmnt fanfiction #sickfic #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt raph #nighty writey #i didnt proofread this but grammarly did lets hope it did well #its 1am so i can not proofread it mhm

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vidawhump · 2 months

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Tried to make final edits to the Valentine’s story. Drew a thing instead. Have a rough sketch 👍

@whumpy-wyrms three cameos and counting 👁️👁️

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smidgen-of-hotboy · 6 months

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36 questions au, another peek!

#tpp 36 questions au #heehhehhehehhehhhehehhehehhehe- i am a little under 10k #but im one-sixth done!#oh yeah. it's coming togehter.#one-sixth of the way done finally. one-sixth closer to being posted online #from this point forward i have to strat plotting things out a bit before i lose the plot too much #a hotboy's writing #the penumbra podcast #private eye's keys go jingle jangle #i'll maybe post this in a week? maybe?#depends on if I can find someone to help me out with revisions and edits. Grammarly only do so much lol

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pollyna · 2 years

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au: Iceman lives but he's still doing chemio, Mav and Slider have a kind of hate/hate/love relationship but when it comes to their mutual friend they pair up faster than you could ever believed. Oh, and Hondo is fuckin' smart, he follows Mav from job to job because he likes to go around and meet new people and have new challenges everytime, before he gets bored.

Warning for homophobic assholes, angst, slurs and not enough punching.

Sunny outside doesn't mean Maverick is happy. This fucking new place where they moved the base is always sunny and he would appreciate it if heat could give them a little breath because it's just the end of march and they already have to switch on the air conditioner and that made Tom get cold again. It's never a good day when his husband gets sick because of stupid stuff it could be avoided. Better yet, it is never going to be a good day until a cold won't degenerate into fever and long nights fighting sleep and nightmares.

He fucking misses Miramar, their favourite spot on the beach and the gentle old lady who used to spend the afternoon with Ice playing cards, watching stupid telenovelas and keeping him company when Maverick had to be elsewhere.

The new class isn't helping his mood either. The best of the best and a new brand of fucking assholes who doesn't listen to him, makes him want to punch everybody in the face and likes Cyclone a little too much for his, and Hondo's, taste. Hondo not liking an entire class says much, especially after three years of teaching at TOPGUN and the number of years the man himself spend working with many different kinds of people in every program the brass moved him to.

If on a normal and sunny day Maverick would have just let it slide and got back to them making the exercise just a little more difficult to complete, today he just can't, not again and not after what he heard while walking in his classroom. Skylab is the first voice he hears but Viking is the one who answers and the deafening silence from the others doesn't help. It hurts a bit when not even Empress, the only decent person and a very good pilot, says something.

The brass let a faggot like Kazansky win this stupid fucking price and then made him Admiral. Who knows how many favours he had to do just to enter the Navy.

Probably not as many he had to do all these years to save Captain Mavsshole. Probably he has AIDS and not even cancer but they are just too ashamed, to tell the truth, or everyone would ask too many questions.

Pete has to count until ten and then until a hundred and then another time until a hundred before taking another step. He knows all his seeing, and hearing, is just blind rage and it could make it worst, probably ending up in prison or in the hospital and then Ice should get up to fetch him and he isn't in the state to do anything, he shouldn't do anything if not get better. He counts from one hundred to zero a third time, takes a deep breath and thinks he can handle this without resulting in homicide and a dishonourable discharge from the Navy and leaving so much mess to clean to Carlos and David. He likes them and he likes having lunch with them. So no to punch because then his husband should come for him and he can't, no to kill or he's going to lose two friends but he can't act as if nothing happened. So he'll have to think about what to do and they're going to regret even letting their own brain think about something like that.

The punishment arrives in town under the shape of one Ron Slider Kerner who decided to come around to see his best friend and spent time making Maverick's week a complete hell. Or maybe not.

When he comes back home that same night Slider is already around, sitting on the couch, talking with Ice about something and someone who got married down in Cali and people Mav doesn't know. Tom looks a little better and just that makes the day a little less heavy, when they kiss hello he can feel his husband's hands around his face and their grip is stronger every day and that would have made his knees give up and cry a little because it was such a close call this time he almost can't still believe this man, four starts admiral Tom Iceman Kazansky, is still alive and fighting and kissing him when he comes back home. Then Slider cough and oh, oh man now he knows what to do and how to make that bunch of assholes pay. They're going to hell without moving a step and they're blissful unaware of what it's waiting for them.

He has to wait after dinner after Ice is in bed and Slider is tidying around because he lived with Ice too and took some of his husband freakish habit when it comes to have a spotless kitchen in a spotless house. So Slider, I have a favour to ask he announces once he's back in front of him and Slider's smirk is a very knowing one. And so the game begins.

Wednesday morning is a little cooler than Tuesday and Ice's cold seems a less intense. He takes Slider with him because he must see the new state of art place where he's working he says to Ice and his husband laughs and looks like he's sayin' I know something is going on, be careful babe.

The class is already sitting in their usual spots, a pilot and their RIO every row, and they look at them walking in with the most confused expression ever. Oh, you don't have the slightest idea of what is going to happen now.

Class this is Captain Ron Kerner, callsign Slider, he was Admiral Kazansky's RIO for most of their years in the air and he's going to teach you a couple of things this week. He worked around a little bit, after he stop flying, went to DC, decided to put his ass on a chair and then went back in combat with some very tough dudes who taught him a thing or two. He's here for a visit and, over dinner, I was thinking it would have been so nice to have him over to teach you something new. He was so happy to accept.

Slider is subtle in what he does and how he does his work, he learned it following Ice around during his first years in his Admiral carrier and perfect the rest working on his own projects at the Pentagon and around DC. He takes the all class up in the sky at five am, makes them run miles every time their manoeuvres aren't exactly by the book, gives homework and books to read, checks their rooms and confiscated their alcohol and cigarettes, and takes them to the veteran home and forgets them there for a whole day because he has to take Ice to try the new ice cream place, then comes back at eight in the evening, makes them run again, questions them about politics and tactics and makes them running a little more. But the worst is the inactivity: after spending days moving around like the world is going to end the second next to this one, he makes them sit in class st five-thirty in the morning and makes them wait. For an hour, then two and then three. It's eight-thirty and Slider is strolling in the classroom looking like someone who had the best sleep and coffee in his life while every single student is dying to sleep, drink something other than water and, generally, their poor brains are begging do something. Good morning class, today we have a nine-hour lecture, so get ready to have your world shake and you're going to learn stuff you're never going to forget.

Almost ten hours later, a break of thirty minutes around midmorning and Slider smiles and announces, candied as the day his parents baptized him, that everything has a reason in this life and a day of lectures on the culture of queer people, slurs, AIDS and flying is the bare minimum they deserve and he's going to make sure no one's name is going to end of the plaque because they don't deserves such an honour, or any honor, when they can't give the basic respect to a human, let alone to one of their superiors. And yes, every single one of them is going to get back in flight school, even if it will cost Slider and Maverick all the favours they have to ask, and not isn't just because of the comment on Admiral Kazansky, that was only the last straw and yes Viking you can call the President of the United States for all I care.

It's Wednesday again, it's raining outside, Maverick is making pancakes for three people, he doesn't have to go to work because he doesn't have a new class for at least another month and a half, Slider is looking around as if he was the king of the world and Ice is trying really hard not to ask what his husband and best friend did. He's going to read a report, a couple of days later, very detailed about everything that happened but by then Slider will be back in DC and Maverick will be fussing about taking a walk and looking to adopt a cat and starting a new hobby that will get them out of the house every time they can.

For now, Tom enjoys the pace and some delicious pancake, while Mav and Slider finish forging a strange new alliance, signed over the promise of mutual help and no question asked when needed.

#it was supposed to be a prompt bc i'm trying to prep at best for this afternoon lesson but apparently things got a little out of hand #ty grammarly to make this more redable but if u finds mistakes pls let me know!!#pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #ron slider kerner #icemav #mav & slider forming tentative friendship to protect ice: new trope #new class is full of homopobic assholes and mav can't punch them all so he does what he does best: creates avock #slider is more than happy to help #but he has important things to do to while he is in town!! like take his bbf to eat icecream #homophobia #slider has a power point for his ten hours lecture with pictures and videos and he wanted a report after #viking & skylab & empress are callsign names i found on google lol #ice is loved #but it's a pretest to fix things bc the navy won't do it #it becomes a ritual of sort: every year slider is around for a lecture at the beginning of the year and if pilots aren't okay with what-#-he is saying they can leave the program at the beginning so they can find someone better to put there #idk what the fuck i'm doing honestly i'm still tired from this weekend and stuff #married couple #au: iceman lives #(cancer is retriving and he's getting better every day)#post-movie #top gun: maverick #ice x mav #otp: i heard from the heavens that clouds have been grey

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im-sorry-what-ii · 9 months

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ITS FINISHED!!! i've never posted anything before, so i really hope this is at least decent

#it was surprisingly fun to write #hopefully that means more writing in the future #which means improvement #I have 2 more sitting in the docs vault #theyre both a bit older though and im scared to read them #quickly found out i cannot reread my own writing it makes me cringe #begging yall to tell me if theres typos #grammarly hates me and i hate it back #top gun #icemav #fanfiction #topgun fanfic #never knew how hard ao3 tags are until now #i really gotta up my lyric game #gonna write more just so i can force my pink floyd obsession on the world

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maaarshieee · 2 years

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i love hurting people when im feeling angsty so... luffy and reader saying goodbye, knowing that its probably going to be the last one, without a kiss, without their unspoken words and reader says, "i wont forget about you. ever,"

but tbh this kinda sucks 😭

You probably just thinking of simple good byes but all I can think of reader's death because I just like hurting Luffy like that ❤💕

Luffy's too far to hold you in his arms as the light in your eyes slowly dwindles, barely holding onto life.

But he's close enough to see your face, wearing the same smile he's grown to love. Your smile always makes him feel so much better, no matter what, but at this moment? It made his heart ache.

At your final moments, your voice was faint, overpowered by loud clashing of swords and the firing bullets, but your voice was the only thing he could hear as the battle became background noise.

It was happening all over again.

"I won't forget about you. Ever."

His whole world shattered.

💓❤ It's a wonderful idea, I just added fuel in the flames hehe 😈 you can use it if you'd like 😇

#fic idea????? 😇😇😇#im such a good person #when luffy cant even protect his s/o 💔#IM SORRY I FEEL CRUEL #THANKS FOR THE ANHST MAIRA 💖💓#:;muse.maira⚔️#:;marshie.speaks #:;character.confessions #I DONT EVEN WRIYE FOR OP OOPS ❤💓💖#i usually use grammarly for my shit so sorry for mistakes #:;monkey.d.luffy #:;marshie.writes #too ig #anyone can use this maybe credit me idfk #monkey d. luffy x reader #luffy x reader #one piece x reader

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whenyoulovesomebody · 11 months

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5 SECONDS OF SUMMER - THE FEELING OF FALLING UPWARDS: LIVE AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL

(transcription from the deluxe album booklet under the cut)

Like all moments of light, "The Feeling of Falling Upwards" begins in total darkness: an exhale, a single second held to feel like a lifetime, limitless possibility meeting the total anxiety of potential. Then, their screams-your screams-a chorus of thousands of voices fill London's famed Royal Albert Hall, emanating from a crowd dressed in suits and gowns, louder and more resonant than even the venue's iconic golden pipe organ. Tonight, that instrument is covered by the stage-no distractions-this performance is all about the band, their songs, and you.

Synths boom. A 12-piece string ensemble's orchestral maneuvers tease a future crescendo. Pianos twinkle. Soon, stage lights will illuminate from the floorboards, pointing upwards to reveal a choir. Can a rock show be bigger than Broadway? Can a rock show feel like floating? Can a rock show change your life? 5 Seconds of Summer take their positions-Calum's bass leads, D to A minor. Luke clutches a microphone: "Caught up in Heaven, but your Heaven ain't the same / And I've never been a saint, have I?" By the time the chorus of "Complete Mess" hits, it's total ascendance in multi-part harmonies, the kind 5SOS fans have come to adore from a band immeasurably in sync with one another. (Four vocalists, but different this time. It's four, plus 12: the House Gospel Choir, known for their work with Kylie Minogue and Primal Scream, stand on a crescent moon platform above 5SOS's heads mirroring a long desert sunrise, to add magnitude.)

These harmonies are a nostalgic sound-you first heard 'em in 5SOS's suburban Sydney living room, covering "Teenage Dirtbag back in 2011. Or maybe it was 2013, just across the street from this hallowed hall, at the Marble Arch, where a tweenage, fringe-and-skate-shoe-wearing 5SOS could be found performing outside for their nascent audience, a community soon to become unwavering in their dedication. These are the kind of fans a band could only dream of inspiring, and this Royal Albert Hall performance is the kind of full-circle moment a band could only dream of achieving. That's the peculiar magic of setting intentions; thank goodness 5SOS, despite every challenge, has stuck around long enough to enjoy it, to get here. Thank goodness you have.

This is the feeling of falling upwards. And it's like nothing they've ever felt before.

"We've done a bunch of different stuff for fans along the way," Luke laughs. "We've gone down the sides of buildings. We've done crazy stuff all over the world-guerilla marketing, hiding things..." It's true: 5 Seconds of Summer have never been strangers to creative promotional activities dedicated to their unimpeachable fans (remember Derp Con?) but the Royal Albert Hall show was something else entirely. 5SOS5, the band's fifth album, recorded in Joshua Tree, CA-the desert majesty three hours east of Hollywood, an enclave of hippie mysticism, knotty cactus, and trees with spiky arms reaching towards a sunset-y sky-provided. 5SOS with a new sense of autonomy, and creative self-assurance. "It gave us the confidence to know that the four of us are capable of creating something really great-just the four of us," as Michael describes it. And so any event around the release would need to eclipse it: to be bigger than just an interview or fan convention.

It would need to highlight their newfound freedom, their willingness towards collaboration, their celebration of musical diversity. And so the band's manager, Benjamin Evans, had an idea. What if 5 Seconds of Summer created a unique show, a production like never before? One that they could live stream around the world on the eve of the album's launch, so fans all around the world could join in the occasion? Wouldn't that be a great way to showcase the band's greatest asset-their live show-in a way that went beyond the same radio and TV spots? What if the band performed with an orchestra and a choir for the first time, ever, reimagining songs from their extensive discography alongside new album tracks, recording the event to later release as a live album?

Surely it would have to be at a truly iconic venue, a bucket list experience for any musician. The prestigious Royal Albert Hall was the obvious choice, for its legacy and most importantly, its place in the history of the band. "We used to busk outside of it [a decade ago]," as Calum is quick to point out.

What if they ran a series of flyaway competitions with media partners to bring fans from outside the UK to London for the one-night-only special? Wouldn't that make it more than a record release, but an unrepeatable moment in the band's history, forevermore?

And what if, instead of turning it into "5SOS5 Live," they created something timeless-a career-spanning set to anchor the entire existence of this band into something mythological, a release superfans and casual listeners alike could hold on to, and return to across their lives? The Killers, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Dusty Springfield, The Who, Arctic Monkeys, hell, Bring Me the Horizon have all released records Live at Royal Albert Hall-if they could just pull it off, 5 Seconds of Summer would join some impressive company. But ideation is one thing: conception, another.

Working with Ben Dupont of Moment Factory, who directed all the visuals, stage set, lighting, and production for the show in just under one month, "The Feeling of Falling Upwards" took an army. 5SOS was just coming off of a few years spent inside finding new ways to thank the fans that have always supported them, like "The 5SOS Show: A 10 Year Celebration," a self-referential, playful commemoration of their decade together as a band, that they created a year earlier and made available for free-and their massive. "Take My Hand" arena and amphitheater tour, with its elevated production from past tours. With "The Feeling of Falling Upwards," they wanted something "classier," for Royal Albert Hall as Calum describes it. "Stripped back, but also multiplied, in terms of its organic element."

"They wanted symphonic, acoustic, timeless," says Ben. "When Nirvana performed at the Hall, they put a ton of flowers on the stage, and it stayed as this iconic look. Less is more. "Do one thing, but do it in a bold way." He endeavored to do the same: hiding the organ behind a stage to elevate the choir, hiring a theater lighting designer to enhance the drama-more edgy Broadway than rock show-complete with Svoboda lighting, an old school Tungsten fixture used to create light curtains atop each member. On stage, he instructed his team to build sand dunes-Styrofoam with real sand coating, meant to look wind-swept, leanin organi the band's risers, an "elegantly disruptive" set, as he puts it. The dunes were 5SOS's version of Nirvana's flowers, bringing a bit of Joshua Tree to rainy England.

The lighting's color story enhanced the experience: "Outer Space/ Carry On," a cut from the band's second record (2015's Sounds Good Feels Good) that they hadn't played live in half a decade, was illuminated a rich blue; closer "Bad Omens" was a sunrise gradient of pink and orange. Most surprising was "Youngblood," the song that gave 5SOS its second life in an industry that, 9 times out of 10, will choose to eat up and spit out its young talent was lit "underside of a leaf green," as Ben describes it, despite the fact that most performers stay away from green. It's too witchy. Too Halloween-y. Green, it turned out, was a favorite of at least Ashton, who, despite being asked by Ben to play silver instruments to take the light off the stage, broke out a green drum. "It's a sore thumb!" Ben remembers thinking. "I was disappointed." Then Ash confronted him about it. "He showed me a photo of a tiny baby plant, two little leaves, growing in the middle of a dune in the desert. For him, that's what his drum kit was doing on stage. I thought he only chose it because it sounded great, with no consideration for the visual aesthetics. But his vision was so much deeper."

Their band itself grew from four members to 31: the 12-piece string orchestra, the 12-member House Gospel Choir, legendary keys-man Roger Manning, "If you've heard an alternative rock record in the last 30 years, Roger is probably playing keys on it... Whether it's Blink, or Morrisey, or Air, or Beck." says lan Longwell, one of 5SOS's music directors who also played orchestral percussion for the band when their previous pick dropped out last minute. Ian was joined by his partner, the band's other MD, Drew Chaffee, who played guitar, synth, and samples. Together, Ian and Drew created a set list-career-spanning but not too backwards-facing, meant to highlight and celebrate the launch of 5SOS5 but most crucially meant to stand on its own. This performance needed to endure, to stand out like the brightest sunset in a career full of them.

They worked with a man called Brandon Collins on the orchestral arrangements, to completely transform some of 5SOS's most identifiable songs. "Teeth," with its "pissed off strings" became "a little more Ennio Morricone, more score-sounding," says lan, the perfect moment to use the orchestra in a heavier way, "to at the end, flip it, and take it to the death star," as he describes it. "She Looks So Perfect" was stripped to its barest materials, a reimagining that came from the most surprising source: Ed Sheeran. "The year the song came out, he covered it, and it's beautiful," says Ian. "It's pretty much the same melody but it skips a chord-it's just him and an acoustic guitar." 5 Seconds of Summer did something similar, adding voices, strings, dimension. "It's the opposite of what the actual song is," Calum says of the new arrangement. "Songwriting is the top priority for this band, and [an acoustic performance] allows it to shine for what it is: a beautiful song."

"That and 'Older' were the most fragile moments of the set," lan jumps in. For Luke, that's especially the case: it is the first time he's gotten to perform it with his fiancé, Sierra Deaton, a romantic duet emphasized by their forever partnership. "That was really special," Luke says of the moment, still at a loss at its majesty. "It was cool, to have the stars align, to be able to do that."

On rare occasion did the songs stay more or less the same than their tour counterparts: "Red Desert," lit red, abridged, and used primarily as a drum break for Ashton, made it onto the set list because "we needed to hit that chorus at least once with the choir," says lan. "Lie to Me" was an uphill battle. "The joke at rehearsal was that it was cut but we were insisting on practicing it anyway. But when we heard it with the choir, it sounded like Simon and Garfunkel."

At the tail end of September, just before the curtains were raised on "The Feeling of Falling Upwards," there was a three day, big production rehearsal in Redditch, near Birmingham, two hours out of London-the only space the team could hire to fit their entire production. Day one was Ian, Drew, Ashton, Michael, and the 12-piece choir huddled in a 500 square foot office room of the production venue while the stage was being built downstairs. They sang through the entire performance and did a lot of simplifying. After all, no collaboration is ever exactly how you imagine it, until you do it; that's the beauty of communal artmaking. The second day was strings/orchestra only. Day three was a full production dress rehearsal with choir and strings together for the first time-they ran through the production in its entirety-immediately moved by what they had created. "This is the first time we've played with other musicians on stage. That's a scary thing," says Calum. "You need to let them have free will as artists as well, which gave it so much life. That's the reason it's so different from anything we've ever done." Luke jumps in. "We wanted to make a core memory for the band- a benchmark-something we could always be proud of. This isn't a flash-in-the-pan thing."

"You only get one shot," Michael agrees. "That was the most nerve-wracking part... It was an incredible learning experience and helped mend some of my trust issues." He pauses. "Every time I played, every time I strummed a guitar chord at Royal Albert Hall, I was like, 'This is the only opportunity I get to play this chord. You know what I mean? But with that came this beautiful moment of seeing the songs for what they were." Therein lies the metamorphosis: there was no existential clarity, only connection: with the other musicians on stage, with the well-dressed audience, with the viewers at home, with you.

"I do remember at the very, very end, just taking a look around for a second, at this stage we built, the incredible people who pull it together, everyone in the band," Michael continues. "I had this moment of 'Once I leave this stage, that's it. That's the last time I'll play a show exactly like this. Two years ago, we had gone out in the middle of nowhere and decided, 'What happens, happens...." He trails off, feeling the weight of making 5SOS5, and the Hall performance, all over again. "All of that all that I felt happened in the space of about two-and-a-half-seconds on stage." He jokes that it was the opposite of a near-death experience. "A full life experience!"

"There is no other record that we've made that could be the core of what we've just done," Calum says, starry-eyed. "And that's very telling of the soul of the record." Without 5SOS5, the band would've never gotten to this point, and they certainly would've never learned to live inside of the songs of their past. "As I get older, I learn you can shift your perception on things," he continues, "Stop taking things so seriously for myself. That's been a big learning curve for us." It's the reason he can deliver a classic Calum song like "Amnesia" as sincerely as he did when he was 18, now at 26 years old. "I feel a lot closer to that song, as I did before, when I was younger," he says. "I respect what it's done for this band and what it's done for a lot of people."

5SOS fans go beyond the regular rock music listenership; they participate in each stage of this band. "They've followed 5 Seconds of Summer to London when they were so young and everywhere else the band has gone in the time since. ("I'd never left the country before we moved to London," says Luke, "We figured out, early on, that we needed to leave Australia to come back stronger.") On stage at Royal Albert Hall, 5SOS was able to connect to that idea: their past selves, but also the fans that joined them along this journey. "I felt like a more elevated version of myself on that stage," says Luke. "Songs I put in the back of my mind, that I didn't really think held much emotional weight, got to me." For him, that meant a lot of songs from Sounds Goods Feels Good, specifically. "The second album had a lot of ambition, tons of strings, but we were still wearing skinny jeans and Converse on stage; we hadn't swayed too much from our pop-punk roots," he laughs. "I don't know if subconsciously there was any desire to perform them live at Royal Albert Hall one day, but we did have a big orchestra in London play on the recorded version of 'Outer Space/Carry On. We never thought we'd have the capacity to play them live." Until they did. Listen to your former selves, there's a real prescience there. This was always possible. "I'm trying to fill in the gaps, emotionally, to understand who I am," he adds. "We all are."

Near the end of the set at Royal Albert Hall, Ashton, the band's heart-poet, gives a definition for the crowd to hold close. "The Feeling of Falling Upwards' is simply supposed to describe to you the feeling that we have experienced together, the feeling of taking a leap of faith on such a fickle thing like music," he smiles, "And sharing this experience together year after year, season after season of our lives."

It is far too easy for musicians to grow up to become parodies of themselves. If they find a formula that works, they can repeat it ad nauseum, leaning into superficial, outward readings of who they are and what they do. But 5SOS, on stage and in the current era, are five-dimensional; their pop-punk selves, their .... operatic selves, and everything in between. "We worked really hard to make this happen," Calum says. "You speak positivity and manifest great outcomes for yourself."

Luke agrees. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel," he says "There's a brightness worth fighting for."

#5sos #tfofu #5 seconds of summer #not that anyone asked for this but I made it anyway cause I know not everyone bought the deluxe cd :)#And I haven't seen anyone post this on tumblr #Can someone also tell me if I can get in trouble for posting this??? I hope not lmao #Anyways I didnt actually write all of this I took pictures and extracted the words -> but hopefully I managed to correct any mistakes #i ran grammarly through this so the only mistakes left are missing dots and stuff like these hopefully :)#5sos ono #e*

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