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sharpiefaceontangerine · 5 years

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Harry Styles’ New Direction (Harry’s 2017 Feature in Rolling Stone)

(because apparently I didn’t have the full text on my tumblr and u can never be too careful)

January 2016. There’s a bench at the top of Primrose Hill, in London, that looks out over the skyline of the city. If you’d passed by it one winter night, you might have seen him sitting there. A lanky guy in a wool hat, overcoat and jogging pants, hands thrust deep into his pockets. Harry Styles had a lot on his mind. He had spent five years as the buoyant fan favorite in One Direction; now, an uncertain future stretched out in front of him. The band had announced an indefinite hiatus. The white noise of adulation was gone, replaced by the hushed sound of the city below.

The fame visited upon Harry Styles in his years with One D was a special kind of mania. With a self-effacing smile, a hint of darkness and the hair invariably described as “tousled,” he became a canvas onto which millions of fans pitched their hopes and dreams. Hell, when he pulled over to the side of the 101 freeway in L.A. and discreetly threw up, the spot became a fan shrine. It’s said the puke was even sold on eBay like pieces of the Berlin Wall. Paul McCartney has interviewed him. Then there was the unauthorized fan-fiction series featuring a punky, sexed-up version of “Harry Styles.” A billion readers followed his virtual exploits. (“Didn’t read it,” comments the nonfiction Styles, “but I hope he gets more than me.”)

But at the height of One D–mania, Styles took a step back. For many, 2016 was a year of lost musical heroes and a toxic new world order. For Styles, it was a search for a new identity that began on that bench overlooking London. What would a solo Harry Styles sound like? A plan came into focus. A song cycle about women and relationships. Ten songs. More of a rock sound. A bold single-color cover to match the working title: Pink. (He quotes the Clash’s Paul Simonon: “Pink is the only true rock & roll colour.”) Many of the details would change over the coming year – including the title, which would end up as Harry Styles – but one word stuck in his head.

“Honest,” he says, a year later, driving through midcity Los Angeles in a dusty black Range Rover. He’s lived here off and on for the past few years, always returning to London. Styles’ car stereo pumps a mix of country and obscure classic rock. “I didn’t want to write ‘stories,’ ” he says. “I wanted to write my stories, things that happened to me. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. I hadn’t done that before.” There isn’t a yellow light he doesn’t run as he speaks excitedly about the band he’s put together under the tutelage of producer Jeff Bhasker (The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, “Uptown Funk”). He’s full of stories about the two-month recording session last fall at Geejam, a studio and compound built into a mountainside near Port Antonio, a remote section of Jamaica. Drake and Rihanna have recorded there, and it’s where Styles produced the bulk of his new LP, which is due out May 12th. As we weave through traffic today, the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone.

We arrive at a crowded diner, and Styles cuts through the room holding a black notebook jammed with papers and artifacts from his album, looking like a college student searching for a quiet place to study. He’s here to do something he hasn’t done much of in his young career: an extended one-on-one interview. Often in the past there was another One D member to vector questions into a charmingly evasive display of band camaraderie. Today, Styles is a game but careful custodian of his words, sometimes silently consulting the tablecloth before answering. But as he recounts the events leading up to his year out of the spotlight, the layers begin to slip away.

It was in a London studio in late 2014 that Styles first brought up the idea of One Directiontaking a break. “I didn’t want to exhaust our fan base,” he explains. “If you’re shortsighted, you can think, ‘Let’s just keep touring,’ but we all thought too much of the group than to let that happen. You realize you’re exhausted and you don’t want to drain people’s belief in you.”

After much discussion, the band mutually agreed to a hiatus, which was announced in August 2015 (Zayn Malik had abruptly left One D several months earlier). Fans were traumatized by the band’s decision, but were let down easy with a series of final bows, including a tour that ran through October. Styles remains a One D advocate: “I love the band, and would never rule out anything in the future. The band changed my life, gave me everything.”

Harry Styles reveals the inspiration behind his new music. Here’s five things we learned about Harry Styles’ new album.

Still, a solo career was calling. “I wanted to step up. There were songs I wanted to write and record, and not just have it be ‘Here’s a demo I wrote.’ Every decision I’ve made since I was 16 was made in a democracy. I felt like it was time to make a decision about the future … and maybe I shouldn’t rely on others.”

As one of the most well-known 23-year-olds in the world, Styles himself is still largely unknown. Behind the effervescent stage persona, there is more lore than fact. He likes it that way. “With an artist like Prince,” he says, “all you wanted to do was know more. And that mystery – it’s why those people are so magical! Like, fuck, I don’t know what Prince eats for breakfast. That mystery … it’s just what I like.”

Styles pauses, savoring the idea of the unknown. He looks at my digital recorder like a barely invited guest. “More than ‘do you keep a mystery alive?’ – it’s not that. I like to separate my personal life and work. It helps, I think, for me to compartmentalize. It’s not about trying to make my career longer, like I’m trying to be this ‘mysterious character,’ because I’m not. When I go home, I feel like the same person I was at school. You can’t expect to keep that if you show everything. There’s the work and the personal stuff, and going between the two is my favorite shit. It’s amazing to me.”

Soon, we head to the Beachwood Canyon studio of Jeff Bhasker. As we arrive, Styles bounds up the steps to the studio, passing a bored pool cleaner. “How are ya,” he announces, unpacking a seriously cheerful smile. The pool cleaner looks perplexed, not quite sharing Styles’ existential joy.

Inside, the band awaits. Styles opens his notebook and heads for the piano. He wants to finish a song he’d started earlier that day. It’s obvious that the band has a well-worn frat-house dynamic, sort of like the Beatles in Help!, as directed by Judd Apatow. Styles is, to all, “H.” Pomegranate-scented candles flicker around the room. Bhasker enters, with guru-length hair, multicolored shirt, red socks and sandals. He was initially busy raising a new baby with his partner, the singer and songwriter Lykke Li, so he guided Styles to two of his producer-player protégés, Alex Salibian and Tyler Johnson, as well as engineer and bassist Ryan Nasci. The band began to form. The final piece of the puzzle was Mitch Rowland, Styles’ guitarist, who had worked in a pizza joint until two weeks into the sessions. “Being around musicians like this had a big effect on me,” Styles says. “Not being able to pass an instrument without sitting down and playing it?” He shakes his head. It was Styles’ first full immersion into the land of musos, and he clearly can’t get enough.

Styles starts singing some freshly written lyrics. It’s a new song called “I Don’t Want to Be the One You’re Waiting On.” His voice sounds warm, burnished and intimate, not unlike early Rod Stewart. The song is quickly finished, and the band assembles for a playback of the album.

“Mind if I play it loud?” asks Bhasker. It’s a rhetorical question. Nasci cranks “Sign of the Times,” the first single, to a seismic level. The song began as a seven-minute voice note on Styles’ phone, and ended up as a sweeping piano ballad, as well as a kind of call to arms. “Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals,” Styles says. “Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. … ’Sign of the Times’ came from ‘This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last time.’ The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication. The mother is told, ‘The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, ‘Go forth and conquer.'” The track was a breakthrough for both the artist and the band. “Harry really led the charge with that one, and the rest of the album,” says Bhasker.

“I wish the album could be called Sign of the Times,” Styles declares.

“I don’t know,” says Bhasker. “I mean, it has been used.“

They debate for a bit. Nasci plays more tracks. The songs range from full-on rock (“Kiwi”) to intricate psychedelic pop (“Meet Me in the Hallway”) to the outright confessional (“Ever Since New York,” a desperate meditation on loss and longing). The lyrics are full of details and references – secrets whispered between friends, doomed declarations of love, empty swimming pools – sure to set fans scrambling for the facts behind the mystery.

“Of course I’m nervous,” Styles admits, jingling his keys. “I mean, I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. I’m happy I found this band and these musicians, where you can be vulnerable enough to put yourself out there. I’m still learning … but it’s my favorite lesson.”

The album is a distinct departure from the dance pop that permeates the airwaves. “A lot of my influences, and the stuff that I love, is older,” he says. “So the thing I didn’t want to do was, I didn’t want to put out my first album and be like, ‘He’s tried to re-create the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties.’ Loads of amazing music was written then, but I’m not saying I wish I lived back then. I wanted to do something that sounds like me. I just keep pushing forward.”

“It’s different from what you’d expect,” Bhasker says. “It made me realize the Harry [in One D] was kind of the digitized Harry. Almost like a character. I don’t think people know a lot of the sides of him that are on this album. You put it on and people are like, ‘This is Harry Styles?’ ”

Styles is aware that his largest audience so far has been young – often teenage – women. Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated. “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.“

Styles drives to a quiet dinner spot in Laurel Canyon, at the foot of Lookout Mountain Avenue, onetime home to many of his Seventies songwriting heroes. He used to have a place around the corner. As the later tours of One Direction grew larger, longer and more frenetic, he offers with irony, “It was very rock & roll.” He’s not a heavy drinker, he says, maybe some tequila on ice or wine with friends after a show, but by the band’s last tour there wasn’t much time even for that. John Lennon once told Rolling Stone that behind the curtain, the Beatles’ tours were like Fellini’s Satyricon. Styles counters that the One D tours were more like “a Wes Anderson movie. Cut. Cut. New location. Quick cut. New location. Cut. Cut. Show. Shower. Hard cut. Sleep.”

Finding a table, Styles leans forward and discusses his social-media presence, or lack thereof. Styles and his phone have a bittersweet, mature relationship – they spend a lot of time apart. He doesn’t Google himself, and checks Twitter infrequently. “I’ll tell you about Twitter,” he continues, discussing the volley of tweets, some good, some cynical, that met his endorsement of the Women’s March on Washington earlier this year. “It’s the most incredible way to communicate closely with people, but not as well as in person.” When the location of his London home was published a few years ago, he was rattled. His friend James Corden offered him a motto coined by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “Never complain, never explain.”

I mention a few of the verbal Molotov cocktails Zayn Malik has tossed at the band in recent interviews. Here’s one: “[One D is] not music that I would listen to. If I was sat at a dinner date with a girl, I would play some cool shit, you know what I mean? I want to make music that I think is cool shit. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.”

Styles adjusts himself in his chair. “I think it’s a shame he felt that way,” he says, threading the needle of diplomacy, “but I never wish anything but luck to anyone doing what they love. If you’re not enjoying something and need to do something else, you absolutely should do that. I’m glad he’s doing what he likes, and good luck to him.”

Perched on his head are the same-style white sunglasses made famous by Kurt Cobain, but the similarities end right there. Styles, born two months before Cobain exited Earth, doesn’t feel tied to any particular genre or era. In the car, he’ll just as easily crank up the country music of Keith Whitley as the esoteric blues-and-soul of Shuggie Otis. He even bought a carrot cake to present to Stevie Nicks at a Fleetwood Mac concert. (“Piped her name onto it. She loved it. Glad she liked carrot cake.”)

This much is clear: The classic role of tortured artist is not one he’ll be playing. “People romanticize places they can’t get to themselves,” he says. “That’s why it’s fascinating when people go dark – when Van Gogh cuts off his ear. You romanticize those people, sometimes out of proportion. It’s the same with music. You want a piece of that darkness, to feel their pain but also to step back into your own [safer] life. I can’t say I had that. I had a really nice upbringing. I feel very lucky. I had a great family and always felt loved. There’s nothing worse than an inauthentic tortured person. ‘They took my allowance away, so I did heroin.’ It’s like – that’s not how it works. I don’t even remember what the question was.”

Styles wanders into the Country Store next door. It’s a store he knows well. Inspecting the shelves, he asks if I’ve had British rice pudding. He finds a can that looks ancient. He collects a roll of Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles (“since 1881”), Lindor Swiss chocolates (“irresistibly smooth”) and a jar of Branston Pickles. “There’s only two shops in L.A. that stock all the British snacks. This area’s kind of potluck,” he says, spreading the collection on the counter.

The clerk rings up the snacks. In the most careful, deferential way, the young worker asks the question. “Would you … happen to be … Harry Styles?”

“Yep.”

“Could I get a selfie?” Styles obliges, and leans over the counter. Click. We exit into the Laurel Canyon evening.

“Hey,” shouts a grizzled-looking dude on the bench outside the store. “Do you know who you look like?”

Styles turns, expecting more of the same, but this particular night denizen is on a different track.

“River Phoenix,” the man announces, a little sadly. “You ever heard of him? If he hadn’t have passed, I would have said that was you. Talented guy.”

“Yes, he was,” agrees Styles, who is in many ways the generational opposite of Phoenix. “Yes, he was.”

They share a silent moment, before Styles walks to his car. He hands me the bag filled with English snacks. “This is for you,” he says. “This was my youth …”

Harry Edward Styles was born in Worcestershire, England, in true classic-rock form, on a Tuesday Afternoon. The family moved to Cheshire, a quiet spot in Northern England, when he was a baby. His older sister, Gemma, was the studious one. (“She was always smarter than me, and I was always jealous of that.”)

His father, Desmond, worked in finance. He was a fan of the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, a lot of Queen, and Pink Floyd. Young Harry toddled around to The Dark Side of the Moon. “I couldn’t really get it,” he says, “but I just remember being like – this is really fucking cool. Then my mom would always have Shania Twain, and Savage Garden, Norah Jones going on. I had a great childhood. I’ll admit it.”

But in fact, all was not perfection, scored to a cool, retro soundtrack. When Harry was seven, his parents explained to him that Des would be moving out. Asked about that moment today, Styles stares straight ahead. “I don’t remember,” he says. “Honestly, when you’re that young, you can kind of block it out. … I can’t say that I remember the exact thing. I didn’t realize that was the case until just now. Yeah, I mean, I was seven. It’s one of those things. Feeling supported and loved by my parents never changed.”

His eyes moisten a little, but unlike the young man who wept over an early bout with Internet criticism, a powerful moment in the early One Direction documentary A Year in the Making,Styles tonight knocks back the sentiment. Styles is still close with his father, and served as best man to his mom when she remarried a few years ago. “Since I’ve been 10,” he reflects, “it’s kind of felt like – protect Mom at all costs. … My mom is very strong. She has the greatest heart. [Her house in Cheshire] is where I want to go when I want to spend some time.”

In his early teens, Styles joined some school friends as the singer in a mostly-covers band, White Eskimo. “We wrote a couple of songs,” he remembers. “One was called ‘Gone in a Week.’ It was about luggage. ‘I’ll be gone in a week or two/Trying to find myself someplace new/I don’t need any jackets or shoes/The only luggage I need is you.'” He laughs. “I was like, ‘Sick.'”

It was his mother who suggested he try out for the U.K. singing competition The X Factor to compete in the solo “Boy” category. Styles sang Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.” The unforgiving reaction from one of the judges, Louis Walsh, is now infamous. Watching the video today is to watch young Harry’s cheery disposition take a hot bullet.

“In that instant,” he says, “you’re in the whirlwind. You don’t really know what’s happening; you’re just a kid on the show. You don’t even know you’re good at anything. I’d gone because my mum told me I was good from singing in the car … but your mum tells you things to make you feel good, so you take it with a pinch of salt. I didn’t really know what I was expecting when I went on there.”

Styles didn’t advance in the competition, but Simon Cowell, the show’s creator, sensed a crowd favorite. He put Styles together with four others who’d failed to advance in the same category, and united the members of One D in a musical shotgun marriage. The marriage worked. And worked. And worked.

You wonder how a young musician might find his way here, to these lofty peaks, with his head still attached to his shoulders. No sex tapes, no TMZ meltdowns, no tell-all books written by the rehab nanny? In a world where one messy scandal can get you five seasons of a hit reality show … how did Harry Styles slip through the juggernaut?

“Family,” answers Ben Winston. “It comes from his mom, Anne. She brought him and his sister up incredibly well. Harry would choose boring over exciting … There is more chance of me going to Mars next week than there is of Harry having some sort of addiction.”

We’re in Television City, Hollywood. Winston, 35, the Emmy-winning executive producer of TheLate Late Show With James Corden, abandons his desk and retreats to a nearby sofa to discuss his good friend. More than a friend, Styles became an unlikely family member – after he became perhaps the world’s most surprising houseguest.

Their friendship was forged in the early stages of One D’s success, when the band debuted on The X Factor. Winston, then a filmmaker and production partner with Corden, asked for a meeting, and instantly hit it off with the group. He became a friendly mentor to Styles, though the friendship was soon tested. Styles had just moved out of his family home in Cheshire, an inconvenient three hours north of London. He found a home he liked near the Winstons in Hampstead Heath. The new house needed two weeks of work. Styles asked if he could briefly move in with Winston and his wife, Meredith. “She agreed,” Winston says, “but only for two weeks.”

Styles parked his mattress in the Winstons’ attic. “Two weeks later and he hadn’t bought his house yet,” continues Winston. “It wasn’t going through. Then he said, ‘I’m going to stay until Christmas, if you don’t mind.’ Then Christmas came, and …”

For the next 20 months, one of the most desired stars on the planet slept on a small mattress in an attic. The only other bit of house-dressing was the acoustic guitar that would rattle into the Winstons’ bedroom. While fans gathered at the empty house where he didn’t live, Styles lived incognito with a couple 12 years his senior. The Winstons’ Orthodox Jewish lifestyle, with a strong family emphasis, helped keep him sane.

“Those 20 months were when they went from being on a reality show, X Factor, to being the biggest-selling artists in the world,” recalls Winston. “That period of time, he was living with us in the most mundane suburban situation. No one ever found out, really. Even when we went out for a meal, it’s such a sweet family neighborhood, no one dreamed it was actually him. But he made our house a home. And when he moved out, we were gutted.”

Styles jauntily appears at the Late Late office. He’s clearly a regular visitor, and he and Winston have a brotherly shorthand.

“Leaving Saturday?” asks Winston.

“Yeah, gotta buy a cactus for my friend’s birthday,” says Styles.

“My dad might be on your flight,” says Winston.

“The 8:50? That’d be sick.”

Winston continues the tales from the attic. “So we had this joke. Meri and I would like to see the girls that you would come back with to the house. That was always what we enjoyed, because we’d be in bed like an old couple. We’d have our spot cream on our faces and we’d be in our pajamas and the door would go off. The stairwell was right outside our door, so we’d wait to see if Harry was coming home alone or with people.”

“I was alone,” notes Styles. “I was scared of Meri.”

“He wasn’t always alone,” corrects Winston, “but it was exciting seeing the array of A-listers that would come up and sleep in the attic. Or he’d come and lounge with us. We’d never discuss business. He would act as if he hadn’t come back from playing to 80,000 people three nights in a row in Rio de Janeiro.”

“Let’s go to the beach,” says Styles, pulling the Range Rover onto a fog-soaked Pacific Coast Highway. Last night was his tequila-fueled birthday party, filled with friends and karaoke and a surprise drop-in from Adele. He’s now officially 23. “And not too hung over,” he notes.

Styles finds a spot at a sushi place up the coast. As he passes through the busy dining room, a businessman turns, recognizing him with a face that says: My kids love this guy! I ask Styles what he hears most from the parents of young fans. “They say, ‘I see your cardboard face every fucking day.’ ” He laughs. “I think they want me to apologize.”

The subject today is relationships. While Styles says he still feels like a newcomer to all that, a handful of love affairs have deeply affected him. The images and stolen moments tumble extravagantly through the new songs: And promises are broken like a stitch is … I got splinters in my knuckles crawling ‘cross the floor/Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short/But I think that’s what I like about it … I see you gave him my old T-shirt, more of what was once mine … That black notebook, you sense, is filled with this stuff.

“My first proper girlfriend,” he remembers, “used to have one of those laughs. There was also a little bit of mystery with her because she didn’t go to our school. I just worshipped the ground she walked on. And she knew, probably to a fault, a little. That was a tough one. I was 15.

“She used to live an hour and a half away on the train, and I worked in a bakery for three years. I’d finish on Saturdays at 4:30 and it was a 4:42 train, and if I missed it there wasn’t one for another hour or two. So I’d finish and sprint to the train station. Spent 70 percent of my wages on train tickets. Later, I’d remember her perfume. Little things. I smell that perfume all the time. I’ll be in a lift or a reception and say to someone, ‘Alien, right?’ And sometimes they’re impressed and sometimes they’re a little creeped out. ‘Stop smelling me.'”

If Styles hadn’t yet adapted to global social-media attention, he was tested in 2012, when he met Taylor Swift at an awards show. Their second date, a walk in Central Park, was caught by paparazzi. Suddenly the couple were global news. They broke up the next month, reportedly after a rocky Caribbean vacation; the romance was said to have ended with at least one broken heart.

He returns a couple of minutes later. “Thought I’d let you stew for a while,” he says, laughing, then takes a gulp of green juice. He was surprised, he says, when photos from Central Park rocketed around the world. “When I see photos from that day,” he says, “I think: Relationships are hard, at any age. And adding in that you don’t really understand exactly how it works when you’re 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn’t make it easier. I mean, you’re a little bit awkward to begin with. You’re on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it – I just wanted it to be a normal date.”

He’s well aware that at least two of Swift’s songs – “Out of the Woods” and “Style” – are considered to be about their romance. (“You’ve got that long hair slicked back, white T-shirt,” she sang in “Style.”) “I mean, I don’t know if they’re about me or not …” he says, attempting gallant discretion, “but the issue is, she’s so good, they’re bloody everywhere.” He smiles. “I write from my experiences; everyone does that. I’m lucky if everything [we went through] helped create those songs. That’s what hits your heart. That’s the stuff that’s hardest to say, and it’s the stuff I talk least about. That’s the part that’s about the two people. I’m never going to tell anybody everything.” (Fans wondered whether “Perfect,” a song Styles co-wrote for One Direction, might have been about Swift: “And if you like cameras flashing every time we go out/And if you’re looking for someone to write your breakup songs about/Baby, I’m perfect.”)

Was he able to tell her that he admired the songs? “Yes and no,” he says after a long pause. “She doesn’t need me to tell her they’re great. They’re great songs … It’s the most amazing unspoken dialogue ever.”

Is there anything he’d want to say to Swift today? “Maybe this is where you write down that I left!” He laughs, and looks off. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “Certain things don’t work out. There’s a lot of things that can be right, and it’s still wrong. In writing songs about stuff like that, I like tipping a hat to the time together. You’re celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than ‘this didn’t work out, and that’s bad.’ And if you run into that person, maybe it’s awkward, maybe you have to get drunk … but you shared something. Meeting someone new, sharing those experiences, it’s the best shit ever. So thank you.”

He notes a more recent relationship, possibly over now, but significant for the past few years. (Styles has often been spotted with Kendall Jenner, but he won’t confirm that’s who he’s talking about.) “She’s a huge part of the album,” says Styles. “Sometimes you want to tip the hat, and sometimes you just want to give them the whole cap … and hope they know it’s just for them.”

In late February 2016, Styles landed a plum part in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming World War II epic, Dunkirk. In Nolan, Styles found a director equally interested in mystery. “The movie is so ambitious,” he says. “Some of the stuff they’re doing in this movie is insane. And it was hard, man, physically really tough, but I love acting. I love playing someone else. I’d sleep really well at night, then get up and continue drowning.”

When Styles returned to L.A., an idea landed. The idea was: Get out of Dodge. Styles called his manager, Jeffrey Azoff, and explained he wanted to finish the album outside London or L.A., a place where the band could focus and coalesce. Four days after returning from the movie, they were on their way to Port Antonio on Jamaica’s remote north coast. At Geejam, Styles and his entire band were able to live together, turning the studio compound into something like a Caribbean version of Big Pink. They occupied a two-story villa filled with instruments, hung out at the tree-house-like Bush Bar, and had access to the gorgeous studio on-site. Many mornings began with a swim in the deserted cove just down the hill.

Life in Jamaica was 10 percent beach party and 90 percent musical expedition. It was the perfect rite of passage for a musician looking to explode the past and launch a future. The anxiety of what’s next slipped away. Layers of feeling emerged that had never made it past One Direction’s group songwriting sessions, often with pop craftsmen who polished the songs after Styles had left. He didn’t feel stifled in One D, he says, as much as interrupted. “We were touring all the time,” he recalls. “I wrote more as we went, especially on the last two albums.” There are songs from that period he loves, he says, like “Olivia” and “Stockholm Syndrome,” along with the earlier song “Happily.” “But I think it was tough to really delve in and find out who you are as a writer when you’re just kind of dipping your toe each time. We didn’t get the six months to see what kind of shit you can work with. To have time to live with a song, see what you love as a fan, chip at it, hone it and go for that … it’s heaven.”

The more vulnerable the song, he learned, the better. “The one subject that hits the hardest is love,” he says, “whether it’s platonic, romantic, loving it, gaining it, losing it … it always hits you hardest. I don’t think people want to hear me talk about going to bars, and how great everything is. The champagne popping … who wants to hear about it? I don’t want to hear my favorite artists talk about all the amazing shit they get to do. I want to hear, ‘How did you feel when you were alone in that hotel room, because you chose to be alone?'”

To wind down in Jamaica, Styles and Rowland, the guitarist, began a daily Netflix obsession with sugary romantic comedies. Houseworkers would sometimes leave at night and return the next morning to see Styles blearily removing himself from a long string of rom-coms. He declares himself an expert on Nicholas Sparks, whom he now calls “Nicky Spee.” After almost two months, the band left the island with a bounty of songs and stories. Like the time Styles ended up drunk and wet from the ocean, toasting everybody, wearing a dress he’d traded with someone’s girlfriend. “I don’t remember the toast,” he says, “but I remember the feeling.”

Christmas 2016. Harry Styles was parked outside his childhood home, sitting next to his father. They were listening to his album. After lunch at a pub, they had driven down their old street and landed in front of the family home. Staring out at the house where Styles grew up listening to his father’s copy of The Dark Side of the Moon, there was much to consider. It was a long way he’d traveled in those fast few years since “Isn’t She Lovely.” He’d previously played the new album for his mother, on a stool, in the living room, on cheap speakers. She’d cried hearing “Sign of the Times.” Now he sat with his father – who liked the new song “Carolina” best – both having come full circle.

Styles is moved as he describes how he felt. We’re sitting in Corden’s empty office, talking over a few last subjects before he returns to England. “I think, as a parent, especially with the band stuff, it was such a roller coaster,” he says. “I feel like they were always thinking, ‘OK, this ride could stop at any point and we’re going to have to be there when it does.’ There was something about playing the album and how happy I was that told them, ‘If all I get is to make this music, I’m content. If I’m never on that big ride again, I’m happy and proud of it.’

“I always said, at the very beginning, all I wanted was to be the granddad with the best stories … and the best shelf of artifacts and bits and trinkets.”

Tomorrow night he’ll hop a flight back to England. Rehearsals await. Album-cover choices need to be made. He grabs his black notebook and turns back for a moment before disappearing down the hallway, into the future.

“How am I going to be mysterious,” he asks, only half-joking, “when I’ve been this honest with you?”

#HOW AM I GONNA BE MYSTERIOUS WHEN IVE BEEN THIS HONEST WITH U #thank u rolling stone #delivering us the harry content we deserve #i reread this whenever im down #and u should too #sigh #thanks cameron #and rob #haz #harry styles #rolling stone #harry styles rolling stone

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civilcoconstruction · 3 years

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A Hudson Yards Renovation Renews a Foyer, Kitchen & Bath

After moving in, we wanted to redo the kitchen, but the most urgent fix was the bathroom. Some prior higher-floor leak had unmoored a section of tile, and the previous owner refused to repair it as a condition of closing. This was our first lesson in how different a Seattle and New York renovation could be.

Deciding to do the larger renovation

Our foray into bidding a standalone bathroom remodel proved short—we got as far as finishing the design when the co-op came back with a series of unexpected plumbing requirements, chock full of things we’d never heard of like water hammer arrestors and Laticrete. The price nearly doubled, and if we were going to spend much more on a remodel, we decided we should save up and do the larger apartment renovation we had hoped to.

With regular re-spackling, we figured we could buy time while we saved up. That folly ended a year and a half later when, hours before leaving for vacation, a precarious section of tile came crashing down. Our super covered the crumbling wall with a plastic tarp, but it was clear: it was time to begin bidding.

…we raided a savings account and scrambled to add herringbone floors to the scope. The late choice delayed the project by a month, but it was one of the best decisions we made. costs.

Finding the right general contractor with multiple skills

We weren’t sure exactly what we needed—walls weren’t moving per se, but our co-op seemed to want an architect. So while we asked the initial bathroom contractor to bid, we also thankfully posted our project on Sweeten. To complete our renovation, Sweeten paired us with a design-build firm with architecture training. They also did custom millwork, making it the perfect fit for our project. Not only did the general contractor immediately understand our aesthetic, but we also had a great rapport.

In planning the remodel, we knew we wanted to play off the building’s modest Art Deco bones, but in a way that wasn’t slavish or theme-y. We also both brought mild obsessions to the mix—for me, an inexplicable passion for English cabinetry, for Chris, a desire to put a banquette in any possible corner.

Reworking the kitchen layout

The first big choice was how to manage the kitchen layout. The room was spacious enough—designed as an eat-in when 24” of counter space seemed ample—but the two doorways weren’t in an ideal location. One opened onto the foyer and the other onto a back hallway by the bedroom. It had also been poorly updated in the intervening years: half of the footprint was wasted, with a lonely refrigerator in one corner and an errant desk in another.

The location of the gas riser dashed our hopes of moving the entry to adjoin the living room, so our contractor suggested closing the smaller opening to create a wide galley with room for a banquette. This would extend the cabinetry the length of the room on one side, doubling the counter space and creating room for a wine fridge and pantry to boot.

While we played with centering the sink and range on the counter runs, our Sweeten contractor advised against it to preserve prep space. In hindsight, we were happy to have lived in the space before renovating: symmetry looked better on paper, but from experience cooking in the space, we knew her recommendation would be more functional.

To keep the room from feeling enclosed, we substituted upper cabinets for extra-long open shelves on one side, then tucked in under-cabinet lighting for function. The banquette capped off the space, creating both more storage and a place for friends to hang out while cooking.

Giving the foyer a purpose

Our foyer situation was a classic New York City conundrum: too small to do much of anything useful but large enough to be wasted if empty. We decided on a full-height bookcase that’s only 8” deep and it holds loads more than we expected. On the opposite side, our general contractor fitted narrow custom cabinets to serve as a bar. There’s just enough depth to squeeze in double rows of liquor bottles and glasses, saving precious room in the kitchen. We ran new electrical to hang art lights over tall mirrors—the goal was to make the whole space pull triple duty as an entryway, a library, and a bar—then painted the foyer and kitchen cabinetry the same deep gray so that the two spaces relate.

A renewed bathroom in classic black-and-white

In the bathroom, we preserved and refinished an original tub and stuck to a classic black-and-white New York-inspired scheme with updated finishes. Given the narrow layout, the primary play here would be with subtle geometries—and taking advantage of our building’s extra thick walls. A hex marble floor worked well with the warmer white subway tile and porcelain. Our contractor recommended extending the floor tile onto the base of the walls to stretch the visual plane of the room.

The hexagon echoed in new shower controls that help tame the notorious temperature fluctuations that come with living in an old building. In such a small space, we took a cue from hotel bathrooms and put a pedestal sink atop console legs to keep the space open. An extra-tall recessed medicine cabinet provides both storage and electrical outlets.

My favorite thing of all is the towel warmer which took forever to source but that I deeply love for its hex bars and Anglophilic appeal. The contractor placed it in a deep niche so that the warm rails wouldn’t risk singeing passersby. We decided to paint the walls and ceiling in a black high sheen that makes the ceiling recede and the white surfaces gleam. Strangely, of all the things in the apartment, the shower glass proved one of the most frustrating: it wasn’t installed until five months after everything else wrapped up.

Finding the budget for hardwood floors

New wood floors were the most unexpected part of the reno. We had only budgeted for the kitchen alone. But the more floor options we looked at—and after our contractor dissuaded us from several temptations like Moroccan Bejmat tile—the more we wanted hardwood in the kitchen. That meant either putting down maple boards to match the rest of the apartment—despite disliking their color—or redoing everything. Our contractor’s opinion was that changing the kitchen floors would make one of the biggest impacts in the space. So a month into the renovation, after all the other demo was done, we raided a savings account and scrambled to add herringbone floors to the scope. The late choice delayed the project by a month, but it was one of the best decisions we made.

Becoming comfortable with flexibility

Stepping back from it now, our major lesson was in developing a deep comfort with flexibility. We found that we could be much more controlling of our remodel in Seattle than here. New York’s interminable series of permits, co-op requirements, and engineering reports—paired with the inelasticity of old spaces—meant we had to take a go-with-the-flow approach that made trust and an ability to laugh key. Also, best to know exactly what you’re looking for before you start to remodel.

Our contractor taught us the biggest lesson of all: do it all at once if you can. It’s not the disruption that’s the problem, really, or that rework ends up costing more—it’s that few of us really have the talent to create a cohesive space in small increments. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite learn this last lesson in time. During our reno, our bedroom became the storage unit for our furniture.

More than anything else, we were lucky to have a real partnership with our Sweeten general contractor to see us through the changes and warn us off of bad choices. We feel a bit like we’ve earned our honorary New Yorker stripes: we chose a space that we thought was a diamond in the rough and hoped we could turn it into a classic city respite. We feel like—at least to our taste—we got there, and now we have this lovely, large-living one-bedroom to come home to in one of the most dynamic parts of Manhattan.

Thank you, Jeremy and Chris, for sharing your Hudson Yards home renovation with us! Check out more about it in this article from New York magazine’s The Cut.

Materials Guide

KITCHEN RESOURCES: White oak hardwood floors in espresso stain: Minwax. Cabinets and under-cabinet lighting: Custom by general contractor. Kitchen cabinet paint in Down Pipe, wall paint in Strong White, and ceiling paint in Wimborne White: Farrow & Ball. Regent Collection cabinet pulls: Restoration Hardware. Super White Carrara marble countertop and backsplash: HG Stones. Shaws Original farmhouse sink: Rohl. Faucet in satin brass: California Faucets. Refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, hood, and wine fridge: Thermador. Haleigh ceiling light fixture: Rejuvenation.

BATHROOM RESOURCES: Fitzgerald Collection sink: DXV. Console legs in polished nickel: Palmer Industries. Monterey faucets: California Faucets. Bianco Dolomiti 1 ¼” hex floor tile: Artistic Tile. White subway wall tile and black liner tile: Subway Ceramics. Astor collection hardware and shower fixtures: Jaclo. Verenne sconces: Restoration Hardware. Thomas O’Brien light fixture over medicine cabinet: Circa Lighting. Recessed medicine cabinet: Robern. Eco Drake toilet: Toto. Frameless glass shower surround: Glasscrafters. Ceiling and wall paint in Off Black: Farrow & Ball. Towel warmer: Vogue UK.

FOYER RESOURCES: Cabinetry: Custom by general contractor. Super White Carrara marble countertop: HG Stones. Cabinetry and wall paint in Down Pipe, ceiling in Wimborne White: Farrow & Ball. Regent Collection cabinet pulls: Restoration Hardware. Kelly Wearstler flush-mount ceiling light fixtures, Thomas O’Brien art light fixtures: Circa Lighting. Baseboards: Kuiken Brothers.

—

Angela’s bathroom in a landmark New York City building gets a classic yet modern update.

Refer your renovating friends to Sweeten and you’ll both receive a $250 Visa gift card when they sign a contract with a Sweeten general contractor.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, and scope, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.

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from CIVICLO Construction & Interior https://civilco.construction/a-hudson-yards-renovation-renews-a-foyer-kitchen-bath/

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dcmissionaries · 6 years

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Dying Historic on Nudist Road

Sun, sweat, beach babes, and caaaars. Daten Beach was hyping up their biggest auto show yet and they're going to do it in style. By inviting Angels of course! The Abbey had received a bunch of fliers to the auto show along with an invitation that marked them as "special guests." Strappon didn't find label appealing. Last time they were special guests anywhere, an idol and boxer attacked them on separate occasions. But these are cars, what could go wrong? A man eating car? HA that's a good one. But now the Templar was worried that he may have jinxed it. Despite his caution, he decided it wouldn't be too bad to go to the auto show. It totally wasn't because some Angels came in and got excited about cars, nope. As the Angels and Heavenbents arrived at the beach there was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, this auto show looked fun! Food and nice cars, this is something you couldn't pass up. But something still felt off... Lo and behold, it didn't take too long for Demons to arrive and claim territory of the beach by impaling a sign into the sand. Proof of their ownership of it. These damn rich people. But the Angels weren't going to let this day be ruined, nor were they going to square up with the Demons. At the request of Strappon, of course. Let's just see what cars the auto show has to offer!

DIE HISTORIC ON NUDIST ROAD Are y'all ready for the Auto Show? --------

HITAGASHI: Excited whispers in the air, the smell of metal and oil, and Daten sunlight all set the stage for the Daten Auto Show. An extravaganza to end all spectacular extravaganzas! Or, at least, that's what the papers said. The fliers all around town vouched for this as well and the hype seemed justified. There seemed to be nothing that could possibly go wrong today. If you didn't count the fact that angels seemed to be cursed with bad luck but moving beyond that the cars were beautiful and so was the feeling of being there at the show. Except for the demons but the angels were doing their best (after being ordered) to not start a fight.

Although, if you asked Abbie, the place was sorely lacking in motorcycles. She did, however, finally seem to not have a game system with her. Today should be good, providing she didn't need to kick some butt. Ugh. She hated being in Daten some days. She looked around and saw Cammy blatantly walking in the beach sand with a camel following her, still wrapped up tighter than a mummy.

KR-O: A worried expression was hidden behind Shades' namesake. He managed to loosen up after Angels obeyed orders, but he couldn't help getting worried. Daten Demons sure did love to provoke them.

KR-O: Massie patted Shades, telling him that everything will be alright. It'd be too risky for Demons to pull anything without getting sued by insurance companies. Perhaps the girl had a point. Before Shades could thank her, Massie went off to admire some vehicles. She ended up complainjng about the lack of motorcycles. This is lame.

NAPDRAGONN: Sunny looked around. He didn't know much about cars, but they sure were cool, so he had covinced Newsie to bring him along to the show, as long as he stayed close by. Everything was shiny and polishe and SO COOL, and if you looked close you could practically see the sparkles in the young boy's eyes. Newsie, for his part, was playing the role of caretaker very well, keeping Sunny's hand in his own as he idly looked at automobiles himself and listened to his younger brother figure's chatter intently.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt and Wristband walked into the show room. Although they came together, the two had their own reasons for showing up. Undershirt actually wanted to look at the cars. Wristband on the other hand was looking for some hot action.

TIMERIFTS: Overalls sauntered around idly, the cars were all very fancy and cool but she didn't really have a lot of interest in who made them what model they were ectera. She didn't touch any of them as she walked down the isles of cars that seemed endless. She hoped to find other demons to chat with so it was less lonely

NAPDRAGONN: "Newsie, look at that one!" Sunny said excitedly, tugging on Newsie's shirt sleeve, "It looks like a beetle shell!" And it did, Newsie noted. The coat of paint was an iridescent purple and the shap was sleek and aero dynamic. He hummed and smiled down at his bug loving little brother, ruffling his hair. "Probably not a real beetle in disguise though, short stuff." He remarked, and Sunny giggled a little in response.

TJ: It almost seemed like Cufflink was the only very irritated and miserable one; with a harsh frown and glaring eyes he almost scowls at the cars. Another normal day for him. The cars made no impact to him and he was just trying to waste the time staring at the ceiling or refining his schedule until his usual migrane forms

OSCARK9: Today is going to be a good day for Gloves to see the new cars in the Daten Auto Show. When he walk inside, he couldn’t believe how many cars they were. All shiny and sparkly. So shiny that he could see his face on the cars.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle had arrived a bit late but that was normal. She was never one for punctuality. Noticing the section of the beach dedicated to motorcylces, she pulled her chopper alongside the rest and pulled off her helmet. Her hair fell on her face and she pushed her hand through it a few times.

"Wonder where the others are," she thought to herself as she scanned the horizon of cars and people.

GAMER-GODDESS: A small smile lit up Thigh High's face as she glanced around at the cars, she didn't much care for them but they sure did look pretty awesome. More in love with soaking up the sun she decided to take a look at every model she could before the day was done.

Meanwhile Brassiere had a seemingly permanent frown on her face, likely due to the sun beating down on her pale skin. Hoping to make the most of the day before she was burned to a crisp she jogged over to Overalls to engage in some friendly banter.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: The two of them scanned the area before Undershirt looked at her sister. "Now remember, we're here to look at cars and bikes, not screwing everyone in sight. Just behave yourself" he said. She stuck her tongue out at him. "You have no room to talk Mr. 'I want to punch everyone'" She said. "Whatever" he said folding his arms.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie arrived on the beach and scanned the area. She noticed that the Demons were out numbered by the Angels. "Those little pests" she thought, "I could burn them all to a crisp if I wanted to." She sighed. But that wouldn't be proper would it? Oh well, maybe this car show would be fun.

TIMERIFTS: Overalls smiled at the girl approaching her, waving at her "hello" she called in a sing song voice to her, stopped walking to let the girl catch up. She admired the car she stopped by while she waited, though it wasn't a very long wait

GAMER-GODDESS: Bra stopped running and bent over to catch her breath, giving a "Hey" in between gasps. Standing up straight she offered the demoness a smile. "How's it going?" The young girl quietly shaking her head for not having thought of something better say.

HITAGASHI: There was a point in a young Irish lass' life where she should say no. However, considering she loved cars and could now drive them comfortably, Pastel tugged on the suit she wore as she considered which ones to buy. She refused to settle into the beach scene, trying instead to find a better way to not shoot someone getting in her way. Anger seemed to be a problem lately.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls waited patiently with a smile as the girl caught her breath "not too much, just admiring these brilliant cars, what about yourself?" she asked, not exactly sure why the girl wanted to talk to her but would not turn down her conversation because she was kinda bored and didn't want to be rude

KR-O: "You should listen to your girl, Shades. Enjoy the show! Because this is the most expensive showing any one of us is gonna be at." Jokki popped up behind Shades to try to get him to loosen up a little more. Well if this was coming out of a Demon's mouth, he may as well take his word for it.

"Yeah, You're right. Maybe I should go around the owners to see what recommendations they have for my car. I think I see some people I know? May as well hang out with them."

Jokki smiled at the Angel as he left his side. Good. Now the perfect umbrella space was all his. Shades waved over at Newsie, ruffling Sunny's hair once he approached the both of them. "Hey guys! How's it going?"

NAPDRAGONN: "Hi mister Shades!" Sunny said enthusiastically at Shades, always happy to see his older friend, "We're just fine! I was showing my brother that care over there- look, it's like a beetle!" That said, Sunny pointed the iridescent car out again, hopping up and down. "He's been all about this place today." Newsie drawled, "I had to drag him away to get some water because he was gettin' flushed and dehydrated. Nutty kid is way too excited about this shindig if you ask me. Least he's havin' fun, though. Nice to see you."

KR-O: Shades looked at the car in question and chuckled, "Well, it is a Volkswagen.../Beetle/." He winked at Sunny as if he made the best pun ever. It was not. It was terrible. "Well, can you blame the kid when they have really nice cars this time around? Kind of intimidating if you ask me. These all look like exports too." All Shades could think about was their cost. They must of been in the millions. He shuddered at the thought.

GAMER-GODDESS: "I'm doing pretty well, have you seen any nice models yet?" Brassiere asked, motioning towards the seemingly endless display of beautifully glossy cars.

NAPDRAGONN: sunny still laughed, though. He was a child, after all, and corny jokes were about his level of humor in that point of life. Newsie was rolling his eyes and groaning, though. Still... "I wouldn't know much." Admitted the newsstand worker, "I'm not super interested in rides. I mean, i can see they're juiced up and expensive, but that's about it. Sunny just thinks they're cool." He shrugged.

TIMERIFTS: "They are all wonderful, but I saw one I really liked down there" Ralls pointed in the direction to show where the car was, keeping it friendly. She started to walk down the isle to look at more of the cars, brushing her hair out of her face, starting to feel the heat a little

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt looked up from the car he was inspecting and saw Shades. He also over heard the bad pun that made him die a little inside. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Mr. Uptight" Undershirt said as he walked over to the group that was gathered. Wristband looked up from another car and followed her brother over. She recognized Shades, but not the others. She hadn't really met many people in the Abbey so this could be a good way to break the ice and make some friends.

TJ: Cufflink quickly adjusted his tie as he walked over to the exit. He noticed the rising amount of Angels that were appearing and if there was a fight, he'd rather not get overpowered. "I'll just stay here for a little... Think I got work back in the office anyways..." Cufflink mumbles as the heat slowly created a sauna in his suite.

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat walked in with his arms over his chest and a visible annoyance on his face. He peered at the almost endless line of cars and within the sea of metal, reeking of oil and gas, he spotted Overalls. He made his way towards his personal assistant and called out to her once he was just a few feet away from her and whomever she was talking to. "Overalls. Did you pick up my dry cleaning? I feel like I'm going to need a change of clothes after this."

A blurred figure rushed through the air, jumping on top of the tallest vehicle in the area near the majority of the people here. The figure landed with their scarf starting to blow in the wind. The figure stood up to reveal the greatest hero that no one knew, Buckle! She took her usual pose and called out. "Fear no longer, the hero Buckle has arrived!"

NAPDRAGONN: Sunny looked up at the two new additions to their conversation group, unsure who they were. He was still young and sometimes shy, so most of his friends at the Abbey were people who had taken initiative and spoken to him first, like Shades. Newsie squinted his eyes at them both, not liking the vibe he was getting, but he bit his tongue. Picking a fight in front of his little brother would set a bad example. He'd have to just wait and see what their attitudes amounted to.

KR-O: "Yeah, they are. I sorta came down here to ask about parts since I wanted to beef mine up-" Shades turned with a finger raised up, " _Listen_ " He said. "...You're not wrong, especially right now, BUT LISTEN." He didn't continue after that, giving a smile to Undershirt.

OSCARK9: Gloves smiled at the new cars that he been seeing passing by him. By looking at the new cars and seeing his own reflection. Which makes him distracted. He said to himself, "Man, I look good on these cars. Too bad that I can't ride one of them." Which makes him feel down just for a minute. He give it a good smile on the car's reflections and move on to the next one.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle stopped guarding her motorcycle from passersby when she heard her name called from across the lot. She gazed over and saw what looked to be an angel doing some pose on top of a car.

"The hell? She could ruin the paint," Buckle said quietly to herself.

GAMER-GODDESS: Bra watched Ralls walk away before deciding to obtain a some type of beverage to rival this heat. Thigh High was enjoying the cars before she spotted a certain angel. Bounding up to the girl she called out quick "Hey, Massie!" to catch her attention

TIMERIFTS: Overalls perked at the voice of her boss, twirling around to face him "Yes, it's in my car at the moment" she smiled, her posture immediately getting better as she stood at attention to him, glancing over at the other girl she was talking to as she walked away

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Wristband's eyes lit up when she looked at Sunny "Hey sexy...OW" She said before getting elbowed in the stomach by Undershirt. "I mean hi" she tried again.

"Sorry about that" he said as he glared at her. "That's kind of her way of saying hello."

KR-O: Massie stared in disappointment of the lack of certain vehicles and shrugged, admiring what was available right now. She turned to whoever was caller her out and smiled in return. "Oh, hello there."

"Well, I'm used to that with my other friends, so no big deal with me." Which was a big understatement for Shades to say but you know. "But hey, nice to see you guys out here too."

NAIVESPACEMAN: "Good. Seems you've managed to earn your paycheck for this week." He kept his arms folded over his chest before looking around at all the cars around him. The potential for him getting dirty was immensely high at the moment. He cringed a bit. "What exactly are you doing here?" What was HE doing here?

GAMER-GODDESS: Offering a quick nod "Haven't seen you for a while," Stretching her arms above her head before asking "What have you been up to?"

TIMERIFTS: She watched where he was looking "thank you" she smiled "I came to admire these vehicles and get some sun, what are you doing here?" she wondered, him being here was something even more out of the ordinary because of the risk of getting dirty

KR-O: "Ah well, making sure some new fallen are getting situated. Making sure to keep my swords clean. Nothing too eventful." Massie responded. "How about you?"

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat shifted his weight slightly, leaning to the side on his left leg. "I was on my way back from a voicing job and saw that you were nearby." On a GPS system he had put on her without her knowledge. He has to know where his assistant is at all times, of course. "I decided to come in and see if you were really doing your job."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Yeah, you too man" he said, still a little upset at Wristband. "It feels like it's been forever since we've left the Abbey."

Wristband agreed in that sentiment. "Yeah, I was beginning to get stir crazy. I needed to get out of there for a while." And get some action, is what she wanted to finish with, but she felt that it was best if she just kept her mouth shut.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls smiled weakly, how did he know she was nearby? She let the thought slide "how did the job go?" she asked him, keeping the conversation on him to stroke his ego more, which she had learned was an essential part of the job "I am always doing my job Sir" she assured him, not really sure what her job consisted of anymore but whatever he needed was it

KR-O: "It has been a while. Kinda glad that tensions aren't high with both groups being in the same area. I guess we can relax for once." Shades looked around quickly to make sure of his words, but it was about the same.

Meanwhile, HP was getting something ready for the auto show. Of all people to provide something for this show. Armlet, however, was a little grumpy child. The sand was making him 'see' fuzzy, constantly asking when HP was going to be done with his the thing he was working on.

NAIVESPACEMAN: He let out a small laughing huff. "It went splendidly, of course. You know I am practically incapable of failure." He gave her a smug smile, closing his eyes and putting his hand on his chest while speaking. Furcoat opened his eyes to look at her again. "So the list of errands I mailed you is done?"

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie looked at Cufflink. So many new recruits lately. She decided to talk to him. Walking over she noticed the apparent nervousness on his face. When she reached him, she put on a smile. "Hi, I'm Bowtie, I take it you're new here?" she asked him.

TIMERIFTS: She smiled "of course!" she replied to his being perfect, he was kinda charming in the fact that he was so confident, but it was testing in the waters of cocky. She watched his body language as he spoke "almost all of them are done, the one shop was closed today so I will get that done tomorrow but everything else is complete" she assured him, meeting eyes with him to make him know he had her full attentions, that would help him feel even more important

GAMER-GODDESS: "I'm doing great actually." Pondering for a moment. "Tell me about yourself, I feel like we don't really hear that much about you." Thigh High subtley faced palmed herself for sounding so creepy.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Yeah I noticed that" Undershirt said looking around. There were a few Demons that he could spot. It was a really weird feeling that they were just coexisting in this space, that no one wanted to kill each other. "It just feels weird to me"

TJ: Cufflink glances at her and nods. "Yes... My name is Cufflink. Pleasure to meet you..." He bows slightly since his asian teachings still follow him.

KR-O: Shades shrugged, "I'm used to this. Demons and Angels coexist up North and that's where I worked a good chunk of my life." He motioned both Wristband and Undershirt to follow him. He wanted to look around while chatting.

Massie stared at Thigh High for a bit, sweating nervously, "O-Oh. Really? I don't know. I don't have much to offer."

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle had made her way over to Furcoat and butted in on his conversation. She glanced back at her motorcycle to make sure no one had put their hands all over it while she was gone.

"Hey, Furry. Did you see that angel dancing around on the tops of cars a few minutes ago?" She hit punched the palm of her hand. "I'd like to beat some sense into her. I mean, vandalism is fun and all, but you should never disrespect someone's ride."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie was taken aback a bit by the bow. "You don't have to be so formal with me, after all we do work together. So how are you liking this show so far? I personally don't have much of an interest in cars, but I heard that a few people were going so I thought I'd might as well go too."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Really? I haven't heard of that before." He said as he and Wristband followed Shades.

NAIVESPACEMAN: The demon peered at the woman as she agreed with him. That was a good call not disagreeing with him. That's how his first assistant ended up spending the rest of his life as an inner-city kindergarden teacher. He narrowed his eyes on Overalls when she admitted that she didn't get one thing done. That was grounds for firing. But.. he was feeling merciful. Odd. Before he could say something, someone else butted in on his conversation. He turned look at Buckle for a second, before looking back to Overalls. "Who is this and why is it talking to me?"

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Yeah, I thought that they wanted to always tear each other's throats out" Wristband agreed. She was never one for geography or schooling, but she was surprised that she hadn't heard of this before.

TJ: "...Formal...?" His eyebrows raised in surprise and his eyes widen. Then caught himself and realized the difference in manners here. Clearing his throat and regaining his posture he calmly replies, "No, in fact I was planning on leaving and heading for the office to see if there was any work for me there."

GAMER-GODDESS: Crap, you made her uncomfortable, think harder Thigh High, "Uh, I mean do you have any hobbies?" Nice save!

TIMERIFTS: Overalls smiled at him, noticing his displeasure in her not being able to force a shop to open to run the errand, noting to do better next time, glad he spared her "This is Buckle I believe" she introduced the demon to him, letting that conversation take the front lines

OSCARK9: Gloves was starting to get a little tired from seeing the new cars that he pass already. He said to himself; "Walking around in the Auto Show can make a person drain." So, he decided to get some cold beverage and finding a place to settled down.

KR-O: "Yeah. The North has both groups working together. They have kind of a long history together and it's pretty chill up there." Shades paused for a bit. "...They also have dragons and dinosaurs, which was kind of cool."

Massie began getting shifty-eyed, trying to think of something. "Uuuh. I don't really do much aside from Abbey work if you ask me." Wow, her life was boring.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Oh great I made him uncomfortable. Good job Bowtie" she thought. "Oh, come one that's no fun" she said. "You're already here, might as well stay and try to have fun. We don't get many chances to take a break. Besides, I'm sure whatever work is there can wait."

TJ: "...What does 'fun' mean?" Cufflink's curiosity was peaked at this word, he heard so many people say it and had no time to look it up. He looked at Bowtie straight in the eyes with a softened look and awaited a response.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "I can see someone at least had the decency to read my file." She glanced towards Overalls. "Now, you gonna help me beat up that exhibitionist or what?"

GAMER-GODDESS: "You don't, that's a shame." Snapping her fingers as a lightbulb went off inside her head "I've got it, maybe we could hang out sometime!" Thigh High exclaimed, "Is there anything you'd like to do in your spare time?"

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Wait, you mean ACTUAL dinosaurs and Dragons?" he said stunned. HOW DID HE NOT KNOW THIS?! "Can you like, ride them?"

"How are the angels up there? Are they hot?" Wristband asked.

NAIVESPACEMAN: "Buckle. Doesn't ring a bell." He spoke out before looking to Buckle once more. He huffed when hearing her ask him or Overalls for help with fighting someone. He wasn't sure who she was asking, but he responded anyways. "I am not about to allow a fight in here. You could destroy a car and get oil all over my clothes!"

TIMERIFTS: Ralls nodded in agreement "Yeah, I am not really up for a fight today, you know being peaceful and stuff seems kinda alright for the time being" she smiled weakly "sorry though, hope it goes well though" she nodded to the girl, even if she did want to fight she couldn't risk losing her job because she got oil on his coat or something She smiled at Buckle then looked at her boss, not sure how to end a conversation like this

KR-O: Once again, Massie just stared. She didn't know how to respond to her. Honestly, she just didn't know how to socialize well with strangers. "I don't know what I'd like to do in all honesty. I've been keeping busy with work for a good while now. I don't know what to tell you."

"YEAH!" Shades responded. "Like actual dinosaurs and dragons! And even giant birds! They give them to you if you're gonna be a knight and they're your life companions. I have one! But mom keeps it." Which was unfair to him. "Depends on your aesthetic." He said to Wristband.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "Well, damn. I'd sure hate for your clothes to get dirty," she said sarcastically. "I guess we can just let her keep jumping all over the hoods of cars and breaking all the rules." Buckle shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated manor.

HITAGASHI: Tiara, like the little brat she is, did her best impression of a Jack-in-the-Box the moment the mention of dragons appeared. She shot up from seemingly nowhere behind Undershirt and slammed her hands onto his shoulders from behind to hoist herself up and look at him from above. "DRAGONS? I'M A DRAGON." She turned her attention to Shades with an almost sparkle to her eyes. "Dragons are GREAT."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie wasn't sure how to respond. How the fuck do explain to someone what fun is? How do you have to be raised to not know what fun is? "Uhh, fun is the feeling you get when you do something you enjoy." she said. That was pretty a pretty good definition there Bowtie.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Dude, I want a dinosaur to ride! That sounds so cool. Why does your mom keep it? Too much to have at the Abbey?" Undershirt asked. If he ever had the chance he'd go to the North and get him a Dinosaur.

Meanwhile Wristband conjured up thoughts of knights in shining armor riding on dragons coming to save her. She smiled at that thought. "You know the big strong Knight type" she responded.

NAIVESPACEMAN: "Well. She isn't bothering me. Whoever she is." He huffed lightly folding his arms over his chest once more. "Besides. She doesn't seem to be doing anything now." He shifted his shoulders a bit and groaned slightly. "I need a massage."

HITAGASHI: Cammy slowly made her way into the show, humming softly to herself as she passed by Abbie who seemed to be scanning the crowd. She seemed to find what she was looking for as she practically stomped over to where Massie was. "How ya doin', yo?" Because saving her friend's... kid (she still didn't believe that) from discomfort was very important. Maybe they could talk about bikes.

TJ: Cufflink's eyes harden once more as they go back to his usual cold expression and only replied with, "Oh. I see, Thank you." It was a familiar word... He shook his head and looked in the car show again. Pursing his lips he slowly mumbled, "I suppose I can try having this 'fun'."

GAMER-GODDESS: Thigh High was determined to open Massie up "Well, what if we experiment with different activities. We could try sports or movies or one of the various arts or, or..." Trailing off as she attempted to think of anything, looking around the large expanse of cars "Or, collecting cars!"

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt and Wristband jumped at the sudden appearance of the demon child. "WHOA, where the hell did you come from?!" Undershirt yelled.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls kept to herself, but noted to book him a massage soon. She watched the conversation between the two demons, wondering why he was still talking to her, she wasn't important enough for him to know her name so why was he?

KR-O: Shades almost screamed from the sudden child popping up behind them but recognized her almost immediately. "Oh hey, you're Hairpin's girl, right? Excuse me, Hairpin's dragon? Am I getting it right?" He wanted to humor the kid as best he could because that's what HP requested. "On, no. My Ziz is far too big to keep it anywhere. It's like. Huge. And I mean HUGE. Think of like, half of the height of a giraffe."

HITAGASHI: Tiara grinned wide, pretty much catapulting herself over to Shades and bouncing when she landed. "Yeah! That's Meema! I'm Tiara! What's your dragon's name? Is it a boy or girl? Is it grown up?" Shades seemed to have opened up a can of worms.

KR-O: "I don't know, I have to focus on these issues that have been popping up as of lately. I don't want my dad too stressed about them-" Massie felt herself shrinking when Abbie approached them. "Oh, miss Abbie.Hello." She did a slight bow, beginning to fiddle with her fingers.

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat eyed Overalls after he spoke out that he needed to get a massage. "You don't know how to give someone a shoulder massage?" He asked out to her, having expected her to give him one right on the spot.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls looked at him "I was going to book you a professional one for later this afternoon but I could give you one" she smiled, trying to remain 'perfect' to please him. She walked up to him, to get started working on his tense muscles

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "That's the spirit" Bowtie said. "So, what's your story? Where'd you come from?" She asked. She felt that this was going well. He appeared to be warming up to her, might as well keep the momentum going.

"That's awesome man!" Undershirt said excitedly. "I have to get one for myself. I could have so much fun with one of those!"

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "I'm gonna leave you to your pampering, Furry. Besides, my bikes been left alone for a while now." She motioned towards the cycle section of the show. "And if that angel gets anywhere near it, there's gonna be a throw down."

KR-O: Shades laughed at Tiara's enthusiasm about the dragons. "Well, I don't have a dragon. It's more of a big bird. But she's grown! And feisty. You know the cat man? I can ask him to show you a baby dragon one of these days, he breeds them."

Shades looked at Undershirt, "Well, they're only native to the North so you'll need connections to obtain one. Which I can count as one. I got a few buddies that have Ziz as well."

NAIVESPACEMAN: "This stiffness isn't letting me wait on one." He huffed lightly, shifting his shoulders before she started giving him the massage he wanted. He was started to loosen up a bit before hearing Buckle speak. Hearing her call him 'Furry' caused him to sneer. "The name's Furcoat." He stated.

HITAGASHI: This information sent the little demon for a loop, eyes wide and hands clapping together rapidly. "You mean Mister Jokki has __dragons__?! Why didn't I know that? I thought he just had cats!" She seemed to be ignoring anyone else talking to Shades as he had her complete attention. Well, unless Jokki showed up and then he'd have to deal with Tiara.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt smiled. He had no idea where he could ever put one, but that doesn't matter. "Hey, maybe you could pull a few strings for an old pal huh?" He said nudging him with his elbow.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls held her breath, he was not happy with that name. She continued to work on his shoulders, trying to help him relax, them. She felt weird touching him since he never usually let her even get close enough to touch him since she was a 'peasant'. Usually she would be up in arms about being treated inferiority but she kinda needed this job and didn't take it personally since everyone else got treated like that too

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "Yeah yeah, whatever you say, Furry." Buckle turned, put her hands in her pockets and started walking back to her bike.

KR-O: "I'll consider it." He said. It sounded so half-hearted from Shades, but hey. He wasn't one to deny a request that doesn't hurt anybody. "I just hope you're ready to research in taking care of those things." Now his attention was back to Tiara. "I thought he had cats too until he brought over a hatchling- Wait." He removed his namesake and stared off into the distance."I have a baby dragon at home." He completely forgot.

GAMER-GODDESS: "Well, if you ever change your mind." Thigh High sighed. "I heard there were refreshments, and I intend on finding them!" She said while clenching her fist. And with that Thigh High proceded to just stand there staring around the room with a hand stroking an imaginary beard.

OSCARK9: When Gloves got his beverage. He was finding a place to for him to settled down in. He decided that he will go outside and settled down their. Inside the Auto Show was getting a little muggy and making him have a headache from the oil fumes. So, outside is a best choice for him.

TJ: Cufflink flatly stated, "My Atunie Grace black mailed me to come work here and to abandon my company for a few years." He glanced over at the scene and stared at a car with interest.

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat furrowed his brow when hearing the woman calling in that name again. He huffed, almost hissing in annoyance with the disrespect he received. He was a celebrity! How dare she treat him like a joke! He waited until the woman had walked away before he spoke again. "I don't like that one."

HITAGASHI: Tiara's attention seemed caught until she spotted something in the distance. Eyes wide, she shifted her attention around and jumped up to pat Shade's on the face lightly. "I gotta go I saw Faust but I wanna meet your dragon baby soon! Bye Mister Ironee! I'll tell Meema you're super nice!" And with this she ran over to what she seemed to have spotted in the distance.

As this happened, Abbie seemed to be glaring at the person in front of her in confusion. Why were they talking to Massie? "Hey, Massie, who's this? Actually, wait no, you." She pointed at Thigh High. "Who're ya, yeah?"

TIMERIFTS: "noted" Ralls tried to speak quietly, so the girl had no chance of hearing her. She knew it would aggravate Furcoat to hear himself be called something like that, she was getting pretty good at guessing what his reactions would be

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "What was that?" Undershirt asked. A baby dragon? How do you forget that? "Wonder if he'd let me have it?" he thought.

"Oh that's rough" Bowtie said. "I know how that feels. I got sent here after burning down my school with fire magic. It was terrible."

OSCARK9: Gloves was outside taking a deep breath from the fresh air and said to himself, "(exhaling) Ah! Now that's better. It's nice to smell oil once in a while, but air is where is at."

KR-O: After many "Are you done yet?"s from Armlet, HP finally finished on what he was working on. To him it was purely elementary, but he basically made a beefed up GTR from scratch. "Nothing to it!" He said in a smug tone. "Finally!" Armlet called out, throwing his hands up in the air."Are you gonna announce the competition?" "In a bit," HP responded, "Or right now, actually." Grabbing a PA microphone, HP announced that the car competition for their special was about to begin and that everybody make their way to other parts of the beach.

Tiara left a big smile on Shades face and waved her goodbye as she left. "What was what?" He asked Undershirt. But before he could ask something else, the announcement caught his attention. "Competition between the special guests? That wasn't anywhere in the invite...And we're the special guests.." Something didn't feel right here. Were these Demons up to something?

Massie could feel some hostility coming off Abbie and decided to answer herself anyways. "Oh, this is Thigh High. She's another Abbey resident. Anyways, should we make our way to this competition?"

GAMER-GODDESS: Freezing mid stroke, Thigh-High glanced up at the person disrupting her mission. "I'm sorry, what'd you just say?" Glancing at Abbie in confusion, only to hear Massie clear it up.

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat grumbled something about ruining lives and making people get stuck in dead end jobs, but he quieted down after a moment. He started to relax with the help of Overalls' massage. But that stopped when the announcement blared over the PA and caused him to jump. "What the hell??"

TIMERIFTS: listening to the PA ralls sighed a little "you wanna watch that?" she asked him, not stopping his massage, she was glad to of helped, even if only for a short time before the loudness that blared across the area

TJ: Cufflink jumped the sudden noise and looks over to Bow tie.

TJ: "Competition...?"

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat gazed up at the PA, but still stayed in place for her to continue the massage. "Watch it? Only if I get a box seat. I'm not going to get soaked in smoke and smell like exhaust for two weeks." He grumbled. "Is that what you're here for? A competition?"

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt and Wristband jumped at the sound of the PA. They listened to the announcement and when it was finished, Undershirt turned to Shades. "I KNEW something was up" he said. Wristband nodded her head in agreement.

Bowtie just finished her story when the PA went off and made the announcement. "What the hell?" she asked in confusion. Today might prove to be much more interesting than she thought.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle got back to her bike just as she heard the message. She grabbed her helmet and noticed a scratch on her bike. "Really," she shouted. "I was gone for maybe two minutes!" She angrily jumped on to her bike and sped off towards the competition.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls continued to massage his shoulders, even working on his upper back "I see," she stayed put "nah that was not on the flier, Seems kinda interesting though" she shrugged, she kinda wanted to watch, but now that he was here she was back on the clock and all her decisions would be based around him

OSCARK9: While he was outside. He heard from the announcement that there's going to be a Competition. He said to himself, "Competition? Sweet! I don't know what it is, but I hope it's fun." So, he head off towards the competition.

TJ: Cufflink stretched a bit and wondered whether to back out now or not. "I'll just sit in the back..." He whispers to himself and walking over to the competition. "Are you coming?" He glances back at Bow tie and tilts his head.

HITAGASHI: Abbie considered it, shrugged, and stared at Thigh High for a moment more. "Yeah, sure, why not, yeah? It's bound to be fun." She stared at Massie and waved an arm in a way that indicated she go first. She vaguely noticed Cammy actually tearing ass to the competition from the corner of her eye.

Having heard the announcement, however, made Tiara beeline straight for her Meema and the PA system. Pretty much skidding to a stop, she reached to grab it from HP and narrowed her eyes. "Give it."

NAIVESPACEMAN: He shifted a bit, leaning back into the massage while listening to his assistant. "Do you want to take part in it?" He asked out. He seemed to be in a rather generous mood today. "If so, you have ten minutes to find me a seat away from the smoke, if not a box seat."

KR-O: HP didn't hesitate and handed Tiara the receiver. "Knock 'em dead. Not literally, though."

TIMERIFTS: She blinked, not used to him being so nice to her "uh, sure" she smiled, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice "I will do that for you" she wiggled out of their situation to find them seats, checking her watch to make sure she would be back before her 10 minutes was up

GAMER-GODDESS: Bra had finally gotten a drink and was about to take a sip when the sudden noise from the PA caused her to drop it a little too close to one of the displays. The young lady practically sprinted away from the incident, she did not want to deal with whoever was supervising the cars. Making a mad dash to beach, Bra scanned the crowd for any good spots to spectate.

Thigh High was still thinking about food but decided to tag along with Massie and Abbie to avoid being abandoned. She shoved her hands in her pockets and matched the girls' pace as they walked towards the competition.

KR-O: Jokki had been asleep for a good majority of the auto show and was abruptly woken up by the PA speaker going off. His poor ears. Shaking his head, trying to wake up, he started walking towards the competition. "Why can't we enjoy a simple beach day..." He groaned.

HITAGASHI: Taking control of the PA like it was her birth right, she grinned broadly and let out a victorious hissing noise when she finally turned it on. "Is everyone ready?! Get jumping and pumping gas because we're about to race! Burn the tracks and get going to your cars if you've got 'em! The winner gets uh..." She paused, trying to think of a prize. Looking at all the cars, she shrugged. "The winner gets a car!"

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle was first to pull up to the starting line. She flicked down her helmet's visor and revved her engine, ready to go.

KR-O: HP got up on stage to explain Tiara's terms for the competition. Seeing as he was a tall bean pole, he knelled down to her level and spoke into the receiver, "This competition is to see which species has the most powerful vehicle to offer. We will race 12 cars and whichever side wins, gets the loser's most priced car." Ending his speech, the curtains retreated to show of the GTR he had just finished. "This will be one of the cars representing the Demons. Wonder what will Angels offer."

Shades stared at HP in pure disbelief. This guy. "That wasn't in the terms of service you asshole!"

TJ: Cufflinks watched the commotion and leans back in his seat. Racing wasn't really his thing but with the raised stakes, it could be interesting. Although with the surprise they brought up... Cufflink cautiously shines his cuff links.

OSCARK9: Gloves could not believes what he just heard. "Were going to have a race and the losers will lose their car? That's crazy! However, I do like to race against somebody." By thinking his thoughts for a minute. He made his decision. "Ah, why not. Let's do this!" He said. He rushes back to his green motorcycle and drove down to the starting line.

KR-O: "Nothing's ever in the Terms of Service, that's how some businesses work." HP said. "Anyways, I'll be driving this lovely car. I hope you all have something to accompany the bike that just entered, because against a GTR? Oof." He had a point. Those cars take off faster than you can blink.

As Massie arrived she looked at Shades and then to the car, then back to Shades. "Why don't you enter your car, father?" Shades nearly choked on his own spit, "ME

KR-O: Shades nearly choked on his own spit, "ME? WITH MY CAR? __ABSOLUTELY NOT!__ " He's not made of money, you know.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt gave Shades a nudge. "Dude, it's a car show, there are plenty of cars to choose from" he whispered. "While you look around, I've already got my car picked out" he said out loud. He walked over to a car a little ways out. "The Hennessey Venom GT, worlds fastest car. No one will be able to touch me" he said as he slipped into the seat of the bright orange supercar. Wristband followed her brother and got into the passenger side. Undershirt pushed the start button and the car roared to life.

Bowtie looked around for a suitable vehicle for her. Eventually she landed on one. The McLaren P1. "Fast and stylish, I like it" She said as she circled the car before getting in to the black car.

KR-O: Shades followed Undershirt, then compared the chosen vehicle to the Demons' chosen one. "I don't think I've seen a model like that before. So it must be custom. If it is, we're screwed." Massie followed along and when Shades made that inspection, she squinted at the vehicle, "You could be right. The actual specs? We may have to ask if those were imported or custom made too.."

HITAGASHI: Like she had been, Abbie followed Massie and stared at the car. She then turned to stare at her friend and pulled out her wallet. "Do you need me to buy you a car?" Because this is obviously how things work. As she said this, Cammy was hopping into the car she was actually debuting at the show because of all her custom changes to it. She pet the wheel and kissed it, grinning wide as she ripped off her mask, jacket, and turtleneck and left herself in a tank top as she revved her car to life. Her Ferrari wouldn't fail her and if it did at least they'd go out in a blaze of glory.

As all this went on the little girl holding the mic grinned. "Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone who is neither, both, or some combination thereof! Please remember we aren't reimbursing you for losses! You enter at your own risk! If you have the money, buy a car on display that isn't custom!" She jumped a bit in place and then turned to her guardian. Eyebrows furrowing, Tiara stared at HP intently. "Meema, if you get hurt can I light people on fire?"

KR-O: HP winked at Tiara and patted her head. "That won't be necessary when they get burned by the nitro boost. But, please take care of your brother. He doesn't like sand, remember?"

KR-O: Shades backed off from Abbie with his hands raised defensively, "Nuh-uh, I ain't taking that much money for a car that's gonna get wasted. You can't make me, yo."

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: As Buckle was driving in and out of the crowd towards the starting line, she noticed the demon she had met earlier and steered her bike towards her.

"Hey! Coveralls right?" Buckle shouted over the crowd of people. "Where'd your boss run off to?"

HITAGASHI: Ignoring him, she turned to Massie. "Please pick a car, I have the money to spare."

Grabbing Armlet's hand was Tiara's response as well as a big grin. "I know! I can spook him but sand's bad. It's gross anyway!" She turned to her brother and squeezed a little with her hand to let him know she was talking to him. "We can stay on the sidewalk! 'Kay?"

TJ: Cufflink had been walking along the board walk, wandering with no destination planned. "With all the commotion at the race, it's like the whole beach has been desserted..." He thought while walking slowly.

KR-O: "What." Massie stared in disbelief. "I don't know how to drive, though."

Armlet nodded, "The sidewalk sounds good. Concrete is so much more appreciated than sand, really." He waited for her to move, he's not taking any chances of touching something gross on this sand.

TIMERIFTS: Overalls smiled "I was actually here finding a spot for us to sit and watch" she didn't bother correcting her on her name "nice bike by the way" she smiled

HITAGASHI: "Just pick a car for him to drive. Whichever one looks coolest to you I guess." The girl shrugged and grabbed Shades by the collar. "I have money to spare, you moron."

Bouncing, Tiara lead him over to the sidewalk. "People do a lot of gross stuff on beaches. I don't like all the water either."

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "C'mon really? I mean do you really just want to sit and watch?" Buckle scooted forward on her seat. "I need a partner. Hop on. I'll deal with your boss later."

KR-O: "Why not buy the competition and make ourselves the automatic winners?" Massie suggested. It was an auto show.

KR-O: Shades stared at Massie, "...That's so stupid it's genius." "Just like you, I guess." She replied. OH SNAP. Conveniently HP called out to them saying the custom GT wasn't for sale. There goes that plan.

"Fine, we'll get the car next to Undershirt. I'll be a driver I guess." Shades said reluctantly.

"Pretty sure at one point I stepped on something gooey. Litterers are gross." Though, Armlet was now contemplating if he could lift a car up or not with magic. It would be pretty cool.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls gave a nervous laugh "I would rather not lose my job, so maybe i can ask him right now" she looked at her watch, she had like 5 minutes to find him a spot and get back to him "give me a few minutes" she smiled weakly spotting a place that Furcoat would approve of and went to find him "I would love to join you though!"

TJ: Within in a few minutes Cufflink found himself completely lost. Looking around confused he quickly spots Tiara and Armlet. His cheeks light up a pale pink as he asked them, "Sorry to bother, but do you know where we are?"

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: "Can't even find a seat himself. What a pushover." She flicked her helmet's visor down. "Meet me at the starting line." Buckle sped off before she could hear whatever response Overalls would have given.

KR-O: Armlet turns around in the general direction of Cufflink's voice. "Hm? We're at an auto show, are we not? I know dad announced a race happening in a bit. Uh, I can't exactly point out the direction but Tiara can."

HITAGASHI: Coming up behind Shades as she was investigating a car, Pastel looked over at someone she knew as a human and heard what the person next to him said. Eyebrow raised, she smirked beneath her mask. "_Dia duit_, Mister Shades. Ah'm 'fraid Ah'd 'ave t' buy 'er ou', aye?"

Pausing in her excited thoughts of how to announce, Tiara regarded the person that had approached. "Meema said we're on the beach at the Daten Auto Show and I made sure me and Armlet were on the sidewalk because we don't like sand!" Not very helpful, Tiara.

TJ: "Ah I see... I must've walked all the way back...And I have no idea how to get home." Cufflink ended his thought out loud as he scanned the area. His cheeks flush into a dark red as he gets more and more flustered from getting lost. "Damn it....!" He mumbles as he grits his teeth,

TIMERIFTS: Overalls walked up to her boss "I found you a spot" she hesitated "also someone asked me to join them in the race" she added quickly hoping he was alright with her doing that, then realized why did she care what he thought about what she did in her free time, but kept her mouth shut because she liked having an income. Right that is why she cared

KR-O: Well there was a voice he hadn't heard in a long time. He turned, somewhat excited to meet up with Pastel after so long. But he was caught off guard by her current form. "Whoa...Sorry, but. You kicked the bucket?" Changing the subject real quick in terms of the car, "Well it's not like we can buy it off HP since he told us no.

Armlet tilted his head, "Man, you feel tense. Is everything okay?" He scratched the back of his head, not sure what to make of this Demon. "All I know is that the entrance to Hell is in the offices, so maybe try to go back to the Mayor's building?" He said that, but he doesn't exactly know where that is either.

TJ: "Ah... That

TJ: is a good idea! Thank you!" Cufflink's mood seems to imrpove for 3 seconds until he starts to chide himself for not thinking that. "Have a nice night." Bowing again he quickly sprints off to who knows where.

HITAGASHI: "Aye, kicked th' bucket, got on th' news, e'en 'ad a funeral. Fasc'natin', that." Scratching at the horns protruding from her head, she grimaced. "Wishin' I coul' figured ou' tha' disguise shite. An' th' fact's tha' Ah've go' bets on this race, aye? Gotta win i' good. So Ah'd nae le' 'er buy 'em all." Abbie glared at the blue lady, eye twitching hardcore.

Tiara waved at Cufflink as he left, yelling out directions for him to follow to get to Hell Corps faster. She turned to look up at her brother. "Why do people ask me stuff? I thought everyone knew to talk to Meema or Papa."

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat was in the process of a yawn when Overalls walked back up to him. Well, she was back before the ten minutes were up. That was a good sign. "Good." He replied, about to tell her to lead the way before she mentioned that someone wanted her to join them in the race. "The race? Well. If you get dirty, you aren't allowed to touch me or my clothes until you clean yourself." He spoke sternly. It was wise for her to not mention Buckle as being the one who asked. He would have likely not allowed her to go out of spite. "Now, show me to my spot before you go."

TIMERIFTS: Ralls nodded, leading him to the spot she found, hoping so badly he liked it, since she actually did look and stumble upon it before being interrupted "Will do sir" she smiled at him, happy to get more of a longer leash so to say, she looked at him, watching to see his reaction to the spot

KR-O: "Wow, it made the news? Now I feel like an asshole for not seeing that. I'm sure you'll figure things out with your new powers. Maybe ask HP? He's an expert on that. Just how do you think we have perfect cosplays?" He was pretty much ignoring anything that had to do with the race, he was just wanted friendly banter.

Armlet shrugged, "Probably because they may not know who dad and father are." I mean, that's a safe bet.

HP spoke into the receiver again, "Alright, if you have your cars ready, make your way on to the track and we'll begin shortly!"

NAIVESPACEMAN: Furcoat followed after her, stopping when she showed up to the spot she found for him. He stepped forward and looked over the spot. It was a decent spot, far up into the stands. Far enough that the smoke shouldn't cover his face and body. "Wonderful." He walked over and took a seat, laying one leg over the other. "Go on. And you're not allowed to lose."

TIMERIFTS: Ralls nodded, heading down to the track, looking for Buckle, not exactly sure how Fur would take her riding on the bike with the person that disrespected him, but to her she was just excited to get invited by anyone to join them in this.

OSCARK9: While Gloves was waiting for the others to show up. He turn off his green motorcycle and plays his favourite music; "The Other Side" by Jason Derulo, before the race starts. "Man, I love this song." He smile with the music.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt heard the announcement and laughed. "HAHA Finally! Let's kick some ass Wristband!" He yelled as he revved the engine. Peeling out from where the car was parked, he drifted around a bit as he made his way to the race track.

Bowtie heard the message too. She however was much less flashy. She casually drove over to the race track and took her time doing it. She did get very annoyed by Undershirt's showboating.

OSCARK9: When Gloves saw the others coming to the track. He cut his music short and put his phone away in his pocket and starts his engine. "Alright, lets do this." He said to himself happily and roaring his engine loudly.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle was at the starting line fiddling with something on her bike when she saw Overalls walking onto the track.

"So Furry let you race with me after all." She shouted from the starting line.

HITAGASHI: Laughing, Pastel shook her head. "Aye, breakin' news. Got pumped full o' lead. Ain't so fun, ye ken? Messy an' all tha'. An' agains' th' rules. Nae guns 'llowed." She shrugged, shaking her head once more. "Ye'd think some'n who borrowed money from me would ge' tha' bu' sadly tha' ain' 'ow thin's wen' a' all." She seemed to give thought to his suggestion and nodded. "Bu' aye, might 'ave t' do tha'."

"Meema why didn't you tell him where to go? We don't know and you were __right__ there!" Tiara pouted up at him but spoke once more to her brother. "They're dumb then, right?" Cammy grinned from her position in her car, helmet firmly in place and heavy duty seat belts ready. She was definitely ready.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls walked up to the bike, kinda shrugging "he doesn't exactly know I am racing with you, also he does not like being called Furry" she shrugged, trying to defend him

KR-O: "Yeesh, sounds rough. At least you're doing fine right now." At least she wasn't DEAD-DEAD. But ok, I have to go and. Participate in this race. Massie you're being my passenger." Shades got into the car and started it. Massie shrugged and went into the passenger's seat bucking up. Safety first and all that. "Laaaater!" Shades called out as he left.

HP looks up at the sky trying to think of something, "Well, Tiara. I guess since I'm not wearing the black suit, they don't know. Don't be too hard on them. Now, you two be good, I'm gonna gonna have a little fun." He walked to his car before running back to the children, "And _NO_ Earth magic shenanigans!" As soon as HP turned around, Armlet stuck his tongue out. He was SO doing Earth magic shenanigans.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle chuckled (badumtss). "You didn't tell him? He's gonna have a fit once he sees us in the winners circle with the angels' car. Oh, and take this." She grabbed a helmet off of the ground and handed it to her racing partner. "Safety first or something like that."

TIMERIFTS: She laughed weakly "yeah, he is gonna have a fit if we lose" she put the helmet on "thanks" feeling like a bit of a badass climbing onto that bike, she was gonna race with a buncha other people which was pretty cool, right?

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle put on her own helmet and hopped on the bike in front of Overalls. "Race should be starting soon. Might want to get your weapon out." She put a hand on her belt. "I can always use mine in case things get too hairy."

KR-O: HP drove up to the starting line and checked to see if the other competitors were ready to go. Well, he didn't actually care. He was not playing by the rules, he just wanted to show off this cool car he made. "Alright, if you're not by the starting line in a minute well...You'll have to catch up!"

Shades put down his phone once HP rolled in, "About time. Hopefully I don't turn this car on its wheels." Last thing he wants is to wreck an expensive car that isn't his.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls looked down at herself "I would have to get off the bike to summon my weapon" she laughed nervously "yours would probably work better" she stated, as she climbed on the bike. She looked at the spot she picked out for Furcoat, hoping she doesn't disappoint him.

HITAGASHI: Tiara turned her attention to Armlet. "Is it earth magic if I light rocks on fire and have you throw them at people?"

KR-O: ". . ." "Yes." Armlet replied. "It does.That could make the race interesting, huh?"

HITAGASHI: "We'll call it dragon magic he can't argue because if he does I'll light his shoes on fire." She nodded to herself, pulling the mic up. "Drivers get ready! We've got less than a minute before the race begins! No cheating and by that I mean if you play it safe you play it lame and you're a cheater cheater pumpkin eater!"

KR-O: Jokki walked into the starting line, in a position he thought he wouldn't get run over by cars... Hopefully. He had a flag in hand, looking at a watch before he picked it up. "On your marks.."

Meanwhile, Armlet began to compress some of the sand into stone. "Let's start out small. Like if this was hail...But aflame."

"Get set..." Jokki continued. " ___GO!___ " Right before the drivers could hit the gas pedal, Jokki launched a sand pillar into the air for his own safety.

CURIOUS PYROBIRD: Buckle gunned her engine and sped past Jokki's pillar. "Here, take this." She unfastened her belt and it transformed into her trident."It's got quite a reach, so don't let any angels scratch up my bike, alright," Buckle shouted over the wind as she passed it behind her.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt put the hammer down and rocketed off the starting line. going 0-60 in 2.5 seconds made it easy to pull out front for the moment.

Bowtie put the pedal to the metal and peeled off the starting line. She did spin her tires a bit, causing her to not get quit the jump Undershirt did. But none the less she did get a good start.

TIMERIFTS: Ralls took it, nodding, readying it. She decided as they were moving to turn around, so she kicked her legs over so she was facing backwards, all in one smooth movement. She was ready to push away anyone who got close to the bike. Her heart was suddenly beating faster as she got super excited to be doing this

KR-O: HP hit the gas pedal, causing the tires to kick up ridiculous amounts of sand into the competition behind him. It didn't take him to long to be up to par with Undershirt who looked like a good first target.

As Shades sped off, Massie unstrapped herself from the car and summoned two swords form her namesake, merging them to summon her electric guitar. "Uh, Massie, I don't think that's safe!" "That's the point, Massie replied, putting on some goggles to protect her eyes. "If we're gonna get wasted, we will do it historic on the fury road!!" Shades has never been more mortified in his life.

"Besides, I don't think a lot of cars can handle sonic booms." She added before she climbed outside the car.

OSCARK9: Gloves summoned his gloves into gauntlets and drove his motorcycle like there's no tomorrow. Excitement was in the air and catching up to the other racers. "Yahoo!" He scream in excitement.

HITAGASHI: Swerving out of the starting line to distract those behind her, Cammy tore through sand to catch up to Shades and Massie. A manic grin was on her face though it looked more like rage than anything and her Ferrari tore its way up to the angel pair. Bring it on, lady, she could definitely see Massie. This was gonna be fun!

OSCARK9: He was catching up to the racers and as he saw at his first racers. He saw 2 demon girls driving on a same bike and one of them was holding a trident.

(( OOC: For OscarK9 go to this link http://dcmissionaries.boards.net/thread/119/event-dying-historic-nudist-road ))

(( OOC: This is where you will roll to get actions done for the race ))

(( OOC: To anyone here who is not in the Skype chat! Please note that being in the chat makes RPs much easier as we can talk to you and not just to your character. ))

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt looked over and Saw HP closing in on him. "What the hell?" he asked in anger. "Hey Wristband, take care of this guy will ya?"

"You got it boss" she said as she jumped on to the roof of the car. She transformed her wristband into he butterfly swords and jumped onto the roof of HP's and plunged her blades into the cockpit roof. She lost her balance a bit and had to bail back to Undershirt before falling off.

Meanwhile Bowtie set her sights on Gloves. She speed up and rammed him. But she miss judged the speed and didn't do as much damage as she would have liked.

HITAGASHI: Wild grin firmly on her face, Cammy swung her car about, whooping and hollering loudly as she slammed the side of her car into Shades' and sped forward a bit to set her sights on the end. Man, if only this were Mario Kart, she'd get a Blue Shell for sure.

KR-O: As the sword pierced the roof of his car, HP hit the breaks to try and tried to get Wristband off her balance. Setting the car on autopilot, he climbed out of the window to get the sword. It should come in handy.

"What the hell!?" Shades swerved a little to get away from Cammy before getting back on track. But this may have cost him something.... Massie fell of the car and he saw that via the side mirror. "That's what you get for not wearing a seat belt, pendeja!"

Massie lay there in the sand for a bit before lifting her head up and spitting out sand. "Gross...."

OSCARK9: "Why you..." Gloves set her sights on Bowtie and rammed her. She took some damage the way that he liked it.

KR-O: Armlet got a decent sized rock ready. He got Tiara to light in on fire and tried his best to see through all the fuzziness the sand offered him. "Alright, hopefully I don't blow up dad.." He threw the rock before launching it with a strong kick enhanced by Earth magic.

Quite a kick too because it SMASHED through the hood of Bowtie's car, taking out the motor.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "What the hell" Bowtie said as she regained control of her car. "Why you...." She started before she looked up at the sky and noticed a giant fire ball hurtling toward her. "Well fuck" she said as the ball of fire exploded her car. After the explosion faded away, Bowtie was sitting on the sand charred black and some of her hair on fire as she held the steering wheel in her hand. She coughed some soot out of her lungs before collapsing on her back.

(( OOC: The roleplay will be continued at some other time. Thank you for participating today! ))

LAST TIME ON DCM: Angels were invited by an anonymous individual to come and look at Daten's annual Auto Show by the beach. All was going well until Demons showed up. Despite Demons coming off as provocative to Angels, they decided to call it truce after both sides were asked, nicely, to not make a mess of all these cars. But Demons always have their ways, they own the damn beach! Deciding that Angels can't have fun on the beach for one day, they call for a sudden race against a custom made Nissan GT-R made by your's truly. With the race underway, the first competitor is out. Will the Demons reign supreme in the auto world? Will Angels??? Or will both suffer heavy losses in good cars!?

(( OOC: Reminder to also have this page: http://dcmissionaries.boards.net/thread/119/event-dying-historic-nudist-road open! You will need it if you're participating in the race. ))

KR-O: Seeing he had a good chance to get back at the pair of Angels in the lead, HP readies the weapon left behind by Wristband. His grin widens as he inserts the weapon into something that looks like a cannon mounted on the passenger's seat. Putting the car on autopilot, he aims carefully. Then he fires, popping one of the tires successfully. He cheers to himself before going back to the wheel where he presses a button. Some tricked out tumbaburros appear, probably spiked. Hitting nitro boost, he catches up to Undershit before ramming the front of the GT-R with the back passenger's seat, taking out the other back tire. "That's what you get for thinking you're hot stuff!" HP then hits reverse before speeding off back into the lead.

Armlet readies another stone with Tiara setting it aflame. He's aiming, but that won't do him any good. It's not like he can even "see" properly. Taking a gander he launches the flaming rock into the air before giving it a good kick to send it off. He can't tell if it missed or not, but judging by no exploding noises, he assumes he missed. No big deal, he's got more stones where that came from.

KR-O: Massie is picked up by Jokki who immediately starts to dust her off and see if her injuries are treatable with a simple first aid. She tells him she's fine and Jokki brings her along to find any others that may have been stranded on the track. Massie points out a charred part of the racetrack, as if some meteorite came by. "Yeesh," Jokki started, "Hey, you. Are you ok?" He asked Bowtie.

HITAGASHI: Tiara grinned wickedly following her brother's failed launching and proceeded to switch her namesake into a hammer, light the hammer on fire, and then hurl it into the race. Mostly to avenge the miss. But also because her Meema never said she couldn't throw her hammer. She watched as it sore upwards and then came down, smacking into one of Shady's doors. Not hard enough to destroy it, but definitely enough to stick into it with a spike. "Oops."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt saw HP fire one of Wristbands swords out of some kind of canon thing and popped one of his tires. "That dirty bastard!" he yelled as he struggled to regain control of the car. When HP popped the other tire, he lost all control and the fact that Wristband was trying to strangle him as she held on for dear life. Undershirt was sent into a wild spin out before hitting a dune and flipping over. The two of them flew through the windshield and both ended up getting a mouthful of sand. The two of them spat out the sand. "Ow, my pride" Undershirt said before yelling at the top of his lungs "YOU CHEATING BASTARD!"

KR-O: Shades was starting to feel pretty safe after Massie's blunder. He may be dead last, but that was alright. He glanced around for a bit and then something caught his eye. What the hell was....oh shit that was coming in right for him. With very little timr to react he hit the breaks, letting his car take the hammer's impact. There may or may not have been a high pitched yell. It's a mystery.

TJ: Cufflink suddenly appeared in HP's car out of thin air.How he got there, he doesn't know. And honestly it doesn't matter because it looks like he's having three mini heart attacks at once.

KR-O: HP didn't know how this kid got in his car, but might as well make it worth it. Putting the vehicle on autopilot (again) he grabbed Cufflink by the collar and brought him close. "I don't know who you are. But I have a particular set of skills.... Anyways I have no fucking idea how you got in here but don't go about doing any funny business."

TJ: "Wasnt planning any!" Cufflink promptly said and made a slight choking sound. He was at the office one minute about to open a file and now he was in a car at an insane speed with a chance of death.

KR-O: "That better be the case. Anyways, you don't look familiar. I'm guessing you're a new employee. If that's the case, I hope you're ready for your first real job. You're going to help take down the rest of the competition from getting the lead!" He let go of Cufflink, getting back on the wheel. "Don't worry, though. We're not in any immediate danger." HP said confidently. Hopefully he didn't jinx himself.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie walked over to Undershirt slightly charred and her shoulders slumped. "Holy shit, what happened to you?" Undershirt asked with his arms folded. "Shut it" Bowtie said. "Wow, what a bitch" Wristband thought. "Hey is that Massie? HEY OVER HERE!" he yelled as he waved his arms.

TJ: He nods and gulps; he was really hoping that he could avoid all of this. But it looks like he has to be useful. Cufflink looked back at the other cars and immediately felt a lump form in his throat; close range weapon plus cars racing equals him either losing his name sake or falling out the window.

KR-O: Massie waved at Undershirt and started to jog her way over with Jokki to them.

"Wow, you all look like you've seen better days..." Jokki remarked as he looked over to Undershirt's wreck. "Anyways, no broken anything for medical assistance?

OSCARK9: While Gloves was still in the race with his green kawasaki motorcycle. He saw Shades and his car stop on the side of the road. Gloves was wondering to himself why Shades stop his car. So he slow down for a bit and drove his bike besides Shades car to see what's going on. "Hey, sir. I was wondering why..." he was about to finish his own question until Gloves saw a hammer on his car's door and switch his own question to a different one. "Why do you have a hammer on your door?" he asked Shades.

KR-O: Shades stared absentmindedly into the abyss. He shrugged and sighed as if this was something normal. "Cause Demons' ain't shit." He pointed to the hammer stuck on the door, "Them's Demon colors. Someone's playing dirty." He wasn't sure if he was to keep going, he already did lose Massie somewhere back there. "Anyways, aren't you participating in the race? You should try to catch up to others. I'll be fine."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "We're fine" Undershirt said as coughed out the last bit of sand. "Just a little scraped up. Yeah, HP really screwed us over."

"Freaking cheater is what he is" Wristband said.

"Speak for yourself, I had a giant meteor come out of nowhere and blow me up" Bowtie remarked.

KR-O: Before Massie could say anything, she stared at Bowtie in disbelief. "A...meteor?" It was strange. The news said nothing of a meteor shower hitting the Earth.

"Well at least you lot are fine." Jokki said, "And you should expect Demons to cheat all the time. We're never honest with our games." He's not wrong.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt raised an eyebrow. "You guys are admitting to your own cheating?" he asked with a laugh. "That's a new one."

"Yeah a meteor. At least that's what I think it was. I only got a glimpse of it before it, you know, blew up my car" Bowtie said, clearly pissed off by the whole thing. To be taken out by another competitor was one thing, but to be taken out by a freak of nature was another. At least she thought it was a freak of nature.

OSCARK9: "Yes I am." He answers him. "Well okay, sir. Just be safe and hope to see you on the road again." He said to him. "See ya!" He shouted at him while he drove off and waving behind his back to him.

KR-O: Shades waved back before looking at the car with his hands on his hips. "Like hell am I going back on that road. I'm too old for this." He did try to pry off the hammer but to no avail and decided to walk off back to the auto show, hoping to catch up with anybody else that lost the race.

"The things Western Demons do is anything but noble, you should know this." As if Jokki himself was an honest man. "That's pretty rough," Massie commented to Bowtie. "I'm still not buying that it was a natural occurrence. I'm investigating this." Then she started off back to the auto show.

HITAGASHI: While all this chaos happened, Bifocals had been poking around at cars, taking pictures for her brother's boss, and vaguely observing the situation over in the race. Well, until she heard mention of a meteor? That was odd. She looked up at the sky, blue eyes trying to track anything being there. Nothing. That thought in mind, she stepped closer to Jokki and his group in time to hear him talk about Western Demons being, well, the way they were. "Oh trust me, they used to be noble. And then technology happened and no one seemed to grasp what truces, cease fires, and peace treaties were."

KR-O: "Western Demons used to be nice kids," Jokki said in agreement with Bifocals. "But then everything changed when Frock started infrastructure in the West. Might as well give the cherry the West if he wants to keep it as a colony.." Massie squinted her eyes at Jokki. She was hearing history she never heard of or Jokki's metaphors were getting...too out there. "I can't tell if you're serious or not.." She said, only to be responded with, "I'm being both."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "All Demons are the same to me. But you're the first I can actually tolerate a conversation with. So congrats bud!" he said with a cocky smile.

"IF YOU FIND THAT A PERSON DID IT, LET ME BURN THEM ALIVE!!!" Bowtie yelled as Massie ran away.

KR-O: "You sound like the whitest motherfucker I've ever come into contact with..." He grabbed Undershirt, opening his mouth, "Hello, is Donald Trump in there?" Massie snorted, trying not to laugh.

Shades managed to find the group, tilting his head at what's going on. He wasn't going to ask questions, curious to see where this was going.

HITAGASHI: Bifocals felt her mouth open and close a few times at both the statement from the angel in front of her. Undershirt, she thought his name was, had just said something stupid. And the demon he was speaking to had said something weirder. "I don't think I've heard a statement that stupid since World War II. And there was a lot of stupidity then." As she said this, Abbie cracked her knuckles from right behind where the group was. Yeah. Undershirt, why?

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Undershirt was taken aback by this, though quickly grew pretty pissed. "I take back what I said about you being tolerable. When was the last time you brushed your teeth?" he asked plugging his nose and pretending to gag.

Wristband and Bowtie just looked at each other and shrugged. "Does he always get like this?" Bowtie asked.

"Unfortunately" Wristband replied.

KR-O: Jokki let go of Undershirt laughing, "Says you, I am very hygienic. You are questionable at best!" He widened his grin to reveal his pearly whites, all nice and sharp. "You Western Angels are so easy to anger." He added in.

"Oh come on, Jokki, you said you'd stop teasing people." Shades said, resting an arm on the Demon's shoulder.

Seeing as she had nothing to contribute to the conversation, she continued her investigation of these meteorites. She checked all possible places, but she hasn't exactly gone behind the stage where the race was announced. "Hmm.." It was vacant at the moment, so she should be allowed to head back there, right?

HITAGASHI: Shaking her head, she rubbed the bridge of her nose as she felt a headache coming on. "Seriously?" Turning to Jokki to give him her full attention and to dismiss Undershirt as, well, not worth her time, she held out her hand. "I'm sorry these modern day angels are stupid. This guy," she pointed at Shades, "doesn't count. I'm pretty sure he's an oddity."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "Well my mouth would be a lot cleaner if I did just receive a mouthful of sand" Undershirt said said. before turning his head the other way and folding his arms.

"So, what happened to you Shades? I thought you were still racing?" Wristband asked. She tried to do a mental count of who that would even make left in the race.

"Yeah, get hit by random Meteors too?" Bowtie asked. Mostly because she didn't want to be the only one taken out by nature.

KR-O: Jokki stuck out his tongue at Undershirt before teasing Shades about being called an oddity. "Hear that, you're SPESHUUUUL." He said, piking at Shades' cheek.

Shades let out a weird noise, smacking Jokki's hand away. "Anyways... I would be racing it if weren't for the fact that a flying hammer wrecked my car's door. The car is operable, But Demons ain't playing fair."

Jokki looked around the auto show, "Come to think of it, none of the demons here so far have done anything suspicious. Everybody's pretty tame so far."

HITAGASHI: There seemed to be a distinct pause, the pa system seeming to come to life. "Sorry, Mister Ironeeeeeee! I didn't mean to throw it at your car! I was trying to hit the motorcycle!" Crackling noises came from the other end of it as well. "Can I have my tiara back?"

KR-O: "Dern kids," Shades said. He looked back at the distance he walked. "I'll get the tiara later."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "I told you man, Demons are always up to something" Undershirt said turning back around to Shades.

KR-O: Well that totally didn't give Massie people to suspect. She let herself into the backstage where she caught Armlet and Tiara preparing another flaming rock. She crossed her arms, tapping her foot. She cleared her throat to announce her presence. "So I guess this explains the 'meteorites.' "

Armlet froze in place at the sudden voice. Feeling caught, he was ready to start crying and beg for forgiveness, but he wasn't going to submit so quickly. He felt a tear or two fall from his face, but it could have been the sand.

HITAGASHI: Turning around quickly, Tiara hissed loudly at the intruder. "GO AWAY! You're not allowed to upset my brother! LEAVE." With that, she spit a fireball at Massie's feet, more a warning than anything else. She thought it had to be a rule to not sneak up on Armlet. It was rude, after all, since he couldn't see. "We're playing, you go be stupid somewhere else!"

KR-O: "W-We're not going to be in trouble, are we?" Armlet said with a meek voice.

Massie backed up from the fireball and went back to her initial spot, standing her ground. "Depends. But I don't think making rock fire balls is something you two should be playing with." She tapped her chin and shrugged. It's not like an Angel was hurt so she couldn't instigate anything against the children. She just let them be. She arrived back to the group, with her hands behind her head. You know, the usual anime elbows up pose. "Well, they weren't meteorites, just some shenanigans by kids."

"Well at least you Demons kept it fair for once," Shades said to Jokki and Bowtie.

SUPERSAIYAN5100: "WHO THE FUCK WAS IT I WILL DESTROY THEM!!" Bowtie yelled as flames emanated from her eyes. Chill Bowtie, damn. Undershirt and Wristband just stared at her

HITAGASHI: A hand came down on Bowtie's shoulder, grip firm as the person held her in place. "Miss, I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it. Now, I know you're likely upset but even demons have to have some standards about not harming children." She grinned, rather coldly, Bifocals' eyes narrowing on the demon in her grasp. "Right?"

KR-O: "They're all spoiled rotten if you ask me," Jokki chimed in. "I know who the children are and will report them to their parents if you want that Bowtie. They'll take it from there."

SUPERSAIYAN5100: Bowtie exhaled slowly, the fire slowly disappearing from her eyes. "You're right, I guess my competitive nature got the best of me" she said as she relaxed a bit more.

Undershirt and Wristband were relieved that the situation was defused without any damage.

OSCARK9: While Gloves was back on the road and catching up to the other racers. He was thinking of what Shades had told him right before he left him. "Them's Demon colors. Someone's playing dirty." Shades said to him. "Someone's playing dirty? Why would they do something like that?" He question himself. "Well, whatever it is. I better finish this race as fast as possible." He said to himself and he drove his motorcycle faster than before.

(( OOC: Due to lack of activity and other general things (such as one of us mod people being sick), this RP will be postponed to a later date! Thank you for participating and sorry for the inconvenience. ))

(( OOC: I do apologize for joining late ,I've been a tad busy as of late ;3; ))

#DCMissionaries #angel rp

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bakagamieru · 7 years

Text

Rolling Stone Breakdown

I read part of the article earlier today before work and I could already tell BS was simmering even before I got home and found out about all the over the top het stuff. Knowing this ahead of time, I’m going to go ahead and take notes / rant back at the article as I read it.

BS 101: Intro to BS

paragraph 1: wow this person really wanted to be a bad fanfic writer, but they got stuck at Rolling Stone instead

I’m being petty with this, but just use “One Direction” fully if you’re going to go to the trouble of typing out “One D” instead of “1D”

“he became a canvas onto which many of fans pitched their hopes and dreams” because all fans of boybands (i.e. girls) dream about is romance and that’s the only reason they’re fans, ALSO media like Rolling Stone had nothing to do with Harry being a blank canvas for people to project their image of him onto (*sarcasm)

every mention of After, even a vague one, is -5000 points, every time it’s mentioned normally and not as the dangerous misrepresentation of abuse it is, is -5,000,000 points, every time someone crosses the line by a light-year and talks about it directly to Harry is -5,000,000,000 points, I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them

“a song cycle about women and relationships”, *cough*womanizer BS*cough, ALSO the first single Sign of the Times is clear social commentary with no real (read: not forced to fit that interpretation) hint of romance in sight, so...?

“more of a rock sound”, still pretending that 1D’s last 3 albums never existed

Harry wants his music to be “honest”, now where have we heard that before? Niall, Louis, Zayn with Liam probably soon to follow. It’s almost like they’ve been held forcibly quiet under a gag order...

I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to take the comment that Harry “runs every yellow light” and apply it to his persona, I’m stumped (also, you can’t run a yellow btw)

“the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone”, chill the fuck out with the italics, I know everyone else has talked about that, but you haven’t even mentioned the secrecy around his album in your article so you have no reason to randomly italicize things

Hiatus

“there was another One D member to vector questions into a charmingly evasive display of band camaraderie”, fuck you and your ever so sly implications that the boys’ closeness was manufactured and that the boys never answering anything interesting had to do with the band rather than interviewers incessantly asking the same vapid questions

“It was in a London studio in late 2014 that Styles first brought up the idea of One Direction taking a break”, as @paynoisbatman already pointed out, this timeline of the hiatus makes no sense with the timing of Zayn “quitting”, also it’s inconsistent with the way the boys denied the first round of hiatus articles in June 2015

just to be clear, they probably DID know about the hiatus ahead of time and they WERE lying when they denied the upcoming hiatus in June, and that also means that there’s no reason Zayn should have jumped the gun so close to the finish line (yay mixed metaphors!), I’m just pointing out the story is inconsistent, so all of these things can’t be true

“If you’re shortsighted, you can think, 'Let’s just keep touring,’ but we all thought too much of the group than to let that happen. You realize you’re exhausted and you don’t want to drain people’s belief in you.” <- This is pure 100% lovely, insightful, well spoken Harry

I’d also like to point out that them first discussing it in 2014 means that Harry’s comment about “we all thought too much of the group” applies to all 5

“I love the band, and would never rule out anything in the future. The band changed my life, gave me everything.” I’d like to point out that they always phrase these quotes to sound like past tense, like the band is broken up as of now, when in reality he’s saying that not only will they come back after the hiatus but that he’s in this band for life

“and not just have it be ‘Here’s a demo I wrote.’” you have that chance Harry! Release the finished version of Don’t Let Me Go Harry!

“Every decision I’ve made since I was 16 was made in a democracy.” I feel like someone misspelled “was a rebellion under Simon Cowell and Co’s dictatorship”

Pretentious Character Work or Work on Building Pretentious Character? Ah, got it: Pretentious Work on Building Pretentious Character

“As one of the most well-known 23-year-olds in the world, Styles himself is still largely unknown” not if you’ve actually paid attention over the last 6 years? I mean yes, always to some extent, but it’s not like this insightful, loving dork is a dark mystery

“He looks at my digital recorder like a barely invited guest.” learn to choose useful metaphors and stop being pretentious

dude, I know you did this on purpose, but you said that “Behind the effervescent stage persona, there is more lore than fact. He likes it that way.” and then put the quote about Prince’s artist draw being his mystery right after, making it seem like he that was his reason for wanting to be mysterious, then you quoted “It’s not about trying to make my career longer, like I’m trying to be this 'mysterious character,’ because I’m not.” which directly contradicts the connection you drew with your words, AKA you knew it was BS and made it seem connected anyway

“The pool cleaner looks perplexed, not quite sharing Styles’ existential joy.” there’s nothing existential about it, it’s just a smile, he’s just being nice to people he passes like a good human being, I’m sorry if you don’t know what that looks like

“It’s obvious that the band has a well-worn frat-house dynamic”, do you actually know what you’re talking about or are you going off of stereotypes? if you’re calling it a “frat” and were in a fraternity, your frat was probably stereotypical anyway

“Styles is, to all, ‘H.’” It’s a fricking nickname that his fricking boybandmates also use, not a commentary on his position as the benign and worshipped leader of the Jamaican band cult frat you apparently think formed

“Pomegranate-scented candles flicker around the room.” this I definitely believe, but did you recognize the pomegranate smell right away or specifically look at a candle to find out what it was?

“It was Styles’ first full immersion into the land of musos” I need that staring into the camera Office gif

Music Ideology

“Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals,” Styles says. “Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. …” this is a very interesting thing to randomly bring into a conversation without asking, unlike the rest of the article, this bit aligns with Harry’s rainbows in the pics, at SNL, and out and about with fans

“The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication.” No, uh-uh, I like the idea personally , but Harry has said ever since MITAM and maybe before that he likes people to be able to have their own interpretation, he said it in interviews about SOTT recently too, I’m not at all convinced Harry wanted to actually share the official story of what the song means, it flies in the face of his philosophy about song interpretation

“The lyrics are full of details and references – secrets whispered between friends, doomed declarations of love, empty swimming pools – sure to set fans scrambling for the facts behind the mystery.” the fact that you put this right after Ever Since New York is laughable, that is a solid contender for the vaguest lyrics that couldn’t possibly be accurately paired up with details of Harry’s life, but you want people to think it’s about Haylor, don’t you

“I’m happy I found this band and these musicians, where you can be vulnerable enough to put yourself out there.” this one is hard because I can see Harry being grateful for a good group of people to write with, but I also don’t believe the implications that he’s never been vulnerable in his writing before or that he couldn’t be vulnerable with his boyband, both are BS, I’m going to say it’s probably a real quote but with suggestive framing

“The album is a distinct departure from the dance pop that permeates the airwaves.” can people please stop pretending that music hasn’t sounded vaguely 70′s and 80′s-ish for the last 4-5 years?

“It’s different from what you’d expect,” Bhasker says. “It made me realize the Harry [in One D] was kind of the digitized Harry. Almost like a character. I don’t think people know a lot of the sides of him that are on this album.” such. utter. BS. Fans know Harry. the general public only doesn’t know him because MEDIA LIKE ROLLING STONE created that “digitized Harry” that’s “like a character”

“Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated.” of course he does, sweet child of man that he is, he jumps at the chance to educate heathens like you about the wonderful world of being a decent human being rather than a sexist prick

1D and Zayn

“He’s not a heavy drinker, he says, maybe some tequila on ice or wine with friends after a show, but by the band’s last tour there wasn’t much time even for that.” Oh, ok, we’re still pretending that TMH wasn’t the craziest scheduled tour

“Styles and his phone have a bittersweet, mature relationship – they spend a lot of time apart. He doesn’t Google himself, and checks Twitter infrequently.” ah, but you forgot his lurking on Tumblr

“I mention a few of the verbal Molotov cocktails Zayn Malik has tossed at the band in recent interviews.” print interviews, all print interviews, because you put words in his mouth just like you're doing with Harry

“threading the needle of diplomacy” yeahhhh.... this is all BS, it’s made to sound neutral to make it seem like Harry is only being polite, whether Harry said these words or not, they’re not HIS words

More Pretentiousness

“Styles, born two months before Cobain exited Earth, doesn’t feel tied to any particular genre or era” funny since his 70′s image is being amped up to 11 for his solo debut

“In the car, he’ll just as easily crank up the country music of Keith Whitley as the esoteric blues-and-soul of Shuggie Otis” and now I know where the country bits of MITAM came from, I was wondering

“It’s like – that’s not how it works. I don’t even remember what the question was.” having “It’s quite small” flashbacks

“ ‘Could I get a selfie?’ Styles obliges, and leans over the counter. Click. We exit into the Laurel Canyon evening.” I’m sorry, I can’t stop laughing, but was the onomatopoeia really that necessary?

“River Phoenix,” the man announces, a little sadly. “You ever heard of him? If he hadn’t have passed, I would have said that was you. Talented guy.” sadness, River Phoenix really was such a talented young man, a very worthwhile person based on the roots of his problems too

The Obligatory Origin Story

They share a silent moment, before Styles walks to his car. He hands me the bag filled with English snacks. “This is for you,” he says. “This was my youth …” “Harry Edward Styles was born in Worcestershire, England” great transition dude, I’m sure that was completely organic

“But in fact, all was not perfection, scored to a cool, retro soundtrack.” but I thought it was!

“His eyes moisten a little, but unlike the young man who wept over an early bout with Internet criticism, a powerful moment in the early One Direction documentary A Year in the Making, Styles tonight knocks back the sentiment.” “look, he’s repressing his emotions, this is progress!” I wouldn’t make fun of this if he had phrased it as Harry being stronger or no longer caring about what other people think, but saying he “knock[ed] back the sentiment”?

“I’d gone because my mum told me I was good from singing in the car … but your mum tells you things to make you feel good, so you take it with a pinch of salt.” um... first of all, X-Factor flashbacks, second of all, Harry said that he’d always wanted to audition but had always been too young, so...

“and united the members of One D in a musical shotgun marriage” I’m keeping this imagery, it’s mine, no one can take it away from me now, no takebacksies

Ben Winston Earns His Tag On My Blog

“ ‘Family,’ answers Ben Winston.” who is not Harry’s family

look, I actually think Harry and Niall and maybe the others actually have a friendship with Ben, I can’t understand why, though, when he always participates in BS like this, I will never forgive him for the Livestream of Doom/FOUR Hangout

“There is more chance of me going to Mars next week than there is of Harry having some sort of addiction.” Why are we so focused on Harry not being a drug addict? He’s not, there aren’t even rumors he is, ok, don’t need to talk about it, moving on.

Styles had just moved out of his family home in Cheshire, an inconvenient three hours north of London. He found a home he liked near the Winstons in Hampstead Heath. wtf? revisionist history much? forgetting all 5 boys lived in the same complex right after moving to London much?

“ He became a friendly mentor to Styles, though the friendship was soon tested... Styles asked if he could briefly move in with Winston and his wife, Meredith. She agreed,” Winston says, “but only for two weeks.”... For the next 20 months, one of the most desired stars on the planet slept on a small mattress in an attic.” this is not Harry, Harry would not move in for 20 months after asking for 2 weeks, if he did he would make sure it was ok, if he made sure it was ok, you shouldn’t be talking about it and essentially badmouthing him to the press

also, can we talk about “one of the world’s most desired stars” because as we’ve all talked about before, Harry was 17/18 and being hypersexualized in the press and this is not ok

The subject today is relationships. While Styles says he still feels like a newcomer to all that, a handful of love affairs have deeply affected him. The images and stolen moments tumble extravagantly through the new songs: And promises are broken like a stitch is … I got splinters in my knuckles crawling 'cross the floor/Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short/But I think that’s what I like about it … I see you gave him my old T-shirt, more of what was once mine … That black notebook, you sense, is filled with this stuff. het BS *yawn* *snore*, I’m really going to need to hear these songs for myself, they better not have fucked with his material, the consolation about Zayn’s album was that at least the music and lyrics were unquestionably his

More Specific Het!Harry BS

The relationship is a subject he’s famously avoided discussing. “I gotta pee first. This might be a long one,” he says. He rises to head to the bathroom, then adds, “Actually, you can say, 'He went for a pee and never came back.' ” you think he was being funny, but he really really wasn’t, are you sure he came back? I don’t think he did, I think everything after the bathroom was utter BS

“When I see photos from that day,” he says, “I think: Relationships are hard, at any age. And adding in that you don’t really understand exactly how it works when you’re 18, trying to navigate all that stuff didn’t make it easier. I mean, you’re a little bit awkward to begin with. You’re on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it – I just wanted it to be a normal date.” ok, maybe not such BS since he’s as vague and general as you can get in the vast majority of this quote, so he’s saying that when he looks at pictures of himself with Taylor, he thinks how he wanted it to be a normal date with Louis, got it

yada yada yada, Harry being way nicer than he should have to be about his name being used by someone who abused his reputation for her own gain, par for the course

I like tipping a hat to the time together. You’re celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than 'this didn’t work out, and that’s bad.’ huh, this seems like subtle shade to me since one of my biggest complaints is how nearly all her songs are negative, put the blame on the guy, and don’t have her taking any responsibility (even if they are fake relationships)

He notes a more recent relationship, possibly over now, but significant for the past few years. (Styles has often been spotted with Kendall Jenner, but he won’t confirm that’s who he’s talking about.) it was made abundantly clear that even if you believe the narrative, Harry and Kendall are not currently together, yeesh!

“She’s a huge part of the album,” says Styles. “Sometimes you want to tip the hat, and sometimes you just want to give them the whole cap … and hope they know it’s just for them.” mm, nope, still BS, alternatively a quote taken out of context and not about Kendall or even romance at all

Actual Solo Stuff

“Some of the stuff they’re doing in this movie is insane. And it was hard, man, physically really tough, but I love acting. I love playing someone else. I’d sleep really well at night, then get up and continue drowning.” ok, that was clever, good on you Harry

It was the perfect rite of passage for a musician looking to explode the past and launch a future. I thought we agreed that Harry has no issue with his past in a boyband? can you please remember what you already wrote in your own article

He didn’t feel stifled in One D, he says, as much as interrupted. you bet your ass he did, him and Zayn and Niall, interrupting clueless and/or asshole interviewers all day long (I’m sure Louis and Liam have/will do too, just haven’t had the chance yet)

There are songs from that period he loves, he says, like “Olivia” and “Stockholm Syndrome,” along with the earlier song “Happily.” #confirmed

“But I think it was tough to really delve in and find out who you are as a writer when you’re just kind of dipping your toe each time. We didn’t get the six months to see what kind of shit you can work with. To have time to live with a song, see what you love as a fan, chip at it, hone it and go for that” funny that, sounds like someone forced them into a breakneck schedule and then later made big noises about how their hiatus was because they were so overworked and acted like he had nothing to do with that

Ending

Like the time Styles ended up drunk and wet from the ocean, toasting everybody, wearing a dress he’d traded with someone’s girlfriend. yep, sounds about right

oops, fanfic writer made a full return for this paragraph all in present tense, written by someone else as if Harry’s a fictional character

“I think, as a parent, especially with the band stuff, it was such a roller coaster,” he says. “I feel like they were always thinking, 'OK, this ride could stop at any point and we’re going to have to be there when it does.’ this is the second time he’s brought up roller coasters in his solo interviews, it’s a good description for the thing he’s talking about, but I can’t help but think of Zayn’s old Twitter bio and Anne tweeting that bio not long after March 25th

He grabs his black notebook and turns back for a moment before disappearing down the hallway, into the future. I need the Office gif again

“How am I going to be mysterious,” he asks, only half-joking, “when I’ve been this honest with you?” *sarcasm

#one direction #1d #harry styles #solo harry #rolling stone #bakagamieru #speculation #more of an interpretation really #bearding #media #ben winston is an ass

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mmliveblog · 5 years

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I ignored the entire marketing campaign for this game, so these ended up being my initial impressions of the cast after watching two random trailers and the intro to the game back in 2016. Man I was either on the money or way off.

Funny story: I was actually planning on skipping this entry because I was a little burnt out on the franchise after the DR3 anime. Didn’t really think the series needed a flashy lookin’ spinoff cash grab so I kinda forgot about its existence. Then I somehow got word of the demo and the rest was history.

Since I gave some impressions on said demo, it’s only fitting to top this off with some final thoughts. Which I have a lot of.

Yeah, this is now hands down my favorite entry in the franchise. I was initially a bit wary because it had the lowest rating of the trilogy on Steam, but an hour into the game I was completely sucked in. Even after finishing the main game I just couldn’t stop thinking about it or put it down for several damn weeks.

They really did a lovely job with the new class trial aesthetics and I loved how they presented all that dynamic typography in the Nonstop Debates. They even remixed or replaced a lot of the classic tracks this time around instead of straight up reusing them like the previous game did. Special mention goes to Climax Reasoning V3 which is not only a beautiful track but also a huge improvement from what was used in the first two games.

But the biggest reason I liked this game was the cast. I had always liked the DR1 kids far more than the SDR2 cast because they felt more grounded and less repetitive despite still being fairly eccentric themselves. The V3 cast felt like a welcome return to that vibe while also bringing a lot of great dynamics to the table.

I liked how the kids steered a lot of the conflict themselves instead of waiting for Monokuma to egg them on. I may give Angie the most flack for being, well, Angie, but I actually loved her role as an antagonist in Chapter 3 and I was a little disappointed that it was cut short so anticlimactically. Genuine friendships were forged, and you could see all these little cliques slowly form if you talk to everyone you run into. There was a nice mix of distrust and camaraderie when it came to dealing with each motive and it was overall just great to watch.

And I gotta say, for me this game absolutely outdid itself with the protagonists this time. MC designations aside they ended up being great characters and were rapidly shaping up to be my favorite protag/detective duo due to how well they played off each others’ strengths and weaknesses...until that mid-trial twist tore them apart.

On one hand was the short but well put together story of a forward yet stubbornly optimistic girl who is slowly driven to murder in order to do what she thinks is the right thing to do. Even after receiving two solid chances to essentially get away with the crime, Kaede stuck to her guns and tried to smoke out the mastermind up until her last breath. Even if she was only the MC for a single chapter, she’ll always be a Danganronpa MC in my heart.

On the other hand was the story of a boy who not only learned to be confident in his own skills, but also found the courage to stare down increasingly horrifying truths in the eye when nobody else could and make all the tough, heart-wrenching trial decisions that came along with his SHSL title. There was also this really neat dynamic where Shuichi would find a balance between trusting in your friends and sticking to the cold hard facts, while Kaito and Kokichi served as foils to both him and each other by sticking to polar opposites of the spectrum. Really fantastic stuff all around.

Let it be be known that the stunt he pulled in the final trial where he put his neck on the chopping block so he could tell the mastermind, an entire franchise, the whole world, and the theme of Hope vs. Despair to fuck right off was the most metal conclusion to a DR finale that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Sorry Keebo, you were a riot but I was kinda sick of that theme by the end of DR3.

Ever since finishing SDR2 I thought it would be really neat to have a Danganronpa game with either an MC who could pull off a murder somehow or an MC with all smarts of the designated detective buddy without being ridiculously OP like Kirigiri. Thank you, Danganronpa, for giving me everything I wanted and then some.

I think that covers everything. *skims previous demo notes* Oh wait, those Monokubs.

They were pretty hit and miss but they nailed that “shoehorned whacky mascot characters that nobody asked for” feeling perfectly. Overall worth it for Monodam killing all the annoying ones off and Monotaro’s dejected shuriken-throwing sprite.

And all of them getting blown up in the end.

#drv3 liveblog #drv3 postgame liveblog #someday I'll come back to TDP and do them all

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maggiejulienne · 7 years

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2017 Midway Check-point and Writer Feelings

Hello, the internet!

2017 has undoubtedly been the best year of my entire life. It’s amazing what getting out of an emotionally abusive relationship can do for the mind, body, soul, and career! I highly, highly recommend it. I hear it’s a lovely time of year not to have been in one in the first place, but if that isn’t an option, telling him “boy, bye” is a excellent back-up plan.

So let’s re-re-re-re-re-rewind!

January

February- Asked to do a treatment for Someone Else’s Musical So I Can’t Tell You More which definitely went under the category of “labor of capitalism” rather than “labor of love,” but it was

March - Demo recorded for Musical Chairs.

April - Begin work on Monster Prom, an exciting new computer game, with one of my dearest school friends who I’ve known for more than a dozen years.

May- Ahhhhh! PRINCESS TEN TEN AND THE DARK SKIES workshop in my homeland of Southern California!!! This trip was a dreamdreamdream.

June - Back in New York! Hard at work on Invincible, Monster Prom, and did a lyric brush up for Someone Else’s Musical Screenplay So I Can’t Tell You More But It Was Fairytale-Themed And Therefore Awesome.

July - The toughest month so far - one of my best friends went through a lot of really hard stuff back-to-back and since she doesn’t have a great family support system I really heavily took that on emotionally trying to be there for her and help her in whatever way she needs - she 0% put any obligation on me, but that’s where my soul lies so it’s always gonna be what it is. That being said, she’s doing MUCH better now and we’re both so much happier for it. I finished the last piece of Invincible materials needed for the author to start pitching to producers, and am now good to set that aside until the next step, when- and what-ever that may be. I saw a whole slew of friends, Natasha, Ashleigh, Hannah, Katherine, Hallie, Zach, their friends, all multiple times within a very brief time-span, and that was great.

So to recap, that’s one short film with my lyrics (Smile), two pieces for a collection of one acts (Alcestis: A Tragiquilt), three musicals based on pre-existing material (Invincible, Musical Chairs, Princess Ten Ten and the Dark Skies), one movie adaptation of a preexisting work of mine, two brush-ups on other people’s scripts (shh! you’ll never know), one computer game (Monster Prom) and a partridge in a pear tree.

That’s NINE projects for other people in six months.

Holy kjahkjhkajehkehrh oh my goodness SO #blessed, so thrilled to be making my living as a writer, so happy to feel the validation that comes from having the same people hire you again and again because they like your work and they like who you are as a person and have them recommend you to others and you make new connections etc. It’s wonderful, truly, and it’s an amazing feeling and an amazing life.

Now. You will notice that conspicuously absent from the above are such phrases as “my original musical” “my screenplay” “my T.V. show”or “my novel.” And yet I have m-u-l-t-i-p-l-e of all of the above either finished or in-progress. Just in the past month or so when things were getting kind of “eh” in my personal life because of how much my friends were hurting and how deeply that affects me when it’s people I love, I really started missing my own work. Getting paid to write has been a double-edged sword in a way - it makes me feel more like a “real” writer in a very external, tangible way, it does that capitalism thing where I can feed and house myself, and it gives me hard deadlines and people to report to who believe in my work enough to have chosen me over everyone else. On the other hand, it gives me hard deadlines and people to report to who believe in my work enough to have chosen me over everyone else.

I haven’t stopped working on my own pieces during this time, and actually wrote my first-ever short film(s, two of them) since I’m starting to get anxious about getting my feature done and want to start making some kinda movie and it seems like all my friends have produced shorts at this point and YOLO. But I LOVE my feature so so so so much and it’s gotten almost exclusively positive feedback from everyone who’s read it, but hasn’t quite stuck the landing by finding the right person/place/thing with the right resources and the right opportunity at the right time. I may now have a production company for it but we still need to finding funding, and although it’s low-budget as far as feature films go ($500k-$1mil), it’s not exactly crowdfunding material. Mostly, with all these projects, especially the ones on strict timelines, I’ve started carving out time to make sure I’m continuing work on my Most Favorite Novel I’ve Started Since I Was An Adult, here after referred to as MFN.

Tonight, around 10:45/50ish, I got into bed to finish up some Monster Prom/Alcestis work before going to sleep (breaking my recently-instated rule of working on the couch in the living room and sleeping in bed, like a human, but hey). I was casually scrolling through Facebook when I saw an advertisement, inadvertently screamed, threw my phone across the room, curled up in a fetal position with my fists so tightly they hurt and yet I couldn’t unclench them, and sobbed myself to sleep.

WTF?! you ask (no, you don’t, I presume NO ONE will read this whole thing, but this is my e-journal, so I’mma post whatever I want)

I saw an advertisement for a book, the cover of which could easily be for MFN, and the title of which is one I have actually used at one point. I finally had returned to it and started actively scheduling ways to make sure I stayed on top of it, and someone had beaten me to the punch with a shocking level of specificity. There are a lot of things that make me feel strong feelings and my life is an emotional rollercoaster and I just don’t blog quite often enough to write about every single mood shift.

But I have literally never experienced a feeling quite like that in my 26+ years of being alive, and I didn’t know there were entirely new feelings left to feeling.

I’ve never been literally “paralyzed with emotion,” but that’s how it felt. As I said, I literally felt as if I could not loosen my fingers, could not move my knees from my chest, could not open my eyes. I just folded in on myself and fell asleep within minutes, something I haven’t done in weeks, because my body literally needed to shut off rather than deal with the emotional pain I felt of, in one picture and twenty-five words, feeling like a piece I have spent the past eight years working on had been rendered useless and defunct and - I’ve sat here struggling to think of a word to describe exactly what it was but the best I can come up with is - dead. And dead. It felt like MFN,this thing I love, was dead, had been killed by the unfairness of the universe that gave two creative souls the same thought and let one beat the other to the finish line.

What should make this less surprising to me is the fact that the darling young newlywed playwright assigned the Alcestis scene immediately after mine came up with - independently of me, having never met, never discussed the piece - almost the EXACT SAME premise and themes for his interpretation of the text.

(And this author’s book was published by the same publishing house that published my friend’s book that I was explaining to this gal I’m just starting to be friends with led to a kind of complicated dynamic with this other person da da da because of fucking COURSE it was)

Anyway it’s 6:51AM right now and I need to go to sleep so I can wake up and do the writing I’m being paid and/or asked to do rather than just writing about the writing I’m being paid and/or asked to do, so I’ll hafta fill in a few of the beats tomorrow but these are the bulk of my feelings and there’s just a lot of them lol. Mostly I hope that my current trajectory continues and maybe if my writing reaches a broader audience people can see these records of how I got there since we usually only see the sort of “overnight success” moments and miss all the work to get there.

So let the record show that for the first five years I lived in New York, I got a total of about four or five writing jobs, and now have had nine in the last seven months. I did a whole buncha acting in that time, but will soon be acting for the first time in a year and a half. So it took a long time of writing before people started asking me to write things on a (too???) regular basis, and now we’ll see how long it takes until people start asking me to write my own things and they’ll pay for them and let other people see them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

gossiprat

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tomrg2321-blog · 5 years

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A Renovating Couple Gains Their Urban Chops

Classic design and deep color tones anchor a home for new New Yorkers

The move to New York from the West Coast landed Jeremy, an advertising executive, and Chris, a nurse managing an emergency department, in a 778-square-foot co-op in the developing neighborhood of Hudson Yards. A “simple” tiling job that crumbled while living there led the couple to the bigger renovation that they had been saving up for. With each of their “must-haves” in mind, they posted their project on Sweeten, a free service matching renovators with vetted general contractors and found a Sweeten design-build firm. The result? Herringbone floors, an array of new custom millwork-and sound advice to share with future renovators.

Guest blog post by Sweeten homeowner Jeremy

A first-and obvious-lesson in renovating: it really is harder in New York. When my husband Chris and I embarked on this adventure, we had thought we knew what we were doing. After all, we'd undertaken a remodel of our 1914 Seattle condo before. But that was all before we decamped to New York for work-and learned what a reno here really takes.

After the move, we rented in the Financial District while debating where to settle. I pushed for Brooklyn, dreaming of a leafy side street, but Chris' job in an emergency department required getting to work even if the subways and bridges shut down-that meant living in Manhattan. Our real estate agent brought us to a 1929 building we would have never come to on our own, smack next to the construction zone that is Hudson Yards. I was hesitant, but Chris saw a decent amount of room and a good layout in a neighborhood that would develop restaurants in place of jackhammers soon enough.

Photo: Sweeten contractor

Our foray bidding a standalone bathroom remodel proved short-we got as far as finishing the design when the co-op came back with a series of unexpected plumbing requirements, chock full of things we'd never heard of like water hammer arrestors and Laticrete. The price nearly doubled, and if we were going to spend much more on a remodel, we decided we should save up and do the larger apartment renovation we had hoped to.

With regular re-spackling, we figured we could pull through. That folly ended a year and a half later when, hours before leaving for vacation, a precarious section of tile came crashing down. Our super covered the crumbling wall with a plastic tarp, but it was clear: it was time to begin bidding.

We weren't sure exactly what we needed-walls weren't moving per se, but our co-op seemed to want an architect. So while we asked the initial bathroom contractor to bid, we also thankfully posted our project on Sweeten. To complete our renovation, Sweeten paired us with a design-build firm with architecture training. They also did custom millwork, making it the perfect fit for our project. Not only did the general contractor immediately understand our aesthetic, but we also had a great rapport.

In planning the remodel, we knew we wanted to play off the building's modest Art Deco bones, but in a way that wasn't slavish or theme-y. We also both brought mild obsessions to the mix-for me, an inexplicable passion for English cabinetry, for Chris, a desire to put a banquette in any possible corner.

The first big choice was how to manage the kitchen layout. The room was spacious enough-designed as an eat-in when 24” of counter space seemed ample-but the two doorways weren't in an ideal location. One opened onto the foyer and the other onto a back hallway by the bedroom. It had also been poorly updated in the intervening years: half of the footprint was wasted, with a lonely refrigerator in one corner and an errant desk in another.

Photo: Sweeten contractor

Our foyer situation was a classic New York City conundrum: too small to do much anything useful but large enough to be wasted if empty. We decided on a full-height bookcase that's only 8” deep and it holds loads more than we expected. On the opposite side, our general contractor fitted narrow custom cabinets to serve as a bar. There's just enough depth to squeeze in double rows of liquor bottles and glasses, saving precious room in the kitchen. We ran new electrical to hang art lights over tall mirrors-the goal was to make the whole space pull triple duty as an entryway, a library, and a bar-then painted the foyer and kitchen cabinetry the same deep gray so that the two spaces relate.

In the bathroom, we preserved and refinished an original tub and stuck to a classic black-and-white New York-inspired scheme with updated finishes. Given the narrow layout, the primary play here would be with subtle geometries-and taking advantage of our building's extra thick walls. A hex marble floor worked well with the warmer white subway tile and porcelain. Our contractor recommended extending the floor tile onto the base of the walls to stretch the visual plane of the room.

We decided to paint the walls and ceiling in a black high sheen that makes the ceiling recede and the white surfaces gleam. Strangely, of all the things in the apartment, the shower glass proved one of the most frustrating: it wasn't installed until five months after everything else wrapped up.

New wood floors were the most unexpected part of the reno. We had only budgeted for the kitchen alone. But the more floor options we looked at-and after our contractor dissuaded us from several temptations like Moroccan Bejmat tile-the more we wanted hardwood in the kitchen. That meant either putting down maple boards to match the rest of the apartment-despite disliking their color-or redoing everything. Our contractor's opinion was that changing the kitchen floors would make one of the biggest impacts in the space. So a month into the renovation, after all the other demo was done, we raided a savings account and scrambled to add herringbone floors to the scope. The late choice delayed the project by a month, but it was one of the best decisions we made.

Stepping back from it now, our major lesson was in developing a deep comfort with flexibility. We found that we could be much more controlling of our remodel in Seattle than here. New York's interminable series of permits, co-op requirements, and engineering reports-paired with the inelasticity of old spaces-meant we had to take a go-with-the-flow approach that made trust and an ability to laugh key. Also, best to know exactly what you're looking for before you start to remodel.

Our contractor taught us the biggest lesson of all: do it all at once if you can. It's not the disruption that's the problem, really, or that rework ends up costing more-it's that few of us really have the talent to create a cohesive space in small increments. Unfortunately, we didn't quite learn this last lesson in time. During our reno, our bedroom became the storage unit for our furniture.

More than anything else, we were lucky to have a real partnership with our Sweeten general contractor to see us through the changes and warn us off of bad choices. We feel a bit like we've earned our honorary New Yorker stripes: we chose a space that we thought was a diamond in the rough and hoped we could turn it into a classic city respite. We feel like-at least to our taste-we got there, and now we have this lovely, large-living one-bedroom to come home to in one of the most dynamic parts of Manhattan.

Thank you, Jeremy and Chris, for sharing your new New York home with us!

KITCHEN RESOURCES: White oak hardwood floors in espresso stain: Minwax. Kitchen cabinets and under-cabinet lighting: Custom by general contractor. Kitchen cabinet paint in Down Pipe, wall paint in Strong White, and ceiling paint in Wimborne White: Farrow & Ball. Regent Collection cabinet pulls: Restoration Hardware. Super White Carrara marble countertop and backsplash: HG Stones. Shaws Original farmhouse sink: Rohl. Faucet in satin brass: California Faucets. Refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, hood, and wine fridge: Thermador. Haleigh ceiling light fixture: Rejuvenation.

BATHROOM RESOURCES: Fitzgerald Collection sink: DXV. Console legs in polished nickel: Palmer Industries. Monterey faucets: California Faucets. Bianco Dolomiti 1 ¼” hex floor tile: Artistic Tile. White subway wall tile and black liner tile: Subway Ceramics. Astor collection hardware and shower fixtures: Jaclo. Verenne sconces: Restoration Hardware. Thomas O'Brien light fixture over medicine cabinet: Circa Lighting. Recessed medicine cabinet: Robern. Eco Drake toilet: Toto. Frameless glass shower surround: Glasscrafters. Ceiling and wall paint in Off Black: Farrow & Ball. Towel warmer: Vogue UK.

FOYER RESOURCES: Cabinetry: Custom by general contractor. Super White Carrara marble countertop: HG Stones. Cabinetry and wall paint in Down Pipe, ceiling in Wimborne White: Farrow & Ball. Regent Collection cabinet pulls: Restoration Hardware. Kelly Wearstler flush-mount ceiling light fixtures, Thomas O'Brien art light fixtures: Circa Lighting. Baseboards: Kuiken Brothers.

Angela's bathroom in a landmark New York City building gets a classic yet modern update.

Refer your renovating friends to Sweeten and you'll both receive a $250 Visa gift card when they sign a contract with a Sweeten general contractor.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project's location, budget, and scope, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you're ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.

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thedailyhs · 7 years

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Harry Styles' New Direction

A year in the life of the One Direction star as he leaves behind his boy-band past, heads to Jamaica and comes of age

“Honest,” he says, a year later, driving through midcity Los Angeles in a dusty black Range Rover. He’s lived here off and on for the past few years, always returning to London. Styles’ car stereo pumps a mix of country and obscure classic rock. “I didn’t want to write ‘stories,' ” he says. “I wanted to write my stories, things that happened to me. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. I hadn’t done that before.” There isn’t a yellow light he doesn’t run as he speaks excitedly about the band he’s put together under the tutelage of producer Jeff Bhasker (The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, “Uptown Funk”). He’s full of stories about the two-month recording session last fall at Geejam, a studio and compound built into a mountainside near Port Antonio, a remote section of Jamaica. Drake and Rihanna have recorded there, and it’s where Styles produced the bulk of his new LP, which is due out May 12th. As we weave through traffic today, the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone.

It was in a London studio in late 2014 that Styles first brought up the idea of One Direction taking a break. “I didn’t want to exhaust our fan base,” he explains. “If you’re shortsighted, you can think, 'Let’s just keep touring,’ but we all thought too much of the group than to let that happen. You realize you’re exhausted and you don’t want to drain people’s belief in you.”

Still, a solo career was calling. “I wanted to step up. There were songs I wanted to write and record, and not just have it be 'Here’s a demo I wrote.’ Every decision I’ve made since I was 16 was made in a democracy. I felt like it was time to make a decision about the future … and maybe I shouldn’t rely on others.”

Styles pauses, savoring the idea of the unknown. He looks at my digital recorder like a barely invited guest. “More than 'do you keep a mystery alive?’ – it’s not that. I like to separate my personal life and work. It helps, I think, for me to compartmentalize. It’s not about trying to make my career longer, like I’m trying to be this 'mysterious character,’ because I’m not. When I go home, I feel like the same person I was at school. You can’t expect to keep that if you show everything. There’s the work and the personal stuff, and going between the two is my favorite shit. It’s amazing to me.”

“Mind if I play it loud?” asks Bhasker. It’s a rhetorical question. Nasci cranks “Sign of the Times,” the first single, to a seismic level. The song began as a seven-minute voice note on Styles’ phone, and ended up as a sweeping piano ballad, as well as a kind of call to arms. “Most of the stuff that hurts me about what’s going on at the moment is not politics, it’s fundamentals,” Styles says. “Equal rights. For everyone, all races, sexes, everything. … 'Sign of the Times’ came from 'This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a hard time, and it’s not going to be the last time.’ The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication. The mother is told, 'The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, 'Go forth and conquer.’” The track was a breakthrough for both the artist and the band. “Harry really led the charge with that one, and the rest of the album,” says Bhasker.

“I wish the album could be called Sign of the Times,” Styles declares.

“I don’t know,” says Bhasker. “I mean, it has been used.”

The album is a distinct departure from the dance pop that permeates the airwaves. “A lot of my influences, and the stuff that I love, is older,” he says. “So the thing I didn’t want to do was, I didn’t want to put out my first album and be like, 'He’s tried to re-create the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties.’ Loads of amazing music was written then, but I’m not saying I wish I lived back then. I wanted to do something that sounds like me. I just keep pushing forward.”

Styles is aware that his largest audience so far has been young – often teenage – women. Asked if he spends pressure-filled evenings worried about proving credibility to an older crowd, Styles grows animated. “Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say. Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they’re not serious? How can you say young girls don’t get it? They’re our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act 'too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.”

This much is clear: The classic role of tortured artist is not one he’ll be playing. “People romanticize places they can’t get to themselves,” he says. “That’s why it’s fascinating when people go dark – when Van Gogh cuts off his ear. You romanticize those people, sometimes out of proportion. It’s the same with music. You want a piece of that darkness, to feel their pain but also to step back into your own [safer] life. I can’t say I had that. I had a really nice upbringing. I feel very lucky. I had a great family and always felt loved. There’s nothing worse than an inauthentic tortured person. 'They took my allowance away, so I did heroin.’ It’s like – that’s not how it works. I don’t even remember what the question was.”

The clerk rings up the snacks. In the most careful, deferential way, the young worker asks the question. “Would you … happen to be … Harry Styles?”

“Yep.”

“Could I get a selfie?” Styles obliges, and leans over the counter. Click. We exit into the Laurel Canyon evening.

“Hey,” shouts a grizzled-looking dude on the bench outside the store. “Do you know who you look like?”

Styles turns, expecting more of the same, but this particular night denizen is on a different track.

“River Phoenix,” the man announces, a little sadly. “You ever heard of him? If he hadn’t have passed, I would have said that was you. Talented guy.”

“Yes, he was,” agrees Styles, who is in many ways the generational opposite of Phoenix. “Yes, he was.”

They share a silent moment, before Styles walks to his car. He hands me the bag filled with English snacks. “This is for you,” he says. “This was my youth …”

His eyes moisten a little, but unlike the young man who wept over an early bout with Internet criticism, a powerful moment in the early One Direction documentary A Year in the Making, Styles tonight knocks back the sentiment. Styles is still close with his father, and served as best man to his mom when she remarried a few years ago. “Since I’ve been 10,” he reflects, “it’s kind of felt like – protect Mom at all costs. … My mom is very strong. She has the greatest heart. [Her house in Cheshire] is where I want to go when I want to spend some time.”

In his early teens, Styles joined some school friends as the singer in a mostly-covers band, White Eskimo. “We wrote a couple of songs,” he remembers. “One was called 'Gone in a Week.’ It was about luggage. 'I’ll be gone in a week or two/Trying to find myself someplace new/I don’t need any jackets or shoes/The only luggage I need is you.’” He laughs. “I was like, 'Sick.’”

We’re in Television City, Hollywood. Winston, 35, the Emmy-winning executive producer of The Late Late Show With James Corden, abandons his desk and retreats to a nearby sofa to discuss his good friend. More than a friend, Styles became an unlikely family member – after he became perhaps the world’s most surprising houseguest.

Styles parked his mattress in the Winstons’ attic. “Two weeks later and he hadn’t bought his house yet,” continues Winston. “It wasn’t going through. Then he said, 'I’m going to stay until Christmas, if you don’t mind.’ Then Christmas came, and …”

Styles jauntily appears at the Late Late office. He’s clearly a regular visitor, and he and Winston have a brotherly shorthand.

��Leaving Saturday?” asks Winston.

“Yeah, gotta buy a cactus for my friend’s birthday,” says Styles.

“My dad might be on your flight,” says Winston.

“The 8:50? That’d be sick.”

“I was alone,” notes Styles. “I was scared of Meri.”

Styles finds a spot at a sushi place up the coast. As he passes through the busy dining room, a businessman turns, recognizing him with a face that says: My kids love this guy! I ask Styles what he hears most from the parents of young fans. “They say, 'I see your cardboard face every fucking day.' ” He laughs. “I think they want me to apologize.”

The subject today is relationships. While Styles says he still feels like a newcomer to all that, a handful of love affairs have deeply affected him. The images and stolen moments tumble extravagantly through the new songs: And promises are broken like a stitch is … I got splinters in my knuckles crawling 'cross the floor/Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short/But I think that’s what I like about it … I see you gave him my old T-shirt, more of what was once mine … That black notebook, you sense, is filled with this stuff.

"She used to live an hour and a half away on the train, and I worked in a bakery for three years. I’d finish on Saturdays at 4:30 and it was a 4:42 train, and if I missed it there wasn’t one for another hour or two. So I’d finish and sprint to the train station. Spent 70 percent of my wages on train tickets. Later, I’d remember her perfume. Little things. I smell that perfume all the time. I’ll be in a lift or a reception and say to someone, 'Alien, right?’ And sometimes they’re impressed and sometimes they’re a little creeped out. 'Stop smelling me.’”

Is there anything he’d want to say to Swift today? “Maybe this is where you write down that I left!” He laughs, and looks off. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “Certain things don’t work out. There’s a lot of things that can be right, and it’s still wrong. In writing songs about stuff like that, I like tipping a hat to the time together. You’re celebrating the fact it was powerful and made you feel something, rather than 'this didn’t work out, and that’s bad.’ And if you run into that person, maybe it’s awkward, maybe you have to get drunk … but you shared something. Meeting someone new, sharing those experiences, it’s the best shit ever. So thank you.”

The more vulnerable the song, he learned, the better. “The one subject that hits the hardest is love,” he says, “whether it’s platonic, romantic, loving it, gaining it, losing it … it always hits you hardest. I don’t think people want to hear me talk about going to bars, and how great everything is. The champagne popping … who wants to hear about it? I don’t want to hear my favorite artists talk about all the amazing shit they get to do. I want to hear, 'How did you feel when you were alone in that hotel room, because you chose to be alone?’”

Styles is moved as he describes how he felt. We’re sitting in Corden’s empty office, talking over a few last subjects before he returns to England. “I think, as a parent, especially with the band stuff, it was such a roller coaster,” he says. “I feel like they were always thinking, 'OK, this ride could stop at any point and we’re going to have to be there when it does.’ There was something about playing the album and how happy I was that told them, 'If all I get is to make this music, I’m content. If I’m never on that big ride again, I’m happy and proud of it.’

"I always said, at the very beginning, all I wanted was to be the granddad with the best stories … and the best shelf of artifacts and bits and trinkets.”

“How am I going to be mysterious,” he asks, only half-joking, “when I’ve been this honest with you?”

- Rolling Stone Magazine

#harry styles #18 april 2017 #prss #rolling stone magazine

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1dhomeroom · 7 years

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Harry Styles’ New Direction A year in the life of the One Direction star as he leaves behind his boy-band past, heads to Jamaica and comes of age By Cameron Crowe

“Honest,” he says, a year later, driving through midcity Los Angeles in a dusty black Range Rover. He’s lived here off and on for the past few years, always returning to London. Styles’ car stereo pumps a mix of country and obscure classic rock. “I didn’t want to write ‘stories,‘ ” he says. “I wanted to write my stories, things that happened to me. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. I hadn’t done that before.” There isn’t a yellow light he doesn’t run as he speaks excitedly about the band he’s put together under the tutelage of producer Jeff Bhasker (The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, “Uptown Funk”). He’s full of stories about the two-month recording session last fall at Geejam, a studio and compound built into a mountainside near Port Antonio, a remote section of Jamaica. Drake and Rihanna have recorded there, and it’s where Styles produced the bulk of his new LP, which is due out May 12th. As we weave through traffic today, the album no one has heard is burning a hole in his iPhone.