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misshugs · 28 days

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The Cameragirl || snc

You've been Sam and Colby's cameragirl for some time now. Usually, nothing too crazy happened to you in most investigations, but this time...

warnings: paranormal activity, reader getting attacked, near death experience, strangling(?), cursing, angst?

a/n: took a bit of inspo after watching the boys' video of the asylum, but nothing exactly like it. just the fact that the place is an asylum

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

word count: 3.6k

[u n e d i t e d]

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As they were making their iconic intro and explaining what this new place was about, you made sure to have a sturdy pulse whilst filming them.

"Today, it's just me, Sam and our lovely cameragirl, Y/n." Colby said, letting you shift the camera towards your face and smile at it.

"Hello there." You said, making sure your face was extremely close to the camera, merely because it has become your way of introducing yourself.

"And since it's only us today like the good old days, we decided to make something fun. ALL of us." Sam explained to the camera and smirked, looking directly at you.

You batted your eyes, looking at them while they kept on smiling menancingly at you. "This wasn't a part of the contract." You said, gaining a laugh from both of them.

You zoomed onto his face and began talking with this soft, almost narrative voice. A voice you very well knew they enjoyed. "What is this oh so fun idea you seem to be hyping about, mr. Golbach?"

"Why thank you for asking." Sam nodded slightly, moving his attention towards the camera. "The three of us are gonna do a little challenge tonight." He clapped his hands together as you began unzooming the camera, putting Colby back on frame.

"That's right, we're going to walk alone, lights out throughout some of the most haunted corridors from this place." Colby continued. "The owners of this place told us it gets freaky when people are alone, so we thought this might get us some good activity."

"We have some cameras with nightvision but we're not gonna see shit." Sam added, "After a while, we all should find our way back to the main lobby."

"So stay until the end to see how that's gonna turn out." Colby says, getting close to the camera before covering it with his hand, making you stop the recording for the cut.

"That was pretty good." You said, looking at the video slightly.

"You're still good with the challenge, right?" Sam asked, looking at you. You scoffed.

"Please. I wouldn't have come if I wasn't sure about it. Remember you told me about it before the video?"

"I know, I know. Just making sure, you know how I am." He laughs. "Wouldn't want you to do something you're not comfortable with."

"You're saying that like we haven't known eachother for how long?"

He chuckles. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Alright, so since we're all settled, should we start right away?" Colby chimed in, looking at both of you.

"Not yet. This place has some good cinematic potential, lemme cook first." You said, looking around with your flashlight.

"Aight, we'll let you do your thing, I'll go ahead and look for the equipment." Colby said.

"Oh, shoot. I forgot to ask the owners about something." Sam said, taking out his phone.

"Go out with Colby, I'll be here waiting." You said, fixing back your camera to start recording.

"Alone?" They both asked, looking at eachother and then at you.

"I do my best work alone, gentlemen. You know that." You begin walking towards the shadiest corridor you've seen in your life, without even looking back.

"Oh wow. Fearless. She's trying to do the challenge before us." Colby laughed.

"Alright, I'll be super quick. If anything happens, just yell. As loud as you can." Sam said, smiling.

"Copy that." You laughed.

In the blink of an eye, you were left alone. You were used to these type of things, so it didn't bother you much. You've somehow become numb to all of this paranormal adventuring.

And that was one of the main reasons why you liked to take control of the camera, since you were able to keep your cool in stressful situations, making it easier for the viewers later on.

Plus, you didn't know how to act on camera and they were the professionals... allegedly.

Whenever something odd happened, you made sure to try and record as much as you could, in the best angles possible. You liked to joke around and call yourself a professional in your craft, although sometimes it wasn't even a joke.

You were passionate about it. The videos and the ghosts, it was only natural to try and do more, risk yourself to do something more interesting and outgoing.

That's a piece of yourself they loved about you. You were simply a perfect match in their combo.

As you began to do your cinematic, you began to have shivers. A sudden draft of air passing through you, as if a window suddenly opened.

Looking around, there was no possible way of that happening. You were in the middle of the corridor, absolutely no chance of an air draft simply passing through so randomly.

You thought it might've been a bit odd, but nothing you haven't felt before anyways. While you kept on making some videos, an eerie feeling of someone watching crossed over your spine.

The sensation of a presence slowly getting closer to you behind your back.

Almost feeling the heat of another person behind you, towering over you.

Hurriedly looking back, you were met with Sam's hand almost touching your shoulder. He stopped midway, knowing he got caught trying to scare you. "You bitch." You spit out, making him laugh.

"Damn it!" He said mid laugher. "I was so quiet this time, how do you always seem to know?"

"I can feel you lurking closer, you stalker." You looked away from his gaze, trying to ignore the thoughts of his pretty face. You began walking back to where he came from, meeting Colby in the process.

"I'm not a stalker, if anything, I'm protecting."

"Quietly from the shadows, sounds like a stalker to me, but you do you." You smiled softly, looking at the confused Colby.

"I left for a second, what did I miss?"

"Stalker behavior, nothing else." You said, putting your camera up again and ready to record.

Colby shook his head from side to side, already being on your side of the story without even asking further questions. "I can't believe you brother."

"Wha- it wasn't-..." Sam sighed, defeated. He knew you were joking, so he wasn't going to win anyways.

You laughed and pointed the camera at them. "Ready when you are." They nodded and you began to record.

"So as you can see, in our hands we have some devices that we'll scatter throughout this first room. If you've been here before, you'll probably be familiar, but if you haven't, these are basically some motion censor devices that will let us know if something walks infront of it." Colby explained, turning one of the devices on and showing to the camera how it worked.

As they organized everything, the REM-POD immediately began beeping. "Oh, shit. That's the rem pod." Sam said, stopping on its tracks. "That was the temperature dropping."

You made sure the camera caught that as you got closer to it. "Oh fuck. I was feeling a bit cold since we got here." Colby added. "Alright. I think we're ready."

"Okay. If there's any spirit around that would like to communicate with us, we would like for you to use any of these devices we've put up for you." Sam started, as you made sure to get far enough from everything for the shot.

"You can touch these lights on the floor, or maybe this device I have on my hand." Colby continued, pointing towards the EMF reader. "We mean no harm, we'd just like to talk to someone."

A couple of seconds passed, looking around, waiting for something to happen.

"Maybe they don't want..." Sam began, before getting interrupted by the REM-POD beeping, making you hurriedly move your camera angle. "Oop. Nevermind. Thank you very much. Can you do that again if you're here with us? To let us know it wasn't something else?"

Silence filled the room for a while, before the device started to beep once again.

Excited, they began asking questions to this entity, expecting for it to be somewhat intelligent enough to give answers back.

Luckily, it was. It seemed to be someone that died inside the asylum, a woman. Curious about the story of this woman, they kept on asking questions. Some of them being answered, others being completely ignored.

Asides from the constant beep from their device, you heard a knock coming from one of the corridors. Quickly looking around, they stopped talking. "What?" Colby asked.

"Heard something." You whispered. The room went silent, followed by what sounded like footsteps getting closer. You turn the camera back at them and their faces were shocked.

"Holy fuck." Sam whispered.

"That was like... thumps. We're the only ones here, right?" Colby asked him.

"Yeah, we're supposed to be." Sam says, walking towards the place they heard the sound, quietly. You followed close behind. "Hello?"

Nothing. They kept on looking around, searching and at the same time waiting for something else to happen. "There's no one here." Colby says. "But that was clear as day."

"Super clear, the camera must've have heard that, for sure." Sam said, looking at you as you nodded. "That was crazy."

"Yeah, let's try something else but closer to this area, maybe it's more active." Colby said, and all of you nodded.

A couple of minutes later, and you were all set up. This time around, they turned on a spirit box to try and communicate better.

The idea was to first use it as normal, then for Colby to do the Estes Method.

And so, the spirits began to talk.

"What's this." It spat out. Colby and Sam looked at eachother, smiling.

"Hello, this is a spirit box, you can use it to communicate with us. Would you mind telling us who you are?" Sam said, looking around.

"Hello?"

"Hi, hello." Colby responded. "Who are we talking to."

"I'm scared."

"Scared? Scared of what?" Colby asked, furrowing his eyebrows whilst looking at the camera.

"Behind you."

They quickly looked behind them. "Oh, fuck. I hate that." Colby said, as you smiled at their gestures.

It quickly faded away when you felt the familiar presence of someone behind you.

Heart racing, you looked around for a second, but there was nothing there. It didn't mean the feeling went away, though.

"Monster. Care..." It seemed the audio cut before finishing the whole word.

"Monster... care?" Sam asked, confused.

"Or maybe it meant careful? Like, careful of the monster?" Colby questioned.

"It would make sense. What monster are you talking about? Is it harming you? Are you scared of this monster... or... person?"

It took a while before responding. Last thing it said, before a screech filled the radio was... "Run."

Quickly, they turned it off. They looked at eachother. "That was terrifying." Colby said. Sam nodded and sighed.

"Let's try and look around for some other place. This doesn't feel safe." Sam said and everyone agreed.

For the past hour of recording, moving around and joking here and there, you felt a bit uncomfortable. Usually, you weren't the type to get scared over the paranormal, but this place felt more eerie than usual.

You heartbeat has been increasing slowly, as well as a slight pain in your chest that quickly faded. You felt watched.

There was a point where you even felt slightly touched, quickly warning the boys about it.

Due to this, they almost discarted the idea completely, thinking you might be getting targeted, scared that it might do something to you. It took you a couple of minutes of convincing them to keep on recording before the conversation was dismissed.

You tried to brush it all off, as 'something you've felt before', but deep down you were really anxious about it. Perhaps it made you feel better to think about it being just the nerves.

But you weren't the type of person to feel these nerves for no reason.

"Hey, you good?" Colby touched your shoulder and whispered to you, noticing you seemed a bit weird. "You seem out of it today."

"Yeah, I'm good. I was just zoning out."

"Yeah, I noticed." He chuckled, looking into your eyes. "You sure you're okay though?" He raised an eyebrow, seemingly concerned. "You don't look well."

"What? Do I look like a ghost to you?" You asked, smiling, which quickly made him show that gorgeous smile you loved.

"More like you've seen one." You shook your head.

"I'm fine. I've just seen some shadows running in the corners of my eye, but nothing too big to point out."

He batted his eyes. "You've what?"

"Calm down, you know I see those things all the time. It's nothing new." Half of it was true. The other half, well... there was a chance you might've seen a whole figure standing close to a doorframe, but you felt your imagination was tricking you too much tonight, so you didn't say anything.

You weren't a psychic or a medium or something close to it anyways. If anything, you'd probably consider it more like a hallucination due to the constant lack of sleep you've been having lately.

"I know, I know, but still. You could tell us about it, you know? Maybe we all see the same thing you do and since you don't point it out, we don't notice."

You rolled your eyes playfully. You were about to say something, but a breeze passed through your ear, a soft whisper saying "Come play."

You jumped, covering your ear and walking closer to Colby. "Shit." You whispered.

Confused, he held your shoulders. "What? What? You heard something?" His worry was enough for Sam to stop setting the cameras up and walk closer.

"What happened?" He asked. You looked around where you were standing.

"Did you guys not hear that?" You asked, the shook their heads. "I heard something like... right next to me." When you said that, Sam began recording once again.

"Alright, so... apparently Y/n just heard something right next to her." He began explaining to the camera, pointing it at you.

"It was like a whisper, it.. uh... it just said 'come play', like, the creepiest shit you can say. I even felt the air on my ear, that shit made me jump." You tried laughing about it to not let the mood down, but it wasn't working much.

"Although I really want to, maybe we shouldn't do the challenge." Colby said, looking at Sam straight in the eyes, genuinely worried.

"Guys. Come on. Don't back down when we're this close." You said. "We're basically done for tonight, this is the last thing we're doing and we're out, right?"

"...yeah." Sam whispered. "Let's..." He sighed. "Let's do it. Just like she said, we walk through the corridor and come back straight away."

Althought skeptical, Colby nodded. "Fine. Let's hurry up then. The quicker we begin, the quicker we're leaving this place."

And so, everyone held their cameras and said their goodbyes. The three of you went through your respective corridors and began walking, alone, with no light.

"Alright guys. I'm not good at, like, talking to the camera but I'll try." You sighed, pointing the camera at your face while slowly walking the dark corridor.

"Honestly? I'm usually not as creeped out when we come to places like this, but this one is like... up there. It's giving me the chills, making me paranoid, I feel like I'm... seeing thing. Or maybe I'm just sleep deprived. That's... that's also an option now that I think about it."

Looking around with the camera, although it's absolutely useless, you started feeling out of breath. Almost as if the air didn't reach your lungs anymore. "It feels... hard to breathe." You took a deep inhale and shakily exhaled.

You gulped, your throat suddenly feeling dry as the lack of oxygen was evident.

"I'm just gonna walk... faster. I wanna get this over with..." And so, you did. But the further away you got, the worse it all felt. You felt your vision starting to get blurry although you could barely see anything.

You paused as your vision began to get used to the darkness.

At the end of the corridor, what you could shape out like a human figure was standing there. Seemingly the same one you barely saw before.

This time, it didn't seem to go away.

You were also alone.

Unable to breathe.

You don't know when it started, but you were unable to breathe properly. You choked, trying to regain yourself from the feeling.

Your neck feeling tight, your stomach hurting at the sudden feeling.

Putting your hands on your neck, you coulnd't feel anything that would make you feel this way. You started to get worried.

You felt as if you were being choked. You tried to scream, but all that you could spat out from your lips was a soft, quiet, 'help'.

Trying to turn around and walk back, you saw the figure again and got scared, falling towards the floor. You coughed for air, sucking back as much as you could but being unable to.

Leaving the camera behind, you tried to crawl back to where you came from, but the lack of circulation on your body failed you as you coulnd't handle it anymore.

Your body falling on the floor, the camera seemingly recording your movements come to a halt.

Your eyes closing, leaving you unconscious.

It didn't take long before Sam and Colby got back to the lobby. Waiting for you, something seemed off.

They knew the corridor wasn't as long as theirs. You should've been the first one out by that logic. They've been waiting long enough and they were starting to get worried.

Even though the concept of the challenge was to be alone in the darkness, the idea of you being in trouble was too much to bare.

Heck, even if you were pranking them, the anxiety of you not coming back on time was driving them insane, they were ready for a scare if it had to come to that.

But the scare they were expecting wasn't the one they got.

Minutes of walking and calling out your name came to a stop when they saw you on the floor.

Hurriedly, they ran towards you and fell to the floor, yelling out your name. "This isn't funny, Y/n!" Sam yelled, moving your body, only to notice how cold you felt. His heart sank.

"Y/n, come on!" Colby said, putting himself on the other side, looking at Sam. The color from his face was gone when he felt her body. Colby, worried, touched your body and understood why he looked that way. "Oh, fuck. Fuck!"

Throwing the camera to the side, Colby quickly checked your pulse. "Sam. Call 911. This is serious." You still had a pulse, but you weren't breathing. First thing that came to his mind was CPR.

While Sam began to call, Colby was trying as hard as he could to help out. He began doing mouth to mouth, trying to bring some oxygen back to your lungs.

Tears streaming down both of their faces. Colby started making compressions to your chest, while Sam was talking to the 911 dispatcher and using the flashlight to illuminate Colby.

Luckily, they weren't too late. You began to cough and moved to the side to spit out some saliva. You breathed heavily and both of the guys sighed in relief.

As you tried to catch your breath, they softly held you up in place while your color came back to you. You blinked a couple of times, adjusting your view to your surroundings.

When you looked at them, they hugged you tight. "Fuck..." Sam whispered. "Let's get the fuck out of here right now." He held you softly and helped you out, as Colby grabbed all of the cameras.

It was hard for you to walk. It felt as if a ton of weight was keeping you from even standing up. It felt as if your limbs went numb, the lack of oxygen probably acting up.

Sam noticed, and didn't hesitate on holding you up and putting you on his back so that you could rest. They began walking as fast as they could, reassuring you that you will be fine.

You were focused on getting your breath back while listening to them scream at the spirits.

"You are not allowed to follow us home." Listening to Colby talk like this, while taking all of the equipment made you feel light. You started moving your arms and made sure to hold onto Sam, closing your eyes.

"You'll be okay. We're leaving." Sam reassured you, waiting for Colby to grab everything and get out of there in a rush.

After the police arrived and handed you an oxygen mask, you started feeling much better. You had some marks on your neck, like some hands were just squishing the air out of you.

Your body... at first, you could even see your veins pop out of your legs because of your lack of color. The poor circulation that ran through your body for a couple of minutes really drove your body to its limit somehow.

It took you a while to be able to stand on your two feet again, but before the police left you could walk on your own just fine. Sam and Colby however still managed to help you out.

"Let's head back home." Sam whispered to you. You nodded slightly and tried to walk on your own, only to be held up by Colby.

"Don't force yourself right now. You need some rest." He said, taking you back to the car. Your face having a rush of blood because of the gesture.

"I... I can walk."

"Let us do this. Please. It's too much already that you fainted right when we weren't with you." Sam said, looking at you, your heart racing at the look of his blue eyes upon you. You gulped.

"...f..fine." You said, resting your head on Colby's chest, making him smile.

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part two is up!! the link is in the beginning! <3

thanks for reading all the way! likes, comments and requests are much appreciated.

-nikkõ

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shieldofiron · 14 days

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Pretty Boy Live in Santa Fe, 1977

Part 1/3 Also on Ao3 here

For @harringrove-relay-race. Very happy with how part 1 turned out, and there will be more to come. Thanks to @foxxtastic for the intro and next up will be something stunning from our fearless Relay Race leader @half-oz-eddie

Rated M / 5k words / Part 1/3

Part 1: Into Hades

Rolling Stone Magazine - May 2002

Billy Hargrove arrived after I did, in his lovingly maintained blue Camaro, the subject of his song, “Lady Blue.” “Lady Blue” was recently named #93 on Rolling Stone’s Top Love Songs of the Century.

“I wrote, ‘She’s the wind in my hair, the rumble in my soul.’ I thought it was so obvious,” He laughed, his blue eyes still boyish. “My niece made it her wedding song, I said ‘Really? It’s about a fuckin’ car!’”

He showed me several pictures of his niece, the supermodel Tyler Sinclair. It seems good looks run in the family. He suggested the diner and he ordered waffles, winking when I mentioned that we’ll be here a long time.

The decades have been kind to him, maybe a few more lines. It’s not hard to imagine him stepping right back onto the stage, as if no time has passed at all.

“A little extra glitter on the eyes,” He said with a smile, “to hide my crows feet. That’s all I need.”

I ask what he’s going to wear to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony for Kaleidoscope's induction and his smile dims only for a moment.

“I think I should pull out some old costumes. You know, the butterfly still fits.”

He was referring, of course, to the sheer butterfly cape costume that nearly had him thrown off the stage in Houston Texas in December 1976. He caved to putting on a pair of silvery shorts rather than the nude underwear it was designed with. He later wore it with the nude underwear on the inside cover of Kaleidoscope, the album that will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in just a few short weeks. Kaleidoscope was his last album with the iconic Glam Rock band Pretty Boy, which famously broke up at the height of their career while touring for the album, onstage.

It’s not often that a band is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and there’s a question if all of them will even show up.

“I’ll be there,” Hargrove said, fiddling with the silver band on his middle finger. “I have no problem with seeing him.”

The him is, of course, the lead guitarist and other lead singer of Pretty Boy, Steve Harrington.

Steve Harrington invites me to his oceanfront house in Malibu later that afternoon.

“I haven’t decided if I’m going to go,” He said thoughtfully, his brown eyes darting around the room.

When I mention that Billy is going to go, he seems surprised.

“He didn’t say he was going to punch me, did he?” Harrington smiled, but it doesn’t seem like much of a joke.

For one of the most famous rock stars of the 70s, Harrington is shockingly low key. He wears a t-shirt and slouchy linen pants, and he jokes that he ought to have shaved when I take out my camera. The house is stunning but empty, with miles of blank white walls and overstuffed white furniture.

“I’m looking for a little peace,” He shrugs, “I used to have all these pictures up, all this furniture… It was too much.”

It was hard not to see him as an artist without a muse. He drifted listlessly, picking things up and putting them down as we talked. So it was a surprise to me to hear that he’s been recording.

“I may never release it but… Yeah,” He laughed, “Music. After all this time. Bet you didn’t know.”

He picks up a rare photo from the piano. It’s from the early days of Pretty Boy, before Billy Hargrove. Harrington has his arm around his bandmate, Eddie Munson. Their drummer Chrissy Cunningham is balanced precariously across their shoulders, laughing and cringing at the same time. Bassist Robin Buckley smirks from the corner of the frame, messy bangs in her eyes.

“Who knew, right?” He asked no one, shaking the frame a little.

There are no pictures of Billy Hargrove.

“That’s a… a long story,” He said, when I asked.

But I have time. I tell him Rolling Stone will pay for it. At least that makes him laugh.

It was just by chance that Pretty Boy’s last concert was filmed.

“We were meant to just film in Vegas,” The director, Argyle Molina-Zapata, sat down with me after a private screening of Pretty Boy Live in Santa Fe, 1977, “But there was a freak rainstorm, and I couldn’t get my camera’s out of the back. The crowd was digging it, refused to leave. I remember when Billy hit the high note for ‘Mother Make Me,’ there was this lightning crack… brilliant.”

Molina-Zapata shook his head, “But the footage, what I got of it, was awful. Awful! So I begged Murray to let me come with them to Santa Fe.”

Murray was Murray Bauman, famed tour manager, who handled the Boys, later Pretty Boy from their first album Starfire, all the way to Kaleidoscope.

“And I was lucky,” Argyle nodded, “They had that extra tour bus.”

The tour busses are featured in the first few minutes of the film. They roll around the corner, one reading Billy Blue (Billy’s original stage name was Billy Blue before he dropped the Blue), and the other, Steve’s Six (Named after Steve’s best friends from his hometown.)

“They were nightmares,” Murray Bauman’s voice crackled over the phone, “Nightmares on tour. Separate buses. Separate hotels. Fuck me, I swear to god at one point they wanted separate stages. And the label caved on almost all of it. Fucking nightmare.”

It’s almost impossible to imagine it when you see them on stage together. There’s something electric that passed between Billy Hargrove and Steve Harrington, something that drove crowds wild. They gravitate towards each other on the stage, orbiting like planets until they can share the same mic. They can’t seem to stay apart.

It’s hard to see exactly what happened that night.

“I’ve watched it a million times,” Argyle laughed, “But the only two people who can really say what happened are Billy and Steve.”

What you can see is this: Steve tearing into “Pride & Prejudice”, the lead off Kaleidoscope and the last song of the night.

Billy was trembling, visibly shaking as he sang and Steve harmonized along.

What can I say, if you ask me to walk away?

Baby, there’s no words for you.

Baby. I don’t know what to do.

Billy danced closer, joining Steve, his handheld mic loose at his side.

Can you ever put away your pride?

Is it worth it to not have me at your side?

I guess it must be, because I’m yours,

Regretfully,

Baby.

Billy leans in, sharing Steve’s mic for the bridge.

Is it really a mystery?

What I mean to you, and you mean to me?

Is it really, baby?

Billy shook his head, curls bouncing. He looked into Steve's eyes. He smiled. Steve looks at Billy, and Billy looks at him. It almost looks like Billy mouths something, but bootleg footage also has appeared where it looks like Billy just nodded. Steve goes a little shell shocked, hand freezing on his guitar, falling out of sync.

And then Steve turned away and left the stage, handing his guitar to a stagehand. Billy turned to the crowd, his expression strangely triumphant. He was always magnetic on stage, but this moment transcends that. It somehow feels like he’s getting everything he wants.

So I guess I’m losing you,

You promised me you would and it’s true.

Baby, there’s no words for you.

Baby. I don’t know what to do.

Steve Harrington hasn’t performed in public since 1977.

“None of us knew what was going to happen that night,” Chrissy Cunningham curled up next to her husband, Eddie Munson, on the large white couch of their Seattle home.

They’re a handsome couple still, draped in rock and roll finery. He toyed with the edge of her scarf, and she curled his long hair around her long fingers.

“We had some of our own shit going on at the time so…” Munson shrugged, “Maybe we were distracted.”

Their living room was crowded and verdant, every spare flat surface covered in plants. Their partner, former record executive Jason Carver, puttered in the kitchen in an apron that read Plant Papa.

“Yeah,” Chrissy smiled, “We had some stuff going on at the same time. But still… It seemed like they were getting better. Didn’t it seem like they were getting better?”

Munson shrugged, “The thing about Billy and Steve… they were soulmates. You don’t write music like that and not… it was like they had a second language, just for them. They were soulmates, I really believe that. Everything they did, everything that happened… they could only hurt each other that badly if… yeah.”

When I ask what they did to each other, Eddie and Chrissy just scooted closer together, like teenagers in a slasher, hiding from the killer. She laid a hand over his leg, her two stone diamond ring catching the sunlight.

“Steve never wanted Billy to be in the band,” Eddie shook his head, “but Jim had a soft spot for Billy. And Steve had… I mean Jim was…”

“Jim was like a father. To all of us.” Chrissy’s knee jiggled.

“We were this little tiny band from Nowhere, Indiana,” Eddie nodded, “And Jim believed in us.”

“I was just a junior exec at the time. I was put on the Kaleidoscope tour in case of catastrophic failure, which by the way it was,” Jason Carver is making risotto while we speak, the steam curling the lock of hair that falls over his face. “But it wasn’t my fault although I was high as hell on coke half the time. I guess I deserved to get fired. But Jim was the real deal. Gold records out the ass, best wife in the world, and his daughter, I mean… she was something else.”

They’re referring, of course, to Jim Hopper, producer on Kaleidoscope as well as Billy Blue and The Boys’ records, and the father of pop superstar Eleven aka Jane Hopper.

“Jim was…” Steve Harrington’s eyes always got a little misty talking about Jim, staring out over the ocean. “Yeah, I guess he was a little like my dad. My own parents were always gone. Which is like… I grew up so privileged so like I’m not saying… I just mean I grew up mostly by myself. And we were just so lucky he even agreed to listen to us when we got to LA.”

“I remember that night,” Joyce Hopper’s voice was raspy, cigarette-y in the way only old movie stars are. She’s a gorgeous woman in jeans and a gardening hat, speaking to me while she tends to her garden at her home in Castellammare. “He came home and said, ‘I have the next ones, the next big ones. Fuck, Joyce, they’re brilliant. Unpolished, but brilliant.’”

When I ask about when Jim discovered Billy Hargrove she just laughed.

“If Steve and the rest of The Boys were unpolished, Billy Hargrove was a fucking ten carat diamond,” She said. “But Steve’s band was Jim’s, and he could polish them up how he wanted. And then when he thought they were just right for it… he set the diamond.”

Jim Hopper was a big man, larger than life both in appearance and in personality. His fingerprints are all over some of the best hits of the decade.

Watching him on old interviews, there’s an immediacy to his presence that leaps off the screen.

“My daughter is the one who really found him. She snuck out with her sister and wandered God knows where. And she just… found him. Called me the next morning, saying ‘Dad, you have to hear this guy.’ He was playing in this… terrible club,” Jim said, tapping his cigar on the table of Merv Griffin’s set. “Absolute shithole, pardon my french. And he’s got a great voice, you’ve heard his voice, right?”

“I have,” Merv said.

“I had to get him out of there. He was a star.”

Billy Hargrove was a teenage runaway from San Diego when he came to LA in 1971.

“I had a girl’s backpack from my stepsister, eight dollars, and an extra pair of underwear. By the end of the next week? I had two more dollars,” Billy laughed. “But I got lucky. I met Heather.”

Heather Holloway was a showgirl at Wildwoods, a nightly revue. She found Billy at the backdoor, and took him to her apartment.

“She saved me,” He frowned. “Whenever I needed her most.”

Heather Holloway, Billy Hargrove’s first and only wife, died in 1979.

“I got a job singing at Sugar, this great gay club downtown. It was in the late afternoons, so I had a crowd of about… two. But those two brought two more,” Billy smiled, “Heather would talk me up to all the promoters. He’s a singer, he’s great, you’ll love him, he’s so cute.”

“He was an instant hit,” Sugar’s manager, Bob Newby, tells me by phone as well. “I did have to keep a couple of creeps off him, when he just started he was only nineteen. But even if you closed your eyes… he was a hit.”

“Guys used to think that because I was a part of the entertainment, I was fair game. And let me tell you, the novelty of that wears off mighty quick,” Billy shakes his head.

He shares a diary entry from his late wife of a night in April 1972. He came to her home with blood all over his face.

“Some guy thought because I was a fag…” Billy’s mouth twisted, but he went on, cradling the little marble notebook in his hand. “He could do whatever he wanted to me. When I fought back… he cracked a bottle over my head.”

He’s not just a piece of meat. He’s a person. I don’t understand these people. I just don’t understand, Heather Holloway wrote. I cleaned him up and he’s sleeping now.

The next diary entry is from a day later. April 12. Billy and I drove to Vegas and got married. When we spoke in the morning he said he was afraid for me too, even though I’m careful with the girls. He’s afraid of the cops trying to bust up the Wildwoods and picking me up. At least this way, he says. He and I can come home to each other. Look out for each other. Always. The groom wore band aids and his great velvet pants. The bride wore lavender. It was perfect.

“And lucky too. Because within a month… I met Jim,” Billy smiled. “And my whole life changed.”

Upside Down Records signed Billy Blue, unagented, in1972 and he spent the next year working on his debut album with Jim Hopper.

“I didn’t even realize, when it happened,” Billy shook his head. “A couple of girls came by after a show, wanting to talk to me, wanting to meet me. That wasn’t that unusual. But they were young, far too young to get into the club. And the little one, she was asking all these weird questions. Did I have an agent? Did I know if I had enough songs for an album? Weird fuckin’ questions. And then she said I have to meet someone. To be honest, I thought she was coked out of her mind when she said, ‘You have to meet my dad.’”

“I was not,” Eleven promised me, “coked out of my mind. But that’s just Billy.”

Eleven aka Jane Hopper, meets me backstage at one of her shows. She’s dressed in slouchy leather pants, to match her sister and drummer Kali Hopper.

“I knew he was something special. My dad was always talking about the IT factor. That thing that made a person something special. But I didn’t get it until I saw Billy Blue singing on that tiny stage,” She smiled. “He didn’t just have the IT factor. He was IT.”

It’s odd then, that Billy Blue’s first album had a surprisingly tepid response. His first single, in 1973, “Let Alone,” came in at only 26th for the month of April on the pop charts.

“People liked it,” Billy shrugs, “But I don’t think they knew what to do with it. You have my songs, these like… little pop love songs and ballads. I wasn’t that strong of a writer at the time. It was like half my songs, half covers. And so they’d book me, expecting fucking… Peter Frampton. And here comes this big queer with glitter on his nipples.”

But the lyrics of “Let Alone” would hint at his later songs, a hallmark simplicity that shone off his raw voice and poetry that hinted at a troubled past.

And if you were meant to care for me

You would, and that’s how it has to be

You said I couldn’t go on without you

Ha, look at me, looking brand new

At the same time, The Boys’ song “Paper Girl,” penned by Harrington, was number one.

She’s my paper girl

Wakes me up every morning, right on time

She got me smiling, got my head in a whirl

Picture perfect, paper girl

“Billy didn’t have much commercial appeal. Sex appeal, yes,” Jason laughed, toying with Chrissy’s hair. “But for sales? That’s where The Boys came in.”

“I hated that name,” Eddie said, “To start with we were half girls.”

The Boys had already had a somewhat successful tour under their belt by the time Jim suggested a collaboration with Billy Hargrove.

“It was a nice, short tour,” Steve Harrington glances away when I ask about the first tour.

“It was a nightmare. Balls to the wall nightmare,” Robin Buckley’s voice is a warm crackle over the phone. “Steve went on like thirty overlapping benders at once.”

Her partner, soap actress Vickie Carmichael cackles behind her, at their home in Salt Lake City.

“The thing about Steve is… well… he’s never found a good way of coping with himself,” Robin huffs. “Music was about as close as he ever got. But in those early days, he just kept looking for more and more.”

“You don’t think it was about-” Vickie asked, just barely into the phone.

“No.”

“It was about Nancy,” Eddie said confidently when I mentioned their first tour. “Nancy, Nancy, Nancy.”

The Boys got their start in the late sixties, beginning with Eddie and Steve. Eddie gave Steve guitar lessons, which turned into some talent show performances. They used to practice at Eddie’s Uncle’s trailer.

“That’s where we got the name,” Eddie nodded, “My uncle used to just call us that, and it stuck.”

“I don’t even remember,” Chrissy said.

“That’s not how we got the name,” Steve shook his head, when I mention Eddie. “It was our first gig, after we got Chrissy and Robin. Robin put it down after the headliner kept asking when ‘you boys’ would go on, and kept addressing it to Chrissy’s chest. She blew him out of the fucking water.”

Nancy Wheeler was there that night, writing about local bands for a tiny column in the school paper.

“She was beautiful. Smart. So smart. Could hear her talk forever,” Steve said, eyes falling.

Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler were married in 1972 after they graduated high school.

“Steve made his own choices,” Chrissy shook her head.

That summer, the Boys plus one drove to LA and Nancy Wheeler took a job at Women’s Day Magazine and later, Rolling Stone. Steve Harrington and The Boys got a “steady gig” at La Bonita Rosa on the strip, playing for drunks every night from seven to eight.

“I really liked playing at La Bonita,” Steve said. “The audience, right there. You could smell the sweat. You could see on their faces if you were bombing. And we used to bomb. A lot. But it was a great place to try things. Experiment. We played there for about a year but… it felt too short.”

Within the year they had met Jim Hopper, who got them into the recording studio and sold their demo nearly on the spot to Upside Down Records.

“They had a great sound. They had got this way of playing. Smooth like a polished stone. Everything sounds good sitting in a frame like that,” Jim said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1981. “Their songs were… catchy, but basic. But they had the sound.”

Upside Down records set the Boys on a US tour after “Paper Girl,” and “Joy to Love You,” both charted.

“It was like… overnight. One day we’re in a studio, messing around. Kid stuff. I was nineteen,” Steve Harrington shookhis head. “But…”

“That tour,” Chrissy trails off, playing with her ring again.

“I…” Steve Harrington scratched his nose. “I was losing it. Majorly losing it. It felt like we had just moved to LA and we were already neck deep. I mean, I had a number one fucking song. And for some reason I got it in my head to call my mom. She told the maid she wasn’t home. And I could hear her over the phone. My mom. So yeah. I lost it. Lost about half my damn mind on that tour. And people will say it was because of Nancy, because we got married just out of high school, and she wasn’t supportive… but that wasn’t true. Nancy saved me.”

“Nancy never wanted him to be in the band. But… she also didn’t seem to care that much either,” Eddie shook his head, “It’s… complicated. Love is supposed to be. Simple. Like the chords of a song. 1-3-5.”

Jason Carver rolled his eyes at that, “Then what are we?”

Eddie grinned, “We’re a band.”

Nancy Wheeler met me on a Thursday in New York City, slim sunglasses dominating her small porcelain face. We get lunch at her favorite deli shop, and she perches at the counter, loafers dangling. She’s an editor at The New Yorker now, but she still has a soft spot for rock and roll, as evidenced by the Grateful Dead t-shirt under her blazer.

“That tour. I didn’t even know anything was wrong. He just came home with a funny look on his face, saying, ‘We’re headlining.’ So I said, ‘That’s great, Steve.’ He just kept… saying it. It was starting to piss me off, if I’m being honest,” She shook her head. “I should have known something was wrong.”

“I wish she had stopped me. But how could you know right? Hindsight is always 2020,” Steve Harrington said. “I mean, she was my wife. How could she not want me home? But that’s just… sorry. That’s not fair to put on her. I chose to go.”

“I flew out to meet them when they were in Indianapolis, visited my family, and I came a day early to see him,” She smiled warmly, and then it fell. “He was… Well, first, Eddie Munson tried to intercept me at the hotel, so I wouldn’t see him. I told him, ‘I’m here to see my fucking husband.’”

Steve Harrington didn’t add any more details about the tour, just shrugged when I asked.

“He was coked up like you wouldn’t believe,” Robin scoffed. “She walked in on him with two girls and coke all over his… well.”

“I just asked him. Do you want to come home? Do you want to get help? Or not?” She purses her lips. “And so he came home and we found a rehab place near Hawkins.”

“The tour kind of… fell apart. Obviously. We had lost our lead singer and guitarist to fucking… Hawkins, Indiana,”

Everything stopped for the Boys. Upside Down offered to let them out of their two album contract, but Steve couldn’t afford to pay it down.

“Rehab,” He shrugged. “Is expensive.”

Right as it seemed that everything would be over for the Boys, things were looking up for Billy Blue.

“Jim was always saying, ‘the record is selling alright, the songs are getting there but he needs a… push,’” Joyce said. “‘He’s so close. So close. He’s a star.’”

“He always believed in me,” Billy smiled, toying with his ring again. “Always. Even when I threw a jug of milk at his head.”

Joyce laughed when I asked about that moment, “He came home saying, ‘He milked me, Joyce. But he’ll fix the song tonight.’”

“And I did,” Billy said. “And the album was going alright. I did a little tour, socal and the southwest. And then one night, Jim brings me this song. He said, ‘I want you to tell me what’s missing from this.’”

The song was, of course, the Boys’ biggest hit, “Hades.” Steve Harrington’s first version was called, “To Orpheus” and the chorus goes:

Don’t turn back don’t look behind you baby

I’m close, I’m right behind

The future's so bright, and I want you to take me

Wanna be holding your hand when I make it across the line.

“It was fine, but just kind of… nothing. It was supposed to be about Eurydice, but it was so… nothing. She just loved Orpheus and that was it. There were no insides to her. She was going to follow him to her doom,” Billy shook his head. “That’s not right.”

This was not the version that made it to the recording booth, of course. The Boys’ single, “Hades featuring Billy Blue,” came out in 1975. The actual chorus goes:

Turn back on me and I won’t forgive you baby

Don’t want you to see me like this

Up ahead is bright, and I want you to take me

If you’re strong enough to cross that finish line

“‘Hades,’ was a real step forward for the Boys. Gone were the teenybopper tunes,” Steve Harrington’s biographer and personal friend Dustin Henderson wrote in his book The Pretty Boy. “Their first album got the kids dancing. But the second proved that they actually had something to say.”

“Still hate it,” Steve Harrington said. “I wrote that song in rehab. It was deeply, deeply personal to me.”

“He came out, all ready. He wanted to start recording right away,” Robin sighed. “Like I mean the next day. All these songs, just pouring out of him. But the label had lost faith in us. And they certainly weren’t going to let us start recording with a guy who had only just earned his thirty day sober chip.”

“The song wasn’t ready,” Billy shook his head. “But I guess he was. Jim said he needed this. So Jim asked if I would come and like… pitch some stuff as a personal favor. Songwriting credit, that’s all it was supposed to be. Get the songs moving, get them going.”

Steve Harrington takes a long time to continue speaking about it.

“I felt it, writing for that album. I felt proud of those songs. They didn’t belong to anyone else but me,” He toyed with some piano keys while we talked, and then finally sat down and began to play something tuneless and half formed.

“That album was all about Nancy,” Chrissy said. “I mean. I know it. You know it. Nancy knew it. And she kind of hated it. But-”

“You can’t leave your husband right as he gets out of rehab,” Nancy said to me, toying with her wedding ring. “When he writes all these songs about how you’re the only thing… Steve was always like that. Heart wide open. That’s why when he met Billy. I almost thought… it would all be okay. That sounds fucked up but. I thought they could save each other. That the music could save him.”

“It was just a songwriting credit,” Billy raised his hands. “Jim swore up and down. I was just gonna come in there and sit down with this guy Steve. But when I walk into the studio, there’s two mics set up.”

“I was the Boys’ only singer,” Steve Harrington shook his head. “And to be absolutely honest, I was kind of a jackass about it. So to have some guy come in and say he’s gonna sing me my song… well…”

“Steve was the only one who would ever argue with Jim, And he let him have it that day,” Eddie laughed. “He called him the most low down, dirty, rat bitten bastard in California, and that he would die rather than give up his band to someone else.”

“I did not want his band. I did not know his band. And I did not care. And his song sucked. And I told him so. And then I sang it. Better.” Billy smiled.

“Billy was…” Chrissy shook her head. “Incredible.”

I ask Steve what Billy was like that first day in the studio.

“He was,” Something passed over his face. “Alright. He has a great voice, alright.”

“I was good. Better. Best.” Billy smiled.

“But he didn’t understand the song. He wanted Eurydice to… doubt. To think she wasn’t going to get out,” Steve slammed his hands on the keys. “It’s been… almost twenty years. I still don’t understand it.”

I asked why he let Billy stay. But Steve doesn’t have an answer.

“They were like oil and water, right away,” Chrissy said.

“Yeah, but oil on the water can catch fire,” Eddie shrugged.

“Jim asked me to stay,” Billy looked away from me, down at his waffles. “It was a favor to the label.”

“If Billy said louder, Steve said mute,” Robin snickered. “It was kind of great, actually. Finally someone called King Steve on his shit. One day I came in and they were arguing over how close the microphone should be to your throat. Almost got in a physical fight over a fucking microphone. I mean, I love Steve. But he always thinks he’s like… the babysitter. It’s his job to do everything for everybody.”

“Like who was this guy? Really? He came into my studio with no shirt on, most of the time still half smashed from the night before, and he thinks he can make all these changes. But Jim keeps telling me it’s just business, the label thinks it’s good business.” Steve frowned, and then smiled, and then frowned again.

“Yeah, I never wore shirts back then. Or underwear,” Billy said with a grin. “I was a rockstar!”

“Steve fought for every song on that album,” Nancy Wheeler patted her lips primly with a napkin. “He only lost on one.”

“Billy Hargove has songwriting credit and lead vocals on “Hades.” Dustin Henderson wrote.

“Billy was all over that album. He’d make some minor suggestion, maybe this chord instead of that, this word is better. And Steve would flip out, yell at him, yell at Jim, threaten to storm out… and then two days later quietly tell me to change the chord, he’d start singing the new words. Billy was there with us about every single day,” Eddie said.

“Of course, it was our biggest hit,” Chrissy laughed. “Everything but that song, Steve did what he wanted. Oh we had Billy in the studio, making suggestions. But Steve did what he wanted except for ‘Hades.’ Jim said that song is the album, and he wouldn’t cut it.”

“Jim was always right,” Steve closed the piano. “The bastard.”

Hades exploded onto the radio in late 1975. They didn’t have the same distribution as their first record, but the Boys had another hit.

“Billy had this way of singing it. Still does. He broke four mics when we recorded it. Singing so loud I had to keep an eye on the cymbals to stop them from shaking. You can feel him, right in your chest.” Chrissy giggled. “Like he was trying to wake all the dead from Hades. If anyone could, he could.”

“It’s a really, really great song,” Robin said.

This song belongs to Billy Blue, Rolling Stone wrote in 1976. The only question now is, what will The Boys do next?

“I remember that article. Fucking… Harrington said that he basically wrote the whole song. But he said, ‘the label thought bringing Billy in was a good idea,’” Billy gets tense for the first time. “I’m not saying I was like… I just mean. It would have been nice. To treat me like an equal. I’m more than just a singer. I’m not just… a piece of meat.”

“Billy was really pissed about that article. I remember, the day after the article came out, we were getting breakfast at this tiny place off La Cienega. Steve had this car back then, a big maroon BMW, and Eddie had got him a vanity plate when he bought it. Stupid thing it said, ‘BIGBOY.’ Anyway, We’re having breakfast, and we hear this screech outside, like an accident,” Robin Buckley gets uncharacteristically quiet as she goes on through this story. “Billy’s car is parked halfway out of the parking lot, and he comes in like a bull in a charge. Billy… he wasn’t some wimpy guy. He was small, but he was strong as hell… He came right over and grabbed Steve by his collar and lifted him right off the counter. And he said, I’ll never forget it because Steve used to recite it from memory, yell it at me, ‘Tell me I’m not dreaming. Is that Steve fucking Harrington? The lead singer of the Boys. Hey man, I love your song ‘Hades.’ How’d you get your voice to sound halfway decent for once?’”

“I don’t remember that,” Steve Harrington said flatly when I asked.

“And Steve used to be a fucking dick in high school. So he starts getting real bitchy, shoving Billy off him, asking what his problem is, why he’s such a dick all the fucking time, when it’s not even his band. And Billy said something like, ‘No one wants your shit band. Not with you in it,’” Robin paused for a moment. “And they just. Stare at each other. Like… daring each other to do something.”

Billy just shrugs when I ask, “I was pissed. I gave this guy a number one hit, and he still wanted to treat me like some… airhead singer the label brought in as a stunt. I’m not just a singer. I’m not a piece of meat. I’m a person.”

When I ask Steve about that day he’s pretty quiet, deflated at his piano. He only wants to talk about the song. The music. Can’t seem to talk about Billy any other way.

“He sang it like he not only knows Orpheus can’t save him, but that he won’t. It was supposed to be hopeful. A happy ending.” Steve said.

“So you still hate the song?” I asked.

“No, I don’t. It’s brilliant. And that’s the whole problem.”

To be continued...

Next up is Half-Oz-Eddie's piece at 7:00 pm. GET HYPE!

#harringrove relay race #harringrove #billy x steve #billy hargrove #steve harrington #harringrove fic #steve x billy #harringrovefic #harringrovefanfic #harringrove fanfiction #harringrove fanfic #stranger things #my writing #DJATS au #Daisy jones and the six au #tw drugs

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sevasims3 · 1 year

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TS3 Mods Masterlist (updated 08/03/23)

Welcome to Seva's Mods Masterlist!

Over these two days, I've deleted my mods folder and completely revamped everything inside, so I thought I would share all the mods I use to make my game better~

If you see something that interests you feel free to have a look, as all links are by trusted creators, and they do a better job at explaining the mods than I could. Click below to continue:

UI Mods

Sakura UI Recolor by aecyia

Soft Pink CAS Screen by Kolakanin (There are 9 options, only choose 1)

New CC Icon Replacements by Ninfaryes (I personally use the Folder icons)

New UI Poses by TheSweetSimmer

Game Fixing Mods

Smooth Patch 2.1, Auto-Lights Overhaul by LazyDuchess

No Intro by Rick

Perfect Day Lighting Mod 4.0 (IP Water with Auroras) by BrntWaffles

Reworked & Improved EA Lights by Simsi45

Esstential NRaas Mods

Please note some of these mods are required to run other mods in this list, but not all. However, all mods in this list are compatible with each other. Listed first is the core mod, then after are any modules I use to improve the mods functionality and add features. More information is listed on the NRaas website.

MasterController + MCCheats, MCIntegration, MCProgression modules

StoryProgression + SPCareer, SPExtra, SPMoney, SPPopulation, SPRelationship, SPSkill modules

Careers + CareersAcademics module

Overwatch & ErrorTrap

Woohooer & Decensor

Other NRaas Mods (In alphabetical order)

Dresser

Once Read

Retuner

Saver

Sleep Freedom

Tagger

anissims

Have Coffee with Me

No Fridge Shopping

Sims Drinks

Workout Costs Money

Gameplay Mods

These are listed in no particular order, categories are listed for ease of viewing. As always, please read the descriptions of any mod you download to ensure it will work properly in your game.

Pregnancy

Longer or Shorter Pregnancies, Puddles and More! by AgentTexas

Gain Weight After Pregnancy by FloTheory

Breastfeeding Mod V11, Don't Put the Baby Down by Nona Mena

Apple Sauce Baby Food Replacement by Twinsimming

White Formula Baby Bottle Replacement by daluved1

No Mutant Hair or Eyes by Kitty Carey

Mixed Pregnancy Feelings by lizcandor

Birds and Bees v1.0 by Mingos

Childhood & Family

Acne Mod 2.0 Lite by Twinsimming

Napping Mat by Arsil

User-Directed Scolding by icarus_allsorts

The Journal Mod by Lyralei

All Traits for All Ages by mikey

Better Playdates by MissPat

MakeUp Kit v1.1 by mintbeehry

No Stretch Children Can by kapaer

MoarInteractions by Buzzler

Toddlers Can Ask, More Baby Interactions, Outdoor Activities for Toddlers, Replaced Child Hug, Toddlers Can Sit with Sims, Toddlers Can Sit on Couches, Biggest Little Mod for Toddlers, Toys are More Fun, Homework Tweaks by TheSweetSimmer (bless)

Skills & Careers

Write Scholarships for Money by gamefreak130

Saturday Jobs Pack by missyhissy

Comic Artist Career, IT Career, Modelling Career, Nursing Career, Pharmacist Career by missyhissy

Social Networking Skill Changes by othiym28

Flower Arranging Skill (!!READ WARNINGS!!), Knitting Skill (!!READ WARNINGS!!), Scribbling Pad Fixed by zoe22

Online Center by JunJayMdM

Lose Weight Gain Fitness Slower by Twoftmama Note: you need an account on SimsAsylum to view this mod

Faster Gardening by berryblonde

Degree Credit Hours by Beccapixie10

Others (by creator)

Thank You Note Fixes by gamefreak130

Set the Table & Call to Meal, Vending Machine Tweaks, Autonomous Fun in the Sun by icarus_allsorts

Nosy Sim Interactions by FloTheory

Learn Recipes from TV, Better Bartending, Non-Lethal Vending Machines by Darkcloudwalker

The Randomizer Mod (BETA) by Lyralei

Unrestricted Sponge Baths, Faster Leaf Raking, Painted Frames CASTable, Higher LTR Costs, Unhidden Traits by mikey

No Route Fail Animation by hryniuk

Enhanced Hospitals by PuddingFace

Variety Attraction by Fentonparkninja

Dining Overhaul by WeeAlbet

Sleep on Sofa(see the 7th reply for download) by lytefoot

Cmo Smoking Mod Overhaul by olomaya

EcoFriendly Cars (requires store content) by SimsMx

Taxi Charge by Sleepy-Genius

No Hopscotch Wishes by computeteen5

#that was long winded #thanks for sticking to the end if you did!#ts3 #the sims 3 #sims 3 #sims 3 mods #ts3 mods #mod list #sims 3 mod list #ts3cc #credit to creator #sevasims

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red-riot-unbreakable-heart · 3 months

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✨The MHA Boys Go To The Eras Tour With You✨

Lol I just had to do this, please bear with me! I just watched The Eras Tour film and my MHA brain rot kicked in. Here's a few headcannons of how the MHA guys would react to being taken to the Eras Tour as your boyfriend. Spoilers: They're all weirdly into it. And some of them even plan out couples costumes! Gasp!

⚡️⚡️Denki Kamanari⚡️⚡️

Ok there is no doubt in my mind here - Denki is absolutely a Swiftie. He read all of the blog posts detailing hacks and tips to get tickets for the show, and he preregistered for a sale code the minute he was able to. He has half of Class 1A sign up for presale codes so that he can have the most amount of chances possible to enter for a spot at the show.

He's absolutely over the moon when he scores you both tickets to the upcoming concert. He asks you to help him make a Pinterest board so that you can come up with the perfect Eras outfits (he wants to do Lover). Guess what? You go as Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince. He's decked out in a glittering blazer with a bejewled plastic crown and he's thrilled. He picks out a matching flashy dress for you to wear, and keeps complimenting how absolutely gorgeous you look in it the whole night.

He's all about taking photos of your 'fits in front of the stadium and blushes every time he gets a compliment from a fellow swiftie. When Taylor takes the stage, he nearly faints. As she starts playing Lover he holds you close and tells you that he's so glad you both get to share the special night together.

🖤🖤Hanta Sero🖤🖤

Sero really doesn't get what all the hype about Taylor Swift is about, but of course he's willing to go to the concert with you. The man loves live shows - but you need to tell him to leave his vape pen behind for fear that you won't get let into the stadium if he's caught with it ("But babe, getting high at a concert is part of the experience!).

You get him a plain black t-shirt with a small snake icon on it. He doesn't get it, but he shrugs and promises to wear it. When you get to the stadium, he's really overwhelmed and intrigued by all of the glittery, feathery costumes. He spends a lot of time trying to figure out how his snake shirt fits into the mix since all he sees is hot pink and red regalia. He smiles and waves gamely at the other swiftie boyfriends in attendance and makes more than a few bro friends while in line for a beer.

When the show starts, he is immediately impressed by the production value of the whole thing. When Taylor steps out onto the stage in her glittering bodysuit, his jaw drops and he turns to you accusatorially "BABE! I never realized that she's hot!?" You both laugh as she sings her way through the Eras.

When Love Story comes on, he wraps his arms around you and says "I remember this one from when we were kids! Makes me think of you." He plants a kiss on your cheek and you grin.

Finally, the intro music for Reputation queues up and an animated snake curves it's way across the stage below you. Sero grabs your arm excitedly as he realizes the snake on his shirt matches the stage. When Taylor comes out and kills the choreography for "Are You Ready For It?" Sero turns to you with stars in his eyes and says "This is the coolest concert I've ever been to. Thank you so much for bringing me!" By the time Karma comes around, he is fully dancing in the aisles alongside the rest of the swifties, completely wrapped up in the moment as confetti rains down on the crowd. When you get home, he buys you matching Reputation era sweatshirts on Etsy to commemorate the night.

"Babe - maybe you can get one of those sparkly bodysuits like Taylor wore?"

"Sero - I have absolutely no place to wear something like that."

"I can think of somewhere you can wear it." He waggles his eyebrows suggestively as he pictures a bejeweled bodysuit tightly hugging your frame.

💚💚Izuku Midoriya💚💚

Izuku has no idea who Taylor Swift is. Why would he? She's not a Pro Hero.

Once you excitedly show him your hard-won tickets stored in your Ticketmaster app, he realizes how important the concert is to you. We all know Izuku is great at hyper-focusing on a topic until he masters it - so for a month straight Taylor Swift is his obsession.

He starts an Eras Tour specific notebook and spends lunch breaks interviewing everyone at Lunch Rush about their favorite Taylor Swift songs and eras. He spends time online gathering data and drawing up little charts, guessing at what songs might make the set list. He's disappointed when he can't find any interviews online that feature her choosing the best Pro Hero, so he decides that her favorite is likely All Might (the only valid choice).

He listens to each album in full, starting with Debut and ending with Midnights. He's thorough, and learns the lyrics to the chart toppers off of each album. He's so excited to impress you with all of his Taylor Swift knowledge and fun facts at the show, that he forgets he needs to dress up for it. When you both arrive at the stadium, he whisks you off to one of the merch lines so that he can grab an official Eras Tour t-shirt. He needs to be appropriately dressed for this occasion in order to prove his dedication to you and, by extension, to Taylor. You tell him that it doesn't matter what he wears, you just want him to enjoy the show with you.

When the show starts, he is bouncing off the walls. From time to time, he'll bend down to whisper an obscure fact or data point about Taylor's meteoric rise to the top of the music charts. A few eras into the show, he stops sharing fun facts - that's how you know he's legitimately enjoying the show.

He tries his best to dance along, but even with the moves he's picked up from Mina he's a truly terrible dancer. He doesn't seem to care, though, as he throws back his head to belt out the bridge to "You Belong With Me" while shaking his hips. You smile at how much he's enjoying the concert - you haven't seen him let loose like this in a long time.

Finally, when the performance for Vigilante Shit starts to kickoff, you notice a deep blush settle across Izuku's cute freckled face. Without taking his eyes off the stage, he leans down to whisper in your ear: "I didn't realize that this song was so...sexy?" You crack up and he grins sheepishly, watching Taylor straddle a chair. He then boldly says: "Maybe you can do some of these moves when we get home?" Your loud cackle of a laugh is drowned out by thousands of swifties singing along around you. You tilt your head up to kiss your boyfriend hard on the lips. He threads his fingers into your hair and deepens the kiss.

You pull away, craning your neck to take in more of the killer choreography before turning back to face him. "I like concert Izuku. I'd like to see more of him." You say, and he blushes even more furiously.

💥💥Katsuki Bakugo💥💥

Katsuki loves concerts. You know this because he's dragged you to countless shows across the past 6 months of dating. He loves all genres of music - pop, rock, sad boy emo, heavy metal. You name it - he's heard it. Even so, you're a little apprehensive to ask him to go to the Eras Tour with you. It just doesn't seem like his scene - glittery, screaming fans making heart eyes and painting "13s" on their hands just seems like something he would not enjoy.

"Hey dumbass! Why didn't you tell me you got Taylor Swift tickets!?" Katsuki angrily bursts into your dorm room one Friday night, looking pissed as usual.

"What? Who told you?" You look up from your laptop, surprised.

"Mina! She said you've had them for weeks! Why wouldn't you tell me?" He sounds more hurt than angry now.

"Kats...I didn't think you'd be interested to be honest!" You get up and cross the room, taking his face in one of your hands. "Do you want to go?"

"Not if I'm your second choice!" He's defensive, but his face has softened at the physical contact.

"Babe - you're always my first choice. I just didn't think you'd enjoy her music style and all of the girly vibes." You pull him into your room and shut the door to keep nosy dorm-mates at bay. You motion for him to sit down in your desk chair and you hop onto your bed.

"That's pretty sexist of you!" He has you there.

"Kats - do you want to go or not?"

It turns out Katsuki has been trying to get Eras Tour tickets for months but to no avail. He is dying to go to this show since it's being lauded as "the biggest stadium tour since The Beatles played Shea Stadium!" As a music lover, it would be a crime to miss such a spectacle.

A week leading up to the concert, you can tell he's getting pretty excited. He's made you read through the setlist with him at least twice. He's trying to guess what the surprise song might be - hoping you get to hear something exclusive so that he can brag about it online. You laugh at this - even with concerts he's so damn competitive.

You're most surprised when he shows up at your door one day with a big cardboard package from Etsy. "I got us some shirts for the concert." he says gruffly, pushing his way into your room. He pulls out two dark purple tees - one that says "Karma is My Boyfriend" and the other stating "I'm the Boyfriend" in bold font. He smiles sheepishly up at you, a rare moment of vulnerability as he waits for your approval. "Katsuki...these are so cute! Literally this is perfect." His mouth quirks up into a smile at the praise, he's clearly pleased with himself.

Before you know it, you're taking a couples pic in front of the stadium in your matching purple Karma shirts and jeans. You snap a few pictures and press your lips to the side of his jaw, leaving a ruby red lipstick stain. "Ugh - come on!" he groans, wiping the lipstick off his face with the back of his hand. He makes a show of being annoyed, but you know he secretly loves being doted on like this.

He goes crazy during the show - he's extra appreciative of the pyrotechnic display during Bad Blood. He gets especially quiet during the Folklore era, and you can see how much he loves watching the grace of the dancers as they swirl across the stage during The Last Great American Dynasty.

You notice that he loves watching you dance and belt out the lyrics to every. single. song. He has this adoring look on his face as he looks at you. You knew he loved going to concerts - but you quickly realize that he loves going to concerts to spend time with you.

At the end of the night, he pulls you into an Uber and plants a soft kiss on your mouth in an unexpected show of public affection (Katsuki is not huge on PDA, he prefers private moments of intimacy with you). "Thanks so much for bringing me, babe. I can't even describe how much I enjoyed that show. Did you see the flamethrowers during that one song!? Insane!" Katsuki has glitter in his hair, and a smile stuck on his face.

You spend the rest of the ride home recounting favorite moments from the show and grinning at each other.

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figgybeans · 4 months

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FHJY trailer frame-by-frame

because i love these freaks. ok lets get into it (this is gonna be long)

love the dome this season !! the backgrounds are beautiful. the steps up in production across FH is amazing

ADAINE !! JAWBONE !! BOGGY !! i think her splash art is my have from the six. i have no clue what ESF stands for so anyone lmk

her mini is also i think my favorite, the pins on her leather jacket really sell it. minus points for boggy's HUMAN ARMS though, theres a clearer shot later on

fabian time ! love the blanket. bill seacaster art as well ! god hes terrifying. the doodles on the owlbear stickers are cute too

apples bee ! plus some art of cassandra. kristen is in her strong arc, which the world is all the better for. i think its also important to remember that from the start of the series kristen has always had a higher strength score than fabian (ignoring her 4 dex)

ignore the phantom riz mini, the trailer hardly stayed on his intro art for long. which is a shame cause LOOK AT IT !! the kalina picture, fuckin baron, the corn cuties, so much night yorb, bizz in the corner, captain whitclaw, coach daybreak - the man riz shot through the head in cold blood, the bardy boys !! its perfect.

fig !! sad theres no ayda art in here but theres gotta be in the series. "-and a wizards paramore, YES its part of my identity, thank you" iconic. glad her mini has a custom bass. also gilear <3<3

gorgug my boy. with his giant fuckoff axe. so happy his mini is including his artificer level, PLUS that probably means he takes another level in it, and unlocks infusions >:)

this two headed dragon guy. red dragon can always mean some Kalvaxis callback, but we never know. i DO know that there's a statblock for two headed dragons in Monster Manual Expanded III, so maybe brennan uses that ? or just gives a regular dragon two breath weapons. we will see

this was one of the clearest frames i could get for this art, but what we can see is still cool. love kristen in her kill bill jumpsuit. as an aside im still a riz-has-a-tail believer

now THIS is a battlemap. im like 99% sure that that's the Thistlespring Tree in the background, and the Sig Figs are having some kind of concert here. HOWEVER, if we zoom in, it doesn't look like any of their minis are on the stage. intrigue.

the internet mall ! or something. i have no idea who the minis could be, BUT the IDK-wearing purple one in the middle could be some Guardian of Faith representing cassandra. also adaine and boggy have matching berets in the wide shot

this set i think is a gladiatorial arena of some kind? because we see a bunch of monstrosities and aberrations with this in the background later. also the big gates and monster-keeping pens are a clue.

BOGGY ARMS. BOGGY ARMS. adaine is covered in blood. but fig looks to have some kind of ghost opossum familiar. BUT, my friend pointed out that it could be edgar, zayn's ghost rat ! so maybe we have him return for an episode. this house looks spooky enough. maybe mordred manor gets infested by demons or something

otyugh spotted !! my favorite monster of all time

this roper-looking thing. it overlays when brennan says "an eldritch beast that threatens all of the denizens of this world," so im really thinking there's gonna be an overarching Aberration theme in these combats

also this guy. i have no clue what he is honestly. the rectangle in the background could maybe be a mirror or painting, so this might take place in the mordred manor-looking set from before

purple worm, in the gladiator arena !

some sort of ghost ship? doubtful that its bill seacaster's ship again, and the mist could mean the ethereal plane

the bad kids !! just noticing that fabian's eye patch is either missing or on the wrong side

im pretty sure this is an umber hulk, also in the gladiator set

skateboard fig mini. also, this could be the hang van (?) but it also could be too long and be some kind of ghost limo. idk

graveyard ! maybe they team up with zayn here

a blue dragon, which makes me think the red dragon from earlier isnt kalvaxis related and is just a dragon

more POV arrow shots, but this one's going into a fucking hydra. which looks like it grows three heads instead of two ? if that's what the attachment on the right side means.

this could be the red wastes ? back on the kalvaxis theory.

a wider shot of the internet mall. note the "YARRRRbucks" behind lou

THE RETURN OF THE CRAB KING !!

aaaand the final art frame !! fig finally gets her license (or not)

all in all 10/10 frothing at the mouth till jan 10

#rotating them in my mind like a rotisserie chicken #fhjy #fantasy high #dimension 20 #d20

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unintentional-edgelord · 3 months

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Companion post to the previous regarding Girouette and the Double Megamerge, though it goes more into differences between the one in ZX and that in Advent.

From Vent and Aile's perspective, while the double merge has given them the power to keep going, what they had to go through to get there is nothing short of horrible.

The ZX script straight-up tells us that they consider Girouettes' death their fault - Model Z does so, as well. We don't know anything about their dad so we can perhaps assume he was never in the picture, but either way, Giro's death now means that Vent and Aile have lost not one, but two very important parental figures in their lives. Sure, they've got a guiding force in Model X, but unlike Giro they've been matched with him for a week at most, and that bond hasn't been forged quite to that extent yet.

This is also at a point in their lives where they think finally, finally, they have exactly what they need to stop any more lives from being lost instead of being that helpless child they were at the theme park, so it's bitterly ironic that the moment they get the power to do this, they lose yet another parent.

The musical cues in the original ZX add an additional layer to it. On first playthrough, you wouldn't be likely to realise that Fragments, one of the "sadder" songs of the game which is present when Girouette dies, has the same melody as Snake Eyes, the theme of Slither Inc. HQ - interesting that they chose to use this theme instead of Metallic Soul, which is considered the theme of the Biometals and used during other sad moments of the game. Perhaps it's in direct reference to Serpent having a hand in Girouettes' death, the same way it's played right at the start of the game when Vent and Aile are talking about their deceased mum?

Either way, the one-two gut punch of that transition from Fragments to Trinity is powerful as hell; the fade out from Fragments leading into the bass line of Trinity lets you know there's some serious ass-kicking about to happen. Interestingly enough, the leitmotif of Trinity (that synthy bit) doesn't appear elsewhere in either ZX soundtrack; maybe in Rockin On if you squint really hard with the intro electric guitar It's honestly a damn shame because it's one of the coolest tracks in the game. Determined Eyes from Advent didn't allude to it either - but that theme is a whole other level of badass, so I'm not too fussed. Just would've been a really cool callback!

Anyhow, the title "Trinity" as well could not only be a reference to Vent/Aile and both Models X and Z, but could also be in reference to Girouette and the Biometals; those lending the protagonists their strength. The whole tone of the track and the way it's built up really gives you the feeling that something monumental and never-before-seen is about to happen.

It's also interesting to contrast the original in ZX to the Double Megamerge cutscenes in Advent.

In the first one, Vent/Aile look like they're visibly in pain from the strain of the merge, as you can see:

And then they emerge triumphant from it - the pain, the sorrow has now given them the fuel and determination to carry on and become "a hero who can protect everyone." The framing of the scene, coupled with the soundtrack, is iconic and powerful as hell, particularly the shots of the helmet crystal and the hair spreading out like angel wings behind them - both of which are homaged in Advent.

I also like that Advent brought back Metallic Soul and not Fragments for the scene leading up to it. That theme feels a lot more like Vent and Aile's this time around, and hits a lot more poignantly than Fragments would in my opinion. Now if only they'd brought back Rockin On as the boss theme... Advent as a whole could've done a better job of tying into ZX to be quite honest.

As for the scene itself, I know the original in ZX is practically identical for Vent and Aile, but as I've noted previously, they both visibly look like they're in massive pain when they perform the merge for the first time. (It's also never explained why there's an energy surge that kills the mavericks afterwards, although it's super awesome - maybe Models X and Z channelled any excess power from the merge outwards to avoid killing Vent/Aile from too much energy?)

Advent contrasts this for them both, although more so in Aile's case than Vent's. Aile's is obviously a clear homage to magical girl anime, but she looks relaxed pretty much the whole way through, laughing and smiling at X and Z's cyberelves at the start and her joyful expression doesn't really disappear right until the end when she's confronting Grey. Vent's merge hints maybe that he's still in some pain, based on that yell he lets out - but it comes across less like a yell of pain and more like a kiai, feeling incredibly powerful. His scene gives off the feeling that not only has he grown into the responsibility and power that comes with wielding both Biometals, but he also utterly owns it now. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get over how well-done the snappiness and timing of Vent's scene is.

On a mildly related tangent, though it is nice to see how happy Aile is during the merge in Advent, I will forever be annoyed that her scene doesn't feel as impactful as Vent's. It feels long and unnecessarily drawn out; yes I understand it's a contrast to the original in ZX and yes I understand it's supposed to be a magical homage, but not once (to me, anyways) does it feel to me that "this is the hero who saved the world four years ago."

Not even when we get the iconic helmet crystal forming, or the shot with the hair spread out like great seraph wings.

I mean come on, you're going to compare this from Aile's:

With this, from Vent's?

You did Aile dirty, Capcom.

You did Aile dirty.

(Disclaimer, while Vent is my favourite of the duo, Aile has a special place in my heart as she was who I used during my very first playthrough of ZX, and I'm honestly annoyed they chose to focus more on fanservice than anything else when she showed up in Advent. She so deserved better.)

#megaman zx #mmzx #mmzxa #megaman zx advent #megaman zxa #miss grimm rambles

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mryaksalot · 7 months

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A musical analysis of Animaniacs

The music in Animaniacs, at least in my humble opinion, is one of the strongest and most notible attributes of the show. Music is so attached to the brand of Animaniacs, and I honestly believe that the show wouldn't be as iconic and prevelent in our pop culture if it wasn't for its score.

To understand just how much music impacts the legacy of this show, we have to first understand the man who was behind all of the iconic tunes we know and love.

This is Richard Stone. Born in Philadelphia in 1953, Stone is a composer who graduated from Jacob's School Of Music in Indiana. After graduating, he moved out west to LA to compose music for various shows and movies such as Northshore and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Eventually, in the late 80s, he would sign a contract with Amblin Entertainment to compose the music for Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid and all the other Speilberg Cartoons that were coming out in the 90s. Stone would go on to win several emmy awards for his composition of Animamiacs, winning in catagories such as "outstanding music direction and composition" and "outstanding original song". With such a talented composer at first base, its no wonder that the music in Animaniacs is of such high quality.

So how exactly does Animaniacs' soundtrack seperate itself from other cartoons of its kind? For starters, every episode is composed with a complete original soundtrack, conducted all under the talented Richard Stone. No soundtrack is ever reused, ever; every episode's score is completly unique to fit the tone of the story.

There are a couple noteworthy soundcues that are present in a majority of episodes. For example, that four note melody that plays at the beginning and end of most episodes (it's the one that plays when the WB logo is shown in the intro). Supposedly, the short melody is set to the lyrics "I'm-Rich-ard-stone" after the name of the composer.

Another notable detail about Animaniacs' score is the heavy usage of the xylophone.

I kid you not, there is not a single soundtrack throughout the entirety of Animaniacs (as well as every other Speilberg cartoon) that does NOT utilize the xylophone in some way. The xylophone most often plays when a character runs in or out of frame, or when a character does a specific action. Stone loved to incorperate the xylophone into the show.

Now let's talk about the song numbers in Animaniacs, 'cause oh boy, there is a bunch! The song numbers in Animaniacs are handled with such care and attention; it's amazing how far the writers went to putting so many layers and detail into the lyrics of these catchy tunes.

Take Yakko's World for example, which is probably the most famous musical number from the show. The entire song is just Yakko naming every single country of the world while pointing at a map. It's so simple, but the song is so effective at acheiving it's messege: to teach the audience (mainly children in elementary school) about the nations of the world.

You'll be surprised at how educational these song numbers are. The majority of these songs were implemented into the show as a sneaky way of abiding by the Children's Television Act that was put in place in the 90s. While these songs were mostly written as a requirement by the network, the quality and care was still put into these simple songs to make them good. They didn't have to do this, but they did it anyway for the sake of quality. It's the small details like these that make me appreciate just how clever and witty the writer's of this show were.

Now, you might be asking yourselves: how do I percieve the music of this show as a fan? In all honesty, I have nothing but respect for Richard Stone and all the talented song writers and musicians that worked to create such a spectacular and clever score for Animaniacs. The music they made will truly stand the test of time. Without their creative imput, Animaniacs wouldn't be nearly as iconic and memorable as it is.

Thank you Richard Stone. May you rest in peace.

#yaksalot yaks #animaniacs #music #analysis #info dump #seriously tho Yakko's World is the best song from the show and no one can change my mind

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moonwritewastaken · 1 year

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Drunk on Each Other - cc!Quackity x gn!reader

Genre - friends to lovers

Warnings - language and mentions of alcohol/drinking

Word count - 2013

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH FOR 50 FOLLOWERS! ♥️♥️

This was very much inspired by Karl and Quackity’s drunk Roblox stream they did a month ago because that’s one of my favourite streams ever!

-🌙

Your friendship group’s dynamic was about to change for the better. Nerves were high among your friends but the accompanying excitement trumped it all. The reason for this was because George was in Florida. Finally, after years, he was in Florida. You and Quackity decided to stream together to hype up the vlog release then end when George said he was uploading it. You’d just finished Quackity’s stream in which he tried on outfits chat had chosen for Twitcon, unsurprisingly they weren’t exactly suitable but they were funny.

Quackity is getting your drinks ready in the kitchen while you set up your stream and open the game so it was all ready to go. You start the stream and do a quick wave to your chat.

“Hi chat, hope you’re having a great day! Today we’re going to be drinking and playing a Roblox horror game before a certain upload” your chat starts freaking out at the cryptic mention of the vlog. Once you’ve done your little intro, Quackity walks over and joins you in frame.

“Hello, hello chat” Quackity does his iconic voice and you smile at how excited your chat is despite most of them having just seen him on his stream.

“Okay, so we’re going to be playing a game called Doors today. The point is to get through as many doors as possible and any time we get scared, we have to take a shot” after explaining you make the game visible to chat and gesture for Quackity to go first. He stares at you for a second before sitting down.

He manages to get the controls down pretty quick and gets through almost 5 doors until the first jumpscare.

“What the fuck was that?” He grabs the headphones while you laugh and shoo him away to take a shot.

“I don’t know why I’m laughing cause I’m probably gonna be just as bad” you whisper to your chat, starting your turn.

By the time Quackity has returned a minute or 2 later, you’ve gotten past his record. He sits down and you notice that he brought his drink with him.

“Look, I’m already better than you” he glares at you before rolling his eyes and telling you focus on the game. You manage to get all the way to door 23 before jumping out of your seat. Quackity bursts into laughter, clapping at the little scream you let out.

You take off the headphones before standing up and heading to the kitchen. You take a deep breath before downing the shot and pulling a face. You hear Quackity laugh quietly (presumably from the reaction to the shot) before you take his place at the computer. You’d both been at the game for about a half hour now and the alcohol was starting to hit you both, although it seemed to hit you more than Quackity.

You watch in amusement as he gets in and out of the wardrobes scattered throughout the rooms.

“Alex don’t stay in there too long” You laugh softly while shaking your head as he hums but continues anyway.

“I’m serious, they’ll literally kill you if you’re in there too long” you glance from him to the screen to make sure he’s not dying unnecessarily. He got out of the wardrobe and continued to the next door.

“Oh shit okay” he continues through the next 9 doors before dying again. His death was around the hour mark and even in your drunken haze you see your phone light up with a notification.

‘Having technical issues, it’ll be a bit longer’

“Uh oh” Quackity whips his head towards you upon hearing you speak. You don’t say anything, instead opting to show him the message. It’s now you realise that you’re too drunk to play a game and the fact that Quackity hasn’t restarted tells he feels the same.

Quackity stands up and puts his hand on your shoulder before speaking.

“Talk about a topic, I’ll be back” you clearly didn’t quite take in what he had said which was evident by your next sentence.

“Topic? What’s the topic?” You look confusedly at chat, finding that you have to squint because of your cloudy vision. You end up chatting about random things before Quackity comes back a couple minutes later with another drink in his hand.

“You’re drinking still?” You have a slight slur in your speech which doesn’t go unnoticed by Quackity. He hums before sitting down again.

“Where’s my beanie?” His question causes your head to turn towards him before you shrug silently. He stands up again and heads to the kitchen. You read a chat message saying that his beanie was on the chair he was just sitting in.

“Alex?” He turns to you and tilts his head.

“Your beanie is on your chair you idiot” he laughs before coming up behind your chair and wrapping his arms loosely around your shoulders. Your cheeks heat up from the contact and almost as soon as you register it, it’s gone.

He picks up his beanie and instead of replacing the stupid hat he has on, he puts it on your head instead. He retakes his seat while you use the stream to move the beanie so the logo is to the side. He leans over and faces the logo towards the front like normal but you’re quick to move it again.

“What’re you doing? It faces forward” you shake your head at his insistence for something so minimal before explaining.

“I’m hiding the logo” he makes a face acknowledging your reasoning before speaking again.

“Can I tell you something?” The tone of his voice makes your heart race a little bit because of how it changed. You nod your head before blankly staring at the computer desk in front of you, trying to mentally prepare for whatever he could possibly say.

“When I first met you in person, something changed” your eyes widen slightly while you wonder what he could possibly mean by that. Unfortunately for you, he doesn’t give any further context and you’re not quite drunk enough to try and prompt it out of him. He quickly moves onto another topic after getting sidetracked by a message in chat.

After an hour of talking about nonsense and touches that set your skin on fire, you clear your throat before walking to the kitchen to pour another drink. You can still hear Quackity faintly while you lean against the counter. Taking a second to breathe, you realise just how drunk you are. Deciding this would be your last alcoholic drink, you return to the stream.

“You know what, y/n?” You hum, encouraging him to continue before averting your gaze back to the same spot on the desk as before.

“You’re great and I missed you” his words catch you off guard and you wonder how drunk he must be to say this on stream. In your periphery you can see the speed at which chat moves increase significantly.

“What the fuck” this is the only response you can muster as you breathe out a laugh. He giggles before continuing.

“I feel like I don’t tell you enough” a blush creeps up onto your face but you’re not sure how much is due to the alcohol. You see your chat spamming about your red face and you hope he doesn’t see it. Somehow you seem to get away with it for a second time.

10 minutes later and you’re talking about comfort content and comfort creators. You’d never said your favourite comfort streamer to your chat before, but the liquid courage currently circulating around your body made you want to.

“Mine is actually uh-“ you stop yourself abruptly, wondering what his reaction would be.

“Y/n?” You briefly make eye contact with him causing a lump in your throat. Against your better judgement you take another sip and continue.

“My comfort streamer is actually you” you see a look of surprise plastered across his face out of the cornier of your eye.

“You’re so cute what the fuck” you knew you were done for now. There was absolutely no way you were getting away with your reaction this time. Right on cue, chat starts spamming about how your face is as red as a Minecraft poppy. This time he takes notice of the rate that chat is moving.

“What’s wrong chat? Why are you all freaking out?” You get ready to say goodbye to your friendship with Quackity.

“Oh, you’re blushing. Why’re you so flustered y/n?” you know he’s looking at you, but you can’t bring yourself to look at him. You don’t want to the see the look on his face. The way you can hear your heartbeat in your ears combined with the chat messages and the feel of Quackity’s eyes boring into the side of your head was too much.

“It’s hard not to be flustered when the person you have feelings for calls you cute in front of thousands of people!” Your voice is raised only slightly, not in anger but in fear. His eyes widen at your confession and you don’t even want to think about how chat is reacting.

At this point you don’t care if George is almost ready to upload the vlog. You just want to stop the stream and deal with this away from the prying eyes of your viewers. The stream ends suddenly due to Quackity pressing the end button, he could tell you weren’t in the right space to stream right now.

“Hey, look at me, okay?” You shake your head softly, wrapping your arms around your chest as a last ditch to try and shield yourself. By now, there were silent tears streaming down your face at the prospect of having ruined your friendship with one of the most important people in your life.

“Y/n” he gets up and approaches you from the other side. He crouches down to look up at you like you do with a small child. Now being able to see your face, this is when he sees your tears. He pulls his right sleeve over his hand and dabs at your face gently in an effort to rid your face of tears. His efforts prove fruitless when new ones instantly replaced those he wipes away.

“I’m sorry” your voice is small, half hoping he didn’t hear you at all. He smiles softly, half that you were now responding. The alcohol amplified the emotions you were feeling and left your head reeling trying to catch up to the thoughts in your head.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I wasn’t thinking and I got too drunk” he clears his throat, giving up on catching your eye.

“No, I’m glad you did” his words surprise you and without thinking you tilt your head to face him. It takes a second to process that he was really saying this, that it wasn’t your drunk brain trying to turn the situation positive.

“What?” Your posture changes slightly with a quick wiggle.

“I like you, y/n” it was clear to you that Quackity had sobered up quite a bit at this point. He was still feeling the effects a little but he was in a much better state than you.

Having him so close, gazing up at you while under the influence proved to be a fatal combo. Cupping his face gently, you tilt it up towards you so you can kiss him. You pull away soon after and he laughs before pulling you back in. The second kiss lasts seconds longer and when you pull away he reiterates his feelings for you. You’ve never felt so many emotions in such a small amount of time but you wouldn’t change it.

You wrap your arms around Quackity, feeling him return the gesture before realising how tired you are.

“I’m tired” he rubs circles on your back while you speak.

“Let’s go to bed” he smiles and grabs your hand, leading you to his bedroom. It isn’t long before you fall asleep, nestled into Quackity’s side.

#dream smp imagine #dtqk #quackity #quackity imagines #quackity fluff #dtqk x reader #dream smp fluff #dream smp x reader #dream smp #x reader

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ariparri · 7 months

Text

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The fate of your life changes after you get an invite to a dinner party hosted by a couple old friends, Diego and Veruca Caplan. Despite the reports saying it’s going to be a storm that night, the hosts, you and all the other guests are enjoying a night full of fun dancing, laughter, food and music when lightning strikes. The power suddenly goes out and chaos ensues. Someone comes back with a light and to everyone’s horror, one of the guests is found dead by your feet.

My dear guest, you are now part of a murder investigation and might be the number one suspect.

With no power or reception, the police or any other help cannot be called. The storm is still raging outside, and it is starting to look like there will be a flood. Distrustful of both this situation and of everyone around you, you try to figure out what truly happened when the power went out. Look for clues and find out if anyone knows more than what they’re sharing.

This whole situation may be both exciting and terrifying at the same time, but surely you’ll pull through this horrifying night and discover the truth.

But what if this whole thing was planned? Would your friends really frame you for murder? Or what if the wrong person was picked for this? How could an ordinary person be needed for a situation like this. Only time will tell.

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》 RULES 《

► For this event, the materials for your entry (place of setting, characters, evidence) will be provided down below. You must take the starter plot (Intro) and come up with your own line of events. Create the clues and evidence to find out who your suspect is!

► The characters are given specific roles in the event for the sake of drama and to show that every character has a motive if they were the suspects. Remember that just because the character is nice, does not always mean they are innocent.

► Out of the characters provided you may choose who the victim(s) and suspect(s) are. Do not tell us! It is meant to be a mystery until the crime has been solved! (the link for Veruca's bio has been provided if you need her information)

► Not all of the evidence and clues have to be used. You are free to select the ones you want. Just don’t tell us! It’s supposed to be a mystery ψ(｀∇´)ψ

► Tag me so I can see the post. And include the hashtags #hphm murder mystery party & #hphm: murder at rose point manor

► Share your thought process! We love reading about how you all use your creativity

► DEADLINE - October 31st!

► If you have any questions or concerns please let me know!!

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》 PRIZE 《

There will be a prize offered for the winner of this event! The winner or winners (2 max) will be chosen randomly through a spin the wheel!

Prizes will be any kind of drawing from me. A portrait, full body, chibi, icon, sketch art, etc. Examples of my art can be found through the #ariparri tag.

I will draw up to two characters max if you want a pairing drawn.

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》 SETTING 《

Caplan Residence - Rose Point Manor

The setting for this story takes place in a secluded area away from town. The Caplan Residence is located in a rural area, surrounded by trees with a wonderful view of the sea.

From the outside the manor looks luxurious. It has been built with white bricks and has blue stone decorations. Tall, wide windows add to the overall look of the house and have been added to the house in a very asymmetric way.

The house is equipped with a big kitchen and dining room, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a comfortable sitting room. There's even a study, an entertainment room with its own home bar, and a grand storage room.

The building is shaped like an L. The extension extends into a garden path reaching until the end of that side of the house.

The second floor is the same size as the first, but part of it hangs over the edge of the floor below, creating an overhang on one side and a balcony on the other. This floor has a slightly different style than the floor below.

The roof is high and slanted to one side and is covered with grey wood shingles. A large chimney sits at the side of the house. Large, skylight windows let in plenty of light to the rooms below the roof.

The house itself is surrounded by a gorgeous garden, with a patio, including various trees, bushes, flowers and a small pond. The stone path leads to a rustic greenhouse, the architecture simple in comparison to the manor.

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》 MAIN CHARACTERS 《

You/Your Character - A close friend of Diego and Veruca Caplan. You were invited by your friends for a dinner party and have unfortunately been caught in the middle of a murder. Let’s hope that you are a good detective, because it is up to you to solve the mystery and uncover the crime.

Diego Caplan - Diego Caplan is an old friend of yours and one of the hosts for tonight’s dinner party. A fencing champion, having an entire shelf of trophies and medals on display. He adores his wife and enjoys the simple moments with her, like dancing together after dinner. He’s a bit miffed that his rival was invited to the party, but he puts aside his personal grudge for the sake of his friend, Victor. However, Diego isn’t sure how much of Kazuhiro’s snide remarks he can take. Or the way he sucks up to his wife.

Veruca Caplan - Diego’s wife and the lady of the house. Like her husband, she's an old friend of yours and was happy to have you join them for dinner. A former enforcer of the law, she now focuses her career in dancing teaching ballet to young teens and children. She can be a bit closed off, especially regarding her personal belongings. You noticed how she sneakily observes people either leaving the room or looking around her home. She’s not too fond of seeing Merula in her home, especially after arresting her at one of her gigs, or seeing her try to get close with Diego.

Merula Snyde - An indie singer with a fierce and prideful attitude. Though as talented as she may be, Merula’s hostile attitude has caused her to get in trouble with the law. During one of her gigs at a bar, she assaulted someone for hating her song and performance, resulting in her getting arrested by Veruca. The tension between her, Penny and Veruca is hostile, and you noticed that Merula seems to be getting uncomfortably close to Diego.

Penny Haywood - The upcoming actress for Phantasmedia, possessing an overpowering beauty. She also works as a model. She was an old friend of Merula, but had a falling out during their college years after dealing with Merula’s unsupportive and insensitive comments to pursue her career. While she is kind and passionate, she struggles keeping a pleasant and friendly attitude around her ex friend. During a confrontation against Merula before dinner, Penny accidentally knocked over a shelf with a couple of Diego’s fencing trophies. She appears to be sweet, but only a couple few know that she has a trick up her sleeve when it comes to getting signed by producers.

Victor Ketsueki - Diego’s old friend from fencing class and Kazuhiro's cousin. Victor gets along well with Diego as they both have a habit of speaking in an overly theatrical fashion that most find tiresome and some find endearing. His over the top theatrics suggest a need to stand out. Always eager to engage in a duel with Diego, due to his desire to prove himself and improve his skills. After meeting Chiara, Victor raises the antics and desperately tries to impress her with his own charm, leaving her far from impressed by Victor.

Kazuhiro Shiratori - Victor's cousin and Diego's old fencing competitor. A capable and perceptive individual of his profession of fencing. Diego doesn’t seem to like him very much, especially after his loss at one of the fencing competitions. Kazuhiro doesn’t take Diego very seriously, and occasionally lets his feelings emerge through quick jabs and snide remarks, revealing shreds of self-confidence and cockiness. His interactions with Veruca are questionable as if he truly appreciates her hospitality or he’s doing so to spite Diego. Either way, Diego isn’t too happy Kazuhiro is getting close to his wife.

Ismelda Murk - Diego’s ex from high school. The two ended things on bad terms after Diego got tired of the lack of commitment and affection from Ismelda. Despite that, Diego had remained civil with Ismelda before losing contact with her over college. Believing that Ismelda had changed from the last time he saw her, Diego had invited her to the dinner party. Ismelda still remains bitter over the way things ended between her and Diego, and only attended the party to get back at him.

Andre Egwu - An aspiring fashion designer, and a friend of Penny’s. He has an eye for fashion and interior design. You see him going through all the rooms, touching and moving stuff out of its place and giving his critiques and suggestions on what to do with their home, despite Veruca and Diego stating the home is fine the way it is. He was invited as Penny’s plus one to the party. Though he considers her a friend, Andre hates when Penny takes credit for the outfits he designs for her to wear in photo shoots.

Talbott Winger - Veruca’s friend from creative writing in college. Talbott is a bookworm entertained by idioms and poetry. He is content with being alone and has shown to be witty and sarcastic. Due to his reserved personality, Talbott often talked to himself. He’s also perceptive and intuitive, implying that certain things are going to happen just before they do.

Skye Parkin - Veruca’s friend from college rugby. Skye pursued a sports career, following in her family’s path. A bit of a hot head and quick to jump to accusations. Her and Veruca are good friends, though Skye is still upset over Veruca quitting the sport during the championships.

Chiara Lobosca - A nurse for the local hospital. Chiara used to be on standby during the fencing competitions to treat competitors if they ever sustained serious injuries. Out of appreciation, Diego invited her to join them for dinner. Chiara also seems to be keeping a secret. She’s always excusing herself to go to the bathroom, and under certain lighting you noticed she looks pale and feverish.

Felix Rosier - An officer, friend and mentor of Veruca. He was Veruca’s mentor during her time at the police academy and when she became an officer. He was with her when Merula assaulted a patron at the bar her gig was hosted in, and was the one who made the call to arrest Merula. He still works within the force and although he claims Veruca leaving was a sad event, he encourages her to continue her own career.

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EXTRA CHARACTERS

These extra characters are available to be added or to swap out the characters listed above so long as it is not the player character (you), Veruca and Diego.

Beatrice Haywood - The younger sister of Penny. Beatrice is not at all too happy with Penny's handling of her life. She is frustrated with how Penny controls the way she dresses, the way she acts and the way she styles her hair. Beatrice is sick and tired of constantly being a mini version of Penny and has resorted to going against her sister’s wishes.

Ben Copper - A young man who used to be afraid of everything and was the target of Merula and Ismelda’s bullying when they were in school. He’s no longer the scared little boy from school, he’s now more impulsive and brash, and holds a grudge against the people who bullied him.

Erika Wrath - A star rugby player, Skye’s rival from another team. The two got into a fight on the field after Skye accused her of stealing Veruca’s medals and equipment. Veruca sided with Erika, causing Skye to lash out and give both of them back handed comments. While Erika is on good enough terms with Veruca, she still has an issue with Skye and her actions.

Tulip Karasu - An acquaintance of Veruca but a close friend of Penny’s. Her friendship with Penny is mostly superficial as they both hate Merula after their own fallouts with the singer. Tulip and Merula originally planned to work together for their music, with Merula being the singer and Tulip being the songwriter. However neither of them could agree to the genre of music or the lyrics and quit before they could even start. When she heard of Merula’s failed gig and her getting arrested, Tulip visited her in jail and made fun of her situation.

Rowan Khanna - An old friend of Veruca from high school. Their nose is always stuck in a book and they more often than not, run off on tangents when the topic of interest is something they are passionate about. They used to be very close to Veruca before she started focusing more on her plans for the future. Plans to hang out were always canceled or postponed due to both never having any free time. Upon finding out that Veruca became friends with Penny, Rowan was surprised knowing fully well that Veruca can’t really stand Penny’s overly expressive behavior.

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》 EVIDENCE & CLUES 《

Fancy Knife - Upon closer inspection, this fancy looking knife is actually a letter opener. Its handle has been designed with such detail; it features an amazing Celtic design with a green stone for a dash of color.

Compact Mirror - Vintage butterfly cosmetic pocket mirror. The mirror is cracked, a couple shards are missing.

Snake Chain Bracelet - Snake ring, hand harness chain bracelet. The chain connected to the tail is broken and a strand of black hair is caught within the chain.

Rope - A decorative thin rope. Inspecting it closely, you noticed that the rope matched the ones used to tie the curtains back in the lounge.

Candlestick - A candlestick from the dining room. Originally on the dining table but was found at the other end of the room by the window.

Fencing Sabre - A fencing sword. The sabre weapon is for thrusting and cutting with both the cutting edge and the back of the blade unlike the épée and foil where a touch is only scored using the point of the blade. It appears that the tip of the sword is broken, making it sharper than it's supposed to be.

Fencing Trophy - One of Diego's trophies that was knocked over by Penny in the lounge. The illustrious trophy gleams in the light, considering it's made of 18-carat gold. It weighs 13.54 pounds and is 14.5 inches tall.

A Torn Piece of Cloth - Upon inspecting the fabric, you noticed it has a similar pattern to a handkerchief one of the guests own.

Hand Trowel - A small garden shovel from the greenhouse. At least, it was supposed to be from the greenhouse. But instead it was found inside the manor.

Stretch Band & Foot Stretcher - Veruca’s leg stretcher she uses when she’s warming up for ballet. The foot stretcher is made out of pine wood.

Handgun - A Glock 17, most commonly used by police forces.

Taser - A self defense tool that uses an electrical current to temporarily incapacitate a person.

Pepper Spray/Mace - Self defense tool that sprays an irritant similar to tear gas (mace) or an inflammatory agent that will immediately incapacitate an assailant.

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And so we come to the end of this event post! Tell me dear guest, do you have what it takes to solve the mystery and murder that has taken place? Are you able to discover the truth and bring this suspect to justice?

I wish you luck in your endeavors.

I do hope you have the chance to take part in this event, and enjoy it.

Good luck everyone! We cannot wait to see your posts! 😈

#hphm murder mystery party #hphm: murder at rose point manor #diego caplan #veruca mcquaid #hogwarts mystery #hphm #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery challenge #penny haywood #merula snyde #andre egwu #talbott winger #chiara lobosca #felix rosier #victor ketsueki #Kazuhiro Shiratori #Ismelda murk #skye parkin

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sharlmbracta · 1 year

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Kanye West - Selah (Mario animation)

- Original from Choreography by Talia Favia ft Kaycee Rice

2nd animation that I've fully created from start to finish!

(youtube link for high quality video)

I wanted to challenge myself by attempting to animate a complex dance choreography with his peculiar body proportions, and I really learned a lot about movement and especially about weight shifting while doing so!

Him performing this choreography can be interpreted to about his fight with/for the powers that were given to him, the previous powers of his own, and his power of will. Perhaps it would make him release, with the conflict between his self as a person, and his self as an icon, representative, machine. The end can be interpreted as having a strong grip on himself again, reclaiming himself... but whatever.

Hopefully he can deliver some sort of sentimental impact to some extent despite the peculiarity of the content itself 🤣✨️

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Progress and sources below the cut

Progress:

23.02.19. ~ 23.02.21. - fixed downloaded mesh errors, body rigging done. 23.02.21. ~ 23.03.03. - all dance movements (rigid, superficial, no depth) done. high resolution test render 1. (back to college starting from 23.03.02. less time spent on animation.) 23.03.03. ~ 23.03.13. - stylizing and smoothing animation 80% done. face rigging done. facial animation done. 23.03.19. ~ 23.03.22. - created and adjusted stage and stage lighting. 23.03.26. - added squash and stretch. low resolution test render 2. separated view layers and data passes for compositing. 23.03.27. ~ 23.03.29. - compositing done. low resolution test render 3 for checking post-production lighting issues. 23.03.31. - adjusted shaders and post-production lighting. 23.04.01. - full resolution final render start. 23.04.10. ~ 23.04.11. - render finished (3926 frames). final color adjustments to outputted video. added intro description and watermark. uploaded video.

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Music used: Kanye West - Selah

Original choreography video: Kanye West - Selah - Choreography by Talia Favia ft Sean Lew, Kaycee Rice, Courtney Schwartz filmed by Tim Milgram

Model used (no rig, only the mesh and materials): "Mario from Super Mario Odyssey" uploaded by Elite 3D

Texture used: Wooden floor texture

Everything else is created by myself, with blender.

The eyelashes and the top hair sprout is made by me, as they weren't in the model.

Rigging and animating done with blender 2.81

Shading, compositing, post-processing and rendering done with blender 3.41

he is so cute

#mario #mario selah #selah mario #animation #dancing animation #fan animation #weeheeweewewehew #wee-heu #m a r i o #i haven't slept tonight #i have severe sleep deprivation #but it's ok (hopefully)#because this is the last moment i'm working on this specifically

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acaplaya-musings · 21 days

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Voiceplay-adjacent Visuals: The Sound of Silence

I wasn't entirely sure whether I would make a post for this video (uploaded on March 11th, 2023) or not, as although I knew there were at least a few things I wanted to point out/talk about, I didn't know how short the post might end up being. But I did a bit of a "refresher watch" just earlier, and I determined that if I did make a post, it certainly wouldn't be any shorter than my post for Ain't No Sunshine, so here we are! Haven't really got anything else to say in my little intro thing, so let's get into the video!

I could watch/listen to Geoff playing piano all day long honestly

In my previous post, for Ghost Riders In The Sky, I made a comment on how Geoff wasn't wearing anything on his left wrist. I was partially teasing, but my point was that this is what Geoff's arms/wrists usually look like (and honestly I can both vibe with it and highkey relate)

"When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light..." (he's lit by a neon light! While singing this!!!!)

Like always when it comes to awesome lighting stuff in Voiceplay/Geoff videos, I gotta give a shoutout to the one and only Eli Jacobson!

(Also I know I go on a lot about how pretty Geoff is, but it's not for no reason! Look at this man!!!!)

I almost literally can't talk about the visuals here without talking a little bit about the vocals/arrangement, because they're so intertwined here! Like okay maybe that's not anything unusual, but when you have such a visually-simple/"stripped back" video, the elements that are included on screen (such as lighting) feel a lot more prominent, and it might be more apparent/noticeable when it lines up with the actual song.

All that to say, the well-timed spotlight flashes are very wonderful, and help add extra emphasis to the lyrics that Geoff is singing <3

And again! On the line "no one dared disturb the sound of silence", Geoff does a low bass slide downwards on "sound", and as he goes lower, the lighting gets lower as well! Bright to darker!

Alright I'll admit it; half the reason (at least) that I wanted to make this post was just so I could include pictures of Geoff being an absolute rockstar! 😁

(Man I love the frame-by-frame video scrubbing ability, perhaps even more than the way Geoff's hair is blowing and moving in this part of the song! 😄😋)

More of Rockstar Geoff in 2024 please and thank you!

(Not that I'm actually particularly fussy when it comes to Geoff content 😝)

And then bringing the tone right back to where we started, as is common for Geoff's covers!

I'm not gonna lie, when I was looking through the Geoff videos I had missed out on since my unintentional break from his and VP's channels (see my Hellfire post), and I saw that he had covered Sound of Silence, I was actually a little bit skeptic! Oh me of so little faith, I know, but it's such an iconic song, right? Everyone knows at least parts of it, and I knew a fair bit of it, but it didn't take too long before I decided to see what Geoff had done with it. It was good, I liked it, but THEN, when it got to the part with the surge of energy? My jaw dropped, and I was grinning in shock and awe! And now I don't even want to hear the original ever again, just Geoff's version! This! Man! Can! Do! No! Wrong!

#geoff castellucci #the sound of silence #sound of silence #acaplaya analysis #voiceplay-adjacent visuals

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zahri-melitor · 1 year

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No Man’s Land

I made it back through! As I said before, my last read through was over 15 years ago, so it was a lot of fun seeing what I remembered and what I didn’t. This really is one of the best Batbook events. The departmental level planning and plotting really stands out; there’s only a couple of times events are repeated between titles (most of the duplicates are actually in Azrael, now I think about it; particularly the Azrael-Catwoman storyline. Clearly they understood they couldn’t trust people to read Azrael) and the story flows with very few contradictions/out of order events/obviously skipped bits . The biggest overall ‘wait what?’ timeline issue is ‘how long was Tim actually IN No Man’s Land and how many times did he sneak back in after being rescued’, because the suggestion he was inside for 2-4 weeks before being airlifted out is hilarious given he then proceeded to spend over a month staking out Pettit and got back in for the Christmas Eve summons quite easily.

Highlights from my read: Bruce Wayne (as opposed to Batman) has some really good stories through Cataclysm-Aftershock-Road to NML. I adore when comics take the time to break out what Bruce can do as a Wayne compared to what he can do as Batman, and both are on show here.

Legends of the Dark Knight #125: the conversation here between Jim and Batman is something that’s been building for over 6 years, since Knightfall. And yeah, the payoff is worth it. They both used their words!

Being a big event, we got multiple 'day in a life' comics for outsider PoVs or minor characters, which are one of my favourite things. I'm a huge sucker for an outsider point of view. Lots of ordinary Gothamites just explaining why they stayed and what community means to them (and also that Gotham talks to you when you have bat rabies). I particularly adore the little red headed agent of Oracle's in SoTB #92 who is so EXASPERATED by Clark Kent ruining her stakeout. She's got a job to do! Stop ruining her report!

Among this is also some of THE defining Leslie characterisation in Chronicles #18, of why she's a doctor and her philosophy on care. Now, the way the story used Zsasz to frame it was irritating (please Leslie, O neg is in such short supply I PROMISE you there are half a dozen people in your hospital camp here right now who need it more than Zsasz), but what can you do. "I will provide treatment to everyone" doesn't have to mean "I'm using an invaluable resource on the least deserving/needy person in this hospital" but it does mean "everyone deserves my care and best effort".

Barbara is at her best, here. Not only does this run highlight her skills as an information broker, troubleshooter and dispatcher, but everyone finally starts turning up regularly to the Clocktower to hang out/have meetings! Early 2000s status quo behaviour has been ACHIEVED. The story would not have worked without her.

Just a BUNCH of Gotham Rogues have really good stories here. What Penguin contributes to the city's dynamics is just so very on display as he runs the entire city's black market. Two-Face's trial of Jim Gordon is some iconic storytelling. Ivy is mostly around via her physical absence - she only appears on page for Fruit of the Earth and in the Harley Quinn intro to set up the Harley & Ivy status quo - but she pins a lot of the territory warfare in place via holding Robinson Park, starts her road to redemption, FINALLY gets rid of those terrible 90s tights (ugh I dislike that costume) and honestly probably helped a lot of people survive NML. And uh Black Mask himself doesn't have the greatest storytelling but his HENCHES do.

Harley finally gets her promotion to the main universe (and her intro doesn't suck). Joker is fine I guess...ok yes I do actually like Endgame and it's solid Joker storytelling, even as shooting Sarah Essen is the most cheap and lazy angst ever (And then! Jim and Bruce are there in front of Joker who is asking to be arrested after he hurts their family! Again! This story has never been told before oh wait it's the 10 year anniversary edition).

Every Bat vigilante (minus Steph) gets a lot of solid character work and stuff to do. Steph's stuck off in her pregnancy arc having Dixon Lectures On Ethics, but does get that Helena team up during Cataclysm at least. We get Cass and David Cain! JPV remains the saddest wet cat in Gotham and the universe causes terrible things to happen to him (seriously how did you end up getting blown up and in worse shape than HELENA for the finale)! Dick confirms he's back in the family full time and will come if Bruce asks! Tim and Dick have adorable sibling adventures together! There’s an entire Dick/Babs hurt/comfort storyline! Tim Having Parents is actually plot relevant and helps end No Man's Land (also his team up with Wally in Keystone is the funniest thing ever. Wally's like 'HOW DID YOU GET MY PHONE NUMBER...oh yeah you asked Dick')! Helena gets masses of page time even as the plot (and Bruce) does her dirty! Even the LANGSTROMS get page time and character changes (that scene where Man-Bat takes Barbara flying is just beautiful).

#z canon read throughs #dc #no man's land #you can tell they put the work into this!#there's a reason NML fundamentally changes the universe status quo #HOW Gotham stories can be told has changed #even in the tiniest of things like Batman telling Oracle 'call them'#the dry runs in Contagion and Legacy are now just assumed behaviour #Batman calls? the team assembles

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numetalpuppygirl · 1 year

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what i'm listening to 4/5/2023 (song notes under cut!)

spot. link//yt link

Laura Les - Haunted: haunted. by laura les.

100 gecs - Dumbest Girl Alive: yeah there's gonna be a fair few new gecs tracks in here. dumbest girl alive is my favorite from 10k, i can't even express how much it just hits every time. i love the riff, i love the lyrics, i love the music video, i love the production, love it love it love it. i also included a minecraft parody i found when searching the video on youtube, you're welcome

Black Flag - Revenge: i've been trying to rediscover my love for some of my favorite hardcore genres, so i took it all the way back to the early days and reconnected with one of my favorite bands. i encountered this song in high school when trying to find clean black flag songs that i could put in a piece i was writing about the history of metal (which the band is not, but hardcore is significant in the history of the genre anyway). it's a great thrash-and-basher and apparently has not been in my playlist until now, which i was unaware of lol

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever: once again i must admit to listening to the beetles.... alas. look it's a really good song, the lead-in to the chorus is fucking amazing, the instrumentation is really interesting and unique, it just washes over you like waves of sound. plus it's goofy as hell

Jaga Jazzist - I Could Have Killed Him In The Sauna: from the INSTANT i heard the intro of this track i was like ohhh that's going in the next WILT. i don't have a ton to say about it, just listen. it's good sounds to chew on. shoutout io

100 gecs - Billy Knows Jamie: i freaked the fuck out when i heard this track, no joke. which is funny, because i'm pretty certain they played this when i saw them last fall, but i didn't have any frame of reference at the time for whether it would sound the same on the record. i just kept thinking "they did this for ME. SPECIFICALLY" because like hello??? i'm the nu metal gecs fan!!! that's like my whole thing!!!! and this literally sounds like limp bizkit half the time!!!!! i honestly kind of wouldn't mind if the breakdown at the end had been a little more restrained, just to preserve the feeling that it's 1999 all over again, but whatever. it cums. it's also about violence and killing, so i even get a little bit of like juggalo vibes almost

Fiona Apple - To Your Love: this song sounds so sexyyyy like maybe this is out of pocket but when this came on shuffle on a singer-songwriter playlist i was browsing i literally stopped what i was doing and was just like 😳😳😳 it's insane. and like when her voice gets all growly at one point later in the track... anyway haha

Marnie Stern - Prime: found via that coolass video i reblogged a while back oh god let's see if i can find that. holy shit i can't believe that worked. i don't know anything about marnie stern but i should listen to more because prime knocked the wind out of me it's good

100 gecs - The Most Wanted Person In The United States: last gecs track... and it's more rap rock!!! kind of. did you guys catch that cypress hill sample? i sure did!!!! love itttt. plus there's more killing it's so awesome. i've already said most of this stuff to violet (hi violet) but for real i think "got anthony kiedis suckin on my penis" is one of the all-time greatest bars and i'm not joking

DJ Lycox - BILLIE JEAN (DIOR): a lot of music from people on here this month! one of my mutuals (who probably won't read this but if you do. hi :3) posted this track and i really love the original pop smoke song so i was like right what's all this then. it's good. that's what it is then

Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run: i was reading this article about bruce springsteen being a sort of icon for butch womanhood and that had me like wow i am feeling emotions right now. and so i went and listened to some springsteen and you know what he rocks. there's something so desperate and heartbreaking about his songwriting, it hits me in a real way. and i've never even been to new jersey

Ada Rook - 920LONDON: new rook album ooh yeah babey. not my fav record she's ever done but still really fucking good. this song kind of reminds me of everlong, which like. girl who's only ever listened to everlong by the foo fighters listening to her second song: getting a lot of everlong by the foo fighters vibes from this. but still it's about holding each other close and making the most of what we have in our rapidly passing time, plus the riffs are kind of similar in ways that i don't feel like fudging musical terminology to try and describe

Sarah Vaughan - Lullaby Of Birdland: cool jazz can be kind of whatever but y'know i'm a vocals girlie and sarah vaughan honestly probably deserves to be listed up there with the greats. her vocal control is insane, and the way she just drifts from her higher register to the lower and back again is hypnotic. good fucking song plus shows props to charlie parker

May Leitz - gODKILLER: another from tumblr, thanks to user bigbaywindow for directing me towards may leitz ^_^ i have been rocking with several of her songs but this was the first one i listened to and it's really good, the lyrics hit me in a certain way as well that some of you might guess. also while putting together the youtube playlist i discovered that may makes youtube videos including one that i've seen floating around my recommended page a couple of times?? so i guess i'll have to see what's goin on over there

The International Sweethearts Of Rhythm - Vi Vigor: am i like. crazy. i would have SWORN that i put this in a previous WILT but i can find no evidence of that being true. in any case this is a cool kinda bebop-inspired jazz piece by an all-woman jazz ensemble who i wanna listen to more of. there's some really great sax work on here especially, so if you're into that def check this one out

Girls Rituals - Hole/The Used: okay funny story on this one. this was the first song i ever heard from any of devi's projects, it was before i even really knew who black dresses was. this song appeared in my release radar and i was like "who the fuck is this" and i'm convinced it only happened because the title is the names of two bands which i WAS already listening to at the time. and i listened to the song and said "this is really bad, and i don't understand why anyone would listen to this." and then i mostly forgor about it. skip forward to recently - i am obviously a big fan of devi's work and plenty of other projects adjacent to this. i get a big new batch of songs in my playlist (hello again to violet shoutout violet) and this song is in here. i listen to it. it's good :) take that, me from two years ago

The Buggles - The Plastic Age: the mandatory Todd Find™ for this month. i was watching the one hit wonderland episode on these guys and honestly didn't pay attention too closely bc i was busy but this song stuck. you guys know i'm all about that campy futurey cyberpunk-adjacent shit. it would be a stretch to say this fully gets there but it's still a fun song either way

Cage The Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams: lame song honestly but the chorus is super catchy plus there's a story. when i was working my old job there was a supervisor i liked a lot who played a wide range of tunes on shift. sometimes it was chill instrumental stuff, sometimes it was metalcore, and sometimes it was like this sort of radio alternative shit. this song specifically would play a lot, as you can imagine, and at the time it annoyed me, especially because of how catchy it is, it would make me think of work. but now both that supervisor and i have left, and so now it just reminds me of vibing with them and making the most of being on the clock. a cigarette daydream indeed

Jason Segel & Walter - Man Or Muppet: i don't know, man. i've had this song stuck in my head since i was eight years old and one day i randomly thought "i wonder if that's on streaming" and it is

#yippee!!#i've been looking forward to this sooo much. god i love doing these #*char noises*#talking pop

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