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catsafarithewriter · 4 years

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The Disappearance of Haru Yoshioka (Part 7)

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

There is more than just one manga, they discover.

They vary in plot, but not in theme - in so many, it is of the ordinary discovering the extraordinary and fighting to get back home. A girl unlucky in love who trades her face for a feline mask and almost loses her humanity in the process. A young writer who stumbles into a cat library looking for inspiration and forgets herself. A boyfriend who tries on borrowed wings and becomes trapped in an avian form he cannot shed.

Birds and cats and Creations. And always, always on the edge of forgetting. The tales spin round and round as if trying to describe a half-remembered dream that is never quite correct.

Sometimes Duke is there.

He navigates this fictional realm on the edge of normality, skirting the shoreline with uncanny ease and pulling people back from the line they won’t be able to return from. Baron seems to be flattered by the interpretation, for whenever Duke appears, the reader can be sure that all will be well.

He doesn’t see the way that Duke only ever appears just as the human has wondered nearly too far, stayed almost too long, strayed just to the edge of no return. He doesn’t see the way that Duke heralds danger just as much as he promises safety.

But Toto does.

The worlds that the manga show are ones of wonder and delight and beauty, but they are also ones of warning. Of the danger of forgetting oneself or running from your life instead of facing it. They are testaments that the spirit world is many things, but for humans is not one of them.

And Duke is as much a part of that as anything else in the worlds.

So Toto does not know what to expect when they track down this Haru Ikewaki.

Certainly he does not expect the beautiful little house on the edge of a quiet town, paired with a small garden filled with wildflowers. He does not expect the air of contentness that infuses the home, set to the tune of birdsong and gentle humming. He does not expect everything to feel so right.

He lands on the low branches of a cherry tree, and Baron slides off his back. Further down, Muta scrabbles along the branch Toto had dropped him onto. From their vantage point, they can see a slim silhouette moving through the kitchen.

“Is that her?” Muta grunts. “She seems so... ordinary.”

And Toto can’t bring himself to disagree. Even as she moves into the light, he finds himself almost... disappointed that there isn’t even a spark of recognition in him. The woman before him is in her mid-thirties, her brown hair tied back into a messy ponytail and a pencil tucked behind an ear. Maybe he was right. Maybe this isn’t the same Haru.

And that’s when Baron drops his cane.

He remembers.

Baron remembers and the memories come flooding back in an ugly torrent of images and emotions and moments and he barely notices the cane as it slips from his grasp.

He remembers.

He remembers their first meeting, and he remembers the hours they spent together reading in happy silence. He remembers the visits to other worlds, showing her the dancing stars of one realm and the underwater rainbows of another. He remembers her disappearance and the months he spent tearing himself apart to find her again.

He remembers forgetting her.

“It’s her,” he whispers, and he looks to Toto. The expression he finds is one of pity and... something else? He doesn’t have time to deconstruct it, because Haru is there, she is alive and well and right before him.

Toto places a wing before him before he can sweep into action. “She may not remember you,” he warns softly. “And you may not be able to change that.”

“I know,” he says, although in his heart he does not want to believe it. “But at least let me try.”

Toto watches him for a heartbeat longer, his eyes weary in that moment, and then nods and retracts his wing. “Just don’t get your hopes up too high,” he murmurs.

Baron only smiles back and drops down onto the windowsill.

He’s unsure how to announce his presence - whether to knock or to call out to her - but he hesitates too long and the choice is taken from him when she looks up from the coffee she’s making and sees him.

They both freeze, Baron with one hand raised to the glass and her with the teaspoon of coffee in midair.

She is the first to move. The coffee is lowered and she leans across the sink to hesitantly unlock the window latch. There is surprise in her eyes, confusion too - no recognition, but there is not quite the right amount of shock for someone who has never seen him before. “You,” she breathes, and her voice is the same as he remembers. “You’re real?”

He tips his hat in a motion he has done for her so many times before. “Indeed. My name is Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, and I believe I am a frequent visitor in your lovely stories.”

“Well, yes, but... I didn’t think you were... that is to say, I wasn’t aware...” She sits, suddenly, into a nearby chair. “I don’t understand how this can be, unless...”

“This isn’t a dream.”

She laughs, sharply, as if being told an unexpected in-joke. “No, that I know. I know what my dreams are like and this... this is not one of them.” She leans forward, her eyes glittering in the sun and he wonders how he could have ever forgotten how they shine like gemstones. “Did I somehow write you into existence? Is this one of those ‘stories come alive’ kind of scenarios?”

Baron smiles. “Not exactly.” It seems Toto is right, that he alone carries the memories still - but there has to have been something once for her to tell stories of him so. Maybe he can bring them back. “Miss Haru, are you aware of us having met before?”

She shakes her head. “No. I... I always just thought you were a character I had made up. If I had known there was actually a... actually someone like you, I would have asked before using your likeness.”

“Indeed. It is quite the uncanny likeness.”

“Have we met before?”

He looks at her. Yes, he wants to say. Yes, and I’m sorry I ever made the mistake of letting you go. I’m sorry I forgot. I’m sorry it took so long for me to find you again.

But he also sees the warm and loving house she sits in - a far cry from the small flat she rented when she worked as a librarian. He sees the framed covers of her successful manga. He sees the healthy glow of her skin and the brightness in her eyes that tiredness and long hours had stolen away from her in his timeline.

And then he sees the slim gold ring on her left hand and he realises that he may have had a part in her life before, but it is no longer that reality.

“No,” he says.

She is happy.

And who is he to mess with that?

Part: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [fini]

#the disappearance of haru yoshioka #the cat returns #the cat queues #also borrowing plots from both #mimi wo sumaseba #and a whisper away #just in the mangas that haru writes #which I've realised do all have that forgetting who you are plotline #or nearly losing your chance to have a normal human life #which uh fits really really well into this story #also a throwback to one of my earliest oneshots #the first one actually #with lines from 'the life that could have been' song by A1

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joezworld · 3 years

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Traintober Day 10

Prompt: A book by its cover

This is going to be a bit less focused than some of the other stuff I put out this month - it's basically a vaguely laid out infodump for Tornado's backstory. I was originally going to make this a story from her perspective, but then I decided I didn't want to do that, so some of it is told in an objective style, and other bits are told as though it's first person from Tornado's point of view.

Thoroughly Technological Tornado

Tornado may look like a normal steam engine, but in reality, she’s anything but.

It started as far back as the year 2000 - The A1 trust had embarked on a round of international fundraising to fund certain components, and were very surprised to discover that the German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn was willing to sell them a boiler at cost. This was a significant easing of their financial burdens, but it did come with some unexpected side effects...

They told Tornado that they’d fired her early because they’d wanted to put a face to their engine. She’d find out later that they were distrustful of the discounted German boiler, and had performed a full pressure test using a gas fire inside her firebox, not realizing that this could (and did) steam an incomplete engine to life.

Tornado didn’t mind, as she didn’t know any better, but the men and women of the trust were frantic - they had no idea what to do with her while they assembled her! It didn’t help that many of the trust’s members were parents and grandparents, meaning that they were almost physically unable to stop themselves from caring for her like she was a child. One of her frequent complaints from the early years was that it was boring, and they decided that the best option they had was setting up a television and a VCR and letting her watch TV.

(For those who think that this is a poor parenting decision, please keep in mind that she was stuck inside the shed, unable to move or do anything else. The only other thing they could do to keep her occupied was let her read her own technical manuals and blueprints, which meant that she was probably more knowledgeable about what went on inside of her than any other engine in the country!)

One of the first things that was put on for her was… well…

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

She remembered when they put it on for the first time. (She remembered everything - they said she had perfect recall - maybe something called an eidetic or photographic memory.) They’d rolled out the television to keep her occupied while they fiddled with her cylinders, the first episode she saw was the first one - Thomas and Gordon.

Back then, she didn’t know anything outside of Darlington sheds - everyone at the trust was very good at explaining the outside world to her whenever she asked, but to see other trains - even model ones - was amazing.

The cylinder work took several days, and she went through the entire box of VHS tapes before they were done. Some of the people, mostly the men and those without children, she’d later realize, laughed at her childlike demands for more episodes. Those who had children looked deeply concerned.

Looking back on it as an adult, she concluded that they might have been right to be concerned. With little else to do but sit still and watch television, she became fairly obsessed with the adventure and exploits of the engines on Sodor. Every episode, every book, magazine, song, and bit of information about Thomas the Tank Engine and his Friends were watched obsessively, until she could recite entire episodes word-for-word, and recite facts that nobody else had ever even heard of - like the existence of an electric branch line on Sodor.

One of the volunteers said her mind was “like a steel trap that hasn’t caught anything yet.” That might have been a little insulting if she’d realized it at the time. Now, looking back on it, it was kind of funny because it was true.

As years had gone on, she broadened her horizons from just Thomas - there were many books and videos about cars, technology, airplanes, and other real life trains, and she soaked those up with just as much interest as she did the exploits of the fictional engines on Sodor.

Every now and again she’d say something like that and everyone in earshot would burst out laughing, like she’d just made the funniest joke ever. She didn’t get it until 2015.

2008

It took eight long years of being stuck inside Darlington, but finally she was done. Completed. Finished. A real engine.

And a famous one at that! She’d gotten the chance to meet the Prince of Wales, the editors of the magazines that she’d been reading for ages, and even Christopher Awdry(!) - who was surprised, but more than willing to autograph her collection of Railway Series books.

She got to meet Flying Scotsman and Mallard, along with the rest of the NRM’s collection soon thereafter. It was a strange feeling, to go from being inside a shed barely bigger than herself and seeing them on the pages of old books, to being in the biggest shed she’d ever seen and meeting them in person.

(Even better, they seemed to be fans of Thomas the Tank Engine too! They were always talking about him and Gordon - or at least Scotsman and Mallard were.)

Pulling trains was weird, but everyone at the NRM gave her some very kind advice - be nice to the coaches - and it worked wonders. The coaches were sweet, and helped her out tremendously. Her first runs were amazing, and she had so much fun that she almost didn’t stop at the end of the line just so she could keep going!

They repainted her in a shade of BR Green - it felt nice to be in a full livery, and it matched with a couple of other engines in the NRM, who were shocked that she wanted to take pictures with them - they’d thought she’d be mean because she was famous! She’d laughed the first time she’d heard this - the Trust had been holding fundraising galas in the Darlington shed for years, and she’d been entertaining guests since before she could move, so being nice to some of her idols was nothing!

She even got to be on Top Gear! That was so much fun, and she was still friends with Clarkson, Hammond, and May afterwards. Privately, she was so glad that she’d beaten the car - that smug Jaguar had been so rude…

Then came her first big adventure: The German boiler everyone had been so distrustful of (it had been discounted - which was apparently untrustworthy when it came to steam locomotive parts?) actually was faulty, and needed to be returned to the builder in Germany for work. The Trust had wanted to just send the boiler, but the Germans had insisted on having her come over - they said they’d entertain her as their guest!

The Germans were fun - she’d come through the Chunnel (which went under the ocean! How cool was that?) and was met by a very nice electric locomotive who took her through France (she got to meet a TGV!) and into Germany.

The German steam locomotive shop was huge, and engines of all kinds were being worked on there - it was almost like steam hadn’t ended there, and she still wondered about the engine that looked a lot like a Gresley V3 and hid behind a wall when she steamed by one day.

The Germans were nothing if not efficient, and had actually decided to just build her a new boiler instead of fixing her old one. (they wanted to see how it had broken) This new one was very impressive, and she could barely contain her excitement: They’d fitted her with a new and advanced boiler - it even had a condenser, so she was more efficient and powerful than before!

How that went down:

“Klaus,” said the works manager to his second-in-command. “What is this?”

“It looks like a boiler Dieter.”

“Look closer.”

“At what?” A pause. “Wait - where’s the condenser?”

“It doesn’t have one.”

“What?! How old is this?”

“That’s what I wanted you to look at. Tell me what this says.” A thin finger pointed to the original plans they’d dug out of the archives.

“Am I hallucinating or does that say DDR on it?”

“I see it too.”

“How did they get it?”

“I’m not certain. It may have been inside that old storage building that was torn down in 1999. Look here, there’s a remanufacturing date that supports this. It must have been modified to their specifications.”

“So we sold them a relic? That we rebuilt to prewar specifications?”

“It would appear so.”

Both men looked at the British locomotive, happily chatting away with the modified Kreigslok in the bay next to her.

“What do we do?”

“We make this go away, or else our careers and reputation may not survive this.”

“Agreed.”

Tornado looked up from her conversation partner as the two men approached her.

“Ahem, excuse me Fraulein,” The older man said. “But we would like to ask your opinion on some potential… modifications we wish to make to your design…”

And they’d given her some new technology as well: an automatic stoker, injectors, and even grease injectors for her bearings! These were all computer controlled (and they gave her a computer, and an iPhone so she could access all of these systems as well as browse the internet and listen to music!), so now she was a “smart engine”!

(They also gave her “Cybereyes” - a new technology developed by the Americans and newly introduced to Germany in 2009. They’re biomechanical eyes featuring 24K image sensors, night-vision and thermal imaging technology, 1200mm optical zoom, heads-up display with internet connectivity, 6,000 lumen headlight capability, and, most importantly, the ability to change pupil, iris, and sclera to any color the user desires. Quite naturally, Tornado focused on the “color changing eye” portion of the explanation and ignored everything else.)

When she jokingly said that she could probably drive herself now, the men stared at her for a moment before saying that, yes, she could!

Learning how to drive herself was a fun experience, made all the more exciting by the fact that, apparently, having so many German parts put into you at once can make you speak German without realizing it! She almost had to relearn English, but there were fortunately enough parts of her left to make sure that she still spoke like the Queen.

“Learning” German meant that she could understand what everyone else was saying, and she made friends quickly with some of the other engines there - they had shops for diesels and electrics too - and a V200 named Heinrich took her out to a very exclusive club with some of his friends.

The club - The Berghain - was so exclusive that she was the only one who got in, but goodness was it an amazing experience. She didn’t really want to leave, and neither did anyone else - they let her stay there for as long as she liked, and let her do whatever she wanted while she was there.

She rolled out of the club a week later with a wealth of new life experiences and the well-wishes of the club’s owners, who said she could come back at any time. From the noise that Heinrich made when he heard that, it was probably something very rare. She’d have to treasure that.

Driving herself back across Germany and France was an extremely unusual experience - the Germans had deemed her good to go, and sent her off on her own! She made it to the Chunnel in (mostly) one piece, and was pulled through by a very nice (and ever so big) Le Shuttle engine.

Nobody was there to meet her when she arrived - was she supposed to call home? She didn’t know the number - but she was able to ask the signal man for a path to Darlington. That took some convincing, with the help of the Chunnel Engine, but they managed it.

She showed up that night, at the train station instead of the works themselves, but it was still home, at last!

Some people from the Trust found her there the next morning, and they were very surprised!

---

Once she returned home, the men from the Trust’s mechanical department decided to look her over, once again suspicious of German engineering. The confused noises they made started when they found the engineering drawings the Germans had left in her cab, and grew worse with each panel they looked under.

Tornado tried to soothe them by explaining what they’d done to her, but this just made them get paler and paler. By the time she got around to showing her color-changing eyes - which she had to explain how they worked partially in German - they could barely stand up!

After that, the Trust’s mechanical staff stopped asking questions, stopped being surprised, and stopped showing Tornado’s interior workings to anyone.

-------

#ttte #sodor #sodor headcanon #sodor shenanigans #ttte sodor #tornado #fic #traintober 2021 #traintober #the railway series #background info #infodump #worldbuilding kinda

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majjiktricks · 2 years

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A1, 6, 7, 10, B1, 6, C3, 6, 11, D4, E2, 4, F7

hoo boy this is gonna be a long post LOL ill put this under a readmore

yakuza questions from here !!

A1. Favorite character(s)? akiyama <3, majima, daigo, haruka, and kiryu ofc. if we count judgment too, higashi <3

A6. Favorite side character(s)? KASHIWAGI <3333 also rikiya. sherlock holmes girl from lost judgment, amasawa. shes so cute 🥺

A7. Favorite substory(ies)? the dominatrix one from 0 always sticks in my head as the first REALLY RIDICULOUS one i got and i love it very much. the daigo+majima one from dead souls, daigo crying in a cute little dress is still one of the funniest things ive ever seen. the one where, as akiyama, you get to talk circles around a bank scammer. the one where you take a ghost girl on a date in y7.

A10. Favorite weapon(s)? the fish cannon. i forget what its called but that thing helped me so much LMAO

B1. Which character do you relate to most and why? i too like to sleep on whatever surface is comfortable, have terrible personal scheduling, have significantly more experience talking to women than other men, and (wish i could) blow exorbitant amounts of cash on the good things for myself and people i love. guess.

B6. Are there any characters that you wish you could be more like? i honestly wish i had majima's ability to just. be batshit insane. like i need that in my life. i would rather be over the top than the anxiety-ridden mess i am now 😅

C3. Which character(s) deserved better? FUCKING. SHINJI. NO EXPLANATION NEEDED. god. and reina... and sayama...... pls give us a main girl who isnt a love plot to a leading man...............

C6. If you could revive any deceased character, who would it be and why? im beating a dead horse here (pun.. WHOOPS) but. the 1-3 villains. it would have been SO MUCH more interesting to see villains WILLING TO BE REDEEMED instead of fucking. suicidal. dead souls was a step in the right direction with ryuji, but we never got anything more than that.....

C11. Which character has the best taste in clothing? Who has the worst? genuinely think so many of these men do NOT know how to dress in a suit. not one that matches, anyway. i have to say majima has the best. because he simply does not care. and he looks good whatever hes doing. otherwise, yuya. i love that guy's clothes. worst... how to choose....... im gonna nominate minami for this. i get wanting to be comfy. but tracksuit pants? and JUST tracksuit pants? smh

D4. Which character(s) do you believe should have never existed in the first place? tbh i dont feel an unspeakable rage from many characters.. HM... if i didnt like a character, its likely i dont remember them. so. blanket statement of any perv characters tho. die.

E2. Bops: Haruka Sawamura, T-Set or Dream Line? was slightly confused by this question bc of the lack of oxford comma, but i can forgive it. i gotta say my girl haruka. i love her songs so much. dream is too slow for my taste so that rules dreamline out.

E4. Eat: Ramen or Takoyaki? as much as i love ramen, i havent had good takoyaki in so long and i CRAVE it.... theres a japanese place in the city right nearby and i just havent had the opportunity to go there in a while. ive tried it from multiple places but that ones the best. its kinda... mushy? from other places, where its actually nice and chewy from this place, and they give you a good sauce with it too :D

F7. Who are you fighting on the Millennium Tower rooftop? bro if i could hold my own in a fight with any of these men i would be set for life. uhhh. i wouldnt mind being tossed by saejima just to see what flying feels like tho. but then the pain.......

#jazz noises #inbox #yakuza #coffeemakesmeahappybean

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time-is-standing · 2 years

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top 10 songs of march

the month where we are still doomed and every day gest a bit harder to survive.

1. King by XXXTENTACION

"leave me alone, I wanna go home

it's all in my head, I won't be upset if"

this song is so good, it hurts my heart to think someone feels just the way I feel about life and feelings. I could put every single line of the lyrics here and this statement would still be working fine. (I'm not doing the best mentally, btw.)

2. Star Shopping by Lil Peep

I had like 4 playlists this month. actually all of them were made for different purposes, and yet I still found my way to this one song that I've been listening to for the longest time ever. one night I was so desperate to fall asleep (but I was terrified because I've got triggered real badly and I knew nightmares were coming), that I started listening to this one. not only did I fall asleep real soon, the song got stuck in my mind so I continued to listen.

3. IDGAF (with blackbear) by BoyWithUke, blackbear

this is a recent find! I found this gem like a week ago and it's been on repeat ever since. I love it so much, the vibes are perfect for this time of the year. spring is just around the corner & I feel so much better just thinking about it.

the lyrics are so good, this song is gold.

4. Night Away (Dance) (feat. Tion Wayne) by A1 x J1, Tion Wayne

the feeling of nostalgia caught me off guard this month. healing and working with myself is suprising me every day. as I'm getting memories back from my childhood, I'm becoming more and more nostalgic and these songs/remixes are such a great way to think of some good memories. this song is super great for boosting your mood, especially if you have partied to the original as well.

5. Free by Tvilling

antoher gem from Benex's streams. I love this man so much. even though this was a long long month, I've listened to the EDM playlist a lot and I'm finding more and more favs from there. it's always great to feel like you're at home - and this boy makes me feel that way. any time I start the playlist, comfort and happiness are the only things in my heart. knowing every single song from the streams is so special, it makes them even more enjoyable! I'm in love.

6. Angels Don't Fuck by Insincere

this song gives me so much comfort. it all started when I was having a pretty bad mental breakdown and it helped me a lot. ever since I've been listening to it when I feel a bit stuck or when it gets too hard to even exist... and I needed support more than ever i these last two weeks (I've just gotten into a train accident - I wasn't injured, I just experienced something real disturbing)

sometimes music is the only thing keeping me sane and alive so yeah. this song is on the list.

7. Pigstep Freestyle by Prince Zuko

I've had like 2 days off work and I played a lot of minecraft in those days. I was listening to an old playlist called "memers" from my first mc phase back when pigstep and the nether update came out. it got me into the mood to grind a bit so I've listened to it on repeat and did a lot. (I'm super proud so here is the list of things I've achieved: I built a honey comb farm; I've bred my villagers; traded a lot to get diamond armour and tools, got loads of books; I upgraded my dia helmet and boots fully; I terraformed the front of my house; I've been adventuring and found a new village nearby; I've done some achievements too! I'm trying to collect as much as I can)

8. Queerball by McCafferty

there won't be a month where I'm not saying silly stuff about me having trouble to fall asleep and listening to this song. that's just how it goes, I don't even force myself to fall asleep anymore, I'm just laying down listening to music/streams and facing the consequences the next day. it's super annoying but I don't know what else to try out.

9. Koloběh lásky by Lafi

this was an accident. the one time I'm able to fall asleep instantly while listening to music, I pass out so hard that the next time I wake up is at like 4am with the song playing on loop. so yeah. anyways I still love this one and it always reminds me of that one tiktok about gnf.

10. HAUNTED by Isabel LaRosa

this is a big mood. I found it on tiktok, and that one video with bikes made me want to ride a bike again, until I remembered I'm terrified of them, lol. there is no thing in this world I'm not afraid of.

however the song slaps and is a great choice if you need to by hyped up! I'm loving it.

#music #songs #spotify #my top 10 songs #march #top 10 songs #memories

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bulletballet-arch · 3 years

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REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost , don’t reblog ! tag 10 ! good luck ! TAGGED. I took this from Minnie’s archived Bioshock blog. I’ve been looking for this meme all this month. TAGGING. @hammurabicomplex. @bluuxriising. @ Me - for Sal on @bulletsoverbensonhurst. @immaterialed (charlie) @soypeor (bella) @svmmercmance. @mrflayed. and you!

BASICS. FULL NAME : Eve Delores Littlejohn NICKNAME : Evie, Little Evie (by her maternal side of the family), Delores, Didi NAME MEANING / S Eve is from the ancient Hebrew name חַוָּה (Chawwah), which was derived from the Hebrew word חָוָה (chawah) meaning "to breathe" or the related word חָיָה (chayah) meaning "to live". Delores is a variant of Dolores, meaning "sorrows", taken from the Spanish title of the Virgin Mary María de los Dolores, meaning "Mary of Sorrows." Littlejohn is a surname that has historically been found in England and Scotland. With potential origins being either ‘to distinguish a beloved child that was not the eldest.’ Or, ‘a contradictory nickname for a large man.’ HISTORICAL CONNECTION? : She’s named after her grandmother, Evelyn Hollins.

AGE : 42 BIRTHDAY : June 2 ETHNIC GROUP : Black-American. Meaning she’s mixed with a lot (Some of her relatives are respectively Creole and Italian) but uses Black as a catch-all term. NATIONALITY : American LANGUAGE / S : English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, some French SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Bisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Biromantic RELATIONSHIP STATUS : Verse dependent, usually married -or connected- to Salvatore Scozzari in some way. CLASS : Upper-Class HOME TOWN / AREA : Brooklyn. Spent time between Bedford-Stuyvesant - with her paternal grandfather and Park Slope - with her maternal grandparents. CURRENT HOME : In her childhood home in Bedford-Stuyvesant. PROFESSION : Ballet Instructor. Former Professional Ballerina. ( Other verses see her as a professional thief. )

PHYSICAL. HAIR : Black. In terms of her natural hair, Eve has springy, 3C hair she seldom shows off because she was raised in a family where straightened hair was deemed presentable and professional. EYES : Thin almond eyes. Dark brown. NOSE : Straight and small. FACE : She has a prominent, high forehead, that’s accented with high cheekbones and a pointy chin. LIPS : Full. COMPLEXION : She has a light brown (tawny) complexion. SCARS : None major. TATTOOS : None. HEIGHT : 5′4″ BUILD : Eve has a slender build. One of those people who have been small and petite since childhood. Despite this, she also stays skinny because she is obsessively conscious of the food she consumes. The older she gets the more she weighs, however. USUAL HAIR STYLE : Her hair is cut short. Reaching her shoulders in a neat, even bob. She either curls it in a retro fashion or curls the tips. For work she wears it in a traditional, pinned bun. USUAL FACE LOOK : In public, she appears stoic for the most part. Any emotion shown (such as the length of a smile) is carefully calculated. She has to seem perfect. USUAL CLOTHING : Form fitting dresses. Incredibly chic and fashionable for the time. Shoes include heels - never open-toed, unless she has on stockings. Extravagant earrings. Jewelry that can include either necklaces, crosses, pearls, or dainty rings. Prone to wearing black sunglasses in public.

PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR / S : Thunderstorms, airplanes, creatures like weasels, snakes and ferrets, break-ins, men she doesn’t know, harm coming to her children ASPIRATION / S : Formerly wanted to become a major [black] ballerina in the elite world of ballet, now she just wants to expose more [inner city children] to dance through her job. Personally, she wants her children to change the world in some form or fashion, too. Eve also has good ideas on improving the community, but at the moment has no idea how to go about these ideas. POSITIVE TRAITS : Generous, compassionate, patient, protective NEGATIVE TRAITS : Strict, sullen, hard to read, represses her emotions, secretive MBTI : Advocate - INFJ-T ZODIAC : Cancer TEMPERAMENT : Melancholic ANIMALS : Lioness VICE / S : Pride & Lust FAITH : Christian. Grew up Baptist, but Catholic influences have been around her since childhood. Attended a Catholic High School in Park Slope, her grandmother Evelyn was also a practicing Catholic. GHOSTS ? : Yes and no. She feels that objects formerly owned by the deceased posses the essence of their previous owners and that they essentially live on through these pieces of property. AFTERLIFE ? : Yes. REINCARNATION ? : No, but it’s a romantic concept. ALIENS ? : No. POLITICAL ALIGNMENT : Democratic ECONOMIC PREFERENCE : She likes being where she’s at now. But honestly, being upper class is all she’s ever known. SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION : Bourgeoisie, basically. The Littlejohn’s represent The Historical Black Elite. EDUCATION LEVEL : College level. FAMILY.

FATHER : William ‘Bill’ Littlejohn MOTHER : Linda Littlejohn ( nee Hollins ) SIBLINGS : None EXTENDED FAMILY : Amos Littlejohn (paternal grandfather) Liza Littlejohn (paternal grandmother) Evelyn Hollins (maternal grandmother) Giuseppe D’Aietti (maternal grandfather) and a wide host of cousins, aunts and uncles.

FAVOURITES. BOOK : Night Song by Beverly Jenkins. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Some sort of old, French erotic novel that was published before she was born. MOVIE : Eve watches films along the lines of...Waiting to Exhale, Beaches, The First Wives Club and Fatal Attraction. She loves Made-For-TV movies from the time period. In regards to plays, her favorite one is Sunday In The Park With George. 5 SONGS : Meet Me On The Moon / Essence of Sapphire / No One In The World / People / The First Time I Saw Your Face DEITY : Persephone HOLIDAY : New Years Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Major holidays during the colder season. MONTH : October SEASON : Autumn PLACE : The dance studio she works at. WEATHER : Sunny, but cool. SOUND : The voices of Anita Baker and Sarah Vaughn. A skilled hand running over piano keys. Soft trumpets. Running water. Cats making chipper little meows. SCENT / S : Perfume, floral scented lotions, her partner’s cologne TASTE / S : Caramel, the tang of dark chocolate, strawberries coated with either chocolate, or sprinkles of white sugar. Light Vinegar. FEEL / S : Performing in front of an audience. Hot water engulfing your skin after a long day. Satin - whether it be the fabric of her clothes or sheets, your fingers tightly intertwined with another’s, feeling your significant other’s chest raise and lower against your skin with each breath they take. ANIMAL / S : Cocker Spaniels, Afghan Hounds, Cats, Birds - she loves all ( well, a majority ) of animals. NUMBER : Doesn’t have one. COLOR : White, Pink, Gold.

EXTRA. TALENTS : Dance, Eve is trained in ballet when it comes to her main verse. She has attended ballet classes since the age of eight and ever since then she placed all of her focus into it. Similarly, Eve has always had the makings of a good artist - as a child she enjoyed drawing and had informal art lessons with a man who lived in the basement of her grandfather’s brownstone, but she never invested into that half of her. BAD AT : Singing, Being interviewed, Public Speaking (as in Speech Giving), Decision Making TURN ONS : Charisma, Leadership Skills, Temperature Play, Phone Sex, Heavy Kissing, Light Roleplay TURN OFFS : Public Sex, Tearing [ Her ] Clothes, Threesomes, Cruelty, Senseless Violence HOBBIES : viewing plays & some musicals, reading romance novels, shopping, working out (she was into the whole celebrity VHS tape exercise trend), playing tennis, decorating AESTHETIC : Vintage Black Glamour, Black Ballerinas, Champagne and Wine Glasses, Paintings by Melinda Byers and Edward 'Clay' Wright QUOTES : "I'm bad with words, I hope you're good in reading eyes." / "There are truths I haven't even told God. And not even myself. I am a secret under the lock of seven keys."

FC INFO. MAIN FC / S : Lynn Whitfield ( A Thin Line Between Love & Hate ) ALT FC / S : Kylie Bunbury ( Twisted ) OLDER FC / S : Lynn Whitfield ( Greenleaf ) YOUNGER FC / S : N/A VOICE CLAIM / S : Lynn Whitfield

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 : if you could write your character your way in their own movie , what would it be called , what style would it be filmed in , and what would it be about ? A1 : Recently I decided that if/when I try to write anything serious about Eve again, it’ll center on her being a jewel thief because it presents me more fun, and emotionally diverse, opportunities. That and I have a very specific cover image in my mind. Ideally, her adventures would be a series of books. I have no title in mind, no idea about how ‘it would be filmed’ ( although a style replicating 90s films would be excellent, film grain and all. ) but, I do have a bunch of plots in mind that I really don’t feel like typing out here.

Q2 : what would their soundtrack / score sound like ? A2 : Her score would have a vintage sound (or a jazzy Spike Lee sound, if you will) with instrumentals by Dorothy Ashby (a Jazz Harpist) the Ahmad Jamal Trio, Pharaoh Sanders, Yusef Lateef and Tarika Blue. For music with lyrics, the soundtrack would include the likes of Julie London, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dionne Warwick.

Q3 : why did you start writing this character ? + Q4 : what first attracted you to this character ? A3 : Whenever I make NPCs for my character’s lives I actually can’t just let them just be NPCs. I start thinking about them too much. Developing them too much. And then I’m like, ‘wow! I really like this character!’ Eve was a different character when I began writing her, and likely wouldn’t be considered the same character as she was previously, if I told someone in real life who knows about my writing (like my grandma) about all the changes she has undergone. Originally Delores was a university professor, because I thought it could lead to interesting interactions with college-age muses. And her previous history with the mafia was also something interesting to tap in. But then I started thinking about what was realistic, what wasn’t realistic, what did I feel comfortable/interested writing? What didn’t I feel comfortable/interested in writing? So as time went on, things would alter about this character. And the new things I came up with attracted me more.

Q5 : describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse. A5 : I have a love/hate relationship with Eve’s quiet demeanor. On one hand, I think quieter characters need love and the ability to be fully dimensional but on the other hand, writing louder characters has always been more fun for me. But really, Eve’s guarded behavior makes writing her stressful in some cases with others because sometimes...if I’m going to be honest...people don’t know how to carry a thread and interact with someone of her demeanor effectively.

Q6 : what do you have in common with your muse ? A6 : We’re both black, we’re both into art (although our exact interests and aesthetics with art differ)

Q7 : how does your muse feel about you ? A7 : Realistically she would think I need to take better care of myself.

Q8 : what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ? A8 : We skippin’ this question.

Q9 : what gives you inspiration to write your muse ? A9 : Films such as, “Waiting to Exhale,” “The Kitchen” and “Widows.” Books by Alice Walker, like “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” as well as her short story, “Roselily.” The historical mob figure Stephanie St. Clair.

Q10 : how long did this take you to complete ? A10 : A few hours.

#long post #dash games.#headcanons.

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ayuuria · 3 years

Text

Yashahime Translation: Animage April 2021 Issue (Part 2)

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots of any type and amount. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

This month’s Animage article has more content than usual and mainly covers the music of Hanyō no Yashahime. That being said, I have decided to split the translation into three parts

Part 1: Interview with Kaoru Wada, Satō Teruo, and Nagura Yasushi

Part 2: Interview with NEWS

Part 3: Interview with Ryokuoushoku Shakai

Cour 2 OP “BURN” by NEWS

The current broadcasting opening theme, “BURN”, is a powerful song that fires up people who listen to it. Comments from the 3 members of NEWS who sing the song have arrived!

Shared Questions

Q1. To begin with, what sort of impression did you have of “Inuyasha”?

Q2. What did you think when you heard that it would be the opening song for “Hanyō no Yashahime”?

Q3. What are your favorites parts from the melody or lyrics?

Q4. How was the recording?

Q5. What were your thoughts after watching the complete opening video?

Q6. Going along with the title “BURN”, please tell us a recent incident that got your fired up!

Kato Shigeaki

A1. I was of course aware of the work but never had the chance to watch it. I once again felt how great the work was based on the huge response of (us) being put in charge of the opening of this current work.

A2. I was truly honored. It’s a popular anime and I was happy that I could hype together (with everyone) on Saturday evenings. I put all my emotions into (the song) so that “Hanyō no Yashahime” fans would enjoy it.

A3. In the anime, only the first one is played but in the full version, the interlude to the downward hook feels very good and in terms of me personally, I was in charge of that downward hook. Please look forward to it.

A4. To have the bridge bring together the rap and hook of the song, I sang while measuring the flow. Then there’s the downward hook that I mentioned earlier. This was a part I never really did until now, so recording it was really fun.

A5. I was so glad they made it look really cool, matching the sprinting feeling of the music. The timing of the title appearance was perfect. Also, the illustration that goes with the part where I sing “a flower blooming in the night” and the battle scene at the hook struck me.

A6. I caught a big tuna fish. It was quite large so it was a real struggle. Both my emotions and body were burned out…

Masuda Takahisa

A1. I love watching anime, so I watched the “Inuyasha” anime! I like Inuyasha of course but I especially like Sesshōmaru! His kimono and ornaments are so stylish, so I want to wear them someday.

A2. I was really happy! I was of course checking “Hanyō no Yashahime” which continues the world of “Inuyasha” which I watched in the past so it’s like a dream!

A3. We don’t have very many rock tunes amongst our songs and this song was born from this encounter so it’s a lifetime treasure! I do the beautiful melody, rap, and harmony so it’s hectic, but I think among NEWS’s song so far, this one shows our most passionate side.

A4. There’s a part in the hook where a falsetto comes in and singing it felt good. Depending on the part of the song, I will change character and sing. I sing strongly but gently. For the lyrics, I like the part that goes “The tightly tied love, the connected love”.

A5. I like how there’s flowers blooming all over when the lyrics go “a flower blooming in the night”! I waited in anticipation in front of the TV for the first broadcast and hearing our voices in the world of “Hanyō no Yashahime” got me excited. It would be great if NEWS’s song reaches the fans of “Hanyō no Yashahime”.

A6. I went to an electronics retail store for the first time in a while and they were selling every single genre. I got fired up and my shopping switch was ignited! I went on a shopping spree buying daily necessities!

Koyama Keiichiro

A1. I did watch the “Inuyasha” anime. Compared to Inuyasha, I liked Sesshōmaru who was very calm. His long silver hair is cool isn’t it. I don’t think it suits anyone other than Sesshōmaru. Everyone, did you watch episode 15 of “Hanyō no Yashahime”? It’s exciting. Towa and Setsuna really are!! For those who haven��t seen it yet, please go watch it!

A2. I watch anime quite a bit, so I understand how important it is for the opening to enter the story. Whether our song will give the anime a sprinting feeling and stir up the fans’ feelings of expectation. We’ll just have to do it! Is how I felt.

A3. This song doesn’t have an intro so to speak. It starts from the head hook and from there, the members’ singing connects it (to the rest of the song) immediately. This aspect gives the song a sprinting feeling which I like. In the full version, there will also be speaking lines so look forward to that.

A4. During recording, I sang with a lot of emotion so that the energy came through. All while having clips of “Hanyō no Yashahime” playing my head. There’s a phrase that says, “Wholehearted indomitable perseverance”. It’s a word that resonates with my way of life and thinking so I like it. My part has a lot of words, so it sounds cool when it’s sang firmly inserted into the sound.

A5. Seeing the footage change to match our song and sound was cool. Not only can you feel the bond between Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha from within the opening video, but you can also feel the strong message that they’ll definitely overcome the events that are about to happen.

A6. Lately this has been happening almost everyday but when I wake up, my stomach area feels suffocating. I feel something like a weight on top and when I open my eyes, my cat is sleeping sprawled out on my stomach right before my eyes. This happens every day. This is my best “got me fired up” story.

Accepting Setsuna is?

The lively opening video depicting Sesshōmaru, Inuyasha, and the parent generation, as well as the daily life and battles of the child generation consisting of Towa and the others. What catches the eye within that is the scene where Setsuna falls from the cliff. At the spot where she has fallen is Rin who is supposed be sleeping within the Tree of Ages. What does this scene mean…?

#yashahime #hanyou no yashahime #yashahime: princess half demon #translation #NEWS

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scattered--pages · 4 years

Note

For the lukanette lyric prompt." Stop there and let me correct it. I wanna live a life from a new perspective" because I love panic! at the disco and I'll make everyone else love them too. Also this is a cute lyric I love 💘

Thank you so much for this one and I’m sorry this took ages! Work and uni were hectic as hell suddenly and then I got sick so this took forever, but it’s finally here! ♡ I mainly used the way I understood the song and kind of a sudden fierce need to change the usual and the casual in a relationship with someone to something finally as serious and stable as they’re craving it to be, mixed with how a person just wants to relax and throw all their cares and everything everyone else might be thinking about them away and just have fun with the person they trust and love the most , so I hope it worked out how you expected it to in the end? ♡ It’s filled with fluff and Lukanette being happy and in love and in that recently-finally-officially-started-dating phase so I’m also hoping you’ll like it anyway, let me know how you feel about it ♡

Send me a lyrical prompt for a Lukanette fic ! ♡

______________________________________________________

I wanna live a life from a new perspective

Words: 4647 pfff this used to be a ‘drabble or a ficlet’ prompt request whoops

Rating: Teen +

AO3 link: here ♡

______________________________________________________

Marinette giggled slightly, leaned against Luka’s coat, her arms holding onto him firmly as the chilly winter air whipped against her face in the way that was just strong enough to be refreshing and invigorating in this sunny winter’s morning.

“Hm?”, Marinette more felt rather than heard Luka through the vibration against his back as it was unfortunately incredibly difficult to talk to your motorcycle driver both due to the wind, helmets and the fact that it’s not very good to turn your head to talk to someone while you’re rushing down the road 100 km/h. When he’s alone, Luka, even though he’s very careful about laws and regulations, did like to try and practice a stunt or two ever since he was able to pass his A1 driver’s license for a moto légère and finally legally drive a motorcycle he’s been saving for since ages now, and even though she knew he was too careful of a person to do anything stupid, Marinette still disapproved of him doing any out-of-the-ordinary stunts whatsoever on a vehicle realistically far more dangerous than a car and she was very grateful that, until he’s eighteen, he isn’t eligible to drive a bike faster stronger than this one and faster than 110 km/h.

However when she was riding with him, she actually didn’t have to worry at all. Luka was a picture perfect example of caution and precision in his driving, making it very clear that, with her there, he wasn’t risking anything even remotely bad happening, adamant on not allowing anything from her not actually getting hurt but just feeling a slight discomfort because of sudden turns or bumps, to far, far more horrible options he didn’t even want to think about. Turning his head, even ever so slightly so she could hear him through their helmets, was one of those things he would not do, which was fine on smaller routes, but excruciating today, of all days. Because they’ve been driving for almost forty minutes now and the endpoint was a surprise he was planning for their two months dating anniversary. And Marinette was a responsible, calm, understanding young woman.

Patient and immune to insanity-inducing curiosity, however - she was not.

“I gave up on trying to get clues out of you about”, she shouted through the glass of her helmet loud enough so he could hear the teasing tone in her voice before it grew a bit more warm and sensitive, “I was thinking of something different now… Almost a year and a half ago, I was riding behind you on a much slower bike and you had just told me that you were almost finished with your song for me…”, Luka couldn’t turn around but she could almost swear that he was smiling right now and, for the lack of being able to do anything else, he very gently nudged his helmet against hers in a way that made her chuckle. “You know if we were already there, you could have even kissed me right now, but instead, you must suffer, I must suffer in my ignorance of any details about today, it’s all rather tragic…”, the teasing tone was back and she could feel him sigh, followed by what she recognized was a chuckle, sending warm shivers down her spine and brightening her smile even more. Content, with her curiosity eased down for now, she leaned against him even tighter and gazed at the gorgeous French fields stretching on both sides of them, sprinkled with frost, blurring next to them as they passed them by.

Soon, they came near a more inhabited area, embraced with a perfect mixture of urban and rural charm and, upon reaching a specific cottage at the edge of what seemed to have been a wooded area, they stopped.

“We’re here?! We’re finally here?!”, the raven haired girl practically shouted as he turned the engine off, one foot on the ground, arms clapping excitedly, but her helmet still on her head.

Carefully stepping off of the motorcycle, Luka laughed softly, took his own helmet off in one fluid motion, placed it to rest against the steering wheel before helping his girlfriend take hers off and placing a kiss atop her forehead.

“Yes and no.”

The sound she produced, frowning deeper and deeper, sounded almost like a quiet growl.

He laughed again, putting away their helmets and pulling his bike a bit further aside to park it next to the cottage’s entrance. “You waited for almost an hour, now you can’t wait for fifteen more minutes?”

When he reached her, she immediately jumped into a hug, but the eyes looking up at him from the ruffles of his scarf were those of the most adorable rage he has ever seen in his life. “I have had my waiting, Couffaine, give me hints or risk dire consequences!”, she murmured against the woolen material and he cupped her face, bringing it up closer to his as he leaned down to kiss her.

“Soon, my small bundle of anger and rage, soon.”

She moved away and swung her glove at him at that with feigned anger and quickly hopped back to give him one more peck as they both laughed.

“This place here,” he nodded towards the cottage, “Is where a really good friend of my mom’s lives. He works here. And therefore we have special privileges and access that hardly anyone else has, just for us, just for today”, he took her hand and lead the way into the wooded area.

She chuckled. “So… Driving five kilometers per hour faster on the road was out of the question, but trespassing into a strange wooded area outside of Paris is perfectly fine?”

“Hey, it’s not trespassing if it’s…”, he looked aside, puzzled, “Authority approved type of trespassing?”

Marinette went from holding his hand to hooking her arm around it and hugging herself against his side, “You know, everyone keeps thinking you’re this bad boy with a guitar, or just a heartthrob badass rocker on the rise, but in fact, you’re just a teddy bear.”

He laughed pressed his lips against the top of her head, “Yeah, but I’m your teddy bear.”

She smiled, looking up at him with loving eyes, “Yes you are.” And she wouldn’t change it for the world. Her perfect mix of prince charming and a dashing rogue, of sunshine and moonlight, the perfect combination of absolute kindness and softness with a perfectly fitting edge of just enough of exhilaration and wildness. And to think that, a year and a half, after first hearing the first version of ‘her song’, in front of her parents’ bakery, she was still partially capable on letting him slip away for Adrien. Now she wouldn’t let him slip away even if the entire universe offered itself up to her.

“But wait, technically… We are trespassing?”

“Today, you are not to worry about secondary things like that.”

“Luka!”, she nudged his ribs with a genuinely concerned expression now that she realized he really wasn’t joking.

He chuckled again, “It’s gonna be fine… We’re not going to get into trouble and it’s worth it, trust me!”

“Hmm…”, Marinette mused, excited, but quite puzzled and just a bit nervous. In a way, it was a good feeling, to break away from doing everything by the line for a change, and she knew she was not only safe with Luka, but also that he, as mentioned, never would do anything dangerous or fully illegal with her, not to mention that she fully and unconditionally trusted him. So she decided to be brave.

And she didn’t have to stay in her mildly perturbed state for too long as, very soon, they reached the end of the small wooded area.

Marinette clutched at his hand tightly, standing there fully astound.

“Welcome to…”

“Versailles…”

Luka chuckled slightly, “With it’s premises entered by an ever so slightly backdoor way.”

She turned to him, still in a state of absolutely blissful, overjoyed shock, “How did you know that I…”

At her sudden lack of words, he smiled and pulled her into a gentle hug. “Juleka told me you’ve never been here yet”, he shrugged pulling away gently, “And to have grown up in Paris and never been to Versailles is a crime that I had to rectify”, he joked, and she felt an urge of happiness to sudden, she could have cried. Hopping in one place twice, she clapped her hands and turned to the gorgeous, stunning vast fields of flawless shrubbery, grass and blue winter skies, stretching in front of them all the way to the magnificent palace at the garden’s end.

“Screw trespassing…!”, a sudden bout of courage grabbed onto her in her euphoria, “We’re getting to that castle!”

Her hand clasped tightly onto his and they shared a grinning, determined look of agreement, as though they somehow read other’s minds in that very moment, before they began sprinting through the perfect trails amidst the trees, bushes and winding pathways, all preserved perfectly under a thin layer of eyes, making the whole place seem even more like a location springing to life right out of a fairytale.

Peering behind one of the trees, Marinette stuck her tongue out playfully and smirked at Luka, laughing running towards her, “Catch me if you can, Couffaine!”

With a chuckle, he smirked back in a fiendish way that was just charming enough to make Marinette feel an array of fireworks of tingles all over through her body. “Challenge accepted, Dupain-Cheng”, he replied completely confident, causing her to giggle out a tiny squeal of faux panic before she set of to find cover behind the next rich green topiary, luscious even in a winter as cold as this one, as was, somehow, the entire garden.

Reaching the stunning Colonnade grove, Marinette stopped next to one of the beautiful columns, catching her breath quietly as she glided her palm across the smooth marble, admiring the texture of the perfect icy cold surface. Each column the a stunning fluid shade of red or blue, one following the other in a perfect circle with the Abduction of Proserpina by Pluto statue placed right in the middle - a perfectly white vision in marble. She felt like she was in a fairytale. How on Earth did she never come here before…

Suddenly, she felt a hand graze her other palm and in a second, in unique kind of instinct where her hand recognized the other one before her mind did, she instantly intertwined their fingers, only to be spun around and swiftly wrapped into a familiar warm embrace.

"Got you now, my princess", he whispered before placing a soft peck against her lips, the sparks within her vivid once more, spreading from her heart to every corner of her body, causing an array of sensations from the soothingly knotted yearning at the pit of her stomach, to the utmost tender tingles she felt all the way to the tips of her fingers, like pure happiness sparkling through her, so strong and genuine that it couldn’t be contained.

She giggled and locked her lips with him before pulling away only so they could catch their breaths, rosy-cheeked and chuckling blissfully, their foreheads and noses still pressed together.

“Come on my brave trespassing knight”, she stepped away, taking his hand with a grin, “Show me more of your kingdom before the royal guards catch us and give your mom and my parents a heart-attack when they call to tell them their kids have been arrested in a castle outside of Paris”

“I honourably promise that I shall let no guard come anywhere near you, my princess! I swear by my life that I will protect you and our parents’ health for I have fallen for you far too much to jeopardize either of those two”, he grinned and made a surprisingly authentic and gallant knightly bow before her, causing her to break into a fit of blushing giggles again for a moment.

"I bet you say that to all the girls you take on romantic, secret walks around the Versailles gardens in winter", she pouted teasingly.

"No", he shook his head with a smile, “I only say it in hopes of making this one girl in front of me as absolutely and entirely smitten with me as I am with hers.”

"And is it working?“, she interlocked their fingers.

"You tell me, my fair maiden.”

Her shoulders shrugged as they walked, a jokingly disappointed look on her face, “I don’t know… I mean a true princess is never fully charmed until she’s had her first romantic waltz with her dashing suitor.”

Still grinning, he quirked an eyebrow, “What happened to the incredibly-scared-of-dancing-especially-if-it’s-a-real-ballroom-dance-Marinette?”

“You happened, you goof!”, she punched him jokingly and he laughed. “And, that Marinette has never been in the middle of the most beautiful winter outdoor ballroom in the vicinity of one of France’s most stunning castles”, her hand let go of his only to tip-toe a few steps away, spreading her arms and spinning around as she took in the gorgeous view of the Roccocco Grove. The massive, gorgeous stones adorned with decorations and fountains all around them and, even though the fountains didn’t work at the moment, even though the breath-taking arena-like structure lacked the marble flooring, colors, vast audiences and lights that it featured when it was originally built centuries ago, the whole vision of the entire outdoor ballroom structure, covered by thin translucent snow, sparkling in the light winter sun as if it was thousands of little diamonds spilled and strewn across the cold stone, was as if it somehow appeared all around them straight out of a dream. A dream from which Marinette never wanted to wake up.

Regarding the waltz and dancing in general, partially, she was only joking and, partially, she still was a bit terrified to embarrass herself in front of him and to therefore singlehandedly somehow ruin a moment like these, so she wasn’t truly expecting it when he closed the distance between them again, took another graceful small bow that he probably thought was silly but to her it was so charmingly dashing and perfect that, with his smile and the absolute magic radiating from this particular garden grove, it honestly caused her to instantly feel irrevocably and entirely smitten and taken aback by the now increasing levels of dream-likeness of this entire situation.

“Well than…”, he offered her his hand, “May I be so bold as to ask you for a dance, princess?”

And, also somehow without expecting her own courage, but also fully well knowing that there was no way she was capable of uttering anything else right now, she took his hand and with a shy, adoring smile replied, “You may.”

She always forgot how good of a dancer Luka actually was. Coming from a musical family and loving music so much, one would assume that, other than having a huge passion for guitar and, so far secretly, singing, he would also enjoy dancing in more casual, modern music-related situations. So she was incredibly surprised to have learned that he actually could, and very well at that, waltz! Of course, she knew the basic steps, for which she was insanely grateful currently because it was the only thing allowing her to be able to follow his lead, but Luka was gathering more and more points for secretly being a prince behind that façade of just a calm, introverted, punk-rock boy. In fact, it reminded her of that day more than a year ago at the ice rink where she was too busy and blind chasing after Adrien to fully appreciate the down-right movie-like way he spun her around, lifted her and held her in his arms on that rink before Philippe was akumatized.

This time, on the other hand, she was entirely without any other care, focus, or distraction in her mind, now for her the only thing that existed was him and how light and free and so incredibly loved and beautiful she felt in his hands. The ballroom around them might as well have had actual candles, diamonds, fountains and decorations behind them, there might as well have been real music behind them and even if she stumbled in her steps a few times, even if she faltered a bit occasionally, he was there to help her, to catch her, and she never stopped being amazed at how easy it was to just laugh in each other’s arms, ignore life for a moment and just… be, when she was with him.

“Hold on to my shoulders with both of your hands now”, he said suddenly, smiling, and she obeyed, although a tad confused, before she found herself lifted up by her waist slightly mid-spin and swiftly brought back down into his embrace, like they were in scene from Beauty and the Beast.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug as she laughed in that breathless, entirely interwoven with joy way in which only people in love can laugh when they’re completely overcome with how they feel when they’re with the person the care most for.

“If this isn’t reality, never wake me up, please…”, she kept chuckling, “How are you even real, Luka, how did I ever even deserve someone like you?”

She giggled a bit more, but quickly turned dead silent and pulled away as she felt Luka’s smile against her neck fade away slowly, his hands around her losing the strength of their grip. The sudden cold change of attitude was so strong it Marinette snap out of their dreamlike state within a second, replacing it with a string of panic and worry.

"Luka?”, her tone was quiet but nervous, “What’s wrong?”

"Marinette… I need to tell you something… I need you to know, really know something…“

He stepped back a bit, carefully plucking her hands from his neck and placing one of them in both of his own.

The dark haired girl turned an alarming shade of pale that matched the lithe frost covering the surfaces around the grove. "What… is it?”, her voice was cautious and silent, but upsetting her was the last thing Luka wanted to do right now, so he tried to muster up a small sad smile, gently squeezing her hands in his own.

„You’ve been kind of stressed lately and it’s only been so briefly since we’ve been… an actual couple…”, a pause and a shy smile graced his features that Marinette could only describe as breathtakingly adorable, but after that, heartbreakingly fast, his smile faded. Slowly, she studied his eyes with hers, puzzled and worried, as he ran the fingers of his free hand down his scalp through his teal locks before stopping to rub at his neck with a brief sigh, a habit of nervousness and a sign of hesitation, she knew how to recognize these small signs when they painted themselves across his features when he tried his best to hide them and when everyone else thought they were just random quirks. But she knew. “And suddenly“, he continued, torn, silent, suddenly avoiding her gaze, „I feel like I haven’t been as good anymore at keeping you happy or relaxed, and I think it’s because I know everyone’s still saying that…”, his cheeks reddened, but his face somehow grew even more somber. He sighed once more, “Literally, someone from our group said to me a few days ago that they all know I’m just that boy who’s going to be someone to ‘keep you busy’ while you’re getting over Adrien, someone to check all your ‘firsts’ with, until you gather some confidence from this before you finally get together with Adrien for the long term…”

“Luka… Who said that, was Chlo-…”, Marinette tried to stop him, reaching out to place a hand against his cheek, but he caught it and cradled it again in his own palms instead, this time both of his hands held hers in a way in which a person craddles a final drop of water that’s helping them cling to their very life amidst a desert. Lovingly, tenderly, and almost desperately in the way they shook ever so slightly.

“I’m sorry, please, I-I just need to say this, cause if I don’t, it’ll take me getting akumatized again and fearing that I’ve hurt you or lost you to say anything, and than I’ll stay silent again for six months until I muster up the courage to try to again attempt saying something that’s been hurting me bit by bit on the inside, until it’s almost too late to say anything, like the last time, cause…”, he gave her that heartbreaking small but growingly sad smile again, “I could write and play a thousand of songs, melodies and tunes to show you how I’m feeling, but sometimes, as much as I’m… very clearly horrible with words, sometimes they need to be said and something nothing else is enough when things like this bubble up unspoken… I’ve seen it with my parents, with other people, and I swear to always be completely honest with you, even with things that are scaring me.”

Marinette had to fight an urge to touch his cheeks and somehow smooth the sudden immensely strong fear and lack of his typical mellow optimism off of his face, but she suppressed it, for now, and simply carefully nodded, urging him to continue.

“The worst is, the person that said this… They, I’m pretty sure, didn’t mean it as a necesarrily bad thing, they just said it kind of as a casual humorous observation cause they, somehow, thought I was okay with it, that I was the kind of chill, fairweather guy that am in on that… Of course, people like Juleka knows I’m not, maybe Rose and Ivan know, people really close to me that spend almost every day with me…but the truth is…”, he frowned for a moment, shaking his head before his eyes met hers again with an earnestness so fierce and pure she could swear she could feel it, “I’m not. I’m not okay with it.”

His fingers caressed her knuckled with the kind of gentleness she’s never felt before. It didn’t matter it was icy cold outside, it made her very core light up with a summer-like warmth and she had to once again fight the urge to grab his face, scream if needed that 'I know you’re not like that, I know!’, just to extinguish this ridiculous notion that she shares this opinion of him with this insanely cruel person, but before she got the chance to, he hesitantly parted his lips to speak again. “I know I’ve told you this before, but to me, this is more than just having another crush or a girlfriend to date for a few weeks or months cause we’re teenagers, and you’re still getting over Adrien, and I’m the easy-going yet rebellious punk rocker who’s here as your rebound and that’s how relationships go in our age …”, he shyly rolled his eyes, angry at the very fact that things like this are expected from people their age because eighteen and sixteen isn’t old enough to know love, when he knew the love he felt well enough to propose to this girl right here and now and not regret it until they’re old and grey and shrivelled up, and he saw the kind of honest, strong love in other people their age all around them, in Alya and Nino and Rose and Juleka and Ivan and Mylene and shattered his heart that he finally found a girl that made him feel like he was constantly dreaming, even when loving her made him hurt, even when being by her side meant that he wasn’t the one she would prefer there, even back when standing by her made him feel both more happy and broken than he’s been in a long time, perhaps ever, he knew how terrifyingly, beautifully, most assuredly different and strong this was. To the point Juleka even mocked and teased him for a while until she realized that this was actually real and very much happening to her introverted, strong but bad with emotions big brother that hardly ever even having had a proper crush or two before.

“What I mean is… What I want to make sure you know about and what I say to anyone thinking or saying stuff like that, because I know more of them have thought something like that as well but were perhaps too polite to voice it and what I mean to say to those people and that outlook on love and on us is…”, he held her hands just a bit tighter and took a deep breath, his eyes searching hers with an unmistakable sense of fear for her reaction, but his words were determined, “…to hell with that, and to hell with what we have being anything close to just that. You’re the first thing in my life that anchored me this strongly or made me feel this way this hard and now that you’re finally with me and are perhaps feeling at least an inkling of what I am, after everything, I am not letting this be a typical cliché teenage passing thing, no matter who thinks that it is and it’s so, so important for me that you know that too…”

His expression, locked with hers, soon grew fully terrified when she didn’t immediately respond, but in reality, Marinette was only out of words for an entirely different set of reasons than the darkest case scenario that he was imagining.

She now firmly placed her second palm onto his hands and squeezed them, smiling and shaking her head in disbelief of what this amazing, mature, selfless boy was somehow made to believe she thought of him. “Luka, I never thought you were like that in the first place and you have nothing to prove to me… The fact is, you are the most kindhearted, empathetic, caring boy I know and I definitely agree with saying ‘to hell’ with what anyone thinks of us…”. She glanced aside with a small rueful sigh, “I know that after more than a year of my very obvious and embarrassing pining for Adrien… it may seem like I need more convincing than necessary but, my truth and my opinion is… You’re not Adrien… And it makes me so happy that you’re not and that’s why I love you. Because just meeting you slowly made me finally realize that, all this time, I needed and felt best and truly loved not Adrien, but you, you silly thing! All of what you just said,“ she chuckled happily, „I’ve known it already. And I am very happy to be here to stay for as long as you’ll have me…“, giggling quietly, she hunched her head down a bit, flush rosyness coloring her cheeks swiftly though, through a set of thick black eyelashes.

And just like that, his lips pulled into that gorgeous, bright grin that accentuated his cheekbones in a way she loved so much and lit up his eyes so that their teal to aquamarine shades almost seemed to have all grown a hue brighter.

„For as long as I’ll have you?“

Suddenly, his arms were wrapped around her as he spun her around, causing her to instantly squee and laugh loudly as she held herself tightly against his chest.

When he put her down again, he brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her face and pressed his lips to her forehead, then against her lips. “How does forever sound?“

#lukanette #lukanette fic #marinette x luka #luka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #my fic #miraculous ladybug #ml #words #long post

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saltine-kakyoin · 4 years

Note

OH SHIT!!!! my clown ass never saw that u rb'd those ask posts, i was Looking at my notifs to see if u would so i could send u some but SOMEHOW I MISSED IT??? clown hours.... ANyways for the emoji one have 🤗💙💘🍀😇 and 👍 (tried to not do repeats from your ask 2 me cause they all apply anyways but, Regardless) and for the questions post, maybe 5, 11, 12, 17, 20, 23 and 25? ;__;/ ily so much and i hope u have a rlly lovely night!!! and that this coming week is kinder 2 u!!!! 💖💖💖💖

ahhh, it’s no worries!!! idk about you but for me, tumblr has been having the Time of Its LIFE lately wrt notifications and most disconcertingly, unfollowing people! D: so i completely get it, it’s no worries!!! ;w;/ i already know for a Fact i’m going to write so so much, so i’m gonna put this under a readmore >w< ruth 🤝 sarah respectful lesbian moments

edit: so I finished writing it and it’s Insanely Long- just in case you don’t make it to the bottom, thank you mein broth-er!!!! ; O; i hope you have a wonderful night too!! writing all of this out made me reminisce on some really nice times, and I’m having an a1 night! ^^ ilysm! it’ll probably be daytime when you read this, so i hope you have a great day! <3

🤗 given the chance I would gladly hug you

on god!!!! ;___; i think i would frfr dissolve if a got a Ruth-Certified hug, things have been so overwhelming lately

💙 you are my closest friend

the feeling is mutual!! <3 we don’t always get to talk often, but fhdhshg when we do we talk about like All of the Madness in Sarah’s Mind^tm, and you are so patient + tolerant of my incoherent ramblings which is something i don’t think i’ve ever fully experienced? anyhow, after a year (more than a year?) of having these kinds of convos and going through the general madness of life together, I totally agree ;w;

💘 I love you so much

i love you too!!! so so much!!! 💃🕺 i don’t think words will ever be able to express how much i love and appreciate you! 💜💛

🍀 i’m lucky to have met you

i know we talk about this often, but seriously i feel the same way! it’s a little crazy that we met, technically, because Joseph Joestar tm deserved more than to be a cheater... there is something hilarious about this wild friendship rooting from him!! of all jojos!! 🤢 but i’m so grateful that we met, it’s been such a wonderful ride ;w; <3

😇 you’re a sweet cinnamon bun

🥺🥺🥺🥺 bro i- fhdhghdhgh thank you!!! ;o;

👍 you are fun to be around

ahhh, thank you!!! i am glad you feel this way bc whoo boy, i think some other people would look at the madness i tell you about and go 👁️👁️ that’s a no for me, luvs. remember last year when i was losing it tryna prepare for ren faire + i cut my palm on that one glass bottle? bc a- i barely do and b- i feel like that moment encapsulates the nicki minaj roman holiday-ness of my life XD i’m really grateful you’ve stuck around through it all 🤗💕💖

now buckle in bro!!!! the essays are incoming!!!

5. Name a movie that makes you genuinely laugh.

i swear on my life the Mortal Kombat movie from 1995 is a national treasure, it is SUCH a solid movie and has so many funny moments. Robin Shou makes such a 🥺🥺 Liu Kang, and jesus fuck he can be so savage when the script calls for it!! there’s one part where he takes Johnny Cage’s luggage and straight up fucking chucks it into the ocean + then bullies him about it later! honestly the Ballad of Johnny Cage and His Luggage is one of my favorite parts from the movie <3 if you haven’t seen it + you like cheesy, old school movies, i really recommend it!!!

11. Describe the memory of the last time you felt true happiness.

So I can’t remember the last time I did, bc my memory is horrifically terrible + probably getting worse as time goes on?? but i will tell you about one of the more recent times I remember! :D There is one crucial expository note for this memory- my brother-in-law makes THE best chili in the entire world. my brother and I were trying to recreate it because it’s such a simple but delicious + filling meal- I think this was our first time trying to create it? and it was SO chaotic, the tomato sauce and stuff kept popping and burning me and we weren’t 100% certain that we’d gathered the right ratios for the ingredients and it was just. madness lmao. Chance’s chili is one that you leave alone for multiple hours at a time (I think this is the case for all chili but i don’t cook often enough to know ;__;), and we were kinda 👀👀👀 because we weren’t sure it’d turn out right? But it did!!!! I vividly remember when it was finished and we taste-tested it + went oOOH FUCK! it wasn’t quite the same as chance’s but ohhh my god it was so good 🥰🥰🥰 but yeah!! we ate it all up and I think this was around the time I started my playthrough of Esteban for Dragon Age 2? which was one of my favorite playthroughs for the entire franchise... he’s just a simple ig beard model mage ;w; i wanted to show you what he looked like in this post but the formatting went wonky so ig i’ll just post him separately?? it’s 1000% in-character for him to infiltrate my jojo blog 😔

12. Name a song that makes you feel ethereal.

hm...I’d say it’s between Forget About or Feet of Clay! They’re both such light and tenderhearted songs, and when I listen to them I feel like I’m in an apartment kitchen slow-dancing with a love, and it’s so dark except for the slowly rising sun. I don’t know if that feeling could be described as ethereal? but it’s close enough for me

17. What is something you own that is important to you? What makes it so important?

I have a small collection of scripts from the shows I’ve been in, and two of the most important ones are from the plays my high school put on during my sophomore and junior years, The Nit-Wits and The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, respectively! The Nit-Wits has a ton of sentimental value to me because it was the last show I genuinely acted in, and it was a show we had to pull together in 2 or 3 weeks!! We were originally going to do a murder mystery play for the fall, but none of the cast was feeling it and it just wasn’t going to come to life in time (honestly this speaks volumes for how much we weren’t vibing with it, because all of our shows came together at like.. the final dress rehearsals if not opening night lmao). I vividly remember we took a vote during rehearsals about whether or not to switch the show, and then we did and it was SO fun + chaotic!! My character was one of the only regular characters in the show, but I think everyone else had a lot of fun acting as actors who were hired to be maniacal, and that made acting off of them so fun! I remember there was also a night my friend Adonis almost tore the entire set down because he ran through a door and tripped over a set brace in his haste!! The Nit-Wits is hugely important because it was a really fresh acting experience for me, and again, my last time genuinely on the stage and not behind the scenes!

MCM is important to me because it was the first play I ever stage managed! I’d stage managed our musical the spring prior, but that was a huge undertaking and involved many different people and moving parts. Stage managing a play, at least at my high school, was a calmer and more intimate experience, and one I really enjoyed! Another huge reason I treasure MCM’s script is because it is one of the last shows I had with my friend I told you about- he was a senior. I have little notes and doodles from the cast and crew scattered throughout my book for this show, and I remember being so irritated by this because it meant I was losing space for stage directions, cues, and notes. Now, I’m super grateful to have these scribbles- it’s one of the only things I have left of him.

On that note, relating to him, MCM is also the show which birthed my most horrific theater horror story!! During one of the performances, I guess he forgot his line?? idk. But he ended up jumping six pages ahead of where the current scene was (I knew this bc I was following along in my book backstage + was frantically trying to figure out where he’d gone), which threw the entire cast, who were all tragically onstage, way off-track. This resulted in the most frightening game of script ping-pong I’ve ever seen: he’d skipped six pages ahead, so Adonis ended up saying a line from two pages after the six-page skip, and somehow someone else went!! oh I have a response to that line! And then said something like 9 pages back! I think the lead actress tried to ground everyone back to the lines they were supposed to be saying, but she ended up just saying a lot of their lines? And one of those lines that was supposed to be said by someone else was supposed to cue a black-out that someone got murdered in, but my lighting techie was SO fucking lost (we were both huddled over the script next to the breaker trying to figure out WHERE the hell we were! i think i had a flashlight in my mouth so I could flip through the book with both hands and thus faster??), so ofc the lights stayed up! I remember getting through this scene being the most painstaking endeavor of my entire life, but thankfully intermission was right after it! We actually extended intermission because the cast needed a hot second to fuckign RESET for Act 2 bc sweet jesus that was so bizarre...Needless to say, after that show we never messed that scene up again + everyone who acted in the show became super anal about knowing their lines as the years went on. The Six Page Skip became a legendary part of our hs theater Canon (like biblical canon ;w; although I don’t think anyone’s talked about it since my class graduated) alongside the times one of our ensemble dudes had to break through the roof of the girl’s dressing room to retrieve the keys to the theater + i got stuck on stage!

20. What’s the sweetest thing someone has done for you?

I really had to wrack my brain to answer this one, as I’m generally not the person people do things for, you know? This answer goes wayyy back, to 8th grade :O but so! there is mild exposition for this- when I started middle school, I lived in North Carolina, but we moved to Florida right before 7th grade bc my grandma is ill. We lived with my uncle while we were looking for a house, so I went to the local middle school bc why wouldn’t I? but in November, we finally found a house + my mom was like....So... are you going to switch schools or...I’d struck up some really solid friendships in this time, so i was like Mom I’d Rather Die OAO. So, we struck up a deal that I’d get to stay at that school on a zone waiver + that she’d drive me to school everyday. Sometime closer to the end of eighth grade she was like, yeah so.. I can’t do this for high school, it’s too much gas- which was valid! I was really sad about it, but I sucked it up.

Anyhow, fast forward to the last day of eighth grade, which was perhaps the saddest day I’d lived up until that point, mostly bc I knew I was probably never going to see all my friends again. My best friend, who I was like hardcore v close to + the person I shared all my wacky AUs and OC’s and headcanons with, was waiting with me for my mom to come pick me up, and then!!! When my mom pulled into the school she suddenly whipped out this lengthy letter she’d written to me about how much she enjoyed my friendship and how grateful she was that we were able to have lunch together (lunch was.. tragically ;__; the only time we really saw each other that year), and that she would never forget me! And she’d drawn me a ton of fanart from all the things I was obsessed with back then!! it was so much so fast, but then my mom was yelling at me to get in the car and I had to go :(

We kept in touch through email freshman year + fake-dated bc a senior was stalking me? ;J; and then we went to Megacon together! but I became really heavily involved in choir and theater after that, and we just kind of drifted apart :( we do follow each other on ig tho! It’s insane to think about her and that letter because on GOD ruth, that was a thinly veiled love letter and I never like... wrote her anything back that was as worthy as what she wrote me. But, she’s doing really well in uni now, so I guess it’s all okay? idk! ; o ;

23. What’s your zodiac sign? Do you think you fit the general characteristics of that sign?

I’m a Cancer!! and also a metal dragon by the Chinese Zodiac, which I’ve always thought was pretty sick! :3 I am 10000% your stereotypical Cancer, super emotional and introspective + often prone to tears ;u; My mom always said that dragons are steadfast and loyal people, and I think this also applies to me, to a fault. I checked around some websites to see what characteristics were often applied to metal dragons specifically, and it seems they are pretty strong-willed, ambitious, and generous? I don’t know if you could call me strong-willed or ambitious, but it’s all good ig.

25. What’s a song that gives off good vibes anytime you listen to it?

Ohh man, I went in on this question for Shannon, but bc I was digging around my library for Jules, I actually found an old fave! This song is from one of my all-time favorite musicals, Once on This Island- it’s The Human Heart! This song is so sweet, and god between the writing for the orchestra + the writing for the ensemble, this song is a straight masterpiece <3 I love love love the line, “Through your love you’ll live forever”, and although I am Hardcore Terrified of getting a tattoo, I really want that line tattooed on my body. if you have time, I recommend giving Once on This Island a listen!! I’ve never heard a show that uses its instruments and singers the way OoTI does (and holy FUCK it is so breathtaking live!!! I got to see it on Broadway and bro.... 🥺🥺 it was transcendental..)

#me when i talk to jules- floods her w a wall of songs #me when i talk to ruth- floods her with a wall of incomprehensible thoughts #the lov is stored in the walls of text! ; O ;#thank you again ruth!!!! this was really fun to write out and i may have cried while writing a few bits but it's fiiiine #i loved writing this 🥰#long post #like INCREDIBLY long post!!!!#sriracha ask game #fullmetal-the-last-alchemist

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hellopromusic · 6 years

Video

youtube

Itoshima Distance

Lyrics: Mari-Joe Composition: Hoshibe Sho Arrangement, Keyboard, Programming: Okubo Kaoru Violin, Viola: Muroya Kouichiro Alto and Tenor Saxophone: Takegami Yoshinari Chorus: ANGERME, M!ho

I'm using the another version because I feel it evokes the feel of the song better. Its very date like and has imagery from Kyushuuu, including a lot of things mentioned in the lyrics. Read the lyrics, then watch the video... this really is great stuff.

History

This song was in the the debut single of 4th generation member Kamikokuryo Moe and the last single to feature 2nd generation member Tamura Meimi.

As Itoshima is a city in Fukuoka Prefecture, the lyrics "suitou to" (好いとうと) and "yaken" (やけん) in "Itoshima Distance" are of the local Hakata dialect.

Some Landmarks in the Song

Kego Park

Cosmos are Autumn flowers that bloom at Nokoshima Island

Tenjin is a busy downtown section of Fukuoka City

This is a song that came out when I had gone back to school and was not hardcore into H!P. I first heard it like a year ago. The outfits for the video and the music really cemented this song as one I would love forever. It was also one of the songs that helped relieve my "Tsunku stepping down" tension as I discovered Sho could make great songs as well. He can not replicate that "Tsunku" flavor, but Sho's songs were really good. Sho has blessed Angerme with some great songs, between him and Takui Angerme's post "Exclusively - Tsunku" discography is very nice.

Anyways this song makes me nostalgic for a place I've never been. Making me long to do activities I've never done, and drive in my car with a lover I've yet to meet. This could have been a super sexy kayokyoku song if it were slowed down a bit and they switched up the instrumentation. Mari-Joe's lyrics are great, but to get that kayo feel, there needs to be less words, but that’s neither here nor there... my pipe dreams, lol.

Song structure

The song is in f minor. The BPM is 120, and the time signature is 4/4.

Intro Pre-verse 1 - Song's melodic theme Verse A1 - Doushita no Verse B1 - Chotto Matte Pre-Chorus 1 - Itsumo Chorus A1 - Suitou to Chorus B1 - Suitou to Pre-Verse 2 - Slutty Sax solo Verse A2 Verse B2 Pre-chorus 2 Chorus A2 Chorus B2 Bridge - Teasing Sax solo Chorus A3 Chorus B3 Pre-verse 3 - Song's melodic theme Outro

Lyrics

This song embodies too little too late. The protagonist in this song is a girl getting broken up with... Its that kind of sad song. So on a car ride home, the boyfriend breaks up with the protagonist and as they ride home. Her mind is filled with regret and denial. She remembers only the good times and likely has no recollection of the things that made the boyfriend want to break up. She believes in her heart of hearts that if the boyfriend remembers the goodtimes, he will choose her again.

I'm not sure if they live in Fukuoka City and are traveling to Itoshima, or the other way around. But I, personally, love the image of a country girl being impressed by going to the big city and have a date, a little udon, some karaoke, like its a big deal. Then going home feeling like she was a city slicker and wanting to shake the country life. So I'm voting for them living in Itoshima. However all the Japanse fans seem to say they are on a trip to Itoshima, but in the end, it doesn't matter.

One of my favorite lines is when she talks about how she has looked through the car window so many times, seeing beautiful things, showing the window was a conduit for joy. But now in the reflection of the same window she now sees a person she loves, but doesn't recognize... oh its poetic. Its like, she associates so many good memories with the window, I guess they take trips often. But now, currently, at the moment, the window is a conduit for pain.

Composition and Arrangement

Instruments in the track are the piano, bongos, saxophone, strings, guitar, bass guitar. To paraphrase the great Maa-chan, You should give the instrumentals a listen from time to time. This one is great.

In this song I have less "oh that part was great" and its just overall a top tier song in my mind. I like all the parts and every section has at least 2 or 3 things I like. I would be here all day listing them. But if I had to pick a crowning moment of awesome, its the melody in the verses. It ebbs and flows like the waves crashing on an Itoshiman beach... That 7th and 8th bar in each of the two verses... just yes... Then they lead to that perfect rhythm on "Itsumo." These guys are playing for keeps. I'm a huge fan of singing naturals in melodies, they give this sort tension that I love prolonging. Well in this melody they sprinkle a couple in for the music wotas like me. Probably my favorite use of it is in the chorus when they are singing the natural 3rd on Omoidashite (the "i") and Ano Machi parts (the "ma"). This is an example of "if the song was slower and had less lyrics" I would have loved it more. That natural 3rd could have been so much more satisfying, but instead its just (a very welcome) part of a vocal movement in the melody.

The song is sonically spacious. It feels as if there are only like 3 instruments playing at a time, so its not over crowded with musical ideas. The most prominent feature is the bassline that is just throbbing with sass. Sometimes there is more, but it just feel open like a trio and I appreciate that openess.

I don't think I've ever really talked about my musical foundation, but I come to music from (largely) Jazz and Video Game Music. My Jazz roots give me an affinity for live musicians in both performance and recording. I love lots of programmed stuff (ie. VGM), but a composition really shines when its played by live musicians. Which is why contemporary VGM is at a kind of apex for me (but that’s a conversation for another time). Anyways, whenever a Hello!Project song uses live musicians to record a part, it really makes me stand up and listen. In this song, Takegami Yoshinari came and laid down some sax solos for the song and it really shines because of it. It might be the most distinguishing sonic factor of the song. I heard other fans complain when Tsunku uses the same "sax riff" in multiple songs, well this one is all original and bespoke for the song. I'm sure H!P usually shys away from live musicians because its more expensive to tour with musicians and playing tracks for the girls lets them get used to the same musical experience. Anyways, even if its just in recording, I appreciate the live musicians in my pop music. Another reason to love H!P.

The strings are live as well by Muroya Kouichiro. A lot of the string's "emotion" that’s in this song are much better live, as opposed to synthesized. The way the notes are blended and stretched... these are the benefits of live musicians (not decrying programmed music, just highlighting the benefits of live musicians). The harmonies the violin and the viola play could be replicated with a synth (keyboard), but the uniform technique for both parts they play could not be replicated on the keyboard. For example, all throughout the songs the strings have these quick Glissandos to end the phrases where they start on one note and finish like a 3rd or a 5th lower in the span of one beat. In the first verse listen to the strings while Kanonon sings "Oshiyoseru," it does what I'm talking about. That sort of flourish is all throughout the song in the strings and it a bit difficult to synthesize, you only get those flairs from live musicians. The drums are programmed, but having a live percussionist would have pushed this to the max for me. But this is pop music and they are trying to appeal to the masses, not aural slutz like me, lol.

Also a word on M!ho, she has been featured on many a Sho song (not that she works exclusively with him or anything), and she makes an appearance in the background of many parts of this song including the Pre-verse (usually singing the "Ah"s and "Ooh"s). I think tonally, no one could match her in Angerme. In addition, M!ho is a professional, and it was probably MUCH quicker and easier to have her do those other harmonies. M!ho's vocal control is much stronger than any of the girls in the group (save probably Meimei).

Anyways, this review is just more of my fanboy ramblings... My guilty pleasure...

Omake!

Found this thread on a Matome. DISCLAIMER: I'm no professional translate, if you see I made a mistake instead of ridiculing me, help me get better! I've left the Japanese for those who can read it, and those that can't have to suffer through my translations guwahaha~ Also this was translated after I wrote my review, so any similarities are coincidental.

48: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

A song about a woman from Kyushuu's countryside (around Kumamoto?) who left Fukuoka city with a guy to go on a date in Itoshima, huh?

I suppose that in old school Enka there was often a situation where a woman from Northern Japan was leaving Tokyo and I wonder if we are in a period where women are leaving Fukuoka City.

九州の田舎（熊本あたり？）から福岡に出てきたな女が彼と糸島にデートしてたという歌だな昔の演歌は北国から東京に出て来た女と相場が決まってたが福岡に出て来た女というのが時代かなと思う

87: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

>>48 At the moment there likely are a lot of Kyushuu women leaving Fukuoka city 今福岡に出てくる九州の女って多いらしいな

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96: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

Even though its a song about Itoshima, somehow they didn't say the names of any of Itoshima's places... Kego Park and Nokoshima Island are right by Fukuoka City

糸島の歌なのに同地の地名が出てこないってどういうことだ？警固公園や能古島は隣りの福岡市だぞ

115: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

>>96

This couple lives in Fukuoka and often was driving to Itoshima The protagonist remembered this retrospection of when they were enroute to Kego Park, Nokoshima Island, etc...

このカップルは福岡在住で糸島までよくドライブしていたその回想の途中に警固公園や能古島も行っていたことを思い出した

148: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

>>115

If thats the case, even though they traveled to Kego park and Nokoshima Island, it would have been good if they would of incorporated Keya no Ooto (in itoshima), Marutaike Park (in itoshima, they also have an illumination event as well), or Meoto Iwa into the song.

だったら芥屋の大門、丸田池公園、夫婦岩を盛り込めばいいのに

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97: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

Doesn't this song give more the impression of pop from the late 80's early 90's more than what they call Kayokyoku.

歌謡曲というよりは80年代末期から90年代初頭のポップスって印象

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267: 名無し募集中。。。＠＼(^o^)／

As opposed to Akina, isn't this closer to that area before Shouno Mayo, Kubota Saki, etc...? 明菜より前の庄野真代とか久保田早紀とかあの辺じゃないかね？

(Not gonna lie, I'm so excited I found some new Artists to research! Kubota Saki looks like BAE ver. 1.2.0)

#hello! project #angerme #music review #jpop #jポップス #アイドル #music #analysis

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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

Text

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 27/02/2021 (Ariana Grande, Digga D, Ella Henderson & Tom Grennan)

I like how on the UK Singles Chart, even if it’s kind of a slow week, we still have nine new arrivals to get through. Joy, let’s just start with the rundown. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

As you’d expect, a lot of the debuts from last week were pretty flimsy on the UK Top 75, the range I cover on the singles chart, and hence a lot of it’s gone, including all of the slowthai songs, even “CANCELLED” with Skepta which reached the top 40. Another big top 40 debut that’s disappeared is, again as you’d expect, “UK Hun?” by the United Kingdolls. We do have three pretty big drop-outs though: “No Time for Tears” by Nathan Dawe and Little Mix, ”Really Love” by KSI featuring Craig David and the Digital Farm Animals and finally, “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio. It seems that finally we’re making some room for the Spring hits to come tunnelling in by next month. That also shows in our notable fallers, as we have “Levitating” by Dua Lipa and remixed by DaBaby at #37, “Whoopty” by CJ at #39, Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Love Story” plummeting off of the debut to #41, Fredo’s album bomb continuing to linger as “Ready” with Summer Walker and “Burner on Deck” with the late Pop Smoke and Young Adz are down to #44 and #64 respectively, “you broke me first” by Tate McRae at #47, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi at #50, “Siberia” by Headie One featuring Burna Boy off of the debut to #58, “willow” by Taylor Swift at #59 (Not a good week for Taylor), “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran at #69 (The bigger question should be why it’s here at all), “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper at #71 and “Apricots” by Bicep at #73. For our gains, well, it’s pretty weird trying to find our replacements for all of this, as we have “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers back to #68 as it takes advantage of a slower week, “Roses” by SAINt JHN and remixed by Imanbek having a weird second wind at #60 – and the same goes with “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles gaining big for some reason up to #46. Otherwise, we do have some genuine rising hits in the top half of the chart, like “Mixed Emotions” by Abra Cadabra at #45 off of the debut, “Regardless” by RAYE and Rudimental at #43, “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Masked Wolf at #35 (Because I guess since Logic’s retired, people are looking to Australia for a half-baked replacement), “Believe Me” by Navos at #33, “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #32... Okay, if we’re going to give rising artists their first top 40 hit, why is it these guys and not Kali Uchis? Though I have a feeling we’ll talk about her next week. Anyway, our other notable gains are “Love Not War (The Tampa Beat)” by Jason Derulo and Nuka at #31, “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence and FLETCHER at #29, “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max at #25, funnily right next to Joel Corry’s “Head & Heart”, “Commitment Issues” by Central Cee at #18, “Up” by Cardi B at #17, “Your Love (9PM)” by ATB, Topic and A7S at #15 and “Latest Trends” by A1 x J1 at #12, with no real movement in the top 10. With all that out of the way, let’s stay cautiously optimistic for our new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#75 – “All You Ever Wanted” – Rag’n’Bone Man

Produced by Mike Elizondo and Ben Jackson-Cook

You probably know Rag’n’Bone Man for “Human”, one of the biggest hits in the UK of the 2010s that never really crossed over stateside. I was never a fan of the guy’s music in its over-produced blues-pop crawl, so I didn’t really expect his next album to do anything for me... but I feel like it does matter to a lot of people. His first album was big – and not just moderately – with several hit singles, and he would later hop on Calvin Harris’ “Giant” to more success. With that said, I don’t know why this lead single from his upcoming sophomore effort Life by Misadventure took a month to get to the lower reaches of the chart, even with a video. Has his hype fizzled out? Is there something more behind this or do people genuinely not care enough to check out the guy’s music past his debut record that had a bigger push? I don’t know but I do know that I actually quite like this... I mean, a lot. Finally, Rag’n’Bone Man found some faster-paced production that works very well with his signature baritone voice, as this almost post-punk-esque groove may be stiff but it chugs along nicely, especially with the layered guitar loops and those inspired distorted synth bloops, with some real dynamic mixing. What I feel is missing from this is stakes, at least in the content – it seems more observatory than telling any real narrative or drama that warrants such a rocketing song, especially that screeching guitar solo. I don’t think that really matters, though, as the subject matter is interesting enough in how he discusses places he’d spent his childhood in like Brighton and London and how they’ve changed since, with a pretty understandable level of both nostalgia and anger levelled at whoever made those changes... knowing he supports Corbyn, there could be some political undertones here, but I digress. The song caught me by surprise, I hope it sticks around further than a couple weeks.

#70 – “Lifestyle” – Jason Derulo featuring Adam Levine

Produced by Rice N’ Peas

So, Jason Derulo struck gold with the TikTok fame and his return to the #1 spot as he stole some Pacific Islander’s beat on “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” with Jawsh 685, and in 2020, everything seemed to go right for Derulo at a good time, even netting a BTS remix in the process. Now ever since then he’s been alternating between original tracks and more “borrowed” Pacific Islander beats, and this is one of those original tracks, which sounds nothing like the siren or Tampa beats so I’m pretty sure we know what the aim really is for those tracks. Whilst he’s had some success in the European markets, he hasn’t had much in the US so a catchy pop single with Adam Levine, detached of the Maroon 5 brand as that continues to fade away post-“Memories”, seems like an apt but desperate attempt at latching onto said market. God damn it, I’m embarrassed to say that it worked because this should not be a good song. It’s got a pretty funky synth riff and bassline that makes this otherwise pretty embarrassing track a lot more listenable, as Derulo’s delivery is pretty insufferable (but still pretty sonically appealing; the guy sounds great with a lot of Auto-Tune). There’s a lot of nonsense lyrics, both literally in the post-chorus and more ridiculously in the first verse, full of lyrics about how an unnamed woman is “shining bright just like Rihanna-na”, one lyric out of the whole song that is generally pretty weak lyrically, as you’d expect. The chorus is really damn catchy though, and propelled by horn lines and pianos that sound pretty triumphant, even if the clipping falsettos sound like garbage, and Derulo’s ad-libs in Levine’s verse are just hilarious. Honestly, Levine sounds better with this hook than Derulo does, mostly because Levine is aptly and actively not trying, which is much more fitting for a messy dance-pop track. With just two verse-chorus structures, as well as two post-choruses, this is basic and practically unfinished; there isn’t a bridge. With that said, I can’t hate this at all, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s the fact that Levine’s reverb-drowned “Lifestyle!” backing vocals are cut off in the mix during the chorus... that did genuinely get a laugh out of me, don’t ask why.

#65 – “HEAT” – Paul Woodford and Amber Mark

Produced by Paul Woodford

From just a glimpse of her work, Amber Mark seems a lot more unique and soulful than most of the replaceable dance-pop singers, but for the purposes of this song and hence this show, that’s all she is, and Paul Woodford is just the boring DJ. This is a dance-pop song with 90s MIDI-sounding pianos, odd vocal processing, generic string patches, a house groove accentuated by a lot of fake hand-claps and a weak, barely-there drop. The time house-pop does something interesting for the first time in years in the mainstream beyond this garbage that’s been living in German night clubs in the 90s for decades after the fact, is the day I am a much happier woman. Skip this.

#61 – “Didn’t Know” – Tom Zanetti

Produced by Sjay

If you want proof of how slow a week this is, there aren’t even lyrics for this on Genius. Anyway, I don’t know or care who Tom Zanetti or Sjay are because guess what this is? Another house-pop track. To be fair, this one has more of a bass-heavy deep house groove and bassline, and a pretty cringeworthy rap verse from who I assume is Tom Zanetti, going for what seems like a Chicago house vibe but missing any of the soul or big diva samples, relying instead on a checked-out delivery from someone no-one knows the name of. Really, what do you expect me to say about this? It’s a sex jam, but it’s so basic and minimal that those keys in the chorus end up sounding as eerie as they do seductive, and overall, there’s genuinely nothing to grab from this other than that Tom Zanetti shouldn’t be rapping... whoever that even is. I did look up the guy and it makes perfect sense that this guy was making bassline music decades after that was big, because this screams “failed attempt” to me, and hopefully if the British public have any sense, it’ll be a failed attempt on the charts. We’ll have to wait and see on that front, I guess.

#57 – “Time” – JLS

Produced by Oswald Hamilton (or Biggz the Engineer)

So, legendary(?) boy band JLS are probably one of the bigger names from the craze of R&B and pop bands and vocalists that got big from The X Factor but JLS had actual staying power for at least a little while, mostly because, well, there was always a place for them in the late 2000s and early 2010s, where it wasn’t uncommon to see these dance-pop tracks flooding the chart. They weren’t that great, obviously, but they didn’t need to be as what mattered to the audience and label was that the four boys kept their charm and style by the time they released a new record every November and that a couple singles off of it went to the top 10. That comment about longevity must not have lasted, however, as whilst most members were able to find some kind of success solo, usually in broadcasting like Marvin Humes, people weren’t really demanding a comeback, I suppose, as whilst this is their first charting song since their 2013 farewell “Billion Lights”, this new reunion track hasn’t made much noise at all and is probably here off of sales. I mean, the lyrics aren’t even on Genius yet... oh, wait, it’s some other guy that happens to be called JLS. Huh. Well, that makes sense, but, like, you’d want to change your name if it was that closely related to a big name, especially if you weren’t a family-friendly boy band and were instead a pretty awful rapper relying on a weak UK drill beat with absolutely no energy at all. Okay, so this sounds like several rappers here, so I assume it’s a rap group or collective. Either way, not many of these people have much charisma to talk about, like at all, and this beat can’t carry them on that lone piano melody alone, even if it is kind of menacing. The song feels twice its length, and something screams industry-made to me. I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s a debut single, but they’re not signed to any major label so that’s just speculation. With some research, I found that it’s by two guys called Switch and J9 and a lot of fans were confused why it was uploaded under JLS, when the original song, on YouTube, isn’t even called “Time”. It’s called “Look”. I can only see this as kind of a scummy marketing ploy by a label, as I don’t think an independent distributor would be willing to change the name, artwork and artist name to believably look like JLS. I don’t know about any of this but really the song isn’t bad or really worth caring about, just a game of finding the impostor. To be honest, I’d love for JLS’ actual comeback single to be a drill banger in response, but again, we’ll have to wait and see. For now... who even gets the royalties for this?

#56 – “CLOUDS” – NF

Produced by Tommee Profitt and NF

You know what’s decidedly less fun than UK drill rappers masquerading as late 2000s boy bands? Christian rap. To be fair to NF, he’s less outwardly Christian as he is just family-friendly pop-rap with a lot of technical skill and that’s fine, although it does mean his fanbase consists pretty much exclusively white kids who think they listen to “real rap with a message” and dismiss anyone with a darker skin tone as mumble-rap. Though I don’t think NF purposefully lets into that demographic, at least from the little I’ve heard, I don’t doubt that he knows that’s his base as he continues on this lead single from his upcoming mixtape CLOUDS to criticise rappers who “go Hollywood” whilst also acknowledging how violent some of his lyrics may seem, which kind of seems like an odd thing to say in this context. I mean, NF here is only being clean rather than Christian, but not in a Lecrae way where he’s genuinely a versatile and soulful rapper outside of the religious stuff that tends to work its way into a lot of his work. Instead, NF just kind of meanders over a condescendingly bad piano-based trap beat, with pretty pathetic flows that really undermine how much technical skill this guy supposedly has. I mean, if he’s going to imitate Eminem with even more filler bars and unfunny mid-verse skits. To be fair, I can’t complain about the dude’s energy, and the beat does get better as it gathers a lot more energy in its choral grandiosity, but I feel like this one starting verse just lasts for days because of how little is actually said in three minutes, and that second verse is shorter but says even little. That’s before getting into some of these lyrics as it really is just nonsense half of the time. He claims to be “not artistic” – I don’t know why Nate meant by that but it just comes off as how it is on paper: hilarious – and also flooding the first verse with a series of ridiculous metaphors you’d be hard-pressed to wrap your head around, including questionable name-drops for... Bill Gates, of all people. I do find it ironic how despite his fanbase wanting to make you think you’re not smart enough to get NF’s really “clever” bars, the Genius annotations for one of the few kind of cool lines here show that it completely goes over their heads. NF says, “Got something in my cup, ain’t codeine”, which you can stretch – pretty reasonably – to be a Biblical reference. The song’s about fame and success, so referencing “my cup runneth over” makes a lot of sense. The annotations says that it’s unclear what’s in NF’s cup, and a comment corrects him, saying that it shows in the music video that Nate’s cup has water in it. Nice one, guys. At least Eminem murders women and Hopsin’s a racist piece of trash, what does this guy have?

#38 – “test drive” – Ariana Grande

Produced by Foster, Mr. Franks, TBHits and Murda Beatz

Ariana Grande released the few bonus deluxe tracks from her Positions album last week, and of course, at least one charted – not many others could as you can’t have more than three hits at a time on the UK Singles Chart. I know, it’s silly. Honestly, I think the deluxe tracks were in most cases better than the standard edition, and I think if we cut out the annoyingly large amount of filler in that total package, we could have a pretty damn great record from Ari, but as is, it’s really just fine and suffering from all of the issues her past few years of music have. With that said, “test drive” might be my favourite ever song of hers, with its gorgeous 90s R&B keys that lead us in to a bouncy house beat from Murda Beatz of all people (in a similar vein to “motive” from the standard edition but with actual sound design). There isn’t that much of a bass in the groove here, but it makes up for that with its twinkling synths and Ari’s delivery which sounds convincing and infectious through the whole track, which may be short at just barely more than two minutes but does not waste that time with its incredible chorus and whilst I would have preferred some more complexity or meat to this production, particularly the percussion, this dreamy blend of 90s pop styles is really fun as is, especially in that final chorus with those subtle strings and bleep-bloops coming in, to the point where you don’t really care how abruptly it ends... which actually might be a pretty fitting end for a track about a youthful, very sexually active relationship. Yeah, this is pretty great – check it out.

#36 – “Toxic” – Digga D

Produced by Trinz

Speaking of bonus tracks, here’s a bonus track from Digga D’s most recent mixtape, Made in the Pyrex, and any goodwill I had for this guy is gone because this song is deplorable. You can say it’s satirical all you want – and to an extent it probably is – but I really can’t sit here and listen to a rich guy talk about how awfully he treats women for three minutes. Basically, the song is about influencers that want to “suck his bone”, and honestly that would be fine if he kept it about the sex, rather than how much he seemingly hates these women, calling them good for nothing sex objects with the subtlety of a dusty red brick. Misogyny is common in rap music and popular music as a whole, and it’s forgivable because, really, objectification is so commonplace that there’s no point in fighting it off, and really there’s nothing wrong in a rapper saying “my girlfriend is attractive” because... well, yeah, she probably is. There’s also nothing wrong with a rapper describing or depicting sex, because sex happens, and there’s also nothing wrong with rappers describing their conflicts with women because, again, they happen, and music is never supposed to represent a perfect life or perfect human. You can express your flaws and irrational emotions, even if they are “toxic”, in your music because it’s a form of human expression that knows few bounds, and as long as there’s some kind of tact or thematic approach, I really do not mind and will often try and justify it. However, when you’ve got a guy with no charisma or personality describing how he uses his fame on Twitter to his advantage for cheap sex, what really is the point in listening to this guy? Do you enjoy hearing about how he constantly condescends and insults the women providing him with cheap sexual desires? Sure, they never sent you letters while you were in jail, but they were never supposed to. These are Instagram models and social media influencers you use to get your rocks off by sliding in DMs, not long-time relationships, and you know that, so why are you complaining when your emotional desires are not met beyond intercourse... especially when you clearly don’t care about hers? I guess Digga D is being “toxic” on purpose as the title and chorus ensues, but this is too overly-specific and based in what seem to be real-life situations for me to stick with this and justify any of it, especially him referencing the models’ substance abuse, how he refuses to drink fancy wine she bought her instead of his cheap Magnum tonic wine – a sexual stimulant from Jamaica. All that would be fine if it weren’t for how he takes this back to real life by mentioning his ex-girlfriend, breaking all illusions of satire and fantasy. In the second verse, he continues to slut-shame and condemn women for... travelling abroad? Profiting from OnlyFans? Wearing Rolexes? If you want to talk about how many designer accessories you wear, how many places you’ve been, how many women you’ve had sex with and how many women you use for your own benefit and no one else’s, as you do in all of your songs, then where’s your excuse for criticising women for doing the same thing? Oh, right, there is none! I heard a few weeks ago and talked about on this show how the government has to see Digga D’s lyrics and censor them in the case that they’re too violent. It’s pretty telling how this misogynist piece of shit slipped through those cracks, huh?

#28 – “Let’s Go Home Together” – Ella Henderson and Tom Grennan

Produced by TMS

Okay, so this is our highest debut this week, and it’s from singer Ella Henderson, who you probably know from “Ghost”. She was another X Factor singer and this song actually dates back to 2016, where it was leaked online as a duet with James Arthur. More than four years later, it sees an official release with the slightly-less-trendy Arthur replaced with Tom Grennan, similarly non-present pop singer. I’m surprised the label’s even letting her release this pretty generic pop ballad with an acoustic pick-up and lyrics about going home together while drunk, as well as trap-esque percussion because of course. I mean, her second album has been shelved for half a decade, and Tom Grennan himself has kind of been in limbo until recently, and it’s not like he’s doing anything interesting or different here with his insufferable mumbling delivery. There’s an unfunny bait-and-switch in his verse at some point that I think even James Arthur would have pulled off better, and Grennan’s last line in the bridge is genuinely just one of the worst moments in music this year, Jesus Christ – you’ve just got to listen to that part, I guess. The song’s really not worth speaking more about and I want to wrap this up.

Conclusion

A slower, less chaotic week yet still a mixed bag and mostly bad. I’ll give Best of the Week for Rag’n’Bone Man for “All You Ever Wanted”, with a really close Honourable Mention for Ariana Grande’s “test drive”. Worst of the Week should be pretty damn obvious given that Digga D’s “Toxic” even exists, but Dishonourable Mention really is a toss-up. I guess Tom Zanetti’s “Didn’t Know” might be the most embarrassing song here... apart from “Lifestyle” of course but that song really is just okay. For next week... who cares? Here’s this week’s top 10:

Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank if you’re interested – really, I just talk about Weezer more often than I should – and I’ll see you next week.

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joezworld · 3 years

Note

📁

Specifically, any headcanons of the Sodor Engines interacting with the internet, or the internet in general?

For some reason, I’d imagine that podcasts and the like are popular among vehicles in general.

That is a question that I've been working on for some time - because I'm workshopping my own Tornado headcanon (and boy oh boy does she use the internet a lot) - but I have some ideas for the Sodor engines as well:

Henry is probably the most "plugged in" engine on the island, weirdly enough. One of his drivers gave him an iPod back in the early 2000s, and kindly preloaded it with a bunch of torrented music.

BTW, that works because all the engines are now equipped with automatic train warning systems, and the little on-board computer has a USB port - as a nice side effect it allows music players to work with the engines in the same way as bone-conducting headphones do. The computer also acts as some kind of computer interface, which I am not going to explain how that works because Jesus Christ I don’t know how it does either.

Henry has managed to upgrade his iPod a few times since thanks to hand-me-down units from NWR staff, so he eventually got his buffers on a wifi-enabled iPod Touch and now downloads new music from the station wifi. He does listen to podcasts, but as every other engine will tell you, you could show Henry ten thousand new and exciting songs from the best artists in the world, and his top ten played songs are still going to be Genesis, Phil Collins, and Yes. Bear considers it a win that he managed to convince Henry to regularly listen to Rush after a mere twenty years of convincing.

Mavis and Daisy listen to a very interesting program called The News, because as stated elsewhere, they invest a shitload of money and need to be on top of things. Thomas and Percy wish that Daisy would use headphones or something similar to that, instead of listening to Bloomberg TV at loud volumes in the middle of the night. Toby frankly doesn’t mind, as it’s very nice to be kept up-to-date on the outside world.

In a move that surprises no-one, Bill and Ben have a podcast where they talk about whatever they think about at that moment - usually horse-racing, investing, and clay mining. As such, they have a wide audience, almost none of whom know that they’re that Bill and Ben, as their podcast is audio-only.

In an also unsurprising move, Edward and BoCo have been made very much aware that Bill and Ben have a podcast, but are still unsure as to what the hell a podcast is, despite being frequent guests on it.

Of the main line diesels, only Bear has shown any real interest in the internet, and was immediately put in charge of the Amazon Alexa when a unit was installed in the diesel shed. He also has an iPod that he got for Christmas a few years back. (The NWR has a very good personal electronics recycling program called give it to Henry, he’ll make use it.)

Bear does listen to podcasts as well as music, but his choices are so insufferably boring that even Henry refuses to listen to them. (I don’t really listen to podcasts - despite making one - so insert the most boring podcast you can think of here.)

As for other internet uses...

Gordon is very up-to-date on the newest social media trends - somehow - but only really cares when he is involved. He won’t admit it, but he’s been trying to figure out how to work a camera/selfie stick for some time so he can start up his own Instagram account. So far he has been unsuccessful, but one day he will manage it.

James has had an ongoing feud with his own Wikipedia page for about a decade now. The article sourced most of its information about his construction off of some out-of-print book about the L&Y. The book in question is accurate about James’ class, but not James himself - as he was a prototype engine. There’s no other primary sources available, so the very dedicated Wikipedia mod who created the page won’t change it - no matter how much James complains that he was there! He knows what happened!

Every now and again a TTTE fan blog/tumblr will make a post about hypothetical “ships” of the Sodor engines. Most of the time it’s shipping the core characters like Gordon and Henry, much to Gordon’s bafflement and Henry’s amusement!

Only one blog (a ttte fan tumblr by the curious name of @mean-scarlet-deceiver ) has gotten it right. Henry actually reached out to congratulate this blogger, but was unfortunately mistaken for a very dedicated roleplay account.

James is very annoyed by these blogs, as they have never once correctly guessed who he is “shipped” with! He has tried several times to be seen in public with Delta, but these events have never gone as planned - the “best” instance is when Edward rolled by at exactly the wrong moment, leading to months of speculation that JamesxEdward was the ship to look out for!

Thomas, being a generally oblivious sort of engine, was totally unaware of the online fan community around the TV show until he started getting actively harassed by vloggers and Instagrammers in the early 2010s. He’s fine with it now, but it was a deeply unusual experience for most of 2012.

Toby has developed an unexpectedly popular following on social media following his collab with Stormzy. His official twitter is huge now, with over a million followers, even if he has no idea what to do with it. He posts rarely, but usually manages to make an incredible post when he does.

No-one is sure who told Oliver what a “fan-production” is, but if you manage to get ahold of him for any period of time and ask him nicely, he will lend his voice to your TTTE fan-project, so long as it isn’t about [INSERT TERRIBLE SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIEW(S) HERE]. This means that he has 100% voiced dramatic readings of NSFW Fanfics before, which is always an absolute riot to spring on people unannounced.

There is a series of slice-of-life TTTE fanfics on Ao3 that have been written with such accuracy and innate railway knowledge that people are sure it was written by a Sodor engine, but nobody knows which one.

The Culdee Fell Railway has very active Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts, with all of the engines and coaches showing up regularly. It’s about the closest any of the railways on Sodor have come to what those outside the UK would call “normal locomotive social media”.

The Skarloey Railway has social media accounts too, but they don’t really feature the engines in any meaningful way, instead being used as a normal service announcements page.

The SR is a real working railway that doesn’t rely on tourism money as much as the others do, so they get a bit of a pass here.

The Arlesdale Railway has Twitter and YouTube, which didn’t usually get a lot of hits until 2020, when Ivan and Amanda Farrier started badgering the staff to make some videos just to alleviate some boredom. So far the most popular videos on the channel are a front-mounted camera video of the entire line slow-tv style, Bert explaining how steam engines work, and a video of Mike complaining about Justin Bieber for a solid half-hour.

That’s about it as far as Sodor goes, but before we’re done, I want to take a moment to talk about Tornado, because I have some fun ideas for her...

First of all, we need to establish that Tornado is very young. Her construction only started in late 90′s, and she was steamed to life in 2000, putting her firmly into the “Zoomer” category. Add in the fact that she was built by a bunch of old men who didn’t really know how to treat a new engine, and she was raised much more like a human than a locomotive - I’ll get to this much more in the proper Tornado Headcanon post, but what this means here is that when social media started being a thing in the mid-to-late 2000′s, the people at the A1 Trust decided that they needed a young person to run things like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace... and, well, Tornado was the youngest person in the trust by a large margin.

I should state here that in the rest of the world, locomotives are on the internet at roughly the same level as humans are, so there’s plenty of equipment to connect a phone/computer/camera to an engine - being English, the A1 Trust didn’t know how common it was, but they managed to get it up and running just the same.

So Tornado has very quickly become attuned to the internet, just like any other teenager would. (yes, let’s let that settle into our minds for a moment - Tornado is barely old enough to drink in the US!) Quite naturally that means that she knows social media inside and out, and is actually quite a proficient social media manager for the trust, managing all of their social pages. More than one person who has complained about the trust on twitter has unknowingly been complaining to Tornado herself!

“On the internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog Engine”.

Tornado has her own personal social media accounts too, but most/all of the time she gets mistaken for a very dedicated role-player, as the general perception of British Locomotives is that they don’t tweet. This has resulted in some amazing reactions from podcast hosts (because, as you might expect, Tornado is very knowledgeable about steam traction in the 21st century, and tweets about it often, so train podcasts want to talk to her) when she gets invited onto video calls, turns on her webcam, and is met with screams from people who suddenly realize that her profile picture is accurate.

By far the best instance of this is when she was invited onto a video call with a railfan podcast. She was at the NRM at the time and managed to convince them to let her use their Skype setup. A wide-angle lens was needed because she was on the turntable in the Great Hall, so that podcast quickly got sidetracked when her webcam was turned on and revealed Tornado, with Mallard, Evening Star, City of Truro, and Green Arrow visible behind her. Whatever the original topic was quickly got thrown out in favor of a 2-hour Q&A with some of the most famous engines in the UK.

#ask response #the internet #ttte thomas #ttte toby #ttte bill and ben #ttte gordon #ttte daisy #ttte mavis #ttte henry #ttte bear #ttte oliver #tornado #nrm #trains using the internet #ttte #sodor #sodor shenangians #the formatting on this one is super fucked up and i can't figure out how to fix it - sorry

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naomi-rae · 3 years

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Evaluation

I have really enjoyed this module. Bio Art has taken me down these main roots of experimentation and research: a Nigerian safe house for gay men, Aboriginal Australian culture and psychogeography and mapping and creating visual solutions based off all my findings.

I made a mind map of words about Biology, Art and the bridge between the two terms (definition of Bio Art). I used words from the mind map to lead different lines of research. One word was ‘instincts’ which I searched on ‘Dazed.com’ and found an interview of artist Mlangeni about his 2019 stay in a safe house for gay men in Lagos, Nigeria: The House of Allure. He was there to take photos. This links to instincts as it is human instinct to seek safety and who you are attracted to is instinct as well, as Einstein said “Gravitation is not responsible for falling in love.” I was fascinated by Mlangeni’s photos which captured honestly the life these men live. I researched further and found out all forms of homosexuality or encouragement of homosexuality in Nigeria is illegal!

I had been researching into text and image so I created a visual solution where I painted a quote from the Mlangeni interview combing different fonts for an eye-catching word art poster.

I sketched a continuous line drawing of Mlangeni’s photo of residents sitting on the sofa then coloured it in felt tips. This turned the original back-and-white photo into a saturated vibrant colouring. I did this to bring these men hidden away in the shadows into the open, not persecuted by society but celebrated by it. I took this idea further creating a visual solution of a T shirt with my colouring imposed onto it. I had a friend model the shirt with these men on, putting them into society, out of hiding.

Other visual solutions I produced based off this line of research were a graphite-pencil-sketch and monotypes. When monotyping I started on a small scale using the trace method with water-based inks then moved onto the painting method with oil-based inks on a large scale, A1. I wanted to use a large scale to celebrate and display these marginalized men and make them seem powerful and strong despite how they are in a powerless position because of discriminative laws. I am pleased with how my monotyping improved throughout this experimentation.

Another line of research that evolved out of these visual solutions is the theme of touch. Mlangeni’s photos were taken in 2019 before Covid19. In the group photos the men are casually touching each other, e.g., a shoulder touching shoulder, which looks natural and right however it moved me as casual contact is no longer allowed. That is why I used continuous line, to emphasize how each person is touching another.

Another word on the mind map was ‘Crops’ which I searched into search engines and found an exhibition; ‘Desert Painters of Australia’. I looked into Aboriginal art and found that each dot painting is based on a specific sacred journey across a stretch of Australia called a Song Line. I researched further into Aboriginal culture by reading the books ‘The Songlines’ by Bruce Chatwin and ‘Songlines and Dreamings’, watching the film ‘Australia’ and researching on the web. The visual solutions I created alongside included aboriginal body painting and creating my own song line based on canal routes I run along.

Inspired by Mlangeni’s honest photography, psychogeography and Song line routes I took my camera on a canal route with me and took pictures of all the rubbish I saw. After researching into 3D work and modelling out of card I re created some of the litter I found out of old bits of cardboard and acrylic paint. I used cardboard to make a set to put the models in. I then covered the ‘Litter Box’ with litter. The irony of using this bricolage method is that in creating this set out of litter I have also created another piece of litter. The cycle of humans creating waste never stops. I also modelled a figure armature out of wire, tissue and paint to re create the dolly I found dumped by the canal side.

I researched the artists Ed Fairburn and Kathy Prendergast when looking into mapping.

Using knowledge from the lecture on colour I colour-coded the different routes and marked specific places on my song line with a coloured dot. Some of the places marked are buildings, some mark places where things have happened to me. This is psychogeography. Researching and creating from Aboriginal Songlines lead onto visual solutions to do with mapping and my environment. I took this experimentation further by selecting specific descriptions and sketching them with graphite pencils.

I could have happily spent years on this project. Through researching and experimentation, I have opened up so many different artistic journeys. If I had more time I could have

· sketched every description in my song line and added more descriptions and routes yet,

· created more song lines on an even larger scale,

· placed my song line in an interactive gallery setting where viewers have to walk down the routes and find the different descriptions,

· created more small scale 3D cardboard models,

· used bricolage again to raise awareness of the litter in surrounding areas,

· looked further into the psychogeography of my presence and perspective along the canals as I run past,

· produced more psychogeography works based on my residence in Birmingham and the history of the Birmingham canals / landmarks

· explored further into integrating maps into my work

· explored further into the theme of touch and loss of touch due to Covid19

· created more paint peeling arrangements,

· looked further into the different connotations of colours,

· travelled to Nigeria and interviewed the residents of The House of Allure and sketched and painted them from life,

· travelled to Australia and seen song line dot paintings in the flesh,

· made more T shirts,

· decorated more leaves

· created and sewn together more illustrative books

· made more word art human rights posters, looking further into the human rights injustices going on in Nigeria and other countries which make homosexuality illegal

· visited more exhibitions that relate to psychogeography and the earths current affairs (like ‘The End of Fun’ and ‘Biotransmutations’).

I think I have tackled this module very successfully as I have researched thoroughly in a variety of ways (primary research, geography, using websites, reading books, watching films, historical learning, gallery visits, interviews, articles, exhibitions) whilst responding visually to my research in a variety of ways (body painting, ink drawings on leaves, graphite pencil sketches, acrylic paintings, 3D card models, bricolage, 3D figure armature making, T shirt making, Heat transfer textiles prints, word art poster painting, monotyping, ink and paint responses to different sound scopes, pointillist dot method, felt tip colouring, continuous line, cross hatching, stippling, scumbling, mind mapping). As a result, I have learnt many new things about artistic methods and the world I live in.

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theday · 6 years

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tagged by @ikyh and @younghyuuns ill be doing both sets !! :D thank you both for tagging me!! this got long so yall dont hav 2 read <3

ru?? rushee’s set!! me: wow ru does not sound like rushee at all ? djsjdhhjd im dumb but i realize now

i. do u believe in astrology? whats ur sign and do u line up with the features usually attributed to it?

fucc... i guess i do ;-0...... and yeah i think?????? like they say capricorns are cold bitches and funny nd im like ya thats me... but they also say we’re hard workers and im like uh.. dont know abt that karen !

ii. what’s ur favorite pair of socks?

bbbbbbb..... socks huh...... i guess my ankle ones? there are also socks that have actual designs on them and those r usually thicker.. keep my feets safe! most of them have pkmn designs bc.. yeah... love the poke mans

iii. what’s a food that reminds you of a specific moment/memory?

i could think of anythiing and get reminded of one situation if that makes sense.. but i thought of pineapple..pizza... anyway the memory isnt anythngn special its just me staring at my delicious hawaiian pizza..... at my favourite pizza place.... love that shit

iv. what’s the longest you’ve gone without sleeping?

i dont have the actual hours but the latest ive stayed up.. like willingly would be until 2am

v. how has ur taste in music changed throughout ur life?

went from 1d to 5so/s + other bands to utaite.... they cover vocaloid songs ig i never kno how2 explain what utaites r then 2 kpop.. but i still listen 2 bands + kpop and utaites.... so nothing much has changed ive just gone broader.. wider... expanded my tastes...

vi. who’s ur fashion icon?

oh definitely kim wonpil

vii. what’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done without realizing?

i breathe dumbass particles.. i cant think of one bc my brain probably blocked off all access to my horrifying past but ive been thinking abt how i used 2 send the boy i used 2 like 1d songs....................... 12 y/o old me rly thought. he’d listen.... 12 y/o me thought spamming him was a good idea glad ive learnt from that!

viii. what’s something you want to brag about?

my grades but it didnt get me into psychology so nvm ! its still good though i didnt expect to get an A1 (hghest grade) for combined humanities since ive had a B my whole life without it i wouldnt be able to move on education wise lmao so thank god for that thanks cambridge thanks bell curve sunbaenim

ix. when you imagine urself being happy in the future, where exactly are you (like the location!)?

oh definitely an apartment somewhere where its always windy and the curtains are always Moving and the sun just Shines in the room but its not that hot either its just full of warmth and yeah thats the dream maybe also walks in the park without having 2 worry abt sweating my pits out u kno! tldr anywhere but here

x. what’s something you’ve always wanted to own?

let me Think.... i dont need a lot/?? but id love hm.............. i want stability but realistically i want all the hh pcs from the code albums.

xi. how’ve you been lately?

good good! i finished my *** fic and its. im proud of it though i know its not that good nd i can do better but its done ! and hm i could be going to see mx but asking my mum is stressing me out speaking of her she wont stop Coughing and she refuses to see the doctor ;-/ love those sleepless nights ! other than that i just want 2 get out and feel the sun ???/ wanna get out of this house yea but i need to be.. shady with my money i cant get a job because school is starting in a month and im going overseas again sometime next month so ! no ones gonna hire someone who can only work for 2 weeks at most dhzjhhs shouldve worked when i had the time dumbasses only

ok now falen

1. what’s been on your mind??

hm redacted feeling towards my mum but i cant say them bc itd be insensitive

2. what are you looking forward to?

mx? possibly but also finishing my enrolment papers

3. story time!: how and when did you get into day6!!!!!

fuck...... listen up LADS.

ive told the same story like 10 times but im never gonna get tired of saying this shit bc i love miss boxy so much nd she deserves the appreciation anywy she introduced me 2 day6 after i saw this one (1) picture of brian in minion glasses and instantly i knew in that Fucking moment thatd id die for him. so i asked for the name of my murderer and was introduced to day6 whom frankly id never heard of b4 bdjhjh she sent me all their mvs and i still remember the night . i remember walking out of this japanese restaurant, twitter open, chat wiht boxy there and i was like.. interesting ill go listen when im home so i Did! and my mind was blown away bitch? i honest 2 god expected them to be a boy group,,, dancing and shit yknow? i didnt know k bands existed ! so as a previous 5/sos stan i was like wow. this??? this shit is 10/10 a fucking BANGER thats what i felt listening 2 i smile and just going :O over the fucking instruments so idk if how can i say was the last or second song but Damn. .. it made me scream thanks mister j** he rly dragged me by the collar of my shirt and threw me face first into Heaven so i watched everything i asked my friend for video recommendations and after boxy sent me a page with their face and names i was like this jae kid is 182 cm? wow gotta stan now im stupid and stupid for glasses and tall people so ! it happened bithc,, ugh i lov eday6 so much i remember binge watchng all their vlives after the july after party live (that being the first vlive i watched Ever in my entire life and i laghed so hard despite not understanding a damn thing) please id giv my heart and soul2 day6 im so happy with the way ive progressed as a myday :^(

bonus when i first started stanning it was 26th june and shortly after i made a stan acc teasers were being dropped but i didnt kno why ppl were freaking out i remmeber seeing jae’s teaser nd going ? ok? its just a pic damn ;-/ and then eveeryone was like: dowoon! choker! me: wdhs? what

4. ????do you have any allergies????

did u think of jae and no i used to be allergic 2 dairy products but thats disappeared

5. a fond memory???

bowling with friends and im just a disaster of a friend im always so loud with them and i thank god everyday that they handle my energy ? i would cheer for them even if they got a gutter or whatever and when they got a strike id go clap like crazy i love my friends i also went i have the power of god and anime on my side before flinging the ball and theyd laugh despite not knowing what vine that was from i love my friends... psg if ur out there yall are the best x i miss hanigng out with them as a trio.. three of us :(

6. do you paint your nails?? if so, what are your fave colors to use?? if not, why??

thats so.. tiresome.......... dont u have 2 wait for it 2 dry and shit ? my mums always worried abt ruining the colour or some sht nd im like !!! okY!!!!!!! tldr its a pain in the ass

7. what are your favorite colors?? what are your fave colors to wear??

i like hte colour of the sky... all the colours........ yeah love that bithc and lately ive been wearing a lot of black shirts finally went out of my embarrassing colourful phase !

8. what languages would you like to learn?? for what reason(s)??

japanese nd korean jp because i listen to a lot of things in japanese and korean for the same reason but my priority would be jp even tho id love to communicate with my faves i just... yeah although im not exactly making an effort 2 learn bc im lazy but if i Could.... itd be those two

9. when you get stickers, do you use them or do you keep them??

DHDGFHDHDGDSJHJSJAKSSJHFHS THIS FEELS LIKE A CALL OUT???? i keep them.........

10. are there any groups that you might get into/want to get into?

hm... well theres knk ive learnt their names and im finally able to put name 2 face so thats nice svt too if htey didnt have such large numbers... thats all for now i think?? i love evry girl group though i love gIRLS...

11. how are you???

idk im constantly just fine?? not the im sad but im fine kind of fine im literally just neutral half the time wjhddshs wild

both of your questions were really unique and i loved answering them thank you so much for tagging me and if youve read until the end thank you i hope you have a good day!

#tag games #moon texts #its with the s righthd hsjdhd

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