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thirstyforcharacters · 3 years

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3. Breaking the Ice

Part 3 of 4 of the Winter Storm Warning Series

Summary: After the resounding defeat of your foes at the ruins of the Hoth base, you and Poe realize that with the snowstorm raging outside, you're trapped inside the base. You're not looking forward to what comes after, but maybe it won't be as bad as you thought it would be.

Notes: And now comes the fluff! If you haven’t caught them: Chapter 1 is here, Chapter 2 is here, and Chapter 4 is here! There's only one more chapter left, and more than likely, there's gonna be smut (which I know is what the people really want; there’s been practically no one that’s read this so far, but I’m hoping that changes once the smut gets posted). Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you like this one! (use of she/her pronouns in future chapters, no y/n)

Warnings: the “there was only one bed” trope, but that’s it lol

WC: 1.9k

Because of your injury (and his guilty conscience, you believed), Poe decided he would scope out the base for a decent place to shack up for the night. A lot of the base was still collapsed in on itself, so there was a possibility that there were no bedrooms or refreshers for the two of you to use. In the meantime, you were attempting to get back in contact with the general to tell her that you were stuck. Unfortunately for you, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get a signal to go through. If only the rebel base was a little bit closer. You huffed, frustrated, but you kept going; it was the only thing you could do to be helpful right now since Poe refused to let you do anything else. It was just a broken nose, so you could walk around, but he said that he didn’t want there to be a chance that you would aggravate your injury. It kind of pissed you off that he wasn’t letting you do anything, but on the same token, you understood that it was just a desire to help you.

After yet another unsuccessful attempt, Poe returned.

Upon seeing your frustrated expression, he asked, “No luck?”

“No,” you grumbled, “the storm is too strong, I can’t get anything to go through. You have any good news?”

“A mixture of good and bad. Good news is I found somewhere we can sleep,” his expression then grew sheepish, “the bad news is, uh...”

You quirked up your eyebrow, “What?”

“There’s uh, there’s only one room that’s not collapsed. And, there’s only one bed.”

“Oh.”

You didn’t quite know what to do. You definitely didn’t want to sleep with Poe, but the bed was really the only comfortable option. You back already hurt just from sleeping against the wall for that short burst of time. But you knew that that would probably be the better option.

“You can have it. The wall is shockingly comfortable,” you joked.

“Absolutely not. It’s yours,” he rebutted.

“I’m already sitting here anyway. I’m chill with staying here,” you said, snickering slightly.

He rolled his eyes, “That was a terrible pun. But in all seriousness, you’re taking the room.”

“Nope.”

“You are. One, you��re injured. Two, it’s my fault we’re here in the first place. It’s only fair.”

“Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?”

The question seemed to throw him off guard, “Don’t you want me to be nice to you? I can go back to being a dick, if that’s what you prefer.”

“No, I definitely prefer you this way. I just want to know why. Especially because it was so sudden.”

“I thought it would be obvious,” he replied, “you suffered because of me, so I’m making it up to you.”

“And even after you’ve made it up to me, will you continue to be nice to me? Or will you go back to having an unfounded superiority complex?” you asked.

He scratched his head sheepishly, “Well, I am a better pilot than you. But yeah, I’ll play nice as long as you do.”

You rolled your eyes, but you were smiling, “Clearly, I’m the better pilot, since I was able to land in the middle of a snowstorm. But I wouldn’t mind being friends. It’s better than what we have going on now.”

“The landing was really good,” he complimented, making your smile grow a little wider.

“So, friends?” you questioned, holding out your hand.

He grinned, taking your hand and shaking it, “Friends.”

When you let go of his hand, you said, “And as your friend, I will be forcing you to take the room.”

“Like hell you are,” he shot back, scooping you into his arms.

“Poe!” you shrieked, “what are you doing?! Put me down!”

“Giving you the bed, Admiral,” he teased, “you’re injured, you need to rest up.”

“It’s just my nose, Dameron. It’s not like I’m gonna die.”

“You’re still getting the bed,” he stubbornly replied.

You huffed and allowed him to carry you to the small room. He gently deposited you onto the bed and straightened back up with a triumphant grin on his face.

“Oh, stop,” you groaned, smacking him in the arm.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, rubbing the injured area, “I’m giving you a gift, and this is how you repay me?”

“Yup.”

Then, you realized that while you were talking, you could see your breath in front of your face. In the hustle and bustle of the day, you forgot just how cold it was in the base.

“It’s fucking freezing in here,” you muttered, “there’s gotta be some kind of heating system.”

“Oh,” Poe said, “that was the other bit of bad news. I did find the heater, but it’s trapped under heavy debris, too much for both of us to move together. It’s super broken. We’ll be stuck here with no heat.”

“In that case, I sure hope that we can find some blankets,” you replied.

“I’ll take a look around, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“Okay. I’ll try to get in contact with the general again, just in case.”

“Good luck.”

Poe exited the room, leaving you alone. You got your holo back out and attempted to contact the base once more, but once again, there was no response. Then, it struck you. Rey and Finn were on a mission on the nearby moon of Jhas Krill. Maybe if you were able to contact them, you’d be able to get them to relay the message to General Organa! Despite the blizzard, you were hoping that since the distance to Jhas Krill wasn’t very far, you’d be able to get through to them. The only thing left to do was try. You contacted Rey, and were rewarded when both her and Finn’s figures appeared on the holo.

“Rey, Finn! Am I glad to see you! There’s a really bad blizzard on Hoth, and I can’t get in contact with the general. Are you able to tell her that we won’t be able to be back until the storm clears up, until at least tomorrow?”

“Hey, Admiral! Of course we can,” Rey replied with a smile.

“Yeah, they’ll be back tomorrow if they don’t kill each other first,” joked Finn.

You rolled your eyes, “Very funny, Finn. And we’ve decided to be friends now, so hopefully that won’t happen.”

Rey looked shocked, “Friends? You and Poe? I honestly never thought it would happen.”

“Me neither,” you responded, “but I guess being the reason that we got captured and that my nose is broken has Poe singing a different tune.”

You saw Finn lean over and whisper something to Rey, who looked at you and giggled.

“What?”

“Nothing!” they both exclaimed in sync.

Of course, you knew that there was something, but you decided not to question it.

“Whatever. Well, if you’re going to keep secrets from me, I might as well go.”

“We have to go anyway, we’re about to head home,” Finn replied, “good luck with everything. See you tomorrow!”

“See you guys!”

You hung up, grateful that at least Finn and Rey would be able to get through to the general. But what had they been whispering about? You shook your head. There was no use worrying about it since they were never going to tell you.

Poe strode back into the room then, carrying a single, thin blanket.

“This is all I could find. Sorry,” he told you.

You waved him off, “It’s fine. Better than nothing. I have good news, though.”

“You got through to the general?”

“Nope,” you said, “but I got through to Finn and Rey and they said they could relay the message.”

“Oh, good,” Poe replied, unfolding the blanket, “that at least takes care of that.”

“What are you doing?” you asked.

“Getting the blanket ready for you,” he stated, draping the blanket over you.

You threw the blanket off of you, “Absolutely not. You’re literally sleeping on the floor, you need it way more than I do.”

He picked the blanket up off of the ground and gently placed it back over your body, “I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll freeze!” you contested, trying to throw the blanket off of you again.

He sprinted away from the bedside and disappeared through the door, “Goodnight, Admiral!”

You rolled your eyes. Stubborn as a mule, he was. But at least you’d be semi-warm tonight. Poe would definitely regret that later.

An hour later, and you still couldn’t fall asleep. You tossed and turned, but couldn’t get comfortable or warm enough to fall into an easy slumber, so you ended up on your back, just staring at the ceiling. If you were faring like that, you couldn’t imagine how Poe was doing. You felt a little guilty not forcing him to take the blanket, but he escaped before you could give it back, so he kind of did it to himself.

Not any sooner than you thought that did the pilot stumble sleepily into your room. His lips were turning purple and his teeth were chattering like crazy.

“Oh, Poe, you’re freezing!” you exclaimed.

“A l-litt-ttle,” he stuttered, the cold making his teeth clink together like ice cubes.

“Come here, Poe,” you told him, gesturing to the bed.

His eyes widened slightly, ‘W-with y-you? A-are you ss-sure?”

“Yeah,” you replied, “I haven’t really slept either, it’s too damned cold. Maybe our combined body heat will help.”

He nodded and clambered over to you, not so gracefully removing his boots before laying down beside you. Since Poe was clearly freezing cold, you allowed him to snuggle into your side, and you gently wrapped one of your arms around him, holding him against you. His head flopped onto your shoulder, and you pulled the blanket up over the two of you with your free hand.

“Hopefully that’s better,” you murmured.

You felt him nod against your shoulder and he mumbled something that sounded like a “goodnight.” He closed his eyes and slowly, you felt his breathing even out until he was asleep. When you were sure he was, you glanced down at him. He was so close that you could see the grey hairs slowly starting to invade the brunet curls. A soft smile spread across your face. You had never seen him look so peaceful; usually the two of you only saw each other when you were stressed out of your minds.

Then again, you used to hate each other, so that might’ve been the reason behind that.

But he looked so… pretty.

You tried to shake that thought out of your head, but you couldn’t. Even when you strongly disliked hin, you had alway thought that he was handsome, but you were able to push it out of your head because of your disdain. Now, you couldn’t excuse your attraction away. You would never tell him that, of course. Since he hated you too, there was no way he thought you were good-looking.

You were finally able to break your train of thought when a big yawn fell from your lips. Maybe now you’d finally be able to go to sleep; you’d have a long day tomorrow full of hurtling through space, writing mission reports, and trudging through lots of snow. Your eyes fluttered shut, and if you fell asleep dreaming of the pilot beside you, well, at least no one would know.

#poe dameron #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x you #star wars #sequel trilogy #star wars sequel fic #star wars sequel trilogy #poe dameron fic #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron fluff #x reader #x reader fluff #x reader fic #x reader fanfiction #there was only one bed #fluff

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365days365movies · 3 years

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March 13, 2021: Kwaidan: The Woman of the Snow (1963)

Y’ever see Interviews with Monster Girls?

Absolutely one of my favorite slice-of-life anime from the past few years, and I genuinely want to rewatch it! Might do so after this, honestly. The conceit of the series is that the main character, a biology teacher named Takahashi, is trying to better understand and help with the issues of the “demi-humans” that attend the school. There’s the vampire girl, Hikari; the dullahan (best character), Kyoko; the math teacher succubus Sakie; and Yuki Kusakabe.

Yuki, as implied by her name is a yuki-onna, also known as a snow-woman. Now in the show, she’s a shy girl who’s always cold, and she’s great. But in mythology, the yuki-onna is...different. A tall woman with long black hair and blue lips, the serene snow woman appears to travelers in blizzards, and freezes them with her icy breath.

While the yuki-onna does have a soft side, she’s best known for her vengeful nature. The only stories that I’ve heard of come from the anime, honestly. There’s one with two woodcutters, an old one and a young one. Old guy gets frozen, young guy doesn’t. Don’t quite remember the reason for that. In another story, the yuki-onna is brought in by a kind young man, and she melts in the warmth. I know there are others, but those are the ones I remember.

Oh, and there’s a Pokémon based on this one, too. Pokédex entry says this about it:

Froslass, the Snow Land Pokémon. An Ice/Ghost type. Legends in snowy regions say that a woman who was lost on an icy mountain was reborn as Froslass.

Seeeee? OK, enough background, let’s get to the movie! Film ain’t gonna watch itself, y’know. The second of four tales presented in the film Kwaidan, listed here:

The Black Hair (黒髪, Kurokami)

The Woman of the Snow (雪女, Yukionna)

Hoichi the Earless (耳無し芳一の話, Miminashi Hōichi no Hanashi)

In A Cup of Tea (茶碗の中, Chawan no Naka)

Here we go again! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (2/4): The Woman of the Snow

We start, well...in the snow.

An eye glares at us through it, eerily, and we’re told of two woodcutters, Mosaku and Minokichi (Tatsuya Nakadai), an old and young man respectively. They travel from their village to the cold mountainside, and are one day beset upon by a fierce blizzard. As they trudge through it, eyes are watching them in the background. It’s extremely eerie, to be honest.

The old man is lost in the blizzard, but the young an struggles through it. As he does, he looks up and sees eyes in the sky, as if made of the moon itself. He finds himself trapped on one side of the river, and also managed to find the older man once again through it all. They make it to the hut of a boatsman, who’s already left down the river before the blizzard. But the wind is strong, and the door swings open as the wind wails, as if a voice were crying on it.

The younger woodcutter settles in for the night, and then OH NO

FUCK ME DUDE THAT’S GODDAMN TERRIFYING

The older woodcutter’s dead as SHIT, frozen by the breath of the Yuki-onna (Keiko Kishi). But she seems to like the younger man, smiling in a way that has scared him and me off of water for life. Like, it’s intense enough that even liquid water would remind me of this terrifying spirit. Same with the dude. But here’s the thing: I can tell you guys about this. He can’t.

See, she spares the younger woodcutter’s life on one condition: he can NEVER tell ANYONE about it. If he tells anyone, INCLUDING his mother (she specifies that), she WILL come and kill him. And odds are gonna be that that’s exactly what he’s gonna do, the great numpty.

She leaves, and the blizzard eventually subsides. The man is found and nursed back to health by his mother. A year passes, and Minokichi doesn’t say SHIT about what happened. One day, he’s cutting wood in the forest, against a sunset that is definitely a set-backdrop, but still looks gorgeous. He walks past a beautiful woman, and asks what she’s doing out there. The woman is on her way to the city of Edo, and is hoping to secure a job there.

However, the two get to know each other on the walk, and start to talk. He introduces her to his mother, and we learn that her name is Yuki, and I REMEMBER THE REST OF THIS STORY NOW. It’s from Tales from the Darkside: The Movie!

YEAH. I’ve seen Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, and I haven’t seen The Godfather, I KNOW. Anyway, the film adapted this story into a short called Lover’s Vow, and replaced the yuki-onna with a...gargoyle monster, I think? Its never made completely clear. Anyway, the same thing happens, where he witnesses the creature kill somebody, and it spares his life if he doesn’t tell anyone of the encounter. He agrees, then later on meets a woman with whom he falls madly in love, and THEN...well, hold on a hot sec, here. That’ll spoil the movie.

Anyway, just like the story, this woman is the yuki-onna. I mean, c’mon, her name is Yuki, for Chrissakes. The two fall in love, and eventually have sex in a field. We had friends over, and I was gonna watch this movie at the time, and it’s a good thing I didn’t because that’d be awkward!

They marry, have three kids, and spend about ten years together. However, soon after this, Minokichi begins to realize who exactly Yuki is. The light on Yuki’s face reminds him of the night that the yuki-onna came. Without thinking about it, he tells her about that night, which he’s never told anybody about.

Here’s the thing, even during the day, we’ve seen eyes in the sky. Because she’s always watching him. and watching his actions. And as he tells the story of the yuki-onna’s visit...well...

Yeah, it’s her. After that dumbass is done with his story, she revealed herself, and spurns him for breaking his promise not to tell anyone, in exchange for his life. And he just broke that goddamn promise. And how she’s gotta kill him, and take the kids away from him as they transform into snow children, but like in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, right?

Well...no, actually. Because, to my surprise, their kids together is what stops her. Because he broke his promise, she can no longer be a part of their lives. But she loves the children, and also loves him. She tells him that he better raise them right, and with care. If he ever mistreats then, she’ll kill him. And then...

She’s gone. Minokichi leaves the sandals that he was going to give Yuki outside, heartbroken at the loss of his wife, and at his own idiocy. She accepts his gift.

And that’s The Woman of the Snow! VERY cool. Pun...lightly intended. See you for Number 3: Hoichi the Earless! That title worries me! See you there!

#kwaidan #怪談 #masaki kobayashi #the woman of the snow #yukionna #yuki-onna #Tatsuya Nakadai #Keiko Kishi #Yūko Mochizuki #usermichi #fantasy march #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year

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lyn-liveblogs · 6 years

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So, I’ll just be here saying a thing that would have helped G-Rev to be my fave of the three seasons. It’s not, and never will be at this rate whoops.

1) G-Rev took after the V-Force tournament formula, but fucked it up. When V-Force did something a little better, you know you fucked up.

How did the V-Force tournament do it right, you ask? It had everybody from the team battling. You had Tyson and Max fighting in Block A and Kai and Ray fighting in Block B, and if both teams had won then it would have just been a friendly match between their own team. In G-Rev you have... 2 players. 2 from each team, and it gets boring. Sometimes they’ll call out a third player (Kenny, Mathilda, Aaron) but most of the time it’s the same two players and it gets stale. Plus, they don’t emphasize any matches if it doesn’t have Tyson, Max, Kenny, Kai, Ray, or Daichi in it. I was so excited to see Tala fight Lee. They had the battle start and fade out at the end of an episode, and the episode right after Lee loses in 30 seconds, which isn’t fair to either of them considering how the writers have treated them both. The same thing happened with Tala vs Rick, except Rick’s the one to win in 30 seconds.

What V-Force failed at was implying it was like a 2-vs-2 scenario when it was a 1-vs-1. They did bring in the 2-vs-2 with King and Queen, but only because King jumped in and then Joseph joined to help Mariam. The same thing basically happened in G-Rev where a 2-vs-2 was a spur of the moment deal that Dickenson allowed, when it should have just been implemented from the start.

What both seasons fail to utilize is the motion of teammwork. What should have happened, if they allowed it, instead of 2 sets per match was 3 sets per match like in S1. Have the first match be 1-vs-1, the second be 2-vs-2, and the third be back to 1-vs-1. (I’m gonna put this in a future fic btw lmaooooo) This gives a chance for wild matchups again, like Ray vs Bryan or Kai vs Spencer. You expected Ray to lose and Kai to win but the opposite happens and you’re surprised.

Here, you can usually predict who wins just by which team they’re on.

If they had the S1 format and utilized the whole team AND had a doubles match in the middle then everyone would have had a shot at victory. Have Mariah and Gary fight Tyson and Hilary (let her beyblade dammit). Let Tala and Bryan fight Mathilda and Miguel! They had SO MUCH TO WORK WITH, but they decided not to use it.

2) Battles still aren’t focused. Yes, the 3D animations look much nicer than V-Force, but the battles don’t feel as contained and interesting as S1s. They don’t show you were the blades are in the dish unless the blades are literally just spinning around while narration happens. The scale is always continuously off, whether it’s the blades or the dishes themselves.

They have flashy moves and sailor-moon esque attacks, but that doesn’t help if it feels like there’s no substance to it! The bitbeasts are barely utilized. S1 didn’t utilize them much, but you could feel the weight of the battle when they appeared. So far the best battle I’ve seen is Kai vs Ray.

Speaking of, sometimes the consistency is non-existent. I pointed it out in Kai’s match against Ray, but they made a big show of Dranzer obliterating the poles into fragments so Driger wouldn’t be able to have anything to stand on. However, in shots right after that... there’s like a multitude of poles that are perfectly fine. Other than that, it was still the best fight. If they hadn’t made Ray pass out in the middle of it, even better.

More consistency issues are the writer’s having Strata Dragoon in the middle of the air, stuck in Wolborg’s blizzard in one shot, and in the next it’s on top of the tower out of harm’s way to make Daichi win. Another consistency issue was Dragoon in Draciel’s Gravity Well. Dragoon apparently had no power left for another Galaxy Storm, as stated by Hiro, and, yet, Dragoon managed to ride the gravity to the well to the top (despite it being a well pushing down so there’s nothing TO ride) and converts the water into a twister. It doesn’t matter if he’s turning Max’s move and incorporating into his signature storms, it’s still using power that Hiro states he didn’t have. You can’t turn someone’s power into your own power WITHOUT USING POWER.

By all accounts Tala and Max should have won their respective battles, but it didn’t happen because the writing said Daichi and Tyson had to.

The bitbeasts also being nothing more than flashy attacks now is the biggest shame of all for the battles. They serve no plot purpose or character development when V-Force was all about the bitbeasts (and was done horribly). G-Rev could have rectified V-Force’s horrible writing and went more with the S1 route and made it about the teammwork between friends and bitbeasts but nope! Mathilda sacrificing Pierce Hedgehog became a moot point when all she lost was the blade that could have been repaired, or a new one bought. The bitbeast was never in danger. The scene where Miguel, Claude, and Aaron chip in to make her a new blade by using pieces of theirs was one of the sweetest things i’ve seen in this show and I don’t want to undermine it, but I won’t get over the fact that they have all these beyblade shops they could go get her a blade from.

Also the names for all the newcomers bitbeasts are very boring. Pierce Hedgehog, ilu, but ya name’s borin as fuck.

3) The characterization is bad. Other than some characters getting no screen time or speaking roles (Bryan and Spencer, the All Starz that aren’t Rick and Max) everyone that is one screen has... weird characterization. Lee suddenly being subdued and having insecurity issues felt out of place. He had no reason to be as angry as he was in S1, of course, but his turmoil felt out of left field.

Ray himself has weird characterization. He’s pissed off at Lee when they qualify for the tournaments and tell him it’s not going to be easy, but the next shot he’s like “it’s no big deal if we win or lose as long as we have fun! :3″ The writer’s made him go back and forth with this so often it’s confusing. There’s also the fact the last time he and Tyson spoke, it was Tyson yelling at him and calling him a coward, but he sees Tyson yelling at Daichi for 1 second in a scene and in the next shot they’re talking over drinks like none of that ever happened???

Tyson is the worst offender, especially since nobody but him are even considered champions anymore. He refuses to listen to anyone’s opinion because he’s the world champ, even in this recent episode he argued with Hiro that he didn’t need to rest because he’s the world champ. This is jarring because he JUST went through 20+ episodes of being told and accepting that he doesn’t have to blade like a champion, he just has to blade for himself. He gets absolutely livid when Ray and Max leave to have a shot at the title, and he’s still upset about them trying to fight him even after they’re knocked out of the tournament. He says, especially when it’s about Ray, that they needed to put up more of a fight in order to get his title. Then, he’s practicing his sword fighting with his G-Pa, and he’s boasting that he HAS to keep his Championship title to honour the ones who lost the tournament.

?????

If you wanted to honour these people that were fighting for your title you wouldn’t have been yelling at them and calling them traitors and horrible friends 98% of the time. I can not believe Ray had a civil conversation with him when one of the last things Tyson said to him was, “I guess you were never really my friend then!”

And, then there’s Tyson and Kai being obsessed with each other. I’m honestly dreading their fight because their rivalry wasn’t set up how the writer’s wanted it to be. Kai is also one of the worst offenders for bigger on-screen presences having bad characterization. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but Kai would have been the first one to leave the Bladebreakers. They say he was struggling with loyalty, but he wouldn’t have been! We know Kai wants to fight Tyson, it was a big point at the end of V-Force and what should have been V-Force’s ending tbh. Kai’s always wanted a proper rematch with Tyson since the preliminary(?) tournament in S1, and they’ve been kinda-rivals since day 1. Kai should have and would have been the first one to leave at the start of G-Rev. Then, there’s his match with Daichi that he threw. Kai Hiwatari does not throw a match. Yes, he was mad he wasn’t fighting Tyson, but he wouldn’t throw a fucking match. They were rivals but I never ever thought they became good friends. Yes, I guess they’re kinda friends, but G-Rev is acting like they were the best of friends, when they don’t have the interactions to back that up through the 3 seasons. Tyson should have been more upset with Max leaving than Kai leaving.

Max is the only consistent one between all seasons lmao, but even then, I feel like he’d fight Judy about Rick and get the All Starz more time in the ring. I still don’t like Rick. His transition from absolute prick to nice guy(tm) was way too fast. I know Max was trying to knock some sportsmanship into him for like... the majority of episodes, but it didn’t work for me, but that’s just me lol.

Also Mariah is more than a cook?? Wtf guys.

#lin watches beyblade #lin watches grev #lin rants

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wonderhevrts · 6 years

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Daz Games sentence meme !

Daz plays Until Dawn #1

Collected the best bits of Daz Black playing Until Dawn -game. On the first part are sentences from #1-#5. More sentences under Read More. Feel free to change the pronouns !

click here for #2 !!

"If that is the case, then we should really eliminate all butterflies."

"Oh Jesus Christ i'm gonna get everyone killed."

"Cabin in the woods type of deal.."

"I like hot girls in cabins."

"Oh man, what a slimeball."

"Oh man, bitch alone in the woods.."

"I wouldn't actually be out here! I'd be at home! With a cup of tea!"

"Oooh a reindeer!"

"Holy shitballs and deers!"

"Don't say hello. Stop it. You don't want an answer."

"For Christ sake bitch, i'm wearing my new Yeti boots and you are really pissing me off!"

"No you're not, you just.. You just wanted the D."

"Oh, you lost your phone. What's gonna happen to your Twitter account now?"

"Are they dead? Yeah, they're pretty fucking dead."

"What a bad start.. I'm a monster!"

"You're gonna ruin your fancy-as-shit jacket, bitch!"

"Oh my god, you did not listen to me!"

"Don't have time to be feeding squirrels."

"That is really really odd, i'm not even joking. Haha, and i've been to several strip-bars this week."

"____, I'm gonna throw you off the cliff!"

"Yeah, it's his penis."

"We're gonna shoot some shit? I can do this! Right?"

"Catch some zzz's brah!"

"Bra-strap effect!"

"____! You're dead first, if i get the choice!"

"I'm still gonna punch you."

"AAAAHH! Why!? Such a dick!!"

"Nail his arse!"

"Hahahaa! Having so much fun before we all die!"

"Hah! You ain't getting any of this booty!"

"We know what's going on! We know he was just out there caressing his ex!"

"You dick.."

"I'm gonna be nervous if you keep smacking the table like that."

"You creep me out."

"I'm not coming out with you on a Friday then."

"I'm not paying you next time. I hope you know that."

"No you know what, screw it. I'm gonna ask her out. No no no, not now. Later, later."

"Oh god, why do we gotta walk so slow?"

"That's a bit worrying.. I mean i'd take one look at that and i'd be gone."

"Ready for senior prom.. No, they weren't. They perished."

"Ooohh-whee.. I thought that was a person.." *nervous laughter*

"I completely wasted time, coming down here!"

"Is that jacuzzi-tub?? I'm so getting in there!"

"Oh yeah, he saw the two hugging. Shit's gonna go down."

"I'd dump her, there and then!"

"Oh yeah, selfies!"

"God, everything with these guys is just about sex, isn't it.. It's never about anything else."

"Just keep the torch on the booty."

"Uhh, totally bitch. That's where we're going. You think i'd be out here for any other reason? Oh my god.."

"Did that happen in the shed?? Fuck that, i'm not going in there!"

"Fuck me, sideways, now.."

"Well, your music taste sucks, that's one thing."

"Where is this cabin? Who built it out here? Are they stupid?"

"Fucking CHINA heard that!"

"Could've gone back to the other cabin but noooo.. No, now we're in a mine."

"I didn't do that deliberately, i swear!"

"Four times now, we've nearly died."

"Why are we out here? Why are they putting us all the way out here?"

"This is so unfair. If my friends did this to me, i'd beat the shit out of them."

"Man these two need to relax and have a cold shower."

"A fucking owl in my ear!!"

"Shitballs! Shitballs!"

"I once saw my dad fix a pipe. So i can fix a pipe. I'm super plumber blonde lady!"

"Whenever you're in a cabin, it doesn't matter what noise it is, it's always the killer!"

"Yeah great, thanks. I really need company going into the basement of the big spooky house with no power and the killer outside."

"Oh yes. All this for a bath."

"I've never ever had this tense feeling from holding a torch before!"

"That was not funny! That scared the shit out of me!"

"Can we please just get to the cabin, that apparently, is the same distance that Frodo walked to Mordor!?"

"Don't make me feel bad, you shit."

"I'm obviously not paying you enough, if that's how you decorate your office."

"There's a meat hook by your window, sir. And your curtains are shredded."

"We're doing an Ouija board??"

"She just screamed, did you wanna hurry??"

"Take your time. Probably only being murdered.."

"I don't understand, why is there a mask just floating in the air in there?"

"____, when i find you, i'm gonna FUCKING MURDER YOUR FACE!!"

"So funny, love. Haha. You're dumped."

"We've been walking for what seems like a day!"

"No, don't antagonize it!"

"Why are all the deers arseholes??"

"I mean i love my friends and all, but i'm not out here to do this."

"I'm starting to think that there really is not-- Wait a minute, that looks like a cabin."

"That's not a fucking cabin, that's a shed!! It's got holes in it!"

"Well. I give it precisely an hour tops, before someone pulls my pants down and does stuff against my will."

"No, lets scare her, that bitch. She deserves it for what she did to me."

"Meathooks! Hanging from the ceiling! That means i'm going this way! Bye!"

"I'm gonna find a deer, in real life and i'm gonna punch it in the THROAT!"

"What is it with the deer out here!? No wonder people shoot them!"

"Serves you right for being a DICK!"

"Comfort it?? It's got half of it's neck missing!"

"There there, it's okay deer, it's fine. You're gonna die, but it's fine."

"They said that in the Jurassic Park about the Raptors."

"I'll sit on your head!"

"I just like, feel like they don't fully understand what just happened. He just pulled a deer's head off.. And they're fine!"

"What now? Should we go down to the fucking Levi's store and get you some new jeans?"

"Get a log, stick it in. This is log simulator."

"We're gonna strike the match. AH! Nothing more satisfying than that in life, am i right?"

"Am i that ugly? Thanks!"

"Hey. You want the D, not me."

"Apparently all i can do is show that i have marvelous wrist movement.."

"Alright yeah! I'm on for the blanket! I'll knit you one right now if it'll make you happy."

"Wha-- What am i doing? What am i doing with my head? Have i got a condition!?"

"Love.. I swear to God. Shut up."

"There's the map to Mordor, where we just fucking walked.."

"You say blankets one more time, i'm gonna make a blanket out of your scalp! Shut up!"

"Why don't you fucking do it!?"

"Don't give me the option to pick up the gun, it's the first thing i'd fucking do!"

"Oh my god, it's her phone.. And it's playing Macy Gray.."

"You don't want to know why it came from the window by itself."

"Don't-- Don't go out there. I'm not coming out there after you!"

"Oh my god! She got sucked through a window!"

"Your friend who got sent out in the middle of Mordor, she got sucked out of a window."

"We need a Scooby Doo, is what we need."

"I mean is no one paying attention to how the fucking doors open by themselves in this place!?"

"You don't fire me, i quit!"

"Ow fuck! Ow! Why am i using my head!?"

"What the fuck does Slipknot want with me!?"

"I don't know who that is, but i call him Slipknot apparently!"

"Oh he's bought a.. A scarecrow! And served me.. What looks like a dead cat."

"Starting to think if the therapist, is the one who needs the therapy."

"I don't like ____, she's a bitch.."

"Hah! He knows! He's in my fucking head."

"You know what, i'm thinking about going with another therapist, who doesn't have a naked scarecrow in their room.. If that's cool?"

"___ got pulled through a door, didn't she.. And Slipknot attacked us!"

"I don't think shouting for ____ is working, just wanna point that out."

"Get your lantern, that's it boy. Gun is probably more important.."

"That's it take your time, please.. Girlfriend's not being killed or anything, that's fine.."

"She wasn't the brightest tool in the kit, but she was fit!"

"Circle! Triangle! Square! Circle! Shouting them helps, i'm sorry."

"Okay jump. Jump jump jump, just jump. Just jump!"

"Come on, what's next? I can take it! AAAHH!!"

"___ is just such a beast! He's in a beast-mode right now!!"

"Oh yeah, lets just do it with our bare hands. I like your style, ____."

"You might wanna grab some wood or something to bash the shit out of him."

"Oh, now he's got away. Because you forgot to load the gun, ____!"

"Fuck, ____ is dead, i can't believe it.. And i've got a tank top on in the middle of a blizzard."

"Slipknot didn't kill ____. Does he just like girls or something?"

"Either someone spilled ketchup, or that's ____'s head-juice."

"What the fuck's this? AAAAAHH!!"

"How is that a clue? It's a pig's head! In the middle of the woods!"

"I love walking through the woods. This is like a walking through the woods simulator!"

"Stop shouting! Stop it! He's only gonna hear you!"

"It's a Jigsaw-shit!!"

"Please give me the option to do nothing! I can't choose this shit!"

"Oh man, this is so mean!"

"I don't think he's okay, he's all over your jacket!"

"Oh for fuck's sake.. Who the fuck is that!?"

"Fuck you. You're the worst therapist ever!"

"I hope you fall out the window. Which shouldn't be hard, because you've done very good job at barring it up."

"You don't exist, because this room is changing."

"Oh fuck, here we go."

"Sanatorium? I'm going in there?? Fuck's sake.."

"Really don't like wolves. Really would not like to get eaten by wolves!"

"Careful now, ____.. Wouldn't wanna fall like ____."

"If she's alive, that's very very mysterious."

"I don't know, i'm starting to question everything! My therapist isn't real!"

"Shut up! Bloody howling at the moon.. What's the matter with you?"

"Okay we're going in. Probably won't be able to go in through-- Oh! I was wrong."

"No, it's locked. Yeah, i get it. I get what 'locked' means."

"Morgue?? Why not. Why the fuck not."

"Let's go to the morgue! I'm sure nothing bad happens down here!"

"Now we've got a weapon, we can fuck him up with it and his dogs."

"I'm making hotdogs tonight! Hahaha!"

"Aah you know what they say; See a big wolf shadow, go the other way! That's the old saying right?"

"Hey Skeletor! See ya later!"

"So i think i'm looking for a pass.. Or a hand? That's a fucking hand."

"Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off, fuck off! Oh my god! Oh my god!"

"I'm not cutting my fucking fingers off!"

"Oh they're gonna fucking make me do it, i'm gonna have to cut my fingers off!"

"Why did i touch it? Why?? This is why we can't have nice things!"

"You just cut your fingers off and you're making jokes!"

"There's my fingers. I'm just going to leave you there guys.. Sorry fingers. I wish i could've taken you with me, still attached."

"Fucking rats crawled out of him/her!"

"Welp! My job is done here. Minus two fingers, so i'm gonna go."

"Now i'm gonna fight him.. With two less fingers and i'm probably bleeding to death."

"____, what are you doing, mate? Come on, i know you're losing a lot of blood, but lets try to stay on topic here."

"Psycho crib.. We're on MTV's psycho cribs!"

"So what have i got in mah fridge? Haha, let me tell you son! I got a head of my wife! Haha! That's what it is! And a few dead guinea pigs!"

"Here boy! Here boy! I've got you my partner's knee bone! You want a knee bone? Who wants a knee bone?"

"Apparently i'm the fucking dog-whisperer.."

"Well, you know what they say! .... I actually don't know what they say."

"Is it loaded? Check if it's loaded you fucking idiot!"

"Well now we know it's loaded, and whoever is still in the building fucking heard that!"

"I've lost a lot of blood, right? I cut my own fingers off, it's been a very stressful day."

"Serial killer guy doesn't really know how to pick where to live.."

"Oh shit! Slipknot's watching us!"

"Damn you Slipknot."

"Oh yeah! We are a lumberjack!"

"These guys are Captain Obvious."

"How about rule number 3, suck my arse? Did you forget that rule?"

"If you fall.. Not gonna lie.. Wouldn't care that much."

"It's fine. Take your time. Don't slip. Break your neck.. Would hate to not have to listen to your wingy fucking voice anymore.."

"Yeah, i'm coming.. Just like, tempted to push you off the ledge though."

"Holy cannoli? Who says that anymore??"

"You're dumped! Holy cannoli!"

"What are the odds that one of these boards are gonna snap?"

"I keep trying to predict what happens and then it doesn't happen and then i feel silly."

"What in seven shades of shit.."

"Just slap it, it's a deer!"

"Yeah bitch, a lot's been happening whilst you've been bathing."

"Oh, we're nakey! I like this game now. Those are some amazing pixels."

"Hopefully there's not a mechanic to pull the towel off.. Am i right??"

"Hide, hide! That was probably a fucking stupid choice!"

"Ohh Slipknot's gonna see me, it's so obvious where i am!"

#rp meme #rp sentence starters #rp sentence meme #rp memes #daz games #daz black meme #until dawn meme #until dawn sentence starters #rp starters #roleplay #rp prompts #roleplay memes #roleplay meme #roleplay sentence starters #roleplay sentence meme

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investigatingregionalscenes · 6 years

Link

story about music #8

Winter-Spring, 2013: In order to graduate, I needed a capstone. I chose to do deep reporting project I’d been threatening to do since 2009, and looked into the noise and experimental scene of New England. I recorded seven interview with experimental artists about their lives and work. These are five of them. They were taken in a variety of locales in the Boston area: Cambridge, Somerville, Lowell, and Salem.

In the last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about this period and these conversations as I ask myself, why keep doing this?

above: Ron Lessard, as Emil Beaulieau, performs in someone’s basement in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Music

Music for this episode was created using the following household objects: a desk lamp, a can of beer, a record player, a radiator, and a vacuum cleaner.

With the exceptions of “Fog in the Ravine” by Lejsovka and Freund as well samples from their songs “From Royal Ave” and “Nothing, Just Looking at the Moon” and the song “Blue Line Homicide” by Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck.

The soundtrack was created with advice from musician Jacob Rosati. It will be made available for download later in the summer. For more info please subscribe to the podcast, tumblr, or follow us on twitter.

Links

Crank Sturgeon still performs and tours regularly. He also builds contact microphones and other circuit bent sundries, one of which was used in the production of this episode. A full recording of his set used in this episode is available here.

Crank Sturgeon, 2012, from Wikimedia.

Shane Broderick spent most of his twenties making music with his friend Ted (and later, their friend Josh Hydeman) under the name Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck. Their music is a good example of the subgenres Grindcore and Power Electronics. The name is also exemplary of those subgenres. The performance video which is referenced in the documentary, taken in the mid-00s, has been removed from Youtube. A video from that period is visible here, uploaded by the band’s Ted Sweeney. (contains nudity)

Shane Broderick, from Existence Establishment

Ron Lessard still runs RRRecords in Lowell, Massachusetts. He previously performed under the name Emil Beaulieau. A collection of performances, including the one used in the documentary, can be seen in the video compilation below.

youtube

Emil Beaulieau: America’s Greatest Living Noise Artist, from Youtube

Andrea Pensado still makes music and performs live. She composes in Max/MSP. Her most recent release is a pair of live collaborations with Id M Theft Able. Her former project, with Greg Kowalski, is QFWFQ.

youtube

Andrea Pensado live performance, 10-13-13, from Youtube

Angela Sawyer owned Weirdo Records until it closed in 2015. She now performs comedy and experimental music around Boston.

Angela Sawyer, from her personal website.

The interview with Andrea Pensado was recorded along with my friend Samira, who was producing her own documentary of Boston’s experimental music scene, below. It includes footage from the Andrea interview as well as her own separate interview with Angela Sawyer.

youtube

“The Noise” by Samira Winter, from Youtube

Luigi Russolo’s manifesto is The Art of Noises

Luigi Russolo and the Intonarumori, with his asst. Uglo Piatti, from Wikimedia

Transcript

Brendan: Would you mind telling me about the show at [withheld] , from six years ago, down the street?

Shane: Yeah, um, I was setting up a show with some old-school Detroit noise dudes. When we showed up, the owner was there instead of the doorman, and he was just upset cause he was there on, like, a Tuesday night.

So what ended up happening was is, uhh, two bands played and he came up to me a said, “show’s over.” “Well there’s still two bands to play,” and he’s like, “I don’t care, the show’s over.” I’m like, “the show’s been booked for two months.” Just because you want to go home and, like, jerk off into a kleenex or whatever it is that you fuckin’ do. It has nothing to do with me. And he got upset, and I was like, well listen dude, how about the last two bands play at the exact same time.” So that’s what we did. Warmth and Twodeadsluts collaborated. It lasted about fifteen seconds, and the owner came over and kicked a table with everyone’s gear on it. So the only logical thing for me to do as a Bostonian–– and I have pride being a Bostonian–– is I just looked at this guy and I was like, “I don’t care how big he is, or how Italian he is, I’m gonna wind up, and I’m gonna punch this guy right in the fucking face.”

Brendan: And what happened?

Shane: That guy hit me back––I-I lost a little bit of time there. He’s a lot bigger than me. Uh, clocks went still. I kinda woke up, I was on the ground, and he was smashing everyone’s gear. Cops came in, they put me in a car, they, y’know told me to leave and blah blah blah.

Brendan: Is that the only time cops have been called on you?

Shane: No. Not even close.

music: “Blue Line Homicide” | Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck

You’re listening to Stories About Music, a podcast on the subjects of music, journalism, and memories, and how the line between those three things is often not as clear as I’d hoped.

My name is Brendan Mattox, and this is story about music number eight, “Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?”.

Room 1 (Crank Sturgeon)

Cars pass by on Massachusetts Avenue, seen out the front window of Weirdo Records in Cambridge. It’s night time. A few young men in their twenties sit on the floor of the small storefront, waiting as Crank Sturgeon sets up in a corner.

Crank: Cool. So, do you think this is our show? Shall we wait, or?

Angela: I think…What time is it? It’s not eight-thirty, that’s probably most of our show. Let me turn that off.

Crank: Not that uh, four’s a wonderful audience, I’ve played for two. One of them was my brother who never saw me before that point…and Id Em Thft Able and I had some very bizarre sexual ritual in front of my brother, involving instant powdered milk and a plastic poster from 1970 of this naked woman holding a stuffed animal…And I had a penis helmet at the time… but alright, well I will perform for you hello, my name is Crank Sturgeon everybody… (6:37) We could do a performance where I have everyone sing introductions of themselves to each other. Everyone up on your feet.

Crank: Hello! My name is Craaaaaaannnk Sturrrgeon!

Angela: Hello! My name is Angela Sawyyyyyeerrrrrr!

Crank: All at once now!

Brendan: And I am Brendan Mattox!

Crank: Hi Brendan Mattox, my name is Crank, it’s a pleasure to meet you, you have a really firm handshake. And this man in the corner, what’s your name? Andrew, another Andrew, Brendan, Angela.

Angela: Wow, we’re nearly phonemes.

Crank: Ahh, phonies…

Crank Sturgeon sits down behind his instruments: a few tape recorders, a sharpie, and a loudspeaker full of tacks and jelly beans.

Crank: First Piece, oh, wait. My brand new fish helmet, so I can lose even more water to my body. There we go. First piece is improvisations with the letter D. Delirious, Delightful, Delicious, Dumb, Dumbfounded, Dimwit, Diplodocus, Dinosaur, Diana, Dagnasty, Dagnabbit, Diddling, Dawdling, Doodling, Dude Ranch (buzzing noise) Dick, Doofus, Dammit, Darn, Dangle, Drink, Drunk, Dank, Dork, Dusty, Dunce, Distinguished! Development! Duplicitous.

Crank is wearing a black garbage bag over his head, adjusted so his face and white goatee peek through the hole he’s cut in it for air. On either side of the bag are two enormous fish eyes, drawn on card stock, with marker.

I’m here tonight reporting a story about a couple of loosely associated experimental musicians from Boston, a story whose meaning is starting to exceed my grasp.

Brendan: How would you describe Crank Sturgeon?

Crank: In uhh, a sentence? Brendan: I have no idea. How would you describe the experience of being Crank Sturgeon?

Crank: Well it’s, uh, it’s not a party.

Angela: It is so.

Crank: It is a party. It’s funny because, I’ve survived for awhile, through the many phases of experimental music.

Brendan: What do you mean the many phases?

Crank: The many phases. You’d go to a show in 1996 in a basement in Allston and it was like, a tough guy scene.

Angela: People sitting on the floor, like indian style, and a dude looking at his belly button going “doonk-doonk-doonk.”

Crank: (laughs) Very true…

Angela Sawyer, the owner of Weirdo, jumps in. She and Crank know each other going back to the nineties, when they were at the beginning of the path that has led to the three of us standing in a circle in her record store.

Brendan: what’s the trick to growing old with grace within the experimental community?

Crank: Oh that’s a really fun question, because I’m still figuring it out. I think…did you want to say something?

Angela: Well I feel like no one– when I was twenty, or eighteen, and I met people who were much older than me, it never occurred to me to look at myself from their point of view, ever. So I only ever thought, “oh, that person is as old as my mom and my dad, but they’re doing what I want instead of what my parents are doing. Once you get to be–– I’m in my forties…then is when you’re like, oh, I have been there so many times and they have no idea where I am. So that’s when you start to feel marginalized a little bit

Room 2 (Shane Broderick)

The TV in Shane Broderick’s living room is on mute. A weather man gestures in to a map of New England in shades of blue and purple. At the top of the screen is a red banner with the words “Blizzard Warning.” It’s mid-afternoon. Shane and I are drinking cans of beer that Shane brought out of the fridge.

Shane: I was always playin’ music and stuff since I was a little kid. Even when I was, like, twelve years old I’d be up late smokin’ weed and messing with drum machines and stuff like that.

Brendan: Where’d you get your hands on a drum machine at age twelve.

Shane: Uhh, Christmas present.

Brendan: Christmas present?

Shane: Yeah.

Brendan: That’s pretty cool.

Shane: Yeah, I had my beginner guitar and a drum machine. Y’know once I was like, fifteen and stuff I got a job, started collecting equipment…I thought I’d make a career out of it but I ended up just being, like, a lifelong mailroom guy.

When he was 19 years-old, Shane dropped out of college in Florida and moved back to Massachusetts. He started making abrasive music with a friend he knew while working at a gas station in high school.

Shane: We worked together and every time we finished a shift it would be like a hundred and something dollars under, and I was like, what the fuck this kid man.

They called themselves Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck.

Shane: We joked around on the internet about how we were going to start the most extreme band ever and how the first record we’d just put a bunch of contact mics in a blender and throw a rabbit in it and whatever it sounded like, that was the first LP. Which we never did. [music in]

Brendan: But what instead came out of it was…

Shane: I stuck my boner in a blender. Which was a demo that we did which was me and him coaching eleven of our friends, we were just trying to make circus music with grindcore parts.

Shane: We got reviewed in something like Metal Maniacs, that was like a magazine that when I was ten years old and my mother would drag me to CVS to grab things, I would sit in the aisle and look at, like, pictures of like, Slayer looking sexy and stuff like that, so I was like “oh shit, I’m in this magazine now.” After that, me and him decided to keep the name and go forward with it.

Shane is in his early thirties and he still makes music, although Twodeadsluts hasn’t been active for awhile. He also still plays shows sometimes, though he doesn’t really enjoy it.

Shane: I don’t know I think it’s just, like, nerves. It was easier with the other guys because we were more like a wrecking crew. Y’know, get blind stinkin’ drunk and it didn’t really matter what happened.

Brendan: What would one night at a TDS show end up being like?

Shane: It would start off sloppy and then I wouldn’t remember then end of it.

(Indiscriminate yelling)

Shane: We’re Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck from Boston, and we need the drum machine way fucking louder. Get that shit way the fuck up.

Brendan: When you guys got onstage, there seems to be sort of a pattern. You start off with some harsh feedback, and then it progresses into stuff getting knocked over.

Shane: There was definitely a lot of feedback and definitely a lot of things knocked over.

They were also usually naked.

Shane: I think we were probably more performative over substance, to be quite honest. In those early shows we were just using five or six microphones, a bunch of fx pedals running back into each other, and just whatever sounds were happening, were happening

[music]

Shane: Either people really liked it or found it very entertaining, and on the flipside– we’d have people picket our shows, feminists thinking that we were, like, um, promoting sexism… Just that band name wipes off at least 70% of the population from even giving you a chance. It’s probably a higher percentage than that…

Brendan: So the choice of the band name then, was it to…

Shane: It was kind of like, a filtering mechanism and also it was like an inside joke that just kept going and going, and no one was really in on it but us. The band wasn’t supposed to last ten years either.

Shane: I can’t even give you any rationale behind it…it really might look pretty forced, but it was actually pretty natural for the people involved in the band.

Brendan: Why was it so natural?

Shane: I don’t know. That’s a question for a therapist. I don’t know.

I sip from my can of beer even though it’s empty. Shane plays with the pull tab on his. On the television, the weatherman predicts a foot of snow is going to cover Boston over the next two days. Shane, still dressed in scrubs from the hospital where he works, says,“I got to work tomorrow no matter what.”

There’s a half-open ironing board against a wall. In the bathroom, the sink is plastered with shavings. Next to the un-flushed toilet sits a stack of musical notation paper. I stare at it, because it says something specific about the person I’m speaking to. I can’t figure out what, or why.

Brendan: If you could maybe, like, point me in the right direction of some people in the area to talk to…

Shane: I think you should definitely talk to Ron in Lowell. He runs triple-R records. He’s kind of, America’s greatest living noise artist. Like a godfather type…

Room 3 (RRRon)

I walk out Shane’s front door and into Ray Robinson’s café in downtown Lowell. Ron Lessard waits for me in a yellow booth along the window. Through the rain on the glass, the world outside is a blur of different shades of gray.

Brendan: Where should we begin?

Ron: (chewing noises) So. Today is Wednesday. I’m eating lunch. I’m almost through with my fries, soon I’ll be starting on my burgers. Fuckin’ awesome.

Ron is the noise expert, one of the engines driving America’s experimental music scene since the 80s. Ron has released about 1000 recordings on Triple-R’s in-house label.

Ron: I was the source. And everybody who ever learned how to play a tape backwards or make feedback decided to send me a demo. And man, I heard so much crap like you wouldn’t believe…I mean, how many Rock’n’roll bands are awesome, and how many suck beyond belief?

Ron first got into noise music around 1981, after he left the Air Force and came home to Lowell.

Ron: There was a mail-order outlet out of Colorado called Aeon A-E-O-N. When I got their catalog, I couldn’t believe the stuff they had listed. They had, like, Whitehouse albums, New Blockaders, Maurizio Bianchi, and it’s like who the fuck are these guys? So I started buying that stuff and I was like, woah, this is what I’ve been looking for all these years. The guy that ran it became a survivalist kind of guy, y’know, living out in the woods with his gun type of thing and, actually, he eventually sold me his entire inventory, I bought him out.

Ron: When I first opened I tried to specialize in all the really weird imports, bizarre bands and that kind of stuff, y’know. But at the same time, I knew enough to know that pedestrians, your average everyday person, has no freakin’ clue. They just want to listen to a Barry Manilow or whatever the fuck they like, y’know.

His store, RRRecords, opened in 1984.

Ron: After Aeon, I was the guy that was thoroughly obsessed, and I just devoted myself to it…Day in day out noise, morning, noon, and night. Listening to tapes, checking out bands all day every day. At that time Heavy metal wasn’t heavy enough, punk rock wasn’t extreme enough, Noise did it for me, it really did.

Ron started performing noise music himself under the name Emil Beaulieau. Footage from from the nineties, like this, show him using vinyl records and their accessories as instruments.

This is another way to look at noise music: instead of using something like a trombone, or a tuba, a guitar, or a piano, you take whatever you can find, whatever objects appeal to you, and you refashion them into something expressive. The screeching noise you hear is coming from a modified turntable, which Ron stands behind with a goofy look on his face, pretending to polish record.

Ron: Remember to always, always use the circular motion when cleaning your records.

From that perspective, noise is a positive, creative philosophy, and I can see how people get so obsessed with it.

Ron:A lot of people, y’know, they can’t play guitar, they can’t play the drums–– but twisting knobs and screaming your brains out, getting out that primal scream, whatever it is…it’s inside everybody.

Brendan: And speaking of which, what’s your personal experience with it.

Ron: (Darkly) What do you mean?

Brendan: I mean with Emil Beaulieau.

Ron: Yeah.

Brendan: Well you just said that Noise music was this personal experience. How did you get stuff out through Emil Beaulieau?

Ron: I–I’m not sure where your leading, as far as recording or getting the name out?

Brendan: Why did you start Emil Beaulieau?

Ron: ––you know, I just wasn’t any good at sports (laughter).

The uncomfortable moment sticks in the back of mind for the rest of our interview. Though Ron’s eloquent and energetic, as I was warned he would be, he’s also a little guarded. Maybe that’s because I showed up looking for someone to answer the criticisms of noise music or its culture, which he brushes off with a simple:

Ron: Lately? Lately I’m out of it.

Brendan: When was the last time you were in it?

Ron: Seven years ago (laughs)

Brendan: So let’s go back seven years, because this is something that keeps coming up in interviews with people. Seven years ago, things were very…

Ron: Active.

Brendan: Active.

Ron: Wicked, wicked, wicked active.

Brendan: What’s happened?

Ron: The bands that are making noise today sound like the bands that were making noise ten years ago, that sound like the bands making noise twenty years ago, y’know they sound exactly the same, they’re doing the same freakin’ feedback, they’re still screaming the same lyrics, y’know, it’s just the same thing over and over and over and over again. Which is fine, y’know, punk rock exists for a reason, y’know. The young people, they’re totally into it because it’s new for them. It’s like wow this is freakin awesome these guys are screaming their brains out! They’re talking about killing people! But then ten years later it’s the same thing all over again…I mean do you want to listen to that same band for freaking ten years in a row? I mean do you still want to hear Aerosmith? No you don’t (laughs).

He seems tired in a way that I’ve not seen before. As we talk, I get the sense that what Ron and I are doing has become an exit interview.

Ron: I did what I had to do. I did what I had to do and just to keep doing it because somebody else wants me to? Wrong freakin reason. That’s how bands start to suck. So fuck that y’know.

Y’know there was a time when I couldn’t wait to get on stage and scream my brains out. It’s like, well I mean y’know, you ever had a girlfriend? You make out with her it’s like the best! And then one day, you don’t want to make out with her anymore. It’s no different.

I mean, it’s been seven years. I stopped performing seven years ago, March of ’06. It’s now March ’13. It’s seven freaking years that I’ve stopped. Chances are you’re not doing the same thing you were doing seven years ago. And I’m willing to bet, seven years from now, you’re not going to be doing the exact same thing you’re doing now. People change, they move on. Been there, done that, why do it again?

music: “Fog in the Ravine” | Lejsovka & Freund

The scene dissolves. In the darkness, I think of the question that I wish I’d asked. This isn’t just some thing Ron was doing, it was the thing – what can you do when you lose touch with the something that was core to your identity?

Room 4 (Andrea Pensado)

Andrea: I think it’s very important to not to be scared of being in a place of not knowing. To be in a place of uncertainty, is excellent! Even if it is uncomfortable. Honestly, I don’t want a comfortable life.

I’m sitting in a cozy loft apartment in Salem, while my friend Samira chats with a small, owlish woman in her late 40s named Andrea Pensado.

Andrea: Well if you feel it at twenty than you cannot imagine in your forties.

Samira: I just taste it and I’m like, ‘wow, I’m just feeling all the sugar.’

Andrea: I ate a lot of chips, it was a bad idea. With beer, y’know, not good.

Samira is working on her own documentary about experimental music.

Andrea first got interested in music when she was a little girl, growing up in Buenos Aires.

Andrea: Eh, I was living in an apartment building, and a friend of mine, she started taking piano lessons. She showed me her music and I saw the notation, ehh, and I was fascinated. Honestly I was not aware of such a rich experimental music background until when I was in Poland…

She left Argentina to study composition in Krakow as an adult. But the music she composed on paper was so complex, that she often had trouble finding people to play it. Andrea likes to think about timbre–– the color of sound, what differentiates one instrument from another. To wring out some really interesting timbre with traditional instruments, you’ve got to do some out there stuff.

Andrea: Like, I don’t want to be just writing for the drawer.

And then, Andrea went to the Audio Art Festival, a meeting of the minds held in Krakow every November. The festival focuses on objects used to produce sound: musical instruments, but also computers.

Inspired, Andrea taught herself to program and began using electronics in her work.

Andrea: So I create a wifi for myself just to avoid latency, you can work with any wife…So my controllers are! An iPod–– I say, I look like an apple merchandise stand, which is quite depressing, but you know, what can I do? So this is an iPod with a special application I use to… [iPod click]. Well, first I have to set up the wifi, I show you…

Andrea is wearing a a headset like the kind people use to play video games. She’s sitting at her computer with an iPod Touch in her right hand.

Andrea: This is a simple wave, just a simple low tone. So if I move it like this, I change the pitch. And then if I do like this, the distortion is the direct result of–

She twists and bends her arm manipulating the sine wave into a complex pattern.

Andrea: And I can do the same if I had my voice…

Then she flicks on her mic.

Andrea: Hey, hah, that’s my voice! (noise) hello! Hah! (pause, noise ends). So you know it’s quite dramatic.

Andrea: Maybe for somebody who is not a lot in music, this seems harsh. I don’t think this is harsh at all, this is just the way new music is going. I do believe that, even though I don’t think what we do now is better than what was done in the Renaissance, ok, I do believe that there is constant change, and that artistic languages keep having a need of refreshing themselves, ok?…yeah?

Brendan: (18:49) Why do you think music is shifting in that direction?

Andrea: To explore timbre…Because now, thanks to the technology, we have access to it. It’s easier to manipulate. We are like kids, we are, like, playing. (12:26) I compare it to the beginning of the baroque, where they became aware of chords, of verticality, and then for 300 years, they explore that.

Andrea’s grandiosity reminds me of the document that first inspired me to pursue this project. In 1913, a young painter named Luigi Russolo wrote a letter to a composer he admired. The two of them were part of an Italian movement known as Futurism. Russolo’s letter ended up as one of the movement’s major manifestoes, The Art of Noises.

In The Art of Noises, Russolo laid out a framework for the music of the new industrial world, in which the city itself is both the inspiration and the instrument.

For centuries life went by in silence, at most in muted tones…Amidst this dearth of noises, the first sounds that man drew from a pieced reed or stretched string were regarded with amazement…and the result was music, a fantastic world superimposed on the real one…

We Futurists have deeply loved and enjoyed the harmonies of the great masters. Now, we are satiated and find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing the “er-O-i-ca” or the “Pastorale”.

We cannot much longer restrain our desire to create finally a new musical reality, with a generous distribution of resonant slaps in the face. Discard violins, pianos, double-basses and plaintive organs…

I am not a musician, I have therefore no acoustical predilections, nor any works to defend. I am a Futurist painter using a much loved art to project my determination to renew everything. And so, bolder than a professional musician could be, unconcerned by my apparent incompetence and convinced that all rights and possibilities open up to daring, I am able to initiate the great renewal of music by means of the Art of Noises.

It is, and I am one to talk, very pretentious. And yet, I kind of sympathize with the guy. When I started making a podcast, I was intent on remaking a whole sector of journalism with my own bold incompetence.

A man of his word, Luigi built these giant boxes called the Intonarumori, whose purpose was to make a bunch of noise. A photo of them often accompanies The Art of Noises, and you can see Russolo standing behind one, this thin guy with a mustache, a hand placed on the crank handle at its back.

Like most manifestoes, The Art of Noises says very little about its writer, except what he wanted to be: a great destroyer come to remake the world in his image. If you’re a certain type of young person, that idea is very attractive, and you can embrace it without really thinking about what other things you might put to the side to achieve that.

Samira: What’s your, I know you’ve done a lot of work with visual, audio and visual.

Andrea: Well that’s with my ex-husband (laughter). Greg, whom I met in Poland, he comes from video, from cinema. We had a duo, eventually, I stopped doing my own to work for our duo, which we worked together for ten years. Greg did the images and I did the sound. And we work on interactivity. Then we split, so now I work just with sound.

Brendan: How is your music different working with your ex-husband, than after?

Andrea: The main goal of our duo was to have real time interaction between images and the sound. So if there was something onstage like a movement or, whatever, it had simultaneously a result in both. It gave some rigidity. So now that the interaction isn’t so important, I have much more freedom to just to improvise. It’s like much, much more freedom.

Room 6 (Angela Sawyer)

Angela: One of the first people I ever met who was interested in experimental music was Ron Lessard.

I’m standing at the counter in Weirdo Records one afternoon, talking with Angela Sawyer again She’s telling me how she first got involved with the experimental scene, just after she started at U-MASS LOWELL in the early 90s.

I had never been to New England at all, I just flew here on a plane from Denver and I wanted to meet some people, and I didn’t really know what to do, and I heard some other kids saying that they wanted to join the college radio station. They said at the meeting to join up, you have to show up and volunteer…I went back the next day, and there no one was there.

Brendan: How long were you there for?

Angela: Probably an hour (laughs). Finally someone came by…I was just like, “hey, hey, I’m here to volunteer, what should I do?” And they just looked at me like I had three heads. They were like, “why don’t you clean something?” So I found a vacuum and I just started vacuuming…

And I went through all the rooms, and finally I got to a room that I hadn’t been in yet, and there was a person in there, and it was kind of dark in there…So I waited for him to notice me. I said hi, I’m trying to vacuum. I had no idea that it was the air studio and, um, Ron, of course, he’s like a firecracker going off. So he’s like, “OH YES COME ON IN,” he was mic-ing the vacuum cleaner, and I’m just like “oh hi,” and he’s like tell me about yourself, who are you? And uhh, he was really awesome to me

As we walk down memory lane, Angela starts talking about a world that I was once very interested in, the network of noise and experimental artists who connected in the early days of the internet, after decades of being little feudal kingdoms.

Angela: There was definitely a feeling at one point of there being a first-world wide, at least, community, if not worldwide, of people who were listening to the same releases, and they were seeing the same bands, they’d heard some Throbbing Gristle records, and they had a common language and finding out about cool stuff and figuring out how it worked, and they knew what happened when you stuck a clarinet underwater and put delay on it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Angela said at the Crank Sturgeon show, about choosing to live on the Island of Misfit toys without thinking about it very hard. Because I feel, in a lot of ways, that that’s become my life. I’m more devoted now than ever to completing the work I set out for myself, but I’m also deeply unhappy, and more isolated.

Angela: Every town has the person who is like, I’ll become the nun, I’ll sacrifice myself and do all this work and…y’know, I have a store, that’s what I do.

Brendan: Can you talk a bit about sacrificing–– about becoming a martyr for the scene?

Angela: I’m not trying to do that, I actually really dislike that.

Brendan: How did you fall into the role?

Angela: If you have some job related to underground music, that’s what you’re doing. ‘Cause there’s no money. But that’s one of the only ways you can spend your whole life surrounded by it.

music: “Fog in the Ravine” | Lejsovka and Freund

Angela: Everything I know about politics and geography and sociology and psychology, and how to sort of figure out how to deal with the world at large, I mostly learned them from records. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a conversation about anything else. I’m a very narrow person outside of records. Basically, records are sort of my defense system and or window for everything, I think of every record as like a pair of of tinted glasses, and you can look at the whole world through that and see it in a new way, and each good record has a slightly different shade on it, so you never get done figuring out how things work and enjoying new wrinkles in how things are. The bad news is that if you take the glasses off things look terrible, then you have to function like a regular person. And that’s not something I’m very good at.

If I’m being honest, neither am I. I’ve agonized over these interviews for a long time, afraid of saying the wrong thing about the people in them. To call it a “cautionary tale of loving something– an idea– that cannot love you back,” sounded unkind, both to them and to myself. I can’t help but feel at the end that that’s exactly what it is.

I avoided revisiting these interviews for almost five years because they held up a mirror to the shaky logic I built ambitions on. They pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that art cannot save me. It can help me find a way to save myself, by learning to communicate things that I feel deeply in a way that’s truthful, accurate, and honest. But that’s all that it can do.

And it took losing someone I loved very much to understand that.

Room 7 (Somerville Ave)

Shane Broderick and I stand on the sidewalk of Somerville Avenue on a cool spring evening. Shane’s arm is in a cast. He’s just finished telling me a story about the time he punched a club owner at a venue up the block. As we’re talking about the reputation that Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck had amongst Boston’s club owners, some of Shane’s friends emerge from the bar where he’s just finished a gig.

Shane: it’s funny because we never actually gave any of the venues our actual performances, it was more like basement parties and shit like that that they were scared of, that they’d heard about.

Brendan: I can’t remember if I got this on tape last time, would you mind describing what the actual performances were?

Shane: Can’t really do that, I don’t know, you can ask these guys.

Friend 1: What’s that?

Friend 2: You gotta lighter? I just realized I left my backpack down there, I got good beer in there but whatever fuck that shit.

Brendan: Would you guys mind describing to me what a normal show by Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck was like?

Friend 2: Is this an interview? I wasn’t ready for an interview man I can’t do that! My voice cannot be heard on tape.

Friend 1: (makes jerk-off motion) It’s like this.

Friend 2: Can I get a lighter from somebody?

Shane: (shouting) It’s like looking at something, and gettin’ so excited and just BAM! And then it’s kind of like aww fuck.

Friend 1: I don’t have a lighter!

Friend 2: Do you have a lighter?

Shane: We need to go home. Need to hide under a blanket.

Friend 2: Do you have a lighter buddy?

Brendan: Nah, I’m sorry.

Friend 2: Motherfucker! How can you do an interview without a lighter? (distant) Fuck! Amateur!

Brendan: So, just so I don’t take up the rest of your time, there was something you said during the last interview. You said that, for TDS, there was this joke that you guys…when the joke stopped being funny, you guys were like, ‘alright, I’m gonna do something else.’

Friend 1: The joke didn’t stop being funny.

Shane: Well ok I’m not sure the joke ever stopped being funny but…

Brendan: So, what, in your opinion what was the joke?

Friend 1: The band was the joke.

Brendan: What specifically about the band was the joke?

Friend 1: I don’t know…

Friend 2: (strike lamppost) Do a funny voice c’mon what the fuck! We’re supposed to be entertained by this shit.

Shane: Alright, you can cut my voice here.

Friend 2: It doesn’t matter what you say so long as it’s in a funny voice it’s cool.

Shane: There are a lot of Boston noise bands and people from Jamaica Plain and Allston and they want everyone to be like, onboard with, ‘hey, we’re all friends, this is a scene! come down to our house play a show blah blah blah.’ And what Twodeadsluts was more like, was just like, ‘We’re not even invited. We’re playing a show, we’re trashing your fuckin’ house.’

Brendan: Do you ever miss it?

Shane: Yeah, of course I do. It is what it is.

Brendan: I feel like that’s a pretty good place to end.

Shane: There you go.

I walk off into the night. A block away, I come to a stop on a concrete island in the middle of Somerville Avenue and look back at Shane and his friends. They were still down by the bench we were sitting on, drunk, being loud, but their noise is drowned out by the cars flying past me, headed for the outskirts of Boston.

Standing here, it occurs to me that need room tone, the sound of the place I’m in. Room tone helps smooth out transitions in editing, makes a radio documentary sound more natural. I’ve forgotten to get it for almost every other interview with the noise artists. But that I remember now seems significant to me, an promise to myself that someday I’ll figure what made this experience worth telling.

Credits

Today’s episode was produced with help from Wes Boudreau and Samira Winter. Editing help by Kyna Doles and Jon Davies. Special thanks today to Lejsovka & Freund, Jacob Rosati, Sean Coleman, Elissa Freeden, Brittany Rizzo, Tyler Carmody, and Birgit from Denmark.

Visit our website, investigating regional scenes dot org, for more episodes and, this summer, some bonus materials. You can find Stories About Music on your local podcast provider. Please leave a review to helps us find new listeners.

From Philadelphia, I’m Brendan Mattox, back soon with more stories about music.

#stories about music #noise music #experimental art #radio documentary #podcast

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babygreekwitch · 6 years

Text

50 Witchy Asks

Questions by: @ the-lunar-vixen

1. What type of witch are you?

I work with all different types of magick but I classify myself as a nature witch. I do dabble into tarot card readings and elemental witchery. I’m also a broom closeted witch so my family has no idea I do any of this, my brothers I’m sure would be supportive but I’m sure my Dad would think I’m stupid and my Mom is extremely Christian so I can’t tell her.

2. What deities do you like to work with, if any?

I don’t work with any deities. (my name is babygreekwitch on here because I am half greek but I really do love the mythology of all of it, so if you have any questions about any greek deities, I know a lot.)

3. Have you ever created your own spell?

I’ve made my own sigils and I made a knot magic spell for my knitting and created a spell to enchant the yarn I was using aswell.

4. What’s your favorite time of year?

Anytime except when there is a blizzard we get those a lot where I live.

5. Do you have a witch you look up to?

I kind of do but I’d rather not try and tag them cause I’m scared and I have no idea why. I have a load of anxiety (one of the reasons I started witch craft) so just know that I do have them I just don’t want to seem pushy.

6. What makes you feel powerful?

I love song spells and probably the song Believer by Imagine Dragons it brings me a lot of confidence and also when I do some full moon spells and I dress up in a dress I love and do my make up and I meditate for about 30 minutes and yeah I’m not gonna go into that, I might make a post later about it.

7. Do you have a favorite myth?

Oh yes of course, if we are talking about greek mythology, it would have to be Eros and Psyche or Theseus and Pirithous (Only because I love Hades cause he has such a bad reputation ugh I mean come on he basically named his dog SPOT.)

8. Which famous/fantasy witch do you relate to the most?

Probably Rowena from supernatural she acts a lot like me when I wasn’t so over run with anxiety and had a hard time going places. But yeah she is amazing and confident I wish I was still like that cause I’m really not anymore.

9. Are you a wiccan?

Nope, I don’t know I guess I kinda have trouble trying to have connections with deities cause of the bad experience I had with trying to worship God my Grandma and Mom kinda pushed it upon me and it ruined me trying to worship anything at all.

10. What’s the most unique item you’ve ever used in a spell?

I haven’t done many spells, so far, I guess the coolest or most unique would be some really cool aloe infused salt from Guadalupe. I used it to purify a knot magick bracelet for energy.

11. Do you own any witchy books?

Nope, none at all I’m a broom closeted witch so I really can’t have any but I own a few online books that I got for free.

12. Which misconception about witches annoys you the most?

Probably all witches worship Satan which is stupid cause not all do I know there definitely are some but not all do.

13. Have you ever created your own sigil?

Yep I made one for increasing lung capacity I used to be in band and track and since I went to a Christian school (and still am) I would have wrote it on the soles of my shoes. Maybe if I start again I’ll use it.

14.What element are you most drawn to?

I’m a little fire bug. I love fire and have a bunch of candles because of that. But water and earth are tied for second place.

15. Do you have a familiar?

I want to make one by knitting but I do have a dog who I love very much but we aren’t connected at all.

16. Are you a part of a coven?

Wish I was but I’m only a baby witch and I want to get some more experience before I join one but I really am building up to be in one.

17. What’s your spirit animal?

I believe mine used to be a crow but now it’s a turtle because of how my anxiety and depression changed the way I act and take on the world.

18. Do you do tarot readings?

I’m only just starting with it but I would to try and start get more practice in to do some readings for people.

19. What’s your favorite witch movie?

Don’t have one but I used to love watching charmed I was seriously addicted to it.

20. How many crystal do you have?

I do have a lot but I never use them cause I don’t feel connected to any of them enough to try and use them and cleanse things with them. I don’t trust my abilities enough to do any large cleansings

21.What’s the most unique item on your altar?

Don’t have one I’m trying to make a mini one but it’s proving to be kind of difficult since my parents can’t know.

22. Have you ever enchanted anything?

Does yarn count? Cause I did that for yarn when I was knitting to put some intent of protection, focus, booksmarts, luck, and concentration. Because I’m planning on using it for school. (I’m making a scarf)

23.What’s your religion?

Don’t have one had a pretty bad experience in being in one.

24. Do you have a favorite crystal?

Tiger eye. It connects with my zodiac and it gives confidence I used to have one and it connected with me very well.

25. What are some of your favorite spells?

I’m addicted to knot magic right now and it’s such an old kind of magick it feels like I’m being extremely powerful.

26. What do you like to do to cleanse your space?

Sometimes I’ll spray my room with a cleansing spray that I made.

27. When do you feel the most powerful?

Usually when I’m doing knot magic, I have a bunch of anklets that I’m constantly charging them by walking and it makes me feel powerful. Like, every step I take it’s just sending energy through them.

28. Do other people know you’re a witch?

Nope, broom closeted witch here.

29. Has one of your spells ever gone wrong?

I’ve had something try and possess my tarot cards and the answers got weird and didn’t actually answer any of my questions.

30. What outfit makes you feel the most witchy?

I have a dress that I’m actually gonna turn into a high waisted skirt and it makes me feel really witchy, I’m usually in dresses on full moons and they make it feel so amazing, like I’m walking around yelling I’m a witch.

31. Have you ever tried astral projection?

Nope, I wanna try it though I’m trying to find some tumblrs and books about it so I can try and get started.

32. Do you have any enchanted jewelry?

Other than my knot bracelets no, and I think I want to keep it like that, I don’t want to accidentally curse my necklace.

33. What does your altar look like?

Don’t have one.

34. Have you ever seen a spirit?

No but I’ve had some encounters where I just can feel the extra energy but I haven’t seen one.

35. What’s your favorite spell sachet?

I’ve never tried one actually I might have tried a love one but it was for the wrong reasons and was one of my first spells I don’t think it did anything other than make the other extremely possessive over me.

36. Do you have a favorite sigil?

Other than the one I made I think I used a no one can see my book of shadows without my permission.

37. What’s your astrological sign?

I’m a pisces and I’m pretty true to how they act and such. Kind of constantly nervous and I’m and empath witch is kind of how pisces are really in touch of their emotions.

38. Have you ever interacted with a deity?

Tried to with God never really worked.

39. What color are you most drawn to?

A deep red or a forest green.

40. Do you believe in past lives?

Course, I think we have to have souls and I don’t believe in heaven so that was the first thing that would be where we go into just another body.

41. Where do you like to practice your craft?

I don’t like to do it at home I would love to do it in a forest or something but I’m kinda limited in where I can do my craft.

42. What’s your favorite season?

Probably summer I do really love spring but, where I live we just get really long winters and summers, so no real spring or fall. We also don’t get much rain but tonight it’s supposed to rain and I’m so happy.

43. Have you ever cursed someone?

No I’m not against it but I don’t think I could ever do that to another person unless they really betrayed or hurt me.

44. How long have you been a practicing witch?

Only a few months around 6 months but I kinda went off at one point cause I couldn’t take care of myself.

45. What drew you to witchcraft?

To help with my depression I guess and my anxiety as well but I have to be careful because it can drain enough of my energy and I kinda need it to keep me going.

46. In what moon phase do you feel the most powerful?

A new moon or a full moon usually. A full moon makes me feel complete and the new moon makes me fell almost re-born kinda like I have a second chance.

47. What’s your favorite holiday?

Used to be Christmas because it was usually the only time that I got to see my family that didn’t live near me (none of my family was where I lived before) but now it’s Beltane cause I love protection spells and trying to help the crops grow cause I live in a country where we grow a lot of plants and everyone farms where I live.

48. Do you know anything about your past lives? (if you believe in them!)

I know that I used to be abused or had PTSD not gonna explain why I know though it’s pretty complicated.

49. Have you ever done an energy reading?

No but sounds like something I need. I think I had the chance to but I never did cause I started to have a panic attack.

50. What time of day do you like to practice your craft?

Night because I can’t let anyone know and I feel more at home at night.

#witch #baby witch #broom closet #witchy #knotmagic #witchcraft #spells #get to know me #witchedition #witches #beltane #sigil #sigil magic

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lostflyingfish · 6 years

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I’m still feeling really heated

about the how there isn’t a single female player in the Overwatch league.

So I’m going to keep talking about it, because that’s what I always do when something is bothering me.

The league has 12 teams that need a minimum of 6 players and max of 12 to a team, that means there are at least 72 players spots with the potential to have up to 144. And yet it appears* that none of the teams have any women, like I’m not sure if they even tried to sign a female player.

Like tell me that’s not ridiculous. Try it.

I commented on a post earlier with a link to a Kotoku article, basically saying that teams didn’t want to deal with the “drama” of signing a female player. The article quoted specifically

“The Houston Outlaws, for example, spent a solid chunk of their 20-minute conference engaging with the question, noting that Geguri wasn’t a good fit for them because of the language barrier and concerns over co-ed player housing, and that other women hoping to join the scene face a serious uphill battle. “You have to go through all these hurdles, like if you pick up a player, is the press gonna call it a PR stunt, or is it because she was the best?” said Outlaws general manager Matt Rodriguez.”

So the Outlaws were one of the few teams that did not sign on any Korean players, but they do have a players from Finland, Sweden, Canada, and Belgium. They are owned by a professional eSports organization that has competitive teams for CoD, Halo, and CS:GO (there’s more but idc, also are Halo tournaments still a thing?). Again most of these players are from the US with a few exceptions. But I want you to guess how many women I found listed on their rosters? Their website?

None.

The article goes on to say that the London team, which is composed of all Korean players, didn’t even think to sign a female player. New York, also all have an all Korean team, said that they thought “she just doesn’t fit their current goals.”

A PR STUNT, THAT’S WHAT THEY’RE CONCERNED WITH, NOT WINNING P-FUCKING-R.

YOU KNOW HOW YOU PROVE IT’S NOT A PR STUNT? LET HER PLAY AND WATCH HER WIN.

Being the first to sign a female player, could be seen as a PR stunt, but why is that bad? You overlook a whole group of potential candidates because you can’t handle a few “hurdles”. The hurdle being a language barrier, co-ed housing, team synergy. Language can’t be something you use to excuse not signing a female player when most teams sign a player from any where if he’s good enough. There are players from Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Ethiopia (well one player from each of those places at any rate). This also sort of implies that 1) Koreans don’t know English?? and 2) players are too stupid to figure out how to communicate with each other. Team synergy is also not something they can blame solely on gender. I can’t tell if they’re talking about the staff and/or players figuring out how to get along with women, but either way it’s a HUGE giveaway about their actual stance on women.

If theses are actual problems then what the ever loving fuck DO THEY PAY YOU FOR?

The article continues to have quotes from GM’s and owners about how it be nice to one day not have an all-male team, and they readily acknowledge that it’s harder for women to be here, in this field, this environment. They acknowledge the need for change, and yet….

“…Dan Fiden, president of Cloud9, the esports organization that London Spitfire is a part of, acknowledged that organizations need to play a role in making esports more welcoming and less toxic for players who aren’t men. He believes that involves starting from “the beginning.”

Are they going to do anything about it? Are any of them going to use the millions of dollars of influence to change anything?

Probably not.

This is stupid, and to me, this says that they don’t want us here. They are trying to push us off into a separate space. Sound familiar? How about every women’s sports league ever? They don’t want to make space for us. They want us to just fuck off, except now they excuse is even weaker. They can’t point to our physical stature (because what else about us matters anyway) and say “that would be unfair, this is too rough for you, you’ll get hurt”

They aren’t wrong, but they made it that way. It’s only rough because they don’t want us here. It’s not really anything new. They were already hurting us. They push and shove and hope that we leave because it’s not worth the trouble.

Sometimes I think that, I’m tried and everything hurts and I just want to rest. But then I remember I have chronic depression and that’s the time I take for a rest and recovery. I think if you don’t want to deal with this, I get it. I’m not really even angry about my own chances about getting in the big leagues so to speak, because quite honestly I’m a terrible shot.

Quite honestly I just want to see one of us make it. I want to validate my anger and I want to kick these guys in the balls but I think having women on a winning team would do just as well. (no it won’t and I know violence isn’t the answer but still...)

We’re not asking for special privileges; we’re asking to be treated like people, as equals. Letting us in the door shouldn’t be some special fucking favor.

The article sums it up quite nicely,

“For now, though, Overwatch League is still in an awkward spot. Since the very beginning, Blizzard has touted Overwatch as a game of inclusivity and diversity, with a selection of characters that includes everything from multiple women of color to a moon ape. And yet, as Overwatch makes its debut on its biggest stage ever, the pro scene’s most accomplished woman player is nowhere to be found. Instead, there’s only chatter that uncritically echoes the allegedly meritocratic points of view we’ve heard from other esports scenes for years. Yes, women have it harder, players, coaches, and owners admit, but they’ll win out in the end. Just, you know, later.”

I know this was mostly me repeating/reiterating parts of the article, but it was infuriating how true it all was, to hear these men spout useless platitudes.

Just to spice things up

So this Mashable article cites Kotaku as well (tbh I just think this guy was looking to put something out there bc he doesn’t really add any insight or any new information, but hey, it agrees with me)

Here’s another lady that has some thoughts - she seems hopeful, and also more in touch with the professional side of Overwatch.

I know change takes time, but there was an opportunity to make those changes, instead they were cowards.

(NEXT UP ON MY ANGER TOPICS: Find more on the media day interview, do more research on the teams, the owners, and staff, and if there are women at all)

*I say “appears” because I don’t know if any of the current players personally, so if they happen to be like a closeted transgendered person, then obviously that counts but like I wouldn’t know it. And of course that doesn’t make them any less of a woman, I’m just not omnipotent. Listen gaming spaces aren’t friendly, I just want people to live their best life.

#overwatch league #OWL #Overwatch #competitive gaming #female gamer #personallifeofjacki

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dracimalfoy1988292 · 3 years

Text

TRECE

•••

"Remus!" Ivy yelled, walking down the hallway quickly with a slightly angry expression. "You didn't tell me today was your birthday!"

Remus smiled, "I didn't want you to get me anything."

"Oh, shut up!" Ivy said loudly. Remus looked at her with an amused twinkle in his eye.

"I appreciate your friendship, I don't need a gift," Remus said. Ivy could barely contain her excitement.2

"That's too bad, because I got you something!" Ivy said as she opened her bag and pulled out a few neatly wrapped presents.

Remus gasped. "I thought you didn't know because I never told you!"

"Sirius told me last Hogsmeade weekend."

Remus scowled as he thought about Sirius, his smug, winking face popping into his head. "That bastard."11

"Open it!" Ivy exclaimed as Remus took the first present and peeled back the wrapping paper carefully with a smile.

It was a book about charms. "Sirius also mentioned that your favorite class was charms. I don't know why, I despise that class."

Remus looked at it in admiration, flipping the pages gently.

"Okay, open the next one!"

This one was a bag. He looked in and it contained a few chocolate frogs and sugar quills from Honeydukes.

"I didn't need to ask about your favorite candy, I figured this out myself," Ivy said with a satisfied smile.

Remus looked at his presents with a shocked smile. "You outdid yourself."

"No I didn't. I honestly thought about getting you more."

Remus smiled. "Thank you. Really. It means a lot."

"Don't mention it."

•••

"April Fools is in less than a week! We need a prank!" James yelled loudly, slamming his fists on the ground out where they were sitting in the courtyard.27

Yesterday was James's birthday, and he made very big deal about it. Ivy got him things from Zonko's and some candy.

"I don't know what you want me to say. I haven't done very many pranks in the past." Ivy said as James scoffed.

"What I'm trying to say is that you need to help! You're the mastermind behind most of our pranks!"

"We could make the castle covered in snow," Ivy said stupidly with a smile on her face.3

"That's perfect!" James shouted as Ivy laughed, shaking her head.

"I didn't think you were gonna take it Seriously."2

"It's kind of stupid, but so are we," Sirius said as he shot a wink at Ivy.2

Around a week later, Ivy found herself walking with James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius at midnight. They stopped next to the Great Hall to plan out what they would do.

"Okay. We'll all split up and cast the snow making charm. Sirius and I will take the map and go to the east wing and the dungeons, Remus and Peter will take the cloak and go to the west wing. James, you're going to create a distraction next to filch's office, and lock him in. Then join Remus's group or us, whoever you see first. Lock the door from the outside with magic. Then we'll meet here and walk back to our dorms. Make sure you cover your footprints with the obliteration charm!" Ivy said. They all nodded and walked their separate ways, waving goodbye.

"Alright. First stop, Charms classroom," Sirius said, looking at the map as Ivy took her wand out.

She casted the snow making spell and made it a big blizzard. The snow fell fast and the ground was covered in a thin layer of snow immediately. Another spell was cast to keep it cold so the snow wouldn't melt.

"Yes! You're brilliant!" Sirius squealed in excitement as they continued to charm the corridors and the rest of the classrooms. They walked down the stairs and charmed that area.6

They finished off the dungeons and walked back to the entrance of the Great Hall.

Ivy held the map as they walked through the snow, casting the obliteration charm behind them to cover up their footsteps.

Remus, James, and Peter were already waiting for them.

"How'd it go?" Remus asked them as Ivy nodded.

"Pretty good. We didn't miss a spot." Ivy said quietly to the invisible people standing in front of them.

"Okay. Let's go back. Ivy, I'm carrying you so you can cast the footprint disappearing charm thing easily." James said as he grabbed her waist and placed her so she was laying on his shoulder upside down, facing the opposite direction they were walking. She let out a noise of surprise and put an arm on his shoulder to steady herself.

"Alright then. Enjoying the view, Potter?" She taunted as Sirius let out a laugh.

"Very much so, thank you Ivy. I bet Remus can see up your skirt from where he's standing," James said. Remus was standing in front of James, about to move. He turned red.66

"I'm not looking up your skirt because I'm a gentleman," Remus announced to Ivy. She laughed and gave him a thumbs up. James turned around and began to walk, causing her to get out her wand and cast the spell.39

They made it back to their common rooms safely. James put her down and said goodbye. It was almost four A.M. She whispered the answer to the eagle's riddle quietly and walked in, slipping on her pajamas and getting in bed quietly.1

The next morning was glorious chaos. Ivy put on her hogwarts robes and walked out. The snow was still there, but there was much more of it. It was freezing. Ivy silently celebrated and walked in the deep snow, her legs becoming cold quickly.

She spotted Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter down the corridor. They were looking around at their masterpiece.

"Ivy! It worked!" Remus said and held up a hand to high five it. Ivy reached up and hit his hand as hard as she could.

McGonagall had said that whoever did this would be punished severely. They all giggled to each other. They wouldn't find out because there was no proof.

It took Flitwick and Filch a while to get rid of it. The whole population of Hogwarts had to bundle up for a few days. They were all happy with their success.

•••

The O.W.L.'s were in less than two months and Ivy was incredibly stressed about them. Her friends thought she was silly for preparing so early, but she was positive it would pay off.

"Ivy, you should take a break. We just got back from Easter break a few days ago," Peter said. The four boys and Ivy were all sitting under the tree near the black lake.

"That's very thoughtful of you, Peter, but I don't have time for a break," Ivy said as she looked over her Herbology notes. None of the other boys were studying.2

"You should. You've been at it since breakfast. It's two p.m. and it's a Saturday." Sirius said thoughtfully as Ivy continued to do her work. She didn't reply. It was quiet for a few seconds.

"I studied this morning, so I'm not right now, even though I probably should," Remus said. One full moon had passed since Sirius had asked her about her opinion on werewolves, and another one was in five days. Remus was getting worried she wouldn't find out before the end of fifth year. He glanced over at her. "Ivy, you need to take a break. It's not good for your health. When's the last time you got a full night of sleep?"6

Ivy sighed and brung her eyes off her work. "What do you mean by full night?"

"Like, seven hours or more."36

Ivy shrugged and mumbled a quiet 'I don't know' as Remus snapped and pointed at her.

"You need to take care of yourself. You look peaked. Sick." Remus said, pointing a finger in her face. Ivy suppressed her smile and closed her work. He nodded in approval.

"I'm gonna fall behind if I stop. And I'm not sick, I don't get sick." Ivy said as Remus shook his head with a laugh.4

"What is that supposed to mean? Everyone gets sick," Remus said as he furrowed his eyebrows with a smile.

"Well, I don't. I can't even remember the last time I've been ill," Ivy said as she looked over her History of Magic notes.3

"You need to relax. I know it's hard, but you deserve it," Remus said with a warm smile as Ivy sighed in defeat.

"Quiz me first, then I'll take a break," Ivy said as she passed her notes to him.

"Okay. Where can you find a bezoar?"

"In a goats stomach."

"Good. When did the Giant wars take place?"

"Before the year 1900."2

"Yes. What does the charm 'Avis' do?"

"Shit." Ivy said as she covered her face in her hands. "I have no clue."

"That charm shoots birds out of the tip of the caster's wand."7

"I knew that! Merlins beard, I'm useless," Ivy said as she flopped on the ground dramatically. She looked at the sky as Remus tried to make her feel better.18

"It's one question. I promise you're doing fine." Remus said. Ivy sat up and sighed.

"I'm putting it away." Ivy said, grabbing the notes from his hands and putting it in her bag.

"Good. You need a break."

Meanwhile, James and Sirius were arguing about something very silly.

"No! Definitely not!" Sirius shouted as James shook his head furiously.

"You're telling me that a fucking phoenix would beat a hippogriff in a fight? I think not!" James said as Sirius began to defend himself.16

"Phoenixes are cool," Sirius retaliated, "They are very very smart. They would win with their intellect, obviously!"

"Hippogriffs have sharp talons and a beak!" James said as he waved his arms. Peter watched him intently.3

"Ivy, what do you think?" Sirius asked. They both turned to look at her, anticipating their answer.

"Probably a phoenix. A phoenix is smarter and also has talons and a beak." Ivy said thoughtfully as Sirius cheered. James rolled his eyes as Sirius danced.12

"Hell yeah! Idiot! I was right!" Sirius said as he danced around James. James crossed his arms as Ivy laughed and watched Sirius do his victory dance.

"Ivy, when's your birthday?" Remus asked. Sirius finally sat down next to Ivy.

"It's the week of owls. June first."211

"You better be ready to have fun. Don't be like 'oh, I'm Ivy, I have to study all night,' no! We will be celebrating!" Sirius said pumping a fist in the air as Ivy rolled her eyes.1

"It needs to be a quick celebration, but yes, I'm fine with that," Ivy said as Sirius cheered.

"What should I get you?" Remus asked as Ivy waved a hand.

"You don't need to get me anything."

"You got me something! And it's not just that, you deserve something for being such a good friend," Remus said pridefully as Ivy rolled her eyes. James nudged Sirius and pointed at them discreetly. They continued to talk, oblivious of the two other friends watching them.

"I don't care what you get me." Ivy said as Remus sighed.

"If you don't like your gift, it's your fault."

"I'll like it because it's from you," Ivy said with a smile, looking at the black lake. He blushed at her words.13

They sat with each other and talked until dinner, where they walked into the Great hall and then their separate ways.

•••

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malodorousmalcontent · 5 years

Text

Sucreabeille Review: Part 1

So, sometime near the beginning of February, Andrea of Sucreabeille read one of my reviews and liked it enough to approach me about reviewing some of her scents, offering a coupon to do just that! And, truth be told, i'd already been looking at the house - I had learned about it from Hexennacht - and had been wanting to place an order anyways. So, y'know, not gonna pass that bad boy up.

Through various circumstances, I ended up placing three different orders and coming into ownership of 22 different perfumes and one body oil. (And, since writing this, have placed ANOTHER order for 10 more samples. wooh!) Since that's, uhh, a lot, i'm gonna be dividing up the reviews into, mm, somewhere between three and five different parts. This is part one, where i'll be covering Cream Tea; Life Spark; Frozen Moon; Sea Glass; We Aim To Misbehave; Khal Drogo; Tyrion; and Brienne the Beauty.

FIRST, thoughts on actually ordering from Sucreabeille: Andrea is an absolutely delightful person. She was super gracious and very openly communicative - when there was a delay in the order due to Snowmageddon, I received an email explaining exactly when my order would go out and offering compensation for the delay... Which I honestly didn't think was even necessary, on account of how my order was ready to ship well before the TAT estimate on their website. Even with the delay, I believe my perfumes were all delivered basically right on time. She also threw in a bottle of her hair and body oil for free! (Which I fell head over heels in love with - we'll get into that later.) Really just a super pleasant experience.

The only complaint I have is, uh, the state it showed up in.

Upon opening the packages, I was immediately hit with a wave of Sweet Bubblygummy/Rubbery Scent and went, oh, gosh. Something leaked. I carefully started opening stuff up, and found everything but the samples wrapped in this damp, thin, gummy substance - undoubtedly something to KEEP stuff from leaking. I've since found out that it was partially melted parafilm, and, boy, it did not agree with my drams. And it smelled. Like... Filled the room, smelled. Could still smell it hours after I threw it all away... Smelled. I'm just glad it wasn't an actual perfume leak, because it was not a good smell, either.

...But, on that note, several of my sample vials did leak - at least five of them.

The next issue was the labels, which is really just parafilm issues part 2. The drams were a mess - the parafilm left them really slippery and absolutely destroyed the ink on the labels. I had to very, very carefully unwrap them, and very carefully put tape over the label, and very carefully wipe them clean. Not a single label came out unharmed - and one of the drams now has a blank label with the name written on it in gel pen. I'll also add that if any of the perfume oil gets on the labels, boom, that ink comes right up - my sample vials are pretty spotty, too, due to the leaks they had.

(A VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Andrea is well-aware of the leak issue and, at the time of me writing this, has already fixed it - the drams have new lids and the samples come in the fricken' cutest bottles imaginable. I wouldn't let this complaint deter anybody from ordering.

Also, when I mentioned in the Suc FB group having tested out all the scents I ordered, Andrea was really proactive in asking about the state my order had arrived in and was happy to replace the leaky samples. A+ customer service.

I'm... So absurdly excited to get those itty bitty bottles in my next order.)

And now on to the scents.

CREAM TEA (PERFUME OIL) | Hot chai tea, burnt sugar, white musk, warm milk, scones slathered with raspberry jam and honey.

(If y'all notice a discrepancy in the notes - these are the notes from the scent description, not the 'scent notes' part. I chose to use this since it was a bit more in-depth.)

IN THE BOTTLE: I get like... The tiniest hint of burnt sugar, but there's this cool sweetness underneath it that almost smells medicinal. Maybe that's the tea? Weird.

ON THE SKIN: I've had a hard time describing this one. I wrote my initial notes - and then ended up not going off them at all while writing the actual review. And after I wrote the review, I wasn't happy with it, so I re-wrote it. And now i'm rewriting it again. So... Let's see if I can get it this time.

The first note I get is, most definitely, the burnt sugar. It was the first note I got when I tried it on straight out of the mail, too - and, at the time, it was so overpowering I could hardly smell anything else. Was downright acrid. After over a week of rest, it's mellowed some, but is still largely at the forefront, nutty and charred and a little bitter. Underneath it, I get a general kind of foody sugary sweetness, where it's harder to say what it is - the scones? The honey? The chai tea? - but I DEFINITELY can detect the raspberry jam. Saying it like that makes it sound like it's a Big Note--the jam isn't overwhelming, it just gives the scent a kind of fruity, bright, slightly tart edge.

After about 10 minutes, I can smell the musk: humid and slightly sharp, as white musk tends to be on me. There's a creaminess to the whole scent from the milk note, and I definitely get some foody spices... But I couldn't pick out anything that particularly reads 'tea' to me, y'know. Dries down to, basically, softly-sweet scone and a hint of that nutty burnt sugar.

This has some good sillage when wet - could smell it from at least a foot away - but wears closer to the skin on the drydown.

RATING: 3/5. It's not bad, but even after mellowing out that burnt sugar still makes it sorta acrid and gives me a headache.

LIFE SPARK (PERFUME OIL) | An enormous blizzard on a cold winter’s night, a fireworks explosion.

IN THE BOTTLE: A cool, fresh, slightly floral scent. Honestly? Think air freshener.

ON THE SKIN: So, I tried this one on early-on, and that's when the notes were truest. The 'fireworks explosion' honestly reminded me of the smell of a burning sparkler: fuzzy, maybe a little sulfuric, has a metallic tang to it. The 'enormous blizzard'... Well, truth be told, I didn't really get much cold atmosphere from this. Mostly those notes were just kinda perfumey. But! Burning sparkler. Good stuff.

After resting, it's actually lost that metallic tang, and from the get-go, just sorta smells like a nice, smooth, slightly floral conditioner with a soft, wet sweetness. That's basically the long and short of it: nice soap.

Smells pretty strong and clear on my wrist, with a sillage of at least a couple inches.

RATING: 3/5. I don't care for soapy scents, but as far as they go, this is at least a pretty one.

FROZEN MOON (PERFUME OIL) | Crisp winter evening air, frost, sweet sugar plum, delicious marshmallow.

IN THE BOTTLE: Bubblegum.

ON THE SKIN: Hey guess what! It smells like bubblegum!

In all seriousness, though: this started off bubblegummy and ended bubblegummy. The plum and marshmallow just combine to make the perfect pink bubblegum, with the plum maybe lending it the teensiest bit of tartness. The cold air/frost notes didn't feel particularly cold for the first hour of wear, and then, finally, a tiny bit of refreshing coolness begins to peek through.

On the drydown, the scent goes from a fuzzy bubblegum to a strong, crystal clear, juicy bubblegum. But, y'know. Still bubblegum. It's evidently got some strong sillage - my roommate could smell it from feet away, and said that it smelled like 'a baby. Like how a baby always smells sweet, because they're covered in sweet'. Their words, not mine.

RATING: 2.5/5. Too youthful for me, but someone, somewhere, wants to smell like a baby, covered in sweet.

SEA GLASS (PERFUME OIL) | Juicy mango, ripe yuzu, whipped coconut cream, sea moss, pure honey from the comb, Tahitian vanilla, salty spray.

IN THE BOTTLE: Fruuuuity. Definitely getting that mango and the coconut cream.

ON THE SKIN: So. Starts out with smooth mango and sharp pinpricks of the yuzu's tartness at the very top, making it a real tropical-smelling scent, with a bed of the coconut cream underneath it, lending it a very tasty, slightly rich sweetness. The sea moss and salt are ever-present, giving the scent a tinge of ocean-smell. After about an hour and a half of wear, the fruit and coconut cream fades and the vanilla comes out, and it's a bright and perky vanilla, not the smooth n mellow vanilla. While I can't say i'm getting anything that makes me go, 'oh, that's honey', it's probably amping up the vanilla. Salt's still there, too - makes my mouth water and my nose tingle, gives the scent a sparkle. I would say the whole scent's kinda stylized - this is another scent that reminds me of shampoo or conditioner without necessarily smelling soapy, like a tropical themed shampoo.

Wears close the skin, and by the time the vanilla (and honey?) comes out, it's sorta faint. Honestly, I tried this one on 3-4 times since I got it - including while writing this review - and each time it's been hard for me to pick up. I get particularly nose-blind to this bad boy.

RATING: 3.7/5. It's pretty and refreshing. Just wish it didn't fade so fast.

WE AIM TO MISBEHAVE (PERFUME OIL) | Rosemary, Vanilla, Amber, Honey.

IN THE BOTTLE: A lot of surprisingly medicinal yet smooth herbiness.

ON THE SKIN: Starts out smelling like Weird Rosemary - i'm almost certain that's due to the rosemary and the amber note combining, and i'm pretty sure it's a dry amber, not a sweet one. The Weird Rosemary smell is strong, smooth, a little earthy, with a tingle of herbaceous green-ness, and... I mean, it's weird. It smells like a rosemary doppelganger that can't quite get the features right - and I love the smell of Real Rosemary, I cook with it all the time, so I sure as heckie know what it smells like. Also, like... For notes of vanilla and honey, this scent starts out with virtually no detectable sweetness.

As it dries down, it gets better. The rosemary becomes more realistic, but also gets more subtle, and the vanilla comes pouring out, smooth and mellow and not particularly foody. The scent takes on a fuzzy, soft sweetness. It's actually really pretty. Usually vanilla like this--the kinda smoother, waxier, less foody vanilla--makes me feel a bit sick, but combined with the rosemary, it's pretty nice - the herby edge helps balance it a lot. The honey finally comes out far into the drydown, and it's not particularly strong, just gives a small brightness to the scent.

This wears pretty dang close to my skin, and within an hour, it's very light, bordering on 'have-to-really-search-for-it'.

RATING: 4/5. Not wild about how it starts, but it dries down so prettily. Once again, if only it weren't so dang light on me. :T

KHAL DROGO (HAIR & BODY OIL) | Supple leather, smoky sandalwood.

IN THE BOTTLE: Light, new leather and very subtle sandalwood.

ON THE SKIN: Boy this takes on a whole new life once I rub it in. I never would've ordered it based on the notes alone (I like both sandalwood and leather, but was worried it'd be too masculine for me), but i'm so so glad it got thrown in.

The leather smells like that light brown, velvety, super soft, super worn, kinda unfinished leather, sitting on top of dry, dusty sandalwood - in the best way. I slather this all over my hands, cup said hands over my mouth, close my eyes, and just breathe in - and suddenly i'm in one of those shops where they sell handcrafted leatherworks and handcarved wooden figurines. You know the ones - the ones with two employees total and it's a guy in his 60's-70's and his wife. Got dreamcatchers and nature paintings everywhere. It's intensely nostalgic, and so spot-on, and... Wow. A+. So cozy and comforting, and those notes ring so true and clear. Amazing scent.

As for the actual hair and body oil - it's very light, which i'm appreciative of, though it does take a LOT of it to get my thirsty thirsty hands to feel moisturized. Doesn't feel greasy and sinks in very quickly, so no sensory issues. I have hair that even the slightest amount of oil leaves lookin Nasty, but if I put some on before bed and wash it out the next day, it leaves my ends feelin' nice and soft - and the scent in it is pretty strong. Lasted through the night, still faintly detectable on my hands when I woke up the next morning, could smell a cloud of it waft up when I got in the shower.

RATING: 6/5. Maybe i'm biased due to Nostalgia, but dang, what a beautiful scent. Changed my mind about simple blends.

TYRION (PERFUME OIL) | Tahitian vanilla, juicy fig, freshly tanned leather.

IN THE BOTTLE: Suuuuper duper green fig, and that's basically it.

ON THE SKIN: This was the first scent that I got from Suc that I took a whiff of and audibly went 'ooooh!' because I liked it so much - I don't own anything else that smells like this. (That's probably because this is my first fig perfume, but I digress.)

The fig is really, really green - wet, juicy, humid green-ness. If someone made me sniff it and asked me what it was blind, i'd probably guess some super heady freshly-cut grass. The leather is just behind it, and is absolutely delectable: it smells like if you walked into a barn and stuck your face against a horse and just breeeeathed it in. They aren't kidding when they call that leather 'fresh'.

The scent reminds me of something that I had a little bit of trouble placing, but: you ever been on those tours of like, settlements from the 1600's? Historic cabins where you could see how people in The Colonies lived? This smells like those tours, if that makes sense. Like the inside of those cabins. Rustic, animalic, outdoorsy. It's great.

It dries down to the vanilla that, genuinely, smells like soft vanilla bean ice cream. The green of the fig is still there, but it's cool and refreshing and goes so well with the vanilla. Absolutely lovely.

RATING: 5/5.

BRIENNE THE BEAUTY (PERFUME OIL) | Newly cut grass on a hot summer day; smoky white musk; sweet Meyer lemon; real ginger; white tea; a fresh-picked Valencia orange.

IN THE BOTTLE: Smells like fresh, faint lemonade with a hint of ginger.

ON THE SKIN: I put this on and the first thing I smell is ginger, for like, a heartbeat. Like I just sniffed the ginger on a plate of sushi, ginger, and then from there: lemon. Honestly, I think I amp lemon. I've never worn a scent with a lemon note where it hasn't taken over, and this one's no different.

The lemon mellows out after a bit, and the scent basically becomes citrusy tea - more orange than lemon, but the lemon's sour flavor is definitely there. And... That's it. I don't pick up the musk, and not once in the three times i've tried this on have I smelled the grass, and the ginger was there for all of .5 seconds. It's nice, but doesn't really get the fire goin' in me.

RATING: 3/5. Doesn't smell bad, but i'm not interested in smellin like an orange-lemon, n' I wish the other notes showed up more.

Stay tuned for when I post up part 2 in the next week or two, featuring Arsenic; Longest Night; Death Unicorn; Banshee; You're in a Cult, Call Your Dad; Let's Be Bad Guys; Arya; and Here's the Thing: Fuck Everyone.

#perfumes #perfume reviews #sucreabeille #cream tea #life spark #frozen moon #sea glass #we aim to misbehave #khal drogo #tyrion #brienne the beauty

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