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#aquila's music
aquilathefighter · 4 months
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HI HELLO BILLY JOEL JUST RELEASED HIS FIRST NEW SONG IN 17 YEARS THANKS KING
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aquilacalvitium · 1 year
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I may be shouting into the void here, but...
Does anyone do music commissions?
Specifically I'm looking for someone who can do epic music. Violins, bagpipes maybe an accordion etc. I made a playlist based around my character and want a unique theme for them in the same style as the listed songs.
Ignore The Spectre by Alan Walker. That one's there because the lyrics fit the character, not the music.
To go the extra mile, it would be good to get a theme for the main character, a theme for the antagonist and a longer piece mixing the two together for an epic battle scene, but I'm happy to just focus on the main character for now.
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aquilamage · 1 year
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havin feelings about Leif getting overstimulated by the music in the food place in termite kingdom
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8bit-mau5 · 2 years
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Ah. Crow, you look like you're gonna need a few drinks. I'll just...hand you this whiskey then.
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==> You stare at the whiskey and fall deathly silent. You haven't touched a glass since the arrest. You still can't. It'll be a soft no for now.
Perhaps you can enjoy yourself a proper glass when he returns.
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Audio
enjoy some uke sounds i did at like 2am while i was supposed to be packing. rip to me it’s now 5am but i finally figured out how to do upload this. why. i have to get up in 3.5 hours. surely sleep is more important. i can hear the birds.
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for-hireath · 2 months
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I hope I die first, so I can be in love forever.
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petrichorpetals · 7 months
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I'm not saying I don't love God of Music but as someone that's been into the neos longer than Seventeen despite Seventeen taking my whole braincell, God of Music is the love child of Hello Future and Beatbox. 😂 I love it, but it's just a dreamies song and idk what to do with that.
Side note but it 100% sounds like something you would hear in New Donk City from Super Mario Odyssey.
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starblizzard247 · 5 months
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Headcannon
When a princess of Hyrule is born, their first name is automatically Zelda, however their middle name will be unique to them. When either a) they ascend the throne or b) there are no other living female members of the Hyrulean royal family, they will take on Zelda as their name. Otherwise they will be known by their middle name.
Some middle name headcannons (I haven’t figured out names for all of them yet):
Skyward Sword - Zelda Hyrule, since she’s the first
Ocarina of Time - Zelda Lyra Hyrule aka Sheik, since they use a lyre and bc OoT heavily features music
Wind Waker - Zelda Tetra Hyrule, nuff said (also I think her mom never got around to telling her her actual first name, which is why she doesn’t find out until in-game)
Spirit Tracks - Zelda Anima Hyrule, since “anima” means spirit in Latin (6 years of Latin coming in handy :D)
Twilight Princess - Zelda Tenebra Hyrule, since “tenebris” means darkness in Latin
Link Between Worlds - Zelda Hilda Hyrule, bc *parallels* (Hilda’s full name is Hilda Zelda Lorule coincidentally)
Hyrule Warriors - Zelda Atalanta Hyrule, after the Greek mythological figure Atalanta (because Atalanta has myths around running and in HW you run around maps a lot but also bc they’re both bad*ss)
Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom - Zelda Diantha Hyrule, since according to the Internet, “Diantha” means divine flower in Greek, which fits with her Silent Princess motif
Diantha’s Mother - Zelda Aquila Hyrule, since “aquila” means eagle in Latin, which is why she and Urbosa call Diantha “Little Bird”
10,000 years before Breath of the Wild - Zelda Mirae Hyrule, since “mirae” means future in Korean (bc obviously I’m gonna flaunt being bilingual from childhood), which goes with the futuristic Sheikah tech that originated from that time period (side note: I headcannon she’s Sonia’s granddaughter and she worked with the Sheikah to recreate Zonai tech after seeing malice beginning to leak out of dehydrated Ganondorf)
Sonia - Zelda Sonia Hyrule, self-explanatory (side note: I like to think that Hyrule fell into ruin sometime after the end of more traditional Zelda games and Sonia and Rauru reestablished the kingdom, and this new Hyrule is the one from BotW and TotK)
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Other critters I need to mention more on this blog at some point:
--The King of Glass: Outer God that’s a living planet. The world has fallen in love with its sun and showers it with ‘gifts’ taken from all over the cosmos. It primarily gathers these gifts by trading with mortals and immortals, sending out elaborate, eldritch artwork made from the rainbow-shaded glass it can create from the sand that makes up most of its body in exchange for gifts for its beloved. While these works tend to be mundane (if unsettling), more than a few of them have some unusual, otherworldly, or even dangerous function.
--Oa-Imago, the Deepwoods Mirage: Chaotic Good Great Old One that lives in the border between dream and reality and can cause the two to overlay with its presence. Enjoys dancing among mortal dreams and visiting its favorite ‘friends’ in the waking world to transform them into whatever they desire, though its efforts to contain its destructive and disorienting presence are... lacking, in some areas. It has little concept of pain, fear, or death; these things mean little to a dream, after all, though it’s come to understand that it must undo what it does to its ‘friends’ more often than not.
--The Gravesong: A mysterious melody that haunts the First World like a specter; some remnant of a fallen Eldest, or a haunting song too beautiful to ever stop playing, or perhaps the shards of whatever Death could be found in the First World before it was moved closer to the Positive Energy Plane. Anyone who hears it becomes obsessed with the idea of recreating it, but normal musical instruments won’t do. No, the only equipment that could properly capture the Gravesong have to be crafted from more robust materials. Flesh, blood, bone, and things still stranger, so long as they relate to death and decay.
--The Indomitable Radiance: A creature referenced a few times in other articles already; the Radiance is an Outer God of beauty so pristine, flawless, and true that no creature that looks upon it can bear to look away. With the loss of its home dimension, the Radiance is concerned with preparing a cabal of trusted individuals from all over the Great Beyond to maintain and impose its alien ideals of order and beauty on whatever unwitting world it longs to conquer, with the long-term hope of establishing a society so perfect and cleanly that it can march upon the universe and eradicate Chaos (in all its forms) altogether... because the background radiation of entropy itself causes frays and faults across its body, and that won’t do.
--Aquila-Rediannadier, the Inverse Orchestra: Perhaps it’s a song, or an idea, or a form of life so bizarre it could never survive in our cosmos in any other form. It is perhaps a child of Azathoth, because it seems to dance to the orchestra that surrounds the Sultan, but more importantly is that its amorphous body reflects alien melodies into its surroundings, much to the detriment of whatever creatures may be nearby. Some find madness, some find destruction, but some find twisted inspiration in watching it sing and dance.
--The Loathsome, Shaggy Beast: An abomination, a glitch in reality made manifest when the Eldest Fey Imbrex dared to dream a little too far beyond reality. It’s purposely nameless as to avoid being defined, rejecting any attempt by the world to tell it what it should be as it shifts from grotesque form to abhorrent shape; the title that it bears was imposed upon it by the Eldest in an attempt to cage its concept in a body that could be killed, but as a living recurring nightmare it cannot be permanently slain, rising time and time again from dream and memory.
--The Mother of Filth and her children: A disgusting and corrupt Outer God from a past cycle, the Mother of Filth is bound by obsession in all its forms, but is primarily obsessed with reclaiming all the power it once had by consuming and replacing entire civilizations with its Filthbreed simulacra. There’s also its children, the siblings of the Bloodletter and Clorpt, each claimed by a different obsession: The Wretched, obsessed with microbial life; and the Fragrance Architect, obsessed with scents and decay.
--A bunch of demigods: Like Caerbannog, Nascent Demon Lord of Aggressive Mimicry and Camouflage; an unnamed Vesltrac Demagogue of isolation and meditation, who locks victims away in featureless demiplanes until their sanities have snapped; Saint Caligine, velstrac founder of “Gastromasochism,” who encourages his followers to consume horrifying (and especially spicy) foods to experience new forms of pain; and a handful of disgusting qlippoth lords.
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dante-winning-archive · 4 months
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DmC: Devil May Cry Thoughts
So I finally decided to experience the DmC Reboot, and my overall verdict is: Not As Bad As I Expected. 
I took notes, so let’s break it down. This is over 3 pages in a doc btw, so buckle up I guess. Hope it was worth the wait.
What I Liked
Level Design
This is probably the game’s biggest strength. Great amount of variety, and the atmosphere of each level was great. 
Limbo is a really cool concept. 
The twin’s special abilities (like Dante’s grappling hook type weapons) made for some really cool platforming. 
The typography really works in this game. Like, words and phrases appearing in the environment to taunt Dante or just provide additional flavor to whatever is happening. Very comic book. 
The Bob Barbas boss battle had a really cool neon techy aesthetic, which isn’t something I would have expected for this game. Neat!
The game show levels leading up to Lilith’s boss fight were cool too! 
The Succubus boss battle made really good use of the environment. 
Enemy Design
General demon mobs are automaton-like, which is pretty neat. I’m not a fan of that sort of aesthetic, but I respect the creative direction. 
All the bosses had decent variety in terms of design and battle mechanics.
Item/Weapon Design
I think this was another pretty strong point for this game
It’s a small thing, but the designs of the orbs were nice.
Rebellion’s shape shifting is neat. Rebellion doesn’t really have any cool powers like Yamato does in the mainline games, so it was nice to see it do something besides being a big sword. 
AQUILA IS SUCH A COOL WEAPON
Ebony and Ivory were pretty, but didn't seem particularly useful what with all the other weapons Dante had at his disposal.
Misc
Combat looks dynamic and satisfying, and I can see the influence it had on DMC5’s combat. 
The voice acting is good
Occasionally, it was genuinely funny
The Vergil gameplay at the end? INCREDIBLE. 
The music was good. Nothing really stood out to me, but it did enhance the game. 
What I Disliked
Lilith
I really hated her character design. And I’m not saying it wasn’t effective character design, or that it was bad. I just personally didn’t like it. 
Her weirdly pulled skin, the corset piercings, the way her skin bunches up around the tops of her gloves… ugh. 
And maybe that’s the point! I’m probably supposed to find it offputting! But I hated looking at her. 
Pregnancy is a really intense squick of mine, so all that was just no! No! No! No! 
I wish I could unsee her boss battle
Minor Design Complaints
Dante’s DT design was a little disappointing, especially considering how well designed everything else is. 
Yamato’s design was also lackluster. 
Misc
The fatphobia was disappointing but not surprising, especially considering the year this was released. 
Mundus sex scene… ew
The sniper abortion scene wasn’t as shocking as I expected it to be, but it sure was there
The way Vergil pronounces Yamato lol. Ya-MATT-o
Pronouncing Mundus differently was a little weird. The mundus amungus…. 
Mundus’ boss fight was uninspired. Wow, a giant statue trying to squash Dante on a platform. Never seen that one before.
A lot of this game has a ‘gross’ factor, which I’m not really into. That’s just personal preference, because I do think it mostly works in context. Just not my thing. 
Characters:
In general, I found the characters to be pretty one-dimensional. 
The Twins
The two of them working together in Mundus’ tower, one in each world, was really cool. If you’re going to have twins in a setting with two worlds overlapping, having one in each is (chefs kiss). Being able to play as both of them to achieve the goal would have made it even better. 
I really enjoyed the scenes they had together, but there just weren’t enough of them. 
It was nice seeing them share physical affection (in the form of a mutual shoulder pat)
But “I loved you, brother” just didn’t have the emotional impact I wanted it to have. 
And the issue is really… they’re strangers. They may be brothers, but they barely know each other. Their relationship just didn’t get as much attention and buildup as it should have. 
Vergil
He’s so friendly and helpful sounding at the beginning, it was kind of cute. 
But it is revealed he’s pretty cold and calculating, willing to sacrifice Kat because saving her wasn’t worth the risk to him. 
His mad hax lol 
give him his hat back, cowards
Even though he was carrying Yamato around, I wasn’t sure he could even fight until the very end. He just seemed so weak. The thing about the twins is that they’re equals on the physical level. IDK, it was just weird to see a Vergil that didn’t fight. 
honestly, a way more interesting character than Dante.
Dante
A devil-may-care character that learns to give a shit? Always a classic. 
As unnecessarily edgy as he seems, his poor coping mechanisms make sense for how he grew up. 
Kat
An assault survivor, because of course she is. It’s just disappointing. Was it necessary? Was it??
Overall, she’s fine. No real strong feelings about her. 
Despite having a ‘role’ (guiding Dante through Limbo and helping him escape it), her job could have been given to Vergil and the game would have worked fine. Maybe even better. 
Sparda and Eva 
Having Sparda outlive Eva and be responsible for hiding the twins was an interesting choice. I also like that we have confirmation for what happened to him (eternal torture). 
I would have expected an angel and demon to be a power couple, but they seemed to have been beaten pretty easily. For plot, I guess. 
The Story
I wasn’t really all that invested, tbh. There’s nothing wrong with the story, but at the same time there isn’t really anything notable about it (except Vergil’s bit). 
It’s a hack n’ slash, so I’m not expecting a masterpiece, but it was pretty one note.
WHY is there a war between demons and angels? Where did the Nephilim come from, how many were there, what role did they play? More importantly, why should I care about any of this? 
The twins avenging their parents should have felt like… like taking on a mantle to continue their cause, and I really didn’t get any of that. There wasn’t any weight of legacy. And the main games handle that so well. 
Overall, I just felt like there wasn’t enough emotional impact, especially between the brothers. There wasn’t enough time to really grow to care about the three protagonists, imo. 
Dante's character arc is... learning to give a shit, I guess, but even then, his decision to be the protector of humans feels really out there. Did he really show that much growth throughout the game for this declaration to really feel deserved? Rewarding?
Likewise, Vergil's shift from revolutionary to would-be king is equally abrupt. Like maybe the entire point of it was to be out of left field, but from a storytelling standpoint... an out-of-nowhere twist like that just doesn't feel rewarding. Having more time with Vergil as Dante throughout the course of the game, to have a subtle buildup so that when you look back and say 'the signs were all there and I missed them', that would have been really good. Like, disregarding the fact that any fan of DMC knows Vergil is going to abandon everything for power.
Vergil’s gameplay and story at the end was a lot more compelling than the rest of the game combined. It’s literally the only thing I’m interested in learning more about. 
Final Thoughts
The game was… alright. Not as bad as I expected it to be, but I’m not sure I would call it good, either. There were a lot of really interesting concepts that just didn’t reach their full potential. The ‘hard’ elements like design and combat were there, but the characters and story were lacking. Making a DMC game heavily influenced by the Divine Comedy is a great idea! 
I think that there are two things that really held this game back. 
Making it a DMC game. As its own thing, it could have been really good. Could they have told a story based on the Divine Comedy with twins named Dante and Vergil without stepping on DMC’s toes? Probably not. But with some changes, it could have worked.
The marketing. I didn’t see it in real time, but we’ve all heard of the weirdly homophobic marketing for this game. And I think that really soured people’s opinions of the game. Still does, tbh. ‘Dante is not a gay cowboy’ as if that isn’t his entire appeal….
Anyway, I don’t think it quite deserves the hate it gets. If you go in knowing you’re not getting a ‘real’ DMC game, it’s not bad. 
Rating: 5/10 
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aquilathefighter · 1 month
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Hi!! 1 and 30 for the music asks please 👀💛
Hi!!! Thank you!!!
1:A song you like with a color in the title
Beachcomber Blues by @narcissistcookbook 💛 love a little blues, love a guitar and voice only tune
30:A song that reminds you of yourself
void-adjacent by June Henry
the way that romance works as a nonbinary person and the perspective in this song resonates a lot with me.
Music asks here🎵
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causeitsagame · 1 year
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Fic: Aquila (6/8)
Pairing: Hajime Hinata/Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu
Author: @miggylol
Notes: HOPE Y'ALL LIKE TALKING
Previous Chapters: in the tag.
Excerpt: All of those conclusions ran rapid-fire through Kazuichi's eyes, and he further relaxed. "Huh. Well, gotta say that this is a big surprise, man."
"You're telling me," Hajime said dryly. "His first reaction was to get pissed off at me about it."
-----
The next morning at breakfast, Hajime tried not to be obvious as he studied Kazuichi. Sonia would easily notice such an appraisal, while Akane would ignore anything short of a bullhorn against her ear while she ate. Kazuichi fell somewhere between those extremes, but unfortunately, Hajime wasn't quite sure where.
At least Kazuichi hadn't resented Hajime moving over to the cottages, thanks to a brief excuse of not wanting to leave Fuyuhiko out there alone. All of them knew far, far better than to say this out loud, but Fuyuhiko would be the least able to extract himself if some collapse, earthquake, or other crisis left him trapped. He might have as much raw determination as the rest of them combined, but determination alone couldn't lift a toppled tree.
At those few words of explanation, Kazuichi nodded knowingly and said nothing more. If Fuyuhiko insisted on going off somewhere, then at least he would tolerate Hajime's presence while throwing one of his anti-social fits. That was a good compromise until Fuyuhiko stopped stalking around like an angry cat and was once again willing to rejoin the group.
The cover story worked, but the ruse did leave Hajime feeling a little guilty. The excuse Hajime had given wasn't really a lie, but eventually, continuing down this path would result in straight-up twisting the truth. That, he wasn't willing to do.
Even so, while Kazuichi was a good and enthusiastic friend, he was…
Hajime paused to consider what label to use.
Kazuichi was reactive. Fuyuhiko was the one whose body might work against him if a crisis erupted, but it was Kazuichi who was the most likely to fall emotionally apart, by far. Hajime and Fuyuhiko pairing off might earn well-wishes from him, for all they knew! But it could also trigger a spiral of self-doubt where Kazuichi looked at the survivors, counted up the odd number of their small group, and then obsessed over every harsh rejection Sonia had ever given him.
"You keep looking over there," Fuyuhiko muttered as he worked at an orange's peel. "Going to tell him?"
"I know we'd talked about just staying private for a while," Hajime murmured back as he also reached for one, "but it feels different now that Sonia knows."
As if she'd somehow heard them, Sonia smiled knowingly from her nearby table. Perhaps they were leaning in a bit too close.
"Yeah," Fuyuhiko admitted. "Fine. Let's get it done."
Hajime nodded, but settled in for a real breakfast, first. According to Sonia's stated plan, the other three were headed back to the fifth island, while he and Fuyuhiko had another day of work ahead of them here. He'd need some calories in him.
"Okay, let's do it," he eventually whispered, and stood. Fuyuhiko followed suit, and went over to catch Akane by the arm before she could rush off to the dock.
Almost immediately, Hajime heard Akane say, "Oh, huh. Is that all? Sure, whatever." That easy? Dammit, Fuyuhiko knew what he'd been doing by claiming the girls as his targets.
"Hey, Kazuichi," Hajime said, and also caught Kazuichi by the elbow before he could head for the boat. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Huh? Oh, sure, man. What's up?"
"It's, uh…" Aware of Akane studying him, clearly about to comment on the situation, Hajime pulled Kazuichi into a nearby hallway. Its walls were lined with faded, yellowed posters about the musical act that was making a three-month visit to the islands, advertisements for businesses over in the second island's charming village, and encouragement to take advantage of the world-class room service menu. A small framed sign reminded them that reservations were recommended for the restaurant.
"Seriously," Kazuichi said once they were alone. Unfortunately, he was tilting visibly toward concern. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no, nothing's wrong. Me and Fuyuhiko got to talking, and we might…" Hajime shrugged, striving for casual.
"…Stay out there?" Kazuichi prompted in the silence. "You both said the cottages are a lot nicer. If you want to bother redoing the roofs—or managed to find some good ones—then hey, more power to you! Maybe I can try to get those electric carts up and running, huh? That way, you wouldn't have to keep walking back and forth." A grin erupted, and he leaned in with an amused, conspiratorial whisper. "Or you could just run him here and back. Ha! I just pictured his face if you offered to carry him."
"Ha, yeah, probably best to avoid that," Hajime weakly chuckled, and tried not to flash back to Fuyuhiko's proximity-versus-strength test from the day before. It'd be unfortunate if he started blushing here in the hallway. "Maybe we will stay. They are actually a lot nicer. But mostly, I wanted to mention that he and I…"
Kazuichi waited as Hajime fell back into silence, and popped his eyebrows up to prompt him to continue.
Wow, Hajime apparently did not have any Ultimate Tell Your Friend That You're Well On The Way To Hooking Up With Another Friend in his quiver of talents. After a moment of thought, he held up two fingers like he was making a peace sign. "He and I are thinking that we might want to be…" The fingers crossed. "…He and I, y'know?"
"Huh?" A moment later, clarity struck, and Kazuichi blinked and shook his head like a dog throwing off water. "Wait, seriously?"
"Yeah." Again, Hajime strove for casual, like this was a typical romantic pairing instead of forty percent of their known universe changing the social rules.
Kazuichi stared back at him in continued befuddlement. Then, unfortunately, he slid into worry as he turned to look toward the hall of hotel rooms. His stricken expression clearly said that he was recalling the wealth of other hotel options and homes left by previous residents.
Would Akane soon want to relocate to the second island that had been most popular with American tourists, to take advantage of its protected swimming areas and climbing cliffs? Would Sonia relocate to the elegant sprawl of the fourth's island top-end resort? Had Hajime and Fuyuhiko moving out and pairing off only been the first step in everyone choosing a path that led directly away from him?
Now for this, Hajime did have talents to draw upon. He silently thanked the therapist and psychologist at the back of his mind for putting labels onto all of those shifting emotions. Rather than acknowledge Kazuichi's deepening worry, he lightly continued, "Weirdly, it happened after a dream I had. I—well, Izuru, but it felt like me—was watching him lead a fight against the Foundation. We talked about it, afterwards. And got to talking about other things."
That was technically a lie, but Hajime didn't mind bending the truth of the timeline if it made Kazuichi feel better. As he'd suspected, it did work. Weirdly. But it worked.
Kazuichi worked through that, nodding slowly, and calmed down as he assigned deeper meaning to Hajime's words. It wasn't that people were finding better options than him; it was that Kazuichi Souda was, against all odds, actually the one in a better position. And he hardly ever got to experience that.
Hajime had been Hope's Peak's world-shattering triumph, and then the mastermind behind very nearly bringing back Junko Enoshima. Fuyuhiko had been at the head of armies that ruthlessly brought cities to their knees before putting bullets into civilians' heads. Kazuichi had certainly brought his own horror to the world, with all the devices he'd made for manufacturing Monokuma robots and helmets, or performing executions, or detonating dirty bombs across European cities. But his guilt had a slightly different feeling than theirs, for Kazuichi had always been following someone else's orders. Hajime and Fuyuhiko's memories had no such padding, as slight as it was.
If they'd formed a connection based on that recalled bone-deep regret, then it was understandable. It was a good thing to support each other, even. All of those conclusions ran rapid-fire through Kazuichi's eyes, and he further relaxed. "Huh. Well, gotta say that this is a big surprise, man."
"You're telling me," Hajime said dryly. "His first reaction was to get pissed off at me about it."
"Hah!" Kazuichi covered his mouth as soon as he'd barked out the laugh, and looked with continued amusement toward the restaurant door. "Is it wrong to wish you good luck?"
"Yes," Hajime said flatly, instinctively wanting to come to Fuyuhiko's defense. But then he paused, and couldn't help but say, "Thanks."
Kazuichi's grin held a few seconds more, then ebbed a bit. "So, is this, like, serious?"
"I don't know," Hajime admitted with a laugh. "I have zero idea. I know that I can wake the pods up, but not when, exactly. It would actually be nice to have those electric carts handy, but I don't know if it's worth clearing the trails for them, yet. And I know that I'm… I'm something with him, now, but I don't know what the label is. I really don't know these things. Believe it or not, that's actually a nice feeling to have."
Kazuichi's grin turned lopsided and softer, and he reached forward to clap his friend on the shoulder. The contact left him looking speculatively at Hajime, then at the doorway to the restaurant. If Hajime had to guess, Kazuichi's brain was reclassifying the number of romantic options on the island, rapid-fire.
Hajime held up his crossed fingers again. "Me and Fuyuhiko, remember? Literally just started something?"
Kazuichi stepped back. "Right, congrats! Hey, I'd better get to the boat, okay? Sonia and Akane are probably waiting for me." The girls' names brought that speculative glint back to his eyes, and Hajime said a silent prayer that all of them would return from the fifth island with no drama. The two of them adding romance to the equation really might have changed things.
Once the other three were headed for the dock, and it was once again time to focus on animal control, Fuyuhiko shot a hopeful look toward Hajime. "So? How'd it go? He looked like he was in a good enough mood heading out, but…"
Hajime nodded. "Yep." He paused for the length of a few steps, then carefully phrased, "He even wished us good luck."
"Hey, there's something." Fuyuhiko grinned. "Obviously, Akane didn't give two shits. Like I expected."
"Yeah, I noticed you grabbed the easier people," Hajime laughed, and lightly elbowed him. "You owe me."
"I owe you? You could've grabbed the girls before I did! Not my fault you don't know how to negotiate."
"You owe me," Hajime repeated. "I'm making you catch the first animal before I start working."
"Lazy ass," Fuyuhiko grumbled, and went off in search of a rope. "I'm not starting with the fucking chickens."
Hours later, they'd located several favored grazing spots and managed to relocate more than a dozen goats. The animals complained while they were being led, but now they happily grazed, or investigated a barn that their mothers and grandmothers had long abandoned. "So," Fuyuhiko wondered as they studied the ranch. "What do you do with goats, exactly?"
"Do?"
"It's not really like you eat them like the chickens, yeah?"
"Of course you can," Hajime idly mused, running through recipes in his mind for appetizers, entrees, and dessert. "Braised, curried, stewed. And with some fruit, honey, and goat cheese, we could—" He paused, then corrected himself. "No cheese." At least, not for Fuyuhiko.
Fuyuhiko nodded, his mood improving after Hajime remembered that without being prompted. But then it plummeted, for his gaze shifted to the adjoining coop, now repaired and ready to once again hold a flock.
"Let's go catch some fucking chickens," Hajime prompted with amusement.
"They shit everywhere, you know," Fuyuhiko complained as they walked toward their next task. "All across the hotel sidewalks, all over the island. That's my biggest problem with them."
"I know. So you've said. Repeatedly."
That earned a sharp sidelong look. With a wry smile, Hajime shut up.
Ahh.
Romance.
At dinner that night, it felt rather like they were zoo specimens. Sonia and Kazuichi studied them openly with every bite, while Akane also made no secret of her curiosity whenever she reloaded her plate. "So," Hajime prompted, very deliberately. "Did you find anything at the police dock?"
"We did," Sonia nodded, but kept looking between Fuyuhiko and Hajime as she spoke. "They're set up for scanning for boats in distress out in international waters. We'll be able to track any approaching vessels from quite a long range, once the power supply is back there."
"That's good to hear," Fuyuhiko agreed, and speared a wedge of melon. "Stop staring at us."
Sonia obligingly focused on her plate.
"You too, Souda."
Kazuichi tried to act like he wasn't staring, and did a piss-poor job of it.
They'd calm down soon enough, Hajime told himself, and shoveled in some rice taken from the restaurant's stockpiles. (Across all six islands, he estimated that there was enough rice to last a group of fifteen people approximately eight hundred and fifty-seven years, if everyone consumed it with every meal.) This was the most exciting change for their group since Hajime confirmed that he had a strategy for waking up the pods, and it was no wonder that they were the center of attention.
It was still annoying, though, and so it was a relief when dinner ended and they could escape back to what they'd decided was home. "I sure hope we picked the right cottages," Fuyuhiko muttered as they sped their pace. Heavy clouds had begun to roll in overhead.
"We should be. I didn't notice any water damage on the floor from other storms." Still, those clouds were heavy and swollen, and so low that it looked like they might be able to reach up and touch them. Hajime's first instinct was to set off running to beat the storm. His second instinct was to offer to scoop Fuyuhiko up, as Kazuichi had laughingly suggested. He thankfully fought back both instincts, and they made it to the cottages with minutes to spare.
"Good luck," Hajime laughingly told Fuyuhiko as they each reached for their cottage door, three doors down from the other.
"Good luck," Fuyuhiko wryly echoed, and stepped inside.
When the rain started, Hajime held his breath for long, purposeful stretches, waiting to hear any traitorous plink-plink-plinks that would warn him he'd made the wrong cottage choice. None came. He slowly walked through the cottage's expansive footprint, lingering in a reading nook across from a wall-mounted television, and then in a small breakfast alcove, and finally before a small lounging deck above the water.
A glass door led to that small deck. For a while, Hajime watched the rain through it. There was no lightning, so thunder wouldn't wake him. The wind howled, though; they'd want to check the roofs again once the storm passed.
He wondered how long it'd take until rain on a tropical island stopped feeling out of place. For all that perpetual sun had felt suspicious while inside the simulation, it was pleasantly easy to get used to. Ah well, Hajime thought, and turned for his bed. (Across the islands, they'd located several thousand sets of bed linens. It'd be a lot of laundry to do, eventually.) Storms would refill the reservoir tanks.
With the sound of rain soothing him, Hajime flicked the overhead light switch conveniently placed next to the bed, and let the noises steer him toward sleep.
"Hey."
Hajime blinked awake, some minutes or hours later. Pressure gripped his chest as he struggled to see anything. After a few long moments, with effort, he could barely make out Fuyuhiko's silhouette at the cottage door. There didn't seem to be any rain behind him, now, but what scant light there was must have to fight its way through thick clouds.
His heart beat more freely as he focused on the shadow Fuyuhiko made against that backdrop. On most days, Hajime honestly could handle his years-ago memories, but he never did well when it felt like he'd woken back up into blindness. "Hey. What's up?"
"I thought about how it was even darker, tonight. I didn't know if it'd be a problem. And if there was a problem, I thought maybe it'd help if…"
Hajime bit down hard and didn't point out that he hadn't noticed how dark it was until he'd been woken up. "Yeah. Thanks. You didn't have to, but thanks."
"So, hmm, let me just…" Fuyuhiko murmured to himself as he walked carefully into the cottage, trailing his hand against the far wall for guidance as he went. The door automatically swung shut behind him and even the faint glow from outside vanished.
Memories reared up and clawed deeply into Hajime's mind, whispering that he was back there. He was fading. He was alone. But light soon erupted, and Hajime instinctively threw an arm over his eyes before he processed that it wasn't bright enough to hurt.
A lamp would keep him awake if it were close, but Fuyuhiko had cleverly chosen a small one around a corner, near the door that led out to the deck. Its light reflected dimly off the walls, and showed up over in the bedroom as only a faint golden glow like a faded memory of the sun. That was enough, though; when Hajime looked around, he immediately saw where he was. "Good idea," he admitted. "I should have thought of that."
Fuyuhiko nodded as he walked back to the sleeping area, unconcerned. "I did the same thing, at first."
"At first?" Here on the real island?
"After this," Fuyuhiko clarified, and gestured to the heavy scarring over his useless right eye. He'd left his eyepatch in his own cottage, but Hajime hadn't paid any mind to the injury until he pointed to it. "Heh. Should clarify that, I guess: after the second time I lost it." He grinned wickedly. "Losing an eye from the same socket three time's gotta be a world record, right?"
"Must be," Hajime agreed with dark amusement. At least it apparently wasn't a source of trauma, by now.
"Anyway," Fuyuhiko continued, slouching comfortably into an armchair next to Hajime's bed. "I couldn't see for shit, at first. My brain still expected to be seeing out of an eye that wasn't there, and so it was…" He trailed off and sat in silence. When he continued, his good eye directed enormous sympathy toward Hajime. "And so it was dark. Not all the way, but a lot darker than it should be."
Hajime nodded back, and found himself relaxing into the mattress. No, it wasn't the same thing, but it was a surprisingly strong relief to be understood even halfway.
"So, I left a low light on overnight in the bathroom," Fuyuhiko continued. "You remember how they had those glass walls? Wish I'd been able to turn it down even further, but it worked. It felt weird to be sleeping with a nightlight, but in case I needed to get up, I didn't want to trip into something and rip this back open." His thumb drew a line low across his stomach. "It worked for me, then, so I thought it might work for you."
"It's a lot better, thanks. Seriously, I should have thought of that." For all of the knowledge and abilities that had been forced into him, an ingrained social norm of 'only kids sleep with a light on' was apparently too strong to overcome. Hajime needed to get over that. There wasn't reason to follow everyone else's expectations, any more.
Silence took over. In it, Fuyuhiko's words echoed. When his stomach had just been stitched up, huh? Hajime frowned against his pillow in thought. That meant that Fuyuhiko had been struggling inside his cottage, feeling like he'd lost even more than half his vision… when Hajime had been completely alone with him at Hotel Mirai. Just like the two of them now. Huh.
Slowly, Hajime pieced together memories and really considered the aftermath of Peko's execution like he hadn't, before. Fuyuhiko had been left dying in front of them, drowning and choking on his own blood. They'd all been so caught up in adrenaline and fear that Hajime never really thought that deeply about what was happening to someone who still felt like a stranger.
"Hey. Fuyuhiko?"
"Yeah?"
Hajime hesitated before asking, "Tell me if you don't want to think about this, but… do you remember what happened when you got rushed to the hospital?"
A slight smirk edged Fuyuhiko's voice. "Which time?"
That put a smile on Hajime, too. "The first one."
"Yeah, I do. Not as well as the second time, but yeah." As he spoke, Fuyuhiko's voice sobered. "It was just me and him in that fucked-up hospital, and he was… laughing." Shuddering, Fuyuhiko rubbed his arms and looked surprised by the strength of his recollection. "That bear's fucking laugh. You remember it, right?"
"Right. Of course."
"I couldn't move at all, by that point. He said he needed to sew up some internal bleeding, and he…" Troubled, Fuyuhiko folded in on himself more. "He… twisted. Warped. I didn't understand what I was seeing, and probably thought it was just my brain dying off with the rest of me. But after what we learned at the end, I guess it must have been the Junko A.I. flickering in, a little."
Hajime frowned, picturing some horrific Monokuma/Junko monster looming over a barely conscious Fuyuhiko. "How do you mean?"
"He needed fingers to hold the scalpel. And after he warped… there were fingers. It looked." Fuyuhiko struggled for the word. "Wrong. Not that I could pay much attention to how that damn bear looked, but when I make myself think back on it, it was like I was being operated on by some glitch. Some hole in reality."
Hajime shifted uneasily. Scalpels had been mentioned, but no anesthesia. He didn't want to clarify. "Sorry for asking. Looking back on it now, I suppose I assumed he'd just… edited your code to not be dying, any more."
"Maybe he did that, too. But you know that sadistic prick would never give up the chance to slice someone open when he's got an excuse to do so. He'd want to hear them hurting." Fuyuhiko's gaze grew even more distant, and he looked suddenly, agonizingly sad. "I hope Nekomaru wasn't awake."
"Oh. Shit. Yeah."
"He couldn't have been," Fuyuhiko decided, though it sounded more like he was convincing himself. "Think about how the guy didn't have a care in the world, afterward. There's no way he would've been like that if he remembered that fucking bear ripping out all his body parts, one by one. He… he wasn't awake. There's no way. No way."
Whatever awful memories he'd earned on Monokuma's operating table now seemed irrelevant. Fuyuhiko's expression warped further for Nekomaru's imagined mutilation than it ever had for his own surgeries. Eventually, he laughed weakly and rubbed at his reddened eye. "You pick some dark fuckin' topics to focus on when you're trying to fall asleep, you know. That probably doesn't help things."
"Sorry." Hajime smiled lopsidedly at him. "You mentioning your stomach got me thinking, and… and this sounds really selfish," he admitted. "But it was easier to worry about what you went through. It was something else to think about."
"Easier to think about someone else," Fuyuhiko quietly echoed, and still sounded shaken by picturing whatever hell had happened to Nekomaru Nidai. Maybe, after everything, it felt wrong to worry about themselves. But at least they could still worry about each other.
They sat for another good while in silence, until Fuyuhiko stood abruptly up. "I'm talking about something else," he decided, and surprised Hajime by taking the far side of the bed. "And I'm talking," he repeated emphatically as he stretched out against the mattress.
Hajime let the brighter tone carry him back toward smiling. "We're not outside, now," he pointed out.
Fuyuhiko propped himself up enough to shoot Hajime a disbelieving look. "No, we're not outside, but what kinda fucked-up mood just got set? Anyway, I'm gonna talk, and you're gonna focus on my story and worry about me, until you fall back asleep."
"Okay," Hajime said uncertainly. Worrying about Fuyuhiko didn't sound like a good way to give him a restful night, but it seemed like a plan was in place.
"Kinkaku-ji," Fuyuhiko began. "One of the temples in Kyoto. You know it, right?"
"Never been there, but by name, yeah."
"Well, my parents decided that Natsumi and I needed to appreciate our cultural heritage. Or whatever. They were big on that. So, off we went to Kyoto, to see all the temples and watch all the people."
"And you were…"
"Four." Fuyuhiko laughed once. "So yeah, I didn't give a shit about anything I was seeing. We were at Kinkaku-ji when I started running around to burn off some energy, and fell hard against a stone staircase. Hard. Ripped the skin open down to the kneecap."
Hajime grimaced. "Ow."
"I was probably screaming loud enough to wake the dead. So I get rushed to the nearest hospital, and here's the thing: my parents had always told me not to trust any doctor I didn't know. Because otherwise, someone could dress up like a doctor and shoot you up with something, or convince you to go off with them, y'know?"
"Sure. I guess." That had certainly not been a concern in Hajime's own childhood, but he supposed it made some sense for Fuyuhiko's.
"So anyway, I'm screaming my fucking head off, and then a doctor that I don't know comes in to take a look at me." Fuyuhiko laughed at the memory. The warm, pleasant sound washed over Hajime and he felt himself smiling, too. "And so I grab a tongue depressor and try to stab him with it."
A laugh burst through Hajime's drowsiness. "A tongue depressor? One of those round sticks?"
"Yeah." Fuyuhiko laughed again. "It was handy to grab, but it didn't work very well."
"No kidding."
"So… that meant I just had to keep trying, obviously."
The imagined visual of a barely-out-of-toddlerhood, blood-drenched Fuyuhiko going absolutely ham with a tongue depressor on some bewildered doctor brought actual tears to Hajime's eyes. "Oh my God."
"They had to pin me down," Fuyuhiko proudly added. "And I never had to go back to another temple."
"I seriously don't even know how to respond." Hajime smiled up at the ceiling, noting how the dim light etched shadows around all of its beams and planks. It was good to have something to focus on. His gaze wandered downward, and Hajime sleepily amended: it was good to have someone. "Got any other stories?"
Fuyuhiko looked over to him and smiled, then began a calmer tale. "So I had this dog, once…"
Soon, Hajime realized that he'd missed a couple of words. Then, half of them. His breathing steadied and he slowly sank into calm, deep nothing. Memories stayed blessedly quiet as sleep took him, for the trauma that marked Hajime expected him to be alone.
By morning, the clouds were gone.
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tabsters · 11 months
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THE ZODIAC EXPERIMENT (TZE) MASTERPOST
aka: I'm a huge control freak so this is the masterpost for all my zodiac/constellation/space oc lore
will be updated as new posts are made!
banner made by the amazing @akysi/@sweet-star-cookie!! please check out her own zodiac lore at @starglasszodiac, she deserves a lot of love and support!!
Part #1: General background info
Part #2: Worldbuilding
Part #3: Corruption
Part #4: Ophiuchus & Cetus
Part #5: Music Symbolism
Part #6: Relationships (First half)
Part #7: Relationships (Second half)
Part #8: Color schemes
Part #9: Facts about Eclipse's henchmen (and also their wife)
Part #10: The In-Between
Part #11: Bird wives!! (Aquila, Columba, Corvus, Cygnus, Lyra)
Part #12: Planets
Part #13: Designs
Part #14: Magic
Part #15: Centaurus & Crux (idiots in love)
Part #16: Last Words
Part #17: Ages
Part #18: Redesigns
Part #19: The crimes Eclipse has committed
Part #20: Zodiacs' strengths and weaknesses
Part #21: Family Tree (outdated)
Part #22: Character designs
Part #23: Magical creatures: Demons
Part #24: Inanimate Constellations
Questions about TZE:
What does the Abyss look like?
Is the kaiju form physical or astral?
Are Ophiuchus & Cetus siblings or friends?
What does Eclipse look like?
Does Eclipse have a henchmen?
Do the Zodiacs have a council?
Leo is the God of Theater and you said Gemini and Aquarius were theater nerds, so would they perform plays for people?
Why is Eclipse trying to make gods? Is she building an army or does she just want to see what will happen?
Have the zodiacs ever been to the abyss?
Does eclipse have anything to do with the Chinese and other zodiacs too?
What inspired you to make The Zodiac Experiment?
What's the genre of The Zodiac Experiment?
Demons?
Ciara???
Funsies:
Incorrect Quotes #1
Karaoke night with the Zodiacs
Zodiacs A-Z
Q & A!
Q & A PT 2!
Clothing the Zodiacs would wear
Zodiacs & their opinions on DIY jewelry
Zodiac memes (Owl House version)
Zodiac memes (Amphibia version)
Beta designs
The Zodiacs being insane
Crimes done against Sagittarius
Pride flags using Chamaeleon
Zodiacs in a GC
Taurus causes a scandal
Ficlets:
Target Locked (Aries x Sagittarius)
Someone Like Me, crossover fic between Starglass Zodiac & The Zodiac Experiment: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
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bookgeekgrrl · 3 months
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My media this week (10-16 Mar 2024)
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📚 STUFF I READ 📚
🥰 Art Thief, Heart Thief (odetteandodile) - 58K, stucky white collar inspired AU - enjoyed how author took the WC set up (fbi art agent, criminal consultant) and made it theirs & perfect for stucky
💖💖 +195K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖
Midlife Crisis (profoundalpacakitten) - MCU: stucky, 7K - reread, forever fave - the quiet, piercing, understated tenderness in this fic is unmatched
Progredi (justanotherStonyfan) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 37K - the next installment in the fabulous Honey Honey series
Pistachios and Rose Water (goldsaffron) - The Old Guard: kaysanova, 15K - J&N spend 10 years putting down roots, building a home & collecting a found family as Nicky learns to express his love through food
Consensual Catfishing (foresthearts) - Stranger Things: steddie, 32K - modern AU, told via social media - delightful story! adored these characters & their voices and using all different sorts of SM to tell it. brilliant idea, adeptly executed. the art is also pretty great
they're going to send us to prison for jerks (greatunironic) - Stranger Things: steddie, 16K - another really fun modern steddie with a strong social media AU premise
Os Impurum (the_deep_magic) - The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac CunovalMarcus/Esca, 18K - solidly good fic about marcus/esca post canon, esp marcus discovering some new things about himself 😉
📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺
Ghosts (US) - s3, e5
Game Changer - s6, e3
D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "For the Hoard!" (s7, e15)
D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "Treachery at Gramercy" (s7, e16)
D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "Two Sides of the Same Coin (Part 1)" (s7, e17)
D20: The Unsleeping City: Chapter II - "Two Sides of the Same Coin (Part 2)" (s7, e18)
D20: Adventuring Party - s3, e12-16
Um, Actually - s9, e2
D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Cursed Out" (s21, e10)
D20: Adventuring Party - "Cool Ranch Communion" (s16, e10)
D20: Tiny Heist - "Big Little Crimes" (s4, e1)
D20: Tiny Heist - "Chicanery at Shoeby's Casino" (s4, e2)
D20: Tiny Heist - "Scheming and Scoring Fairy Dust" (s4, e3)
Agatha Christie's Marple - "The Secret of Chimneys" (s5, e2) [shout out to @leupagus for this rec; they were not wrong about the acting choices made here 🤩]
🎧 PODCASTS 🎧
Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep001 The Open Door
What Next: TBD - Instagram’s Pedophile Problem
Desert Island Discs - Cillian Murphy, actor
WikiHole - Lenny Kravitz (with Paul F. Tompkins, Drew Tarver, and Heléne Yorke)
This Cultural Life - Andrew Scott
Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our 2024 Oscars Recap
The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Grave of XYZ
Vibe Check - Hey, Sis: featuring Morgan Parker
WikiHole with D'Arcy Carden - Fear of Dolphins (with Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Gordon, and Jonah Ray)
The Allusionist - 190. Craters
WikiHole with D'Arcy Carden - Tetris (with Adam Pally, Jon Gabrus and Blair Socci)
The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Lighthouse Keeper
⭐ Vibe Check - A Special Conversation with Afeef Nessouli
Short Wave - What We Know About Long COVID, From Brain Fog to Fatigue
⭐ Decoder Ring - Why Stylists Rule the Red Carpet
⭐ 99% Invisible #573 - Toyetic
You Are Good - My Best Friend's Wedding w. Sam Sanders
If Books Could Kill - Lean In
The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Law of the Tongue
Imaginary Worlds - The Nine Lives of Red Dwarf
Today, Explained - Lip gloss, gum, and the Pill
Dear Prudence - My Ex Had Sex With My Brother. Help!
What Next: TBD - Is TikTok Cooked This Time?
Short Wave - Are We On The Brink Of A Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough?
Pop Culture Happy Hour - Love Lies Bleeding And What's Making Us Happy
Endless Thread - The Music Man, Part 1
Welcome to Night Vale #244 - A Multiplicity of Kevin
Today, Explained - Hollywood’s still not back
99% Invisible - The Power Broker #03: David Sims
Off Menu - Ep 233: Frankie Boyle (Live in Glasgow)
⭐ Hit Parade - Gotcha Covered Edition
🎶 MUSIC 🎶
The Donnas
Smooth Rockabilly
Respect: '60s Iconic Women
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petrichorpetals · 2 years
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Why does my nephew have like the world's worst taste in music. And by that I mean he listens to music that's objectively bad. I like rappers I really do but he always just listens to like shitty soundcloud mumble rappers that the only time you can make out the lyrics it's either Fuck or the N word. And like he will actively force this upon us by dragging out a speaker at family events and putting his music on full blast without saying a word. I always have to bargain him into letting someone else have the aux cord and even then he always seems so disinterested in literally anything else being played.
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joesalw · 6 months
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music similar to taylor’s for those who can’t separate the art and the artist :
country Taylor —-> Calista Clark (also from big machine records, has a lovely soulful voice)
general songwriting —-> Maisie Peters (under ed sheeran’s label, good songwriter with speak now-esque production) and Olivia Rodrigo (everyone knows her..!)
not that similar but “if you liked ts you may like” : Chappell Roan, Lauren Aquila
enjoy yourselves listening to more ethical pop/country/whatever!!!
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Thanks for the recommendations, I will definitely listen to them
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