Time To Share Another Song not on the Album - “The whole being thing part 3”!

This Is One That I Actually Always Forget Isn’t On The Album, and I find That Very Surprising

Letter

I hesitated to write this post, i did say in another post that i decided to post it later (wow that’s a lot of “post” in the same sentence lol) so i can say that this has been sitting in my drafts since hours ago but i guess i’ll just post it anyways. As you can guess it’s about “Letter” 

So as you may know, Jimin brought us a surprise which is a hidden track called “Letter” with JK doing background vocals (The Jikook subunit we never knew we’d get, well close enough i still see it as a subunit i don’t care sue me), thing is, i’ve seen some “theories” going around it about how “It’s a letter to us 🥺” or “It’s a Jikook song” and well.. I don’t agree with either one of those, why? i’ll tell you

Yes despite being a Jikooker i’m not a crazy cultist to come up with theories where i just stop seeing Jimin and JK as two individuals, we don’t do that in this house. So reason why i disagree is because this album is supposed to about Jimin all about himself, about facing himself, about growing out of a toxic past, leaving it behind and taking new fresh steps full of acceptance of who he truly is, he said it himself he didn’t want to have any collab because it wouldn’t make sense for someone else to sing about what HE feels.

Now “Letter” is supposed to come after “Like Crazy” English Version, well not really after it but it’s part of it, and i know that not everyone is smart enough to understand the message, many ignored the purpose of the album completely and the clear messages written ON THE ALBUM to interpret it but let me just rewrite it (i know damn well the homophobes will turn a blind eye to this) On Jimin’s album this is what’s written

Key sentence : The reflection of myself in an unfamiliar appearance. Despite people freaking out about “OMG i thought they were going to kiss” “It’s a break up song and the girl is supposed to be his gf/ex-gf” 

(Okay i know i’m now talking about Like Crazy while the initial post said i was going to talk about Letter but trust the process)

While Jimin did say that Like Crazy was based on the movie, it also wasn’t LITERALLY based on it, there’s this general idea, a story each can relate to it their own way and that’s what Jimin did, In an interview this was his reply

Key word : Ambiguous. 

Jimin isn’t making an OST for the movie so why would anyone think he’s taking the literal story for his song? Going back to what he said about his reflection and the girl that made people go crazy without doing the minimum effort to understand, she basically represents Jimin himself, they walk towards each other but never collide because they are reflections

And to give you more insight about this, this is basically coming from “The Four Carl Jung Archetypes”. Carl Jung identified four main archetypes: the persona, the shadow, the anima or animus and the self. These are a result of collective, shared ancestral memories that may persist in art, literature and religion but aren’t obvious to the eye. These recurring themes help us understand the Jungian archetypes.These Jungian archetypes represent a journey from an unconscious state to individuation: a merging of the conscious and the unconscious.

What people also failed to notice is the very clear queer-code in the MV, from the colors, little details, clothings, etc.. As someone said on Twitter “This feels exactly like how my gay ass feels when i’m in a bar surrounded by straight people”. The outfit : 

Which has Robet Michael Mapplethorpe in it

Now this one is my very own interpretation so take it with a grain of salt but this 

Personally to me, him sitting between a woman and a man kissing says a lot to me. It’s the fact that he’s in the middle.. I’m not going to further explain those who get it get it, those who don’t don’t.  But that’s my own personal interpretation i’m just slipping it in here.

Now that this is out of the way let’s go back to “Letter” this whole talk about “Like Crazy” is mainly because to me Letter is related to it since very obviously both tracks are one technically speaking. So while people think it’s a letter to Army but i’m over here like “If it’s a letter to Army, why is it hidden? Why would they make it so that it’s only accessible to people who have the physical album? I thought the purpose of an Army dedicated song was for it to be OFFICIALLY out for all Army to listen to” because yes despite that being uploaded online by other Army but if we all decided to be petty and selfish af, this won’t see the light of the day on the internet and that defies the whole purpose of a song for Army.

As i said above this album is about himself, he’s talking about his own struggles so saying that this is an Army song as if Army are a struggle too is a bit.. And that also on his very first solo album where he’s supposed to focus on sharing a message about himself. When Hobi decided to dedicate a song to Army he didn’t put it in JITB it was a separate single, Joon didn’t have no Army dedicated song in Indigo either because again their solo Albums are about themselves, it’s a journey to share with us their individuality and their own colors. Jin didn’t have much of a choice he had to leave for MS there wasn’t enough time for an album or maybe he himself didn’t really feel the need to make an album and his main focus was to make a song for Army which he did and gifted us Astronaut. (GOD I MISS JIN)

The lyrics too, i as Army and as Jimin’s FAN, it didn’t feel directed to me. “Now I'll be the one to hold you, When you want to cry, So you won't trip and fall” or even “Because we don't know what days await us, Though it's scary, though we're afraid, Never forget that we're together” those feel like something related to himself as well, let’s also not forget that technically speaking it’s related to “Like Crazy” too which i explained above, why would anything Army related be scary? Why would we be afraid? What is there to be afraid of? Also how will Jimin hold us when we want to cry? 

I also said that i disagree on the fact that it’s a “Jikook song” i don’t know how to explain precisely but some people seem to interpret it as THEIR song whereas even if Jimin is actually singing about his relationship with JK it’s still about his OWN feelings, his OWN promises, his OWN confession, despite JK doing the background vocals in which they harmonized so very beautifully kudos to them, i still think it’s all about Jimin, yes there might’ve been a reason why he chose JK himself for that or maybe they chose that together because really it could’ve been anyone and JK could’ve done the background vocal to any other song in the album yet it was on this one. He really did a lot of effort to open up to us so i really hope people see it as his pov on everything. 

I made a post relating the song to There for You from GCFT and yes quite honestly to me it feels like a response to “I’ll be there for you but you gotta be there for me too” and yet again it still goes back to the same thing, it is Jimin’s OWN reply. I also noticed how Army songs didn’t have other members in them (well i mean Army songs in this solo era) so again why would this be an Army song if JK was in it? I don’t even know if all of this makes a lot of sense, can’t say i’m the best with words but i tried to convey how i see it. 

Oh and let us be reminded that this was his reaction to knowing we found out about and and so cheesily saying that he won't tell us about it for now lol

Boy what are you all giggly and shy for?

🧐

(Tagging this under Jikook because i don’t trust the rest of the fandom that much)

hi all.

i’m hoping to get back to updating soon. it’s something i dearly miss and cannot wait to get back to when i have time. ive been putting a lot of my focus lately into not only my last semester of grad school but also into action for palestine. it’s more important to me to invest the little free time i have into doing what i can to push the fight for a liberated palestine. i refuse to sit here and act like everything is okay when millions of people are suffering a genocide.

hybe is complicit in this ethnic cleansing as well whether you want to accept it or not. they’ve allowed scooter braun to have the power and influence to spread zionist propaganda. scooter braun has always shown himself to be a despicable excuse for a human being, and if him being a zionist on top of all of that isn’t enough for you to consider his termination a crucial goal to work toward.. you do not truly care about palestine.

palestine cannot be free if we allow zionism to become normalized. it’s our duty to call it out and shame zionists out of our spaces! they are not and should not be welcome ANYWHERE. which is why i’m one of many moas who have made the decision to BOYCOTT HYBE. i refuse to put money in the pockets of these greedy, capitalist pigs who don’t care about anything but squeezing every penny they can out of fans. it’s not about the music anymore for bighit. all they care about is how much they can get away with because they know we’re willing to spend anything if it means getting content and merch. i don’t want to hurt txt’s comeback, but in my opinion, a comeback isn’t more important than a fucking genocide. plain and simple. i refuse to give hybe any more of my money through streams, album sales, tickets, or merch until they get rid of fuckass scooter braun.

if you don’t want to boycott, that’s fine. that’s your choice and i don’t blame you for not wanting to. as long as you’re doing what you can to help palestine in other ways, i see no shame. but i still do encourage you to consider boycotting as well. if not, but you’re able to buy multiple albums and concert tickets? i think you can also donate to palestinian aid and families as well. i just ask you not say you care about palestine yet do nothing to help their resistance.

that being said: i hope you don’t shame fans who do choose to partake in this boycott, because you need to understand this isn’t an attack on txt or any other hybe group. i’ve seen so many people attack boycotters and accuse us of wanting our idols to fail. it makes my blood boil because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. you must be truly out of touch and thick headed to think this is a personal attack on them. there are more important things than a comeback. especially when one of the songs (the killa) on txt’s new album was produced BY AN “ISRAELI”!! this is what we’re talking about when we say scooter braun is playing a huge role in welcoming zionism to hybe. people are losing their homes, their land, their families, their LIVES.. this is about removing the facilitators of genocide from positions of power in every industry they leech on. and if you somehow can’t seem to understand that, you’re a zionist too. chart positions, views, album sales, whatever are not more important than the liberation of indigenous people. choosing to believe otherwise is cruel and evil, and choosing to argue with us over this makes you no ally to palestine. it makes you complicit to the normalization of zionism which is the primary force in the oppression and dehumanization of palestinian people.

i encourage you to download the songs elsewhere (so many google drive links and free streaming apps exist (for example: musi)). don’t stream the killa. refuse the normalization of zionism. make zionists UNCOMFORTABLE! they don’t deserve to experience peace when palestinians are living in constant fear because of the barbaric attacks by that illegitimate state trying to forcibly steal palestinian land.

below i’ve attached graphics from twitter made by palestinian fans and allies who are leading the boycott against hybe. if you would like more information i will link other important twitter accounts you can check out for more. you don’t have to follow the whole list but they ask we at least adhere up to priority 3!

i’m open to providing any other information you need. thank you for reading.

- yuri

important accounts/threads:

hybe boycott priority list thread

ARMY4PALESTINE

Music Lovers for Liberation

Zionists in Music

HYBE Boycott Update

Care for Gaza

Something that really irks me about livestream culture is that everyone is sitting here criticizing concert attendee behavior from behind their screen while actively encouraging people to livestream the show which imo is extremely annoying concert behavior both for the people around them in the audience and the artist (regardless of who’s playing)

I get that it’s expensive and hard to get to shows now but the biggest proponents of this behavior are people who talk about seeing them on every tour so… idk maybe I’m just, like, old… but I’m truly not a fan :/

Yes, I 100% agree, it is so rude.

I feel like it’s now seen as rude to sing/scream/dance at all (within reason). Yet I feel like I see people on bandom absolutely crapping themselves in rage over “concert etiquette” that doesn’t affect anyone at all like people sitting down between sets or “looking bored” during the opener. 

And I DON’T understand the livestream things. Like yes. I support people taking a handful of videos during the show and posting about the show is normal. And of course everybody is going to talk about the show every night. 

But I DON’T understand how I have been seeing these bands live for literally 10 years, everyone has had smartphones all 10 years, and suddenly only now livestreams are a ginormous deal. I don’t understand how seemingly everyone has time to watch a 2.5 hour shitty phone video of a concert 5 nights a week and the site becomes actually unusable whenever there’s a MCR or FOB concert, which is every night. I don’t understand why people get so worked up and upset if they have to miss a stream because of work or because there isn’t a streamer. Who fucking cares. People will post videos after the show if something cool happens. I don’t understand why this is the world now. I think it has to be because so many people can’t go due to the insane prices. 

I also think artists (including FOB) are actively encouraging streaming culture and these insanely high “demand prices” by constantly needing people to be scared of missing out so they’re always trying to do new things every show and like. Some of it is cool but with FOB lately I feel like they’re running out of ideas and people are paying way more for an actively worse than “normal” FOB concert because they’re scared of missing out on these gimmicks. Like I don’t need 20 people nobody cares about performing their solo music onstage at a FOB show plus also 20 covers by Fall Out boy. Just fucking have FOB play FOB songs. Also I feel like the “demand pricing” is part of why MCR continue to taunt an album for 5 years because everyone paying 5 trillion dollars for a MCR show is banking that they will be the first to hear a new song or whatever. 

I also think most people in bandom (not anyone specific) are all lying about how much they paid for concerts because concerts are so expensive it’s completely socially unacceptable to admit you can afford it, and in order to be popular on Tumblr you have to cosplay being as oppressed as possible. Like I’m not going to judge someone for saving up for something nice or making a dumb financial choice but it’s deeper and more cultural than that. I feel like so much of bandom is suburban white american teens making and reblogging posts about how FAKE PUNKS on TIKTOK wear $20 lipstick, unlike REAL PUNKS WHO are POOR LIKE THEM, and they could NEVER AFFORD $20 DESIGNER LIPSTICK and we need to EAT THE RICH, then they see MCR or FOB barricade ten times in a row or whatever. 

Like one pit ticket to Fall Out Boy costs almost my monthly rent. I have now paid this much for FOB tickets 3 times. I always have to buy a friend’s ticket because nobody has this kind of money to go to a concert so I pay like $1300 every fucking time. I also have a credit card (which, by the way, requires “excellent” credit to have) that allegedly gets me these tickets at a discount. Yet every single person online says they got lucky and got front row tickets for $40 or whatever. What is going on. 

Like I am able to afford to see FOB when they tour because I grew up privileged, have a well-paying office job, have never traveled in my adult life, and do not own a car, partially to afford concerts. I’m also in the top .001% of Fall Out Boy listeners and top 1% of Spotify listeners overall, so like, of course I will pay this because I’m not the average fan. But not every single fucking person at these shows is also in the top .001%, so they just like. Can afford this crap for random bands they like. 

Anyway, I don’t really think I get “unlucky” when buying FOB tickets, I think this is just what concerts cost now and everyone is lying about it so they can continue fitting in with like all the social justice posturing and because it’s rude to admit in public but people need to talk about it because it’s crazy and it’s not okay for Livenation to be doing this and its not okay for artists to be participating!!!!!!!! 

I also feel so bad for teenagers because when I was a kid going to concerts at all ever was a huge battle with my parents and they cost like $40-100 a ticket for like. Pit tickets to bands like All Time Low and Green Day. I never, ever would’ve been able to experience a concert as a teen if they cost back then what concerts do now, and it’s just really sad because those are important experiences. 

Anyway I think the fact that people can’t afford to go to concerts anymore HAS to be driving the weird livestream obsession and the emotional dependency people develop on these shitty obnoxious 2 hour phone videos. I also feel like the financial shift in who is going to concerts is driving a lot of the weird meltdowns about “concert etiquette.” 

Also as a final tangent, I feel like the livestream stuff is so immediate and impermanent too. Like everyone needs everything right that second and once its over it doesn’t matter? When I was younger it felt like people just blogged about the Tour and Tour Stuff as one big event for months/years, but now if videos are posted hours or days later its like they aren’t relevant and no one cares because everyone is panicking over finding a streamer for the next show. IDK i hate it

I’m aware that this is going to be a horrendously unpopular opinion—which is why I’m doing it on a dead side blog rather than my main

I honestly don’t understand people who listen to artists whose whole shtick is “I’m an awful person and everyone I know leaves me because I use and abuse them”, and then are shocked when the artist turns out to be an awful abusive person. Like, what were you expecting?

I keep seeing all these people saying “well, how was I supposed to know he was bad? How was I supposed to be able to tell?” And then they’re all like “ohhh woe is me, I can’t believe I loved these albums! I’m going to have to get rid of all this stuff I got and completely rearrange my whole life!” Like??? If you liked the songs so much that your whole room is plastered with posters and merch… surely you listened to the lyrics??? At no point was he ever trying to hide the fact he’s like this, it’s all over his songs.

One thing that also gets me, it’s that everyone is now like “if you support or like his stuff you’re a terrible person” and like. That’s valid. But YOU liked his stuff where he made no qualms or effort to hide this, before. Does no one have any kind of critical thought? Like, when you hear the lyrics, you just think “oh yeah, this is a totally normal line” and move on? To say that “oh he tricked all of us into listening and liking his stuff and being a rabid fan”, like you weren’t tricked. The only trick he played was being a “hot guy online” that everyone seemingly collectively decided was great because of that.

or is it being faced with the actuality that’s horrifying? by your own logic, you’re also just as complicit. — this isn’t to say that I don’t understand standing in solidarity with victims that have spoken out, and the purging of his work being part of that. I just think it’s a little hypocritical to get on your high-horses and say everyone is a peace of shit if they don’t immediately disavow his stuff, since the signs have been there from the start.

And this also isn’t to say that I didn’t like his music. I did and I do. In fact, I only know of him BECAUSE of his music (I found him when he was still covering pat the bunny and wingnut dishwashers union). I’ve had no illusions of him being a good guy, and still consumed his work— did I know just what kind of piece of shit he was? No. Maybe because I’ve only known him for his music that makes me so critical of most of the reactions. I didn’t have the chance to be pulled in by a “nice guy act” online like so many people seemingly have.

Speaking of his online personas, it does make me wonder how no one apparently thought he was bad before this? Like I’ve read some fics (not enjoying Minecraft doesn’t mean the fics aren’t good) and people generally and routinely portrayed him as this manipulative, erratic, controlling guy — even when writing him as the good guy, they still always included elements of these personality traits in the work. And now, I see artist after artist discontinuing and deleting works (and if this is what makes them feel better, fair play) saying that “they cant continue writing/drawing his character now they know the truth about him” but at the same time they were always so vocal about “I write about the c! not the cc!” Like if you were truly separating the character from the actor, would so many of you be speaking this way? Looking at the rampant amount of Harry Potter fanfics (not even starting on the manacled debacle), then no — the artist and the work are only connected when it’s live action amateurs.

And also, if you’re THIS distraught over some guy YOU DONT KNOW turning out to be terrible, get some help, that’s not normal i don’t think — or it shouldn’t be, the internet and social media has normalized being strangely attached to strangers and celebrities that you otherwise wouldn’t be.

Credit: avanerrr on IG

Okay, disclaimer. I have chronic insomnia and this turns me into a Debbie Downer, but because I don’t sleep I got to watch most of the livestream of AM’s first gig of the US leg of the tour, before we get the glossy professional shots and edited fan highlights, and I have this to say. Alex Turner is done.

This was not the performance of a man who has had a month off to recharge his batteries. It wasn’t even the performance of a man who was nervous about being on stage again like he was during the early part of the tour last summer. This was the performance of a man who is bored and jaded.

I can understand why. The US ticket sales have not been going great, which must sting because all those years ago he compromised so much of his image to capture the American market, leaving him in a trap he still finds himself in today, and they repay him with disinterest.

After the glorious performances in Nimes and Athens when we got a glimpse of playful, slutty Alex, he has gone back into the closet. Doing his best with the rockstar poses and wearing the Husbands suits again. But where it seems once upon a time he was happy to do this, now it seems to piss him off. It could be a Milex reason. It could be an age reason, or a combination of both.

The Milex explanation is that it would seem for years Miles has run away from any sort of commitment to their relationship, making it easy for Alex to slip back into hetero mode and live his double life. But if the lyrics to most of One Man Band are to be believed, their relationship has changed. If they now have a deeper, more committed relationship, it must be difficult for Alex to suddenly switch Mr Hetero back on. No doubt aware ‘The Beard’ is doing her job with endless Instagram posts, from the US, reinforcing her role of dutiful girlfriend, following her man (for those willing to buy this). Maybe our Master of Deception and Subterfuge is getting sick of the dual identity, and – this is where the age explanation comes in – just wants to be himself.

Watching the livestream was both upsetting but weirdly affirming. Upsetting in that Happy Alex is always such a joy to watch, but also affirming my suspicions that he is getting fed up of compromising himself. The Yankee dollar isn’t as appealing as just being himself.

On saying that, I truly hope he just adapts, grits his teeth and gets on with it and at least finds some joy in performing, because six weeks is a long time to be miserable. But I really am now convinced AM will go on a very long hiatus after this tour. The other three guys have all got young families they want to see grow up, and Alex....well who knows....TLSP 3 or a total break from performing for a while to concentrate more on composing (don’t forget he composed most of those beautiful strings on The Car album).

Either way, I don’t want six weeks of Alex ‘forcing a smile’. In the words of Morrissey ‘I just want to see the boy happy’

3 songs from Self-Titled album by Taylor Swift that absolutely apply to Brock and Jack and why:

1. Invisible: “and i just want to show you, she don’t even know you, she’s never gonna love you the way i want to, and you just see right through me but if you only knew me, we could be a beautiful, miracle, unbelievable, instead of just invisible”

I feel like this speaks to when they’re first getting to know each other and Jack is in a relationship with someone else. As they get closer Brock starts to really connect with Jack. As happy as he is that Jack is happy — and how reluctant he is to openly admit his feelings — he can’t help but envy the person that Jack goes home to at night. Then things with Jack’s partner start to go south from all the secrecy of his job and him joining HYDRA. Jack stops coming to work in a good mood and never seems particularly to go home after ops. (“she can’t see the way your eyes light up when you smile,”) Brock then starts to convince himself that Jack would be much better off with him; he understands his job and he misses seeing Jack happy. But he’s not ready to confess his feelings so he quietly pines, feeling guilty that he wanted to relationship to end now that it’s starting to break down into shambles.

2. Tied Together With A Smile: “hold on, baby, you’re losing it, the water’s high, you’re jumping into it, and letting go, but no one knows, that you cry, but you don’t tell anyone, that you might not be the golden one, and you’re tied together with a smile, but you’re coming undone”

This isn’t about their relationship together as much as it’s about how taxing and stressful it is to be a double agent. They have essentially embody two different people with vastly different morals and ideas of ethics. I feel like they would both question themselves during the hard moments, when given a mission that they felt conflicted about. But they can’t expose that they have reservations to S.H.I.E.L.D or HYDRA so they’re both forced to act as though nothing is wrong. It definitely brings Brock and Jack together, something Jack needs with his rocky relationship that seems to take more and more work endlessly and neither him nor his partner are particularly happy. But Jack can confide in Brock and Brock can confide in Jack (about most things) and it helps ease up the pressure. They are both considered “golden ones”, highly skilled with lofty positions in both organizations, and the pressure is never ending for them.

3. I’m Only Me When I’m With You: “when i’m with anybody else, it’s so hard to be myself, and only you can tell”

I can see this song really speaking to Brock and his feelings towards Jack. He’s his SIC and always has his back which allows to relax somewhat on missions and on bases. For the first time he truly trusts his SIC (and he ofc is crushing on him) and he’s also coping with having what he thinks is a one-sided attraction to Jack. But when he’s with Jack he feels like he can relax and open up. It doesn’t have to be work-work-work with him. Brock can vent about his life and share the good things that are happening with him for the first time ever. This strengthens the emotional attraction he feels towards Jack.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is next!

These are just my thoughts, I understand that many others feel differently.

There have been times in the past that I’ve felt frustration or anxiety about Taylor not coming out potentially ever, while continuing to drop “hints”.

(I personally feel like she has unofficially come out and is only not officially coming out because of all of the many many other closeted people she would be betraying if she really told her truth, AND for the purpose of privacy, which is in no way exclusive to closeting, straight entertainers also have PR relationships and keep their personal lives to themselves as is their right to do. But that is only background on how I feel about why Taylor is doing what she is doing, and why I don’t feel in any way entitled to her coming out. This post is just about my personal emotional experience of coming to peaceful terms with being an attentive fan in this situation.)

I have always *loved* following the lyrical and other Easter eggs to Taylor’s truth. While I went through a couple of album cycles of disappointment when the build up didn’t culminate with an official coming out, I have grown to truly be at peace with this little upside down world/wonderland/Narnia that we live in as fans who see a deeper meaning to her work.

I’ve seen some people express that if she isn’t going to come out they would rather her not leave Easter eggs at all. I very wholeheartedly disagree.

On a selfish/personal level, continuing to see the sapphic themes we’ve identified in her songs, the symbols for her truth in her branding and rollouts, reminds me that I’m not making all of this shit up. If she were to suddenly stop, I would personally feel a little ungrounded, like it must have all been coincidences. I would also have far less deeply relatable music from an unbelievably talented lyricist, to listen to.

Sure there are plenty of other sapphic writers/musicians I love, but Taylor is irreplaceable. Her work is unique as a closeted woman, because when you can’t name a feeling you have to describe it, when you can’t tell a story in plain language, you have to tell it in allegory and metaphor, leading to work that is not only relatable, it makes you understand your own experiences and feeling more deeply and in a way that other writing can’t.

On an empathetic level, it baffles me that anyone would ask Taylor to stop putting her real experiences and truth in her art. The same themes we see in folklore and evermore and midnights are present in her debut album. Taylor has always shown her true rainbow colors in her writing, whether she was doing so intentionally or not. Her whole life and happiness is her art, and her art includes not only her lyrics, but her music videos and her era aesthetics, and everything that goes into presenting her songs to her audience.

Her art is her outlet. Taylor has explicitly expressed that her writing holds her truth, it’s the only place she can emote genuinely. Being a visual artist myself, my work is the only place I can channel certain emotions. I can’t imagine censoring myself in that part of my life.

Taylor, by her own admission (in some of her most beautiful lyrics yet) has made many mistakes and unsavory compromises in her navigation of these choppy waters. I am not saying that she is blameless or flawless. She is human. Which is kind of my point.

I want to go on record that I will enjoy following her “hints”, for the rest of my life, if she never come out - or for many years to come if she one day chooses to unearth the roots of closeting in the entertainment industry with a tell all autobiography or docuseries.

I can’t wait to see what her next step is, and I’m honored that she entrusts us with everything that she does. Getting glimpses of her truth, and reading/listening to her endlessly impressive reflections on her experiences. Everyone longs to be seen and recognized by their community. I want her to know that i see her. So many of us see you. And we love you.

Hi Seth!! I finally found the time to write a proper message…

First off, all your recent works have been so good! Your art too, it’s all so well done. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anything sally face and it made me go watch some old playthroughs… brought me back to my childhood.

(Also, not sure how I never noticed your creepypasta work? Reignited a few of my childhood crushes.)

I don’t know why but I always get so giddy when I see song lyrics from the songs I recommended being used, I’m so glad you like them as much as I do.

I’m sorry anons are being rude in your messages, I fear they need to relearn the virtue of patience and that you don’t owe them work. I personally am willing to wait however long you need for one of your works (even if it isn’t in a fandom I’m from) because I know your works are always absolutely amazing and nothing short of a masterpiece. <3

Have you listened to Ariana’s new album and Hozier’s new EP? I loved ‘We can’t be friends’, ‘don’t wanna break up again’, ‘boy is mine’, and ‘I wish I hated you’ from Ari’s album specifically, although every song in that album was so good. ‘Too Sweet’ and ‘Fare Well’ were my favorite from Hozier’s album, the guitar in both is just so good.

My recommendation for this time (if you haven’t heard it already) is Luna Day’s ‘Obsessed’ and ‘Say it Back’. Unrequited love songs will always have a special place in my heart.

I hope you’ve been well! I missed being able to send messages but school has been kicking my ass… Rereading your works has reinspired me to finally go work on my wips tho lmao

Lots of love,

-Music anon! 🎶🎶🎶

Music nonnie! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

I’m so sorry it's taken me a while to respond, I always worry a bit about not replying with the same energy sometimes because every time you send an ask it makes me so excited 🥹 I just wanna sit down and give proper responses!

Hehehe, I’m happy to hear the fics have made you stroll down memory lane~! I scoured around online for Sal Fisher X Male!Reader works for so long, that I decided to just make my own at that point. Truly, a queer icon Sa is 😤 I’ve only ever watched Jacksepticeyes playthrough, although! I am peeking at the dubbed playthrough that I saw floating around 👀 Thank you so much for supporting my writings and my art 🥹

(Whenever I streamed myself playing Sally Face on Discord with my IRL friends, we always made silly voices so hearing real VAs do it instead sounds both fun and humbling, lmaooo)

Also! Yes! I’m a huge Creepypasta fan 😫 I may need to touch up on their new “fan-official” lore now but TBH, I tend to just make up my own little stories for them in my head. 💀Very happy to hear that you’ve returned to the trenches that is the creepypasta fandom ☝️😋

About the anons,,,yeah :/// Unfortunately, some people think just because writers are writing fanfiction, we’re not entitled to some respect and patience. I am so thankful for your kindness and understanding, Music nonnie 🥹 You have no idea how comforting your words are to me 🤍

I only listened to “We Can’t Be Friends” but I hopped on to listen to her entire album and my heart hurt 😭 The upbeat songs were so funky though! But “I Wish I Hated You,” made me wanna sob (instantly added to the Gojo YN playlist ☝️).

Hozier always slaps with his siren songs. Seducing me with his voice and lyricism and ARCK! “Too Sweet,” makes me wanna gnaw off my own arm because of how good it is, god...

I’ve listened to the two songs and you never miss 😭 The lyrics, the instrumentals, the vocals...They both sound so full of yearning but so different! Like, they both love someone but they way its expressed makes them angsty itch in my brain go stupid and crazy 😫 You always give me such a big boost in writing with your songs recommendations, ong.

I hope you’ve been doing well, too! School sucks but I know you’ll get through it, I believe in you! >:3 I’d love to read some of your works once they’re published! We can be mooties! 🥺

All my love to you, Music Nonnie! I’m terribly sorry that I suck at replies but I adore your messages and your music so much 🥹

I joined this account today because I’m sick with no content related to my fucking hyperfixation on my beloved Yukito, so hello! ( And maybe sorry for my bad english ). Thank you for being there for Gaiden fans. I would love to share my headcannons here...

For starters, I would like to say that AYATSUJI IS GOTHIC AND ANARCHIST, because honestly, isn’t growing up being exploited by the government since childhood that your pain will be misinterpreted as just an “arrogant personality.”

And I also love to see him as someone who values ​​art. In addition to having dolls in his basement, there are also paintings that strangely seem to scream through his wounds, a reflection of what is familiarly brutal about this delicate-looking man.

The type of music he listens to ( he rarely listens to music due to sensory overload issues ) has no lyrics OR he oscillates between 3 songs from the album Lullabies to Paralyze by QOTSA ( ‘In My Head’, ‘The Blood Is Love’ and ‘You Got A Killer Scene There, Man...’ ).

His favorite type of literature is Dark Romanticism. I swear, it is no wonder that he collects semi-mythical dolls ( in a sense of to admire and preservation ), when this type of literature reflects the grotesqueness of these creatures and the austurity of human malice.

ANYWAY, I LOVE MY PRECIOUS HUBBY ꒰ ۶ৎ つ ς ꒱

AHHH hello dearie !! welcome to yukito nerd central aka we hyperfixated on a character that the fandom does not know or give a fuck about 😔‼️ but hey we’re getting an English translation of the light novel so I’m SUPER excited (also no worries about bad english you sound just fine honey :] !!)

I need more fanfics and fanart of this man. gaiden community (referring to the same four people) save me gaiden community save me 🙏

first of all I LOVE the idea that this man is anarchist, like I feel he understands why the government is there and why it needs to do what it does but that doesn’t stop him having an abject dislike for the very organization that basically keeps him on death row and only has him alive because he’s useful, idk man you’re right that’s gotta brew contempt fr, also I like thinking about how he’s gotta specifically hate the police force too because he could practically do the work of an entire unit of officers, I don’t doubt that the police who know about him probably slack off because they know he’ll take up the slack 💀 I mean he has to or he’ll die

ALSO ART LIKER YUKITO. TRUTH. there’s no way a man with such adoration for dolls doesn’t appreciate and pay the artists who make them extremely well, I bet sculptors in his area love him because he’s an excellent patron, also he no doubt vents through the dolls and artwork he makes, all that internal anger and suffering has GOT to go somewhere

as for music, I always imagined he’d like stuff made between the 1910s and 1960s, Otis Redding is always a man that comes to mind when I think of music for him, also you have to know he’s listening to that shit on records, bro does not have Spotify ‼️

ALSO YES DARK ROMANTICISM 🙏 if him and Poe start a book club it’s over for everyone, they are reading about horror and the grotesque every day of the week and discussing it in depth 100%, these are antisocial men of course they’re reading about the terribleness of humanity <3

thank you for visiting my inbox hun !! feel free to send asks anytime, he is truly the husband of all time 🫶

here is ms paint yukito I made during lecture as a treat :]

My favorite albums of 2023

This is not a list of the ‘best’ albums of the year. These are just my favorites. However, i need you to understand something: I don’t have the time and/or brain bandwidth to listen to and forge a bond with every single album i’d like to get to in any given year. Thus, my disclaimer is twofold — the following are my favorite records of the year, among the selection of records that i did have time to get to. I’m sure i would’ve loved many others, but i just don’t wanna be someone who’d listen to an album for the first time at the end of the year, decide it’s ‘great’, and rank it shoulder to shoulder with my favorites. It would be disingenuous.

I will now present my ten favorite records of the past year, but there’s another catch: i will only talk about four of them, and they won’t be precisely my top four either. Instead, i’m going to talk about my tenth most liked album, and then my third through to number one. It’ll make sense as the read goes on.

Let’s begin.

IN TIMES NEW ROMAN…

Queens of the Stone Age

I’ll just say this right now: there hasn’t been, to me, a better mainstream rock act than Queens of the Stone Age since at least 2002. They represent what i would say is ‘as good as it gets’ in the genre. Even now, in 2023, when frontman Josh Homme is older and naturally starting to slow down (although tracks like Paper Machete would suggest there's plenty of gas left in the tank,) he still manages to unabashedly follow his own musical compass, that which was forged decades ago by his own design. 

In Times New Roman… is not one of the group’s best albums. In fact, i probably would prefer pretty much any other album in their catalog before this one, but therein lies the thing about this band: it doesn’t have to put out a mindblowing achievement of a record for it to be at least pretty good. Queens’ magic trick here is being consistent; if we were to buffoonishly rank their albums from worst to best, we’d find that the distance that separates the peak from the bottom is not at all Everest tall. That’s a hard trick to pull off.

Another point in favor of this album is its vulnerability. Infamously conceived as catharsis following a rough and tumultuous period in the frontman’s life, it was his interview on Neal Brennan’s The Blocks Podcast that really opened my eyes about this whole thing. In case it wasn’t made clear earlier, i’m a fan of the band, and as such it’s been always obvious to me that the guy’s had a complicated relationship with substances. You’d have to be deaf not to notice that. I’ve watched many interviews over the years, and i’d become accustomed to the certain type of way in which he carried himself. This is why his appearance on Blocks kind of stunned me. Here he was, nonchalantly going into a lot of detail about his drug abuse and how it has affected him and how he clearly sees how it has hurt others and also himself. Now, i don’t know the guy personally, i don’t know how he approaches these sorts of topics with people when the cameras are off, but what i do know is that that’s not the Josh Homme that he himself had constructed for years for the media to consume. The questionable performance seemed to be put to rest. This unceremoniously matured persona was refreshing to listen to: it made me appreciate the record a lot more, because he truly allowed himself to be vulnerable for once (although this feels like the next step in a process that began with 2013’s …Like Clockwork and continued with 2017’s Villains.) I’ll touch upon this a bit later, but that is, at least to me, very brave. The days of the emotionless tough guy are over, but that doesn’t mean that a very healthy dose of anti-establishment aggression has to be left by the wayside.

LIVE AT BUSH HALL

Black Country, New Road

Music isn’t movies. Therefore, it isn’t often that we get to say ‘you need to listen to the album that came before to understand this new one.’ This is the case for Live at Bush Hall.

Now, i would genuinely hate for this to add to the ongoing conversation in which the band’s past keeps taking center stage. I would much rather talk about the present and whatever the current work’s merits are. However, context is needed.

BC,NR quickly rose to indie fame thanks to the painful relatableness of their 2022 sophomore album, Ants from Up There; a beautiful, longing follow-up to their esoteric debut. The song’s lyrics were deeply personal and told what read as fictionalized autobiographical accounts of the band’s frontman’s love life. Shortly after releasing the record, however, he left the band. Paired with these news, the band announced that they’d keep making music without him, but that the old songs would not be played live in the future. This left fans and curious bystanders alike wondering about what they would sound like moving forward, who was going to sing now, how would the new lyrics meld with the pre-established themes of their past work, and so on. I think Live at Bush Hall is in equal parts a beautiful and thoughtful response to all of these propositions, which obviously the band worked towards answering first and foremostly for their own sake.

The fact that the group is a six piece ensemble containing piano, violin and saxophone on top of more conventional guitar music instrumentation notwithstanding, it is my opinion that Live at Bush Hall represents the present of all of rock music. What better way to capture this than with a live album? The idea is multilayered in its ingeniousness, since it wouldn’t be held to the audience’s expectations of what a studio album could bring in this new phase for the group. It’s also a gamble, though, since it’d be nearly fifty minutes of entirely new material played in front of a crowd, and also they’d have to nail the performances for the recording. Luckily, and to the surprise of no one who was already familiar with them, they proved to be excellent musicians who were very much up to the task and the gamble paid off in spades.

The fact that this is a live album also placed constraints on the compositions; these are the now canonized versions of new songs that couldn’t, by design, count on studio trickery or embellishments to stand out. It’s just the musicians, their instruments, and the arrangements. And it sounds amazing.

In a lovingly nodding manner, the opening track sees the band screaming “Look at what we did together / BCNR, friends forever”, in a way that seems to look back, but also look forward. Even more than in their already ambitious Ants From Up There, they take advantage of the instrumentation in very clever ways, adding to the performance and staging aspects of the album. Certain passages feel like they’re out of a play (with songs like The Boy explicitly being divided into chapters,) and it is obvious that this is very much the intended effect once you look at the video recording of the concerts that make up the the album: it was a whole mise-en-scène, purposefully directed, and well rehearsed. The band played three times at Bush Hall, and before each set they handed programmes to the attendees. They then hopped on stage dressed in deliberate costume design following a particular aesthetic. These ‘plays’, and their respective items (except for the setlist), were all different those three times. The movie intercalates takes of all of the three nights, so we get to see the band wearing all of their costumes, all of the sets, and all of the programmes.

This clear love of performance is evident in the songs themselves. Not to spoil the ending, but the album closes with a reprise of the first track (a real exposition-conflict-resolution move on their part,) and pretty much all of its themes are present and brought back, sometimes literally, in many of the songs. Even now distributing singing duties among several of their members, male and female voices alike, drama still emerges; not missing their vocal might after the departure of their lead singer, the band’s lyrics are still painful and their wails still resonant. Some of the performances are so good as to even elicit the sense that what they’re singing about isn’t just some story that somebody’s recounting; they’re happening to you. In performing arts that’s about the highest praise you can give.

PETRODRAGONIC APOCALYPSE; OR, DAWN OF ETERNAL NIGHT: AN ANNIHILATION OF PLANET EARTH AND THE BEGINNING OF MERCILESS DAMNATION

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

King Gizz have many times before come very close to having what could’ve been my favorite album of the year. It’s ok, though; i’m glad they can occupy that Scottie Pippen spot in my heart.

Petrodragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation is the band’s second full-fledged metal album, which is a genre that even before Infest the Rats’ Nest (its spiritual prequel) had popped up here and there amongst their numerous tracklists. Just in case you didn’t know already, the long story short is that KG has made a bajillion records and each of them has a unique concept and/or aesthetic. Sometimes some of those concepts reappear, making some of the records share a narrative and be in conversations with one another. 2019’s Infest the Rats’ Nest was the first time the band indulged completely in what was, inevitably at that point, a sound that needed to be explored comprehensively for the span of a whole record, after several songs in their discography having served as teasers of sorts. It proved to be a success (even being nominated for an ARIA Music Award for best metal album of the year, along with other, actual self-identified metal outfits,) pulling inspiration mainly from the thrash metal side of the spectrum and being always as vocal as they always have been in this particular common thread of theirs: we’re fucking up the planet. That's, like, their whole thing.

Petrodragonic Apocalypse feels like an evolution of Rats’ Nest in basically every regard. Its music is heavier, mathier, proggier, more dense, more environmentally minded, lengthier and, frankly, seemingly more difficult to perform. Being this not their first stab at heavier sounds, they complemented the album with one other area of expertise they possess: self-referencing musical passages.

Although their first record came out in 2012, it wasn’t until 2014 (which in retrospect isn’t that much time after) with I’m in your Mind Fuzz where they started to heavily introduce into their work the concept of melodies or refrains reappearing all throughout a single record. Maybe the first track would start out with a particular riff, which would later develop into a different melody for a couple of bars, which we soon would find would be used as the main riff for the following track, etcetera. This concept was then taken to its maximum exponent in 2016’s Nonagon Infinity, a record in which every track flows seamlessly into the next one (with even the last one looping back to the first one,) making it feel like one huge song. This would later culminate, at least narratively, in 2017’s space opera staging Murder of the Universe (that’s my favorite one!) but that way of making music, or albums specifically, seems to have become a habit of theirs, with fans now uploading countless videos on YouTube cross-referencing melodies from different albums to present as some kind of King Gizzard ‘lore’, regardless of what the main concept of each particular album ends up being. Petrodragonic Apocalypse harvests this skill and runs with it, adding some much needed cohesion to the madness. The drumming is insane, the guitar riffs are insane, the whole thing is insane! Yet, it is focused.

DESIRE, I WANT TO TURN INTO YOU

Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek made realize something very special: pop music is being vulnerable.

Now, we could dig into that statement with a hundred caveats, but that’d just suck the fun out of it. Here’s what i mean.

For many years i’ve thought of mainstream pop as something that didn’t, or couldn’t, contain me. It was very hard for me to relate to mainstream pop, probably because of its often rigid and spotless production and sound identity. Much of it sounded sterile to me, and i guess i sort of tagged that prejudice onto the entirety of the genre. I wanna be clear, though: i still think that about a lot of it — i just don’t think it’s all the same anymore. This type of change of mind would i’m sure seem inevitable to anyone that has simply sat down and listened to any given genre for long enough; pop music is simply an example in this case. It happens just like that; something unlocks inside your brain, and you get it. Heck, it’s happened to me with many other genres already.

I don’t feel any shame in admitting my teen-like stupidity. If you’re a teenager right now you won’t get this, but you have to be fifteen before you’re twenty-five. Any adult could tell you: it’s not that you have to go through adolescence — you have to live through stupidity. I didn’t say it, nor did i really think about it consciously in these terms, but when i was fifteen i took a certain kind of pride in not listening to pop music. I liked rougher, heavier stuff. That was my ‘whole thing.’ I would years later shift into the perspective that much of what i liked then was, actually, just as shallow, disingenuous, and, musically speaking, thought-murderingly conceived as the stuff i disdained and didn’t choose to listen to. However now i find that my favorite 2022 and 2023 albums have both been pop albums.

At some point i stumbled onto Queens of the Stone Age. Here, i found a band that, for lack of a better term, got it. Their "don't care if it hurts, just so long as it's real" attitude towards music, towards art, and by extension towards being a person in general, helped me. It’s not about the genre — it’s about what you make of it, and how you make it, and about it grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you. Years later this same ethos would aid me in making my mother understand that it’s not that she disliked all westerns or musicals, it’s that she didn’t like shitty movies.

The opener to QotSA’s 2002 mainstream rock masterpiece Songs for the Deaf could, potentially (though it hasn’t been scientifically tested, i’m pretty sure,) blow your head right off. Though in it, amidst hellishly screamed vocals, then-bassist Nick Oliveri mellows down his voice just the right amount in order to sing the following sentence:

Metal heavy, soft at the core.

This sentiment, purposefully or not, defines the band. It also crudely puts into words what i crave most about music, and the reason why they’ve been my favorite rock band ever since i listened to them for the first time: aesthetics are nothing if they’re not backed up by true emotion. You can tap into this true emotion by allowing your self to shine through whatever you’re doing, whatever that means to you. Façades are just that: 2D images that say nothing about who’s behind them, and it’s thanks to some real insecurity that you start depending on them, deploying them and taking cover. If you’re a teenager right now you probably won’t get this (or maybe you will and i got real old real fast and grew to misunderstand the youth,) but being yourself is the coolest thing in the universe because it requires of you a certain kind of vulnerability that is, more often than not, really hard to come by. You just have to be brave enough to do it. Motomami shares with Desire, I Want to Turn Into You that same vulnerability. I’m sure that had Sakura not been the closer to that album, it wouldn't have topped my last year’s list.

With Queens of the Stone Age’s refrain serving as my thesis statement, i will now use it to rephrase my opening statement: being yourself is being vulnerable, and being vulnerable is one of the coolest things you can be.

Caroline Polachek knows very well who she is.

During the brilliantly unorthodox set piece premiere performance of her single Dang, Caroline acted out screaming her lungs out at millions of americans watching live on a highly popular late night TV show. This isn’t regular ‘popstar’ stuff — she went and became a popstar at age 34 after already having recorded and released many different albums across many different projects, many of them not being really pop at all. She even dropped an entirely ambient album under the CEP moniker at some point. You might not get it right now, whatever age you are, but that’s fucking cool. I checked out Pang, the predecessor to Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (a sweetly elusive example of a punctuation mark deftly incorporated into an album title) right when it dropped, not really knowing who she was or what her ‘whole thing’ was. I figured she might as well have materialized right out of the pop aether. Well, i was wrong. Caroline has been very carefully crafting her musical presence since 2005, and i am as convinced that Desire represents the peak of her ‘herselfness’ just as i am, now knowing her, that whatever comes after will naturally surpass it in that regard.

Something interesting arises when thinking about her aforementioned premiere of Dang, or for example her NPR Tiny Desk Concert as well: she loves to perform. I can relate to this. There is a clear desire to display her art in striking ways, to set up these intricately rehearsed sequences that etch her everything into your brain with a tingling, instead of just letting the music stand on its own. It very much could, mind you, but by God, does she achieve the full effect. She’s a bespoke, partnerlessly designed whole package.

I could go on about how talented she is, but that’d be stating the obvious since it’s easily noticeable just from listening to any of her stuff. I particularly love how it’s evident in how she uses her voice that she’s not just a singer but also an instrument player (you will get this if you’ve played an instrument for more than a couple of years.) She even does all of the weird vocal stuff from her albums live, with her own vocal cords, instead of using effects or manipulation. That’s also so, so cool. But more than talent, i mainly wanna reflect on how Desire makes me feel. From its album cover (another example of her being on her own lane: the album clearly takes inspiration from early 2000s music, even bringing Dido on board for one of the tracks, yet the cover emphatically does not go with a generic Y2K aesthetic, even at the time of its release, when it seemed to be so in vogue,) it looks like there’s an unquenchable thirst powering her every movement. I interpret this as passion.

The music on the record is great, and i feel it's a step up from Pang. Each song has the right amount of space, and the harmony keeps the listener interested. There is more screaming (yay!) right from the beginning of the first track, Welcome To My Island, and i don’t know how to explain it, but the song itself does kind of sound like an island. I like how, as i alluded to earlier, it seems like the whole of the compositions are informed by her voice being thought of as the main instrument first, and how the songs are constructed around ideas that you could only have come up with after ‘noodling’ on your own vocal chords. The melodies become instantly super gratifying as she picks ear-pulling intervallic relationships to leap to or jump off from, or when she just makes interesting stepwise runs (some passages from the closer, Billions, remind me a bit of Morten Lauridsen’s Dirait-on, though i’m not necessarily inviting anyone to think she must’ve taken inspiration from it.) Her words can go from playful (like in the opener: “Welcome to my island / Hope you like me / You ain’t leaving”) to yearnful (from one of the slower numbers: “Starlight in a tunnel / Kind of familiar / Hopedrunk everasking / How does it feel to know / Your final form?”) But most of all, they are beautiful. Take the chorus of the single Sunset, for example:

No regrets

Cause you’re my sunset

Fiery red

Forever fearless

And in your arms

A warm horizon

Don’t look back

Let’s ride away

The words alone are gorgeous, but when you hear her singing them, it’s… Man, it’s something else. I’m lucky, and grateful, that a record as good and soulful and loving as this one could come along, reach out, and awaken something deep inside of me.

Since I Lost Issues: RIP Topic One Of Metalcore’s Most Ambitious Bands

Georgia-based metalcore band Issues released their debut EP in 2012, Black Diamonds, but their self-titled album came out in 2014. Issues, which is also the band that came out of the split from metalcore band Woe Is Me after vocalists Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn left after their debut album in 2010, I believe, is a band that I struggled to get into for a long time. I felt as though that while their sound was ambitious, they leaned too far into the metalcore tropes of the time, and not enough into the pop and R&B sounds that Carter was really into. That all changed with 2016’s Headspace, where the band went into forays of pop, R&B, funk, nu-metal, and alt-metal, along with metalcore. That record still toyed with the tropes of metalcore, but it was 2019’s Beautiful Oblivion that did it for me. That record took every sound and influence and melded it altogether into a single cohesive record, and they really were on the cusp of becoming the future of the genre.

That was before the band kicked out vocalist Tyler Carter for some heinous accusations, and before I go any further, I don’t want to make this piece sound like I’m upset they broke up, or that I don’t understand why, considering what I just said, and the pandemic coming right afterwards put a halt into a lot of bands’ plans, as they had to retool everything from recording new music to touring. I did want to write this, though, because they put out one more song, at least before they put on a few farewell shows this year to celebrate and commemorate their time as a band.

Issues is a band that took time for me to get heavily into, but when it clicked, it really clicked for me. I love metalcore, although my relationship with the genre has been complicated over the years, and I also really love pop and R&B music, so it’s cool that Issues broke those walls down and combined the two styles, as well as eventually adding funk and alt-metal to the mix. Nowadays, bands are happy to experiment and throw in non-metal influences to their sound, albeit some better than others, but the boundaries are blurred within the genre now. Issues are a reason for that, I think, but you have other bands that paved the way for that, too, such as Bring Me The Horizon shedding most of their metalcore influences to have a pop meets alt-metal meets metalcore sound.

I just listened to Beautiful Oblivion while working on this piece, because I wanted to see if the album’s held up over the last four and a half years since it came out, even with the stain of Tyler Carter and I have to say that it honestly does. I don’t feel as bad for listening to them now, because of two things — they’re breaking up, so the band is disappearing for good, and part of what makes that record (as well as the whole band) work so well isn’t just Carter. Instrumentally, these guys are too notch. It takes a good rhythm section and backing musicians to make a record truly great, not just the vocalist, and while Carter is still a top tier vocalist within the genre (unfortunately), he isn’t the most important part of the band, especially for a band as unique and ambitious as they were. Beautiful Oblivion, and their new song that they just dropped to coincide with their farewell shows, entitled “Since I Lost You,” is a reminder that begs the question “what if?” If Carter never got kicked out, and/or the pandemic didn’t happen, this band probably could have been a lot bigger than they ultimately ended up being. What will their legacy end up being now, though?

Time will tell, as with all things, but I think it’ll be a good one. Carter being fired is a stain in that legacy, but not to the chagrin of the others, and the fact they broke up afterwards is good, as they didn’t try with another vocalist that most likely would have paled in comparison, and as far as breakup records go, Beautiful Oblivion is a great one. It’s a genre-bending masterclass on how to make metalcore with many different influences, and how you can love metal and other genres at the same time, ultimately not putting yourself into a box, whether that’s in terms of being a musician or being a fan. If I wasn’t already into pop and R&B music when this band hit the scene, at least to a small degree, I would have probably wanted to sink my teeth into those genres more, thanks to this band, and I wonder how many other people were influenced by them to do that. Their legacy may be a little complicated at the moment, because of everything that happened about four years ago, but these guys had a good run. RIP to Issues. You’ll be missed.

With Issues’ breakup, there are other bands that carrying the torch for them. Their brand of “R&Bcore” influenced a lot of other bands, even if it’s indirectly, as a lot of metalcore bands are moving into a pop-friendly sound. Bad Omens, Beartooth, Sleep Token, Wage War, Of Mice & Men, Bring Me The Horizon (they’re another band that’s been slowly making more pop-friendly stuff, too), and many others are giving metalcore a new sound. A lot of newer bands are continuing this sound, too, such as Sleep Theory, Archetypes Collide, and Wind Walkers, and while they’re relatively safe and generic, they’re still catchy and fun, just what the genre asks for. Issues will never been forgotten; their place in metalcore and heavier music is secure. The vocalist of the band The Home Team, a pop-punk band that mixes alt-metal and R&B into their sound, is filling in for the band as their vocalist on their farewell shows, and it’s a good fit because Brian Butcher has one of the best voices in the genre and is finally starting to blow up a bit. Issues will always be a band that people remember, and their time was good, but instead of remembering what happened to them and why they broke up, let’s remember what made them so memorable in the first place, because unlike a lot of metalcore bands, Issues was great for every member, not just their vocalist.

This is a weird paradox, but I love being alone, yet I despise my own loneliness- however I spend my life in isolation, is there any way out of this? (If you understand my quandary). I just feel like I can’t connect to anyone! That would probably be because I live in the Irish countryside surrounded by only fields and abandoned churches. The only time I am around an abundance of people is when I take a fourty minute bus ride to Galway city.

I don’t know why I am telling you this but I just wanted to see if anyone could relate.

:)

As someone who is experiencing this exact same paradox, I’m actually not sure how to get out of it. Granted I don’t live in the Irish countryside, and it isn’t very beautiful or safe where I live in America, so I actually don’t get out often.

I only have a small handful of friends, whom I don’t see often, and they don’t know each other, so that’s a bit alienating as well.

One answer is that you could create a community from a distance; like what I do on Tiktok. You could express yourself & whoever sees themselves in you would feel encouraged to interact with you. It does help with feeling connected to like-minded people. The people who’ve reached out to me through my comments or messages are really lovely and truly make me feel seen.

Not that your loneliness is something you need to fix. (Because I haven’t made much effort to fix mine, other than on tiktok, haha.)

I don’t always enjoy explaining myself to people I knew from school or university to satiate their curiosity, so I’m glad there aren’t many people poking at me for updates on where I am in my life. I let go of most of my friendships I had in school because the relationships felt surface-level. “What are you doing?” instead of “how are you doing?”. You know? It was like a competition of who succumbed to individualistic-corporate-adult-life the fastest.

Anyway,

Loneliness creates very poetic, introspective, reflective, artistic, people I think. It can be a good thing. Some of the best writers and artists, whose work I admire the most, were also chronically and somewhat reluctantly lonely people. Maybe you could use your surroundings to write a cool story or album or something. Combine those feelings of solitude and appreciation for nature into a work of art. If you’re into that. :)

Much love,

Tina

“When I was writing the book, I interviewed apsychologist who told me that the worst thing you can give a control freak, which is what Axl appears to be, is give them total control. Because it induces a kind of stasis in them where they literally will never finish anything, because it will never be quite right. And I think that is a huge part of what’s been going on here. If Guns N’ Roses were still Guns N’ Roses — in other words, if it were still five guys that started out equal in the band, this album so would have been released years and years ago, and then they’d have gone on and made another one, and another one. It isn’t Guns N’ Roses; it’s in effect an Axl Rose solo album, Axl and a bunch of hired hands — very talented hired hands, but guys who have been hired to do what he tells them to do. Otherwise he’d still be with the real band, who weren’t so easy to tell what to do.

He’s had it all his own way for years and years. And the result is, listening to it, it’s incredibly overproduced, overreaching, almost self-pitying, a lot of the tracks, but also an album that seems to try to deal with a lot of questions to do with the past, and provide a certain amount of rationale behind why he is who he is, and no one ever really understands, and all this kind of stuff. As a solo album, it’s a really interesting piece of work. But if you need to look at it as a Guns N’ Roses album — and we have to because that’s how they’re selling it — I don’t know. I don’t think people got into Guns N’ Roses so they could listen to an album like this. I think they loved Appetite for Destruction because there was something in it (that) reminded them of Led Zeppelin, reminded them of The Stooges, reminded them of wild, out-there music that kind of broke all the rules.

And I think on Use Your Illusion [it was] the same thing. Even though the whole EltonJohn/Queen influence that Axl has made itself more apparent on the UseYour Illusion albums, it was still Guns N’ Roses. You still had somefantastic guitar playing from Slash, and real cohesive band performances — it sounded like a group still. And I don’t think this does. It’s very hard for me to truly view [Chinese Democracy] as a Guns N’ Roses album when there’s really only one guy from Guns N’ Roses on it.

(…)

Come the nineties, he was very, very freaked out by the whole Nirvana grunge thing. Nirvana and grunge did to Guns N’ Roses what they [GNR] did to the Poisons and the Motley Crues: they made them look silly. And they were in their silliest phase, let’s be fair. The video for “November Rain” just makes me cringe.

(…)

Awful, awful. And that of course was all Axl’s doing. And I think in his heart he knows that, and he took it very bad. He was really into Nine Inch Nails, he was really into Ice-T, and I think he really wanted to show the world that Guns N’ Roses had all that kind ofstuff in their locker — they weren’t just Motley Crue. Which, in manyways, is to be applauded.

But I don’t think the way to do it is to kill the band, throw the baby out with the bathwater, and completely try to build the whole thing from the ground up purely with your own vision. Because if it were down to Axl, there are a lot of Guns N’ Roses songs that would never have made the record. Similarly, if it was purely down to Slash, and you hear this on Velvet Revolver albums, there were songslike “Sweet Child of Mine” that if it hadn’t have been for Axl, would never have made the record. I think those guys — it’s a yin and yang. What made them so interesting was how they worked it out between themas a band. Izzy was very important, Duff with his punk thing, evenSteven with his not-terribly-good-drumming sometimes, was that L.A. kid who summed up their whole Hollywood era. To take that away and say I’m going to make Guns N’ Roses more interesting, more creative, just better, without any of the other guys, is just so wrongheaded. It’s starting out from completely the wrong place.

(…)

I had the only weekly rock show on TV and radio over here, and I was the only person playing “Welcome to the Jungle” on video and playing the album despite all the cuss words. Shortly after, I spent most of my time in LA, ’88, ’89, ’90, I became very close to them. And I witnessed a lot of things that to this day, I’ve never written about, never discussed, because they were private things. They were very personal things, troubled things, and I felt that I was a guy they could trust. They gave me a gold record for GNR Live because of all the help I’d given them.

The whole thing with Axl came from an interview. He called me late at night, demanded I go to his apartment. Vince Neil had been saying some stuff about him and he wanted to set the record straight. There’salways a vendetta going on somewhere with Axl. And I got there at like 1 am, and I left at like 5 am, and we did an extraordinarily long interview all about how he wanted to duke it out with Vince, and he was going to kill that motherfucker, and all the rest of it. A few weeks later, as I’m writing the story, I realize how heavy this looks, so I call him on the phone. I taped that conversation also, and I said to him, “let me read you this, because to me this sounds heavy, and I just want to make sure this is how you still feel, and you still want to do this.” I read it to him, he laughed, and then he said, “I stand by every single word, motherfucker, go ahead and print it.” So I did. And literally within a week or two of the story appearing, as far as he was concerned, I’d made the whole thing up. I was a dirty rotten limey journalist who can’t be trusted, and had lied about what went on, and misquoted him.

(…)

He’s still thinking about this, he’s still warning people off me, record company people — grown men in their 40s who to this day are nervous about speaking to me, because it will harm their relationship with Axl or possible future relationship with Axl. The whole thing is so, so nuts. But on the other hand, it’s a great story, and stories are what I deal in. If there was no story, there would be no fun to be had. So I thank him in many ways, because it is a great story. I just feel for him as a human, I really do. This isn’t like”Ozzy Osborne is crazy,” or “Alice Cooper, he’s crazy.” I don’t think it’s like that. I think the guy genuinely has personal issues, which, on a completely human level, I totally wish him really all the best with and hope that pain goes away for him one day.”

“With that being said, there is just something so infuriating about speaking to an idiot who doesn’t know that they are an idiot.[1] However, one of the few things in life that’s even more aggravating, is speaking to a smart person who thinks that they’re smarter than they really are.[2] These are the people that think intelligence is absolute, instead of the sliding gradient that it is. They equate anything above the average intellect to be something akin to genius, a pinnacle that they sit atop alone and unchallenged by the rest of the world. This is a theory that I’ve stumbled upon by virtue of Guns N Roses being my favorite band of all time. In honor (or chidingly) of frontman Axl Rose, patient zero, I give you Axl Rose Syndrome.

Obviously we all know at least four people in our lives who think that they’re smarter than they really are. More often than not however, this is either a ploy, or a sense of overcompensation for either not being cool enough in high school, or a lack of perceived recognition for being smart in the first place, so they have to remind everyone within shouting distance of just how smart they are. Axl Rose Syndrome is a case where someone sincerely and whole heartedly believes themselves to either be the smartest person in the world, or have the capacity and ability to become the smartest person in the world. What separates those with Axl Rose Syndrome from your typical spiteful and insecurely arrogant prick, is how the afflicted came to the conclusion of their intellect.

Axl Rose was born and raised in Lafayette Indiana, aka Fucksville U.S.A. To say that he grew up amongst the stupidest people in the western hemisphere is no stretch of the imagination. Contrary to popular belief, Axl Rose is not a stupid man; yes he does stupid things like imagine slights and release albums 15 years too late, but he is a smart guy. He’s no intellect, but he does possess an above average IQ. Depending on who you ask the average IQ is between 90-100; Axl’s is a purported 115. But the reason for much of Axl’s megalomania and self-deprecating sense of egotism comes from the fact that he grew up in the middle of nowhere surrounded by idiots at every turn.

Axl Rose Syndrome is the misguided notion that one is the smartest person in all of creation, concluded from their place of upbringing, typically being surrounded by lesser minds. People with the affliction may very well be one of the smarter people in their community, but they then use that small sample size as a general paradigm for the entire universe. They rationalize that since they are the smartest person in their limited environment they must therefore be the smartest person in existence. They extrapolate their misguided observations and then generalize it to apply to the world at large.[3] In short, Axl Rose Syndrome is the belief in one’s own intellectual superiority based on the environment in which they were raised, wherein they were surrounded almost exclusively by stupider people.”

Review: The Witcher: blood origin

Don’t mind me, I’m rambling about a show I watched to practice English; wrote it during insomnias so it might be strange lmao Also, /!\ MAJOR SPOILERS of the books, the games, and both of Netflix shows

Why ‘The Witcher: Blood origin’ is (in my opinion) a missed opportunity 

As a major fan of The Witcher franchise – having nerding myself to the point I’ve read the books 3 times, played the third game for countless hours and the show’s score being my most listened album of the past year – I was rather enthusiastic at the prospect of a spin-off series. Even more when I learned that this would actually be a prequel, for it could be very interesting. 

However, as some of you may know, the show didn’t have as much success as expected – some could even call it a failure. Without calling it a failure, for I am a rather optimistic and easy watcher, I can’t say that this show was a good one. I personally think that the show is more interesting to analyze, and I’d like to list the elements that worked and failed to understand why ‘The Witcher: Blood origin’ had missed its chance. 

Before I start, here’s my opinion on the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher: 

The first season was a rather successful adaptation, in my opinion. The chaotic rhythm and timeline that had confused a lot of viewers matches the first book style (which is a collection of short stories, for those who hadn’t read the books). Henry Cavill’s interpretation of Geralt is amazing, so is Joey Batey as Jaskier. On that note, the liberties taken by the show writers about some of the characters – namely Yennefer’s past – had surprised me, but it wasn’t half bad. As long as it stays consistent through the show, I’m fine with it. The way the first season also gave more space to explore some very interesting side characters such as Calanthe, Tissaia and even the untold story about King Foltest’s daughter in the book material, was truly appreciated. Also, the score was absolutely wonderful and a fine adaptation of the game’s music, somehow. So, I was rather satisfied by the first season and willing to let a few characters misread slip – like Cahir’s really awkward behavior. The second season however, lost me the very moment they decided to rip Eskel’s character apart and throw the original plot to the bin. I have nothing against a little improvisation or slightly changing a character, but season two straight up rewritten entire characters and that went wrong. So, in conclusion I think Netflix’s adaptation has started great, but should definitely stick more to the original content, no matter how much all of the actors are doing a good job and the score’s good, which saves it a little.  

Back to ‘Blood origin’, the main advantage is that the story takes place in a period of time still untouched by all the content – books, games, various tv adaptations: the time before the Conjunction of the Spheres (CS for short in this essay). For the novices, or only show-viewers, the CS is the most important historical and scientific event in the world of ‘The Witcher’; it’s the moment when different spheres, worlds, collided together and mixed planes of existence into the Continent (the world/time plane where ‘The Witcher’ takes place), including different species such as humans and monsters. Before the CS, only elves lived on the Continent, and chaos (equivalent of magic) didn’t exist, as it was a direct consequence of the conjunction; that’s what we know from the source material. So, the decision to explore this specific time before the Continent became what makes The Witcher universe was both bold and promising. 

That being said, let’s list the good sides of ‘The Witcher: blood origin’. 

First, the clan war among elves is a pretty good idea. We always see elves as haughty, bitchy and posh beings, always acting so superior to other races (and not only in The Witcher, but also Lord of the rings for example). So having them depicted as a dominating race isn’t a surprise, however seeing them in a power play among themselves, as clans among the same race, is a refreshing idea. Plus, the show showed that dwarves, Continent’s inhabitants, are also victims of eleves, to increase the injustice, even cruelty of elves, which was a good idea. Plus, the clans hierarchy is a smart – yet tricky – way to refer to the elven organization in the books. In the source material, there’s different kinds of elves, like castes: the Aen Seidhe, inhabitants of the Continent since generations, the wise and scholars Aen Saevherne, magic users, and the Aen Elle who had left the Continent ages ago to move to another world. I get that making it about clan war was so much easier to put in the plot than explaining the different elven castes, I recognize that. Although it also led to the biggest mistake of the show, we’ll look into it later. 

The second brilliant idea was to include the character of Jaskier in the plot. At first when I learned we’d get to see the lovable bard again I was perplexed – how could we see him, if the story took place more than 300 years ago? But then, the choice of making him the listener, then the future writer of the story is downright brilliant. Because in the Witcher 3, Jaskier is indeed the narrator of Geralt’s adventures, and he’s writing his memoirs in the books, snippets of it are even dropped between chapters. Jaskier is a bard, it’s his job to tell stories; mixed up with his newfound mission of smuggling elves to safety in season 2, it was a brilliant decision to put him as the mysterious elf’s listener and receiver of the epic tale. Joey Batey is in my opinion one of the best cast for the Netflix show, his interpretation of Jaskier is flawless, both loyal and original compared to the book version, it’s an absolute gold character; him coming back for this prequel, even for a few minutes, had been an excellent decision. Plus, it gave us another awesome song from him, it’s obviously a good point for me. 

Something that may be controversial, but I really liked the costume designs of this show. They may have been slightly unconventional for some parts, but I globally appreciated what they did especially for female’s costumes. The mix of fantasy and more modern elements such as the empress’ makeup was a rather bold move, and it was quite refreshing. 

A thing I found interesting but quite clumsily put is the plot progression. The whole plot is mostly following a fantasy quest construction; which is logical for this universe. Two characters team up, find other companions through their quest and rally them to the cause before defeating the villain. Classic, practical. But that also makes some episodes way too long. Many side characters are great, like Michelle Yeoh’s character who is an absolute badass. But we spent too much time on side quest-ish episodes, even if there aren't many. 

This is a nice transition to the less fun part of this critic: what didn’t work in ‘The witcher: blood origin’. Admittedly, there are a lot of things, small and bigger details that don't work in this show, but I’ll focus only on two of them – the most importants in my opinion. 

First of all, the (plot-forced) relationship between Eile and Fjall. At the beginning of the show, when the two protagonists make a clan-like pact I thought “nice, their relationship seems more prone to evolve to a strong friendship rather than boring romance, it’s a nice change!”. Needless to say, when the show started to throw them at each other in a romantic way, I wasn’t too happy. Because…there was legit no need? It seemed totally uncalled for, none of them needed each other like that, and frankly, who cares? Fjall had his own kind-of romantic interest (albeit fucked up, toxic and above all that, over) with Merwyn, Eile had her own shit to deal with, and the plot didn’t need any more romantic plot to progress. And more than that, it had felt like a kind of treason to the original material. The Witcher universe is great, among other things, at writing characters in a less conventional, patriarchal way. Many characters are greatly written because I’m deeply convinced that The Witcher has in many aspects a feminist position. For instance, the character of Milva: she spends half of the books alongside Geralt, and none once as she has never been written and/or considered as a potential romantic interest or fuckable side character like she could have been. Her sexuality, although briefly mentioned, is free and assumed, never shamed or criticized. When the subject of abortion is brought to the table, even if she seeks her male companions for their insights, all of them answer that in the end, it’s her body and thus her own decision to make. The Milva example is a good one, but we could also mention many other cases of female characters being written in a very feminist way (Philippa Eilhart being also free in her choices, never shamed for who she loves, Tissaia living for her beliefs, the dryads, even Yennefer and Ciri who doesn’t like being mansplained or being a pawn in someone else’s game), in an early 00’ fantasy novel written by a cishet white man (and for that Mr Sapkowski, your books are truly an amazing piece of fiction). All that to say that a kinda forced romantic relationship appearing out of nowhere between two characters who were more interesting and already complete as friends is disappointing. The deus ex machina ‘it was the power of love that helped them defeat the villain’ was useless in that plot. It could have worked perfectly without, for a strong friendship between Eile and Fjall was more interesting and as legit as romantic feelings. Plus, some side characters offered minor, yet very touching romance material: the buff and bloody warrior Brother Death and the kind magician for instance; his scene where he explains why he’s so in love with her held much more emotion than any romantic moment between the protagonists. Even the story and vengeful devotion of Meldof, the lady dwarf who wants to avenge her dead love was more touching. And both of those examples are enough, the show isn’t centered on romance; side romantic elements like those would have been enough, more subtle, and much more in the spirit of the original material.

Let’s roll on the major problem in my opinion: Eredin and Avallac'h. 

Why Netflix, oh why. Everything could have been fine, the show could have been an acceptable, although a little clumsy adaptation. But you just had to bring up fanservice – which you clearly don’t know how to deal with. 

A little context for those unfamiliar with the books and/or games (and yes Netflix, that includes you too): Avallac’h is an Aen Saevherne (elven scholar and mage, if you remember correctly), which appears in the later books and has a fascination for Ciri. He wants to use the blood of her lineage to produce a new pure blood elf (and basically push her into the king of elves’ bed, but that’s another story). He’s kinda shady, but also an ally to her, probably because of his fascination (maybe crush?) toward her ancestor Lara Dorren. Eredin on the other hand, is an Aen Elle, one of the elves that lives at Tir ná Lia, another world. He’s also the commander of the Wild Hunt, or Dearg Ruadhri (and if you know a little bit of the games, you know he’s up to no good). Basically, his goal is to capture Ciri to use her incredible power that allows her among other things to travel through time and space. He’s an elven elitist, willing to do anything (including killing his king) to keep his power over the Aen Elle world. So by NO MEANS Eredin could be depicted as a submitted soldier; and he doesn't care about the Continent or anything, he despises this world. And Avallac’h being a shy, unambitious mage apprentice makes no sense either. In other words: what the fuck, Netflix? 

They are the two only (three with Jaskier) canon characters in this show, why couldn’t you at least understand the characters? Everything else I said above about any other characters could be ignored because well, they’re new and I’m willing to let that pass. But those two are major characters in The Witcher universe, the show could have a) been without them, the plot wouldn’t have been impacted, and b) pictured correctly. They were clearly used as fanservice, to please hardcore gamers or books fans, but if it isn’t made correctly, it can’t work! Although I understand it might be a way to introduce them for season 3 or 4 (that too Netflix, you’ll have a lot to explain because season 2 finale left me perplexed), but it was just done so badly. Even if the last scene with Eredin, clearly a hint of him becoming the leader of the Wild Hunt is pretty cool, it doesn’t fix it. 

It’s the most important mistake that has been made in this show, in my opinion. Because doing a show on the genesis of this universe, with brand new characters and intrigue, opened a lot of possibilities and most of all, allowed people unfamiliar with the source material to enjoy this universe a little more. A lot of viewers had complained about the show being incomprehensible to novices when the first season launched; ‘blood origin’ could have been a good compromise, but instead it had been a deception for everyone. And I’m not even mentioning incoherences such as chaos (magic) existing before the CS, or first witchers being elves. 

In conclusion, there were a lot of good ideas, but much more big incoherences to the original material or within the show’s plot. It could have been a great, original show but it ended up being a messy mix of new ideas and badly written fanservice. And thanks fuck we got to see Jaskier again or else I would have riot.

The boi saved the day. 

March 3

Annalise Blake arrived at her new home briefly after midnight. She had been in Newcrest, shopping for things for the new house. She had finally decided to move out of the house that Asa had picked out for her while they were married.

Upon approaching her front step, she froze. There was a woman standing at her door.

Annalise took her in her appearance from behind, her eyes landing on the dark yellow high heels. She couldn’t smell anything human about the being before her. Maybe this was the vampire she had seen in the park from afar?

The other vampire must have sensed her presence because she turned around to face her. Annalise had a very human reaction. She gasped.

“I do understand how you’re here, yet I don’t.” Annalise says, still reeling from whose face she is seeing across from her.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. I wish I had contacted you sooner. My husband always said I shouldn’t due to the Vatore’s but lately I’ve been seeing that he’s not a very truthful person.” The woman says, her lips frowning in thought. “I also know I’ve put in you a tough spot. Somehow, you are friends with….him and his sister.”

Annalise nods slowly, she isn’t sure what to do at this point. “They’ve always been good to me. Even after Asa attacked Caleb’s date. He could have blamed me for it too but he saw I had nothing to do with it.”

“I still can’t believe you were married to Asa.” The female across from Annalise thinks out loud.

“I suppose we both are drawn to deceitful men. It must run in the family.” Annalise says, somewhat bitterly. Her mother never had much luck with men, despite having two daughters. Many years apart and with different men. Annalise wasn’t even born when her older half sister had disappeared. She had only seen pictures in the many photo albums their mother kept.

The half sisters stared at each other for a few moments in silence. “Are you going to tell the Vatore’s I exist?” Annalise’s sister asked her. She herself wasn’t being totally upfront with all the details. She hadn’t told Annalise why she truly hates the siblings so much.

Annalise had to think it over. Even though she had become a vampire by choice, unlike her older sister, she still values truth and integrity. “I won’t, as long as you swear to me that you aren’t out to hurt innocent people in all of this.”

“I swear it on my undead life.” The older sister tells her. Granted, she doesn’t view anyone associated with the Vatores as innocent. Outside of Annalise that is. Her plan isn’t to scheme and lie. No, her plan is to reveal the truth. How is that bad?

Annalise places her hand on her sister’s shoulder, close to tears. Which isn’t easy for a vampire to come by most of the time. “I never thought I’d get the chance to meet you.”She whispers happily. Even though she can feel that her sister hates what was done to her, deep down Annalise is grateful that she has her sister now. She’s felt alone, despite having Lurch around, since her and Asa’s married ended.

“I’m here now. I’m not going to let anyone keep us apart.” The older sister vowed to the younger sister. She means it, with everything in her.