⋆°.☾⋆.ೃ࿔*:⋆ @a-chilleus - Tumblr Blog

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new pinned post! i felt like i needed to re-introduce myself, for my own personal reasons (eg a deliberate abandonment of previous attempts to be a particular way online) SO hello this is an intro post. i'll probably keep adding to it/updating it over time.

my name is Esmé, i use he/they pronouns, i'm in my late 20s.

i'm autistic, nonbinary and asexual/aromantic. i am a naturalistic pagan, and i talk about that much more on my sideblog: @rainsandrains

my url is because i was very into classical literature for a while, especially the iliad. it's pronounced "A-kill-EY-us"

offline i'm a phd student, currently writing my thesis on the poetry of John Keats. i sing choral music and write poetry. i have a poem in a real published book, which you can get here! (my first real published work, so i'm excited)

online stuff:

fandom stuff you will see here a lot:

BBC Merlin

the band Ghost

misc other music (Nine Inch Nails, the Longest Johns, the Mountain Goats, a lot of folk and a lot of extreme metal (various black and death metal bands))

old fandoms you might see a bit of: The Magnus Archives, Les Mis

i have a website on neocities, on which you can see a lot of poetry, long form blog posts, lots of naturalistic pagan stuff, and the first attempts of an inexperienced coder (html is hard). over there you will also find my directory of resources for trans people in the uk

i have recently started uploading ukulele covers to youtube again, after not doing so for years.

you can find some of my poetry on my neocities, but i also post some of it here: #my writing

very occasionally (hopefully more often from now on), you'll find my own drawings and paintings here: #my art

personal posts are tagged #esme.txt (be warned, i do delete old stuff - if you think you remember something and now it's not there, it's not your memory, i've just deleted it)

finally, this was my previous pinned, and i want to keep it pinned, so:

Hello :) I'm Ronan, I'm a transmasc/trans guy. Since I realised I was Not Cis, I knew that get… Ronan Sidnell needs your support for Help m

#esme.txt

we're singing the herbert howells gloucester service in rehearsal tonight for evensong - they're so nice!!* and also i'm not gonna like them after we've been rehearsing them lol they're not easy ones (mag, nunc)

*except for the gloria of the nunc, i don't like that bit

#esme.txt #you'd think that given we have fewer rehearsals than usual (bc it's exam term) gareth would pick easier music than usual #and sure he's been picking canticles we know #but then he wants us to learn one of his compositions #and they're ALWAYS hard #(well his psalmchants aren't too tricky but anything he likes enough to put his own name to (rather than an anagram) is hard)

remember-always

How good are you at telling the nameless ghouls apart?

Everybody take my awesome ghoul identification quiz.....

#how the FUCK did i get 50%?????#i think some very lucky guesses #like 'oh well that's a bass guitar so it's either x or y' and getting the coin flip right #i am SO BAD at telling ghouls apart #also some of these photos were evil

miamaimania

“Attending” (1973) by Hreinn Fridfinnsson ◇ Mirror in hand reverses above and below

#art

cruise-in-your-glow-bus

🌇🏳️‍⚧️🧀🐺🪲

Five for the five main papas!!! You can choose who for who, thank you so much!! 😊

omg okay here I go

🌇 Terzo really struggled to learn Polish while he was there. Like, could not make heads or tails of it, struggled. Even tried flash cards and reading books for kids. The only way he could get through anything was by learning everything phonetically and singing it, but he still struggled. One day he got super drunk and watched some dubbed Disney movie and sobbed so hard he woke up being essentially fluent in Polish. To this day he can't watch that movie without sobbing.

🏳️‍⚧️ Secondo went to Pride once and got hit on by two beautiful women and when he took them back to his room they role-played that they were both Sandra Lee from Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee and he was their naughty cocktail shaker. He sucked them both off and they both passed out before he did. Then he went down to the hotel bar and fell asleep in a corner booth.

🧀 Copia pretends to have very strong opinions and tastes around cheese, but if you pay attention there is always a missing Kraft single after he visits the ministry fridge. If questioned he will deny this with his last breath.

🐺 Perpetua ran on all fours as a child before he walked. He skipped crawling altogether and just ran like a dog everywhere for several months until he tripped and face-planted onto concrete. But sometimes to take the edge off he likes to run on all fours up stairs, though only if nobody is watching.

🪲 Primo eats bugs. Like, not even as a bit, he likes the crunch. One sibling jokingly called him Renfield and he set the ghouls on them. Sometimes you can still find a Primo-era ghoul gnawing on that sibling's tibia.

#the band ghost #yeah these all track

cruise-in-your-glow-bus

🧸 for sendin you emojis for hcs

🧸 Primo would never admit this, but he still has his favorite childhood plushie. Whatever animal it was supposed to be back when he was a child in the early 1800s is long squished into a strange brown-green grub-like shape. He keeps it in the back of his sock drawer.

#lmaooo #the band ghost

mainponcho

Ranking the Papal Facial Paints!

this is of course purely subjective but I am right

The Best, the Apex, the Highest of Visual Art:

I have so many feelings about Terzo's design. It is gorgeous. I have referred to him before in a gushing moment as "the art deco masterpiece" and hoo boy is he. Like, legitimately, the marriage of the futurist themes in Meliora with his face design are just *chef kiss*. If you don't believe me, take a look at one of the most famous pieces of art deco art and peep the similarities:

the cheek bone and brow framing shape are just like the goddamn Oscar. Coupled with the nose and eyes for a hint of the original skull design from Papas past and the daring upper lip only lipstick...he's perfect.

Second Place, The World Was Not Ready:

We were robbed. This could have been the eternal Popia look. It was so, so good. This paint job being inspired by the shape of a rat skull has been covered already and ughhh that was such a cool idea. It's in keeping with the skeletal theme but an ambitious change and hearkens back to song lyrics from Cardi's era. We could have had it all, everyone.

Third Place, The Classic:

It looks a bit messy in this shot but it's the first one I could find head on. It...sure is a skull. But Secondo's design is good in the way that a 3 chord song on a guitar is good. Basic in a way that lays the foundations for future greatness. Iconic and a measuring stick that all other designs can be judged by. Also not visible here but in some shots the eye makeup is glittery and that's glorious. This is my middle point on the list despite it being third place out of seven because the next two entries tie and one loses points for...

Fourth Place for Only Being a Glimpse of the Face:

It's...mostly black. And the mask is doing the heavy lifting for the skull motif. It's a very cool look, but this is a paint design contest so he loses points for it not being paint - he'd be above Secondo if I wasn't docking those points. But...these lips. The perfect cupid's bow with the little pointy bits coming off of it. I continue to lose my shit about how wonderful that design for lipstick shape is and if I ever decided to wear makeup again I'd be spending hours in the mirror trying to make those little points happen and probably failing. Though bonus points for the base note being more silver than white. That's neat. It lends an uncanny look under the stage lights at certain angles which really compliments Perpetua's whole Creature thing

Fourth Place For Wasted Potential:

Popia is my second favorite Papa look overall - why then is his paint so low? Because we had number two on the list to compare it to. And number two was glorious. It was inspired and a winking reference and unique. This...without the nose dots, the bold cheek design connecting to the lips just makes it look clownish. Which, okay, creepy clown is a whole aesthetic, but that's not the Ghost aesthetic. It really neutered the design taking away the more ratlike elements. Tragedy.

Fifth Place For...Eh?:

Secondo did it better. I'm sorry, he did. However I will give that the version we see in the Dance Macabre video is the crowning moment of this look

You really feel in the context of the video's storytelling the Significance of him wearing this paint for the first time.

And Lastly:

I'm so sorry Peepaw but you look like a ham steak was dolled up in corpse paint and then run over by a truck. The blurry edges are not doing it any favors. The jagged lines have the potential to be good with better execution but...this just isn't giving. Sorry old man please don't kill me.

sleepy-ghuleh

How would you rank Terzo's first look, even though it only existed very briefly?

mainponcho

@sleepy-ghuleh tragic is how I would rank it. It's just Secondo's paint, so for pure Design it would go there but the uncanny valley of it being on the wrong face just knocks it way down the list. Above Primo at least but like... Terzo's rounder, shorter face shape and pursed lips cause this paint to somehow constantly give Resting Grumpy Toddler Face? Like the poor baby has been out for Halloween too long and needs to go home for his nap. It especially loses points in contrast to Terzo's other look being the Best one

lucifixion-pose

I once saw someone saw Terzo's original paint made him look like he eats barbed wire and that's eternally how I think about it now.

Anyway I'm in my feelings tonight so here's some Terzo's Paint Being Beautiful.

Notice how clean and sharp the lines are. How the angles of the cheekbones look so distinct from the sides, but soften and round out head-on. How the negative space accentuates the stylized skull shape. How the paint doesn't reach his hairline and (in the later, finalized versions) stops above his natural jawline.

I've said this before in my Terzo Style/Aesthetic Analysis posts but: He doesn't want to get paint in his hair or on his suit. The look is as practiced and precise and sleek as he is. He truly looks like he has a painted face, rather than a painted mask.

Peak design.

#absolutely agree with everything said about terzo #the rest also very good points #except that for me personally copia's normal paint goes above the rat paint #not even sure why?#I like his normal paint because it makes him look like he's smiling more...#I think terzo then secondo then popia then rat popia #something like that #the band ghost

sunflowersosa

Nigerian Pride 🏳️‍🌈🇳🇬

I meant to have this out yesterday. Happy belated pride. :)

#art

soleilinfini

mary oliver, staying alive

#words

oh my GOD @mainponcho this is proof i really should go to bed (it's 12:30am in the uk) but

the emeritus family as the von trapps

#it's been a long long time since i watched the sound of music #i'm not sure who would be maria in this scenario #the band ghost #esme.txt

mainponcho

would love to hear your thoughts on what instruments the papas (any you have thoughts on, or all) either would play if they weren't expected to be lead singers or do play in their free time...

Hell yeah, and thank you for the ask! I saw the notification for this in the checkout of the walmart and started brainstorming to cope with being surrounded by humans (personal note - the powerful subversive feeling of playing Year Zero, Majesty, etc. on your noise cancelling headphones in a walmart is sublime).

Nihil: is already canonically a saxophone player! Good for him. It's likely that he also knows something else with similar operation, like the clarinet. He also strikes me as having been a guitar hippie.

Primo: Is a multi-instrumentalist in my mind. I think he's got the keyboards mastered - starting with church organ and harpsichord and going up through piano and keytar if he were so inclined. Honestly? Take it as read that they all know some very basic guitar, though skill levels will vary. I also think Primo knows his way around a drum set. The keys are when he's in a meditative mood, the drums are when he wants to get his rage out, but rhythmically.

Secondo: aside from the "I think they all know a bit of guitar" I assigned him, I think Secondo is the least interested in playing an additional instrument. If we were forming an all Papas band, he'd be playing rhythm guitar, laying down solid chords and driving beats, or he'd be the tambourine or cowbell guy. I think he'd have a lot of fun with that

Terzo: strikes me as a classical pianist his finger technique is unmatched I think he's also a bit more advanced on the guitar than his siblings and in a band layout would be playing lead guitar - he can do arpeggios and complex melodies in his sleep. And of course, we must all acknowledge his mastery over the Kazoo of Destiny. But beyond this - I absolutely believe this man can play the shit out of a theremin.

Cardi: along with a middling foundation in guitar, Cardi plays the bass - he has extolled its virtue as an ass wobbling instrument on stage enough. However. I don't think he would choose to play bass in a band. Because if your name isn't Sting, Lemmy, Gene Simmons or Paul McCartney, bass players do not get the limelight and attention. And Cardi lives for that shit. His delicate ego would not allow him to be relegated to the bass (or gasp! the drums - all the way in back where no one can see him!!!). If he can't be lead singer he's rage quitting and starting his own band. So he keeps a bass in his room to fiddle with in the amateurish way I fiddle with my guitar and contents himself with that

Perpetua: look I am half tempted to say he's a brass player because he's the only one who can get the proper lip action going but that's leaning too hard on the fourth wall. I am of two minds on this. Either he's super basic and just knows a little guitar or grade school piano or recorder...or he's like. a secret master of the accordion and is going to rise from his crypt to challenge Weird Al himself.

a-chilleus

I love all of these, and I don't have anything to add

...

Except that you have now got the idea of an Emeritus Family Band in my head. Like the Marsh Family Band (are they at all known outside the UK?) mixed with one of those families in the folk scene where everyone is involved somehow (I forget the name but there's a famous one where they're all still singing traditional songs) - like the Emeritus Family Band is the Marsh family if they weren't doing comedy. Also it's the 90s.

#the band ghost