#holotones

[tenacious-scripturient]

here’s i got dressed up with you in mind for @holotones’ WIP HOMETOWN! i have quite a few notes for this so i’ll put that under the cut ^w^

anyway, i hope you enjoy, haeji!!

lyrics + notes under the cut!

NOTES BEGIN: if you’ll notice, there are a lot of harmonies. but they’re only during the parts where isaac and castor are ‘singing together’! (which is, well, everything but the first two verses and the bridge.) isaac is the melody, while castor is the harmony! this is putting more emphasis on the former, since he’s the main character haha.

but never mind that! in the chorus, the harmony during one of the lines is different from the melody’s! this shows that castor has different views from castor—he’ll just “keep staring”, even if isaac doesn’t reciprocate his actions.

also! in the outro, the harmony is off / not identical as well. i did this to represent that, even though they sorted everything out by the end of the song, things are still rocky and imbalanced!

anyhow, here are the lyrics:

verse

i don’t want to get to close to you and it’s ‘cause i know that i’ll be too low to push you from me. this isn’t me, this isn’t who i’ve know to be, and i’ll admit that i’m scared.

i don’t want to be afraid of what they think, but i know that i can’t escape this hometown. and it’s not fair to catch a glimpse of what we could have shared, and i’ll admit that i’m lost.

pre-chorus

oh, it feels like the whole damn world’s against us, but i know we’ll be alright.

chorus

won’t you share just one more dance with me tonight, don’t you know i got dressed up with you in mind. this won’t go anywhere, i swear, we’re just friends stop it with that stare, / so i’ll just keep staring, and i told you, i got somebody else,

you know this isn’t right.

i’m sure this isn’t right,

they said this isn’t right.

verse

i don’t recognize myself, what am i doing? i know that i look like hell, but i keep losing. and it’s just him, i don’t know where i would begin, and i’ll admit that i’m... weak.

pre-chorus

oh, it feels like the whole damn world’s against us, but i know we’ll be alright.

chorus

won’t you share just one more dance with me tonight, don’t you know i got dressed up with you in mind. this won’t go anywhere, i swear, we’re just friends stop it with that stare, / so i’ll just keep staring, and i told you, i got somebody else,

you know this isn’t right—

bridge

i’ll take my chances with a girl i barely know. but when i’ve landed, i’ll give up the status quo.

chorus

won’t you share just one more dance with me tonight, don’t you know i got dressed up with you in mind.

won’t you share just one more dance with me tonight, don’t you know i got dressed up with you in mind. this’ll go everywhere, i swear, we’re just friends but maybe something’s there. and i told you, i want somebody else,

and i think that’s alright.

and i’m sure that’s alright, 

and i say that’s alright.

outro

oh, it feels like the whole damn world’s against us, but i know we’ll be alright.

[sondials]

haeji for the name ask game!! your descriptions are so aesthetically pleasing hdslfsf

warm and soft fur (pets, coats, blankets, etc), found family, distant look in eyes but always brushes it off with a smile if questioned, ready to defend someone at any time any where, wading in the waves

[aritany]

i’m drawing your ocs 3/5! 

meet Sal by @holotones​! find more info about her WIP Deadshot here!

[officialjimmybuffett]

dead men pay their debts; @holotones

jesse jordan has never  been a good man.

come celebrate w me!

[brynwrites]

uh hi i'm a new writeblr on here and i just want some advice? so i can never find the motivation to finish any wips. i'll get a few thousand words down and then just move onto the next shiny idea. there's one wip that i haven't worked on in literally a year but i refuse to let go of it because i've done so much planning. also, secondly, how the hell do i think of good titles lmao

Staying Motivated.

You’re not alone in this; I’ve answered asks by people in the same situation many times before: | x | x | x | x |

A few things I want to capitalizing on:

There’s no shame in having projects you don’t finish. If you put a lot of work into one particular wip, and then you completely lose interest in it, sometimes the best thing to do is just admit that your desires have changed and let that wip go.

BUT if you do want to finish a particular wip, the honest truth is this: there’s no such thing as unending inspiration or motivation. To finish something as long and hard as a full novel, you’ll often have to work on it even when you’re not in the mood. (And you’ll find that the more you force yourself to do this, the more often you will be in the mood!)

As for titles, I haven’t a clue. I can rarely come up with a good title until I’m on the third or fourth draft, and there’s no reason to worry about titles until that point anyways. Name it something ridiculous and get to work; the title will come once you’ve finished the story.

[bookenders]

first off, congratulations on 800 followers!!! second, can i have a little thing based on my username? thanks!!

[Help me celebrate 800!]

Thank you so much! 💜

You betcha! I based this one off the first thing that pops into my head when I see your username. 

It’s also a pun. @holotones, like hollow-tones, hollow pictures you can’t touch that are made of air? A bit of a stretch, but a good one, I think.

[CW: anxiety, panic attack symptoms, cigarette smoking] But it’s sweet as heck, I promise!

It was another starry night, but he had no cares for the sky. Windows shut and shuddered, lights dimmed just dark enough to glimpse the low round shine of the keys, he held his glory in his hands. An odd instrument, the holophonor. Not quite a flute, not quite an oboe, and not nearly a clarinet. Not quite an instrument at all, really. More of a paintbrush, or a bucket for the well of the imagination. 

Five years of practice and he was almost ready for his first recital. It was private, of course. Only close family would be in attendance, as well as his husband. Who had been out of town on business for three months.

No pressure.

He checked that the door was securely closed and stuffed a towel underneath it to muffle any wayward squawks that were sure to barge into the guest room down the hall and wake his sister. If only he could do the same to his brain. Then, finally, with a deep breath and quick mental pep talk, he sat on the edge of his bed and held the holophonor to his lips. 

It was… not good. Not terrible, by any means, but if his goal was to sound acceptably decent, he’d only nearly achieved it. The colors were all nearly gray and the figures’ outlines were child-drawn and wavy-lined, clumsily stuttering their legs back and forth in front of each other. They were supposed to be dancing, like he and James had been on their first date. 

Unfortunately, his hands didn’t seem to understand what dancing was. Either that, or he needed another year of practice when, in fact, he only had three more days to prepare. He dropped the instrument on the bed with a huff and a hammering heart.

This was going to be a complete disaster. Just like him.

Oh, God._____

After spending those final three days tearing at his hair, practicing for ten minutes at a time before giving up and making a sandwich, and sitting at the cracked-open window with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth - even though he said he’d quit a month ago, but he was stressed, okay? - his tutor proclaimed him ready. Being that his tutor was his sister, he didn’t take her judgment entirely seriously. 

It can feel your feelings, Len, she’d told him again and again, stop freaking out.Which, of course, he took to mean stop being yourself, you big mess and summarily brushed her off. It didn’t stop her from continuing to tell him to relax, but it made him feel better, nonetheless.

And now he was sitting alone in their living room on a chair that had no lumbar support watching his mother, his sister, her husband, their daughter, and his own husband watch him. 

His fingers started to get a bit tingly, the way that they tended to do when he was in crowded store aisles and movie theaters. The room felt a little far away, too, the kind of far away that didn’t make sense to his eyes. The discomfort must have shown on his face, because James had his concerned face on. Of all James’ faces, his concerned face was number three on his list of all-time favorites, the first being his “honey, I’m home” face, which he’d enjoyed earlier that afternoon, and the second being, well, the one he never mentioned in polite company, which he had also enjoyed that afternoon before his sister returned from lunch with their mother. 

He hadn’t even noticed he’d dropped the holophonor until James was seated next to him on the arm of the couch, instrument clutched in his hand while the other rubbed circles on his back. All at once, the room snapped back into focus. He could feel his fingers as they squeezed the neck of the instrument, pressing in half the keys in a soundless shriek.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he mumbled into Len’s ear. 

That was his line. Every time he got like this, James said the same thing. It’s like he knew his words would trigger the spite-motivator in Len’s brain and kick his whole body into gear. Of course he didn’t have to. Len harrumphed and pulled the holophonor from James’ hand.  

“Yes, I do,” he said, squeezing his husband’s fingers. “It’s important.” 

James stayed where he was, pressed his palms to his knees, and smiled. He pretended not to see his sister fist bump her husband out of the corner of his eye.

Len took a deep breath, looked at his proudly grinning husband who he missed more than his own peace of mind, and let his heart speak louder than his head.

And if he made it look like he was the better dancer, well, no one had to know. James was too busy beaming at him to notice, anyway.

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[yikescomma]

yikescomma’s 600 followers celebration!

a moodboard for @holotones ’  hometown wip!!

i hope this did your amazing wip justice, haeji! <3

[akoumi]

[ wip reintro - king &. country ]

   ↳ a wip by @holotones

❝ who do you think you are? eighteen years of living with a sultan for a father and a general for an older brother: have they taught you nothing? we cannot save everyone - people will have to die if we are to win this war, many our people, by our bloody hands. listen, we aren’t in your childrens’ stories. we never were. i will tell you once more and only once more - we have to kill to win this war. men, women, children. i’ve made my peace with that, and it’s time you did as well. ❞

BASICS

TITLE ⇏ king &. country (previously: of treacherous saints)

GENRE ⇏ fantasy, ya

POV ⇏ third person, single pov

STATUS ⇏ first draft 

SUMMARY  

 the heat of the desert makes the whole country shimmer. through the red haze, planted far away from any other civilization sits a village, cradled in the orange sands like the shards of a broken vase.  

a dusty girl sits on her dusty bed in this dusty town called resvahar buried in this bloody country they call krehari.  

she thinks about the man her parents have engaged her to, the man older than her father with four other wives. one of those women is her best friend. she often sees bruises and cuts on her arms, but this dusty girl never says anything. neither does her friend. 

there’s not much to look forward to, anyways - nothing but the feel of her husband’s thick fingers around her neck eventually, once she’s bore him four children and once he tires of her. the bruises on her cooling neck will match the ones on the rest of her body and the rest of his wives. 

the only escape that she has is to listen to the stories of the traders that come by every year; the stories about other towns, other cities, other countries. she dreams about the places that she could go, the things she could eat, the sights she could see, everything that she could do if only she had the courage. if she had the courage, she could go to paradise on earth - carveya, all across the ocean. if only she had the courage. 

but the fear. the fear is a yawning cavern with gleaming black teeth that threatens to swallow her whole everytime she considers sneaking out. 

at least until her pregnant best friend gets beaten to death by her husband in front of the whole village. no one raises a hand to stop him. and at that moment, this dusty girl realizes that the mangled corpse on the body could very well be her soon enough. 

she leaves. she sneaks out with the traders, telling no one about where she’s going. she leaves the rest of the village to tell stories at night about the dusty girl snatched away by the midnight moon. 

she’s left her town behind, but now sajaa is thrown into a whole new world of war, political intrigue, and betrayal that she had no idea even existed. it soon becomes apparent that unless she does something, her whole country will be torn apart like a rabbit in the jaws of several hungry wolves - only, krehari serves as both the rabbit and the wolves.

CHARACTERS

SAJAA AL-HIZAR: a girl who only wants to settle down and live a quiet life, far away from her home country. unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. she’s running, running, running, and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.

REYHAAN SHAH: the second prince of krehari. handsome, cocky, idealistic. spent most of his life away from krehari, though; he was off in foreign countries drinking with beautiful women. but now, he’s back without telling anyone, and it doesn’t quite look like his country’s been taken care of. he’s ready to crack his knuckles, roll up his shirtsleeves, and start fixing it up.

IMRAAN MORADI: lived as a spoiled rich kid, in one of the largest cities in krehari. this is where he meets sajaa, and the two of them connect - both as friends and lovers, until the war comes to them. the whole city gets raided, and his father gets brutally killed. sajaa leaves him for dead. now alone, imraan becomes a soldier until he realizes that there’s better ways to help his country - chiefly, inciting rebellion.

ask if you’d like to be on the taglist with @quartzess​ @tenacious-scripturient​