#mel's rambles

[melit0n]

That guitar slide is about to drive me up the WALL

Credits: cyberslav72 from the st discord, taken from -> twt.

[dreaming-out-loud]

i want to look at the hades tag.

so bad.

but i (meaning my dad, whom i watch play it) haven’t finished the game yet and i am so afraid of spoilers so i shall Not

i’ll have to remind myself every few minutes but i will get there i promise

[melit0n]

And I'll see you when the wrath comes.

[melit0n]

Did not expect the sax player to have an Espera style mask 😭

Credits: @/pyrosbot -> ig.

[melit0n]

Will you halt this eclipse in me?

[melit0n]

Something that always confused me when I read TPOTO was why The Phantom chose box five out of all the private boxes to be his.

Out of all the seats in the house, box five is among the worst and would be (and still is) sold cheaply (average 65 francs at cheapest in 1880, now sold a between 10-25 euros nowadays) on general sale. A higher profit would've been made from a year-long booking, especially since there are multiple seats, so it would be 65 francs per person on a yearly booking no matter how many people are in there at once, but still not as much as other seats.

Visual wise, a good chunk of the left side of the stage is cut off and parts of the performance that would occur in the higher wings would be completely unseen, so, why choose it? Isn't the main point of going to go watch an Opera is to actually see the performance?

(A screenshot from the Palais Garnier's seat listing stating the best seats for viewing and the view from the box five via this video)

Having been there myself in late May, I found an answer to my own question and I'm gonna share it with you guys because maybe someone else was asking the same thing!

Although yes, the stage is half cut off, it's one of, if not the, best seats acoustic wise. You're a perfect distance from the orchestra as well as the stage for everything to sound just right. As much as The Phantom would've loved the operatic performance, I don't doubt he would've been more focused on the music itself as well as the vocals, and, mainly, Christine.

Further, although going to the opera was more of a social thing than an entertainment thing, so the boxes were built for aristocracy to be seen above all things, you can disappear from public view quite easily in that box. There are two to three rows of seats going backwards to the door, so all one would have to do to disappear from sight of anyone on stage or in the audience would be to just move a seat backwards (which means he wouldn't have been able to see the stage at all, but would still be able to hear everything perfectly well).

Plus, the box is located right at the end of the row of private boxes, as well as very close to entry and exit stairs, both public ones and private ones meant for stage hands and general workers.

All in all, those three reasons are why the box was chosen and kept in high priority for The Phantom, because he could quite literally disappear, like a ghost, by just moving himself in the box, as well as disappear out of the box and hear Christine almost perfectly.

[melit0n]

Some cryptid photos of Vessel (+ ii) that I've collected over the past week. The fact that almost all of them look like they came out of trail cam footage is absolutely sending me

[melit0n]

A lyric that originally confused me a bit in Provider was, "your outer shell; your secret insider." At first, it seemed a bit of a backwards juxtaposition, one that didn't match up as well as others in their discography.

My first thought was that it was referring to being someone's 'protector' of sorts. Existing as a hardened exoskeleton, yet simultaneously managing to settle under the skin of the very person they're shielding. Barely even there, but making a home where it's well deserved.

Then, I remembered the chemistry motif. The "outer shell," typically refers to the last 'shell' around an atom, otherwise known as a valance shell. Basically, electrons surround a nucleus in varying levels (first shell holds two, second holds eight, the third eighteen etc.), and, the number of electrons on the furthest shell decide its chemical properties (how reactive it'll be, is it flammable etc.), and, if it'll be "acid or alkaline."

Neat little possible callback, I thought.

Furthermore, if an atom has an incomplete outer shell, it'll be unstable, but through a covalent bond (in non-metals), can be stabilized if another molecule shares it's electrons.

In short, they become equal; on stable ground with one another. To be someone's "outer shell," means to have a chemical, balanced bond with them; to keep them steady.

I think that really fits, considering the title of the song.