“The City” Playlist Rant

 

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The City || A Brooklet Avenue Playlist

I don’t expect you guys to listen to this playlist without getting somewhat confused, so I’m here to explain. It’ll help get some lore out too so that’s a bonus.

*This post is about a playlist, meaning the lore being discussed is only what you need to understand the playlist and is not the whole story*

*This story is still conceptual and in the planning stage, everything is subject to change and should be expected to have plot holes*

To start, let’s bring up the basic timeline:

BROOKLET AVENUE PAST - Pre-Infection/Anything before BAI

v

•The Death Waltz (Tobias Lilja)

•UH OH (Neoni)

•Thanatos (Soap&Skin)

•Game Of Survival (Ruelle)

BROOKLET AVENUE INFECTION (BAI) - the five years of Infection before Step I

v

•Game Of Survival (Ruelle)

•Collusion (Caleb Swift, Hypersonic Music)

•Smells Like Teen Spirit (Malia J)

•Playground (Bea Miller)

•Therefore I Am (Billie Eilish)

•Life is good (angelbaby, Jagwar Twin)

•Army Dreamers (Kate Bush)

•Battle Cry (Shayfer James)

•Take the Crown (2WEI, Joznez, Blackway, Tiffany Aris)

•Empire (Neoni)

STEP I -> STEP II

v

•Resilience (Mattia Turzo)

STEP III - NATURES’ REVIVAL

v

•Resilience (Mattia Turzo)

•The World Ender (Lord Huron)

•Feeling Good (Nina Simone)

•Boom Boom (2WEI, Bri Bryant)

•Weight of the World (Shayfer James)

•Enchanté (Dirt Poor Robins)

•Start a War (Klergy, Valerie Broussard)

•Odysseus (Jorge Rivera-Herrans … Epic The Musical Cast)

•Sound Of War (Tommee Profitt, Fleurie)

•Kill the Crown (2WEI)

•The Line (Arcane, Twenty One Pilots)

The Rant:

To start, the beginning songs are mostly just songs I picked for setting the mood for the city, I wanted it to feel like it was fancy but sort of dystopian (not full dystopian, I just wanted that vibe). Donnella Bellamy is a good example of what the city is like, she did professional ballet and was widely known for being beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to be around, and she would spend a lot of time at fancy restaurants and theaters and opera shows. The city was full of fake smiles, lavish costumes, and complete blindness to those who didn’t live like they did (you know, the typical dystopian city). The city and the people there fed into Donnella’s theatrical side, the parts of her that enjoyed living lavishly, gossiping, and living with a rich, handsome husband. Until she had kids and left. Enter Madame (actual name yet to be decided), the lady who Donnella’s ex-husband married after Donnella left, becoming Nicholas Bellamy’s stepmother. There’s not much to say about her during this part of the story, excluding that you can easily tell that she had ulterior motives. After learning that Nico’s mother lived in The River Town she had some of her own “contacts” chaperone Nico, and would encourage more visits, or extend the time he would stay. How… nice of her.

Skip some time and the city is suddenly being flooded with The Infected. (-Game Of Survival-)

-Collusion- represents a time jump after the start of The Infection, where the next few songs are about new characters in a new setting.

Introducing Ellie VonLillian and Reese, two characters from the poor side of The City. After the Infection, like anywhere else in the world the lives of the City people were turned upside down, except that the ones who were doing the best in this new life were the people who have survived in rough conditions their whole life.

-Playground- and -Life is good- both represents this setting, and -Therefore I Am- is just a song I threw in there because it reminds me of Ellie.

While those like Ellie and Reese could survive through survival skills and adapting to their surroundings, that doesn’t mean none of the rich folk could survive as well. Some of the government and higher ranked people survived, but with the ongoing apocalypse they couldn’t control anything outside of the city and those who disagreed with their way of doing things were already planning on using this situation to their advantage. It wouldn’t take long before a revolution began, but you probably wouldn’t guess who the one leading it was. Madame has always been a born leader, she knows how to rally people behind her and make them believe that they’re fighting for something when in actuality it’s for her own gain. In the canon story this is where it would be revealed that she has always been a Creature Hunter, a section of the city people who believes Creatures exist and hunts them in the other territories to sell their parts. More specifically, she has always been the Leader of a large group of Creature Hunters, and seeing that there was a chance right in front of her to gain more power she immediately took it.

One revolution and lots of damage later, and Madame and those rallied behind her would come out on top. It wouldn’t take long for Madame to begin planning a way to restore the city, first fixing the Infection problem by organizing a project to build a wall, and then focusing inward, fixing buildings and solving food problems. Nothing was perfect but it showed the people that their new leader had her priorities straight and was actually trying to create safety for the people rather than trying to save her own skin like the previous leaders.

-Army Dreamers-, -Battle Cry-, -Take the Crown-, and -Empire- is all about the revolution.

-Resilience- represents the biggest time jump in the playlist, as the playlist skips over both STEP I and STEP II, and continues in STEP III, which is when the City canonically gets more involved in the story. However STEP I and STEP II does have some relevant information, as this is during the time when Madame starts focusing more of her time preparing for the biggest hunt that’s ever been attempted. Creatures are near-invisible outside of a forest, they need at least some greenery or plant life around them or they won’t be visible to humans (they’re technically visible, but barely, so most won’t notice them unless they’re actively looking). Unfortunately whatever little plant life that was inside the city was burned away, and even if it was still around it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to be able to see the Creatures. So Madame sent out some of her men to go to the forest and bring back seeds and plants to plant inside the city and use to create other hunting equipment. One of these hunters is involved in Step I, which is why I felt like mentioning that. He gets involved with Knell and Nico after seeing a chance to possibly be able to capture an actual Creature, unaware that the way he went about it put both of Madame’s stepchildren in harm and got her stepdaughters’ friends involved. In other words there are things going on with the city in Steps I and II, but it’s mainly preparation and small mentions, so those times didn’t quite fit in the playlist.

-The World Ender- is the start of Step III, and is about Spider/Alex after the events of Step II. I’m still working on the details of his situation, but after Step II he is technically half Infected and half Creature, thank The Infector and Gabriel Flintlock for that. He doesn’t have all of his memories and ends up leaving Brooklet Avenue, leaving his sister unaware if he is alive or dead, and barely leaving enough of a trail for Knell to follow. However Knell does come to the conclusion that Alex is alive, and this is what causes Mary and Jolie to begin their travels to the city (technically they’re traveling to the city mainly to look for more clues and studies on curing the Infection, but looking for Alex is a bonus).

(This is where the playlist explanation gets spotty, because there’s a lot of story stuff happening in Step III that just isn’t relevant to the playlist and isn’t fully planned out, so you’ll just have to wait until more things are mentioned)

After exploring other places, Spider (who I’m calling Spider Lily for Step III for distinction because I don’t know what he calls himself yet) eventually makes his way to The City, where he meets Reese and Ellie VonLillian. There’s not much to say about this point in time as it’s still in the concept stage, but he gets along with Reese quite well until they betray him and he gets captured by the hunters. This is where the next part of Madame’s plan is put into action, as with Spider she was not only able to find a way to capture the Creatures who has been evading her for so long, but she also had a way to get everyone in the city on her side. You see, with Spider she was able to come to the conclusion that the Creatures are responsible for The Infection, and with Spider she also had proof, which would give her a justified reason to capture and execute the Creatures. Because if the Creatures are gone, the Infection will be gone too, right?

This is what -Boom Boom-, -Weight of the World-, and -Enchanté- is about. I just added -Feeling Good- as a way to set the mood for Madame’s renewed city.

More skipped story parts later, and we get to -Madame Guillotine-, this is after Madame successfully captures all of the forest Creatures (Creatures, not Critters, I might add), and prepares to execute them in the name of “destroying the Infection.” However there’s one Creature who wasn’t caught, and he’s one “un-justified massacre and harm against his family” away from snapping. Knell quickly made his way to the City after realizing all the Creatures in the forest were gone, and unfortunately didn’t make it in time to save everyone. And the best way I can describe what happens next is that Knell just fully looses it, you can probably make some guesses based on the songs I chose, but in order to fully understand what’s going on I’ll have to explain some context from the previous Steps.

Fun fact about Knell, he’s the reason The Huntsman is Infected in Step I. That’s right, Madame actually wasn’t too far off on her assumption. However it’s notable that the reason Knell Infected the Huntsman was to protect Nico, in other words, he is fully willing to use magic that the other Creatures deems taboo to protect those he cares about. The thing about this is that using that magic will lead to the Creature eventually loosing themself and being fully taken over by the “Infection.” During Step III, the rest of the Creatures were captured and weakened, and Knell was the only one who had the power to stop what was happening, so he just went full out, Infecting any hunter he came across. He was so focused on saving his kind he didn’t take into account that he was endangering the humans who were on his side, and many innocent citizens. 

This is where plot holes come into play, as this section of the story is still a work in progress, but what I can say is that during all of that Penny (yes, Penny), Jolie, Mary, Reese and Ellie all help to save the captured Creatures. Nico and Spider end up catching up to Knell and they do “I care about you and you’re destroying yourself” jitsu to save Knell (this is a joke if you can’t tell, I’m still working on it lol…). And that’s where the playlist ends, -Start a War-, -Odysseus-, -Sound Of War-, -Kill the Crown-, and -The Line- all representing that part. As for Madame, none of the songs represents this part but as a treat, this dialogue note pretty much explains it all.

[Madame gets away from the mansion but surprisingly she runs into Sadie]

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you get away” -Sadie

“I don’t even know you! Wait-“ -Madame

“Those eyes…” -Madame

“You’re one of them!!” -Madame

“I am.” -Sadie says menacingly, her fox flickers and shakes

[…]

“I can’t do anything to you” -Sadie

“But they can~” -Sadie, she gestures to her shadows behind her where a large figure appears

[The Infector walks out, letting out a laugh]

“And you thought it was my kind that was turning you humans to Nature” -Infector

[Madame stumbles]

“Your…”

[she stares at the Infector in shock, their towering black frame is nothing like the Creatures Madame captured]

“Your kind?” -Madame

“You can’t be one of them! How…” -Madame

“So overall I was right” -Madame

“Right idea, wrong approach my dear” -Infector

“Now, time for you to become what you hate most~” -Infector

And this is the part of the story where I don’t know what to do about it! Haha… ha…

That piece of dialogue is basically the end of Step III, or at least that’s when it would appear in the story, which is very obvious that the story is not finished… but I don’t like the idea of the story being organized by three steps only to be wrapped up in the fourth part being labeled differently, it bothers me… anyways that’s a problem for future Stitch to worry about! Hope you enjoyed this rant and even if you’re now confused about the lack of context and explanations for most things in here, maybe you’ll at least understand the playlist better :)

See you in another rant~

-Stitch 🌱

Flower Language and why each flower was chosen

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Flower language is such a broad concept, each flower can mean multiple things depending on the country, culture, and book, so I’m making this post to show the specific reason I picked each character’s representative flower.

~What exactly is Flower Language?~

(A big rant about flower language because I like to talk about it gosh dang it)

Flower language, also known as Floriography, has been around for a long time, and meanings have been given to flowers for as long as botanists have been botanising them, meaning there’s many different meanings for flowers depending on the time period, country, or even mythology. However, with that said, Flower language was well known during the Victorian Era, when people couldn’t express certain thoughts or feelings as outwardly as we can now. People would buy books that had lists and meanings for different flowers, and would put together bouquets (or simply one type of flower) and give them to people as a way of communicating things that couldn’t be spoken aloud, not only could different flower arrangements and combinations mean different things, but even the way of holding said bouquet could convey the emotion of the person handing the bouquet and how the person would be receiving it. This was since then called “Victorian Flower Language.” It often makes me wonder whether there could have been lots of miscommunication between people who would use flower language, you would have to make sure the person you’re giving a flower to has the same book as you do or else you could send the wrong message, one of my favorite examples being Ivy, which can stand for both marriage and friendship, I imagine you’d probably want to pair that with other flowers of a similar meaning if you really wanted to get the correct message across.

While nowadays we don’t need flower arrangements to convey messages, it’s still a nice thing for any Florist to be aware of, as some wouldn’t like a pretty bouquet that’s secretly full of hate. Besides, it’s such an intriguing concept, and I enjoy adding Floriography to my stories.

*Remember: The “Meaning”s that are listed is simply the reason I picked it to represent that character, many of those flowers means multiple things depending on the time period, culture, or amount given. And to be honest, I didn’t put a whole lot of research into each flower chosen*

Sadie Foxglove

•Foxglove

Meaning: Insincerity, deceit

Reason this flower was chosen:

I picked it because Sadie is represented by a fox, but also “Sadie Foxglove” had a really nice ring to it, and the flower matched what I had in mind for her character design.

Penny Brown

•Yellow Daisy

Meaning: Innocence, Friendship

Brielle Brown

•Wolfsbane

Meaning: Lycanthropy (making one into a werewolf, or curing it)

Reason this flower was chosen:

I picked a wolf to represent Brielle, so naturally Wolfsbane was the first thing that came to my mind, and even added some purple to her color scheme. However Wolfsbane is also known as Monkshood, and is known to be poisonous to touch, not something you’d want around you. I felt it was fitting that Brielle, a closed off, snappy, “leave me alone I’m working” type of girl would have a poisonous flower to represent her.

(Another note: Brielle does actually have somewhat of a lycanthropy theme in Step III, but that’s not to say she’s a werewolf by typical definition, you’ll hear more about that later)

Benjamin Brown

•Bluebell

Meaning: humility, gratitude

Reason this flower was chosen:

Frankly I mainly chose it because Ben has blue as a color and “Bluebell” has the first five letters of “Bluebird,” but the meaning could match his character a bit.

Clementine Bellamy

•Fragaria, Strawberry Flower

Meaning: Purity, Innocence

Reason this flower was chosen:

I liked the idea of Clementine being represented by strawberries, that was the only reason I picked it, she’s a sweet girl with a sweet flower :)

Sylas Crowell

•Stephanotis

Meaning: Desire to travel

Reason this flower was chosen:

Buddy can’t stay still. In all seriousness it’s because he’s always had a desire for travel and doesn’t like being in the same place for too long, very straightforward choice of flower.

Sebastian Crowell

•”Black Prince” Snapdragon

Meaning: Deception, Deviousness

Reason this flower was chosen:

I don’t really like talking about the specifics of what he did, but he is a horrible man who is just pure deception in a trench coat. Not only is he a murderer, but he’s not exactly that great to his son either, despite the both of them upholding a nice father-son dynamic that has the whole town believing he’s a good man. Anyone who spends more time with Sylas could realize it’s not the case at all, and Sadie travels with them so there was no way she wouldn’t catch onto things. But if he were to ask, Sadie would just explain how snapdragons can represent “strength.” Frankly I think it’s a beautiful flower (and I just have a soft spot for Snapdragons since they were my childhood flower) and that he doesn’t deserve it.

Barbara Black

•Rhododendron

Meaning: Danger, Caution, Beware

Reason this flower was chosen:

The Tailor is in a constant state of anxiety and worry, she has this sense of dread constantly following her, and wears a mask 24/7 just in case an Infected somehow gets past the rivers, so I liked the idea of her flower reflecting her constant paranoia of being in danger.

The Carpenter

•Yellow Rose

Meaning: Friendship, Jealousy

Jolie Cardinal

•Dandelion

Meaning: grief, hope, resilience

Reason this flower was chosen:

The simple reason I picked a Dandelion for Jolie is because she holds a wish deep within her heart, but I find its symbolism matches her character to the tea.

Spider

•Spider Lily

Meaning: Parting, Death

Reason this flower was chosen:

I liked the idea of a little troublemaker being named Spider, however the downside is I was afraid the “Lily” part would make people think he was a girl. The other reason is a bit of a spoiler, but poor Spider is doomed by the narrative to one day become fully Infected and pass away, leaving Mary on her own (or that’s what you’re lead to believe, the plot has since then gone in a different direction ;))

Mary

•Marigold

Meaning: warmth, grief, mourning

Reason this flower was chosen:

I wanted to pick a yellow flower that could be “nickname-able,” so Marigold was perfect, the meaning worked nicely for her as well.

Nicholas Bellamy

•Sunflower

Meaning: long life, lasting happiness

Reason this flower was chosen:

If you were to hear about Nico’s story, you may find it strange for him to be represented by a sunflower, in fact Nico himself probably doesn’t understand why Sadie considers him as such. However the meaning actually matches him quite well, as despite things seeming dull in the present, things will take a turn for the better, he just has to wait. He has a long life ahead of him, and it will have plenty of happiness.

Gabriel Flintlock

•Snowdrop

Meaning: Renewal, new beginnings, life, death and bad luck

Reason this flower was chosen:

I’ll be honest, all of this matches him to some degree, it also just sums up Step II lol (which is when he is introduced)

August B. Flintlock

•Bleeding Heart

Meaning: Passion, Heartbreak, Compassion

Reason this flower was chosen:

(To be added)

June Reese

•Orange Blossom

Meaning: Love, purity, new beginnings

Reason this flower was chosen:

(To be added)

Colette

•White Rose

Meaning: Purity, innocence, loyalty

*More will be added*

~The Story and Other Information~

*some information in this post may be outdated*

 ~The Story~

Brooklet Avenue follows Penny Brown, Brielle Brown, and Benjamin Brown, three siblings who have been living with their aunt, Sadie Brown, in a River Town for five years. They have been with their aunt ever since mysterious creatures, known as the “Infected,” began appearing all over the world, causing the Brown siblings to have to leave their previous home. Their aunt is a polite, but kind of strange woman who runs a flower shop, known as Brooklet Avenue Floristry, she has an interest in botany, and enjoys pairing the townspeople with specific flowers based on their personalities, even changing her surname to be “Foxglove.” Over the years, the people of The River Town have found ways to adapt to their new world, but some have a harder time accepting their new reality than others, some even try to ignore it, and find themselves living in a world of escapism.

~

~The Concept~

I made Brooklet Avenue because I wanted a story that both displayed my enjoyment of flower language and floristry (The Florist Shop), but also was a story about a cute little town (Aesthetic), with a slight apocalyptic twist (Plot). Don’t ask me why but apparently I was in the mood to create a story with zombies and flowers.

~Inspirations~

The idea was originally sparked when I was looking at things for Little Nightmares, and I pulled some inspiration from Amphibia too, but later on I would be inspired by things like Over The Garden Wall, and the 90s version of Moomin Valley. In other words, it’s a big mix of things I was (and still am) enjoying :)

~The Name~

The idea of the name of the story kind of came out of nowhere, one day I just thought: “What if there was a place with rivers and streams instead of pathways, and instead of riding little bicycles and stuff they had little boats?” I liked the idea of the little boats because then they could have different items and decorations depending on the character (however I seem to like the idea more than the drawing process…). Despite it being a small town, I thought “Brooklet Avenue” sounded better than “River Town,” so that’s why it’s called that, despite not really being an “Avenue” per say. I still use the term “The River Town” however, because the other places outside of the forest is just called things like “The Ocean Town” or “The Lake Town,” etc. The focal point of the story however, is Sadie Foxglove’s Flower shop, also called “Brooklet Avenue Floristry,” which sits alongside a river, together with the flower shop, a bakery, and some undecided shops I’m still thinking of, it forms Brooklet Avenue, hence the name of the story.

~World Building~

Brooklet Avenue is strictly a fictional story, in a fictional world, just like all my other stories, for my own sanity because I can’t stand the idea of getting things wrong when they’re in certain time periods. However it is loosely based on 1870s America, also known as the Gilded Age (when I say loosely based, I mean it, for example my characters fashion is not based on 1870s fashion). This is because the 1870s was the time when railroads and steamboats were the preferred method of transportation, and technology was just being introduced through telephone poles, phonographs, and the lightbulb. Among other reasons.

However this story focuses on Brooklet Avenue and the forest surrounding it, so you may not see most of the other towns or cities unless I want to draw a scene with them.

~Story Telling~

This story isn’t a book, or a comic, as I’ve always imagined it simply taking the form of illustrations, however whether I ever make any of those illustrations or not is unknown, as my ambition does not often align with my motivation.

With that said, I very much may still draw sketches and doodles of the characters, or maybe even do some storyboards, however storyboards are more unlikely than the illustrations.