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#AND who has absolutely no idea who those stars are: k cool.
icharchivist · 1 year
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weird thing to complain about but funny how one of the (very,very, very few) replies defending it that i got on my “hey the Hercules live action remakes seems to be a bad idea” viral post was someone defending the remake over the ground of “well at least it will mean we’ll get a version where Hades isn’t voiced by a bastard”, like, on my post, mine. I’ve never watched Hercules in english in my life this argument is completely meaningless to me, try again.
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sungbeam · 2 years
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𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒: THE SOULMATE EXHIBIT
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your soul feels so awfully familiar — are our relationships and connections pre-destined? perhaps in another life, another universe, or even in the timeline we exist in, we are linked to others who's fates have been etched into our very bones. shall we explore those possibilities?the sungbeam observatory proudly presents THE SOULMATE EXHIBIT COLLABORATION.
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a note from our curator: you all have no idea how EXCITED i am for this >< it means the absolute world to have 1k+ of you stargazers here with me, reading, writing and bonding over things we're passionate abt (yes, barking over korean men is now something i am passionate abt). thank u to those who have supported my ✨journey ✨, and who i have met along the way. it's really cliché to say, but i really didn't think 1k was in my stars haha but here we are :') so please do continue to look forward to what's to come (omg sorry i didn't mean for that to become an oscar's acceptance speech (;_;)
— ✶ signed, duckie x
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our theme, if one could not tell, is SOULMATES! yes, we're talking the beloved soulmate au! u have complete creative freedom over the soulmate system and the logistics of your world—your fic just has to feature *a* soulmate au.
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some RULES & GUIDELINES before we enter the exhibition hall:
✶ only member x reader and member x oc is allowed; member x member is NOT allowed
✶ as i mentioned in the survey, this collab will be SFW content with suggestive themes allowed
✶ slots are FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE! i'm not holding any slots for anyone, except for myself
✶ including the slot i have selected for myself, there are a total of 15 SLOTS! this collab is open to ALL active k-pop groups, so there are no certain amount of slots for specific groups, but you must reserve a spot in the exhibition hall! all works will then be compiled into a masterlist for easy access~
✶ all genres are cool w me 😎 but only drabbles and oneshots will be allowed! no series and no texts (and none of the following themes either pls: su*c*de, r*pe, p*doph*l*a, etc.)
✶ the minimum word count is 1K WORDS, and a keep reading link MUST be inserted after the usual information/summeries/beginning
✶ i'm making a discord for additional announcements/reminders, but it can also be used for chatting, brainstorming, etc. i'm bad at the discord thing, so i will try my best! joining is HIGHLY encouraged (u don't even have to say anything in the server lol)
✶ to be confirmed, pls also reblog this announcement post! (key: one and only)
✶ the drop out date will be october 1st, and fics will be due april 1st 🤡 (any changes will be announced, however) — hopefully that gives everyone lots of wiggle room to write! i don't want this to be stressful for anybody :]
✶ once your fic is completed, pls do TAG ME and include # eternally yours collab in your tags!
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READY TO DISCOVER YOUR SOULMATE IN THIS VAST UNIVERSE? — ☆
secure your place in the exhibit here
**NOTE: the form will ask you for what GROUP you intend to write for. this can change after you are confirmed, but pls do let me know <3
13 / 15 slots confirmed — our guest speakers:
01:00 @sungbeam, tbz
02:00 @jaehunnyy, ateez
03:00 @sunlightwoo, txt
04:00 @ethereal-engene, svt
05:00 @daegall, nct dream/127
06:00 @justalildumpling, nct dream
07:00 @loveliestfelix, txt
08:00 @maiademia, svt
09:00 @tranquilpetrichor, ateez
10:00 @restlessmaknae, oneus
11:00 @soobeaniee, txt
12:00 @honeyhuii, svt
13:00 @taem-min, shinee
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boysplanetrecaps · 1 year
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Boys Planet, Episode 8: The First Hour
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Hello, friends! So, as you might recall, the first hour or so of episode 8 is devoted to going through the preparation that the various teams made for the third challenge mission, knowing that only half of them would actually be able to perform it. I didn’t recap it at the time because I was more interested in covering the eliminations, but I’ll be covering it here in this post! 
Please note that it’ll be hard for me to talk about these groups without sometimes acknowledging who does and who doesn’t survive the elimination from the second half of this episode. If you’re spoiler averse, you may want to wait until you’ve seen the rest of the episode to read this part. For what it's worth, I don’t feel like I’ll be saying anything that you wouldn’t have more or less guessed. 
Here we go!
We start at 5:45 in to the episode. The boys are gathered in a large room, still wearing their outfits from the second challenge mission. They’re there to be assigned to one of the five “artist” songs that were revealed in episode 6. (The link takes you to the mini demos, and is spoiler free.) I find it difficult to describe what the songs sound like, especially since we can’t hear the whole songs and the genres the show uses to describe them are kinda weird (“oriental pop”? “Sentimental hiphop”???). So you can listen for yourself. 
As was the case for all Produce/Planet shows before this, the trainees were matched to songs based on audience vote. The Star Creators were given like, 24 hours to vote on this, which means that for the most part, only Koreans really had a chance to do it. The idea is supposed to be that the audience would put, say, Cha Woongki in a cute song, and put, say, Kim JiWoong in a sexy song. Also, the trainees appealed to the Star Creators to put them in a particular song. That video is actually a lot of fun -- some of the trainees sing or dance to get your attention, and I feel like it’s the first time I actually heard Ricky just straight up sing. He’s got a really nice voice! Notably, Z-bo speaks some Korean in his video, too, so that’s cool! Anyway, it’s cute to watch, and has subtitles, so give it a look if you’re at all interested. 
Of course, since a bunch of trainees wanted certain songs, and not a lot of people wanted certain other songs, the matchup could never be perfect. I’ll get to all that in a bit! 
In any case, we finally find out that the new Star Master is Key from SHINee. If you don’t know SHINee, check out their songs Sherlock, View, and Replay. If you don’t like any of those then it’s ok, but trust me, SHINee is really well-respected and completely changed K-pop. Before SHINee, no one danced while singing the way that SHINee did. If there had never been a SHINee, there would not have been a BTS, not the way that you know them. So, even if you don’t like their music, you should know who they are. (Oh, and side note, if you watched Run for The Money on Netflix, that featured Minho, who is also from SHINee.)
The SHINee boys are also sentimental faves of mine. SHINee and f(x) were the two groups who really got me into Kpop, and if you know much about kpop, you know that those two groups have something really awful in common and I don’t want to talk about it, but let me just remind us all to be kind to kpop celebrities, ok? Because we don’t want stuff like that happening again. 
Anyway, SHINee debuted in 2008, when Key was just 17 (and dance machine Taemin was just 14). They were HUGE -- they were absolute sensations. Their clothing set fashion trends, and their songs were all massive hits. The members have gone through a lot, but they’re still kicking. Key is the funniest, most snarky, most honest member, and he’s known for his sense of style as well as his performance abilities. Check out his new song Killer -- it’s got a retro-80s vibe that I really dig and I think a lot of people would like it! 
So yeah, when the trainees react to Key as of a god has walked into the room, they’re not exaggerating for the camera. Key debuted when some of them were still too young to know how to tie their shoes, and he’s fucking COOL.
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His level of fame leaves pretty much every other star master on the show completely in the dust, with the possible exception of Sunmi, who dropped by in episode 3. She's at least maybe kind of on par.
So, yeah, once they manage to rehinge all their jaws, Key gives them the rules of the next mission -- how they’ll all prepare the songs, then find out halfway through who survived and will get to perform them. I love how the trainees are always surprised when the show does exactly what it has done every season since Produce101 season 1. I mean, I know the show has a different name now but it’s still the same show. Six seasons, and you’re shocked? Come on, now. 
Since this is an “artist battle,” let me add in a quick note on the term “artist” in Kpop -- I think I talked about this in another recap but I don’t remember for sure so I’ll risk doing it again. In Korea, it’s understood that idols make idol music, and that artists make, for lack of a better word, “real” music. People like Bibi are understood to be artists, and as such don’t necessarily always dance, or have fan meetings, etc. People like Huta are understood to be idols; they’re praised for their “visuals” (ie, whether or not they have nice faces) and are generally expected to remain single to be a parasocial love object for their fans. They make their money off of brand endorsements as much as concert sales. People like Hui or Jeon Soyeon from G-Idle or G-Dragon from BigBang kind of toe the line between idol and artist, since they write their own songs and manage their own teams, but also happen to be really good looking and usually happy to endorse whatever you have lying around. It’s kind of weird to expect these trainees to be “artists”, but every reality show keeps making things more difficult ever year, even though their contestants aren’t necessarily getting more talented every year. I mean, have you watched the most recent season of Great British Bake Off? What WAS that? But I digress. 
Ok, back to the point. It's an artist battle; they'll be given demo songs and demo choreography, but they're expected to go ahead and change whatever they want and plan the staging and performance.
So the boys listen to the songs and aggressively love them all. My favorite is when they listen to the “oriental pop” song Switch and Seo Won says he feels like he’s abroad. Wut….? I guess to them, “oriental” means India? I also liked when Matthew said, “I don’t want to do sexy concepts” about the sexy song, which like, yes, thank you, Matthew. Figure out what you’re good at, please.  
Then Key tells them that the members of the team that gets ranked first at the Artist Battle will get 200,000 points each, with the “winning” member getting an extra 200,000. That is a substantial benefit, but since it will probably end up going to a mostly top-11 team anyway, it won’t end up mattering. They’ll also end up going on M-Countdown, and, even bigger to them, having a fan meeting. They’re excited about that, and I don’t blame them. 
Oh, I’m having a flashback to that GP999 fan meeting when they were still in the middle of c*vid and all the fans were in their cars in the middle of a field. I’m glad we’re through the worst of that stuff now. I don’t want to go off on a tangent about some of the stuff I experienced living in a huge, hard-hit US city, but it was awful. I bet a lot of us have stories like that, huh? It’ll be one of those things that in five or ten years, when you meet someone for the first time, one of the first things you’ll talk about in the get-to-know-you phase will be “where were you in March of 2020?” Like for the boomers, talking about where they were when they found out that JFK had been shot.
Back to the show. 
So, the boys are finding out which song they got, which means it’s another one of those lengthy “finding out who is in which team” montages, complete with pranks and stuff and it’s not that fascinating…? So I’ll just recap some of the highlights, and then get to the part where they’re actually preparing. 
I-Chan asked for Over Me in that video, but as he was leaving the room the other trainees say he wanted Switch, and that is in fact what he got. 
I really love Park Hyunbeen saying at first that Supercharger didn’t really “suit his taste” (he wanted the cute song, Say My Name, and I agree it would have been a cute performance!) but when he finds out that he got Supercharger after all, he gives a big smile and says that now he’s excited to do that song. Aww, why do I only end up really loving some of these trainees when it’s too late? You’re a cutie pie, Hyunbeen. 
It’s kind of heart breaking to watch Ji Yun Seo and Lee Yedam be so happy to get the song they wanted, knowing what we know. 
THEORY TIME: I think that for the most part, the audience did vote to give trainees what they asked for, and I think that when there were too many trainees for a given song -- “Over Me” and “Say My Name” were very popular -- the producers matched them to songs in order of their rank. Thus, as very few trainees wanted Supercharger, many low-ranked trainees ended up in that song; as Say My Name was heavily requested, it was filled mostly with higher ranked trainees. Just my theory but it seems to explain a lot.
This:
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I think that the reason Anthonny seems a little sad when he joins the Switch team is that he wanted Say My Name. But I think Switch could also have been great for Anthonny. 
The fact that Lee DaEul and both “houses” were put in Supercharger seems to confirm my theory that Supercharger was a dumping ground for unpopular trainees who wanted popular songs. That, or the audience put Lee DaEul in Supercharger to continue to punish him for his sins. 
I love Kum Jun Hyeon saying, “Park Gunwook and I decided to be friends. We became friends.” That’s how it works in my little cousin’s world -- he decides to be friends with someone and then is. Knowing that he’s good friends with Gunwook kind of explains that whole scene in episode 6 when he was trying to get Gunwook kicked out of Tomboy so Gunwook would have to come over to Ggang with him. 
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I know that the show format encourages the pranking and stuff but it’s really not my favorite. 
Everyone’s reaction to Zhang Hao arriving is amazing. Chen Kuan Jui just picking him up and carrying him around is my favorite bit. 
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It’s kind of interesting how Sung Hanbin, Kim JiWoong, and Matthew all wanted to do something “not sexy.” I guess I understand -- most kpop groups do all different concepts, and it’s a valuable skill to be able to pull off a song like Love Me Right and ALSO pull off a song like Love Killa. But still, I just think that Say My Name sounds like every “cute” kpop song thrown into a blender and then put into a “cute song” mold and allowed to solidify there before someone carefully dumped it out onto a plate. I don’t know. I know it’ll get stuck in my head eventually anyway but it’s not like that’s the kind of song I seek out to listen to.
JiWoong says, “I want to perform while smiling.” Do that ANYWAY, JiWoong. If Kai from Exo smiles in the middle of Obsession, you can smile in the middle of Love Killa, JiWoong. 
Ok! Let's talk about each team's preparation.
21:26: En Garde
Here is the En Garde team, with the song that each member wanted, as well as their previous song. I’ve arranged them in order of their Episode 6 rank, which gives you a sense of how likely they are to survive.
Kim Gyu Vin             En Garde                    Love Killa Hui                           En Garde                   Tomboy Park Gunwook         En Garde                    Tomboy Kum Jun Hyeon       En Garde                   Gang Park Hanbin             En Garde                    Law Lee Seung Hwan     Say My Name           Gang Hiroto                        En Garde                    Rush Hour Lee Ye Dam             En Garde                    Law Ji Yun Seo                En Garde                    Home Oh Sung Min            En Garde                    Rush Hour
They have to choose a leader, and Hui is like, WAYYY too invested in being the leader. He wants to work with his “database” and all the know how he’s built up over the years. The editors do him a little dirty, fast forwarding his speech on why he should be leader, and even showing him practicing his speech in the bathroom ahead of time. 
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The first time that I laughed out loud at anything that Kum Jun Hyeon has ever done was right here, when, after Hui finishes his lengthy speech, Kum says to the other trainees that their speeches about why they want to be leader “have to be lengthier than this.” I think it threw Hui off a little bit -- he may have been expecting grateful acceptance of his leadership, or else a challenge from Park Hanbin perhaps, but not someone making fun of his careful speech. 
In any case, naturally, Hui is chosen to be the leader. I’d choose him as the leader too. 
The crew members explain that there will be two people chosen for the killing part and other parts, because there are ten of them for now, despite there being six people in the choreography.  And of course, everyone wants to get the killing part, because as usual that means tons more screen time. Gyuvin, JunHyeon, Yedam, Gunwook, YunSeo, and Sungmin all want it. I actually laughed again as all six of them practice the same bit but at slightly different times. The edit focuses primarily on Gyuvin and Gunwook -- as if the other ones are laughable for wanting it. I think Oh Sungmin actually does a great job -- JunHyeon overdances and looks out of control, and we barely see Yedam or Yunseo. 
Side note: Oh Sungmin looked so much better with his real hair color. Why is he doing this blonde curl thing when he is capable of looking like this?  Oh, and while we’re looking at old T01 fancams, check out this one of Woongki, being all serious and charismatic. I know it’s not his personality but he pulls it off, in my opinion. I guess they just both don’t want to do songs like that anymore. 
In any case, Gunwook turns out to be a lock, and then they choose Gyuvin as well. 
We cut to their trainee self-evaluation, and we see them performing. Honestly, they look great for a midway practice run. I wonder if Hui deputized Park Hanbin to run dance rehearsals? I would, in his shoes. A good leader knows how to delegate!
Gyuvin is nervous to be compared to Gunwook, and when it’s his team’s turn to try, Gyuvin chokes a bit and forgets some of the lyrics. Still, later on when they get the evaluation forms back, many trainees choose Gyuvin as the better choice for the center, saying he suits it better. 
Side note: Look at Gyuvin doing a scaled down version of his hero Exo-Kai’s trademark leaning-back slouch.
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Obviously, Kai has it down to a limbo-esque art, but Gyuvin is working on it!!! 
The team does well overall. It’s great to see some of the trainees perform the song who won’t get to do it on stage -- good job, you guys. And we’re left with the thought that team En Garde is on track to succeed. 
We’ll have to see 
which member they kick out later on, and 
which member gets to keep the Killing Part. 
At 31:00, we switch over to team Say My Name. 
Everyone in this group wanted this song, so I’ll just list the trainees and their previous song to help remind you of who is who, but this group is full of fairly popular trainees and you’ll probably recognize all or most of them.
Sung Hanbin                         Tomboy Han Yu Jin                           Law Seok Matthew                       Love Killa Kim Ji Woong                       Love Killa Kim Tae Rae                          Man in Love Yoo Seung Eon               Home Seo Won                           Love Killa Takuto                           Rush Hour Ollie                                     Zoom Cha Woong Ki                       Feel Special
The team needs to elect a leader, and there’s this ex-cru-ci-a-ting-ly edited bit about Matthew possibly wanting to be leader and then Sung Hanbin volunteering. I cannot describe how irritating it is. The worst part is from about 31:55  to 32:15. I want to burn their editing studio to the floor. 
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So they decide to have Hanbin be the leader, and Kim JiWoong says, “Matthew, I think Hanbin will be good leader,” and Matthew says, “As long as he listens to you.” 
Matthew is doing a lot of that kind of “joking” that people do when they’re not really joking, you know? Ok, so, story time. I’m friends with two people who a couple, and we were all having a board game night, and when one member of the couple went to get another drink, the other one in the couple was like, “Oh, ha ha, he can’t enjoy an evening without drinking too much, ha ha ha ha, guess I better not get a second drink because SOMEONE has to drive home so we don’t end up in a ditch, ha ha ha,” and it was sooooo uncomfortable because she was saying it like it was a joke, but it was NOT a joke. You feel me? That’s the kind of “joking” Matthew is doing. 
That little dig -- “as long as he listens to you” -- manages to imply that (1) any issues JiWoong may have had with Matthew’s leadership stemmed from JiWoong wanting to inappropriately get his own way and (2) that JiWoong’s preference in a leader is rooted in who he thinks will give him his own way rather than in the quality of the leadership and (3) that JiWoong will probably have as much of an issue with Hanbin’s leadership as he did with Matthew’s once Hanbin starts actually giving orders AND (4) that there is no other substantive difference between Hanbin and Matthew’s leadership skills. You see what I mean? There’s a LOT there.
It’s u n c o m f o r t a b l e. 
We don’t see the team choose main vocal -- they must have given it to Yoo Seung Eon -- and instead we go straight to subvocal 1, a substantive part that a lot of people want. One of the people who wants it is TaeRae, who inexplicably is NOT the main vocal, again, what the fuck, everyone. The story editors, though, focus on Matthew wanting sub-vocal-1. He says, “If I don’t get sub-vocal 1, then I’m screwed.” Again, not a good look.
I don’t know if you guys watched I-Land -- the reality show that created Enhypen -- but there was this memorable scene in which a guy named Jay (see what I mean about there being too many Jays in K-pop?) kept trying to get parts. He tried for main vocal, then subvocal 1, then subvocal 2, subvocal 3…. Every time they went to assign another part, he raised his hand. Inside, he was kind of dying as the potential parts got smaller and smaller, but he just kept trying. He ended up with a smallish part in the song, but the audience watching at home fell in love with the way he kept trying. He ended up actually getting into the final lineup for Enhypen.  
Matthew, honey. Listen to BPR-Noona, ok? The audience already knows how well you sing, so you can relax. And truly, there are no small parts, just small players. Why did Sana’s “shy shy shy” take off in Cheer Up by Twice? Just because people liked the way Sana did it. I’m sure it wasn’t designed to be a “killing part.” You don’t need a "killing part" to win, or even a big part. The most important thing for you right now, Matthew, is for you to stop coming across like a greedy rude North American. As a fellow North American, I am telling you, bud. Rope it the fuck in. BPR-Noona has spoken.
In any case, both Matthew and TaeRae get the part, so we’ll have to see what ends up happening!
Then the trainees try out for the Killing Part, and both Ollie and Han Yujin get it. While I actually like both of them, I can’t help but root for Ollie to keep it in the end. He’s almost certainly not going to make the final lineup for Bepler, so I just want him to have this chance to shine on stage. But yeah that’s probably not going to happen -- no team would lower their chance of winning by choosing a trainee who barely survived over a Top9 trainee. 
After that, we focus on Hanbin’s leadership. He starts off by telling them their goal for the day, which just sets my teacher heart on fire in the best way. Goals should always be specific and achievable. Yes, Hanbin, yes. 
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Notice (1) the way that the only two “global” members on the team end up on the edges, just kind of interesting and (2) the way that Matthew positions himself as if he is also a leader -- he’s the only one not looking at Hanbin. Already, I have a bad feeling about this. 
Hanbin manages their expectations expertly, letting them know that the choreo is challenging without presenting it as scary, and then demonstrates the choreo once for them. (I love how Han Yujin immediately begins sort of dancing along as he watches in the mirror-- that kid really is kind of amazing.) Hanbin is a great leader, and Matthew is very, very envious of that. In an interview, when asked what he would rate Hanbin out of 100, he “jokes” that he “can’t give him a 100” and so gives him 90. The editors are still kind of on his side. They’re scoring his “jokes” with plinky-plunky comedy music. 
Hey, hey, uh, Matthew? Matt? Hey. It's me, BPR-Noona again. Um, why? Why can’t you give him 100? Isn’t he your friend? Aren’t you hoping to debut together? Why even joke that you can’t give him 100? What’s that about? Is it because you don’t want to place yourself below him in any way? Could it be that? Because other people who are excellent leaders themselves are letting themselves be led in other groups, and aren’t being “joking” jerks about it, Matt. General Gunwook and Park Hanbin are both really excellent leaders, and they’re following Hui in their current group. I don’t know, Matt, but I don’t think that this is a good look, no matter how plinky-plunky the comedy music is. 
Sigh.
Then there’s a hilarious bit in which Kim JiWoong openly admits that he’s never felt jealous of other trainees before, but he does now a little bit, because they so naturally suit the concept of the song in a way he doesn’t quite. Then he says that normally he just looks at himself in the mirror while he dances and enjoys his time that way. OMG. 
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See, JiWoong can make jealousy seem just fine because he’s honest about it. And just so fucking weird. I love this weirdo. 
Ok, then there’s this long scene that I don’t want to get too bogged down with, but basically, there’s trouble brewing between old friends Sung Hanbin and Seok Matthew.
While Hanbin is off in the bathroom (I assume), Matthew begins “teaching” some of the others the dance -- Takuto, Seo Won, and Ollie. Now, I don’t think it would hurt anything for someone to run through stuff with Takuto one on one, but I’ve never thought of either Seo Won or Ollie as people who need extra guidance when it comes to dancing -- particularly not Ollie, who actually basically taught his own team the dance in the first Challenge Mission. 
It’s pretty interesting how, when Hanbin comes back in, he doesn’t flip out and immediately make them stop. He watches for a bit and thinks before he acts, which, again, is a sign of a great leader. He knows there’s something a little off, but he waits. He’s also polite about it in his interview, saying, “I am grateful that he [Matthew] wants to help, but my style is to have people learn the overall flow and image of the choreo before moving on to the details.” I wholeheartedly agree with that. Again, it’s that thing of how we normally build the frame of the jigsaw puzzle first, right?  Hanbin also seems to say that some of the details might even change, or perhaps that Matthew is teaching them incorrectly --? Either way, Matthew isn’t helping here. 
Then Matthew full on asks Hanbin if he can be “sub-leader,” and though Hanbin doesn’t think it’s a good idea, he says yes. Dude, I think that’s something that maybe you talk about as a team. Like, “Hey, guys, let’s get into one of those awkward semi-circles and let’s talk about whether or not you want Matthew to be the sub-leader of the team.” But I guess Hanbin doesn’t want to devote the time to that, or was worried it would create division or strife, so he just says yes. Ennnhhhh I don’t like it….
We don’t see any footage of the team performing at the trainee self-eval, interestingly enough.
So, we’ll have to watch to find out
which trainees are going to get kicked out of the team (a lot of them!) 
what will happen between JiWoong and Matthew
what will happen between Hanbin and Matthew and
what will happen between Matthew and TaeRae with the subvocal one!
40:14 Over Me 
Here are the trainees, again arranged in order of rank in episode 6 so you have a sense of who is least likely to survive, with their previous song listed to help jog your memory. All these trainees preferred Over Me except for Ma Jing Xiang, who asked the viewers to give him Say My Name. However, I think the audience might have just voted for him to Over Me anyway -- it’s not impossible. 
Zhang Hao                 Tomboy Keita                             Zoom Jay                             Home Ricky                             Rush Hour Yoon Jong Woo     Home Wang Zi Hao                Law Chen Kuan Jui     Butterfly Ma Jing Xiang             Rush Hour Lee Jeong Hyeon     Gang Lim Jun Seo                Butterfly
The team starts off by trying to choose a leader, and it seems that some of them are reluctant to volunteer. Zhang Hao says that everyone should just take a moment to think about whether they want such a big responsibility, and then Yoon Jong Woo steps up. Almost immediately, the whole team says an enthusiastic yes. Jay says that JongWoo has cold eyes like a tiger but behind that he’s a genius. Heh. Everyone’s excited because they think that being on a team with JongWoo will give the team a good vibe.
Almost all of them want the killing part -- everyone but Jay, Lim Jun Seo, and JongWoo himself. 
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We see their auditions and are reminded again how great Keita’s and Hao’s vocals are. In the vote, Keita gets 4 votes and Hao gets 5. It’s noteworthy that Hao is the only one who didn’t vote for Keita or himself -- I think he voted for Ricky, but it might have been Chen Kuan Jui? It’s not clear from where his finger is pointing. But if Hao had voted for Keita, the way that Keita voted for Hao, it would have been a tie. Did Hao purposefully not vote for Keita in order to win? Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. 
Side note: I’m kind of surprised that Keita didn’t volunteer to be leader. This seems right up his ally. But maybe he’s kind of exhausted after working so hard on Zoom. Or maybe he knows that the show will punish his team if he’s the leader. But when he’s not the leader, Keita becomes an excellent teammate instead. Just watch the way that he reacts to EVERYTHING here. He grins broadly at the idea of JongWoo being the leader, and even puts his fist in the air to cheer for the team. He laughs with genuine good humor when almost all the teammates apply for the killing part. Later, he grooves to everyone else’s singing. He’s a fan of every other member of his team. That’s the kind of teammate people want to be around. Just sayin’.
After that, the team moves forward with part distribution, and there’s an uncomfortable moment in which Ma Jing Xiang tries to ask for a section of a part that is in his vocal range. It’s also edited horrifically, with TRIPLE replays of MJX’s incorrect Korean.  Yoon Jong Woo shuts him down extremely thoroughly. Then we also focus on how MJX continues dancing even when Jong Woo calls the team over to circle up. You get the feeling that Jong Woo genuinely dislikes MJX, and it’s a little uncomfortable because all or most of the team feels the same way. 
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Like, Yoon Jong Woo is not fucking around. Not one bit. I get it, because MJX seems like a pretty irritating person to be around sometimes, but it might be a bit… much. 
The other storyline is that Lee Jeong Hyeon (that’s Lee of the Mun and Lee duo) thinks that there’s a spot in the song that he could write a rap for. His teammates support him in that. The next day, they go to the producers and Lee gets to do the rap he wrote in less than a day for them. The editing here gets REALLY annoying for a bit so feel free to skip ahead if you want -- the upshot is the producers say they like it and will consider it, so that seems like a win for Lee! 
So we’ll have to find out:
Which teammates they’re going to kick out
Who will get to keep the Killing Part between Keita and Hao
Whether Lee Jeong Hyeon will get to do his rap
50:01 Switch
Here are the trainees, again arranged in order of rank in episode 6 so you have a sense of who is least likely to survive. A lot of these trainees had bene hoping for a different song, as listed in the second column. I’ve also listed their previous song to help jog your memory. 
Zhang Shuai Bo          Switch               Feel Special Na Kamden                 Switch               Law Cai Jin Xin Switch             Feel Special Anthonny Say My Name Limousine Brian             Say My Name      Butterfly Dang Hong Hai Switch                   Home Wumuti Switch                  Zoom Krystian Switch                  Limousine Jung I Chan Over Me             Not Spring Choi Woo Jin Switch                   Man in Love Lee Dong Gun Over Me             Feel Special
So, this team, as leader Wumuti put it, is “nomu down.” (nomu = very) And with good reason -- their average final rank is 38, and as it happens, only a very small percentage of this team is going to survive. 
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Wumuti is doing his best, but his team knows that most of them aren’t going to make it through the eliminations, and it seems kind of like a waste of time to them to try. The sense I get of the vibe of the song is that they would be good choices even if other people DID want the parts. 
Because no one else wants the killing part, Na Kamden and Wumuti take it. Wumuti is hoping that as they continue, that they’ll “find joy.” 
For some reason, as I was watching this, I found myself thinking, “What would I say as the leader of this team, to get them to try?” And I think what I would have said is this: “Hey team. I know a lot of us are discouraged right now because the reality is that many of us, myself included, may get eliminated soon. But I still really want to try my best preparing for this song. So, let’s brainstorm reasons that we should still try our hardest, despite the circumstances. I’ll get us started by pointing out the cameras that are recording us, right now. Everything we’re doing right now? The Star Creators may see that in an upcoming episode. Some of them are Star Creators who may have voted for us in the past, or might become fans of us in the future, when we’re on a different stage. Don’t we want to do our best, for them?” Then maybe based on the vibe, I’d have us go around and each give our own reason for wanting to try our best, or else just let people say things, or if necessary, give more reasons myself, like  “We want to be kpop performers or we wouldn’t be here -- don’t we want to practice just for the sake of improving?” You have to get a buy-in from the people you’re trying to lead. 
Me saying this isn’t knocking Wumuti. I think he was doing a fantastic job, especially considering his quite low rank. 
Anyway, then the show spends like 3 minutes just shitting on Jung I-Chan, who obviously could work a bit on his focus (I really do wonder if he might have something in the vicinity of ADD?) and who is obviously feeling super defeated. He never has been much of a dancer, so him having trouble with the choreo is probably just too much. At some point, his self-defense mechanisms would kick in and tell him to just give up because it’s safer. I just don’t think the guy is cut out for this stuff, but that doesn’t make him a bad person, MNET. Jeez. He even tells Wumuti, “I want to work hard, but I’m scared to work hard. It’s over.” 
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And the show just HAMMERS on I-chan, even though Lee Donggun is just as “lazy.” It’s like MNET is trying to destroy this kid who obviously has some mental health issues. 
It makes perfect sense that Kamden, Brian, and Dang Hong Hai would keep trying, but I was a little surprised to see how hard Krystian keeps trying, though! I thought he was pretty much OVER the show. Maybe it’s just sort of in his nature to keep singing and dancing when he has the chance to do so. 
At the trainee self eval, they actually look pretty cool.
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I totally understand why Wumuti is irritated with I-Chan, though. I would be too, in his shoes. There’s no easy way through a situation like this. 
We see him in the dorm later, wearing his official pink pajamas, and talking to someone who I can’t really see but might be Na Kamden. I don’t think we’ve ever spent this much time with Wumuti, ever. He’s such a sweetheart, though. 
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At their meeting with the composer oversees -- at which they seem to communicate mostly in English -- Wumuti has a lot of ideas, and the composer seems to really enjoy the conversation. The choreographers are also impressed at their dance rehearsal. These are the kinds of things that people remember, my friends. It’s not just about how many audience members like you -- it’s also great if producers and choreographers and staff like you. That is how sometimes you can get gigs. 
So I console myself that even though most of this team doesn’t survive to perform the song -- and yes, that includes Wumuti, I don’t think that’s much of a surprise and I did warn you that there would be some mild spoilers -- I think that good things can still happen for them in the future. 
Hey, go follow Wumuti on insta, ok? Even if you don’t use insta much, it just helps him to keep his numbers up. He has a nice cover up of UN Village, and a long note he wrote in English about his time on the show. Fighting, Wumuti, sweetie!
So, I guess the questions to be answered are:
Who among this team will survive? 
What will it be like for the replacement team members to jump into this work in progress?
1:00:00 Supercharger 
So, not a lot of trainees wanted Supercharger. Among those who asked for it, all of them got it. A lot of the rest wanted the super cheerful “Say My Name” or the sexy “Over Me,” and this song is neither cheerful nor sexy. It’s easily my least favorite of the five, and I think that’s how most of the trainees felt as well. Below I list the trainees assigned to this song, the song they asked for, and their previous song.
Haruto                         Supercharger           Zoom Mun Jung Hyun Say My Name Gang Jung Min Gyu            Over Me           Man in Love Chen Jian Yu             Supercharger           Gang Park Ji Hoo             Supercharger           Limousine Cong                         Supercharger           Butterfly Bak Do Ha             Over Me             Not Spring Lee Da Eul             Say My Name Not Spring Lee Dong Yeol           Over Me             Man in Love Park Hyunbeen Say My Name Zoom
We don’t seem them pick a leader -- it’s Lee Dongyeol -- or the killing part -- they give it to Haruto and Park JiHoo, good call. Instead, we pick up with the trainees as they are watching the demo performance on their tablet. The choreo is difficult to say the least. The song still requires a lot of tweaks to the rap, performance, and choreo, and most of the team doesn’t really have the skill. They have Haruto, who can probably choreograph, and Park Ji Hoo, who can definitely write raps, plus I think Mun Jung Hyun and Park Hyunbeen are both into rapping and might be able to help a bit.  Lee Dong Yeol debuted with Up10tion in 2015 and must have learned something about performance by now.  But the rest of them, as Dong Yeol puts it, “aren’t there yet.”
They seem to be putting on a happy face as much as possible, especially Hyunbeen, who probably doesn’t want to be remembered for how much he cried at the first elimination. 
They talk about how they want to put on a good performance, and my theory is that what they mean is, they want to put on a good performance at the trainee self-eval. That’s the performance that they know is guaranteed to them, right? And they want to do really well there. 
If you operate under that theory, everything else they’re doing makes sense. They’re not dwelling on their low ranks. They are instead working really, really hard. Haruto is the dance captain, leading the rest -- Jung Min Gyu (red house) calls him “Haruto-sensai,” which is pretty adorable. 
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They are trying so, so hard. The dance is probably the hardest of the five and the average dance abilities of this group is probably the lowest of the five, but goddamn if they aren’t trying, you guys, and it’s charming. Haruto is complimenting them, and they’re saying “This is fun!” and stuff. 
The other teams go back to the dorms to sleep…. 
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… but all ten of them stay and keep practicing. Even back in their dorms, they’re continuing to practice in the hallways and their rooms. Trainees from the other teams notice and cheer them on.
At the trainee self eval, though, things go off the rail pretty fast. No one really sings, and they sort of lose their place in the choreo a few times. I think they rehearsed in a big group of tne, looking into the mirror the whole time, and didn’t work enough on performing as a group of five and singing along, without a mirror. They keep trying to pick it back up, but it’s a mess.
The other trainees are looking at them like this:
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Kum Jun Hyeon says to a friend, “Wow, the choreo must just be THAT hard” -- that’s such a sweetly empathetic thing to say, cousin.  Park Hanbin is doing that thing he does where he smiles because he’s shocked. Hui is squinting at them, as if trying to imagine how he could fix it somehow. And Lee Yedam is just like, a full body Aigoo. Things don’t go better for the second team. 
It’s just heartbreaking. Afterward, Haruto is crying from embarrassment, and a few of the others are near tears too. The choreo is just too fucking hard for them. They probably should have focused on simplifying it a little, and maybe building in some rest periods, where a few dance a few don’t and then they switch. 
When they get the trainee evaluation forms, the feedback is brutal. But Park Hyunbeen says that this isn’t the worst. “The worst,” he says, “Was when I wore that vest for the Hot Sauce hidden camera.” Then he adds, “I was born to do Super Charger. I went on Boys Planet to perform that song and I don’t ever want to go home. I’ll make sure to survive and perform SuperCharger.” If only the show aired some of this footage before the voting period was over, lovey, but at least we see some of your mettle now. You’re a charming guy, Park Hyunbeen. Fighting!
So the questions that remain are:
Which trainees, if any, will survive? 
Which trainees will end up joining this team?
What will happen when they join -- will anyone be able to dance this choreo?
After that, there’s this bit where Seo Won and Cha Woongki go around and are silly with the other trainees -- the Planet Camp Tour --  and it’s cute, but I don’t have a lot to say about it. 
I still think Ollie was dumb to jam his finger into the camera and say that it smells bad. But he doesn’t know about my theory about bad smells on reality shows. Basically, something I’ve noticed is that on audience-vote-based reality survival shows, like So You Think You Can Dance, if someone on the show is revealed to smell bad at some point, they nearly ALWAYS go home the following week. Like once on SYTYCD, one of the dancers was complaining cheerfully that her dance partner had awful Doritos breath. Gone the next week. Another time, one of the dancers was joking about how awful he smelled at the end of a day of dance practice. Gone the next week. It doesn’t happen on shows where the judges decide, like RPDR or ANTM, but it happens whenever there’s an audience vote. Seriously, watch for it from now on. Let me know if you have another data point to add to my research on this. 
Anyway, the final moments we see before the eliminations start are all the trainees in their dorms probably the night before. We see a conversation between Hui and Kim Gyuvin, who worked together on Love Me Right and are together again on En Garde. It’s cute because Gyuvin doesn’t really fit on the bed. 
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Gyuvin is worrying not about this elimination, but about the final one. It’s far more likely, he reasons, that he’ll be one of the 89 who don’t get into Bepler than to be one of the 9 who do. Hui is worried too. “If I were a Star Creator,” he says, “would I vote for an idol in his 30s? Even I wouldn’t do that.” Oh Hui. Then why did you come on the show, sweetheart? Why on god’s green earth did you do this to yourself?
We see Wumuti talking to his friend again -- it has to be Na Kamden, but I still can’t get a look at his face or get any other clue. “ ‘Give up,’ “ he says. “I used to say those words to myself once in a while. But I can’t seem to. I want it so badly.” Oh, twist that knife, MNET. 
Then we check in with Ji Yunseo and and Lee Yedam, who are with a friend in a mask who I can’t identify. The fucking subtiles say that Lee Yedam is Oh Sungmin, and I mean, omg, MNET, Sungmin has blonde hair right now, what the actual fuck.  
Then we check in Cha Woongki for a while, while he calmly but sadly talks about how he’s not really that popular and even expected to come in last in Feel Special. Now they’re not just twisting the knife; they’ve attached it to a power drill and are just spinning that thing at like 200 rpm.
Then there’s a bit with the boys all writing final messages on the wall about their time on the show. It’s as sad as you’d think it would be. A lot of the notes are addressed to the star creators. I hope that the boys are at least happy to know that people did vote for them, even if they didn’t win. Every single one of them got hundreds of thousands of votes. That must mean something, right? I do a creative performance thing myself, and I recently was eliminated in the second round of something, but people came up to me afterward and said that they voted for me and thought I was the best and were sad I’d been knocked out, and that meant a lot. 
And then the eliminations start.
Alright, loves! Thanks for reading! At this point, episode 9 is out and I haven’t even watched it yet, so I guess I’ll get on that. As always, I really appreciate the support -- some of you have sent in asks that I really loved and just haven’t responded to yet because I have the thoughts in my head and haven’t had a chance to type them. You guys are great. Hope that you’re having a good day and that you’re warm and cozy wherever you are. See you in the next one.
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bitchesgetriches · 3 years
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To get this one out early to all your followers who I'm sure will eventually be asking: NFTs are essentially a scam. They're the digital equivalent of the creator of parks and rec scribbling you an autograph saying "Piggy owns parks and rec now, love, Mike" on the back of a napkin and jotting his phone number down on the bottom of it in case anyone wanted to ring and confirm that he did actually sign this autograph.
It's *technically* not actually a scam because deep in the small print it does usually specify that your NFT grants you zero rights zero ownership and is absolutely meaningless despite the marketing claims, and in theory the NFT in itself *could* have some sort of collectors' value (like an autograph could) but the marketing around them is VERY scammy making all kinds of ownership promises and rights implications that they really can't deliver on. It's also got a whole 'nother level that the whole scam essentially exists to suck real fungible money into the eretheum system, which as a previous poster has already pointed out is also a proof-of-work-based environmental disaster. NFTs are essentially a barely legal cash fleece to prop up the crypto bubble.
So buyer beware people, if you wouldn't pay that for an autograph from whoever it is, don't pay it for their NFT.
I suppose we should also cover "What is an NFT" shouldn't we?
An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token. What does that mean you might ask? Well fungible means it's practically exchangeable for anything else like it in the same class. The best idea of this is money. A ten dollar note is fungible. If I have my ten dollar note, or I swap it for a different ten dollars with you, or I swap two of them for a twenty, I don't fundamentally care. Ten dollars is ten dollars.
Non-Fungible is like an autograph. If I have an autograph from Joe Biden, it's not immediately and self-evidently equivalent to an autograph from Barack Obama. Sure, you might *decide* to make the trade, it might be worth it to you, but they're not inherently interchangeable. If you woke up one morning and someone had swapped out your Joe autograph for a DJT one, or your mom borrowed your Joe and promised she'd replace with a Ford one later, you'd be well within your rights to be pissed in a way that you just wouldn't be with a simple ten bucks.
An NFT takes this idea and makes it ~digital~. It's built on the same idea as crypto currency but they've made each one unique. Like putting different people's autographs on a ten dollar bill, I suppose - now your Joe Biden $10 IS different to your mom's Barack one (very ELI5 don't @me).
What they claim to do is provide digital "ownership" of art, or music, etc. As we all know, digital artwork can be copied and pasted to your heart's content, and no one can really own an original. Copyright law can come into play, but who *owns* the original. NFTs (claim to) attempt to solve that. When an original is created, the artist creates an NFT that says "X person owns this artwork" and sells it. This person now has a cryptographically secure little badge saying "I own this artwork", that they can prove no matter how many people copy and paste it. The idea being that everyone can see the Mona Lisa, or copy and paste a print of it, but only one person gets to OWN the Mona Lisa, right? Even owning the artwork doesn't necessarily give you copyright over it - that's normal, so NFTs just work the same. You get to own it and be the only person in the world who can prove they do. Seductive marketing. Cool, right?
Wrong.
Firstly - you do not "own" this artwork. Like, not even slightly. Hell, the artwork itself isn't actually contained within the NFT. It's usually just a link to another website that is contained within the NFT. Something like "the person who can correctly prove possession of this token owns the artwork at www dot artwork dot com". Well, can you imagine if the Mona Lisa did the same?? You'd never stand for that, would you? Can you imagine if you spent $1bn on buying the Mona Lisa and then looked at the fine print and it actually said that you own the painting that stands at the middle of the Denon Alley in the Louvre? Sure, that's the Mona Lisa NOW, but there's no guarantee it'll be the Mona Lisa next week.
Secondly. You do not actually own the art in any meaningful sense. The terms and conditions confirm this. You do not gain the copyright. You do not get the right to have it taken down. You do not get the right to exclusive use of the photo. You don't get the right to destroy it. You literally only own this digital token that says you own it. To take it back to the Mona Lisa example, it would be like getting a piece of paper saying you own the painting at the middle of the Denon Alley in the Louvre, but we're gonna keep hold of it: you're not allowed to move it, touch it, tamper with it, copy it, take photos of it, sell merchandise of it, stop anyone else from looking at it, or do any of the things that one usually associates with "owning" a painting. In fact, all you get is a piece of paper saying it's yours, and you can ring us up anytime to check we really did give you that paper. That's it.
What's the point? You don't actually own the painting in any meaningful way. It's like those "name a star" gifts. It may well be "official", but in practical terms it's worth diddly fuck all. You'd be pretty annoyed if someone told you you'd bought the Mona Lisa and that's all you got.
Thirdly (and finally)
There is literally NO benefit to 'owning' it for you. To go back again to the Mona Lisa, the example the sellers use to justify the "but anyone can copy it" is that anyone can own a print of the Mona Lisa, but only one person can own the original. You're the original owner of this digital artwork.
Except... The Mona Lisa is unique. Digital artwork isn't. The original and copies of digital artwork are - ironically - completely fungible. If I copy-paste the original file, they're both "originals". Neither has any more claim to be original than the other. And remember, there's no "original" actually stored in the token, just a link to something that shows another copy. The Mona Lisa is unique, different, there's only one copy. He only put his paints on one piece of canvas. Prints aren't the same. But a digital artwork? By the time it's finished being drawn and copied over to the website, it's a completely different set of electrons on a completely different server. It's already not an "original". It's a completely, utterly, identical copy. Which I can then download. And copy a thousand times. And they're all still perfect copies and indistinguishable from the original. If I swapped one of them out for another on the website my link points to, there's literally no technical or practical way to tell.
After all that. NFTs DO have some uses. They are ways to support the artist. They are ways to give money back. They are ways to make people feel special (like autographs). You may ask why would you buy a digital print from the K&P Etsy store if you think all digital art is the same. Why would you pay to download an ebook when you could pirate an identical copy for free. This is what they will come back to me with. And there's many - good - reasons to do so! There's many good reasons to buy digital art. And you should! Support your local artists! But this can be, and is already, all achieved without paying over the odds to falsely claim I actually own some sort of permanent original. It can certainly be done without all the crypto-hyped middle men taking their cuts. And it can be done in a way that doesn't prop up the horrible eco-disaster bubble that is a proof of work Blockchain.
The technology isn't a scam. The technology has real world uses and benefits. But the entire marketing ecosystem around it is a scam.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Now this is the kind of “better know a scam” content for which I come to the internet. Thank you so much for this primer on NFTs!
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cringesideblog · 3 years
Text
here’s my dnf playlist and a complete song by song track-list and why I put them on it.
heatwaves- on here for very obvious reasons. i don’t think I need to explain. but here are some lyrics anyway. “Sometimes all I think about is you, late nights in the middle of June.”
Jenny- again this is kinda obvious. “I wanna ruin our friendship, we should be lovers instead, I don’t know how to say this, cuz you’re really my dearest friend.”
TALK ME DOWN- this one just has the best friends pining for eachother vibe. “I wanna sleep next to you, and that’s all I wanna do right now.”
Dark paradise- kinda has dream smp vibes. but also you could argue heatwaves vibes. “Everytime I close my eyes, it’s like a dark paradise.” “There’s no relief, I see you in my sleep.” “There’s no release, I feel you in my dreams.”
Sweater weather- yeah you know why. you absolutely know why. “All I am is a man, I want the world in my hands. I hate the beach but I stand, in California with my toes in the sand.”
Drop the Guillotine- idk man just vibey. give it a listen you’ll get it. it’ll click. “You sure know how to drop that guillotine on me, though you would never wanna see me bleed.”
Can I call you tonight?- thats on their only for of communication being through the phone huh. (major heatwaves vibe) “powers out and I can’t turn the fan on, so can I call you tonight? trying make up my mind, just how I feel.”-“I hear your voice on the phone, now I’m no longer alone.”
Lemon boy- oh my god this song. geogre do be seeing dream as his lemon boy. “I helped him plant his seeds and we’d mow the lawn in bad weather.”
Yellow- DREAM IS LITERALLY GEORGES YELLOW SHUT UP RIGHT NOW. “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.” “For you I’d bleed myself dry.”
Like you do- first of all I love this song, second, this has dream being a little too attached vibes. The whole song is just them. “Lost in the blue, they don’t love me like you do, those chills that I knew they were nothing without you, and everyone else they don’t matter now. You’re the one I can’t lose, no one loves me like you do.” “Since I met you, all the gloomy days just seem to shine a little more brightly.”
I saw you in a dream- mega heatwaves vibe. “When I’m awake I can’t switch off,” “I saw you in a dream, you came to me. You were the sweetest apparition, such a pretty vision.”
Maybe you’re the reason- did someone say pining best friend who doesn’t know that they’re in love ? this song. this song right here. “I keep looking for something, even though I know that it’s not there. Maybe you’re the reason. And anytime I try to figure it out, you’re the only thing I can think about.”
The king- DREAM SMP VIBE. “You like me, well obviously, so why you tryna leave when you know that I’m the king?” “Other lovers give you no luck, cuz I’m the only one who’s made you fall in love.” “Playing with your heart cuz you gave me the throne.”
Sweet- an adorable song truly that actually fits them so well. “Watching the, video that you sent me- you know that I’m obsessed with your body, but it’s the way you smile that does it for me.” “It’s so sweet, knowing that you love me.”
Apocalypse- um okay here me out, apocalypse au?? yeah i know it’s cute as shit you’re welcome. “Your lips my lips, apocalypse.” “When you’re all alone, I will reach for you, when you’re feeling low, I will be there too.”
Fear of the Water- don’t come for me this ones kinda sad, beautiful song though. “If this was meant for me why does it hurt so much, and if you’re not made for me why did we fall in love?”
Dreaming of you- two words, heat. waves. but also yeah good song for them in general. “Want you all the time, and now I’m dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming of you.”
Wires- uhhhhh dream smp vibe, dream villain arc n all . “If he said help me kill the president, id say he needs medicine.” “He said that I should take it in, listen to every word he’s speaking.”
Midnight love- it’s girl in love so, you already know how it issss. “I know I don’t want to, be the one that you run to, when you’ve got nowhere else to go, when you need some love.” “I always give in to give you it all.” “I can’t be your midnight love, when your silver is my gold.”
The beach- SUCH A HEATWAVES SONG JUST LISTEN. “I feel it burning me, I feel it burning you.” “I think I can see the beach, I know what’s underneath. I need you here with me,”
Cherry flavored- the neighborhood just.. they have a dnf vibe. “Cherry flavored conversations with you got me hanging on. Down to earth from all the waiting. Take me somewhere beyond.”
Pretty boy- geogre is a pretty boy. point blank period. “Even if my heart stops beating, you’re the only thing I need with me.” “Pretty boy, you did this with me boy.” “As long as I got you, I’m gonna be alright.”
Bad idea- girl in reddd... but like imagine them casually hooking up and not knowing their in love tho. also I feel like they would definitely think that their relationship is a “bad idea” bc they’re stupid. “It was a bad idea, to think I could stop, was such a bad idea, I can’t get enough.” “Darling your so pretty it hurts.”
Line without a hook- ICONIC!! dream definitely does not think that he deserves george. “You can hold my hand if no ones home.” “All my emotions feel like explosions when you are around” “Oh baby I am a wreck without you.” “She’s a, she’s a lady, and I am just a boy. She’s a, she’s a lady, and I am just a line without a hook.”
Say you hate me- mega dream smp vibes as of recently. with the whole removing geogre as king. “I guess that your friends where right, from the start when they thought that I was a bad guy.” “Can you just say that you hate me? Or that you will never love me?” “Never meant to make you leave, never meant to make you cry.”
Cherry bomb- reminds me of how dream cheated on fundy with geogre. “I’m too close to crushing, and I’m too close for comfort I’m rushing.” “I ask how shes so mellow, she tells me her shades are in yellow.”
This side of paradise- I mean, like, kinda heatwaves vibes, but also just them. “Ask me why my hearts inside my throat. I’ve never been in love I’ve been alone.” “If you’re lonley come be lonley with me.”
Linger- geogre literally has that boy wrapped around his finger and I can’t not see it in this song. But when you look into it HELLA dream smp vibes, lyrics can be switched for either perspective here. “You know I’m such a fool for you, you got me wrapped around your finger.” “I thought the world of you, I thought nothing could go wrong, but I was wrong,”
august- i don’t know what is but this song is for them. it just is. “To live for the hope of it all. Cancel plans just in case you'd call” “So much for summer love, and saying “Us” Cause you weren't mine to lose”
I was an island- i just love the idea of them being hardasses and not thinking they need anyone until the other comes into their life and rocks their world. kinda dream smp vibes “I was a fighter, and I was so brave, but I lowered my sword when you held me and swore you’d stay.” “I was a wolf, dear, apart from the pac But you answered my cries in the dead of the night and told me that you had my back,”
Golden- k this one feeds into the “you’re literally the sun in my sky I’m not worthy” feel “I know you were way too bright for me I'm hopeless, broken” “I know that you're scared Because hearts get broken” “I can feel you take control Of who I am and all I've ever known Loving you's the antidote”
Strong- ummm okay but the “we’re better together” dynamic is them “I’m sorry if I say I need ya, but I don’t care I’m not scared of love.” “when I’m not with you I’m weaker is that so wrong? Is it so wrong, that you make me strong.”
Fly out west- the whole, I need to see you, you’re all I think about, stuff gets me. also heatwaves vibe. “Well tell me do you know? You’re all I dream about. Take it from me I’m too dumb to recognize your doubt.”
Cruel summer- them and summer, you dig? “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you.” “I love you and that the worst thing you ever heard?”
Nothings gonna hurt you baby- I put this one on here because of how protective dream is over geogre “Nothing’s gonna hurt you baby, as long as your with me you’ll be just fine. Nothings gonna hurt you baby, nothings gonna take you from my side.”
Cardigan- young love, the kind of lover that makes you feel like you are the most important thing in the world to them “when you are young they assume you know nothing, but I knew you-“ “and when I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone’s bed, you put me on and said I was your favorite.”
Cry baby- them being in that weird stage where they recognize that it might be more than just senseless flirting and they might have feelings but also being paranoid that they’re the only one with feelings uh- “I can taste it my hearts breaking, please don’t say it. That you know, when you know.” “I know I’ll fall in love with you baby, but that’s not what I wanna do baby.”
Speak now- literally the fundy dream wedding. i rest my case. “I hear the preacher say speak no or forever hold your peace.” “Dont say yes runaway now.”
I love you so- this song is cute on the surface but kinda sad once you look into it. it’s kinda about a codependent love that isn’t going well. “I gotta get away and let you go I gotta get over, but I love you so.” “You were cool and I’m a fool so please let me go.”
In conclusion I’d really appreciate if you could check it out :) <3
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noona-clock · 3 years
Text
What’s Your Sign?: Sagittarius
Genre: Celebrity!AU
Pairing: Choi Minho x You (Female!Reader)
Warnings: None
Words: 5,534
Author’s Note: Since I’m so fascinated by astrology, I decided to do a Zodiac series! I will be writing a one-shot fic for each sign featuring different members from different groups (and even an actor!). Each story will be posted on the 5th of the month during that sign’s season. Please reblog, comment, or send in an ask with your feedback! Thank you for your support 💜
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Ever since you’d seen him in his first ever role on a television series about five years ago, you’d fallen in love with Minho.
Choi Minho, probably the most attractive man you’d ever seen. Through a screen, at least. You hadn’t yet been lucky enough to see him in person.
And since you’d fallen in love with him after watching his very first episode of that television series, you’d done nothing but support him for the last several years.
You saw every one of his movies the day it released in theatres. You watched every single episode of every single television show he appeared in -- even if he was just a guest star.
His popularity from his first role had soared pretty quickly, which was really a win/win scenario. Minho, who presumably had been a struggling actor previously, was now flush with offers from directors. And you, an immediate superfan, got to spend a lot of virtual time with your new favorite actor -- because, not only did he act in a very large handful of projects every year, he was also interviewed on talk shows, featured in magazines, walking the red carpet of premieres and award shows. He didn’t have a social media presence for some extremely odd reason, but you still felt like you knew him.
From everything you’d seen and read about him, Minho was outgoing, friendly, and charismatic. He was confident, straight-forward, and optimistic. He basically always had some version of a smile on his lips, and based on many posts in the Choi Minho subreddit, he never turned down an opportunity to meet a fan out in public.
He... was basically perfect.
And you couldn’t stop yourself from daydreaming about one day meeting him, falling in love, getting married, and having about ten children together in the most beautiful house in the universe.
But, to be fair, your daydream wasn’t entirely impossible!
You were a bit of a celebrity, yourself!
Kind of.
On the Internet.
You had started a YouTube Channel six years ago, and at first, you hadn’t really had a clear vision for your videos. An absolutely rookie mistake, of course, but there’s nothing you could do about it now.
You’d started off with makeup tutorials because that had been the hottest YouTube trend at the time. But... you quickly discovered you weren’t as good at makeup as one should be to post a tutorial online in good conscience. You also weren’t quite good enough at doing your nails, cooking, or sewing to do videos about those.
For at least a few months, you’d been stumped. You knew you wanted your own YouTube channel -- you had a pretty fitting personality for it -- you just didn’t have any one marketable skill.
Until, one day, you stumbled upon a video of a guy watching a K-Pop music video for the first time and reacting to it. That was literally it. The whole video had been just him watching and talking about it.
And you were very good at that. You loved watching things on a screen -- YouTube videos, television shows, movies, you name it! And you always had thoughts running through your head while you watched something. In fact, you frequently wished one of your friends had exactly the same taste in music, shows, and movies as you so you could voice those thoughts aloud to someone who actually wanted to listen.
So, how had you never thought of doing that on your YouTube channel?! There was obviously a market for it -- the guy you’d watched had a few hundred thousand subscribers, and since it was something you genuinely enjoyed doing, you weren’t afraid of running out of content inspiration or motivation any time soon.
It was literally the perfect idea.
The next day, you had set up your camera, pulled up the first episode of your favorite television show of all time, and got to work. When you posted the video a few hours later (Re-watching my FAVORITE show of all time), something about it just felt right. Like the stars had aligned. No matter if you got five views or five thousand, you knew you were on the right path -- when it came to YouTube, at least.
Every day after that, you chose something else to watch -- a nostalgic movie, a viral YouTube video, the really cheesy musical episode of a television show. You tried to pick things from all along the spectrum, and you also tried to wait a few days in-between continuing on with your re-watch of your favorite show, simply for variety’s sake.
Little by little, your channel began to grow. After work, you would film, edit, and post -- every single day. On the weekends, you would film two different videos in case you ever needed to take a day off. Or in case you just felt like posting two videos!
Your first sponsorship offer email had come about six months after you’d posted your first video, and your eyes had nearly fell out of your head when you’d seen how much they’d offered you. (Looking back, your first paying YouTube gig really hadn’t been that much money -- compared to what you could make now, at least -- but it had still been incredibly thrilling.) And, really, that had been the catalyst of your YouTube career and popularity. It seemed just the one sponsorship had been all you’d needed to catch the attention of other brands who wanted to work with you, and when you got to the point where you could actually afford to quit your job and turn down sponsorship offers you weren’t wild about? That’s when you knew you’d made it.
Okay, but really, you knew you’d made it when one of your videos hit one million views for the first time (a video of you watching a particularly cringe-worthy teen movie from about ten years ago).
And now, six years later, you had almost four million subscribers, and your most viewed video had almost twenty million views. Sometimes, you still couldn’t believe it!
The highlight of your time on YouTube so far -- at least, in your eyes -- had been when you’d seen Choi Minho for the first time about a year after starting your channel. You’d still had less then one-hundred thousand subscribers back then, so if anyone ever left on a comment on a video mentioning how long you’d been a Minho fangirl or remembering when you first discovered him, you knew they were an OG subscriber. But ever since that video, you did absolutely nothing to hide your affinity for him, both as an actor and as a person. You watched and reacted to every single one of his movies and every single television show episode -- you even sometimes reacted to interviews or videos other fans had made about him.
Even when your channel hit some pretty big milestones -- five-hundred thousand subscribers, one million, two million, three million subscribers -- you never played it cool when it came to Choi Minho. You switched up your content and your editing style here and there, but one constant on your YouTube channel was the fact you let your inner fangirl shine for all the world to see.
In fact, just last month, the trailer for his new movie dropped, and you were able to upload your reaction to it within two hours. Since then, you’d read and watched every interview you could find, favorited every tweet about the upcoming film, and liked every post on the #ChoiMinho hashtag on Instagram. Since he had no social media, you had to be satisfied with other people’s content rather than his own.
You were scrolling through his hashtag on Instagram right now, actually, as you procrastinated getting out of bed to go set up for another day of filming.
Now that you had almost four million subscribers and were approached by more than several companies for sponsorships every single day, you were able to focus on your channel full-time. You definitely got cabin fever from time to time, but it was worlds better than filming after work and on weekends. Now, you could actually take a day off whenever you wanted! It was glorious!
But you still procrastinated working. You were still human, after all.
After you caught up on his hashtag and liked just about every picture you could, you navigated to your inbox to look through your DMs. Over the years, it had gotten pretty easy to skip past the spam and sugar daddy requests (which were plentiful, unfortunately), so you no longer dreaded checking the unread messages. You could usually tell which ones to delete straight away from the profile picture and first few words alone.
To be quite honest, you really only opened ones where you either could tell someone was genuinely reaching out to say hi or thank you for posting your videos or... messages with Minho’s name visible in the preview. Shameless, but oh well!
After deleting a few messages at the top which were clearly spam, the next one you came to was actually one of those messages -- you saw ‘Minho’ in the preview. It was the very first word, even! And in all caps.
You pressed on it as quickly as you could.
And when your eyes took in the rest of the message... your heart stopped.
MINHO WATCHED ONE OF YOUR VIDEOS!
...This had to be a prank, right?
But right after the message in all capital letters was a link to a YouTube video, and the preview for the video was right below the message.
It was one of those videos put out by a big fashion magazine where celebrities watch videos about them and react to it. Usually, musicians and singers would react to covers of their songs by fans, but every once in a while, actors would read tweets or watch fanmade videos about them.
And when you clicked on the link this person had sent, the video opened in your YouTube app to show the title “Choi Minho Watches Fan Videos on YouTube,” and your eyes widened.
If what the Instagram message said was true... Minho had watched not only a fan video... but your fan video. And since his movie was premiering in just a couple of days, he had most likely watched your reaction to the trailer.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
Since the video had started automatically after clicking the link, you took a deep breath and concentrated all of your focus on your phone screen. You were not going to miss the part where he watched your video.
But, of course, after not even thirty seconds, you found you had already gotten distracted by how handsome he looked.
You quickly shook your head a bit, widening your eyes briefly before narrowing them to focus on your screen again. “Come on, Y/N,” you muttered to yourself. “You can watch it again right after this to admire him.”
It was only a fifteen-minute video, so it’s not like you had to wait forever to get to the part where he watched you!
Still, though, as the minutes ticked by, you felt your heart begin to race in anticipation.
What would he say about you? Would he find your obsession with him creepy? I mean, it had to be a little creepy watching someone squeal and profess their love for you -- someone you’d never met!
But, then... when you got really mushy comments... most of the time, it didn’t feel creepy. It just felt sweet, and you were incredibly grateful that a lot of your subscribers and viewers were so supportive.
Ugh! You were getting off track again!
You shook your head once more and set your gaze back onto your phone screen.
Finally, when the clip of Minho watching a fanmade music video transitioned into the clip of him watching your video, your breath caught in your throat.
Were you going to survive this?
Outcome is unclear.
“Oh, yeah, I know her,” Minho said as your trailer reaction video began to play in the corner. “She’s the reaction girl, right?”
Your jaw dropped.
................Excuse me?!
Minho knew you?!
As you watched Minho watching you with the most adorable soft grin on his lips, your hand slowly crept up to cover your mouth in shock.
And, then, when you in the video paused the trailer to bring up another one of his movies that this trailer had reminded you of, his grin widened and he looked very pleased. “She knows her stuff, huh?”
You heard someone behind the camera murmuring something, and subtitles appeared on the screen. “She’s a known superfan, actually.”
Minho’s brow furrowed and he leaned toward the camera. “She’s what?”
“A superfan,” the person repeated, a little bit louder. “She’s known to her viewers for watching all of your movies and shows. There are always comments about you on all of her videos.”
Minho’s eyes widened a little in surprise. “Really? All of them? Comments about me?” He leaned back and nodded slowly after, apparently, receiving a positive answer. “I had no idea. I’ve just seen her videos about, like, the cheesy teen movies we watched as kids.”
You truly almost dropped your phone.
So... he knew who you were, but he hadn’t known that you fangirled over him on a regular basis?
First of all, how was that possible?
Second of all, did it really matter?! He knew who you were!
He knew who you were!
You didn’t expect that he regularly watched your videos, but still.
HE KNEW WHO YOU WERE!
Your heart was practically beating out of your chest as you watched him finish up watching your reaction video. The look on his face was one of delight, and even though you knew he was a good actor, it sure didn’t seem like he was simply pretending not to be creeped out.
“She’s so fun,” he smiled as your video ended, his gaze shifting back to the person he had spoken with earlier. “She has more? Like, for my movies?”
The person mumbled something back, and this time, there were no subtitles on the bottom of the video. But Minho’s eyebrows shot up immediately.
“All of my movies?” he asked. And then he let out a joyous chuckle and added, “No way.”
He quickly turned to the computer and clicked on your channel name.
But the video transitioned into another clip of someone else’s video, so you didn’t get to see if he actually watched any other ones.
Even if he hadn’t, you were still overjoyed -- to say the least -- that he had watched just one!
He knew who you were! He had actually known who you were before this which was probably the most surprising thing you’d ever heard in your entire life. (Besides the fact that Minho was currently single. That was definitely more surprising than anything.)
After sitting in your bed for a few minutes, staring blankly at your screen as the video finished up, your gaze unfocused and blurry, you finally came to when you realized the video had ended.
And then you proceeded to freak out.
You squealed and shrieked and kicked your legs and rolled around and scrambled to your feet to jump up and down on your bed with glee.
Was this the best day of your life?
Quite possibly!
Once you’d calmed down just a tad, you plopped back into a sitting position, crossing your legs into a pretzel as you navigated back to Instagram.
You sent a reply to the person who’d sent you the video (”OH MY GOD THANK YOU HE KNOWS ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”) and then refreshed your inbox.
As expected, a whole new slew of messages came through and literally every single one seemed to be about the video.
Your lips split into a huge grin, and just before you clicked on a random one to read and reply to it... you noticed that one message had a blue check by the sender.
Pausing, you shifted your gaze to that message.
And your heart jumped up into your throat when you recognized the name of the account.
Obviously, it wasn’t Minho himself because he didn’t have one.
But it was the next best thing.
His management company.
You followed them, of course, and liked every single picture about him or with him. Of course!
But you had never gathered up the courage to message them. You’d had no reason to! What would you have said?
And now they were messaging you.
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The several days following the video of Minho watching your video had been... a blur. To say the least.
You still weren’t even really sure how you’d gotten here.
I mean, you knew you were here because Minho’s management company had direct messaged you on Instagram inviting you to the premiere of his movie and you had accepted without one millisecond of hesitation and then you’d gotten on a plane a couple of days later and then checked into a super nice hotel and had a stylist and makeup artist sent to your room and after many hours you now looked better than you ever had in your entire life.
That’s how you got here.
But you still weren’t even really sure how you’d gotten here.
A rather large stroke of luck?
Good karma?
Hard work to grow your YouTube channel into something that would make you more easily recognizable by actual celebrities and their management companies?
Or a combination of the three?
Either way, you were overwhelmed with gratitude, and you knew you would never be able to forget this experience -- even if you, for some odd reason, wanted to.
I mean, you were currently in a really nice car, and the driver (yes, you had a driver!) was taking you to the red carpet.
The red carpet!
An actual movie premiere! With an actual red carpet!
And the movie was Minho’s movie.
You were at the premiere of Minho’s movie.
Oh my god, what if you saw him?!
As the car rolled to a stop in front of a crowded theatre, your heart and stomach dropped down to your very expensive and gorgeous shoes.
You’d gone to somewhat fancy events before -- it came with the job of being a YouTuber -- but never anything like this. Never an actual movie premiere. Never the chance of seeing your favorite actor in the history of time. And, obviously, never walking a red carpet.
Your door magically opened just as the car stopped moving, and a hand popped out of nowhere to assist you in exiting the vehicle. As gracefully as you could, you slipped your fingers into the mysterious palm, allowing it to gently pull you up and out of your seat and onto the sidewalk.
Almost immediately, camera clicks, light bulb flashes, and inquiring voices filled the air.
Cameras and lights in your face, you were used to. It was your everyday life, in fact!
But... all these people? Looking at you? Watching you? Taking pictures of you?
I mean, yeah, a few million people watched your videos. But it was absolutely not the same as a hundred or so reporters and photographers standing right in front of you.
Thankfully, some short but very powerful woman guided you onto the red carpet, muttering to you that all you had to do was stand in front of the backdrop, pose and smile for the cameras, and then move on to the next mark. Some reporters from news and entertainment channels would be waiting along the way to interview you (which didn’t scare you quite so much as you’d been interviewed a few times before), and all in all, it would take about an hour.
But it took you way less than an hour to discover that walking a red carpet is not as glamorous as it looks on television.
Walking like your shoes were covered in almost-frozen molasses so every photo taken was a good one. Switching back and forth between facial expressions so every photo taken wasn’t the same one. And do you know how many good places there are to put your hands when posing for a picture? Exactly two. One was on your hip and the other at your side. That was it. Definitely not clasped in front of or behind you, and definitely not tucking your hair behind your ear.
And just when you were sort of getting used to the constant posing for pictures, another short but powerful woman gently grabbed your arms and led you to a reporter from the most-watched entertainment news channel in the country.
“Hello, hello!” the perky reporter chirped as you approached her. “Come on over here!”
“Hi,” you greeted awkwardly as you made your way to the small mark on the ground next to her, holding up your skirt with one hand so you wouldn’t trip.
“Y/N! Good evening, good evening, how are you doing?” she asked before sticking the microphone in your face.
You had to quickly get over the shock of her knowing your name since you didn’t want to look like a fool on live television, so you forced a grin on your lips and answered, “I’m pretty overwhelmed, actually!” you chuckled.
“Is this your first time at a red carpet?”
“It is, yes,” you confirmed with a slight nod. “And I’m so used to being alone in my house, talking to myself in front of a camera, so this is all new territory for me.”
The reporter laughed with delight before asking which designer you were wearing. You answered her with ease since your stylist had drilled it into your brain before you’d left the hotel.
Then, after she asked you to tell the folks at home what you’re known for, she said, “It’s a pretty fun story of how you got here, isn’t it?”
“Oh, it is,” you answered, your lips pulling into a shy but excited grin. “I woke up one morning to a message on Instagram, and someone had sent me --”
The reporter interrupted you then, and you noticed her gaze was directed over your shoulder. You turned to look, and --
Well, the next few moments happened so quickly, you really had no idea how you reacted.
“Y/N!” Minho called out, smiling widely and waving before reaching out and sliding his hands over your shoulders. He stood next to you, squeezing you once before letting his arms drop down to his side. “I’m so sorry for interrupting --”
“No, we were just talking about why she’s here at your premiere!”
Minho’s smile brightened even more, and he continued on with the story you’d been telling.
Meanwhile, you were standing there. Mute. Staring at him.
Because oh my god.
How was it actually possible that Minho was more handsome in real life?
But also, how was it actually possible that Minho was standing next to you in real life?
But also also, how was it actually possible that Minho was real?
That’s the real question, isn’t it?
You came to when you heard him say, “Yes, this is our first time meeting,” before turning to you and holding out his hand for a handshake. “It’s so nice to finally meet you!”
You took his hand, shaking it weakly, and said the first thing that came to your mind: “Oh my god, hi.”
The reporter giggled, but Minho, instead of acting embarrassed for you, simply let go of your hand and moved to pull you into a hug.
Holy cannoli, Minho was hugging you.
Choi Minho. Was hugging. You.
Hugging!
You!
“It’s so nice to finally meet you!” he repeated with a grin after pulling away, though he was still incredibly close to you and gazing at you with those sparkling, dreamy eyes of his.
“You, too,” you managed to reply shakily.
The reporter then went on to interview Minho, asking him who had designed his suit, what his character in this new movie was like, and if he was working on any new projects.
“I’m in the early stages of something, yes,” he answered. “I don’t think I can say too much more, but in the meantime, I think I’d really like to film some videos with Y/N, branch out onto social media.”
Your heart stopped, and you knew your facial expression was doing nothing to hide your surprise.
Minho then turned to you with an adorably guilty look on his face. “I mean, if it’s alright with you, of course.”
“Yes, absolutely!” you burst out immediately, and the reporter giggled once again.
“Well, there you have it, guys,” she said after turning to face the camera. “You heard it here first -- a brand new collaboration in the works, so keep an eye out.”
She turned to you then and asked you to remind the viewers of the name of your YouTube channel. You leaned into the microphone and silently praised the lord you were able to remember it.
“Thanks so much, you two,” the reporter said with a very peppy grin. “Have a wonderful evening!”
“You, as well,” Minho answered before putting a hand in-between your shoulder blades and guiding you back to the red carpet.
Wait, he was guiding you back to the red carpet? He wasn’t... leaving?
“I’m so sorry,” he murmured in your ear, his breath causing the most delicious tingle down your spine. “I swear I wasn’t trying to be rude, I just wanted to meet you --”
“No,” you shook your head slightly. “It’s -- it’s totally fine. It wasn’t rude at all. I’m -- I just -- I’m a little overwhelmed. In a good way!”
“Totally understand. I remember my first movie premiere like it was yesterday, I know exactly how you’re feeling.”
You simply let out a nervous chuckle, but then Minho did something to make you even more nervous (which you hadn’t even been sure was possible).
He bent his arm and held out the crook of his elbow toward you.
“Shall we?”
Okay, you were now convinced this was a dream. This was all a wonderful, perfect, heavenly dream.
There was just no way that any of this could happen in real life! Being invited to Minho’s movie premiere was one thing, but him interrupting your interview on the red carpet and mentioning he wanted to film a YouTube video with you? Him offering to actually walk the red carpet with you on his arm?!
Nope. Definitely not real.
So, since this was absolutely a dream, you figured you’d just go with it!
“We shall,” you replied as a soft smile tugged at the corners of your lips.
You slid your hand into the crook of Minho’s elbow, and the two of you slowly made your way down the red carpet. Together.
It didn’t take long for you to be awed by his professionalism. When the cameras began to flash, he posed like a natural. It seemed so easy for him, but you figured it probably was easy after going through this so many times. 
He murmured helpful hints and reassuring words to you as you struggled through, and he even insisted on doing his interviews with you by his side.
(Of course, before the two of you approached each reporter, he asked you quietly if you would rather have the spotlight all to yourself. He didn’t want to usurp your first experience on the red carpet and would gladly step away so you could finish the process on your own. You declined every single time.)
When you finally reached the entrance to the theatre about an hour later, you figured Minho would say it had been nice to meet you and be on his way.
But you should’ve remembered that this was a dream!
“Do you want to come inside? We can sit together during the movie if you want. I mean, you’re pretty much my unofficial date already, but you can absolutely say ‘no’ if you don’t --”
“I would love to,” you interrupted, your voice more sure and firm than it had been all evening.
But hearing your favorite actor and biggest crush of all time declare that you were his date for the night would do that to you. Plus, Minho literally exuded confidence and warmth -- you’d always thought so while watching him on a screen, and it was both relieving and exciting to learn he was exactly the same in real life.
Minho smiled at you and then led you into the theatre, your heart now basically in a constant state of flips and somersaults.
Once the two of you took your seats in front of the screen, Minho turned slightly toward you.
“I have to admit, I’ve been watching your videos a lot since I filmed the reaction for the magazine,” he said with the most attractive half-smile you’d ever seen in your life. “Seriously, thank you so much for being so supportive.”
“Oh my god, no, thank you,” you replied breathlessly. “I can’t believe you watched my videos.”
“They’re kind of addicting,” he chuckled. “I don’t know what it is, but I definitely understand why you have so many subscribers. I actually created my own YouTube account just so I could subscribe to you.”
Your eyes widened, and your heart actually stopped somersaulting because it stopped beating altogether.
“Are you serious?” you asked.
“You’re so entertaining! It feels like watching those movies and shows with a friend. And I like how you’re really honest but still nice about it. You don’t seem to have a cruel bone in your body.”
“Uh, no, I think you’re getting me mixed up with yourself,” you replied with a somewhat awkward laugh.
Minho simply grinned at you, and the somersaults started back up inside your chest.
“I was serious about wanting to film with you, though,” he said, eyebrows raised earnestly. “I would love to collab --”
“Yes, absolutely,” you reassured him as fervently as you could. “Literally whenever. Please. Yes.”
“Okay, good,” Minho chuckled before reaching into his pocket and sliding out his phone. “Here, give me your number so I can let you know when I’m free next.”
You hesitated before accepting his phone because...
What?!
Minho was giving you his phone. His actual phone. So you could put in your number? Your number?
This night just kept getting more and more unbelievable.
But you were never in a million years going to pass up the opportunity to give Choi Minho your phone number, so you took his phone and quickly added yourself as a contact.
“Perfect,” Minho murmured, almost to himself, when you handed his phone back to him. He looked at the screen for a few moments, and you noticed a soft grin pulling at his lips. And then he shifted his gaze over to you and said, “I can’t wait.”
And... as your eyes locked on his...
You had a moment.
A moment.
One of those moments you will never, ever forget as long as you lived.
One of those moments where your future basically flashed before your eyes.
Minho arriving at your house to film a video with you, a friendship forming, late night texts and phone conversations, going out to restaurants whenever he was in town... a more than friendship forming.
And you truly could’ve sworn this was not just your heart wishing, but... you honestly felt like you were going to marry this man.
“I can’t either,” you replied softly just before the lights went down.
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The first thing you did when you got home was set up your camera and film a video relaying everything about your experience at Minho’s movie premiere.
Of course, you didn’t mention The Moment -- y’know, the moment you had when you realized you were most probably going to marry him? And you could just feel that it wasn’t wishful thinking? You figured it was probably best to keep that to yourself for now.
But everything else you shared with your subscribers, and you did nothing to hide how wonderful and magical it had all been -- and it had really been Minho which had made it so perfect.
“And you guys, he is truly exactly the same in person as he seems in, like, interviews and stuff. He’s so nice and so friendly and so warm and so gracious and --”
But you were interrupted by a text message.
Most of the time, you left your phone on silent as you filmed, but you’d been too excited to get all of your thoughts out that you’d forgotten to switch the sound off before turning the camera on.
“Whoops,” you murmured as you reached for your phone on your desk in front of you.
Instead of simply turning your phone on silent, though, the actual text message you’d received caught your eye and was too intriguing to ignore.
It was from a number you didn’t have saved, but your instinct to read the first few words of a message from an unknown sender took over... and you were incredibly glad it did.
Because the message was:
Hey, it’s Minho 😁 Are you free next week?
OTHER SIGNS: ARIES, TAURUS, GEMINI, CANCER, LEO, VIRGO, LIBRA, SCORPIO, CAPRICORN, AQUARIUS, PISCES
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clanwarrior-tumbly · 4 years
Note
So I did the random word generator, and I got paper. And that made me think of paper airplanes. So, how about reader making a paper airplane and throwing it through the SDR2 Boys window, and inside the paper airplane is a love letter confessing reader’s feelings toward them.
T h a n k you for this bc I gotta practice writing the bois. I absolutely love writing these types of scenarios owo
..........
Teruteru
“Oh? What could this be~?” The chef noticed the paper airplane that appeared on the floor of his cottage, picking it up. 
It was only then he noticed his partially opened window and chuckled. For him, it was easy to put two-and-two together.
“Ah, how cliche. Do I have a secret admirer on this island? Perhaps they wanna share all their secrets with me~?” The thoughts running through his mind almost made his nose bleed, though he managed to control himself as he unfolded the plane to read its contents.
And it turned out to be a simple love letter from you--short, sweet, and innocent. You even marked it with a heart at the bottom of the page.
Teruteru’s face became tomato-red as he clutched the letter to his chest, before hurrying out of his cottage and to the hotel restaurant, unable to contain his excitement any longer.
“I’m on my way, my new beloved~!!” He trilled, knowing you’d be waiting for him there.
...............
Gundham
“Huh..so this is what the mighty winds have carried into my domain.” Gundham mused as he looked at the paper airplane that somehow landed on his bed. He looked outside for a moment, wondering who could have sent it--but there was no one.
“A mysterious messenger, hm..what do you think, Cham-P?” He glanced at the large golden hamster on his shoulder, seeing his nod of approval. “Fuhaha! Then it’s decided! Now..let us see what this message entails.”
With a hum, he unfolded the note and read it thoroughly, gawking about halfway through it. 
“...wh-what...this...is this...a-a proclamation of love?!” He tugged his scarf over his blushing face. “But..who could love such a....ah..” Then he reached the bottom of the note and saw it was none other than-
“[Y/n], but of course. There’s...a certain aura to them that..I can’t help but feel enchanted by,” he muttered to himself. “But I shall harden my heart until I know this proclamation is true, lest I turn out to be a blind fool..”
With that declaration, he got up and summoned the Dark Devas to his side, before venturing out of his cottage, clutching the note tightly.
............
Kazuichi
“AH!! I’VE BEEN AMBUSHED!!”
The scream made you stop in your tracks as you looked back, seeing the door fly open and a certain mechanic come rushing out. 
“[Y/n]! Thank god you’re here!” His hands flew onto your shoulders. “I got hit by an object!! I-I think someone was tryna kill me!!”
‘Oh boy..’ You thought, realizing that your plan didn’t go accordingly. “Well, did you see what the object was?”
“N-No...but...what does it matter?!!”
“.....wouldn’t it help to find out what it was if you’re convinced it was attempted murder?”
“..that’s true. C’mon. I don’t wanna go back alone.” Kazuichi dragged you into his cottage, making sure he locked the door once inside. “It came through that window, hitting me in the back of the head....damn it. I just wanted fresh air and I can’t even get that!” Then he shut the window with a huff.
“Was it this?”
Looking back, he saw the paper airplane in your hand. “Yeah-!! Wait...a paper airplane? Seriously? That’s what attacked me?”
“I sent this.”
“...so YOU attacked me?!”
“I didn’t mean to!” You snapped, causing him to fall silent, before you unfolded it and handed it to him. “It’s a letter...for you. It’s got nothing to do with murder, I promise.”
He cautiously took the paper and read it, mumbling to himself. By the time he was done, his face became red. “[Y/n]...is this true?” He looked up at you with a toothy grin and stars in his eyes. “You like me??!!”
“Yeah..” You smiled back. “Though I was hesitant to send it since, y’know....you had eyes on Sonia-”
“Oh! Don’t worry, I only admire Miss Sonia from afar!” He explained. “As the princess she is, I only wanna respect and defend her. Nothing more! I-I’ve honestly...liked you for a while too. My bad for not reading this sooner.”
“It’s okay,” you chuckled. “At least I have my answer.” 
...............
Fuyuhiko
“Sheesh, try not to poke my other eye out next time, okay?”
“Wh-Wha..” You spun around to see the Ultimate Yakuza, realizing he was clutching the note--that was once a paper airplane--in his hand. “Sorry, Fuyu..I had no idea where it would land so I uh...booked it. Kinda. How did you know-?”
“Saw you taking off before this even got into my room,” he explained. “I still got one good eye to keep a lookout for things.”
“..ah, I see..” You rubbed your neck awkwardly. “So um...you must’ve read it.”
“It’s laughably cliche, but...I...uh...d-do feel the same way as you..” Fuyuhiko mumbled the last part, but you could hear his confession clear as day, and your eyes lit up.
“R-Really? I mean...I...I wasn’t sure, since I know you’re still trying to move on from-”
“It’s okay.” He sighed, looking back at you. “It..hasn’t been easy, but..you were the first to forgive me after that trial. Even though...I acted like a total shithead to you when we first got here. Still feel kinda bad about it..”
Your racing heart eventually calmed itself, as you smiled gently and approached him. “It’s okay. If..you wanna make up for it, maybe we can..uh..hang out at the movie theater sometime today?”
“Tch, like a first date?” He chuckled. “Alright. I’m in.”
............
Nekomaru
“[Y/N]!!”
The booming voice made you nearly slam the mailbox door on your hand. You had a habit of checking it mornings and nights.
You whirled around to see Nekomaru rush over to you, a wide grin on his face as he clutched a certain note in his large hand. “I have received your confession letter and accept it wholeheartedly!!”
“R-Really?” You gawked. “Just like that..?”
“Of course!” He laughed. “Your method of delivery is unique! Very old-school. And clearly you’ve put all of your heart and soul into this letter. If I were to ever reject that hard work, my name wouldn’t be-!!”
“Nekomaru Nidai?” You chuckled, feeling calmer now that he was serious.
“See? You already know me better than I know myself!” The Ultimate Team Manager grinned as he hugged you to his chest. “Can you hear that? My heart is beating with great spirit and love!!”
“Yeah, I definitely hear it loud and clear.” Smiling, you hugged him back, happier than ever.
...............
Twogami
When Byakuya found a paper airplane on his desk, he didn’t know what to think at first.
This was childish at best--sneakily throwing it through the window and then taking off? If one of the others wanted to talk to him about something, then they should’ve just rang the doorbell. 
Surely he wasn’t that intimidating of a leader...even if some didn’t like it.
But curiosity eventually won over everything else, and so he took the paper, realizing there was a message on it. “Hmm, very strange..” He hummed, opening it to read what it said.
And he swore his heart stopped, realizing this was a confession and the sender was....you?
Did you really think of him that way? Even though..he hasn’t fully told you the truth about his Ultimate?
And if he did, would you still send him something like this?
.............
Hajime
Hajime didn’t know why he woke up earlier before the morning announcement--until he noticed something right next to his face. “Huh..? What’s this?”
Sitting upright, he picked up the object. “Oh, a paper airplane. Haven’t seen one of these in forever.”
With a small chuckle, he unfolded it, having noticed letters on the inside of it--and also a red heart, oddly enough. He read the message written and...his heart began racing as he realized this was a love letter.
Even though he had his suspicions, he couldn’t believe someone on this island would love a talent-less person like himself.
Why?
As he read the sender’s name, Hajime jumped as he heard a knock on his door. He quickly stuffed the note under his pillow before going to answer it--seeing you on the other side.
“A-Ah..[y/n]..hi. Thank you for knocking..” He tried to play it cool, tugging on his shirt collar awkwardly, though you just smiled.
“I take it you read it already?”
“What? Oh! Uh..yeah..” The poor boy’s face grew redder by the second.
“I thought the paper airplane idea was too childish, so...I figured I’d come here and confess myself. But...seems I’m a little too late for that.” You chuckled nervously. “So....?”
“I-I don’t know what to say..” He admitted. “Why me? I’m the most ordinary out of everyone here.”
“Oh. Hajime.” With a small laugh, you took his hand into yours. “Because it’s you that I feel happiest around..all those times we’ve spent together..meant a lot. I had fun and I’d like to do more of them with you.”
“A-As..your boyfriend you mean?” Hajime gulped, smiling as he tried retaining his composure. “Sure. I’d..love to do that.”
............
Nagito
“Heh..I never would’ve guessed a nobody like me was at the center of someone’s heart..”
“Uh, I’m right here, Nagito.”
“Oh I know.” The white-haired male chuckled as he spun around on his heel, facing you. He looked down at the love letter you had cleverly disguised as a paper airplane. “But..come to think of it..Mikan’s words had me a bit...crushed..”
You tilted your head, remembering the third trial. “You mean, when she said-?”
“That I had nobody who loved me? Well, it seems she was wrong about that.” His smile seemed to stretch wider as he put the letter in his pocket. “I guess I can’t call myself a stepping stone anymore..now that I have a new purpose--one that fills me with a much greater hope!” He wheezed out a small laugh.
While his laughter usually unnerved the other students, you could only smile and feel your heart grow warmer whenever you heard it.
“Yes, yes..perhaps this was the love she was talking about.” Nagito put a hand to his chest. “But this love wasn’t born from despair.”
“Nah, that’s just a twisted sense of love.” You reached out to take his other hand into yours, bringing him slightly closer to you. “This is real, genuine love.” 
His face became a bit flushed, though it wasn’t from the despair disease, but from the simple realization that..
He was lucky enough to be loved.
..........
Izuru
“So, instead of talking to me, you sent this.”
“Oh!” You turned around to see the “Ultimate Hope” standing before. There was an open note in his hand that you tried to deliver to his room in the form of a paper airplane.
The keyword is “tried”, as he was quick to call out to you before you had the chance to run away. So you felt embarrassed, especially as he skimmed over your letter.
After a long and awkward silence, Izuru finally looked up at you. His face remained blank, though you could tell he was curious about your message.
“Yep, that’s my uh..confession.” With a sigh, you approached him calmly. “I know..love is something foreign to you, but...I figured I’d take my chances. Even if the world’s gone to shit, I had to at least get this off my chest. And before you ask...no, it’s not because of your talents.”
“....I see.” He muttered, his gaze returning to the letter. “You understand what I am and what I’ve done, and yet...huh...?” Then he put a hand to his chest, stunned for a moment as he felt his heartbeat slightly quicken.
Wait..
His heart?
What was happening to him? 
What is this?
“Huh, they might’ve suppressed your old feelings. But..not all of them, it seems.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to that exactly.
This was something he definitely couldn’t have predicted.
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Sooooo NSFW alphabet (as a whole) for our dear clone boys? Wolffe or Cody...u decide ❤ thank u
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A/N: I decided to go with Wolffe on this one because, I like Wolffe.  Also, I think I’ve got a better grasp on his character. And, just as a reminder REBLOG AND COMMENT IF YOU LIKE THIS!!! Likes mean nothing on this site and the tags hate me personally.
A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)
Panting, sweating, and holding you close.  He seriously loves nothing more than pulling you against him as he presses soft kisses all over your skin.  You practically have to bribe him to let you go long enough to wash up after.
B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)
He loves your ass.  There’s no getting around it.  He loves the way it feels in his hand.  He loves the sound you make when he squeezes it.  And most of all, he hates to see you leave, but he loves to watch you go.
For himself, Wolffe is pretty proud of his chest.  He loves the feel of your hands on him.  He knows you watch him when he’s training with his brothers.  And you’ve made it your mission in life to kiss an admire every scar on it.  How could he not appreciate your efforts?
C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)
It’s a tie if he prefers cumming in your mouth or in your cunt more.  Either way, cumming inside you is the best feeling in the world for him.  It’s like he’s proving to himself that you’re his.  It’s his cum inside you, nobody else, and you’re letting him.
D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)
He still has your panties from the first night you had sex.  He’s not proud of it, but when he’s been away from too long, he likes to hold the lace as he jerks off.  He would never tell you.
E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)
Let’s go with limited before he meets you. Obviously none of the clones even see any sort of potential sexual partner until after their training is over, and after then it’s kind of few and far between.  Wolffe has had a couple of one night stands with some women who have come into 79′s, but that’s about it.
F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)
Doggy style.  Cliche? Yes. But true. He loves having a perfect view of your ass as he cock slides in and out of you, coated with you slick.  He loves the control it gives him.  But he especially loves covering you with his body and bite into your shoulder as you both cum.
G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)
Not really.  He can be a little cheeky at times as he teases you, but most of the time it’s fast, rough, and completely erotic.
H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)
He keeps it pretty trim down below.  He knows you’re not a fan of a mouth full of pubic hair when you suck him off.  The least he can do is keep your comfort to a minimum.
I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)
In the moment it’s like he wants to absorb your body into his. Even when he’s taking you from behind, he grabbing and pulling and kissing your skin like it’s the only thing keeping him alive.  So, romantic? Maybe not.  Intimate? Yes.
J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)
He’s away a lot and every now and again needs to let off some steam.  He shares his bunk with his brothers, so getting off there without leaving some evidences is a trick.  Most of the time he waits until late at night on the ship and slips into the showers when nobody is around.  It’s then a matter of turning on the warm water and picturing you’re in there with him.  He’s gotten off plenty of times to the thought of your lips wrapped around his cock as the water pours down both your bodies.
K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)
Praise kink. We know Wolffe has his own reservations about being a clone.  While he’s gotten better, the idea that he’s one of literally millions ways on him at times.  So to have you call his name, praise his fingers, his cock, his lips and know that he’s the one making you see stars is everything to him.
Also totally a Dom.  Not full blown latex and whips, but he does like the idea of tying you up and letting him do what he wants to your body.
L = Location (favorite places to do the do)
His favorite place is your apartment on Coruscant.  If he’s at your apartment, good chance you’re both on leave so the probability of being call away or interrupted are slim to none.  He once kept you in that apartment for three days straight after not seeing you in months.  All you did was fuck, eat, sleep and fuck again for almost 72 hours.
M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)
Honestly, just you whispering into his ear and telling him you’re horny is enough to get him going.  You add and kiss and a small bite on his neck and he’s ready to take you against the nearest wall.  You’re own assertiveness combined with the fact you want him to be the one to take care of you is all he needs.
N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)
You humiliating him.  Seriously, degrading him or hitting him or anything like that just gets him frustrated and upset.
O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)
He man loves a good blow job. I wasn’t kidding when I said it’s a toss up for him between cumming down your throat or in your pussy.  The sight of you on your knees with your lips wrapped around his cock has gotten him through plenty of lonely nights.
That all being said, he’s excellent at giving.  Although, he almost exclusively uses it as a form of torture.  There was one memorable night when he tied your hands to the headboard and decided to see how many times he could make you cum with just his tongue and fingers.
P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)
Most of the time it’s rough borderline feral sex.  Lots of hair pulling, biting, bruised hips and a couple of broken headboards.  If you’re both not panting like you just ran a marathon he considers it a slow night.
Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)
On the rare occasion you’re working along side each other, quickies are definitely a thing. He never has a quickie while on duty, but he knows there is no way you guys can get enough privacy to had a full sessions.  So, the solution is quickies in empty shower rooms, abandoned tech rooms, and even once an empty med bay.  He’s not sure when he’s going to see you again and doesn’t want to waste the opportunity
R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)
Wolffe really is up for anything, so long as you talk to him before hand.  He wants to makes sure you’re comfortable and safe with whatever you guys try out.
S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)
His stamina is actually pretty impressive.  You’re not sure if it’s just pent up energy since you guys so rarely get to see each other in person or if he’s just like that.  Either way, he can go three rounds on an average night.  They fluctuate in terms of time depending on how much foreplay is in between sessions, but it’s enough to leave you both exhausted and spent by the end of it.
T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)
Wolffe doesn’t really have any toys for himself.  The mocking he would get from his brothers if they ever found it is enough for him not to risk it.  But, you do have a nice collection of toys in your apartment the pair of you like to bring out every now and again.
U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)
He is such a tease.  There is just something about you tied to the bed, bucking your hips as you try to fuck yourself on his fingers begging for him to let you cum that is oh so satisfying.
V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)
He certainly is loud.  Add that to another reason why your apartment is the best place to have sex.  He grunt and groan and whispers dirty things in your ear only to get louder and more wild the closer he is to cumming.
W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)
Absolutely none of his brothers really realize how bad he has it for you.  Wolffe more than almost any other clone knows how to divide his private life from his personal life.  Even if you work together and go off to random corners of the ship for a quick one, literally nobody catches on.  The man has the best poker face in the GAR and you can quote me on that.
X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)
I’m convinced all the clones are hung and you can quote me on that.  An eight inch thick dick, the lot of them.
Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)
Pretty high, which surprises everyone besides you.  Every chance he has to touch you, he does.  You wonder if it will cool down once the war is over because there’s no chance any time soon.
Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)
He’s out pretty soon after you finally call it a night.  Grant you are too, but he’s out like a light.  Nothing short of a bombing is going to get him up.
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maliciouslycreative · 3 years
Text
A totally fake-sounding story of how stupid I am at flirting, fake dating, and kpop
My life is for the most part a series of weird coincidences that once strung together sound entirely fake but I swear to god they are real.
Back in the early 2000s I found a lot of fame in the Beyblade fandom. I wrote a popular fic, it was pretty rad. One of my oldest and dearest friends from YGO once asked if she could introduce me to one of her friends who was apparently a HUGE fan of my writing. And I was like “absolutely” and that was the start of things with me and J. We got exceptionally close. Honestly I know I’m aro but the love I felt for her might be the closest I’ll ever feel to being in love.
Things were complicated though, we lived in different countries and were both in high school. We were super close friends and flirted a lot, everyone noticed. Our friend wrote poetry about us. Yes I still have some of that poetry saved somewhere. Everyone in the fandom shipped us and honestly we did talk about how if we weren’t in different countries and in high school that we would be together.
In my senior year of high school I had this biology teacher that enjoyed making us do a lot of group projects. There was another girl in my class that we weren’t really friends but neither of us had friends in the class and we didn’t mind each other so we always grouped up. Unfortunately we needed to do groups of 3 or more for this one project so this random guy in the class ENTHUSIASTICALLY volunteered to be in our group. Neither of us knew who he was but whatever we could survive some weird guy for one project. We exchanged emails so we could exchange notes easily. Except when I got home I noticed the guy had added me to MSN messenger. Ok sure, he probably just wanted to discuss something about the project. Except he didn’t. He wanted to talk to me about anime. Which… I guess? I mean there were not a lot of anime fans when I went to high school, it was distinctly not cool in 2005. 
I spent the next few weeks being mostly weirded out by this guy but he seemed harmless so I kind of talked to him intermittently. And then came the day before Valentines Day. He asked me what my plans were to which I responded that I was spending it with a good friend whose birthday was February 14th. He then proceeded to ask me what kind of flowers I liked and I was like “uhh I’m allergic to flowers so I guess fake ones?” And then I mentioned this to my one friend and she was like “OH MY GOD, STACEY. HE IS TRYING TO ASK YOU OUT.” And I was like “what? No, that’s………… fuck” so I had to in a panic tell the guy to not get me flowers and that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. 
He seemed ok with this. But like any mediocre white man it didn’t stick. He proceeded to talk to me a lot about his favourite anime and how it’d make him cry. His favourite anime was Ayashi no Ceres. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s a series written by Yuu Watase that tells the tragic story of a selkie that was bound to a human man and they died tragically so they were cursed to forever reincarnate as fraternal twins in this one family’s bloodline. So yah, he’d cry to me over an anime about incest. Like yah it’s a great series but you’re not gonna woo someone by telling them how much it makes you cry.
I’m not sure who came up with the plan, my fandom “older sister” or J herself but eventually we decided the only way to get rid of him was if I had a girlfriend and J enthusiastically agreed to be her. So when he finally did outright ask me out I got to be like “sorry man, I have a girlfriend in the US.” He absolutely lost it. Was very upset and thought she was fake. I had to bring J into a chat and be like “yes, this is my loving girlfriend.” He told me how disappointed in me he was and how he didn’t think I was “that kind of girl” whatever that means. 
He didn’t speak to me for an entire year after that. I ran into him randomly at university and he asked me “did you really have a girlfriend or were you just saying that to let me down.” And I was like “excuse you? Yes, I had a girlfriend and we are still together now. What gives you the right to ask something like that?” And he got upset about it again and I’ve never seen him since. 
J and I were sort of together for a couple years. Nothing serious, just some casual flirting. I sent her a care package once full of chocolate. We both knew neither of us were ready to move across the continent for the other but we still loved each other deeply. When I started dating my abusive ex we were still friends. I got to meet up with her one of the times I visited the US. Like most of my fandom friends I lost contact with her in 2009 after my fandom big sister passed away. It hurt a lot to be in that space without her. My abusive ex also did a good job of isolating me from everything. I did briefly reconnect with her for a bit afterwards but it’s been a while since I’ve talked to her. 
To detour back to the fake dating, there’s another parallel story. So when I told one of my other friends about this, A, she was like “oh, well if you need another fake girlfriend I would be willing and I mean we only live like 5 and ½ hours apart.” And my stupid ass was like “oh of course! I’ll keep you in mind.” This girl who had the patience of a saint with my stupid ass. She started calling me “muffin” one night and I was like “why are you calling me muffin?” and she was like “because it’s cute” and I was like “ok but I feel like I need to give you a food nickname now…” but my brain short circuited. I couldn’t think of anything cute in turn and made a terrible comment about calling her porkchop. And this girl, bless her heart, told me I could call her porkchop. So for several years we went around calling each other Muffin and Porkchop. It took me almost a decade to figure out that she was FLIRTING with me. I have no contact with her any more so I can’t even apologise. 
So here comes to the kpop and how I stumbled into it. I had my sisters over for a movie night in 2018. While waiting for our food to cook somehow we wound up watching K/DA POP/STARS among some other stuff. But this planted the seed in my sister's mind and she descended into kpop hell. I’m sorry not sorry. She mostly got into girl groups and we let her gush to us about them. But then she found it, Lucifer by SHINee. This song is an absolute bop and the clothing was absolutely tragic. We were in love with it. Something always haunted me that I knew this song though but something was just not 100% right so I couldn’t figure it out. 
Lockdowns happened and we couldn’t do our regular family get togethers. However where we live if you were a family of 4 or less you can adopt into your bubble a single person that lives alone, just so that people that live alone aren’t so isolated. So once a week I’d go over to her place and we’d do supper together. Neither of us like do anything other than go to work and grocery shopping and the occasional shopping for other essentials. Anyway when I’d be at her place we’d often listen to her kpop playlist. It was a little more bubblegum than what was really my taste but I was starting to get a taste. 
Then my shit brain did what it always does and comes up with a cursed fic idea that involved everyone listening to kpop. I dove head first into kpop. I have learned so much in the last two weeks. It started with SHINee and branched out. One of those things that I discovered with SHINee though was that they recorded a lot of their songs also in Japanese. And then I found the Japanese music video to Lucifer and it was like someone plunged a knife deep into my heart and twisted. 
J was into SHINee. She tried to get me into them in 2011, right around the time we fell out of contact. We were both really big into jpop and jrock back then and she was right, I LOVE that song. So somehow I narrowly avoided becoming a shawol in 2011. I don’t know how I didn’t honestly. Probably has to do with my abusive ex. A lot of stuff from that time period is honestly a blur and I really don’t care to remember it.  
So that’s the story of how I, an aro, am a disaster when it comes to people flirting with me and how I almost became a kpop stan in 2011.
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curriebelle · 3 years
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furtively tries to express my appreciation for BTS’s insane showmanship without gaining the reputation of Being a Kpop Blog
Actually leTS TALK ABOUT THE REPUTATION OF THE KPOP BLOG 👩‍🏫
So to a certain extent I understand why “friend’s blog became a Kpop blog” is a meme. From the outside, a lot of the Kpop fan activity seems quite vapid. The impression I got in previous years was that it’s mostly about gushing over handsome boys and a/b/o rpf. And that’s not........entirely wrong, but we’ll get into that more in a sec.
Another factor is that Kpop fandom is hard to follow. The barrier to entry is higher than with other fandoms. In posts, individual Kpop stars are referred to by name, stage name, or nickname, and the band they belong to isn’t always obvious, so it’s quite easy to lump it all into “Kpop”; it takes work for a new fan to differentiate the groups if you don’t know them ahead of time. Kpop fandom has its own lingo that differs from other fan language (other media fans don’t use “bias” or “delulu” — and there’s a linguistics dissertation for you). And let’s not discount the other language barrier — Korean isn’t exactly a common first language, so it does take a bit of extra work to find subtitles and translations.
This might be why the Suddenly A Kpop Blog Event supposedly triggers a different reaction in followers. I’m still following most of my friends from crit role season 1, even though a good chunk of them blog about other stuff now (what is this Chinese show? Boy with magic flute? Gay? Help). Fittingly, I’ve seen memes about how people are ride or die for their mutuals even when they move to different fandoms, but the jokes about Kpop blogs are always a bit different — about how turning into a Kpop blog is a bit cursed of u. It’s to the point where this is only “secretly a Kpop blog” because I don’t want the “Kpop blog” reputation.
And from my fandom lurking I can say that part of that reputation is not unearned. A lot of Kpop fans on tumblr engage in it in ways I’m either disinterested in or actively opposed to (the shipping wars are as terrifying as their reputation suggests. Some were arguing one ship was an rl canon true secret relationship because someone in BTS wrote the letter K on his drawing. Even though the letter K is in his name.) The reason I’ve been “secretly a Kpop blog” is that a lot of Kpop posts don’t inspire me into reblog frenzies the way crit role memes used to, and that’s not because Kpop Stans Suck — it’s more just a matter of taste. Then again, I do like gifs, but if I start reblogging BTS gifs, then I’m a Kpop Blog......and you don’t want to be a Kpop blog.
But isn’t there a whiff of “I’m not like other girls” about all that? Like, yeah, of course Kpop fans hoard gifs of the same people and overanalyze them. That’s what fans do! Pretending I didn’t overanalyze the shit out of Taliesin and Laura’s micro-expressions before Perc’ahlia was a thing would just be disingenuous. We’re all looking too closely — one of the best things about being a fan is diving into the excess of art and making things out of it. We all make mountains out of molehills because mountains are more scenic. And, on a baser level, we are all thirsty bastards. I have SEEN you all reblogging the gifs of Chris Evans ripping the log in half, okay, and you were not doing it bc of the camera angle, just own the thirst. Even the problems the Kpop fandoms have aren’t problems unique to Kpop — aggressive shippers and “””””problematic””” fans are everywhere.
I also wonder if the reason why we don’t see as much Kpop analysis on tumblr is because we’ve created kind of a hostile environment for it. Whether you are a Kpop fan or not, we’ve all decided to treat Kpop as kind of silly — the fans give it their all in the departments of cutesy photo sets and ridiculous fic prompts, and we laugh at memes of Gimli saying “never thought I’d die side by side with a Kpop fan” anyway Stan Jungkook. Just like thirst and over analyzing, that’s not necessarily a bad thing — I love that meme, and you should Stan Jungkook — but it does mean that if you want to start taking it a bit more seriously, or even a bit more casually, the assumption is that all your old tumblr friends will ditch you because “you’ve gone to the dark side”
And that’s a shame because uhhhhhh there is some baller stuff to analyze in BTS’s discography. The album before last was based on Jungian psychology (???). Their leader and primary writer is a huge fan of multilingual puns so in the latest album he makes a three-way pun on the phrase “I’m ill” — he’s sick, he’s cool, and he’s overworked (because “il” in Korean means “work”). So is he sick or is he simply made sick by like, society’s expectations of labour under capital???? Like, you know me. Societal critique by way of pun. That’s my shit. There’s also an essay or two in me about the way BTS are marketed for fan consumption and the way we handle multilingual lyrics and the way they’re handling the temporary departure of one of their members (he is an absolute cat of a man and I hope he gets well soon).
Also fuck can J-Hope ever dance.
EDIT: I should probably acknowledge that I can only make this justification for BTS, which is the only Kpop group I really like; I got no idea about the rest of them. I do know that Shinee can Also dance.
I might get the essays out but this probably won’t become “a Kpop blog” if you’re not into that. I think I’ve internalized too much of the stigma (omg V has a song called stigma it’s so good check it out find a good translation), but also, like I said, I don’t vibe with much of the other content and I kind of only follow one extremely successful group. The gifs, though. The gifs might be coming. They are pretty, those boys.
Anyway! People don’t like Kpop for nothing so like Maybe you would also like Kpop? Who knows. At the very least, think before u meme.
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louloubabys1992 · 3 years
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Five Favs of 2020
I was tagged by the amazingly talented @mercurial-madhouse​ to do this and I thank you for it as its been a while since I’ve looked at my fics or any of my work really....so here goes :D
RULES: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome work.
1-Hang there like fruit, my soul/Till the tree die
Fic summary;
''You still want me?'' he asks, voice thick. ''Yes,'' Harry's answer is absolute, almost defiant. ''But my hands are empty,'' Louis shakes his head. ''I've got nothing to offer you.'' ''I don't care about that. Do you see my hands?'' Harry asks before he cups Louis' face. His touch is gentle. He's always gentle when it comes to Louis. ''When I'm not holding you, I feel empty, but like this,'' he presses closer until their faces are inches apart. He caresses the apple of Louis' cheeks and that's when Louis realizes that he's spilled tears and Harry's wiping them. He didn't even notice; too busy looking into Harry's kind, kind, kind alpha eyes. ''I feel like I'm holding the world and I don't feel empty anymore,''
Louis knows he's a defective omega. He knows its also not his fault but it is what it is. He takes the world head on even when the world is unkind to him. Not Harry though; stubborn as he is, he doesn't back down, not when it comes to Louis
Note;
Those who read this fic know that this is my first ever abo fic. I wrote this in a time when I thought the world was ending. I had been on lockdown like the rest of us with not much to do and yet all the time in the world to finally do what I’m truly passionate about, which is writing. I don’t know if anyone noticed this but the difference between this fic and my latest one was six months (aside from a 16 chapter fic which I was writing almost simultaneously with ‘’Hang there’’ so for it to get any kudos or comments at all is quite unbelievable to me and I am really proud of the journey it took me on. It was one bumpy but amazing ride.
2-As the snow flies
Fic Summary:
’'I can’t sleep without you anymore. Got used to you.’’ Harry is always like that, so transparent with his feelings, so abundant with his love. He cuddles Niall the most, always stares up at Zayn like he’s something cool and out of this world, always attentively serious with Liam and always helping Leona out in the kitchen. He’s not so different from the shy, timid boy he’d first met, still stands pigeon toed when he’s waiting for Louis and the lads to go home after school, still stands with his shoulders all hunched but then he sees Louis and suddenly he’s taller, brighter, smile and dimples on full display.
He’s so beautiful.
-Or the fic in which Louis and Harry are foster kids who get separated long before they could even understand what loving each other means. They were so young and since then, circumstances had made Louis tough, had forced him to harden up. What happens when he and Harry meet again?
Notes:
Probably the easiest fic I’ve ever written because the idea had been swirling in my head for years, I just never had the time to sit down and put pen on paper (or letters on a word document hahah). It’s not for the faint of heart, I know, but I’ve always wanted to write it and flush it out of my system and when I did finally start writing it, it wasn’t as hard as writing my other fics. Like, I knew how it would end, I knew what scenes I had to cut out, what fit, what did not fit and I have to say, even though the outcome is not the way I had imagined it at first but it is everything it was meant to be in the end :D
3-The Boy with the Tin Chest and a Glass Heart
Written for the @bottomlouisficfest​
Fic summary:
Alpha Harry Styles, world-renowned author of fairy-tales, is being persuaded by the Beta, Liam Payne to hire a new illustrator. Since Harry’s own illustrations are too graphic for what is supposed to be children’s stories, Liam feels the need is dire. Omega Louis does not agree with Liam since he believes that Harry’s stories are fine just the way they are. Of course this has nothing to do with Louis being totally biased or totally head over heels for Harry. It certainly has nothing to do with being jealous of the mysterious omega illustrator Liam has in mind to team Harry up with. Seriously, it has nothing to do with that at all. Nothing, absolutely nothing, zilch, nada. Yeah...
Notes;
During my time of self isolation while the world tore itself apart, I busied myself with writing and watching k-drama series to distract from being anxious and swept by it all. It did wonders for me, occupying my time like that as I have always loved writing and this year, I found a new love for korean actors and their dramas and I have to say, their stories have such amazing plot lines. This fic is heavily inspired by one k-drama series called ‘’its okay not to be okay’’ starring Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea-ji (I hope I got the names spelled right). Please do watch it if you haven’t already :D
4-The Importance of being Earnest
part of the @1000feelingsfics​
fic summary;
Harry cannot help but pay extra attention to Louis' order, even if it is just a warm cup of tea with a dash of milk and no sugar. He also makes sure that the Danish Louis asks for is warm and fresh from the oven and not the one in the display, even if it means delaying Louis a bit when he fetches said Danish from the kitchen. It's all worth it when Louis smiles his crinkly smile at him before he rushes off to work.
Man, he's hot, he cannot help but think.
Or Harry is a barista who's been harboring a crush on Louis for months. Little does he know that Louis actually likes him back.
Note:
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before but this fic was included in a podcast which has never happened to me before and I am so so so happy and proud that my fic got that type of attention (or any attention at all hahahaha) so like, it is quite special to me and honestly, a lot of the fics written for the @1000feelingsfics​ challenge are really, truly incredible
5-Bed of Nails
fic summary;
Louis has been keeping a secret for a very long time. The boys don’t know because he doesn’t tell them, not because he doesn’t want to but because he doesn’t think they need to know or be bothered by his troubled past. When they find out, they look at Louis differently. But Harry doesn’t. No, he loves Louis and will do anything in his power for his love to find its way through the cracks.
Or the one where Louis has a troubled past that catches up to him and Harry does his best to save him from it.
Notes:
This is my longest fic ever, not just in chapter count but in time (it took me actual years to finish it, whew, what a journey). A lot of things happened while writing this fic but one event that stands out among the rest; I lost my younger brother back in 2016. He was only 23 years old. I started writing this fic in 2015 and finished it January 2020. Losing George crippled me both mentally and emotionally. I had no power, no inspiration and definitely no will to do anything but try and seem okay for the sake of my grieving parents. I bottled it all up to try and seem strong in front of them and in return, I forgot about anything else, including my passions and my hobbies. It took me a herculean effort to finish this fic and I mostly did it because writing to me, is like an itch. I can stop writing sure but every once in a while, that itch that nags at you like an incessant person knocking, begging you to just open up the door on the swirl of words blasting your brain in the middle of the night, begging you to just do something, doesn’t ever completely go away. So, I didn’t ignore it and decided to finish it, no matter how long it took. The itch to write went away after that and a sense of calm and accomplishment took over instead. I miss George till this day. Nothing will ever turn off that feeling but writing to me, in any form, whether in my journal or fics or whatever, does have the power to push me through the day. 
And there goes; my 2020 fics. I want to tag a lot of people but I think most people I know here already did it but if you see this or read this, take that as your cue to do it too. We all need some self love in this world and self love is what we deserve. 
Happy new year everybody :D
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aros001 · 3 years
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Read through light novel vol. 16. Random thoughts.
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"Who is this OC looking f**kboy?"
Those were genuinely my first thoughts upon seeing the art of Takt on the throne. And it would seem my immediate dislike was not unfounded.
Seriously though, everything about him is like someone's self-insert original character for their shitty power fantasy Shield Hero fanfic.
"He dresses really cool, like all modern with jeans and pockets, and he can use all the holy weapons and vassal weapons, and his level is above 300, and he has a harem of totally hot powerful women, and he's the king of his own country, and he can counter everything that people use against him, and he can steal powers he doesn't have, and he can beat Naofumi and all the other heroes with, like, no sweat at all!"
I want All For One to come in and kick this little twerp's ass. Show him what a real OP villain who can steal powers is like.
This isn't a critique of the writing by the way. It feels like Takt is supposed to feel like that kind of character who plays to those tropes and is REALLY easy to hate.
I both do and don't like how Naofumi is acting in the prologue. Obviously I don't like specifically what he's doing because it's creepy and uncomfortable, but I really like the reasons for why. The dude is fried from everything that's happened and unlike Itsuki it's not because of a curse. He's grieving from a heavy loss, easily the biggest he's had since coming to this world, and unlike with Ost's death he has no one he can yet focus his anger on, so he's feeling completely lost and mixed up. Another great moment from Sadeena in helping him regain at least some of his sanity. Sex is a common way people try to find comfort after a terrible loss and if that had been the case I think she would have slept with him or even encouraged Raphtalia to be the one for that. But she could see pretty clearly that wasn't the case. Naofumi wasn't looking for comfort. He was practically a zombie, just going through the motions.
“It seems that from among the four holy heroes, the Shield and Bow have been most active over there. Based on their level of activity, there’s also a bias in the legends about the seven star heroes. They mainly talk about the Hammer, Claws, and Whip.” A bias. The Shield and Bow did complement each other well, that was true.
F**k that! Sword and Shield, BroTP!
“Putting that together with what we learned in Kizuna’s world, it sounds like the effects of the fusing of worlds,” I pondered. There was a wave that had combined the Shield world with the Bow world, and then the Shield and Bow world had been fused with the Sword and Spear world to create the current one. It was only natural that a bias in the legends would arise.
"Worlds lived, worlds died. And nothing will ever be the same."
I've talked before that I'm a big fan of the concept of a Multiverse in fiction, especially in superhero comics. Right away I liked that the four Holy Heroes came from different parallel universes and then getting Glass and L'Arc showed that there were also parallel fantasy universes also fighting the waves. And now we get this theory from the characters that Raphtalia's universe is an amalgam, made up of other previous universes that fused through the waves. It's very Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA/Avengers.
Reading Queen Melromarc describe the king of Faubrey and I'm just remember a scene that I and many Overlord fans love to the depths of our hearts, of Sebas the butler encountering a naked little fat man who got his sexual thrills off beating the women the brothel provided him. Sebas, like any true gentleman, kicked him in the dick so hard he exploded. Is there some to hope that a similar fate befell the king whom apparently married and killed (and probably even worse than that) 9,999 women? Not even Witch deserves that. Nobody deserves that.
Even though it'd probably take him to a dark place he shouldn't go, part of me was hoping for some karma to occur when Witch revealed herself as Takt's ally to Naofumi. He no longer had the shield, meaning he could attack her like he never could before, meaning he could kill her with his bare hands. I'm glad he used the defense rating attack on Takt, because there's been great long-time set-up for that, but yeah, I wanted Naofumi to at least get to break Witch's nose after everything he's been through. And if Witch wasn't irredemable before, she most certainly is now, proving she has no loyalty to anyone other than herself. She used Naofumi and the other heroes from the beginning for her own goals. Her mother had enough control that she couldn't just do whatever she wanted. And Melty was standing in the way of her getting the throne. She's still a terrible person but there were at least reasons for her to be against these people. But Trash? Her father, who has been loyal and on her side since the beginning, who doted and spoiled her from a young age because of how much he loved her? She had no hesitation in ordering him killed along with everyone else. There was no reason behind it. It was just pure cruelly, greed, and self-satisfaction.
And then...there's the Queen. ...F**k. Y'all bastards were really good at keeping that spoiler hidden. I was accidentally spoiled that Alta was going to die but not through this site. I had no idea the Queen was going to die. Of course Naofumi couldn't have the Shield during that part. If he made Mirellia into a shield like he did Ost and Alta he probably would be unstoppable, because she was just that f**king awesome.
We're pouring one out for you, your majesty. May your youngest daughter inherit your great wisdom and unbelievably hilarious slapping ability.
I'm really glad with Trash's development in this book. Like I've said in past posts, I can feel basic empathy for him given his backstory, but feeling sorry for him was not enough to actually put me on his side, because he was not putting in any work to actually be better or redeem himself. He was just acting angry and crazy and then just sad and withered. Here? While he had to be shaken and roused into it (can't blame him for that as he just lost the love of his life), he puts in the effort to make use of himself and holds himself accountable for his past actions. I really like that he wants to continue being called Trash. That is his penance. Not more feeling sorry for himself or blaming the rest of the world. It's time for him to be the man he knows he's supposed to be.
With all that though, Melty was definitely the person I felt the worst for after the death. Of all the younger characters, despite being royalty and mature for her age, she is the person who feels the most like a real kid, and her crying her eyes out while clinging to Naofumi hurt just like it should, because this little girl just lost her mom. No idea what the expectation is in Melromarc for when Melty should take the throne but for her it's always going to feel too soon, because how could it not?
“Daddy . . . thank you for approving my marriage. You’ve finally agreed to let me marry Ollie,” she said dreamily.
“I’ll make you forget this ‘Ollie’ soon enough, although his keeping you a virgin for so long is something to be thankful for!” Takt cackled. It was clear that he was using some kind of illusion to make her think he was her beloved. “Those who don’t give proper thought to their daughters’ happiness have no right to live!”
Oh good! He's a rapist too!
So Naofumi was the Shield's first choice and the other three were the Bow, Sword, and Spear's third choices. I like the credit that's given that the first choice is not guaranteed to be the best, as they can become just as corrupt or egotistical, or the third choices are not guaranteed to be the worst, as they can grow into real heroes. I'm just wondering how the selection process worked and why they all couldn't get their first choices. The Holy Weapons apparently have some sway over the universes they pulled them from, given the promise of granting wishes if they want to return to them. My immediate theory is that the weapons all set up paths that'd lead their choices to being summoned but just through sheer coincidence and randomness all the first choices, save for Naofumi, kept missing the path. Going down the list, the weapons become more desperate and thus are more willing to use more extremes to get their choices, thus why Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki had to be killed in order to be summoned. They missed their window with their first and second choices so now they absolutely have to guarantee they get their third, even if the methods are less than ethical.
With the big final boss, the World Eater as Naofumi called it, I'm theorizing that he/she/it is using the waves to fuse multiple universes into one so that he/she/it can eat it all in one go.
I only have two issues with this volume and they're both kind of nitpicks. The first is with Trash's plan, specifically with the Glawick ore. I don't remember it ever being established before in the series. I really liked the Rucolu fruit being used in the Cal Mira wave battle because it was set up way beforehand, so it feels like a lot less of a Deus ex Machina. Same with Naofumi using defense rating attacks after his battle with Glass. That's good set-up. The ore doesn't break the story, it just feels very convenient that such a thing happened to exist. If I'm mistaken and it was set-up before and I just forgot, please let me know.
The second is Naofumi and Raphtalia being separated again after a trip into another universe. The story next volume seems like it'll be very different from last time but that part does feel like a repeat of what we've already seen. Plus, with the new status quo of Naofumi knowing how she feels about him, I want to see their interactions now that he's recovered a bit from the loss of Alta. Again, it's a nitpick, since I'm certain they'll find each other again, but I don't like feeling like I'm being deliberately kept away from what I want to see.
“The source of your power, the one true hero, now orders you. Reconsider the state of all things once more and bring down a storm of flame upon my target! Drifa Firestorm!” Takt completed the spell.
...
“The source of your power, just a hero, now orders you. Reconsider the state of all things once more and scatter the storm that would burn its target! Anti Drifa Firestorm!” I read the magic Takt had incanted and activated magic to nullify it. With that, the fire tornado scattered into nothing, as though it had never existed.
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!
“I’m here to destroy everything you possess,” I menaced quietly. “Your pride, your dignity, everything you treasure. I’ve already half-destroyed your composure and your arrogance. Now it’s time for the other half. False hero, possessing six of the seven star weapons and the shield from the four holy weapons! Now face the reality of being defeated by a regular guy who holds none of the legendary weapons!”
No wonder Raphtalia couldn't be in this part. After hearing that line I don't think she'd be able to hold herself back and would have tackled him like a wild Albedo in heat right then and there.
I am so looking forward to when this volume's final battle is animated, especially the part where Naofumi gets his shield back. That is going to feel like such an epic, heroic moment.
So Rishia unlocked Pay-to-Win. ...I don't really know what to say to that. What do ancient magical relics care about money? ("What does God need with a starship?")
So the person Malty had Ren give a sword lesson to back in vol. 11, was that Takt, King Faubrey, or someone we don't know yet, like the mastermind behind everything?
Is Kizuna marked for death now? From how Fitora made it sound to Naofumi, when a Holy Hero dies a new one can't be summoned if the others are still around. If Kizuna's world works similarly, she might have to die or there'll be no Holy Heroes other than her.
Naofumi really likes his Dragon Ball Z, doesn't he? Which is appropriate given I just realized that the Energy Blast from the Spirit Tortoise Shield is almost literally the Kamehameha. Seriously, Kamehameha translates to "Turtle Destruction Wave".
So...what the heck do I do now? I've spent about a month reading through 16 volumes of Naofumi's rise and I know there are at least 6 other volumes that haven't been translated to english yet. I'll probably go find another LN series to read until vol. 17 comes out in July. Though I am curious if RoTSH has a fan translation site like Overlord and Konosuba do.
Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/fot3tj/read_through_light_novel_vol_16_random_thoughts/
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willowistic22 · 4 years
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August - Javid
Ship : Javid
Genre : Angst
Song : August - Taylor Swift
Warnings : fighting (arguing), slap, cursing, if there’s more feel free to remind me to tag it :)
A/N : so long overdue i am sorry but school is a bitch quote me in that one idc lol. Anyways, this is an almost 5 k words of angsty javid songfic (thank you @nowisthetimetocarrythebanner for helping me choose which ship to write first :)) Hope yall like it and not get tired of me being a huge swiftie hehe
Salt air
And the rust on your door
This isn’t what he’s used to. Davey always tells his parents if he’ll be going out no matter what, even if he knows they wouldn’t like it because Davey will always find a way to get around their disapproval. This is out of his disciplined nature, and he knows it. Yet, he’s so drawn to this idea. Of course he’s drawn to this idea if it isn’t Jackie boy’s idea.
The moment he heard a tapping noise coming from his window, his mind is no longer in between the words of the book his father had lent him for the night. He saw the boy’s figure waving frantically on the rusty fire escape and he knows it only leads to a bizarre idea Davey will end up regretting.
I never needed anything more
“This better be worth it,”
Oh, but it’s always worth it. It’s Jack for crying out loud. When will it not be worth it for Davey when it’s Jack knocking on his window?
He folds the corner of the page and closes the book. Tossing the book on the rickety bed that he and Les share and takes a few steps across his packed bedroom to get to his window.
He slides the window open. The gust of the summer night wind instantly entering his room, along with the remaining sounds that can be heard down in the streets. But his focus is all on the boy that came to visit him. Crooked smile, dirty coarse cheeks, ruffled dark brown hair, and a lighter shade of brown in his twinkling eyes.
Whispers
Of "Are you sure?"
“What if we get caught?”
“We won’t”
“You don’t know that”
“Well, we will if ya keep standin’ around in the middle of the street like that!”
“Jack, I’m serious!”
“And so am I, Dave!”
The nickname. It caught Davey off guard. It instantly stops his jabbering. He hasn’t heard that name in awhile, Davey forgot the effect it has on him. A fast heart rate, stiffen posture, and an uncontrollable mind.
Jack being Jack, took his silence as compliance. He continues to lead him in Ms. Medda’s theatre through the back door. Ms. Medda wouldn’t mind Jack sneaking around the theatre for whatever reason. But he’s still frowned upon by the bulls, which would mean their shady looking actions would be a reason to capture him.
Davey is still standing in front of the doorway in the alleyway, whilst Jack is already a few feet ahead of him inside. Jack turns around to see if he was following and walks back to the door to convince him one last time. 
He gives him his hand and voices out gently, “It’ll be fun. I promise”
And just like that, Davey is lured in his schemes once again. He reluctantly places his hand in Jack’s palm, which was instantly pulled through the door and into the backstage of Ms. Medda’s theatre.
“Never have I ever before”
Ms. Medda couldn’t be found as the two bolts passed the people working backstage. She’s performing with the rest of the Bowery Beauties. Jack’s been hearing Ms. Medda and the other performers practice this new song and was told that it’s being performed in front of an audience for the first time tonight.
Jack pulls Davey up to the scaffolding backstage so they can have a better view of the performance and a place to sit down peacefully. They let their legs dangle freely under the railings since no one will be able to see it. As Jack expected, Davey was captivated. As he puts his hands on the railing and leans forward for a clearer view, his green eyes twinkle like the stars and his smile as pure as gold. He usually hides his emotions well, but this time it was obvious this was his first time watching a performance in a theatre.
“You do this often, huh?” Davey said, eyes still glued down to the stage.
“Yeah, I’se like to sneak out after puttin’ the littles to sleep,” Jack answered. A moment of silence followed. Then Jack flips his head to gaze back at Davey and says, “It’s just the first time I brought someone with me”
Davey twists his head to face Jack. He sees the boy staring back, but he can’t decipher what about this stare that made it different from the other times they’ve shared a gaze like this. A weird feeling settles in Davey’s stomach. The feeling heats his cheeks and he knows it’s a blush.
The sudden sound of applause pulled them away from their made up universe. A standing ovation full of cheers and whistles. Jack twirls his head first, clapping softly to the feathery and glimmering ladies bowing towards the audience.
Davey’s composure hasn’t returned yet, he couldn’t find the strength to clap. He can only gaze down upon the bowing and try to decipher what had happened.
And when he least expected, Jack places a hand on the railing right next to Davey’s. His pinky slowly brushes over Davey’s. He keeps his hands absolutely still, stiffening up his whole left arm as their pinky intertwine. All while avoiding each other’s gaze in hopes to not ruin this little moment they’re sharing.
Oh, God, not again…
Your back
Beneath the sun
There’s this love hate relationship he has with Jack Kelly. The obvious reason is that the good person and amazing leader side he has is hidden under all the stupidity and spontaneous decisions that mostly leads to a catastrophe. Sure, he’s a figure to look up to for younger newsies taking on the world. But when he gets some space to do something self-indulgent, it can get a bit out of hand.
And then there’s also the not-so obvious reasons. The gentleness, the vulnerability, the oddly intense moments, the small kind gestures, all of which only Davey gets to see. He turns into a nervous wreck but seems to be addicted for more. It’s a different treatment from his other newsie friends, even a different kind of gentleness the littles receive.
When these moments first started happening, Davey thought this was a gateway to project his real feelings towards the boy. And every time after they have those special private moments together, Jack always pretends it never happens the next time they meet each other. It confuses Davey to no end. One moment they’re alone on the fire escape sharing deep secrets they’ve never told anyone before, soaking up whatever’s left of the sun before it sets. The next moment, they’re just ‘your super close pals being normal pals’.
He still hasn’t fully decided what to feel about this game he’s playing with Jack. It’s obviously dangerous, physically and emotionally. But it’s the only soft interactions Davey has ever gotten from Jack. He’s been aching for it the moment he fell for him back when the Manhattan newsies dragged him to strike.
So here he is now, standing in the circulation gate with his stack of paper in one hand and Les’ hand in the other. Ready to play along with whatever game Jack has in store for the two today. He hasn’t seen him this morning, and maybe it’s better that way.
Wishing I could write my name on it
Davey watches Les run across the circulation gates towards where his own newsie friends were waiting for him before they can start marching towards their usual selling spot. He smiles and waves back at the ten year old who seems to already be having too much fun with his friends to notice.
“They grow up so fast, huh?”
Davey twists his head around towards the source of the voice. The same boy from last night stands in front of him, proudly wearing a smirk while carrying his stack of paper.
“Well, it’s bound to happen one way or another” Davey replied, somehow being able to keep his cool.
Jack lingers in his green eyes for a moment. Davey can sense there’s a hidden meaning behind his gaze. And if his gut serves him right, it’s the same kind from last night.
Wait, what’s he doing?
He’d usually initiate the play pretend game early in the morning. But asking Davey to sell with him? That’s not pretending. Even if that game is still on his agenda for today, selling together would only make things harder.
Could it be an idiotic move for Davey to accept this invitation? Most likely. But with that offer on the table, it sparks a small flame in Davey’s curiosity. He wants to know what Jack has in mind for them.
Will you call when you're back at school?
After the two were done selling, Davey thought they were going to Jacobi’s to meet up with the rest of the newsies. But Jack turns out to have a different plan of his own. One which, like most of his other plans, brought fear upon Davey.
He led the two back to Medda’s theatre, where everyone was working backstage. They’re too busy to notice two rapscallion looking teens sneaking in the theatre.
“Jack, where are we going?” Davey finally asked as Jack continued to drag him towards the rows of seats in front of the grand stage.
They stop once they arrive in front of two specific chairs on the very last row. Jack takes a seat on one and puts his newsie bag on his lap. Davey can see a shape forming in it, despite knowing Jack had sold all of his paper earlier.
“Come on, sit down with me” Jack said, patting the empty seat next to him. Davey froze for a second, eyeing Jack skeptically. He rolls his eye with a little chuckle before pulling out the item hidden in his bag, revealing a sandwich he bought from Jacobi’s, “I got us lunch. So come sit down!”
Despite complying to the invite, Davey can’t figure out what were his intentions behind this plan. They sit in silence for the first few seconds, taking a few bites in their own respective sandwiches while staring at the stage being redecorated for tonight’s show.
“I wanted to ask somethin’… but… wasn’t sure if you’se okay talkin’ about it in front of the others…” Jack started out slowly without meeting Davey’s eyes.
At this point, Davey’s heartbeat was getting faster and louder. He so badly wants to hide his face in his hands, but his muscles have frozen in place. He keeps control of his eyes from moving, not wanting to take one glimpse at Jack to avoid a long drawn out stare.
“What is it?” Davey’s lips seem to have a mind of his own, growing impatient at the excessive silence. He mentally slaps it from thinking it was a good idea to make any sort of move.
In the corner of his eyes, he can see Jack turning his head to face Davey. Though he still doesn’t dare to look back.
“Are ya still gonna come by the lodge once you’se back to school?”
A silent sigh of relief escaped his lips, though it did kind of hurt when the question wasn’t what he expected. Nonetheless, he answers, “Well, not as often as now. But I’ll definitely come back every now and again”
August is ending and all the newsies knows Davey and Les are bound to go back to school. They’ve grown comfortable with the brothers, so it’ll definitely feel weird not having them around as often.
Never in his wildest dreams would Davey expect Jack asking about that topic. But going out of his way to drag him all the way here? And buying the two lunch while he’s at it? There has to be more than that, right?
I remember thinking I had you
“Are you gonna miss me?” Davey rounds up the last bit of courage in him to ask.
He hears Jack scoff and can feel the eye roll directed towards him, “Keep dreamin’, Dave!”
He finds the strength to look back towards Jack. Seeing the brunet cracking up a laugh through his smile, he laughs along with him.
Their sandwiches are now left as crumbs, but they didn’t bother walking out of the theatre. They were too entertained with their conversation. Davey noticed how quiet they’re being, despite being too far from anyone to hear what stupid nonsense spilled out of their mouths. There’s also that oddly intense feeling between their breaths, giving all their stupid nonsense a double meaning to it.
As time passes on, things start to escalate even further. It could be just Davey, but there’s something about the way Jack looks at him. His brown eyes look more cheerful and his smile is wider. Unprompted hand touches, so soft and slow yet utterly meaningless. There was no reason for Jack’s hand to dance around the palm of Davey’s. Nor was there a reason for said hand to travel to playfully touch his cheeks. And could their heads be slowly gravitating towards each other? Or could that just be Davey’s head playing tricks with all of this happening to him?
“So… will you be able to run the lodge without my help?” Davey asked, filling in the little silence settling between the two after a fit of giggles turned into a lingering gaze.
“I’se ran the lodge just fine before you and Les showed up,” Jack started, “ I’ll be fine without you!”
“Sure glad I won’t be missed” Davey joked, turning his head down to his hands on his laps.
“What? No! That ain’t what I meant!”
He reaches over to grab his hands gently, causing the taller boy to go beet red. He draws reassuring circles on the back of Davey’s hand, the goosebumps returning once again as he watches it unfold on top of his lap.
“We’ll be fine, but we’se gonna miss you guys,” Jack said.
The hand reaches up to Davey’s chin, forcing him to properly face Jack. His green eyes grew wide at the sight of the brunet boy staring longingly at Davey. He was for certain that their heads are slowly gravitating towards each other. With every inch closer, his heartbeat grows louder and faster. He couldn’t bear to keep his eyes open the moment he could feel Jack’s hot breath dancing on his face. His lips, already parted and so ready to be able to welcome Jack’s—
BANG!
The door right beside them swung open, causing the two boys to jump and return back to their respectful seats.
“Funny seeing you boys here!” A femenine voice rang through their ears, high and pitchy but with a friendly tone. 
They turn their heads towards the sound. There stood a tall figure. Head full of long red curls and clever light brown eyes darting between the two. Cheeks with some freckles animated to form a smirk on the pearl white face.
“And you have a proper excuse to be here, Kath?” Jack challenged her, “I’se sure you’se smart enough to know the first show of the day doesn’t start till later in the evenin’”
Jack’s smile was no longer centralized towards Davey again. He gets himself lost in Kathrine as she makes her way towards the stage with her notepad and pencil, brushing his witty remarks off with a little eyeroll.
Davey watches as he smiles at Kathrine’s presence and remembers the reality. He shifts back in his seat, trying his absolute best to make sure Jack doesn’t hear his heart breaking. That would be embarrassing if he found out Davey thought this wasn’t a game after all.
Back when we were still changing for the better
He quickly departs from the scene, not wanting to meet Jack’s face as he gets up from his seat. He left the theatre quickly, recollecting himself with a deep breath as he made his walk.
Davey repeatedly beat himself up for being such an idiot. There’s been multiple times that happened. When he thought something was going to be different between the two, something around them would remind them that it’s all just a game. It isn’t different than those previous times and will never be different. It’s just a concept Davey still needs to get used to.
Wanting was enough
For me, it was enough
Oh, how badly he longed for the feeling. The feeling to be held by him. The feeling to share a loving kiss. To share more little moments with him. With that infuriating and equally charming Jack Kelly.
Davey would scream in his head, over and over again, how that’s not possible. He isn’t meant to love and be loved by Jack. His heart was already reserved for Kathrine. He knew that from the moment he saw the way Jack acts around her. He could see hearts in his eyes, a brighter smile, and maybe a cockier manner.
When Jack was around him, it felt just like that but slightly different. Jack would be more gentle, tamed, and shier. Davey made up so many excuses in his head for that contrasting behavior, all of which benefits his own feelings. Though, he’s smarter than to think that is what’s actually going on. So he’d usually proceed to make up more excuses of how happy he is that Jack found Kathrine. It did sort of help him through this wave of sadness. Without it, Davey might not be able to blend himself with the crowd of people rushing up and down the sidewalk.
Cancel plans just in case you'd call
And say "Meet me behind the mall"
“Dave!”
The sound of his name made him look back. His heart starts beating faster when he saw it was Jack Kelly. He shouldn’t be standing still like this, waiting for Jack to catch up to him. It’s obvious Jack has his heart for someone else. Davey can’t keep waiting for him to keep up and chase after him only to be tossed to the side once he’s bored with the little game they’re playing.
Jack stops in front of him, crouching down with both hands on his knees. He takes a moment to catch his breath before properly standing up to flash his slightly red and sweaty face.
“You forgot your bag,” Jack said, pulling out a dirty newsie bag out of his own and presenting it to him.
He didn’t realize it wasn’t strapped around his torso like usual till now. He takes it from Jack’s hand and chuckles out through his small smile, “Thanks, Jack”
Davey awkwardly turns around, back to focusing on his trek. Before he took a step further, something grabbed his arm from behind and stopped him.
Before he knows it, Davey finds himself in an alleyway. Backed up against the wall by Jack, uncertainty makes up the lines and curves of his face. But Davey isn’t focused on his face. Rather, the lips that had crashed onto him with no warning.
So much for summer love, and saying “Us”
A few days have passed and Davey could still feel the feeling of those lips against his own. How it remained frozen for a moment when they first connected, but soon moved together once they’ve registered to what’s happening. It creates a sweet feeling that makes the two tremble in each other's grasps. He couldn’t describe what Jack tastes like, mainly because he was too focused on the feeling caused by the movement, but it was addicting and he wants more of it.
The feeling buzzed through him for the rest of the day till the next morning. Sarah and Les noticed it and kept on bugging their brother to spill, but nothing worked. Davey was still feeling the high of it after a few days but was able to ground his feelings so it won’t show up to the surface all that much.
Though, he’s still unsure if he should make a move. Jack somehow acted a bit stranger than usual. The ‘pretending that nothing happened’ game was on again, but this time he was more distant than usual. While the others were smiling and properly greeted Davey and Les when they arrived at the circulation gate, Jack just waved and quickly got himself busy on his own.
'Cause you weren't mine to lose
After a long day of selling, Davey sits down on one of the empty chairs at Jacobi’s for some lunch. His rousing newsie friends filling in the, once peaceful, deli with their chattering and laughter. Davey stays silent while Crutchie, Finch, and Specs talk about their day.
In storms, Race comes running in followed by Albert and takes up the last two chairs on their table. Their energy contrasts with the previous four, but they’re always welcome with their stupid grins.
“You’se two are excited” Crutchie commented after putting down his glass of water, “What happened?”
“You’se guys would never believe what just happened!” Race started, followed by a fit of laughter with Albert. Confused glances were shared between the other four. Upon seeing this, Race and Albert stopped to tell the story.
But I can see us
Lost in the memory
Race was wrong. Davey would absolutely believe what just happened. Though, he wishes he didn’t believe it. Or that it was just a lie. Whatever he can say that can dismiss what Race and Albert just told him. Because Jack kissed Kathrine and Davey can’t believe it’s true to save his poor heart.
He didn’t want to make it noticeable that he was storming out of Jacobi’s, but he desperately needed to see Jack again. His heart is fully shattered this time, he can’t take it any longer. Davey waited for a few minutes before he walked out, trying his absolute best to not let his shattered heart appear to the surface.
August slipped away into a moment in time
It didn’t take long for him to reach the lodge, Albert and Race had briefly mentioned from his story where Jack was. For the most part, Davey had ground his emotions. The sorrowful note in his heart, and just a little bit of anger, was hidden in front of his friends to avoid any questions. But the further away he got from them, the more of his emotions started to seep out of his skin.
He steps into the completely empty lodge. If Jack isn’t found inside, he’d probably be up on the roof. Davey walks up the rusty fire escape. He pops his head up and sees Jack sitting on the other side of the roof, to what Davey suspects to be, sketching something on a piece of paper with the way his back is bent forwards.
Davey is completely perplexed, seeing Jack going about his day as if he didn’t do anything. The lines on his face are drawn by anger, green eyes glowing with fire, hand forming into a fist that’s ready to strike.
He makes Jack notice his presence by purposely stomping loudly as he steps on the roof. Jack turns around from his drawing. Once he noticed it was Davey, he put his drawing down and stood up with a bright and innocent face to greet his friend, a huge contrast to Davey’s. Jack takes a few steps closer to him but still left a good amount of space between the two.
“Dave!”
'Cause it was never mine
He didn’t act up towards that nickname. He simply walks past Jack and purposely bumps their shoulder in a fit of rage. It was Jack’s turn to be perplexed.
He takes a moment before he turns around to hear why Davey was here. Jack got a vague answer when he was met by a strong slap to the face from Davey.
“Do I mean nothing to you?!”
Jack stands completely still in front of Davey, rage visibly coursing through his veins. Jack was left speechless from that unprompted slap. The pain still stinging on his cheek as it slowly turns redder and redder as the second passes.
He looks down to his feet, propping his hands on his hips before looking back up to Jack. Davey’s green eyes now slowly overflowing with water and holding a sob in his throat.
“Why’dju do it?” Davey’s voice cracked a bit at the end, “Why did you set me up in this... game?”
Davey lets one sob escape his lips but holds back the rest in his throat. He blinks a few of the tears away and looks back to where Jack’s face slowly starts to crumble now that he knows what’s this all about.
“Kelly, why did you kiss me?!” Davey raised his voice a bit.
Jack looks at him with wide eyes. Fear in his gaze upon seeing this side of Davey for the first time. He can’t find the answers to those questions. Not even the words to excuse himself.
Davey wraps his arms around his torso to find some form of comfort in this situation. He turns to look past him because looking at him in the eye hurts.
“I don’t get it….Y-you held my hand, you shared secrets, you showed me remarkable things…” Davey went on, the memories flashing in his head like a movie, “... But then after a few days you act like you don’t even know me!”
Jack watches as Davey tries to hold himself together to continue. He watches as his heart crumbles in front of him. The sound ringing in his ears is painful, knowing that it was coming from Davey. And even worse: Jack was the reason.
Davey turns his head to face Jack again.
“Was it stupid of me to fall for you? Was it... stupid of me that when you started doing all of that…” Davey started, voice reflecting the state of his aching heart, “I thought that maybe... you actually returned my feelings?”
“No” Jack simply answered after taking some time to ponder over it.
“But you also kissed Kathrine” Davey brought up what Race and Albert said earlier, “I even heard… you’re going on a date together…”
“Davey… where’dju even get that from?” Jack asked.
“Race and Albert. Sounds like you’re pretty open about it…”
Jack couldn’t move a muscle. His brain fully blanks as it drives Jack’s focus all onto the sobbing boy in front of him.
Back when I was living for the hope of it all
“I should’ve known…” Davey breathes out, dropping his head to the floor, “I should’ve fucking known…”
“No… No, don’t say that” Jack takes a few steps closer, desperately reaching his hands towards him. But Davey violently steps away. Jack knows it means he’s close enough, so he drops his hands to his side again.
“I shouldn’tve hoped for much...” Davey continued, a little raise to his tone but laced with suffering, “I knew from the start you wouldn’t care…”
“Davey, wait! It’s not what you think!”, Jack tries to get closer but ends up stepping backwards as Davey forces him to back away.
“Oh, is it?!” Davey challenged. His face, now shattered in pieces by the tears he could no longer hold back, “Did you fucking forget all those stupid moments you spent with me?! Making me think I actually mean something to you?!”
“Of course you mean somethin’ to me!” Jack stops Davey from pushing him even further, standing his ground with his feet and words. Or whatever it is he can come up in his brain in this heated situation, “I-it’s just… it’s… I don’t know, okay?”
Davey recollects himself as best as he can, furiously sniffing his nose while wiping the tears off his cheeks and eyes. He slows his breathing down while cynically staring at Jack. He slowly makes his way towards the brunet, keeping just an inch of space between their faces.
“Then let’s find out”
His warm breath linger in the limited space between them. The two boys lock their eyes in an intense stare. Davey parts his lips slightly open, testing Jack’s words by pushing him to act up.
Davey aches for another kiss, but he only lets his head tilt to the side while he waits for Jack. But Jack didn’t move. No muscle in him acted up to what he said. He just stood there, staring. Once again making Davey look like an idiot.
He purses his lips, another drop of water falling down his cheek. Davey turns on his heel and walks away from the scene.
“No, wait, I can explain!” Jack chased after the boy, grabbing his arm and twirling him to get them to face each other once again. But Davey’s face is now in pieces, as he barely can hold it in any longer the moment he turned his face away from Jack.
“Let go, Jack,” His voice was shaky and breathy, “Please… I can’t do this anymore…”
The sound of his pressed down sob down his throat broke Jack’s heart even further. He loosens his grip from the boy, letting his hands slide down his sides. He watches as Davey sniffles and wipes his eyes with his sleeves.
“Take care, Jackie,” Davey said before turning around and walking away.
Watching Davey walk away like that left Jack speechless and heartbroken. A wave of guilt and regret rises from his stomach towards his eyes. It wells up with water, watching one of the most important people in his life walk away.
As Davey exits the empty lodging house, he takes in every detail of the house. Whether it’s a crack on the wall, a rust on the bunk bed, or even the precious little trinkets his friends left lying around, Davey examines it till it’s embedded in his brain. After this day, he might not have the strength to come back. Ever.
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haikyuuscreaming · 4 years
Note
Oh I’ve got requests! How about Nishinoya being slightly upset about the attention his crush receives vday week so he tries to outshine everyone giving them gifts and on vday he confesses and is like THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD PICK ME
I DEADASS NEVER GET ANY NOYA REQUESTS IM PUMPED
-
It doesn’t surprise anyone when Nishinoya Yuu turns out to be a not-patient person. In fact, he might be the opposite of patient.
He’s always been spontaneous and comes up with ideas on a whim, and admittedly carries through with said ideas without anyone stopping him. It also doesn’t come as a surprise that Nishinoya has the biggest crush on you.
Ever since his first year at Karasuno and you guys shared that PE class together and coincidentally landed on the same team for each sport, every time, he’s always had an eye for you. An adoring, loving eye. He’s done everything in his power to try and get close to you, and the two of you are actually great friends.
And of course, you guys aren’t really dating or anything, Noya knows. So why is he so mad that you’re getting so much attention from other people?
Every single Valentine’s Day– and week–, you’ve always been the receiver of gifts and chocolates. Guys and girls alike lined up every day of this Love Week to confess and give you flowers, sweets, cards, everything under the sun. Which means you racked up quite a bit of confessions.
(Noya never forgets, though, that you haven’t returned even one of the confessions.)
He brings it up one day during homeroom, when the two of you are snacking on your bentos.
“Hey, [Name],” he mentions casually, and his heart’s beating a lot faster than he intends. The rice in his mouth becomes like glue as he swallows it down. “Have you ever returned someone’s confession?”
(Of course, he already knows the answer. He just wants to hear the affirmative.)
You give him a side-eyed glance, chewing thoughtfully on your onigiri. “Nah. The right person didn’t come up, y’know?” And you smile, shrugging absent-mindedly.
(Nishinoya thinks your smile is absolutely dazzling, like it outshines every single star in the sky.)
“Don’t worry, [Name]!!” he bursts out with a grin, shoveling another omelette into his mouth. “With how awesome and pretty you are, you’ll find the right person soon. Valentine’s Day’s right around the corner!!”
You laugh, and the sound is heavenly to Noya’s ears. “You inflate my ego.”
“Well, you deserve it!”
(The right person’s gonna be me, he promises.)
Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday this year.
Nishinoya notes the amount of people each day who slip adoring notes into your locker, the amount of people who line up to confess their feelings for you.
And Noya’s never patient, but he’s willing to wait till Friday for his big moment.
Every day, since the Monday of Love Week, he’s been leaving gifts for you with a note, always signed with a thunderbolt. He knows you receive them, every day, because you talk about it to him so excitedly.
“Noya, someone left me my favorite chocolates today!”
“Hey, did you know someone gave me my favorite kind of flower? It was so sweet! Too bad they didn’t sign it…”
“Today, someone folded me some really cute origami pandas with hearts.”
“Noya! Someone brought me a teddy bear today!” It’s the Thursday before Valentine’s Day, and you proudly show him your fuzzy friend. “It’s like this person knows me so well.”
“Oh? That’s really cool!!” Noya can’t help the sunniness that pours from his voice, because he knows that teddy bear all too well. He won it at an arcade game just yesterday because he remembered you pointing out the bear so wistfully.
“Noya, look at that cute teddy bear!!” you point to the cashmere, fluffy bear that sits behind the glass pane of the arcade machine.
“You can’t point it out now,” Nishinoya complains and he bumps you lightly. “We just spent all our money on food! Are you tryna mock me?”
You shake your head furiously, laughing a little bit before sighing in contentment. “Nah. We can win it later, don’t worry.”
You smile wistfully at the bear, nuzzling it with your cheek. “This person’s really thoughtful. They’ve been writing notes, too, all signed with cute little thunderbolts.”
“Ya know, thunderbolts are pretty cool,” Noya grins.
“Says you, Rolling Thunder boy!”
Friday rolls around much too quick, and Noya wakes up a good thirty minutes early to make you bento. Just for today. He doesn’t bother with a note, because he’s got this whole speech planned out for you.
The bento he makes is a little lopsided and is shaped rather crudely, but he’s proud that he got the rice balls into a somewhat consistent sphere. He even asked Kiyoko for help a few days ago on how to make good omelette rolls.
Noya tucks the bento box into his backpack, and puffs out his chest for an extra boost of confidence.
He sets off for an anxious yet exciting day of school.
Eventually, he gets to school and he sees Tanaka, who slaps his back and says something meaningful like get the girl, Noya, and that gets Nishinoya’s heart pumping again. He swallows back the lump in his throat as the adrenaline races in his veins, and he waits not-so-patiently for lunch.
Homeroom comes like a crashing wave: way too unexpected for Noya and it feels too natural, like this isn’t what he considers one of the biggest things to happen in his life. In the homeroom classroom Noya’s always adored because he shared the class with you, you sit in your desk eating your bento just like a normal day before lunch even starts. You look up and smile at him, and Nishinoya’s entire body feels like it’s about to overflow with energy. He sidles next to you, after greeting you sunnily and his finger absentmindedly taps against his desk, waiting for the sensei to finish lecturing so he can finally showcase what he’s been so uncharacteristically thoughtful about.
His time comes and he knows you’re about to say something, most likely starting a conversation, but he stands up before you get a chance, His hand dives into his backpack and pulls out his bento box that he so “skillfully” crafted for you and stands up board-straight, his chest puffed out as he stares you straight in the eye.
“[Name], I just want you to know that I really really like you! And I have for a long time!” Noya cuts straight to the point and he watches your eyes widen for a fraction of a second before tilting your head, as if coaxing him to continue. “And, you know, you get a lot of valentines each year, right? But I made you all those thunderbolt notes and stuff, and I got you all those gifts!” With each word, Noya feels like his heart is pumping harder and harder and his chest puffs out too. “So what I’m saying is, I think I’m the best one for you!! I’m better than everyone else ‘cause I really like you, you’re probably one of my best friends, I think you’re really neat-”
“Noya!” you interrupt him, laughing, and he’s a little shell-shocked. What, did he do something bad?? No, he couldn’t, he’s been dreaming of this day for far too long for it to turn out badly. “You.. you’re so sweet, oh my god. I- I thought you knew??”
“K.. Knew what?” He’s a little nervous now, but it’s nothing he can’t handle!
“I like you too, you dork,” you lean in and boop his nose, and your face lights up so much that Noya’s sure you’re the sun. “Ah! You made bento for me?? I thought you couldn’t cook!! You’re so sweet what the heck-”
“I know, I’m a master chef,” Nishinoya puffs out his chest even more than it’s already been puffed out and grins. God, he’s soaring right now. He’s ecstatic and you lean in to kiss his forehead. “Well, happy Valentine’s Day.”
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h0wlderek · 4 years
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so..I haven’t finished charming like us yet but...I have some thoughts.
I would like to preface this by saying I ADORE K&B’s work and have pretty much only ever given their books 5 stars. However, there are issues that I need to address with their books and I think it’s relevant to do it in this review.
1. The ethics of billionaires: Obviously this is a book and not real life, however the romanticisation of billionaires in popular culture is getting to the point where it’s ridiculous. Being a billionaire is not ‘cool’. It means you’re hoarding large amounts of wealth whilst people literally starve to death or are homeless. There is a whole thread in the Like Us series about how Jane and Moffy like to ‘live modestly’. This is bullshit and quite frankly WORSE than if they lavished in their money (such as Charlie does). They are pretending to be something they aren’t (pretending as though they can’t afford things when obviously they can) AND when rich people live in the more affordable housing/buy affordable products, it actually ends up raising the prices for people who NEED those things to stay affordable. If all the wealthy, rich people suddenly decided they wanted to live in small houses, then the prices of those houses would hike up (and the prices of mansions would remain high), therefore leaving poorer people homeless. Rich people either need to give away a majority of their money, or continue to spend it as someone of their wealth status would (which, in turn, boosts the economy). This brings me to my next point. 2. Why is security struggling?: I cannot fathom WHY Kitsuwon securities would be struggling financially so much when they are employed by literal billionaires. Are the Calloway families so stingy with their money that they aren’t paying their bodyguards (who literally protect/save their lives on a daily basis) an amazing wage? They should be getting paid in BULK. There is absolutely NO reason that any of the bodyguards should be strapped for cash when they are employed by such wealthy families (and 2 of their bodyguards are literally married into the family? Why are Thatcher and Farrow not helping Kitsuwon securities out?) 3. Another one? Really?: I was so disappointed when they decided to make Jack’s ‘big secret’ that he was rich…. This perpetuates the idea that Jack and Oscar could not live happily together unless one of them possessed ridiculous amounts of wealth. PEOPLE WHO AREN’T RICH CAN BE HAPPY. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A BILLIONAIRE TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS. 4. I have to mention the fetishisation of gay men: I have to. As much as I love their portrayal of LGBT characters (and I doooo) it is impossible to ignore the fact that their is ONE lesbian character and SO MANY gay male characters. The two trio relationships (Sulli’s & Beckett’s) both involve 2 men in some capacity. I get writing for your audience, but at some point you need to evaluate your morals and how your writing impacts the LGBT community. And, not gonna lie, the Fizzle Force group (as amazing and supportive as it is) is gross as far as fetishisation goes. The 40 year old women on there need to TONE IT DOWN. 5. Marriage is for suckers: The idea that to be happy, one has to be married, sucks. I thought maybe they would skip that idea for this book and go a different route to show different types of HEA, but…nope.
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explosionshark · 4 years
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Hey! Big fan of your writing. :) For the writing prompts, could I request #3 for Chloe Price and Victoria Chase?
hi i’m so sorry it took me a month to do this! thank you for the prompt! i think this is my first chaseprice. originally this was going to be sad, but i didn’t feel like bumming anyone (including me) out tonight so instead it got, uhhh, vaguely smutty. 
3. “It’s three in the morning.”
“It’s August 17th. Grass is green. That sleeve is way more trailer trash than badass punk rocker.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, were we not just reciting a list of the obvious at each other?”
“Fuck, Victoria, just get in the car before I change my mind,” Chloe practically growls, leaning across the cab to throw the passenger side door open in invitation.
“Why would I do that?” Victoria asks, but doesn’t stop, forcing Chloe to keep creeping down the street in her truck with the door open, like some kind of stranger danger-ass creep.
“Because it’s three in the morning and you’re walking down the street alone at night by yourself, like an idiot,” Chloe barks. She’s trying to do the right thing, trying to be like… all conscientious and shit. It hardly feels worth it, when once again, Victoria Chase finds a way to make her feel like a totally useless idiot the moment she opens her mouth. “Why are you walking down the street alone at night by yourself like an idiot?”
“Why are you stalking me in your truck?” Victoria tosses back. “You know, you’re not doing much for all those awful stereotypes about predatory lesbians, Chloe. What’s next? Going to offer me some candy? What, are you a friend of my mom’s?”
“Your mom and I aren’t friends, she just eats me out when your dad’s not home,” Chloe says and the tension in her shoulders, the sharp sting of humiliation reddening the back of her neck eases when Victoria chokes out a laugh. “Now stop being a bitch and get in the fucking car. It’ll be faster. Put us both out of our misery.”
Victoria actually pauses this time, glancing around the street before eyeing Chloe’s truck with suspicion. 
“No one’s gonna see,” Chloe rolls her eyes and leans back into her seat. “Literally everyone smarter than you’s at home in bed right now. So, like, the whole town.”
With a huge sigh, Victoria hauls herself into the truck, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the whole cab. She smells like expensive perfume, peppermint schnapps and wood smoke. She kicks her towering heels off immediately, pulling her stockinged feet up onto the bench and tucking herself into the corner of the cab.
Stockings. She’s wearing stockings under that short skirt, riding up even shorter with the twist of her legs. Stockings, like some kind of sexy old-timey movie star fantasy run amok. Chloe wonders how Victoria Chase finds a way to be 18 and 81 at the same time. 
“Whose party?” Chloe asks once she drags her eyes away from Victoria’s legs, pretending she doesn’t see the smirk on Victoria’s face that means she absolutely noticed.
“The Vortex Club’s. Who else?” Victoria asks, running a hand through her hair. It’s shorter now than the last time Chloe saw her, a few months ago. It makes her look older, more mature. It leaves Chloe feeling even more like a stupid teenager, fumbling and uncouth, even though she’s technically older than Victoria.
“Yeah, stupid question,” Chloe mutters. It feels dangerous, just the two of them in Chloe’s truck like this. “Not like you hang out with anyone else.”
“It’s called having standards,” Victoria sniffs. “Maybe if you tried it sometime you wouldn’t be nearly twenty and still getting busted by the cops for smoking pot and blowing up GI Joes with firecrackers behind the Circle K.”
“You heard about that?” Chloe laughs. It’s a little embarrassing, and David had given her absolute hell over it once word got back to him from his little buddies in blue, but Christ, it had been funny. 
“About how somehow you’re an adult who has the life of a Toy Story villain and you’re, like, fine with it? Yeah, Chloe. I heard about it.”
“And you think my life would be, what, different? Better? If I just wanted it to be? If I had your standards?” Chloe asks, pulling into the darkest corner of the Blackwell student lot and killing the engine. The cab is dark but for the light streaming in through the back window from streetlamp a few rows over. The night is silent without the rattle of the truck’s old engine. Chloe slithers across the seat like she’s been wanting to do since Victoria got into the truck. Closer, she can read the expression Victoria’s face a bit better – a little expectant, a little disbelieving, like she always seems to be when they’re together like this.
Like she’s halfway between scared and excited and she likes it best right there, between the two.
“I think our lives are what we make them,” Victoria says, voice even and calm, despite the quickening of her breath. Her makeup’s gently faded from the night, except for the lipstick Chloe saw her touching up on the street before she pulled up alongside her. It’s bright red, applied just a little too thick, Victoria a little too drunk to make it perfect. “I think if you want to be successful and you work hard for it, it will happen.”
Chloe wants to lean in and mess it up. She wants to taste it herself, scrape it off Victoria’s bottom lip with her teeth, smear it messily down her chin, her cheek. She wants that lipstick staining the collar of her shirt tomorrow when she wakes up.
But she waits.
“So people who don’t succeed, it’s just their fault for not wanting it enough, huh? For not working hard enough,” Chloe says and it makes her mad, kind of. But it doesn’t make her want Victoria less. Victoria says nothing, just keeps watching Chloe from across the bench, leg still tucked up under her. “Pretty rich girl like you, you would think that. Mommy and Daddy sending you to a fancy private art school. You would think that.”
“I worked hard to be here,” Victoria says.
“Yeah,” Chloe nods. “You and your standards.”
She leans forward, one hand behind Victoria’s head flat on the glass of the window, the other grasping the inside of a thigh, just under her skirt, just over where the stockings end. She applies the gentlest pressure, feels Victoria turn for her, legs falling open for her, hears the breath catch in Victoria’s throat.
Chloe knows an invitation when she sees one. She slides her hand higher.
You wouldn’t know how she was being touched from that perfectly cool look on Victoria’s face. Smug, almost bored. Chloe kind of admires her for it, even though she wants nothing more than to ruin that poise. It’s the challenge, the vaguely adversarial nature of the sex that keeps these encounters, brief and few that though they’ve been, interesting. 
It doesn’t take long, really. Chloe’s good enough at this by now and Victoria’s drunk enough to not care that she’s being obvious. Within minutes she’s writhing against the door, shaking and swollen, dripping down Chloe’s wrist and begging to come.
So, of course Chloe pulls away.
Victoria keens, scrabbling desperately at Chloe’s retreating arm, panting and lipstick-smudged and nearly delirious. “Fuck. Fuck. Why’d you stop?”
“Well, I figured you wouldn’t want any handouts, right?” Chloe drawls, and reaches over her shoulder for a fistful of her tanktop. She yanks the shirt up and over her head, liking the sound her necklace makes when it falls against her bare skin. And yeah, technically, this is a tremendously bad idea because they’re in the Blackwell parking lot and there’s security wandering around out there somewhere but, well. Fuck it. Life’s a risk.
“Are you serious right now?” Victoria glares, looking very regal and pissed off for a girl with her skirt hiked up over her hips. All the incandescent rage in the world couldn’t disguise the way her eyes keep drifting down to Chloe’s exposed breasts, though, the way she has to fight to meet Chloe’s eyes when she speaks.
“Well, it wouldn’t have been very fair of me not to give you a chance to earn it,” Chloe shrugs. “But, y’know, most people don’t know this about me but I’ve actually got a pretty fuckin generous spirit and shit. So, like, if you were to ask me nicely, I’m sure I could…”
“Oh fuck this,” Victoria snarls and for a moment Chloe thinks she must have finally pushed too far, that Victoria’s going to fumble her way out of the cab and stalk back to her room.
But instead she launches herself across the cab, shoving Chloe up against the other door so hard and clumsy and fast her elbow bounces hard enough off the steering wheel to make her whole arm go numb. But before she has a chance to complain about that Victoria’s in her lap, grinding against Chloe’s bare stomach while her fingers tug insistently at the metal bars through Chloe’s nipples.
She’s rough and pissed off and neither of them is going to last like this but, well. Victoria’s kind of a perfectionist, control-freak weirdo, right? Chances are she’ll want a few more rounds, to make it perfect.
Chloe’s never been one to back down from a challenge.
dialogue prompts
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