#I got 127 of them including this one and two of them consist of a dottore x alhaitham ship that my brain just had the eureka moment for | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

warmau · 4 years

Text

warning: violence mentions | the rivalry au based off kick it mv

diamond dragons

jaehyun

the head of the diamond dragons, as the only child of the prestigious and almost obnoxiously rich jung household it was only right that he take over as the new and young leader

he grew up with most things being handed to him on a silver platter - but spoiling him didn’t make him less calculating or smart

he likes consistency and is fiercely rigid about social order - that being said, if someone who doesn’t even have the status to be able to look in jaehyun’s eyes as much as raises their voice or hand against him

with a snap of his wrist, he’ll crush their entire existence

so you can see, not many people choose to test their limits

he becomes known as a silent and cutthroat businessman, his family’s ties and his ability in finding only the best, most qualified people to work for him has allowed him to build a gambling empire

sitting on the boards of famous hotels and casinos

and when things don’t go exactly his way - well he has other members of the diamond dragons take care of that for him

he just blinks or tilts his head and that’s enough for his men to know their job

quite frankly, you don’t know how you ended up in a position like this - you had just finished your shift as the nightly poker dealer and were going to head home

when a sleek, long black car had pulled its way directly in front of you

you brace yourself, digging around in your purse for your keys because you’ve seen this in movies - you need to at least defend yourself

but then to your shock, the keys falling from your hand - the window rolls down and you see

jung jaehyun

“you’re the dealer from table 127, right?”

unable to speak - seeing someone so glamorous, so rich up close - you nod

the driver suddenly hurries around from his seat and opens the door of the car

jaehyun steps out, tall and glorious, the suit he’s wearing is made of silk and the cut between the lapels is deep - showing the beautiful and clean skin underneath it

you also make out the peek of something dark on the dip of his left collarbone

it’s the dragon tattoo everyone in seoul knows he has

“i’d like you to quit your job and work for me.”

he leans down a little - your eyes suddenly drawn to his own

a smile unfurls on his lips when he sees the shock of his proposition seep into your expression

“why?”

“let’s just say i have a soft spot for dealers, it’s the uniform. it turns me on.”

he chuckles, the sound low in the back of his throat as he toys with a strand of your hair and lets his hand settle on the bright red vest you wear for work

with that he turns and disappears into the shadow of his car, the driver rushes to close it and then turns to you with his hand extended

in it is a playing card, you see a “J” and think it’s the joker, but it’s actually not a card at all.

in the center where there should be an ace or a spade, is a curled dragon and the contact number jung jaehyun

you want to ask - exactly what does this job entail? but the car curves left and out of sight

the spot on you where jaehyun had touched sears a little

something tells you he’s had his eye on you for a while.

taeyong

a martial arts specialist, trained since before he could fully walk a straight line

he has two major interests: perfecting his technique and lace

he is a very very very big fan of lace

for someone who knows over three hundred ways to break bones - he craves and adores soft, beautiful things

people assume it’s because he himself is basically ethereal - that he wants to emulate it in his lifestyle

but really he just thinks there’s power in in it - no one ever said you had to knock someone out in bloody, dirty clothes

he agreed to be a part of diamond dragons partially because he respects jaehyun’s meticulous commitment to fine aestheticism

but also because beautiful things aren’t cheap

now he’s jaehyun’s main source of protection - quietly appearing in the shadows when jaehyun is threatened and taking care of “problems” without leaving a mess

he’s always dressed in white silks, lace collars and even lace ribbons on his arms and fingers and even in his hair

some members nicknamed him an angel of death because to be hurt by something so beautiful,,,,,,can’t be all that bad

you know taeyong, not as a member of the diamond dragons, but because he’s a customer of yours

you work with all the fabrics he adores, so when he needs tailoring he comes to you - always wearing something gorgeous and insanely expensive

long fingers adorned in jewels, yellow-brown eyes hidden behind blonde strands of hair

he claims no one else can tailor like you do - you treat the fabric with such care

it flusters you to be complimented by someone like him, but you never think twice about a man so polite and gentle

not until taeyong happens upon your shop in the middle of a robbery

and you frighteningly back up into a corner as a figure looms over you - money clutched in hand and wicked eyes

you think something bad is bound to happen until suddenly - the figures head is gone

you look up to see taeyong

his leg outstretched in a perfect high-kick, one angry flash of silver in his eyes

it takes you a moment to put things together - to understand what kind of force it takes for someone to do that

taeyong calmly straightens back out and steps over the slumped body

he takes your hand in his, still as gentle as ever and smiles

“i’ll make sure this goes away, now tell me - did you finish that order of mine?”

you cant breath for a second

his beauty had turned ravenous for a second - and yet, you aren’t horrified by it

instead the impact has somewhat enchanted you

you simply nod, leading him over to your work desk

the two of you ignoring the rolls of money that have fanned out on the floor

when you tilt your head to look over, taeyong pulls your chin toward him and he says it again

“ill make sure this goes away.”

yuta

a one shot fireball

some people have perfect pitch, he has perfect aim

any weapon, any size, any power - drop it into his hands and he’ll know what to do with it

and how to do it perfectly

yuta used to enjoy traveling alone, a sort of transit lifestyle that let him do and see whatever he wanted

much to the shock of many of jaehyun’s companions, hiring yuta was kind of out there

he was closer to a street banger than the refined masters jaehyun had a preference for

but yuta didn’t care about the stuck-up opinions some people had about him

it had been simple, jaehyun had bumped into him at a gala where he was attending as a guest and yuta had been hired to take care of a festering problem known as a corrupt governor who was also in attendance

jaehyun had sat back with his glass of wine, watching yuta do his work

even in a packed ballroom of people - he had got his mark - and then had calmly turned on his heel and disappeared

jaehyun had found him, of course, and had offered a position with the golden dragons

yuta had laughed at it, he wasn’t going to be a second hand call dog to some rich boy with a taste for refinement

but the money and the possibilities jaehyun spoke of had turned his tide

even though doyoung would scrunch his nose up when yuta strolled into meetings in less than appropriate attire or playfully twirled explosives in his hand

he was a true golden dragon now, he even had a small symbol tattooed behind his ear to show solidarity

you are the child of an extremely powerful casino owner, and therefore jaehyun knows and is acquainted with your family

the problem is - your father refuses to work with jaehyun on a certain amount of issues

yuta doesn’t think much when the order comes down and he gets himself ready for the job

your family is going out to dinner as usual, and yuta strolls through the restaurant and your table where you and your father are laughing

he sees the target - but something causes him to stop

your smile is so vibrant, shimmering with a kind of light he’s never seen before

you briefly glance up at the awkward, but handsome man but then refocus on your father

yuta takes his seat and stares down into the perfectly white plate - what he has hidden in the pocket of his jacket now feels heavy and unfamiliar

a sensation so new and obtuse to him that when he fishes it out

taking a second to line up his shot - the trigger feels wrong

the room disappears and like tunnel vision he sees you

usually he looks at people through crosshairs - yet something soft glows around you

once again you turn your head a little and catch his eye

a pretty smile accompanies it and yuta grinds his teeth

when he lines up the shot again - something happens that’s never happened before

he misses

the bullet ricochets to the left, hitting the wall to the kitchen

a flurry of panic breaks out and you get up, hand on your fathers back

yuta sees you one last time before he’s getting up too

a small voice reminds him that jaehyun will not be pleased

but yuta can only think

fuck jaehyun. i need to go toward them, i need to go toward that light.

doyoung

the famous lightening thief, whose reputation comes from being able to steal anything from anyone

and not petty grabs like cars or wallets or whatever

his repertoire includes everything from art museums to royal family homes to top corporations

if you want it - and you can pay the price for it - kim doyoung can get it

the police have made disgruntled points about his hands being kissed by midas or something, considering he’s never left fingerprints anywhere so they can’t tie him to the crimes

but it’s public knowledge that paintings and sculptures hanging in the homes of the affluent got there somehow

and that folders upon folders of incriminating evidence against powerful and corrupt ceos had to come from somewhere

his broad web of connections and perfect organization has made him a vital part of many rich families business

but he particularly enjoys working for the diamond dragons because the commission fee he gets is triple what he usually sees

and jaehyun’s missions for him always test his mathematical brain

he does, in fact, have one thing he can’t steal

and it’s tortured him for years

watching you work for jaehyun’s most despised rivals - the ragtag group that calls themselves the golden tigers

you’re the close confident of their leader, mark lee, and although doyoung has figured out enough to understand that you are nothing more to mark lee than a friend

there’s something about that closeness that doyoung craves

and so whenever jaehyun comes in contact with them, doyoung makes himself there

he watches you, wearing the thick leather jacket with the prowling golden tigers climbing up both sleeves

your eyes are always on mark or jaehyun, and doyoung looks at you past the frames of his glasses

no one has ever been more beautiful and more unattainable ,,,,,,,, he’s thought of multiple ways to get you to be his

but all of them are dark and horrible - unacceptable

doyoung swallows when he sees you approach at mark’s side, your hand settles on his hand and mark whispers something to you

doyoung doesn’t understand - why doesn’t jaehyun just take care of this group of children, he could spare you and let doyoung-

suddenly something turns the blood in doyoung’s blood freeze over

your eyes, linger on him, they start from his face and travel downward

you’re scoping him out - you’ve never done that

doyoung’s shoulders tighten, his lips thin and he can’t help but feel the heat of your stare

he’d dream of the day you noticed him, but he could have never imagined it would feel like this

he meets your gaze and the side of your mouth twitches into a small smile - a secret smile - it causes him to step back

a couple of the members throw glances at him, but doyoung’s mind nearly breaks

what did that mean? why are you finally look back at him?

jaehyun moves taeyong and yuta in front of him and mark calls upon on haechan and jungwoo

you lurk back into the shadows and doyoung knows its against his better judgement but he does too

while everything breaks out into hell - he watches you slip away and this time he doesn’t want you to go

he chases after you and falls right into your trap - he feels your hand against his back

“have you always had a soft spot for me? sorry it took me so long to notice”

you say, your voice like a goddesses hymn.

doyoung wants to say something, but everything suddenly dims.

golden tigers

mark

break it till you make it kind of mentality, from a hard working family that lost it all because of evil people in power (most likely because of something jaehyun’s family did - but that’s too deep in the lore for now)

he’s been making his own money and helping out friends since he can remember

and even though he looks like the most gentle, kind boy and he is - when you’ve been training to protect those you love your whole life

you can grow a tougher skin

and at some point it clicks for mark that he doesn’t have to sit around and do nothing - he can actively stop the people who hurt others for their own gain

and that’s kind of the whole reason behind the golden tigers

that and mark’s always felt an affinity for the animal, his mom used to call him little cub

and when he wants to be - mark can be ferocious, especially when it comes to jung jaehyun

who resembles everything mark hates, and jaehyun doesn’t fancy mark either - seeing him as one of those people whose social status just doesn’t match up

you’re mark’s childhood bestfriend whose seen firsthand how hard mark has fought for everything

how he’s taken the things the rich have done to the people of his community and reversed it

a lot of people owe debts to the jungs in your neighborhood, your older brother being one of them and on numerous occasions mark and the golden tigers have saved his and your life

you hate to fall into the cliche, but you think you’ve been in love with him for as long as you can remember

so watching him wear himself out - worrying about everyone else but himself - it’s made you anxious

you find him slumped over in an alley one night, dropping your bags of groceries to run over to him

a small drip of blood streamlines down his lip and he explains that he’s fine

but you can tell he’s been jumped - probably by one of those underlings for the diamond dragons

you help him back to your home and mark starts insisting that he go, that he leave

and for once you stop him - hand on his, still bandaged from when he broke it the week before

“mark lee, you can be a fierce tiger and fighter and protector - but have you ever thought about protecting yourself?”

he falters at your sudden straightforwardness

“i protect myself-”

“well! that’s not good enough. from now on, im your protector.”

you lean up to wipe the blood away with your sleeve and drag him with any force needed into your home so you can make sure he’s really alright

but thankfully mark kind of falls into step behind you easily

this side of you new, but inviting in some kind of mysterious way

“do-do you want to be a part of the golden tigers?”

he asks when you’re standing in front of him with wads of cotton, and hot tea on the counter

“i thought i already was - mark lee, you’ve bleed on my carpet like a billion times.”

mark laughs a little and his hand comes shyly to rest on your waist

he admits it now. you’ve always been there for him too.

but right now you just look so much more beautiful than all those times before,,,,,,,,,,,,,he can’t really explain why.

haechan

particularly skilled interrogator - he has a keen sense of reading people and fishing out their weaknesses

its not to say that he enjoys psychological games as much as he’s natured to be insanely good at them

he says he’s not a golden tiger, but he is - probably more than anyone else

because he understands mark and when he isn’t pretending like he’s not interested in this whole vigilantism

he too doesn’t particularly have a good history with the powerful

which is why maybe,,,,,,,,,it is sometimes to watch them squirm

with nothing but words

he does adore the other members as well, especially taeil who haechan thinks is just the most entertaining person in the world

he describes him as a matrix - his personality and his skill set just do. not. make. sense.

haechan loves it!

you’re actually a student at the university haechan attends, because as much as he is a golden tiger - he still wants to do something outside of the group for himself

you, of course have no idea about his affiliations, but boy do you and haechan get into it

he nitpicks at things and you argue that that’s not the right way to get to someone

he always points out it is the right way to get on your last nerve though

everyone in the room can feel the tension between you two, the whole will they won’t they

and haechan’ wont lie - it’s nice to tease someone not because you need their information to help save others or to destroy the plans of someone evil

but simply because you like their reaction

but one day, haechan realizes hes let you in too close

because as you’re walking with him to the bus stop - a group of figures spots him and spots you

they don’t approach, but haechan can tell they’ve taken note of you and it makes his blood cold

“hey, can i make sure you get home today?”

“oh - are you being nice to me now for some sort of reverse psycholog-”

haechan sees the dragon tattoo on one of the men’s necks, he swallows and steers you in the opposite direction

“no im not playing, just let me make sure you get home.”

“haechan c’mon im not gonna-”

you start, but something in haechan’s eyes dims and you look around and see that there are other people staring

“haechan,,,,,,what is going on?”

you whisper and he thinks quickly, reading their body language and nodding at you

“run.”

“what?”

“run. now.”

haechan and you end up sprinting through the winding streets, you’re too scared to look back and see who is following you, but when you finally do

haechan just grabs your hand and tugs you after him

once he thinks you’re somewhere safe, he doesn’t let your hand go

you look at him - eyes wide - he thinks, oh fuck i can’t let those guys get to them now

“haechan-”

“i know. i’ll explain everything.”

jungwoo

model turned casual member of golden tigers

he used to be straight onto a path of stardom and money, his pretty face and long lithe figure had made him quite popular for magazines and runway

but that kind of life came with so much loneliness and sadness that one day he just up and quit

he had met mark only a week later, after spectacularly failing an interview at a local coffee shop whilst also dodging unwanted attention from several of the patrons

mark had thought it was odd, the way someone could be so easygoing and still ward off the bad things around them

jungwoo had asked to sit at mark’s table and the two had talked, by the end of it mark had said if jungwoo needed anything he could come to him

and jungwoo didn’t need anything per say

but he did have something to offer

“im agile, im tall, and i can pretty much perfectly blend in with the kind of people you’re fighting. don’t you think i’d be useful?”

now he sports the golden tigers jacket, spends days flimsying around taeil’s makeshift basement lab

and hovering over haechan’s shoulder when he’s doing schoolwork

but it’s true - he’s on several occasions been able to get into the hotels the jungs have a hand in and has picked up anyone of interest to be interviewed and taken care of, if need be, by the other members

you’re supposed to be charmed by jungwoo because it seems like you have information on jaehyun

but instead of you being too charmed by anyone - you just seem just as obliviously beautiful as jungwoo

when he starts talking to you, you stare long and hard and then pick an eyelash from his cheek

“you should make a wish.”

jungwoo hasn’t heard that in years

but he happily obliges

when he asks you about jaehyun again you sort of deflate a little, the whimsical sparkle of your eyes dims

“i don’t know much about him, i don’t quite think i really ever want to know much about him.”

something clicks in jungwoo’s head and he asks you if you want to ditch the event you’re both at

you agree, wholeheartedly - thinking you two might run off for a midnight stroll or a stop to eat

instead you find yourself in front of mark lee and other golden tigers, but not for the interrogation they thought would happen

“i think you should let them join.”

jungwoo insists and haechan mutters that you can’t just let everyone jungwoo has a crush on join to mark

but mark sees something in you that he sees in jungwoo

when you ask if this is a gang, mark laughs and shakes his head

“no, that jung family is gang. we’re just trying to help.”

jungwoo gives you an enthusiastic nod - you don’t really know why but there’s a sense of trust you feel with these people

none of them are wearing those masks you’re so used to on the faces of the elite

you agree to see if you can be of any help and jungwoo shrugs off the jacket he’s wearing

the one with tigers on the sleeve

“it’s getting cold, plus you’ll have one just like it soon.”

you accept with a blush and haechan groans about how flirting isn’t supposed to be allowed!

taeil

scientist

but like a little crazy

but like he has no funds or an actual laboratory so he makes experiments in his basement

and almost blew up the apartment building down the street because of it - but like seriously it wasn’t on purpose he just spilled some stuff into some other stuff and it was weird

mark knows him because he actually used to work for jaehyun, the moon family is pretty infamous for being doctors and phd researchers

and taeil’s happened to be in chemistry - which is always a fun thing to have if you want to run a deadly operation

he left for unknown reasons - he left way before mark’s name had ever been uttered to jaehyun

and even though doyoung, jaehyun’s own private information thief, had been trying to find him for a while now

taeil had the help of the golden tigers to keep him on the fringes

which is why, from time to time, he likes to help them out as well

jungwoo and haechan both really have come to like him - mark likes him too and all, but those three somehow know how to have fun together

taeil’s favorite thing to experiment with is acidity, he likes making poisons and acids that can destroy things

and sometimes his own clothes (and even skin) pay the price - but that mans pain tolerance is so high he could probably be shocked by lightening twice and be standing

you’re one of the people who lives in the building beside taeil’s and you always hang around the back lot where the stray cats are

one is your ultimate favorite - a chubby black cat with one eye who you’ve named bruce - one day you see bruce pawing at the basement window of the other building so you go to see whats up and almost jump back when you see a person

his eyes shift from you to the cat and the window suddnly opens

he pushes forward a can of cat food - but you stare at it questioningly

“i didn’t poison it.”

he says

“,,,,,,,,,,who are you?”

“im taeil.”

“do you live down there?”

“you could say so.”

you watch as bruce shuffles toward the food and meows gleefully

“is he yours? i thought he was a stray?”

the voice asks and you shake your head

“he is. ive also been feeding him,,,,,,,,,,hey - whats that smell coming down from there?”

“oh nothing.”

the man smiles and you think it’s a little suspicious - but people are weird - and if he’s been helping the cat he can’t be all that bad

you notice a mark on his hand when he reaches out to move the can, it looks like the end of a dragons tail but you don’t say anything

he meets your gaze and waves a small tiny goodbye

before he closes the window for good he says something weird

“i could though.”

“hmm?”

“i could make a poison out of that.”

the window shuts and you sort of stay crouched, confused

bruce looks fine though and you follow him back out onto the street

when you return, there’s a curtain in the window

huh, maybe ill see him again. but what’s all that about poison?

taeil hums to himself as he continues working and then stops

“ah, i shouldn’t have said that to them. probably not cute to flirt with my knowledge of deadly chemicals.”

wild card

johnny

he was supposed to grow up in a monastery and be a man of belief ,,,,,,,,,,, but things happened

and now he’s extremely good at just about everything both the golden tigers and the diamond dragons would want in a member

problem is - he doesn’t feel solidarity toward either of them

because he doesn’t know the answer

is life about money or is it about helping others instead of yourself?

that’s a little to ethically on the nose for him

instead he likes to play both sides

jaehyun’s all about the gambling business - mark’s all about bringing those debt collectors down

so every now and then johnny shows up at a poker game or at the doorstep of someone whose running away from the jungs

he dangles his loyalty and then pulls it away, the thrill junkie in him expressed by the loud yellow motorcycle he zips through around town

he knows playing both sides of a card is risky

but he likes it - the adrenaline rush isn’t matched

you figure out what he’s doing pretty quickly, as you are the only person who does have his commitment

and when he does come home and you splay a hand over the toned plane of his chest

you ask him to stop, just so he’ll be safe

“i will, soon. they’ll both be destroyed.”

“how?”

johnny shrugs, leaning in to brush his lips against yours - he never lets this conversation get too far

but the day comes when both sides figure it out

they’re being played

and jaehyun doesn’t like wild card and mark doesn’t like playing the game all together

so johnny tells you to grab and go to run away with him and from this place

he’ll take you somewhere better and new

you stand on the corner of the street, 3 am and in the dim light

“how will i know you won’t run away from me, how you’re running away from the problems that have caught up to you?”

he steps closer to you - craddling your face in his large hands

“because i would die for you.”

he pulls something from the back of his pocket and places it in your hand

“you don’t have to answer me now, but when you’re ready - i do want to know. will you die for me too?”

johnny turns out to be right, the golden tigers and the diamond dragons will come to destroy each other

you don’t know if the evidence he collected and left at the doorstep of a local precinct helps with that

well anyway, it isn’t your problem anymore - you and johnny have moved on to bigger and better things

at least the rings you wear prove as much

#are the doyoung and mark ones somehow linked? maybe..............#does jaehyun hire you to become a future spy for the golden tigers?..........maybe [but then falls in love w u shocking everyone1]#basically - did i world build this universe to a T? yes.......................#nct scenarios #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 au #nct 127 imagines #violence/#blood/#guns/#anywayyyyyyyyyyyy what in fucks name even is this why did i go ham

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sparklingchan · 4 years

Text

Mischief Managed || Kim Doyoung(NCT 127)

Pairing : Reader(fem.) X Doyoung

Word count : 7k+

Warnings : A few cuss words here and there, gets suggestive towards the end, not proof read I’m sorry :(

Genre : Fluff, a hint of angst , romance, Hogwarts au, fake dating au.

Description: You are forced to befriend Kim Doyoung under unexpected circumstances but as two lonely souls meet, you find yourself enjoying his company a little too much.

A/N : I had the idea for this fic while I was travelling but I was too lazy to actually write it until recently. Harry Potter aus just never seem to bore me no matter how many times I write them ( it’s fate at this point XD)

Hi, dumblr please don’t EAT MY GODDAMN POSTS. Thank you.

This is for the #neohalloween evented hosted by @nct-writers <3

Enjoy!

Doyoung is bad at taking criticism. Not even sulky bad but angry, tantrum throwing bad. He'd rather be slapped than criticized. Metaphorically, of course.

"What do you mean she won't go on a date with me?" Doyoung hisses ,his voice an octave lower than usual. The bedroom consisting of three noisy boys suddenly falls silent at his words. For the first time in forever.

Jaehyun shifts in his place , the soft mattress dipping under his weight. He looks at his friend full of concern. "Look , you're not the only person trying to ask her out. I heard that some Gryffindor boys were trying to shoot their shot this morning. And that's just the beginning."

Doyoung clenches his blanket into his fists, "Claire is mine. They can't have her."

Johnny scoffs from his bed , his eyes never leaving the book he had been reading from the past one week, "Are you sure the sorting hat did a good job by putting you into Ravenclaw? That pride of yours sure does sound like Slytherin to me."

"Oh shut up. That's not even the point right now. I need Claire to go on a date with me. It's not a matter of interest anymore, it's a matter of pride. I will not back down just because there's competition." Doyoung shoots back.

The boys' room erupts with Johnny and Jaehyun's laughter, their beds shaking with vibrations and their voices probably disturbing the people sitting outside in the Ravenclaw common room. But it's been a long time since either of them have cared for what other people say. Ever since the three boys met on the Hogwarts Express six years ago , they've been inseparable, finding a home , a family in each other. And as time passes by, they're only formulating a stronger bond , unbeknown to the rest of the world.

By the time Jaehyun and Johnny come down from their laughter high, Doyoung is already throwing a fit , muttering under his breath , and clutching his blanket like his life depended on it. Typical angry Kim Doyoung.

"Everything else is fine, Dodo, but does Claire even know you?" Jaehyun asks, fanning his red face.

"Of course not , Jae. But in the sea of all the other boys ,she'd obviously notice our Doyoung first!"

Doyoung sucks in a deep,frustrated breath, reaching under his pillow to find his wand - Alder Wood, Dragon heartstrings core (11 inch) - his one true best friend.

"Aguamenti." Doyoung murmurs, ponting his wand at them. With a big splashing sound , a stream of water squirts out from the end of the wand , wetting everything that comes in contact with it - including Jaehyun and Johnny and everything else they possess.

That night , as the two boys try to dry themselves and the rest of their belongings, Doyoung stares up at the wooden ceiling, carved beautifully into swirls and waves and flowers ,he wonders why his friends think he wouldn't be able get Claire to go out with him, why did they make it seem so hard when it really wasn't.

His ego feels hurt, injured even. Maybe Johnny is right - maybe Doyoung is more Slytherin than Ravenclaw, but it didn't matter anymore. Because the Slytherin princess Claire would be his by the time Halloween arrives, no matter what and his ego and pride would be restored.

Or at least that is what he had initially planned.

Everyone has that one subject they truly hate with every fiber of their being. They might not be particularly good or bad at it , but they often wonder the significance of this immeasurably disliked subject in their lives. For Doyoung, it is the potions class.

Brewing potions, remembering the recipes, knowing the job of each ingredient seemed too heavy a job for a divination loving man like Doyoung. Potions is way too practical, way too boring.

"Psst, Jae." The class must have been going on for about barely ten minutes when Doyoung decides he's had enough and that he would rather get in trouble for disturbing his friends.

"Jae, I'm bored. Johnny is in quidditch practice too." Doyoung pokes Jaehyun's back with the end of his wand. The latter squirms in his seat, subtle enough to not disturb anyone in the class, who unlike a certain Kim Doyoung were attentively listening to the professor.

"What?" Jaehyun turns back only enough to meet Doyoung's bored gaze.

"I think I'm going to ask Claire out today. During dinner. What do you think?" Doyoung whispers.

Jaehyun shakes his head , putting his quill down on the table, "Are you sure? You guys haven't even talked properly yet."

Doyoung stays silent for a few seconds because yes, Jaehyun is right. He doesn't even know what she likes , where is she from, who her friends are but he is willing to take the risk. For someone as beautiful as Claire, Doyoung would risk the whole world.

"I mean I can try, right?"

There's a sudden scoff escaping from your lips - whose name Doyoung never bothered to ask - sitting next to Jaehyun, the green of your robe hinting at your belongingness to Slytherin. "You're stupid, Kim Doyoung. Claire is not going to go out with you. Especially not when you're being such a creep." You say, your eyes fixed on the professor and your quill writing notes in quick movements.

Creep? Did you just call Doyoung a creep?

"Y/n, it's none of your business." Jaehyun rolls his eyes , "Stay out of it."

"Why? Is Mr.Snowflake here too egoistic to face the truth?" You turn around to look at Doyoung, a smirk finding it's way to your lips.

Doyoung clenches his fists, nibbling at his bottom lip as anger fills him up like water filling up in an empty jar; quick and to the brim.

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, " he says, then bitterly adds, "Miss Y/n ,who no one happens to care much about."

The sound of scratching of quills and quiet mutter of spells fills the air for a few seconds before you say something.

"I'm not giving you my opinion, it's just an advice. From first hand experiences. Many men have tried to win Claire over yet only a few of them have ever succeeded. " you say, "And boys like you often tend to seek her only because she's good looking so she actively makes sure to avoid your kind. ,"

Jaehyun looks at you ,stunned, "How do you know all that? Are you guys friends?"

Doyoung is not sure what to say anymore - he's as confused as Jaehyun is, maybe a tad bit more. For someone he'd properly talked to for the first time today, you sure do have a lot to say about his personal choices and ambitions. Big words do not faze him anymore.

"No , we're not friends." You giggle, "I'm her cousin. You almost couldn't tell, right?"

"It's finally Hogsmade weekend again. I thought I was going to suffocate in that stupid common room of ours." Johnny sighs , waddling towards his bed and slumping down like a little boy.

"Yes, I also need a cup of butter beer the first thing we arrive there." Jaehyun says, "What about you, Dodo?"

Dodo ,on the other hand is far too gone in the sea of his thoughts to pay heed to what his friends have to say. His eyes are on the patterns of the ceiling but his mind is with Claire and mostly with you, who he unintentionally might have offended today during potions class. Doyoung didn't have any particular interest in you per se but as Claire's cousin, it is important for Doyoung to be accepted by you first. You might be a know-it-all ,annoying and ghostly but he needs to befriend you again, start everything from scratch. And who knows ,if he got lucky enough, you'd put in a word or two on his behalf to Claire.

"What's he thinking about?" Johnny whispers to Jaehyun, "Did something happen?"

Jaehyun shrugs, "Usually, I'd say he's thinking about Claire but today,I'm not so sure."

The next morning is as noisy as all of their Hogsmade mornings have been. Doyoung only remembers hearing Jaehyun's yells and Johnny's giggles and the Hufflepuff girls singing a beautiful Winter song on the journey to Hogsmade village.

No matter how hectic it is, he has always liked these weekends the best.

"Have they changed their services to self service or what?" Johnny asks ,tapping the marble surface of the table in the Three Broomsticks, "Where's Madam Rosmerta?"

Doyoung shrugs ,his eyes scanning the unusually quiet room. He realises that the only company they have is the empty chairs and tables and the flying bottles of water emptying themselves into small glasses. "Should we just grab our drinks and put the money on the counter?" Jaehyun offers.

Before either of them could answer, the main door of the room slams open, urgent with force and the three boys see you rush inside, panting and huffing and murmuring. Your hair is messy and your clothes are disheveled, yet Doyoung thinks you look...different. Different from what you look like at school at least. Better ,even.

"I'm sorry I'm late. We weren't expecting guests so early. I hope I-" you stop mid sentence when you realize Doyoung and the other two boys were the only ones in the pub, "Oh. It's just you three."

"Yes,y/n, it's just us. Can you get us three butterbeers please?" Jaehyun says.

You sigh with disappointment. A 'hi, y/n, how are you?' would have been nice but then again when has anyone ever bothered to greet you with so much sweetness? Jaehyun and you are study partners , to say in a way. You never bothered to befriend him and he never bothered to do the same so that's just how its been since first year - studying together in the library and pretending the other person doesn't exist under normal circumstances. You liked it that way but sometimes, just sometimes you did wish Jaehyun tried to treat you in a more friendly way.

"What's she doing here?" Doyoung ,who is genuinely taken aback by your presence, asks.

"She works part time here. Madam Rosmerta is a family friend of hers." Jaehyun answers.

If Madam Rosmerta is a family friend of yours then she must be a family friend of Claire too, Doyoung connects in his head, and Claire's name somehow ignites a fire of enthusiasm within him.

He drags his chair across the floor and gets up , walking toward the counter where you're working. A little nervous Doyoung is , but he still manages to start a conversation with you, "Hey, y/n ,right?"

You swiftly twirl your wand around in the air , and ten cups of butterbeer and gillyweed water present themselves on a tray. You turn away from him to clean up the other plates , "What do you need?"

"I um..wanted to apologize for the insensitive comment I made yesterday. We started off on the wrong foot, I'm really sorry." He says, rubbing the back of his neck. Autumn is starting to set in slowly, but Doyoung feels the sweat sticking to his skin as if it were a hot summer morning.

You pause for a second. What was he apologizing for? You honestly couldn't recall and whatever it might have been, you are sure that it wasn't worse than what your other classmate have said before ; which is why you don't remember Doyoung's supposed insensitive comment.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it, " You say, "I've had worse, actually."

Doyoung's heart drops - there is no phrase more pain inducing than the one you'd just spewed out so carelessly. And for some god forbidden reason, Claire suddenly slips out of his conscience mind.

"No, no. I want to start anew. Be your friend." Doyoung insists, leaning against the cold wooden counter.

You sigh, "Are you sure that's what your intention is? Because I don't think so. "

Doyoung scowls, "Of course that's my intention. What else would it be, y/n?"

You swing your wand and three glasses of butterbeer arrive directly in front of him. His eyes widen for a split second but he bounces back quickly.

"Just say that you need help with Claire." You sigh.

Oh,right ,Claire. Shit how could I forget? Doyoung feels silly.

"I mean...in a way yes. But that's for the later part. Let's first be friends, yeah?"

You shake your head , "If I help you out with Claire ,will you stop trying to be my friend?"

You absolutely despise yourself at times like these - when you are trying so hard to push people away when they're only trying to befriend you (for whatever reason it might be). You're so lonely yet so afraid of attachments that you always tend to do this. The same repeated routine. You hate it. You sometimes wonder what it would feel like to be in Claire's place, to be loved by everyone, to have people lining up just to take you out on one date . But it would never happen, because Claire is Claire : the Slytherin Princess and you are just you..someone who has barely ever talked to more than one person at school.

Doyoung gulps and then nods, "Okay. I will." Because befriending a Slytherin outcast will never be more important than scoring a date with the Slytherin Princess.

The Hogwarts Library is most empty during noon, something which you've concluded with years of experience and getting shoved out of your seat by your classmates who are way above you on the social ladder.

"So, " Doyoung finds a comfortable seat opposite to you , his hands fiddling with the pages of his diary, " how have you been?"

You give him a tired smile, "Can we get straight to point? I hate casual conversation. "

Doyoung snickers, "Wow, aren't you approachable today."

You lean back into your chair , eyes scanning Doyoung's face for any signs of regret . You'd never been the warm, bright sunshine kind of a person and you have accepted it without much protest. But of course, people take a lot of time to grow used to your sharpness and more often than not, people walk away even before you soften around them. It's a survival mechanism, you always convince yourself.

"What do you want help with? Do you want to know about her interests or past relationships or something else ?"

Doyoung pouts, his mind filling up with all sorts of ideas to impress Claire. It's like he's hit a jackpot by meeting you.

"I want to know what I have to do to gain Claire's interest. Be her friend and then eventually, a boyfriend, if I'm lucky enough." He suggests.

"First of all ,you need to stop gawking at her from afar. You need to start conversations with her ,no matter how short. She likes it when people approach her first." Talk about having a big ass ego.

"Okay, noted." One quick wave of his hand and his quill is immediately noting down sentences in his diary, " You seem to know her quite well. You guys are close, I am assuming."

You and Claire used to be close. Used to. In the past tense. As children you were inseparable, but as you slowly grew up, she realised how boring and uncool you were and that you belong to the shadows while she belongs in the spotlight. She's not tried to talk to you first for a long time now. But you weren't about to explain all of this to Doyoung, who is visibly smitten by your estranged cousin so you just shake your head , "No, not anymore."

Your ears perk up at the unexpected sound of approaching footsteps towards you and before you could ask Doyoung to relocate to a more secluded area, you hear her loud and clear voice.

Claire.

"Oh, hey, Doyoung!" She greets the man in front of you, walking upto his side. Her shiny shoes creating a tip-tap noise against the floor, and the green of your robe almost feels dull as compared to her bright one.

When her eyes fall on you, her mouths twists as if she had one of those stupid vomit flavored chocolates. "What are you doing here, y/n?" She sneers at you.

If you could ever get a hold of the invisibility cloak, the first thing you'd do is slap this bitch right across her face. She has always had this sense of superiority , even when she's never done anything quite as heroic or deserving of that fame. And it infuriates you even further when you see Doyoung freeze in his seat, eyes glued to Claire's face.

"We were studying. I was about to leave now anyway." You mumble , gathering your books and tucking them under your arm.

When Doyoung hears your chair drag across the floor , he snaps out of his trance.

Why were you leaving? You promised you'd help, why couldn't you put away your past tensions and deal with it?

"Hey, where are you going?" He grabs your arm out of the blue, sending a wave of shock jolting through your body.

You immediately pull your hand back, "I'm hungry. I want to eat something."

Claire glares at the two of you and how suspicious your behavior is , you'd always been weird but she never took Doyoung for the weird kind at all.

You quickly jog away from the scene , cheeks tinted red.

Doyoung suddenly comes with a horrendous idea and he knows you'd hate it but in the heat of the moment, this feels like the only sane idea to make you stay and help him . He looks at Claire directly in the eye ,making sure to keep his voice as loud as possible so you could hear it too,

"Y/n and I are dating."

The red, orange leaves rustle under your feet , disrupting the otherwise silent walk back to the Slytherin dormitories. A cold wind blows and you tighten the muffler around your neck.

"Y/n, I've been looking everywhere for you. "

And there is that leech again, making sure you don't come to have a single second of peace in your already hectic daily lives. For the past one week, Kim Doyoung has latched himself onto you like a leech latches to it's host. Wherever you go, he goes. It's maddening.

"I told you to stay away from me, Doyoung! Our deal is over. " you yell at him , your feet picking up a faster pace.

Without even looking back, you know that he is groaning under his breath, the look of hopelessness evident in his otherwise sparkling eyes.

"Our deal was that you help me. You're not helping me out at all! You're treating me like I'm invisible." he replies.

Just how I'd been invisible for years to you, you think.

"I didn't agree to be a bait in this stupid love game of yours. You literally pushed me down the cliff to save yourself. " you say. You feel a sudden gush of wind on your face and Doyoung is standing right in front of you - inches away, instead of a few feet behind you.

You gasp, "You apparated! Kim Doyoung, this is against the school rules."

Doyoung bites down on his lower lip, throat growing dry with anxiousness. He couldn't explain why - he'd apparated before within the school grounds and it's been okay then why is he feeling dizzy all of a sudden? But on second thoughts, maybe it wasn't the apparition that caused the dizziness, maybe it was the spooky possibility of you hating him for lying about you two dating that triggered it. And like salt dissolves in water and disappears into the liquid, Claire- who is the original cause of all of Doyoung 's concern, disappears from his thoughts. All that matters to him now is that you speak with him again and forgive him for his impulsive words . He wants to assure you that you aren't a bait , at all.

"Just hear me out, please. I promise. " he says, "if you don't talk to me, I'll try to be your friend. I assume you don't want that."

You sigh , pressing a hand to your face, "Okay, spill. And be quick. I have club work."

Doyoung nods, a small smile forming on his lips. He leads you under a bushy tree nearby, sitting down on the stone bench constructed there. You follow suit. "I'm sorry for telling Claire that we're dating but I was in a critical situation at that time, okay?"

You frown, "That's all you had to say? You aren't here to persuade me into fake dating you so you could make Claire jealous?"

Gosh , Doyoung , why do you keep forgetting your main motive of talking to y/n?

He blinks at you awkwardly, "Primarily, yes. But now that you've said it...it does sound like a good idea. "

You deadpan. Your eyes close as your lips heave out a tired sigh. Just when you thought he was here to actually talk to you and not about Claire.

"Fine ,whatever. Just don't be a creep or I'll bury you alive." You huff.

Doyoung giggles as his eyes curve into cute little cresent moons.He has a pretty smile , you catch yourself thinking.

He scoots over closer to you ,pinching your cheek. "Okay ,madam. I won't creep you out but I cannot guarantee that I won't flirt with you . I have a thing for Slytherin girls, you know.", He winks.

Your cheeks heat up involuntarily.

"Bye. I have work." You get up, walking away hastily.

"Bye! See you tomorrow at The Three Broomsticks," he calls out behind you,"Babe."

You'd never smiled so wide in your life.

Your part time job at The Three Broomsticks has never felt so much like a blessing than right now - when Kim Doyoung casually sits on the floor with you and helps clean the utensils.

"Are guests rare on weekends?" Hs asks as a white cloth floats around in the air, drying up the freshly washed utensils.

"They're less in the morning but it gets very crowded by sun down. Aunt Rosmerta joins me by that time." You reply.

Doyoung nods ,his eyes glaring at the white cloth when it falls at his feet. "Wingardium Leviosa. " he mutters and the cloth goes back to doing its work, while Doyoung carefully guides it using his wand.

"When do you have to go back?" You ask, purely out of curiosity as to why he is so into the role of your boyfriend when no one is even watching. You would rather die than admit it , but you liked this attention. A lot more than you thought you would.

"Whenever you're done. A good boyfriend accompanies his girlfriend ,right?"

Oh, the beating of your heart that suddenly picks up its speed at his words. A combination of words you'd never thought you'd hear in this lifetime, from anyone at all.

"Yeah,whatever. " you whisper under your breath.

Doyoung giggles ,leaning forward toward you , "Why are so shy ,y/n?"

"I'm not shy." You smack his forehead, "You're just being a creep."

Doyoung fake gasps, clutching the left side of his chest and blinks his eyes as if he were tearing up. "Ouch ,y/n,how could you say that to your own boyfriend?"

You roll your eyes but the smile on your lips doesn't disappear.

Before either of you could reply , the door of the pub clicks open and you immediately get up , dusting off your clothes , ready to welcome guests. Doyoung, who is very new to this , tries to mimic your careful, calculated actions.

"Hello, welcome to the Three Broomsticks-" your words are cut off when you see Claire , as glamorous and confident as ever, walking toward the both of you. Your heart sinks. You feel betrayed , annoyed even ; just the way little children feel when their favorite toy is taken away from them and given to someone else and Claire has, in fact, had a history of taking away a lot of your favorite toys when you were kids.

"Good morning, Doyoung," she greets him with the prettiest smile but it fades away as she turns to you, "You too ,y/n."

"What do you want?" You ask her, rather terse in tone.

She tilts her head , her bright red tinted lips sending a flirty smile in Doyoung's direction, "I'm here to see my friend Doyoung and well ,his new girlfriend. "

You scoff - since when has Doyoung become her friend? Last you checked, Doyoung wasn't even sure she knew him.

"Since when have you and Doyoung been friends, Claire? That's some news to me." You say.

Claire glares at you, "Well, I've always liked Doyoung. Too bad a dumb girl like you got to him first. I shouldn't have waited for him to approach me first , right?"

Doyoung - who until a minute ago was genuinely mesmerized by Claire's unexpected visit is now turning to frown at her. "You can take him if you want. I don't mind." You suggest ,turning away from them.

"Yayy, Doyoung ,you heard your girlfriend? Come on , let's go to the candy shop and enjoy there! It'd be so much fun!" Claire pulls at his blue-black muffler. He backs away a little. The image of Claire he had in his head was ..well, different from this arrogant , possessive woman in front of him. He feels disappointed but also relieved?

"Um - actually I'd rather stay here and help y/n, " you snap toward him faster than light , "I dislike candies anyway. Sorry, Claire."

When Claire's mouth gapes with surprise, Doyoung leans backward and pulls you into him , arm wrapped around your shoulder and chin resting on your head. Your heart hammers hard against your chest as all your senses blur away , only the feeling of Doyoung's warm body pressed against yours is what keeps you grounded to reality.

Its fake, y/n , get yourself together.

"Fine. " Claire growls and stomps away, mumbling curses under her breath.

The moment she walks out of the door ,you shove Doyoung away , "What the hell are you doing! She invited you to hang out with her and you let the chance go!"

He blinks at you , puzzled as if he is finally coming back to his senses. "Oh - oh ,its okay. I'll get another chance since she apparently likes me too. Don't worry about it."

I'm not worrying about it , you idiot , I'm happy about it , you want to say to him. But there are some words you'd rather never say out loud.

"Where are we going?" Doyoung huffs , jogging down the lush green hill leading straight to the Forbidden Forest. Fear is evident on his face , and it's rather amusing to see him like this.

"The Forbidden Forest, obviously," you say , pointing at the tall, strong tress that patiently await your arrival into the forest.

"What? Y/n, that's against the school rules. It's way past sun down now!" He hisses but still keeps jogging beside you.

You grin at him, "Says the man who apparates in broad daylight!"

The woods are as cold and spooky as ever , but not unfamiliar. To you atleast. You often come here when you need to get away from everyone else. You would sit at the top of the tallest tree, the soft breeze blowing away all your worries along with it. And the creatures in the forest have never bothered you anyway. You don't know why you are bringing Kim Doyoung - your pretend boyfriend- to a place that holds so much importance to you and is like your escape from the world, but this place was the first and only one to come into your mind the moment Doyoung said you should choose the location for your next 'date'.

"So how do we get up there?" Doyoung and you stand at the roots of the tree. He looks up at the branches in awe and you look at him with admiration - when he's not running his mouth around uselessly everywhere ,he's not that bad to be with , you realize.

"We apparate , you idiot." Wrapping a firm hand around his arm, you apprate to the topmost branch of the tree, the wind suddenly knocked out of your lungs at the sudden shift. You laugh a little.

"Wow, you're breaking rules." He comments. He doesn't bother to remove your hand from his and neither do you - so you end up sitting there , shoulders touching and breaths matching.

"You know when I first met you , I almost took you for a Ravenclaw. If it hadn't been for your robe, that is." He says , looking at the beautifully lit school building that seems to be floating around near the horizon. This is more magical than any magic he's ever been taught , he thinks , he'd never seen Hogwarts this way - so far away yet so close, so peaceful, so breathtaking. The starry sky acts like a beautiful backdrop and your soft hand wrapped around his arm makes him ten times more attentive to every sound and every sight. He wants you to never let go - even if Claire or anyone else somehow appears out of nowhere.

"I get that a lot, actually. " you chuckle , "and ironically ,I almost mistook you for a Slytherin."

Doyoung looks at you in amusement. What a peculiar coincidence!

"But now that I think about it, it doesn't matter what kind of traits you show. The sorting hat doesn't put just traits into consideration- it puts in your will too. You belong where you want to belong. Nowhere else." He replies.

You stare at him, and get embarrassed at how wonderfully close he is to you right now. All your life ,this is what you've craved; this warmth , this closeness and fake or not, you're thankful for it.

"Wow, that's some deep words, Kim Doyoung. I didn't know you had them in you." You comment.

"Hey, why can't you call me something cute?" He whines , "Kim Doyoung is too formal."

You pinch his cheeks, adoration pumping through your veins for the man in front of you. "Okay, I'll call you Dodo then. "

He is left wide eyed again, his face red with embarrassment. He never took you for the observant type at all.

"I heard Jaehyun call you that."

The moon shines at your face , highlighting your features like no make up ever could. He notices your hooded gaze and the happy stretch of your lips and the strands of hair that sway with the wind. He leans in closer , "Hey, now that I look at you up close , you're not that bad to look at."

You're not that bad to look at either, Dodo.

Jaehyun has this annoying habit of tapping his wand against the table when he is studying , and he has never even tried to rectify himself whenever you call him out several times.

"Can you stop that? I'm trying to study. " you groan in a quiet voice.

The library- much to your dislike - is packed with people this afternoon. Yellows and reds and blues and green , all of them seem to have decided to use the library in the afternoon today of all days.

"Yeah. Sorry. " he says and puts his wand down, flipping the pages of his notebook carelessly ,"but um -y/n, can I ask you something?"

Looking up from your Potions book , you nod , "Yes, of course. "

Jaehyun shifts and gulps ,visibly worried and anxious about whatever he is about to ask you. It's not like him to ever be so nervous around anyone. He was usually very uptight and spoke only when spoken to. This is very new.

"How long are you and Doyoung going to continue this fake dating thing on for? It's been half a month already." He asks.

Now it's your turn to be nervous.

"I-I don't really know. It depends on how fast Doyoung is able to get Claire to go out with him. I guess." You reply with an awkward laugh, "I hope the day comes soon."

You'd been so immersed in fake dating Doyoung all along, trying to spend every waking hour with him , taking care of him, laughing at his stupid jokes that you almost forgot everything was just a show to get Claire to go out with him. And as Halloween comes closer , you are sure the end of your supposed relationship is coming closer too. Your heart breaks at the sudden reality check. Like a glass vase thrown on a hard ,wooden floor.

"Okay, don't tell Doyoung I asked you about it - " he pauses when you both hear a woman's voice from behind you , startling the two of you.

"Hello, dear cousin. " Claire says with a big smile. Her arms are crossed in front of her chest, robe loosely tied around her body,"What are you doing in this stupid library on your birthday, y/n? Shouldn't you be celebrating with Doyoung ?"

Her words have never slapped you as hard as they do right now. She's been mean to you for almost half your life , but this time it hurts worse. You've always been insecure about your birthday, and Claire knows it. She knows how much you hate bringing attention to yourself and you'd rather get some small gifts from your parents than big gifts from people who you barely know. And she's now using all that against you.

"Or did he not bother to ask you, just like all of your former friends?" She smirks.

You know that feeling when there's a small wound on your body and a single contact to the wounded area hurts unbearably? That's what her words made you feel like. Sick and pathetic.

But you don't let it surface on your face. You muster up all your courage before speaking up, "Claire, are you so jealous of me dating Doyoung that you're bringing up past incidents to make yourself feel good?"

Claire is left astonished by your new found boldness and for the first time in forever, she doesn't comment back at you after you turn on your heels and walk away from the scene.

You are far too weak and slow to actually walk down to the Forbidden Forest, so you settle yourself on the top floor of the astronomy tower. The cold ground under you feels weirdly comfortable and the ticking of the grand clock helps you calm down your nerves.

Claire has never treated you like an equal in your entire life and you've tried so hard to ns like her always . To fit in to her ideas of an interesting person. She was your sister, she is your sister yet you've never despised anyone as much as you do now. And to imagine that Kim Doyoung, your Dodo might end up dating her just makes you feel sick to the stomach. Jealousy is an intense feeling but so is hatred.

You hear quick footsteps walking up the stairs and by impulse, you point your wand in that direction,"Expelli-"

"Hey, hey. Don't 'expelliarmus' me. I'm just here to celebrate my best girl's birthday. "

Kim Doyoung stands in front of you , hands occupied with bags of delicious candies and sweets. He smiles at you sheepishly as you call him over to sit beside you.

"Why didn't you tell me its your birthday today? This is all I could manage in a span of fifteen minutes." He complains ,placing the bag softly in your lap, "Happy birthday, y/n."

You smile , a little embarrassed but thankful still , "Thanks. Jaehyun told you?"

Doyoung nods ,scooting over closer to you. In presence of so much space on the floor, he somehow manages to almost cuddle with you in a small corner of the place. Your heart is no longer sitting in the cage of your chest ; it's escaped and landed onto Doyoung's palms ,giving him full freedom to do whatever he wanted with it.

"Doyoung ,I..um.."

"Yeah?"

Words , oh ! words have never been your forte. The only thing you were good at was actions - to express, to show , to communicate . That's all you've ever known.

So you lean in towards his face and place a chaste kiss on his lips. It lasts for a fraction of a second but your lips are left burning with the desire for more. More of him, more of this.

But when you see his face once you pull away, your blood runs dry. For a moment, you think so you see a flicker of happiness which quickly gets replaced by coldness, frustration, some degree of anger.

"Y/n, you know I like Claire!" He says , separating himself from you. Your body feels bare, "This was all for her. How could you ever think doing this would be a good idea?"

No,it wasn't for Claire. It was barely an excuse to bother you more, to see you roll your eyes at him , to spend time with you, but as Johnny says , his ego is too big to accept his liking towards you and not Claire.

He gets up.

"I-I will be leaving now."

He hasn't completely put a full stop to your fake relationship, he hasn't even said anything much yet but you know that he's left not just the astronomy tower, he's left you. All alone. As they always do.

Only the heavens know how you've barely managed to make it through a whole week avoiding Doyoung. The tear stains on your pillow , the muffled sobs in the washroom, the torn pages of your notebook are the only witnesses of your turmoil. For everyone else, you were still y/n, the girl who barely talks to anyone . And maybe, that's everything you'll ever be no matter how hard you try.

It is Hogsmade Weekend and Halloween which means you'll be packed with guests at the Three Broomsticks. It's a good thing ,you hope, it'll help keep you distracted from any painful thoughts and memories.

The cups and glasses and bottles dance around you as you put the chairs in place, your wand doing most of the work while you quietly murmur spells. It feels rather abnormal not having Doyoung around to help you. It feels too quiet ,even though the quietness is familiar to you.

A faint click sound echoes in the room and you immediately snap to look at the main door.

"Y/n?" Doyoung's head gently pokes in through the small gap in the door, “Happy Halloween.”

Your heart stops beating for a solid second, brain going fuzzy with a mixture of fear, excitement and relief. You want to run towards him and jump into his arms like how people do in those muggle movies but you restrain yourself; since it's not your place to do that. Not after you'd kissed him out of nowhere a week ago.

"Y-yea?" You stutter nervously, dragging a chair away from the table just to make it look like you are busy with work.

"Can we talk?"

Doyoung has always been very persuasive and he knows exactly what to say at a given instance. He's a Ravenclaw, after all. So he finds his way towards the table ,shyly so , and he pulls a chair for you to sit on ,"I won't take long, I swear."

You nod and sit. Better to be done with it than avoid it. "What is it? Shouldn't you be at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop? Enjoying with Claire and the other cool people?" You ask.

Doyoung gulps ,"Yes, I was there a minute ago. But it's too noisy there. I don't like it." And it's too dull without you.

"Okay. What did you want to talk about ?"

He plays with the buttons of his warm looking purple coat, his eyes shifting from the tablecloth to the glasses of gillyweed water to his fingers - anywhere but you.

"I'm sorry about running away that night. It was wrong of me," he begins, "And I regret it. I really do." "When I went back to the dorms, all I could think about was you and how much I loved hanging out with you and how pretty you look even when you're not trying and how desperately I wished you'd kissed me a second longer that night so I could have kissed you back. Because I really wanted to. "

When you start to reply , he shushes you, "No, it's not Claire that I want. Maybe it never had been because I don't even know her! But I know you and I think you're the coolest person in Hogwarts. I cannot love Claire, who I know nothing of but I can love you. I want to love you. If you'd let me."

You stare at him , your tongue suddenly losing all it's sense of functioning. Your eyes bore into his ,and you see it - the sincerity, the adoration, the desire. And you realise it has always been there. Just the two of you were too stupid to see it earlier.

"Okay. I guess." You reply , rubbing the back of your neck shyly. Your cheeks are tinted red but you put no effort in hiding it anymore, " I'm sorry, I don't know how dating works. What am I supposed to do?"

Doyoung giggles , tenderly taking your face in his hands, "Just do whatever you want to. It's just me."

"I really want to kiss you. " you whisper and he immediately tilts his head such that his lips easily captures yours. The kiss is warm and cozy yet fierce. His hands are locked on either side of your face while your lips perfectly mold around his, as if they were meant to be that way since the inception of time.

You don't believe in miracles , given your magical allegiance but you do believe in fate and soulmates. You believe that there's someone for everyone out there - no one knows how or when they'll cross paths with you, but they will surely do it one day. Because no force can stop one from getting the love you deserve. It's just like a string - there's one person at each end and you're so thankful that it is Doyoung that happened to be at the other end of your string.

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gascon-en-exil · 3 years

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Three Houses 100% Completion: Refining Those Spreadsheets

To my utter surprise, @symsykins has expressed interest in trying out my long and convoluted idea for a 100% NG+ run of FE16. Far be it from me to stifle the ambitions of a fellow completionist, but as I've made a fair number of updates to the methodology of that post in the months since I wrote it I would be remiss if I didn't publish those changes for the benefit of him or anyone else who wants to try their hand at this absurdity. Sometimes playtesting this stuff can be more entertaining than actually carrying it out....

Additional Parameters

It occurred to me that for "true" 100% completion you also need to complete those things tied to your Switch account rather than individual files. This means filling out the support log, event gallery (Goddess Tower events), and music library. Fun fact: there are exactly 29 Goddess Tower events if the same-sex ones are counted twice as the game does, so provided you plan them out ahead of time you shouldn't have to save scum to get them all.

As mentioned in the earlier post most of this is trivial to complete. The easiest way to raise support points between an active unit and a classroom unit is to have the latter serve as an adjunct during battle. They don't need to have an equipped weapon or be in a class other than noble/commoner, but just having them there will rapidly build supports. Still, it's best to plan out and stagger the number of supports your units take on each run so they're not overloaded. Cross-house supports are one of only two reasons to ever do cross-house recruiting, and they should also be staggered accordingly.

There's also the matter of building up your battalion guild. There are 127 unique battalions to obtain, discounting the Essar Research Group which requires the game's online features and a Switch Online subscription to access. Your guild can fit 200 total battalions in it, so there's ample room to acquire and max out one of each battalion as well as duplicates for the better ones. This is also the only other reason to recruit across houses: to get the three Part 2 paralogues that require it (Ferdinand/Lysithea, Linhardt/Leonie, and Caspar/Mercedes) and so unlock their associated battalions. As with recruiting for cross-house supports, you should only bother doing these once.

One-Time Renown Purchases

You can and should buy all the Renown purchases in Abyss and most of the saint statue bonuses during your first run, using the 10000 Renown bonus from CS and all incidental Renown gained during the run to do so as you can't spend it on anything else. Note that the last bonus for each statue, a boost to units' max stats, is functionally useless for the purposes of this project and so can be left for the second run - a full 10000 Renown you won't have to worry about spending right away. At any rate, however, you'll have amassed enough Renown to complete the saint statues during your second run.

On Monastery Activities

Previously I'd discounted the greenhouse as an unnecessary time sink like fishing and tea time, only to be completed when a quest is involved. However, I find that in non-CF runs you'll quickly start running out of dining hall resources in Part 2 without planting crops, which forces you into the less efficient alternative of running around and throwing gifts at your active units to max out their motivation each week. Therefore I recommend planting vegetables and fruit in the greenhouse throughout Part 1, at which point you can stop because by then you should have accumulated enough resources to cover the rest of the game. Additionally, there are certain glowing blue spots along a typical exploration run route that are guaranteed to drop fish or edible crops - at the stall in front of the fishing pond and on the stalls in the corner of the marketplace where the special merchants gather, namely - which you should check out each month.

Byleth's Level

When Byleth is not an active unit don't bother raising their level higher than 15. This is good enough to recruit all the level-dependent characters (most of the church units), and the only meaningful benefit to going up to 20 is to attempt the proper conduct tournament. However, early on Byleth is unlikely to be able to win the tournament even at 20 without an appropriate class or abilities, and the Renown and brave weapon frankly are not worth the waste of time and space in having them be an adjunct for those five extra levels. Save the tournament for runs where you're actually using Byleth.

Classroom Unit Ranks

A quick correction here. I previously said that Authority should be every character's first priority as a classroom unit, but I no longer believe this is true. With standardized class sets (see further down) it's more important that characters look ahead to the runs they'll be doing in the near future and work on skills relevant to those runs. This especially holds true for banes; a classroom unit can easily take a bane skill as high as B or even A from base over the course of a run, which will help significantly with future certification requirements. Classroom units can work on Authority, but I'd save that for those that have free availability in most or all runs like Anna and the Wolves. The regular students and to a lesser extent non-student characters that join late will want to prioritize their problem skills and build Authority mostly during combat in their active runs.

Route Distribution

I had previously suggested that CF should have the most runs to compensate for Jeritza being awful...but screw that. My current 29 run setup:

6 runs of SS

10 runs of AM

9 runs of VW

4 runs of CF

Notably, this works out to 9 or 10 runs per house which is overall more significant given the advantages in-house units enjoy. The choice to give AM an extra run over VW came down to AM having more exclusive units; VW's one extra week isn't that much of an advantage, not when the Deer lack a Part 2 exclusive and also include Lysithea. But, you ask, can you get away with running CF that little?

Playtesting suggests yes, provided those runs follow some strict parameters: five units only, with three of them being the CF exclusives and the remaining two slots covered by a rotation of the other Eagles. SS runs should precede CF runs whenever possible, to give Edelgard, Hubert, and the rest of their house more classroom time to make up for having to share runs of the shortest route in the game with Jeritza. Jeritza should always hold one of the Knowledge Gems during Part 2, with Edelgard and Hubert sharing the other. The other Eagles can lean on their active use in SS runs to make up for the deficit, and even Edelgard and Hubert can prep for their active runs or finish up skill ranks in SS. Jeritza though....

Number-Crunching Jeritza

To illustrate why I complain about Jeritza as much as I do (from a unit perspective, that is - it's been well-established why I hate him as a character), let's take a particular trouble spot of his as an example. Jeritza has an Authority bane, which means that even with Mastermind and a Knowledge Gem equipped he'll gain no more than 3 points of it during each combat encounter, or 6 if he uses a gambit (not to be relied on given how limited in use per map gambits are). He doesn't have access to any classes that boost Authority, so this is the best it gets. Starting at B Authority means it'll take him 2920 total points to reach S+. Assuming no classroom instruction (because he's got ten other skills to work on, you know) and no gambit use, that works out to him needing about 974 total combat encounters or an average of 244 encounters in each of his four runs.

Is that feasible? If you follow my method of exploring on weekends before instruction weeks and battling on other weekends (and assuming your first run is not CF which...no) there are (3 battles per weekend x 5 calendar months) + 6 chapter maps = 21 battles that Jeritza will fight. Obviously those battles vary in length, but that comes to an average of 12 combat encounters per battle. That's admittedly a bit steep, especially earlier on when few of your other units will have maxed Authority and can be used as adjuncts, but remember that gambits count as two combat encounters and that, more significantly, the other units will eventually max out Authority and allow you to field only three frontline units at a time. It does help that both Edelgard and Hubert have Authority boons, so they should be backline-ready no later than their second active run.

Unfortunately there is one little hiccup to this. CF's first calendar month consists of just one free weekend and the chapter map. As annoying as it is the journal can only be accessed while exploring, which means that on each CF run after the first you'll have to choose between skipping three battles that month or updating Jeritza's skill ranks. You should always choose to battle, because it will help out your other units (who already end up screwed out of a few battles thanks to what choosing CF does to the end of Part 1) and also allow Jeritza to start working on ranks he hadn't touched in earlier runs. The wasted Authority growth is a shame, but at least Jeritza has the base ranks to certify for any beginner class right out the gate so he can pick up a sword/lance/axe/gauntlet/Thunder and still make use of the training time. CF Chapter 13 is also unusually short and will be finished in only a few turns, so it's not a great loss either.

And all that was just for one rank! Hopefully that proves my point about Jeritza sucking, even if mercifully his class masteries and other skill ranks are less of a pain. Even faith can be worked around with bishop and holy knight offering 6 points per combat encounter, although he'll probably want to save his monk run until he can be an adjunct so he's less hobbled by his tiny spell lists.

Standardized Class Sets

Probably the part of this update I'm most proud of, as I put a lot of thought into simplifying one of the more needlessly complex elements of my original setup. Crafting individualized class sets for each character may sound fun on paper, but it's a hassle to keep track of when actually playing the game and doesn't have any substantial benefit. Characters can patch up their banes through classroom training, and furthermore class certification requires nothing higher than A which is a major reason that mastering classes is more of a rote structural element of individual runs than something that requires intricate plotting.

As such, have some standardized sets. These come in male and female versions to account for genderlock and similar considerations, and they apply to all characters except Byleth and the house leaders who have to be handled a bit differently. Noble and commoner are not listed as they're trivial to master; just make sure that non-student characters go back and do so at some point, like when they're being used as adjuncts for supports.

Below each set is a list of the skills needed to guarantee certification in all of the set's classes. This was a useful metric for determining which classes went best where.

Myrmidon

Male

Mercenary

Thief

Dancer (if available)

Hero

Swordmaster

Assassin

Trickster

Death Knight (Jeritza only)

Mortal Savant

A Swords C Axes C Bows B+ Reason B Faith

Female

Mercenary

Thief

Dancer (if available)

Swordmaster

Trickster

War Cleric

Mortal Savant

Gremory

A Swords B+ Brawling A Reason A Faith

There are a lot of sword-based classes, more so than any other weapon or magic type, and that combined with the rarity of sword banes - only Bernadetta and Mercedes - means that often even characters neutral in the skill will max out swords during the course of their myrmidon run.

This run has the distinction of being the only one to not require any of the movement type ranks, which is one reason why gremory is here. The other is that female characters have eight regular master classes as opposed to males' seven, so while when divided across four runs males get a free space here (which Jeritza takes advantage of), females do not. Unfortunately mortal savant is the only master class that proceeds naturally from all the earlier sword classes, but if you'll notice from the male set's requirements there are fairly high reason and faith requirements here even without gremory.

The other oddity is war cleric, which takes the place of assassin (see below) but stands awkwardly as female characters' only serious brawling class. The secondary faith requirement slots easily into a run that also includes trickster, but as I explained in the first post brawling is going to be a problem skill for female characters no matter what you do.

One more note: it's important to consider certain things when deciding which active units will go in which run. Myrmidon runs require the most scrutiny as this is where characters will be dancers, and of course you can only have one of those per run. These runs also require the limited availability Abyssian Exam Passes, one for males and two for females, so keep that in mind as well.

Soldier

Male

Armored Knight

Cavalier

Archer

Fortress Knight

Paladin

Sniper

Great Knight

Bow Knight

A Lances B+ Axes A Bows A Heavy Armor A Riding

Female

Cavalier

Archer

Pegasus Knight

Assassin

Paladin

Sniper

Falcon Knight

Bow Knight

B Swords A Lances A Bows A Riding B+ Flying

Here we see the major influence of genderlocked classes. Female characters have more obvious lance options thanks to the pegasus classes, whereas males have to take the heavy armor classes instead. This balances out in the fighter runs, but for now it's worth pointing out that characters will only be using lances and bows in these runs. Swords (females) or axes (males) will be trained entirely in the classroom, with females running assassin as a bow class and males running the heavy armor classes with lances. Hey, great knight does have Lancefaire, and more importantly all the classes mentioned also boost those weapon types.

Fighter

Male

Brigand

Brawler

Wyvern Rider

Warrior

Grappler

War Monk

Wyvern Lord

War Master

C Lances A Axes A Brawling C+ Faith A Flying

Female

Armored Knight

Brigand

Fortress Knight

Wyvern Rider

Warrior

Wyvern Lord

Great Knight

C Lances A Axes A Heavy Armor B+ Riding A Flying

This is the inverse of soldier, with male characters taking a quartet of brawling classes while females go mono-axes with the heavy armor classes and others. The female set also has one fewer class than all the others here, a consequence of there being one fewer female-exclusive class than male. As with the master class free space in male myrmidon, keep that in mind for later. The singular axe focus and smaller number of classes compensate for female fighters needing to train all three movement types here, which is annoying but necessary. I tried numerous combinations of classes in the soldier and fighter runs, but incredibly this is the one that's least demanding on overall ranks. What can you do?

Male fighters require an Abyssian Exam Pass - just pointing that out.

Monk

Male

Mage

Dark Mage

Priest

Warlock

Dark Bishop

Bishop

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

C Lances A Reason A Faith A Riding

Female

Mage

Priest

Warlock

Bishop

Dark Flier

Valkyrie

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

C Lances A Reason A Faith A Riding C Flying

With the understanding that gremory is covered in the myrmidon run, there's little to mention here. Rank requirements are almost identical with females only needing to work on flying a bit. These runs are the most demanding on limited seals though, with males needing two Dark Seals and females two Abyssian Exam Passes. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Also, these runs make it clear that if you're going to equip these characters with a weapon for when they run out of spells (as might well happen during earlygame), make it a lance.

Edelgard

From the standard sets:

Add lord to myrmidon

Add armored lord and emperor to fighter

Because female fighters are already one class short Edelgard can add two classes there and still come out as even as possible. She's the only character other than Byleth with more than eight master classes, meaning she'll have to do three of them in one run, but with her it's no trouble aside from emperor having the worst availability of any class in the game that is. Her unique classes slot well into fighter as it is.

Dimitri and Claude

From the standard sets:

Add lord to soldier

Move hero from myrmidon to fighter

Add high lord and great lord/wyvern master and barbarossa to myrmidon

The guys, meanwhile, don't fare as well. They take advantage of the same free space for a master class that Jeritza does, but to make the rest of this happen things have to get a bit messy. They'll have to have a certain sword rank for their soldier and fighter runs now, but as they both have sword boons that's not too tall of an order. They can also run hero as an axe class and lord as a lance class to match those runs' themes, which also helps each of them a bit in a different way - Dimitri with his axe bane, Claude with his lance bane. Dimitri's unique classes fit well with myrmidon as they also boost swords, but the best you could say about Claude's unique classes in myrmidon is that he won't have to train up bows for assassin when he can just switch to using them in wyvern master.

Byleth

The Avatar’s special gender-variable self needs class sets built from the ground up to accommodate their ability to access all of the genderlocked classes. As follows:

Myrmidon (male)

Mercenary

Thief

Dark Mage

Hero

Swordmaster

Assassin

Dark Bishop

Trickster

Enlightened One

Mortal Savant

Soldier (female)

Cavalier

Archer

Pegasus Knight

Paladin

Wyvern Rider

Sniper

Falcon Knight

Wyvern Lord

Bow Knight

Fighter (male)

Armored Knight

Brigand

Brawler

Fortress Knight

Warrior

Grappler

War Monk

Great Knight

War Master

Monk (female)

Mage

Priest

Warlock

Bishop

Dark Flier

Valkyrie

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

Gremory

Apart from the two female runs having three master classes apiece - unfortunate but necessary, as with Edelgard - the biggest surprise here should be dark mage/bishop in myrmidon. They need to be in a male run though, and there are more magical female-exclusive classes so that's not going to be monk. Alongside the standard mortal savant it's not much of a stretch in terms of skills (something Byleth never struggles with anyway because faculty training is a thing), but the required two Dark Seals should be considered.

Conclusion

I think that's just about everything for now? I could be really over the top and map out exact routes for exploration, efficient paralogue choices, and more nitpicky stuff, but even I've got my limit. Part of the fun of 100% is being able to adapt your strategies anyway, so I'm not sure that being that precise would be the best way to approach hypothetically helping someone else do something like this.

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses

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fyexo · 4 years

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200925 SuperM Dives Deeper with Super One

We meet the game-changing and boundary-breaking supergroup everybody needs to know.

There’s a rumble in the ground, a rupture, a star shining in the sky. Like a meteor landing on a quiet plain, SuperM – the Avengers of K-pop – landed in our lives, igniting the industry in unprecedented ways. With K-pop now considered a global phenomenon, how much more innovation is required to demand attention? The answer lies in the Capitol Records and SM Entertainment supergroup: the first K-pop act to debut in the US who immediately stole the show and made music fun again with their record-breaking 2019 introduction. SuperM consists of a diverse group of stars hailing from different groups: Taemin from SHINee, Kai and Baekhyun from EXO, Taeyong and Mark from NCT 127, and Ten and Lucas from WayV. They are the future, the charismatic force managing to both elevate and inspire. With Super One, the group’s first full-length album released on 25th September, they graduate from simply jumping and popping (Jopping!) to invoking the sincere emotions of listeners while simultaneously lighting up the room in the way that only they know how.

Baekhyun – the soulful vocalist, humble leader, and oldest member of SuperM – opens up about their growth: “When we first met, I could tell that the younger members were feeling a little nervous. But aside from working and performing together, we also naturally spent a lot of time together off stage, too.” In fact, their chemistry is palpable: “From sharing the same rooms when we were on tour in the US to shooting a reality show together recently, we made a lot of memories. Now, we’re like close brothers. We feel very comfortable with each other.”

Since joining the supergroup, Baekhyun’s Delight, released in May, became the first album in 19 years by a Korean soloist to sell over 1 million copies. Baekhyun says, “Shortly after completing my solo activities with ‘Candy’ [the lead single], I regrouped with SuperM, and I definitely feel more at ease in a group.” As evidenced by their discography, which fuses elements of hip-hop, pop, and various other genres, “We are always experimenting with different styles and trying to create something new so the synergy that we bring to the stage is very distinct and unique.”

Taemin has found similar success with his solo endeavours, recently releasing his best-selling project to date just this month. His 3rd Korean studio album, Never Gonna Dance Again: Act 1, hit number 1 on several iTunes Top Albums charts including the US and Canada. The graceful performer ponders the importance of embarking on this journey with the rest of SuperM. “Through our individual teasers, we wanted to tell a personal story about our beginnings—from how we developed our dreams to how we got to where we are now. They are reflections of our past that allowed us to become the artists that we are today.” For Taemin personally, who first debuted in SHINee in 2008, “This experience helped broaden my boundaries as an artist and I’m very thankful for that.”

Taemin’s wisdom is apparent in how he interprets his growth, “Although I’ve performed abroad many times before, SuperM was formed with the global market in mind so I took this as a new challenge and a great opportunity for me to learn and grow even more. Through SuperM, I was able to get closer to my international fans and learn more about their cultures. Because of the opportunities I’ve had more recently to perform on a global stage, my stage performances and mannerisms have improved and this has made me a stronger artist.”

Branded as fast-moving and dynamic, there were certain expectations for them to continue on this path. The motifs are intentional, but fitting, and as the endearing Hong Kong rapper Lucas puts it, “‘Movement’ and ‘speed’ for us carries a deep meaning and represents our strength and energy. It also describes how SuperM is always moving forward no matter how difficult the situation may be. There is no better tomorrow if you’re not moving forward.”

Taemin further reflects on this. “I think fans will be surprised to hear mellow, medium-tempo tracks that are not performance-based. Incorporating the performance element is of course one of the most important parts of what SuperM does in our music, but this time, we also wanted to emphasise a message of hope.”

Kai, lead dancer of EXO and Gucci ambassador, who will also be embarking on his solo career soon, shares that “I really want to perform ‘Infinity’ and ‘Monster’. Together, they form our title track, ‘One’. I’m excited to perform ‘One’ as well, but also would love to showcase the two tracks separately, as I think that would bring a different charm on stage.”

The love for this track is echoed by Taemin, an expert when it comes to this fusion of songs as SHINee also had a combination of tracks with 2012’s ‘Sherlock’, a mix of ‘Clue’ and ‘Note’. “With K-pop, you often have a gradual change of genres in one song, but ‘One’ brings together two completely different songs, so it’s fresh—but it still sounds very natural and seamlessly put together.” He adds, “The members’ vocals really stand out through these tracks so I hope fans enjoy!”

B-sides like ‘Together At Home’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ are like a comfort blanket for fans, suitable for the current world climate. Kai recognises that impact and describes it as intentional, “Music can really lift your spirits when you’re feeling down so I hope people find healing and happiness while listening to our music. That would make us very happy.”

“FROM SHARING THE SAME ROOMS WHEN WE WERE ON TOUR IN THE US TO SHOOTING A REALITY SHOW TOGETHER RECENTLY, WE MADE A LOT OF MEMORIES. NOW, WE’RE LIKE CLOSE BROTHERS. WE FEEL VERY COMFORTABLE WITH EACH OTHER.”

Prior to the official album drop with title track ‘One’, several songs were released, each accompanied by their own electric music videos. The single, ‘100’, has lyrics written by youngest member Mark, who explains, “For ‘100,’ I wanted to really bring the energy of SuperM, because my verse opens up the track, and I wanted to really complement the song while emphasising our strength as a group and that we have the capability to be at the top.” The Canadian rapper, whose positive energy is contagious, says, “Taeyong and I also wrote our verses for ‘Together At Home,’ and I think we tried to keep the lyrics closely tied to the overarching message of the album. So for that song, we tried to envision what it’s like to be “together at home”, so staying connected to the fans and our loved ones while we are physically apart.”

Ferocious single ‘Tiger Inside’ was released on 1st September, and NCT leader Taeyong describes it best, “as a hip-hop song with an Asian-themed vibe. One part of the lyrics says, “Wake up the tiger inside” which I think describes SuperM’s energy really well. He eloquently personifies the group through a more artistic lens. “SuperM coming together is almost like a painting created using these different colours, to create a new work of art.”

Though promotions are hectic, Taeyong opens up about life outside of the spotlight, sharing, “I personally spent a lot of quality time with my family and also creating new music.” Mark has also been in tune with his rhythmic side, adding, “I’ve been listening to a lot of the new music that’s been coming out… Recently, Big Sean’s new album and Dominic Fike.”

The fashion of the group ranges from traditional Korean wear to modern hip-hop stylings, reflecting the merging of cultures, sounds, and themes apparent in their music. Lucas took a special liking to the outfits they wore for this comeback. “I wore a black outfit in the ‘One’ music video and it made me feel like a fictional character from a film or a book. I really liked the concept of that look. For ‘Tiger Inside’, I wore this beautiful emerald colour outfit with gold embroidery and intricate Asian-themed details—that was another one of my favourites!”

With everything going on in the world right now, Ten, the multilingual Thai singer and dancing king, says, “Right now, our biggest goal is to interact closely with our fans in the best way possible given the current situation. Even though we can’t meet each other in person, we want our fans to know that we are always thinking of them and that we are always trying to create opportunities to make us feel close.” He mentions ‘Beyond Live’, the platform SuperM spearheaded earlier this year to provide a virtual concert experience for fans.

“We are always thinking of fun and innovative ways to interact with our fans so we are definitely planning on doing many more online promotions that bring us closer together.” He elaborates, also sharing that he’s excited to finally perform songs off of Super One.

This album is a new era for SuperM, whose journey as a group has been far from ordinary but delightfully rewarding. As Baekhyun concludes, “When SuperM was first announced to the public, it may have been odd to see members from different groups come together like this to form a new group. But in spite of that, our fans have always cheered us on from the get-go and we’re incredibly grateful for their support.” SuperM’s awareness of the times they’re in and ability to adapt allow them to be a tantalizing force in the industry.

Though awards and accolades are nice, what makes this group special beyond their obvious talent and charm is the passion, grit, and hard work they put into what they do, and Super One is the ultimate care package and culmination of their gifts. Through music, they remind us that we all have the power to unite together as one no matter where we come from.

Ashlee Mitchell @ TMRW

#exo #baekhyun #kai #t: interview #album: super one #200923 #e: interview

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butterfliesinthenightsky · 3 years

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hi girl! hope you're doing good!

i wanted a ship with nct (for each sub-unit; 127, dream and wayv) but i didn't want to include pictures, is that's okay.

here's my description:

brief about me, i'm latina a big cat person but I like dogs, i also am a morning person and im between hufflepuff and ravenclaw. i like books and i can speak three languages! and i love astrology im a taurus sun, cancer rising and capricorn moon. my love language is somewhere between acts of service and quality time. im the kind of gf that would make you cookies and want to take pics of us together all the time.

hope this helps. thank you!

@astral-lucy Hi, girly! You doing okay as well? Let's crack on, shall we?

In NCT 127, I ship you with Taeyong!

I am of the sole belief that Taeyong is serious boyfriend material.

He takes care of everyone around him so much, there’s so many videos of it.

Don’t expect anything less in the relationship between the two of you.

You often times catch him just staring at you in awe of how pretty you are.

One time he caught you over at the WayV dorm without him, and you said that you came over to give Louis and Bella cuddles and lost track of time.

You always wake up before him (somehow, even though half of the time he hasn’t even gone to bed yet)

The part in the parentheses causes arguments between the two of you sometimes, to be honest.

Hesitant to introduce you to the rest of NCT, he didn’t want to overwhelm you with just how many of them there were and the fact that they have crackhead mode turned on most of the time.

He brought you to their “Back on Black” dance practice and the second the two of you walked through the door, some of the boys descended like a pack of wolves.

Haechan, Johnny, Ten, Jaehyun and Jaemin especially.

They love how you balance him out a little bit more, and thank you for making sure he takes care of himself as well because they know he takes care of others before himself in most situations.

In NCT Dream, I ship you with Mark!

The way that you described yourself seems like you are mature and wise beyond your years?

Which made me think of Mark!

He is one of the older members, so I get the vibe from him that he wants to take care of the other younger members and make sure they’re behaving and are protected.

He would be your biggest supporter and hype man and best friend.

He would always be there for big events in your life, and if he couldn’t because of a schedule, he would have one of your friends or one of your parents face time him so he could quickly watch that way.

If he WAS able to be there, he would give you a massive bouquet of your favorite flowers and the most tight hug and whisper his congratulations in your ear.

(Your relationship is out to the public, don’t worry.)

He bring you back to the company because he has a surprise for you.

You walk into one of the dance studios and the lights turn on and all of the boys jump out with poppers and start yelling.

They brought all of the NCT pets with them, because they're important to you as well.

You all ate dinner and desserts and just hung out and laughed, it was your favorite day in your relationship.

A day surrounded by those that you love, not worrying about everything.

I’ve heard a couple different opinions on which house Mark is in, one said Slytherin and another said Gryffindor.

I feel like he is more Gryffindor out of those two?

He wakes up in the middle of the night, to see you curled up in an armchair in your living room fast asleep, with a heavy book across your chest.

Gently shakes you awake and wraps his arm around your lower waist as you stumble up the stairs.

In WayV, I ship you with Kun!

Pretty boy, simp hours are always open when it comes to you.

Heart eyes whenever you are near him.

I get the vibe that Kun is a very romantic boyfriend, like he just gives off those vibes to me.

He seems incredibly intelligent to me, your conversations would be incredibly deep most of the time.

Dates sometimes consist of visiting small family-owned bookshops and picking out books for each other and curling up together on a beat up couch by the fireplace in the shop.

I know you said you know three languages, I feel like Kun would like you to teach him if he doesn’t know one of the languages you do.

Listens with a small smile on his face as you talk to Lucas and Renjun about this new book that you got on Astrology, you gesturing excitedly with your hands and the boys encouraging you because they know you love it and they have a little interest in it.

I get the feeling that one of his love languages is “acts of service” as well, I don’t know about his others.

So you two are similar in that way.

Walks into your shared apartment to the smell of freshly baked cookies, quickly walks into the kitchen and sees every surface covered with all sorts of cookies.

You said that you were bored because you finished all of your university course work (ignore if you aren’t in university lol)

You package up most of the cookies and write little notes for the boys on each small box, and put their favorites in their box.

You put the boxes in some reusable shopping boxes and get them ready to deliver to the boys.

Kun fondly looked on as YangYang and Haechan wrapped their long arms around you in a hug and started tearing up.

They had a tough day at the studio, and you bringing them cookies meant the world to them.

Your camera roll is filled with not only pictures of the two of you, but of aesthetic pictures of your travels, and reminders of your adventures and shenanigans with the other members of nct 127

They are some of your fondest memories, and you will always cherish them.

#kpop ships #kpop submission #nct 127 #nct dream #wayv #lee taeyong #mark lee #qian kun

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flailingkittylover · 4 years

Text

Voices

Summary: Annie had a spotlight in the dark, even if she couldn’t see her. Takes place between Ch. 125 -127.

Rating: T

Characters: Annie Leonhardt, Hitch Dreyse, Armin Arlert

A/N: Happy Birthday, Annie!!

To be back in this setting brings a strange comfort to Annie.

It’s not that she enjoys an ounce of the havoc around her or doesn’t feel pity for the people trapped under their toppled houses. The sight of the world being catapulted into hell is nostalgic, reminds Annie of when she was a child.

Blood is nectar to the soil and ripped muscle will feed the creatures who prowl the devastation. It’s a cyclical and mechanical process Annie understood at a young age and perhaps she is more messed up in the head than she thought if destruction and the wails of widows brings an odd sense of ease. She’s always been morbid but being outside beats being stuck in a sea where her limbs are stiff and all the space around her is bleached black.

Annie remembers it all too clearly as she rides on the back of Hitch’s horse out of Stohess. She hovered for so long and a sound which had a gurgling thickness rumbled everywhere—Annie is still unsure if the noise was her own imagination or her being pulled closer to the magma rivers of hell.

Faint voices in the distance were her only distraction.

“If you die in there, I’m going to make sure you’re even more dead when I join you.” Hitch seethed on a particularly bad day. “You haven’t explained yourself to me yet.”

“I admit, something about you being stuck in there and being forced to hear all my bitching is kind of satisfying.” Hitch had snorted at her on another day. “The fact that there’s nothing you can do about it is the cherry on top of it all too. Ha!” Hitch paused. “But still, sometimes I wonder if you’re even alive in there. What a downer thought, huh? I must be hanging around you too much.”

“Hitch…you’ve got something on your neck.” The new voice which Annie deciphered as Armin pointed out a few days later.

“It’s called a hickey, Armin.” Hitch huffed all too similarly to an irritated older sister. “Do you not know what that is?”

“…You do know which regiment I came from, right?” He combated.

“Is that you admitting that you’re a permanent third wheel? Or you trying to use some weirdo innuendo talk on me? Orrrr?”

“You’re very street savvy, Hitch. I trust that you’ll be able to figure it out.”

“Exactly and my super-smart diagnosis is that you’re the shy, quiet type who fakes innocence—a.k.a, you’re a pervert.”

“H-Hey!”

The pair’s antics are always either amusing, boring, or so frustratingly irritating, Annie resents how she can’t maim her ears to block out their noise. But she’s connected to things outside this nighttime void where the only chatter is the whispering of past horrors. They include her, pretend she can see what they see by saying “Look!” and she hears a thump, probably them shoving what they’re looking at against her crystal so she can “see”. It’s futile and stupid but funny, especially when Hitch uses her to act as a “two-against-one” tally when she and Armin fight to win an argument.

But their moods were never consistent.

“…. It’s the anniversary today.” Hitch said bleakly. “Marlowe would have been eighteen if he made it. He might have even stopped being such a brain-dead idiot and learned how to be a normal person. Might have learned how to not be an even bigger idiot around women too.” Hitch stopped. A sharp hiccup and sniffle left her and Annie had wished then that her crystal had broken sooner. “You know, it was a real dick move on both of you for leaving me all by myself…”

Annie hugs her knees tighter. Hitch sleeps now and Annie worries, stares at the stars glinting outside the window. What she aims to achieve is at the end of a perilous path and Hitch doesn’t belong in a battle. She’s proud that her nail-polish obsessed roommate flipped her, of all people, and Annie’s confident her frequent visitor can fend for herself. But Hitch has no place on the front lines.

So when Armin and Connie make their case on the urgency of stopping Eren, Annie is reluctant but agrees.

She leaves behind a note for Hitch, the human anchor who steadied Annie when the darkness and nightmares swam too close.

She joins a group which has her senses prickling her skin, tells her to keep an eye out for them—there might be ill will and lies lingering here.

But careful hope finds bravery to grow and the emptiness honeycombing Annie’s chest doesn’t feel so bottomless as it had before.

Annie doesn’t believe this plan will work but as the cart pulls all of them to the harbor, she accepts this group is the only shot she has. Her promise is not far away from being fulfilled and if she fails—if Father dies and she’s left all alone—…she’s not sure what to do with herself.

Annie stares into the wood boards of the cart’s floor.

Maybe—regardless of whether or not life will gift her with or strip her of Father—Annie can find Hitch again and she can say thank you to a person she didn’t mean to leave behind.

Inspired by Sweet Night - V

How could I know?

One day I’d wake up feeling more

But I had already reached the shore

Guess we were ships in the night, night, night

#hitchani #snk #annie leonhart #Annie Leonhardt #Hitch Dreyse #aot #armin arlert #can be seen as romantic or platonic #I love these girls so much ;-;#annie week

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haveyouseenthis · 4 years

Text

Ranking GO生 Tracklist | Stray Kids Special

GO生 Tracklist:

GO生 (Go Live) *intro

神메뉴 (God's Menu) *title track

Easy

Pacemaker

비행기 (Airplane)

일상 (Daily Life/Another Day)

Phobia

청사진 (Blueprint)

타 (TA)

Haven

TOP *“Tower of God” OP

SLUMP *“Tower of God” ED

Mixtape : Gone Days *Pre-release 1

바보라도 알아 (Mixtape : On Track) *Pre-release 2

Since I’ve been so obsessed with this release recently, I thought it’d be fun to post a ranking for its tracklist the same as I did to hype up for its release.

Just as I did in my SKZ discography ranking, I’ll be commenting here and there on why I like certain songs, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum as I’ll be talking about this album more soon. Also, just like last time, I will not be including the intro track in the final ranks.

Kasin’s final GO生 Tracklist Rankings:

1.“神메뉴 (God’s Menu)”

This track is everything I didn’t know I needed from Stray Kids - from the kpop industry across the board. Most comebacks and debuts this season have felt pretty bland to me. None of them have really been bad, but none have been good either, you know, T? It’s like all of them just knew they needed to be eye catching, but then became nothing more than that. No real effort was put in on the producing side. Songs like NCT’s “Punch” or “Ridin’” feel like they were produced on an assembly line in the company. A cheap way to get max profit with minimal effort.

“God’s Menu” doesn’t feel like that. It’s not recycled. It wasn’t written on an assembly line or according to a formula. I’d bet money that that is because Stray Kids produces for themselves.

“God’s Menu” is shocking. It’s unique. It’s out there. It’s short and sweet for a title track but somehow it feels like it goes on forever. I never listen to it and go “Oh it’s over already”. I listen and find myself somehow feeling like the 2:47 song was actually 5:00. Somehow 3Racha wrote a song that, while being short, makes the listener think it’s longer. It sucks you in and makes you feel like it goes on forever. I mean, it literally only has two verses - two! So why do I feel like it has so many more?

Well, I’ve thought about it and I think it’s how they split up the parts. Verse one is done completely by Han. It also has consistent sound, changing only once halfway through. Verse two, however, is split up between Felix, Seungmin, I.N., Chan, and Hyunjin, and changes line to line, or part to part. This makes each line become its own verse, making the song seem longer.

I don’t think it would’ve had the same effect if they hadn’t given Han all of verse one, or if they had split up each verse like they did verse two, or even if they had split up the first verse instead of the second. Giving an entire verse to one member right off the bat and then giving that verse a consistent sound, gives the listener’s brain the impression that that is how the rest of the song is going to go. Each verse will be sung by one member and have it’s own sound. So when that changed in verse two, and it gets split between five members and has four different sounds (I.N and Seungmin share a part), the single verse ends up sounding like 4 individual verses back to back.

I don’t want to get too sappy or anything, but the song truly feels like it’s its own little world.

There also isn’t a single break in the track. With many comebacks there will be lulls in the title track, normally two thirds of the way through. This is where raps are shoved into vocal songs for line distribution, or vice versa. It often ends up feeling forced, like the producers were trying to fit a square piece into a circle hole.

My point is, this song is a masterpiece. Every line fits. The beat is gorgeous.

2. “Easy”

This is the best song for them to follow up “God’s Menu” with. It has that same braggy style as “God’s Menu”. It’s like a brother to the title track. You can hear the smirk on their face in their voices as they sing - especially in the post chorus with Lee Know and Han. I.N’s voice also pleasantly surprised me this comeback. He has always had a gorgeous voice, but I’ve always been able to tell it's higher in pitch than the others. He sounds younger when he sings and it feels out of place in some of their previous releases. I think Young K said it best in Stray Kids when talking about how I.N’s stage presence disrupted the serious air the crew had with his cute-ness. Listening to “God’s Menu” there were many times I caught myself saying “wait… That’s Innie?”. “Easy” cemented his new vocals. Confirmed that, “yes, that’s I.N you heard,”.

I think “Easy” could have easily been the title track for this comeback if “God’s Menu” wasn’t a part of the tracklist. It’s still powerful and, while I haven’t looked at the line distribution officially, it doesn’t sound so terrible. Seungmin and Chan probably got the most, being the main vocalists (err, official main vocalist and the honorary one…). It doesn’t seem like Changbin got too much time (his only parts are in verse 3) which is probably a reason they nixed it as the title track, if it was ever in the running. It’s probably doesn’t look too good if you don’t give your main rapper significant time in a title track (*cough* NCT 127 - yes I’m still bitter about Taeyong, shut up.).

3. “비행기 (Airplane)”

It’s so pretty and lighthearted at the same time. When I think of it, it’s with the same fond smile that I wear when I think of ballads, but then I listen to it and remember that it’s light and boppy.

What I like most is that everyone’s vocals get to shine. Everyone in Stray Kids can sing. All of them. It was so nice to be able to listen to all of their beautiful voices.

Chan’s vocals at the beginning are everything I never knew I needed - jesus. Felix’s “Ay, ay, 기다려봐 / 잠깐만 진정해봐 / Ay, ay, 있잖아 나 / 네가 난 너무 좋아”, and Chan’s strong soulful vocal response with “처음부터 넌 / 내 심장을 흔들고 나를 미치게 해”. Lee Know, with his focus being dance, is never the first person I think of when I think of Stray Kid’s vocalists. Seugnmin, I.N, Bang Chan, and Han come to mind, but how dare I forget our main dancer. He may not have many parts in “God’s Menu”, but listening to the rest of the album I find myself not really minding it because he has a lot of vocal parts in the rest of the songs to compensate.

I already mentioned how I feel like I.N’s voice has matured a lot, but now it’s time to talk about Seungmin. I wonder if he’s been training more since being appointed as the main vocal? I love his sound this song, especially during his alternating parts later in the song with I.N, namely “난 너의 피터 팬 나의 손 놓지 마 babe”.

4. “청사진 (Blueprint)”

So. Pretty. I’ll talk a little more about it in my GO生 review, but I don’t have terribly much to say. I just love it.

(Also Chan kills his part around 1:57-2:02)

(And I.N’s vocals are lovely)

(K that’s it)

5. “일상 (Daily Life/Another Day)”

I’ll just save all my thoughts for the main review because I have a lot of them, thank you very much (this is already toooo long~).

6. “Pacemaker”

This almost made 3rd, and there really isn’t a concrete reason why it didn’t besides personal preference. It’s an amazing song, hard-hitting, and sounds like SKZ. That’s actually why I put it after songs like “Airplane” and “Another Day” - because those songs sound different from anything I’ve ever heard from SKZ, and they pleasantly surprised me.

That’s not to say “Pacemaker” is mundane, or sounds just like their previous tracks - it doesn’t. Nothing on this album sounds recycled. None of it sounds like they were uninspired while producing it. “Pacemaker” is a song that stays true to Stray Kid’s hard hip-hop sound, and they spared no expense because of that. There wasn’t less effort put into it because it was another hard track - it demands just as much attention as any other song on this album.

7. “SLUMP”

When “TOP” and “SLUMP” were first released I never really listened to SLUMP. For some reason it slipped my mind that the two were released as a pair, and all I paid attention to was TOP. Maybe it’s because, and forgive me for my sins, I thought “TOP” was “meh” upon release so I didn’t bother listening to “SLUMP”. Or maybe it’s just because “TOP” got most of the hype and I truly forgot about it’s brother track.

Months later, GO生’s release was upon us and I found myself repenting at the altar. How could I have ignored the blessing that is the Tower of God ED all those months ago?

It only has a duration of 2:14, and I’ve seen a lot of STAYs cracking jokes about how the short length is the only bad thing about it. I disagree. I like it the way it is. Something about it being short and sweet makes it better in my opinion.

8. “타 (TA)”

This song feels like old SKZ. I’m not exactly sure why, but it does. This could have been released right after District 9. However, what separates it from their earlier releases is that it sounds more polished. It sounds like an evolved version of their debut sound.

I do like that, with SKZ being self-producing, you can hear their music getting better. Not that it was ever bad, but there is something a little “more” to their more recent songs. You can tell they’ve gained experience. Recently starting around the astronaut era, you can tell they’ve been getting more comfortable with playing around with their sound more, and I like that a lot.

9. “바보라도 알아 (Mixtape : On Track)”

ONE MORE STEP, I WILL NEVER STOP-

Prettyprettyprettypretty

Okay, I admit: I did not like this song when it came out. Like… kind of at all. But then I listened to it again. And then one more time. And then I looked at the lyrics. And then I watched the music video a few more times for good measure.

When I talk about vocals shining I- this. This is what I mean. The chorus, the verses, the everything.

Also, it brings this album’s love song counter up to 4~.

10. “Phobia”

I was hoping to like this song more than I do, but I just don’t. It’s a good song, just not my favorite of the bunch. I had it as 8th, actually, for that reason, but I realised it just didn’t sit right with me. I was ranking it for what I wanted it to be, not what I felt it was.

It’s a solid song, don’t get me wrong. I just favour the above more.

11. “Mixtape : Gone Days”

I’m still not able to make up my mind about this one. It reminds me of the saturated hip-hop sound “Get Cool” and “Awkward Silence” enlist, but somehow it goes farther than either of its predecessors did.

12. “TOP”

If anyone was wondering how close these rankings are, TOP was almost 4th.

Yeah.

I wasn’t sure quite what to think of TOP when it came out. The scythe-y electronic sounds caught me a little off guard. Like “Mixtape : On Track” the more I listened, the more I liked it.

13. “Haven”

I had high hopes for this song, what with its, at least unofficial, namesake being an alternate name for STAY. Meaning-wise it didn’t fall short. It was a song from Stray Kids to their STAY. Telling them this, the music, is STAY’s safe space. It was a message of encouragement and inspiration.

It was a fun song, truly, just not my favorite. However, it still holds a place in my heart for it’s meaning.

Look out for my GO生 review, coming in two parts~, soon. (Pray for T, she had to proofread so much.)

Links:

GO生 on Spotify

GO生 on Youtube

“神메뉴” M/V

#stray kids #skz #go生 #神메뉴 #god's menu #jyp entertainment #kpop #kasin #ranking

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jongins-tiddies · 4 years

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~to my approx. 4 followers~ i made a BUNCH of kpop spotify playlists that i'm so proud of (but are still a work in progress) and i just wanted to share the cover art that i made for it 🥺 it took me so long so if you wanna check them out/share this i would love and appreciate you all forever 🥰

here’s the breakdown of the playlist concepts in the order that the art appears w/ attached links :) ...

crude fucking oil - mostly consists of nct 127/lay gas lighting songs LOL but @suhosmilitarywife and i basically describe it as songs that make you want to chug gasoline and punch someone in the face at the same time :) honestly the best way to describe its vibe is the firs 10 seconds of simon says (the cover art really says it all). so yeah highly recommend that for when you want to fuck the patriarchy 🤪

gasoline - step down from crude fucking oil (as evident by the title) but still songs that make you want to go crazy ahh go stoopid ahh 😤 lots of 127 again (bc kings??), w exo/wayv/superm/got7/etc.

one-two am - SLOWEST playlist in existence and will def put you in a depressed mood if you listen to it normally. not strictly kpop, but i assure you they’re all amazing songs. as far as the title goes, it’s really inspired by jaehyun’s 1-2 am 24 hour relay cam vlog and includes some of the songs/albums that i know he loves (aka cigarettes after sex). anyways this basically yet another attempt to convince myself that we will eventually get married LMFAO

k & b - one of my personal favorites for sure!! before kpop i was strictly into r&b w some hip hop mixed in soo this is a playlist specifically dedicated to kpop w r&b roots and sounds. great playlist for easy listening and an overall chill vibe that won't make you depressy like one-two am. ☺️

bubblegum - ok so, bc of the music that i'm generally into bubblegum kpop really isn’t for me (its been a problem w trying to get into girl groups send help). anyways this playlist contains the highest level of bubblegum kpop that i will listen to and actually enjoy 🤣 really really good placement for summer bops if that's what you’re feelin’

gum - SORRY for the THREE different cover arts for this, i was having the most difficult fucking time choosing my concept. of course, i chose the johnny one bc 🥵 good lord ya know 🥵 but i love them all sm that i was toying with the others. This is a step between bubblegum and k & b, and is a medium paced easy listening playlist. Basically, generic songs that i love that aren’t bubblegum go into this so there’s a lot of content

Ok that’s all ❤️ if you read/clicked on the links/shared any of this tysm! also wtf?? feel free to send me song recs to add on to these.

lastly, i have a LOT of playlists on spotify w their own cover art for all of them, containing songs that i listened to before i got into kpop. so if you want some general western music that's all on there as well if you go to my public playlists.

#my music taste has really fucking glowed up thank god I'm finally organizing everything #tysm for reading #ignore my stupid ass username i made my spotify like 6 years ago and now i can't change it #lauren speaks!

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linskywords · 5 years

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Stromecat Primer

This is for the anon who asked for one, which YES I will do this thing. I now have copious notes on these two which have to go somewhere. But also I’m relatively new to the pairing, so if people have corrections or things to add, have at it!

Also it’s super long (haha I might as well just have had you guys read my story draft) so I’m putting it after a cut.

OKAY SO.

Here are our boys:

(Dylan. This is his Wikipedia picture but just look at that face. Could not resist.)

(Alex. What a precious Tolkienian Dwarf.)

Okay. So those are our boys. Let’s have us some TIMELINE.

They start playing together in the fall of 2014, after Dylan goes second overall in the 2013 OHL draft to the Erie Otters and Alex signs with them undrafted the following spring. He did not get drafted because he is short and therefore underestimated. They tear it up that year, along with Connor McDavid, who’s playing on a line with them: Alex gets 104 points in 68 games--pretty great for going undrafted--and Dylan gets a whopping 129 points and wins the OHL scoring title.

So our boys are good! Everyone’s very impressed with Dylan. He’s drafted third overall in 2015, after Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, and everyone’s very excited about the Stromes as the next big hockey family (older bro Ryan was drafted fifth overall to the Isles in 2011). The future is bright.

Dylan goes to Coyotes 2015 development camp. He goes to training camp. He plays in a couple of preseason games. But they don’t think he’s ready, so they send him back down to Erie. Pretty normal. Nothing to worry about.

2015-2016, Dylan’s the captain. Alex and Dylan play on a line together (without Connor this time) and have another great year where they are playing and also living together. Alex gets 101 points in 60 games and Dylan gets 111 in 56. They have a kind of rough World Juniors in there--Dylan plays for Team Canada and ends up in 6th place, and Alex plays for the U.S. and gets bronze but gets injured early on and only ends up scoring a single goal in the whole tournament. But, you know, good year with Erie. Future still bright.

(Look at this adorable pair. Ignore the facial hair on one of them who shall remain unspecified. Also this is presumably 2017 based on the letters on their jerseys but shhhh.)

However, Alex continues to be underestimated because he is short! He also had a bad World Juniors, so people are worried he might only be situationally good with the Otters. He’s passed over in the first round of the 2016 NHL draft and ends up being drafted 39th, by the Chicago Blackhawks, who have a history of drafted very competent undertall players. Also they didn’t have a first-round pick that year so I like to think they might have taken him either way.

Dylan and Alex both go to their respective 2016 development camps. And training camps. Alex plays in a preseason game with the Hawks but gets sent down--again, normal. Dylan plays the whole preseason with the Yotes and stays up, but they don’t really commit to him. They scratch him a bunch and only put him in for 7 games--this is either the limit of what they can play someone and still send them down to Juniors or close to it--over the course of a month and a half. Finally, on November 20, they send him back down to Erie, after 7 games played and...one point scored.

So at this point Dylan’s probably feeling pretty bad about himself. His former linemate Connor went straight to the NHL and is about to start his Hart-winning season. Dylan’s getting sent down for the second year straight.

But! 2016-2017 is an awesome year for the Otters. Alex is an A. Dylan gets made captain again at some point.* Dylan and Alex are living together again, and they’re playing together, and they freaking tear it up. They lead the Otters to a first-place finish in the O and win the J. Ross Robertson Cup (the highest award in the OHL). The guys on the team like to talk about that as the best night of their lives. They make it to the final game of the Memorial Cup, the championship for the whole CHL (which includes the OHL, the WHL, and the QMJHL), and lose narrowly to the Windsor Spitfires. However, Dylan gets a tournament record for 7 points in a single game, and they both have great seasons overall. Dylan gets 75 points in 35 games, and Alex gets 127 points in 63 games--more than two points per game for each of them--and Alex wins the Red Tilson Trophy for most outstanding player in the OHL. Also Dylan got to captain Canada’s World Juniors team, and many people (including me) were excited that he got that opportunity as a way to balance his failures thus far in the NHL, though Canada lost in a devastating final game against the U.S.

*If anyone knows when Dylan became captain again, let me know -- all I could figure out was sometime before the playoffs.

Here is Dylan with the Robertson Cup:

(Note the blond hair, which is an abomination they all inflicted upon themselves as a means to achieving playoff victory. You know, apparently it worked.)

Summer of 2017, Dylan and Alex go to their NHL development camps and training camps yet again. Everyone’s excited about Alex after the year he just had in the O. Everyone’s a little antsy about Dylan because good Lord it’s been two years since he was drafted third overall and is he ever going to be good enough for the NHL? (This was definitely me.)

Anyway the Hawks keep Alex up and start playing him. 2017-2018 is a rough year for the Hawks but a good one for Alex, and he surpasses all draft expectations and leads the team in goals (28). He also gets a commitment from the Hawks early in the year, in the form of his housing letter, and he gets a dog that spring named Ralph DeBrindog who is a shiba inu with his own Instagram account. Here are Alex and Ralph:

But things are not so happy in Arizona. Dylan gets to stay up past the 2017-2018 preseason but the Coyotes once again do not commit to him (no housing letter for him!). Dylan barely plays with the team before he gets sent down to the Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate.

He does really well with the Roadrunners, so they bring him back to the NHL in late November (and he gets to play against Alex and the Hawks!). But he doesn’t do great there, so they send him back down for most of the spring, only bringing him up for the last few weeks of the season before sending him back to the AHL for the playoffs.

At this point, the future is looking pretty bleak for Dylan. Too old for Juniors, can’t hack it in the NHL despite his high draft number. 9 points in 21 games with the Coyotes in 2017-2018. People saying he was only good because of his good linemates, which, yeah, Connor and Alex are doing great other places. And sure, lots of people have good linemates and don’t put up numbers like Dylan did, but how else do you explain his failures in Arizona?

So the next season, 2018-2019, Alex is of course still playing with the Hawks. He’s doing even better than he did his rookie year, scoring more consistently. Dylan actually gets to play with the Coyotes, which, woohoo, but he’s putting up terrible numbers: 6 points in 20 games. Theories abound, but the upshot is clear--whatever made Dylan good in Juniors doesn’t translate to the NHL. The Coyotes wasted a draft pick.

BUT.

The Blackhawks evidently don’t think so, because on November 25, 2018, they trade Nick Schmaltz to the Coyotes in exchange for both Brendan Perlini and Dylan Strome. And they put the two of them on a line with Alex. And Dylan starts LIGHTING IT UP. As I write this, he’s at 46 points in 48 games with the Hawks. That’s some elite play there.

And did I mention he and Alex are living together again?

That’s right: apparently Alex was Dylan’s second call when he was traded, right after his parents (you can read more about his experience of the trade here, though you need a subscription). And then Dylan moved into his place.

...I can’t figure out how to embed video, but here is the two of them being adorable in the Road to the Winter Classic. Including Ralph, and also the memorable line, “I want to bodycheck you so bad right now.”

And here they are on the ice:

If that pose is not part of their engagement photos, it should be.

So basically, there are two possible explanations for why Dylan was playing so badly for so long in Arizona:

1) Arizona really sucks. (This should not be ruled out regardless of your opinion on #2.)

2) Dylan and Alex are soulmates and Dylan couldn’t play without him.

To be fair, #2 doesn’t explain why Alex was playing fine in Chicago before Dylan got there. But, you know, maybe he’s just less soulmate dependent than Dylan. Either way, everyone, including the two of them, is talking about the chemistry they have on the ice, and it’s clearly made a big different to Chicago’s season. And they get to play with their best friend again.

(Yes, they’ve both called each other that. It’s adorable.)

Some bonus info:

There is an Otter alum group text! It also includes Taylor & Darren Raddysh, Anthony Cirelli, and Warren Foegele. Dylan says they talk about the OHL championship all the time because it was the best night of their lives.

Dylan became the Otters’ all-time points leader by the end of his OHL career (seriously, makes no sense that he couldn’t play in Arizona, barring soulmate-based explanations)

After Dylan played Alex as a Coyote, he changed his Instagram photo to the two of them facing off.

Alex’s nicknames include Brinksy and the Cat. He’s fine with either but is less fond of Kitty. XD

They are legit eight inches apart. More, if 5′7″ is just Alex’s stats sheet height and not reality.

They are adorable best friends and roommates and linemates and need to be together forever.

And now, some pictures to close it out (starting with the Instagram icon one):

#stromecat primer #alex debrincat #dylan strome #the cutest

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gaiyofanfiction · 5 years

Text

The Stray District - Chapter 8

Stray Kids Gang!Au

Lee Know x Reader

Drama

A/N: So, my chapters 6 and 7 did not do very well. I don’t know if it’s because nothing is showing up in the tags or if I just lost people with this story or what.. But I hope this one does better... Enjoy :x

Warnings: PG13. Violence and Seductive Themes (Nothing sexual that crosses a line for underage idols.)

Disclaimer: This is pure fiction. All artists named in this fic are given a fake personality by me. This does not in any means reflect on the individual idol or groups. To my knowledge, they are all sweet, amazing people that wouldn’t hurt a fly.

~~~

NCT is one of the largest, more renown gangs in the South Korea area. While you and Stray Kids have control over the largest District in the country, NCT has taken over a lot of the surrounding areas.

NCT is a gang that consists of 18 [known] members, grouped up into three different units. The most known unit is 127, ran by Johnny. They are the face of NCT and take care of manning the businesses and the financial aspect of the gang. The members consist of Taeil, Johnny, Winwin, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Mark, Jungwoo and Yuta. The second unit, U, is the rotating unit, ran by Ten. Based on the gang's mission or job, they group together the members based on their individual specialties. The rotating members mainly consist of Lucas, Ten, Jaehyun, Winwin, Jungwoo, Kun, and Mark.

Now, Dream is more of an underground group, rumored to be ran by Renjun. They are more of a word in the air. There is always talk about them, but no one knows what they look like or most of their names. Because of their younger age and size, they have the ability to con their way through any situation and also the ability to break into any building. They take care of the kidnapping, the thefts and everything in between. Those members consist of…

“Renjun, Mark, Haechan, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. What an unpleasant surprise.” Lee Know glares at the seven boys in front of him.

Everyone in South Korea knew who you and Lee Know were, including the Dream boys. To you and everyone else, however, Dream had been a mere myth. That changed pretty quick. The only reason why you know who they are now is because I.N had caught them on security footage trying to break into your base. You recognized Mark as one of NCT's most rotational members and not knowing whom the other 6 were, you put two and two together. Soon after, you had warned Lee Know about Dream's attempted break in and not even a few days later, Chan had caught them as well. After that, you had come across them a few more times right outside your District and with a little help from I.N, you had soon been able to put names to faces.

“Hey! You forgot about me!” A familiar voice booms.

The two of you turn your heads and squint into the dark corner of the room. You see a boy step out of the shadows with a smirk on his face. You raise a brow.

“Lucas? Interesting to see you here. Did Dream finally let you into their little clique?” You turn your attention to Renjun and speak in a lower voice. “Well, I personally wouldn't have let him in. I would imagine his loud, annoying demeanor would put your whole operation at risk.”

Lucas’ expression changes to one of annoyance. He growls low and takes a step towards you, but Renjun holds a hand out in front of him. “You've got some nerve talking to me like that, little girl.”

You scoff and roll your eyes. “One, I'm older than you, boy. So show some respect. Two, you're the one who invaded my city.” Lee Know clears his throat, a brow raised. “Er, our, city. And three, you guys kidnapped us. So I think I can talk to you any way I want.”

Renjun grinds his teeth, taking a few steps til he's right in your face. He leans down, a smirk gracing his handsome features. “While everything you said is true, my dear. You aren't really in the position to talk down to me, seeing as I'm not the one tied up at someone else's mercy.”

You narrow your eyes but don't say anything, knowing you shouldn't push your luck. Lee Know glares at the leader of Dream. “Why don't you walk back a few feet and get out of her face, short stuff?”

Renjun turns his attention to the leader of Stray Kids. He chuckles and grabs the boy's collar. “You want to say that again to my face?”

“All right that's enough!”

The familiar voice you hear from behind you drains the color from your face. You turn your head as much as you could to see none other than the leader of all of NCT himself, Lee Taeyong. If you thought Lee Know was bad, Taeyong is satan himself. While you hated Stray Kids, they at least had some self respect and some civility to them. NCT were messy, brutal, just pure evil. They don't care who gets in their way, they will cut them down without a second thought. All because of Lee Taeyong, the brutal, evil leader. You despised them more than anything.

Lee Know's eye twitches. He hates Taeyong just as much as you do. “Lee Taeyong, what a pleasure. And here I thought you let little Renjunnie and the rugrats out of the playpen all by themselves for once.”

Renjun glares at the boy next to you but backs off upon hearing his boss’ voice. Taeyong makes his way to stand in front of you two, a smirk spread across his face. “My my, I never thought I'd see the two of you joined together. And here I thought the two of you hated one another.”

You set a hard glare on your face. “Our combined hatred of you and your lackys overshadows our differences.”

Taeyong claps his hands together. “Oh good, I'm bringing rivals together one District at a time. Now, onto business. You two are probably wondering why I brought you two here-”

“You want control of District 9.” You and Lee Know interrupt together in a bored tone.

Taeyong grinds his teeth, his eyes narrowed. “Yes, precisely. And I will keep the two of you hostage until I have it.”

“Yeah, not going to happen. Next.” You deadpan.

Taeyong’s eyes flash to you, anger deep within them. “Well, I'll blackmail your gang members. If they don't give us the blueprints of the District, they might never see the two of you again.”

You and Lee Know look at each other before busting out laughing. You can hear the Dreamies growl. “You're so funny. You really think our boys are going to give in to the likes of you? They know better than that.”

Taeyong snatches Lee Know by the throat, your laugh turning into a low growl. Lee Know keeps the smirk on his face. “I would stop laughing if I were you.” He lets go of Lee Know forcefully. Taeyong turns to the door. “Now I've got to go take care of some things. Once I return, the two of you will tell me where the information I want is.”

Taeyong gestures to Renjun, Lucas, and Mark to follow him. They walk out the door, leaving the two of you with Haechan, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. You scan the five remaining boys closely and notice Jaemin rubbing his bruised jaw. You chuckle to yourself, causing attention to be drawn to you.

“What are you laughing about?” Jisung glares.

You ignore him and speak to Jaemin. “How's your jaw, little Jaeminnie? Does it hurt?” You pout, mocking the boy.

Jaemin turns an icy glare onto you. “Shut up.”

You giggle. “Awe, baby boy is in pain. He got hit by a girl.”

Jaemin growls and strides to you, placing both hands around your throat, face close to yours. “I said, shut up. Or I will make you.” You stick out your tongue and lick the side of his cheek seductively. He hisses at you and squeezes tighter. Despite the amount of pressure he's using, the smirk never leaves your face.

Lee Know sees your face turning blue and it pisses him off. Anger getting the best of him, he spits at Jaemin. “Hey, asswipe. Get your hands off of her.”

Jaemin lets go of you, you sputter a cough as the color returns to your face. Jaemin sidesteps into Lee Know's vision and swings at his gut. He makes contact, causing Lee Know to cough out all his air. “That's for punching Jeno in the stomach and spitting at me.” He walks back to the wall he was previously leaning against.

You look at Lee Know, concern laced your voice. “Hey, are you okay?”

He breathes heavily but nods and gives you a smile. “I'm fine. Is the leader of District 9 going soft for me, now?”

You roll your eyes but smile at his comment. “You wish, kid.” Your expression turns serious as you lower your voice. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?”

Lee Know doesn't lose the smile on his face. “I have a little secret, my dear. Chan had made me a small tracking device that's implanted into my shoe, in case situations like this ever occur. I bet you they're on their way now.”

“But it would be 9 against 3, since my boys still have Chan. How the hell would they get inside?”

He chuckles, “I have no doubt that right now, Stray Kids and District 9 are working together to come up with a plan to get us out. The only people they hate more than each other is NCT. And that we can use to our advantage.” He turns serious. “But it would help if one of us could make sure that Taeyong is in here when they infiltrate. That way we can distract Taeyong while our boys sneak their way in.”

That's when an idea clicks into your head. You look at the 5 Dreamies, the gears in your brain turning. Your eyes land on one in particular, the corners of your lips curling into a smirk. You click into seduction mode, pushing out your chest and pursing your lips.

“Oh Haechannie~” You coo. The boy in question raises a brow at your sudden action.

“Yes, babygirl?” He pushes himself off the wall and saunters over to you.

“Minho is being mean, he keeps saying he would rather see me dead than give up his part of the District.” You tilt your head, your eyes flickering from his lips to his eyes. Haechan notices this little action, an amused smirk gracing his features. “If you let me go, Haechannie, I'll give up the blueprints to his portion of the District. Then you can take over.”

Haechan is silent for a moment before a chuckle escaped his lips. He leans down and runs a cold finger down your cheek. “You sly girl, you think you can con a con man? I already know everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie. However,” he runs a thumb across your soft lips, lingering ever so slightly on the bottom one. “if you would like, you could join us. I know the Dreamies have all had a crush on you at one point. You could come be ours. Keep us,” his eyes turn dark, “company.” His fellow gang members snicker behind him.

Lee Know growls from beside you, not liking the words coming out of Haechan's mouth. “You're disgusting, how dare you talk to her like that.”

You jerk your head back away from his face, a disgusted look replacing your pout. “Yuck, hell no. I'd sooner sleep with Minho here before ever joining you psychopaths.”

Lee Know smirks and chuckles at your comment. Haechan raises a brow and looks between you and Lee Know. Something clicks in his mind and he turns and walks out the door. Not even a minute later, Haechan walks in followed by Taeyong. He comes to stand infront of both you and Lee Know. He doesn't say a word for a moment before going up to Lee Know.

“Hey, what the hell,” Lee Know watches Taeyong pull out a switchblade and flick it open holding it to his neck. He knicks it, drawing a faint bead of blood. You watch this action and something inside of you bubbles into a combination of fear and anger.

“Hey, leave him alone!”

The corner of Taeyong's lips curl into a smirk and withdraws his knife. “Well, look what we have here. It seems that our little Y/N has feelings for her rival.”

Your eyes widen and face turns bright red. You sneaks a glance over at Lee Know, who's looking at you, a smirk playing at his lips. “I-I have no idea what you're talking about.”

Taeyong tsks, “ah ah, babygirl. You can't deny it now, it's just way too obvious. And if I didn't know any better, I'd say that your little crush feels the same way about you.”

Your heart races when those words come out of Taeyongs mouth. You hear Lee Know chuckle from beside you and you turn to look at him again.

“Well, I guess you got me,” Lee Know's eyes turn dark, a serious look on his face. “Now, I would advise you to keep your hands off my girl or else you're in a serious world of pain, Lee Taeyong.”

“You're girl?!” you squeal, making Lee Know wink at you. Your face feels hot as your blush deepens.

Taeyong claps his hands together, a sinister look appearing on his face. “Well, this seems to change things, doesn't it. Jisung, Chenle, come.” He snaps his fingers, the two youngest stepping up on either side of him. “I can finally put you two to good use. We are going to get the information out of someone, even if we have to torture one of them to get the other to talk.” He turns his attention to you. “And we will be starting with her.” You swallow the lump in your throat as you see two smirks spread across the faces of Jisung and Chenle.

‘Oh, shit.’

~~~

[Masterlist]

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firesidefantasy · 5 years

Photo

so last night i realised i had almost hit 500 posts on this account. and then i had the brilliant, genius idea to make a post with 500 facts about monster house for my 500th post.

this was not a genius idea in any way shape or form.

i am not a genius.

but i did it anyway, so now i present to you:

five-hundred-fucking-facts about monster house

enjoy.

KENZI

1) Kenzi was abandoned as a baby 2) She was adopted by Monster House 3) She does not know when her birthday is 4) Her best friend growing up was Toby 5) Kenzi thought she was a vampire when she was a kid 6) She went around biting people’s necks for weeks 7) Kenzi loves photography, Instagram, and modelling 8) She has ran four marathons and six 10ks 9) She has been dying her hair since she was 14 10) Kenzi’s favourite chocolate brand is Cadbury’s 11) She loves cooking and hosting parties 12) She hates being human and wishes she was a monster too 13) She is almost fluent in French 14) Kenzi has no idea what she wants to be when she’s older 15) She never wants to leave Monster House 16) Kenzi is always chewing gum

HARLOW 17) Harlow dyes her hair black 18) She plays drums because her dad told her it was for boys 19) She plays basketball because her dad told her it was for boys 20) Her mum died three years ago and Harlow has never got over it 21) She lives with her dad, their relationship is recovering 22) Harlow won’t leave the house without a beanie 23) She loves video games like overwatch and call of duty 24) She is absolutely shit at video games 25) Doritos are her favourite snack 26) Harlow has lost count of how many cousins she has 27) If she could be any monster, she’d be a vampire 28) She’s in a college band called ‘4am’ 29) They’ve played three actual gigs so far 30) Harlow wants to be in a famous band 31) Harlow does NOT want to ever get a real job 32) She writes a lot of songs 33) Nobody will ever see these songs 34) She hates the beach 35) The only thing she hates more than the beach is spelling errors 36) She also hates vegetables and weather over 20 degrees C 37) She loves the sound of rain and thunder 38) She hoards TV boxsets and prefers them over Netflix 39) She loves antique stores and charity shops 40) She has an impressive vinyl collection

TOBY 41) Toby is bisexual but prefers guy 42) He’s known he was bisexual since discovering Tom Holland 43) His favourite superhero is Iron Man 44) Spider man is a close second 45) Toby wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid 46) Now he wants to be a super villain (#edgyteen) 47) He’s enrolled in school part time 48) Avoiding sunlight makes school difficult 49) The kids at school joke that he’s a vampire because of this 50) They don’t know why that’s so funny 51) He plays bass guitar but never lets anyone else listen 52) Except Matty. Sometimes he joins in with the ‘drums’ 53) Toby loves going to the skate park at night 54) He once wrote a 500 word essay on why the moon is better than the sun 55) He knows every constellation and loves stargazing 56) He loves sitting on his dad’s balcony and watching the stars 57) Toby doesn’t know who his mum is 58) Metal and rock music is his favourite 59) He chews on his finger to satisfy his desire to bite things 60) Sometimes he’s tempted to see if he could bite his finger off 61) He never has 62) Toby loves tomato ketchup 63) Immortality intimidates him 64) He only wears band tee shirts 65) He starts wearing beanies everywhere after meeting Harlow 66) Toby idolises Harlow 67) His favourite food is pancakes with chocolate sauce 68) Kenzi makes him pancakes to apologise after they fight 69) Toby buys her bars of chocolate to apologise 70) Kenzi and Toby bicker a lot 71) They are also best friends 72) Toby’s favourite period of history is the Roman emperors 73) Caligula was his favourite emperor 74) Toby almost turned Kenzi when they were 14 75) He despises pop music 76) Kenzi and Toby fight over nothing more often than pop music 77) Custard makes him want to throw up

KAI 78) Kai has six older sisters 79) He is one of two guys in the witches coven 80) He speaks French and Italian (almost) fluently 81) He volunteers at the local animal shelter 82) He does not get along with his family 83) Kai tries to fit in but he isn’t very good at it 84) He gets very upset if his hair doesn’t look right 85) He struggles with dysphoria but his parents won’t let him get T 86) Kai loves doing jigsaws and watching reality shows 87) He listens to music to drown out his parents arguments 88) His oldest sister Natalia is his favourite 89) She cut his hair and bought him guys clothes after he came out 90) Natalia plays board games with him and helps with homework 91) Kai loves baking - especially banana bread 92) He hates bananas but could eat banana bread all day 93) Being a witch is hard and he’s really really bad at it 94) Kai once turned a dining room chair into a frog 95) He also turned his mother’s earrings into a donkey 96) They never let him keep the animals 97) Pop music and indie rock are his favourites 98) Kai is scared of the dark 99) Science and maths make no sense to him 100) He plans on leaving the witches coven when he’s 18

PHILLIP 101) Philip is a history professor at Seabrooke University 102) He was born in 1893 under the reign of Queen Victoria 103) He campaigned with the suffragettes - and even broke a window once 104) He is a hardcore liberal and despises the conservative party 105) He attended the 1908 summer Olympics held in London 106) He once had a fling with a maid of George V’s 107) Phillip had entered a competition to be on the titanic 108) He was an engineer during world war 2 109) His nose was broken at a protest for women to be given degrees 110) Phillip has been married three times 111) The first died, the second left him for another man 112) The third was a Vegas marriage about 30 years prior 113) Phillip is straight - but he’s experimented extensively in the past 114) He does the newspaper crossword puzzle every morning 115) He bans TV until after 3pm 116) Phillip moved to Monster House in the 70’s 117) He despises the movie ‘Twilight’ above all else 118) He is the one who decided to adopt Kenzi 119) Phillip is essentially in charge of Monster House 120) He adores barbecues with his family 121) He hates Russia, incorrect grammar, and coffee

MATTY 122) Toby brought a stray dog in one day 123) The next morning, a toddler was asleep in their living room 124) Phillip decided to keep him 125) His hobbies include chewing people’s shoes and phone chargers 126) He has broken exactly seven bones 127) There is no soul clumsier than Matty 128) His face is full of freckles and his cheeks are always red 129) He runs everywhere 130) He wants to be a footballer or an astronaut when he’s older 131) Matty breaks Phillip’s morning TV ban so he can watch cartoons 132) His favourite game is fetch 133) Toby created a machine for him that throws a ball over and over 134) Matty hates it - he likes playing with an actual person 135) His wolf form is small, fluffy and a little too blonde 136) Phillip has been assured that he will get less blonde as he grows up 137) Toby once tried to enter him in a dog competition 138) They won £20 and bought the biggest ice creams they could 139) Matty loves porridge almost as much as he loves shoes and Toby 140) He has an imaginary friend called Boris who he blames for everything

CALLIE 141) Callie is half fae and half human 142) Her full name is Calypso, but everybody calls her Callie 143) She cannot tell lies, but is excellent at talking around the truth 144) She’s introverted and shy - but also amazing at public speaking 145) She wants to be a legal aid barrister 146) Her hair is naturally brown but she dyes it red 147) She plays acoustic guitar in 4am - the same band as Harlow 148) Her roommate is a werewolf but she doesn’t know about it yet 149) She has travelled to France and Italy 150) But she wants to travel the world 151) Her bedroom walls are covered in maps 152) She has an emergency supply of snacks in a room at all times 153) Her biggest dream is to have her own library room once day 154) With a secret bookshelf door, of course 155) Her lava lamp and beanbags are her prized possessions 156) She does not have a good relationship with her parents 157) She struggles with insomnia and rarely sleeps 158) Coffee is her one true love 159) She adores long car rides and she adores driving 160) She works part time at a coffee shop 161) Her car is her other prized possession 162) Callie can devour bags of skittles in an instant 163) She forgets everything in her personal life 164) And remembers everything in her academic life 165) She loves fire and will sit and stare at it for hours 166) Sometimes she goes to the local aquarium to study 167) Change is her worst enemy - everything needs to be consistent 168) She has been a straight A student all her life 169) She goes for a long walk every Saturday afternoon 170) Callie writes songs when she’s feeling bad

MILO 171) Hiding antlers in public is the bane of his existence 172) He is part of a group who want to tell humans about monsters 173) Milo does not particularly like humans 174) He has curly blonde hair that is usually a mess 175) One of his eyes is darker blue than the other 176) He loves blanket forts and fairy lights and hot chocolate 177) He has a part time job delivering pizzas 178) This means he gets a discount on pizzas, which he takes advantage of 179) Percy Jackson is the main reason he’s doing a classics degree 180) He enjoys writing fantasy books in his free time 181) He is reasonably fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin 182) ‘Out of Bounds’ signs are a welcoming invitation to Milo 183) He will explore everything and anything 184) Milo wants to travel to South America the most 185) He has two mums 186) They both adore Callie 187) He goes rock climbing in his free time 188) This is so he can climb trees, fences, and monuments better 189) He claims he’s climbed several mountains 190) Callie does not believe this claim 191) He was not raised in Seabrooke and had few monster friends as a kid 192) Milo is a nymph 193) His father is one of his mother’s best friends - also a nymph 194) His ‘father’ taught him to garden and to bake 195) Milo never called him dad - he was always Uncle Barney 196) He loves growing his own flowers 197) Nymph magic allows him to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers 198) It also allows him to bake exceptional cakes and cookies 199) He adores his younger brother and sister 200) He is double jointed and left handed

KENZI AND HARLOW 201) Making out is their favourite pastime 202) Harlow spends most of her free time at Monster House 203) They enjoy joking about how ‘platonic’ their relationship is 204) Kenzi loves cooking for Harlow 205) They spend a lot of time watching TV shows together 206) Stranger Things and Friends were their last binge-watches 207) Harlow is always invited round for Friday Board Game Night 208) Kenzi constantly steals Harlow’s clothes 209) Harlow loves playing with Kenzi’s hair 210) Harlow loves holding Kenzi’s hand 211) Harlow just loves touching Kenzi as much as possible 212) They both have a years pass to the local petting zoo 213) Kenzi goes to all of Harlow’s band gigs and basketball games 214) She wants to set up a cheer leading squad for the basketball team 215) Harlow just wants to see Kenzi in a cheerleader costume 216) Harlow asked Kenzi to be her girlfriend 217) Kenzi said I love you first 218) They’re planning on getting an apartment together after graduating 219) Also a dog 220) Harlow adores getting Kenzi to play (and fail at) video games 221) Kenzi is a massive flirt - Harlow does not appreciate it 222) Harlow once stabbed Kenzi on the hand whilst cooking together 223) Kenzi and Harlow do not cook together 224) They bicker a lot 225) But Harlow adores Kenzi more than anything else, and vice versa

TOBY AND KAI 226) Toby only got the guts to ask Kai out because his dad made him 227) They are polar opposites in just about every way 228) Toby didn’t know what being transgender meant before meeting Kai 229) Toby calls Kai ‘sunshine’ 230) Kai calls Toby ‘grumpy guts’ for the most part 231) They fall asleep on the phone together a lot 232) They also fall asleep in the same bed a lot 232) Kai’s parents do not like vampires so they don’t know about Toby 233) They met through the Monster House toddler group when they were kids 234) They both went to the Monster House study group as kids/teenagers 234) Nowadays, they ‘study’ in Toby’s room instead 235) Kai drove Toby mad up until very recently 236) It wasn’t exactly love at first site 237) Toby threw up on Kai - the hatred only grew from there 238) Over time, Toby developed a soft spot for Kai 239) Nowadays, Kai still drives him crazy, but in a good sorta way 240) They have every intention of moving in together after school ends 241) Kai has a drawer of clothes at Toby’s place 242) Toby has punched six people in defence of Kai 243) One was an eleven year old. He has no regrets 244) Toby frequently takes Kai stargazing 245) Toby also taught him how to skate 246) Kai speaks French to Toby and he loves it 247) Sometimes Kai takes Toby to volunteer at the animal shelter with him 248) Their biggest fights are over pop music and science 249) They plan on getting a turtle when they move in together 250) Kai loves sitting on Toby’s lap 251) He also loves stealing his sweaters 252) He also loves fixing his hair 253) He frequently picks flowers for Toby and spends hours arranging them 254) Kai also loves falling asleep on Toby 255) Toby kisses Kai’s cheek a lot 256) Toby adores Kai, but he rarely admits to it 257) He took Kai to a Troye Sivan concert in February 2019 258) Kai sends Toby selfies a lot throughout the day 259) Toby saves every single one to his phone - but won’t admit to it 260) Toby’s dad r e a l l y wants him to marry Kai

CALLIE AND MILO 261) They met when they were both searching an abandoned church 262) They thought the other was a ghost 263) For the longest time, Callie was ‘ghost girl’ in Milo’s phone 264) Their first date was in Starbucks 265) But they tell people it was back in that abandoned church 266) They are both too terrified to ever go back to that church 267) They have plants to travel the world together 268) Callie’s phone background is Milo and his messy bed head 269) Milo’s background is Callie in one of his sweaters 270) Callie hoards Milo’s sweaters 271) Milo practically lives at Callie’s apartment so he doesn’t mind 272) Callie only really sleeps when she’s with Milo 273) Milo likes playing with her hair while she reads out loud 274) The sound of her voice calms his anxiety 275) Callie frequently plays guitar and sings for Milo 276) He considers himself her number one fan 277) Callie likes listening to him ramble about history and classics 278) She often falls asleep while he talks - he never seems to notice 279) Callie drives Milo everywhere 280) Milo always makes the best road trip playlists and snacks 281) Milo’s mum’s adore Callie 282) They go for family dinner every other Sunday 283) They are going to Greece together over the summer holidays 284) Their opinions on monster politics differ wildly 285) Callie enjoys teaching Milo how to play guitar 286) Milo grows his own flowers to give Callie 287) He also enjoys cooking for her 288) Sometimes he brings her breakfast in bed 289) He usually gets a blowjob in exchange for this 290) They make a game out of fucking in as many places as they can 291) This has included: the grocery store, a church, the forest 292) Milo’s parents frequently bring up marriage 293) They’re both quite content with how things are 294) One day, they’d both like a small wedding in Europe somewhere 295) Zoos, petting farms, and aquariums are their favourite dates 296) Milo is basically Callie’s pillow 297) Callie writes songs for Milo 298) Her parents do not approve of her dating a Nymph 299) Callie’s roommates adore Milo and love that he basically lives there 300) They fight about how much wardrobe space Milo takes up frequently

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS 301) Callie’s roommate is a werewolf 302) She doesn’t know that Callie isn’t human and vice versa 303) Werewolf roommate (Arya)’s family is originally from India 304) Arya loves escape rooms 305) Callie loves petting Arya in wolf form 306) Milo is the only one who questions why there’s a wolf in the kitchen 307) But Milo still feeds Arya-in-wolf-form blueberry muffins 308) Bruce the Minotaur has lived in Monster House forever 309) Nobody really knows where or when Bruce came from 310) He has a very distinctive Greek accent 311) Bruce makes the best waffles 312) And he knits a damn good scarf and woolly socks 313) Which is incidentally what everybody gets for their birthday 314) Sheryl the Siren is like a crazy aunt to the kids in Monster House 315) She auditioned for X Factor once - she didn’t get in 316) Her vocal inspirations are beyonce and mariah carey 317) Sheryl is married to Mary-Anne the Mermaid 318) Mary-Anne lives in the coves behind Monster House 319) Sheryl loves singing for Mary-Anne 320) Maybe it’s the water-clogged ears, but Mary-Anne enjoys the singing 321) They had a beautiful beach wedding twelve years ago 322) Kenzi was a flower girl, Toby was a page boy 323) There is a ghost living in the attic of Monster House 324) It never seems to come out 325) Bruce sits outside the attic door each night to keep it company 326) Sometimes it likes to play drums with pots and pans 327) Nobody really has a name - it’s just ‘the ghost in the attic’ 328) They leave cookies for it at Christmas - they always get eaten 329) Sometimes Matty gets there first 330) Grace the Gorgon is an interior designer 331) She wears a veil-like head cover to hide the snake hair 332) Most humans just assume the head cover/snake hair is a new trend 333) Grace constantly redecorates Monster House 334) The house usually puts everything back overnight 335) Monster House does not like change 336) Grace is a wanted felon for the murder of a man named Perseus 337) Humans seem to be destined to forever walk past Monster House 338) Thus, Grace has never been caught 339) It is rumoured that she was once called Penelope 340) Nobody quite knows what Perseus did to warrant murder 341) Nobody quite trusts Grace with a knife, either

SEABROOKE 342) Seabrooke is a small, sleepy seaside town in southern England 343) It is the suburban hot spot for Monster life 344) Seabrooke has a population of 4,500 345) Around 250 of these are monsters 346) For some reason, Seabrooke has it’s own university 347) Nobody really knows why - it’s possible Phillip had a role in this 348) Seabrooke has two primary schools, a secondary, and a sixth form 349) It gets a lot of tourists during the summer 350) Everybody hates the tourists - especially Monsters

WITCHES COVEN 351) When Bruce the Minotaur gets sick - he can’t be taken to the doctors 352) The Witches Coven is the main place Monsters go when they’re sick 353) Witches are difficult creatures and the Coven are no different 354) If you get on their bad side, they’ll refuse you service 355) The Witches Coven therefore practically run the town 356) There are three families that make up the Coven 357) Admittance is only to witches with the blood of prestigious families 358) Kai is part of the Witches Coven 359) Kai’s family practically runs the Witches Coven 360) There is a lot of tension between the Witches and Phillip 361) Largely because they both have a lot of influence over Seabrooke 362) Regardless, Phillip still genuinely likes Kai 363) The Witches tend to be high maintenance and spoilt 364) The parents are like the worst white suburban soccer mums ever 365) Regardless, they are excellent at healing magic 366) But also excellent at ruining your life 367) They have definitely killed a few monsters - but it cannot be proved

LOCAL NEWSPAPER 368) The Daily Seabrooke is ran by shapeshifters 369) Nobody remembers when the TDS was started 370) Philip adores it for the crosswords 371) Apparently the crosswords are ‘out of this world’ 372) TDS is ran by a group of crazy looking students 373) Of course, they’re shapeshifters, so they’re probably all 1000+ 374) The shapeshifters behind TDS don’t mingle with other monsters 375) At least not as themselves 376) They report on human politics and news as well 377) Only monsters are sold the copies with monster news included 378) Half of TDS is gossip about the people in Seabrooke 379) Nobody is really safe from their snooping 380) Their methods include being a literal fly on the wall 381) Most breakups, Witches Coven drama, and Vamp/Wolf fights are put in 382) TDS is extremely controversial amongst Monsters in Seabrooke 383) Kenzi thinks it’s fucking hilarious

SEABROOKE UNIVERSITY 384) The University is crawling with monster life 385) Several professors are monsters 386) Most notably are Phillip and Steven 387) Phillip teaches Modern History 388) Steven teaches Medieval History 389) Phillip is a Vampire, Steven is a Werewolf 390) They have a competition for who gets History Professor Of The Year 391) This competition frequently gets out of hand 392) Everybody knows about their rivalry, few knows why 393) Nobody knows how long the two have worked there - most say forever 394) That wouldn’t be far from the truth 395) Steven happens to be Arya (Callie’s Roommate)’s father

MONSTER HOUSE 396) Monster House is practically alive 397) It constantly expands and shrinks 398) There are always exactly as many rooms as are necessary 399) Only the first floor can be seen by passersby 400) And they often walk straight past it 401) Ordering pizza is a nightmare 402) It’s like the human brain cannot comprehend where it is 403) Even though it’s in an incredibly obvious location 404) When they do see it, they see only a normal house 405) The construction of the house makes no sense 406) There are rooms hanging over nothing and stairs leading to nowhere 407) Sometimes bedrooms move and finding them is a nightmare 408) The living room and kitchen like to switch places 409) On Monday’s the kitchen is green and nobody knows why 410) It is black and white the rest of the time 411) It is almost impossible to paint or decorate Monster House 412) It prefers to do that itself 413) Somehow the bedrooms always look exactly how they are wanted 414) At least they save on paint - that shit is expensive 415) Unfortunately, Monster House doesn’t clean itself 416) Toby has registered several complaints about this

LULU 417) Lulu’s full name is Lucifer 418) It has been living in the basement since the beginning 419) It has only been seen by four people 420) Phillip and Kenzi are two of those 421) They call it Lulu because Kenzi couldn’t pronounce Lucifer as a kid 422) The nickname kinda stuck 423) Lulu gets fed raw fish every morning 424) They just dump a bucket full down the hatch in the kitchen 425) Sometimes Toby threatens to feed Matty to Lulu 426) This causes Matty to have nightmares and sleep in Toby’s bed 427) So that one kinda backfired on Toby 428) Nobody actually knows what kind of creature Lulu is

MISC. FACTS 429) Harlow’s favourite song is ‘Lights Down Low’ by Max 430) Seabrooke is not on any map - nobody knows why 431) I really regret this 432) Never ever try to write 500 facts it will not be fun 433) Callie’s favourite kind of law is criminal law 434) Particularly fatal offences 435) She also likes land law because she’s fucking weird 436) Kai got into reality TV because of his sisters 437) One of the arcades in Seabrooke is monster themed 438) Toby works there on Saturdays - always taking the night shifts 439) Kai really wants to own his own bakery one day 440) He tried to get the local bakery to hire him but he’s too young 441) Kai also wants to live in France or Italy 442) He also wants to be on reality shows and get a fake tan 443) (Okay. Toby is pretty sure he was joking about that) 444) Kai always has to wish on a lucky star 445) Milo wants to be a published author one day 446) Kai has tried to run away from home twice 447) His parents put a tracking spell on him and found him too fast 448) Toby wishes he could skate at the park with the other kids 449) But he also secretly likes that everyone finds him mysterious 450) Toby used to have a (massive) crush on Kenzi 451) Now they’re both pretty gay 452) Everyone is gay tbh 453) Monsters have no concept of heteronormativity 454) Kenzi’s favourite colour is pink 455) Callie’s favourite animal is an octopus 456) Kai has a picture of him and Toby stuck on his bedroom wall 457) Kai has had a crush on Toby since they were kids 458) Coming out as trans wrecked Kai’s relationship with his parents 459) It is seen as a disgrace for witches to have male sons 460) Men are submissive in witch culture 461) Kai’s parents frequently misname and misgender him 462) The kids at school are much more accepting 463) Kai came out when he was 14 464) Toby has actually been one of his biggest supporters 465) Natalia has been his main supporter as well 466) Toby likes Kai a lot more since he came out 467) Kai feels more real to him now - and irritates him less 468) Toby doesn’t know how long Kai has liked him for 469) Kai is pretty open about being trans 470) Seabrooke is quite accepting, even if his parents aren’t 471) Kenzi is terrified of being rejected by the monster community 472) She really wants Toby to turn her so she can be an actual monster 473) She wears contact lenses so her eyes look purple 474) She doesn’t really like school and puts the bare minimum effort in 475) Harlow is taking four a levels - a difficult thing to do 476) Fuck this was the worst idea 478) Harlow channels her anger out through drumming 479) It’s therapist mandated so her dad cannot stop her 480) Even though he very very much wants to 481) Harlow’s favourite video game is overwatch 482) Her mains are lucio, junk rat, bastion and rein 483) Harlow despises spelling and grammar errors 484) Matty likes stealing Toby’s tee shirts 485) Between Matty & Kai, Toby barely has any clothes left 486) Which is fine as far as Kai’s concerned 487) Matty is like a little brother to Kai 488) Originally, Callie & Arya were part of a polygamous relationship 489) I cut that out, though, because I couldn’t think of a third girl 490) Seabrooke tends to have mild weather 491) During the summer, the heat can spike to 25-30 C max 492) It rarely snows, but it does rain a lot, and there’s a lot of wind 493) Most of the houses in Seabrooke were built 100ish years ago 494) It has a train station - nobody knows why - it’s the last stop 495) There is a Seabrooke museum ran by a vampire and a Fae 496) There is a secret monster section in the back 497) Idle Town by Conan Gray reminds me of Seabrooke 498) As does This Town by Neil Horan (I think that’s the name idk) 499) Fuck you to @livvywrites for not stopping me 500) I am never doing this again

tag list: @livingthelovelylife, @commasinsidequotes, @4kidsopfan, @thatworldinverted, @livvywrites @ravenpuffwriter @the-writer-turned-procrastinor @livingthelovelylife (ask to be added or removed more likely after this shit)

#writeblr #writeblr community #monsterhouse #this was the worst idea of my life #never again #do not do this #b a d i d e a

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t-urbulence · 4 years

Text

Best Artists of 2019

Hello and welcome to me forgetting how I do these things.

So as you may have noticed I got into kpop last year and then I continued getting into kpop this year. This year I got to know a lot of other artists in kpop and mostly spent my time listening to one specific artist (you will never guess whom) so this list is... just that ok. Also this category used to be called best newbies and only included artists I got to know in a specific year then I changed it to include any artist I listened to a lot but with a few exceptions all the music I listened to this year were new discoveries for me so...

Idk why I always overexplain these, huh.

Honourable mentions go to Monsta X, Nu’est, Chungha, Sunmi, Stray Kids, Bolbbalgan4, The Boyz, and returning artists Mamamoo ♥♥

7 - NCT (the whole of it but mostly 127)

As a baby kpoppie NCT always seemed so intimidating to me with its many many members but the few songs I liked from them upon first listen eventually lured me into getting to know them. Now I’m no expert but to me NCT is a little frustrating because I feel like the label could do so much more with them (and by more I don’t mean to make certain members work even more). I have to admit I often don’t feel like a proper fan because I don’t follow them very closely but to me their music is always the best part of the package and I care very little for their vlogs and... whatever else they’re doing, honestly.

But as a group I feel like they really could do anything as they’ve already explored so many styles and concepts there really isn’t anything that doesn’t sound like them. My personal favourites are Superhuman, Touch, and Boss but this year NCT Dream made a really good comeback I was 100% on board with with Boom, and Wayv’s debut Take Off was also 👌👌👌👌👌👌

6 - Oneus

I didn’t know a whole lot about anything when these guys debuted and I didn’t even know Valkyrie was their debut song for a long time. It was nice and I didn’t really keep them in mind any longer until they were on Weekly Idol with the other group I’ll talk about in a bit and then I mean, I just had to adopt them, I think we all did at that point. It was also around the time they had their first comeback and it was 👌👌👌👌👌👌 but they still only lived in my tiny brain as a group I’ll eventually get into. And then they released 가자 and I did!

They have two amazing rappers and a fairly versatile vocal line and a style that allows for both dynamic bangers and less radio friendly albeit still addictive tunes that defines their sound even further. I don’t know a lot about how they well-promoted they are, I know they have a shitton of schedules so I hope RWB calms the fuck down eventually and paces themselves because these boys are really promising.

I guess checking their title tracks, Valkyrie, Twilight, and *cringe* Lit should have to suffice but also Bingbing and Blue Sky.

5 - Tomorrow x Together

I never said I didn’t like them so stop staring at me.

Obviously their debut was exciting and interesting and I was really looking forward to seeing what they would be like. It wasn’t 100% my cuppa though Crown was an amazing song, I was still happy for them and excited to see how they would evolve overtime. I kinda fell off the bandwagon around May and June cause they weren’t really putting out content based around music and I’m not super interested in variety shows and reality shows unless I’m really invested in the members, but their first comeback was also 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌 The songs are really poppy and catchy and cover a variety of themes I think most people interested in getting emotional value out of music can relate to and Yeonjun and Soobin are just, simply put, my boys.

If I could have one comment on what I’d like to see change in the future it’d be the endless masking and layering of the vocals. I can just about tell their voices apart in certain songs but then they pump ‘em full of effects in other songs and I’m jus like whomstdve the fuck am I listening to?

Check out Crown and Run Away, their two title tracks so far and also my personal favourite, Magic Island and maybe Can't We Just Leave the Monster Alive? too and this one as well whatever.

4 - Taemin / Shinee

I’ll put these two together because yOU CAN’T SEPARATE THEM OKAY I mean it is true that Taemin’s solo material is vastly, vastly different from Shinee’s music but uh this is how I decided.

Shinee is very fun, very diverse, they have the most heart-wrenching songs and then the most upbeat melodies that kickstart the serotonin-production in my brain just like that. I mean they are just vocal powerhouses and they’re using it, but in the same time they have like, these low(er)-energy bops that are just so pleasant to listen to.

Shinee’s weird cause I have a Shinee playlist where I put all the songs I liked from them and I think I don’t know the title of a good half of them but I don’t think I’ve ever pressed the skip button while playing that playlist.

And then Taemin is just very different on his own. Vocally he’s way more strong than Shinee’s music would have you believe, and though he has a sexy concept going on most of the time he’s also not way over the top with it which is... weird to say because he’s very theatrical sometimes. But especially if you compare his most recent material to his solo debut stuff he just looks and sounds way more relaxed in what he’s doing (it’s almost as though he’s matured a little over the years. but only a little). Things you love to see: that.

From Shinee: Symptoms, Countless, The Reason, Drive, Don’t Let Me Go, 1 of 1 From Taemin: Stone Heart, Want, Move, Under My Skin

3 - Day6

I want you to picture this: me, crying.

I had heard about Day6 from one of my two kpop mutuals on twitter lmao but I always heard Days Gone By mentioned as the best song ever and when I checked it out I didn’t think it to be very special at the time. It was only because I thought Time of Our Life was ok and cute and Shoot Me was very catchy that I made a playlist with all their songs on it and listened to it one time when I had to walk a mile to the train station at five in the morning. And then I heard 121U and Headache and that was it.

I don’t think I say anything outlandish if I say Day6 could be from any other part of the world if you take a look at their sound. They’re very easy-listening pop rock, they’re the kind of melodic rock music I loved when I was in high school. So what makes them special?

That I love them, that’s what >[ I don’t think they have anything more than any other group in their genre but I think they just have everything to steal my friKKEN HEART. First of all I don’t know what kind of demon deal JYP made to get a hold of four vocalists like this, I mean they’re all different but instantly recognisable and their range is just ????????? I think Jae is considered the weakest vocalist (outside of Dowoon but I mean he’s drums) and even the notes that boy belts out are blowing my mind. He has a very natural, almost untrained-sounding tone, Sungjin’s very raspy and emotional, Young K’s voice is very open and full (I think he actually has the biggest range? I could be wrong), and Wonpil has that boyish, charming, kinda slippery but still stable voice that first grabs your attention.

And of course a lot of the writing credit goes to the group’s very own Young K which makes me feel a lot closer to them when I’m listening to their songs. So good job, guys, on everything.

Truly, though, getting to know Day6 has just been so special this year and it just goes to show how even mainstream pop music in korea can be so diverse and anyone could find something they like at any corner.

Holy fuckbucket, what should I even recommend? I guess listen to Shoot Me, 121U, Headache, then also my first favourite song, Somehow, my current favourite song Beautiful Feeling and my current second favourite song I Need Somebody and also their most recent comeback Sweet Chaos and my recent new discoveries Lean On Me, Goodbye Winter, I Would and but also just check out my Spotify playlist for them I literally love every single song on there. Fuck, Like That Sun, Letting Go, Sing Me, Rescue Me, 365247 i’M DYING HERE, SUNGJIN

BITCH, LIKE A FLOWING WIND

2 - Seventeen

hOkkkaAyy

For the longest time, well, for about five months I guess, I thought these guys would be first place on this list forever. They were the ones who broke the big BTS spell I was under for the second half of 2018 and I really just, fell facefirst into the diamond life. Getting Closer didn’t quite get me in the first round and even Home was a bit like, okay, cute, best of luck for them. Then something happened and both Getting Closer and Home just hit me like a fucking truck even though they’re on two opposite sides of the scale. You know. The song scale. The famous one? That one.

I made a tweet once that I still agree with, that loving Seventeen really is just cutting your own heart up into thirteen even-sized bits and every single bit is filled with so, so much love.

Like many/some(?) of the groups I love, Seventeen is self-composed and for that I am so grateful because their label Pledis is a shithole so thank fuck to Mr. Lee Jihoon for carrying the industry on his back.

The group consists of three units, all of which have their distinct strengths (except for the performance unit, those theatre nerds just had to be good at everything, didn’t they) and Seventeen makes time to explore all of those units, sometimes even making other subunits from different boy configurations (or boyfigurations for short) and somehow it manages to feel balanced and patient and not rushed.

And I especially love how admittedly they started to stop caring about what the public expects from them and they’re exploring concepts that excites them personally. They caught a lot of flak for releasing songs like Hit and Fear after the astounding success Home had back in January and a lot of fans and non-fans alike quoted the groups unwillingness to keep doing what has been proven to work as the reason of their diminishing sales and public interest.

And even though I personally enjoy their brighter concepts also, I just, I can respect that attitude, you know? At the end of the day Seventeen has an obvious and visible love for their own craft and there’s nothing more enjoyable than that.

Now I’m really in trouble as to what to recommend, they have so many different types of songs x”) Okay, Our Dawn is Hotter Than Day, Clap, Adore U, Home, Getting Closer. Also Hit. And like, a billion of their b-sides, just check my spotify playlist for them ok.

1 - Ateez

*feeling of fear*

Do I even have to go into why I love Ateez? Every time I think about them and just how big a part they played in my life this year I get this overwhelming urge to express just why and just how much I love them.

This year I really just... lost the ability to be happy about things that used to give so much happiness. It’s been a sad and scary downward spiral that I just don’t have enough strength to stop so I guess it’s no wonder that I’d latch onto the first thing that becomes an everyday positive presence in my life. Ateez and the memories connected to them this year have been the reason for the few and far between moments of happiness in my life in 2019 and for that I’ll forever be grateful.

It’s like. When it hits, it just hits, you know?

And I just can’t, can’t wait to scream my little heart out to their songs in March with Linn okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

I guess if I could just have one wish it’d be for them to play Twilight, and Treasure, Illusion, Say My Name, Utopia, Hala Hala, Win, Mist, Wave, my whole Spotify playlist.

#best of 2019 #tia's best of 2019

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