#whose name started with the sound ‘ni’

[p1x1x]

rock posting

i stack Rock on Brick

then my sibling placed these 2 rocks next to each other

pointed, and said “sabinika”

#sorry not art #but its related to sbnk #either way i started stacking rocks bc #my mom saw me snicker scrolling thru my nika react album #(dont ask) #so i. thought this was a better way to pass time.. #thats not even the worse fumble #i was calling for my younger sibling #whose name started with the sound ‘ni’ #but i said. nika #and my sibling that placed those 2 rocks together looked knowingly #pix suffering #help me orz orz orz orz orz

[lovingperfectionsblog]

Pancakes and Carl

Daniel Ricciardo x Reader

Summary: Daniel meets an unexpected guest of yours.

Warnings: Drinking, pure panic from the drivers, mentions of a stranger in your home. 

Word Count: 1748

Author's note: A silly little drabble about a silly little scene :D. Not a great ending but oh well, we move 😀

______________________________________________________________

Daniel wasn’t meant to be home that evening, but work had ended early and he had managed to book a flight back easily, despite knowing you already had plans with your friends, he came back anyway. Choosing instead to just not tell you he’d be back to make sure you’d still keep to your plans. Knowing that if you knew he was back, you’d cancel in a heartbeat, which wasn’t fair to you. You deserve the night with your friends. You deserve to get sloppy drunk. 

God, he hoped you’d be okay if you were getting sloppy drunk. 

At least you’d be coming home to him. Which is actually all he wanted. His week had been hell and he just knew he needed to wake up to you. Even if it was a puking, hungover, desperately needing a sports drink and a greasy breakfast you. 

You were such a treat when you got sloppy drunk. It was one of his favorite sights in the known world. Normally you were already ridiculously friendly and sweet, but sloppy drunk you, well, it just kicked it into overdrive and he ended up dealing with a cute, clingy ball of pure love. Quite frankly, he was pretty sure he had never heard a single human utter the words “I love you guys so much” or “I’ve never been so happy” as many times as you do when you’re sloppy drunk and if that’s what is crawling into bed with him tonight, then he can die happy.

So, while you were out with your friends, definitely past the point of no return if your messages were anything to go by, Daniel was on his balcony, drinking a glass of wine with Scotty and Max, a quiet night in contrast to yours, exactly what he had needed. 

And so the night dragged on, and he had assumed he would be in bed by this time, but a glass of wine turned into another and he is so bad at saying no to hanging out with his friends, but he was really starting to wish you would get home so he had an excuse to get his friends out of his house and he could just climb into bed with you. That would be the dream right now.

And then, as if God himself was paying attention to only his prayers, your head suddenly pooped out of the sliding door with a grin so wide he was sure your cheeks must be aching. 

“BABY! You’re home, what are you doing home?” he chuckled at you, watching you attempt to stay up straight, hand gripping the edge of the sliding door as a makeshift crutch for your excessively drunk self. 

“You honestly think I was going to miss sloppy drunk you? I’d move heaven and earth to see that love” how your smile got even wider he couldn’t be sure but there you were anyway, a look of pure adoration in your eyes as you stared at him, present company completely forgotten. 

“Oh! Listen, I'm about to get something to drink and make pancakes for me and Carl, am I making for all of you?” it was like you had snapped out of your daze and were suddenly aware that there were other people sitting with your boyfriend. 

A chorus of “yes please” sounded from his friends, desperately excited for those pancakes (and seeing you attempt to cook in your current state, the sliding door scooting wider and wider the more weight you rested on it, your toppling inevitable any second now). While looks of excitement at the prospect of pancakes settling on his friends faces, a look of confusion was on his. 

“Hey babe,” he called out before you could make your way back inside to begin cooking, “whose Carl?”

Scott threw Daniel a look, almost as if he was questioning the sudden concern from him. Everyone knew you wouldn't cheat, that wasn’t even close to what Daniel was worried about, but you had a pretty small circle and he had known about all of them, so hearing the name Carl pop up out of nowhere on a night he wasn’t meant to be home was a little worrying, not that Scott would know any of that though. 

Suddenly that ecstatic smile was back on your face and you animatedly began to explain, “oh! I found him like, skulking outside of the building, kinda like, in between the bushes out front” alarm bells were suddenly going off in all their heads, “he looked like he really wanted to get into the building for some reason so I just thought I’d bring him up here” Daniel could feel his blood run cold and suddenly Scott and Max understood the concerned questioning of this Carl character from Daniel, “and then I’d just get us something to eat and drink and let him crash on the couch and then I’d get him all sorted in the morning” your eyes were basically closed with how hard you were smiling at this point, but you didn’t miss the look of panic on all their faces, mistaking it for confusion instead though, “you know what, he’s just in the kitchen, I’ll go grab him quick” your voice began trailing away as you started making your way back inside. 

“BABE NO!” From that point it was like the boys were moving in tandem. Daniel was up first, moving quickly to grab your wrist before you could move closer to the kitchen, he quickly shoved you behind him, Max doing the same and Scott finally holding you to make sure you were safe. Your head was swinging wildly between Daniel, Max and Scott. The entire scene playing out before you could even begin to think of what questions you should be asking, you could do nothing but watch as Daniel and Max disappeared into the kitchen, shoulders squared, ready for a fight. Scott was gripping you close, looking around the room for a weapon if it needed to come to that whilst simultaneously intently listening to what was happening in the kitchen. 

Next minute you could both hear loud laughter rip through Max from the kitchen and an angry Daniel was storming out of the kitchen, the smallest white kitten with a thin black ring of fur around his neck cupped in his hands, “I swear to God, if this is Carl-”

He wasn’t even able to finish his sentence before you were shrugging Scotts grip from you and making your way towards Daniel, a soft “Mangy Carl” drifting from your lips in the most loving tone any of them had ever heard. 

Max had no joined the rest of you in the lounge, still laughing as he heard what you’d called the cat, Scotts own laughter now coming out, more so at the look on Daniel’s face as he watched you take the tiny cat from his hands and smoosh it against your cheek, a few kisses littering his face. 

This was a look of pure shock, one could almost hear the gears turning in Daniels head as he was processing how to handle this situation as calmly as possible. 

“Go to bed” it wasn't a suggestion from Daniel, he was actively telling you that he couldn’t handle anything else this evening and he needed you to go to bed so he could calm down from the adrenaline of thinking that in your drunk state, you had invited a complete stranger up into his home, who was lurking outside of his building. The thought of what could have happened still plastered in his head. 

“But I need to feed-” Daniel was already taking the cat away from you, not allowing you to even finish the thought. 

“No, I’ll feed Carl, go to bed” He handed the new cat over to Max, knowing that he knew what to feed him, trusting he could find something in his home to keep the kitten sustained until morning, and then he was guiding you to your room, not even allowing you a moment to protest what was happening. 

A short while later Daniel was walking into the lounge, Scott and Max watching the kitten tucking into a bowl of milk, not the best option he assumed, but if this is what they had, then this is what they had. Both are still chuckling at the events of tonight. 

“Mangy Fucking Carl” it’s all Daniel could get out, throwing his hands up in exasperation, a loud slap startling the kitten as they landed against his thighs on landing. 

“It's from Brooklyn 99” Max hadn’t looked away from the kitten yet, prattling off the information to Daniel, still rooted on the spot. 

“I’m well aware where it’s from thank you” neither really acknowledging him at this point, too engrossed by the little milk beard over the kitten's face. Scott already with his phone out, no doubt a million pictures already filling his gallery. 

“Want me to take him? I’m sure Pen would love a little kitten” Max offered the suggestion that had Daniel recoiling. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you? No. He’s our kitten” Daniel was finally moving to sit in front of Carl, gently petting his tiny head. 

“Didn’t think you’d want to keep him all things considered” a laugh coming from Max for the umpteenth time this evening. 

“Listen, this stays between us three and I will deny it until the day I die, but this is the cutest fucking cat I have ever seen, so no, we are not getting rid of it.” Daniel was already picturing you begging him to keep it. He’d put up a good fight and eventually ‘cave’ and you’d feel victorious and he was getting giddy at the thought of seeing your little pout in an attempt to get him to agree with you, but no, he’d already decided, Mangy Carl was the first pet you’d ever get together and he’s not even surprised it happened in the fashion that it did. 

“And because she brought it in” Scott gave him a knowing look. 

He hated that he was so predictable when it came to you, but Scott was right, it was because of you, you could do or ask for anything and he would be willing to move heaven and earth to make sure you got it, even when you were drunk and nearly gave him a heart attack in the process. 

“Yeah, because she brought it in”. 

#daniel ricciardo #Daniel Ricciardo x you #x reader #Dabiel ricciardo x reader #max verstappen #f1 oneshot #f1 imagine #daniel ricciardo fluff #formula 1

[akira1509]

Sharing my city pop playlist so you can find more city pop songs beside Plastic Love and Stay with me ✨✨

You have listened to Plastic Love and Stay with me once right? And you think you like these songs and want to know other songs that share the same genre? This small list might be for you :D I actually don't listen to a lot of city pop songs, it's more like I listen to different songs from one artist. So any recommendations are welcome 💖

First one it's KU-RU-KU-RU Cruller from Aqours! It is quite rare for a Love Live! song to follow this genre right? This song is really catchy, with encouraging lyrics and really cute choreography. This is also the song which made me realize I have already been in love with city pop. The song is one of my recommendations if you are new to Aqours and want to listen to something fun!

The second song is a cover of Kimitachi Kiwi, Papaya, Mango da ne (Nakahara Meiko) from Furihata Ai - one of my favourite Aqour seiyuus (I love all of them haha). Both the original version and Furi's cover are so good that I had to listen to them on loop for a while. Imma leave the Eng translation of the song I've found for those who are interested in the lyrics!

ENG Translation

Another song from Furi is her original song - Purple Eyeshadow. I was wondering which song to choose, but Purple Eyeshadow is more catchy to me, so I decided to put it here. You can check more of Furi's song on her Youtube channel! About the lyrics of the song...I'll leave you searching for yourselves then ;)

Next is a pretty old song from 1984, AIRPORT LADY, sung by Kadomatsu Toshiki. People said that they liked the retake version of the song in 1993 but I find the original version more appealing to me :D

Time to go back to the year of 1983, when Magical Angel Creamy Mami was still on air! And the OP and the ED of the anime, Delicate ni Suki shite and Love Sagerinaku are the songs I want to introduce to you guys today :D While Delicate ni Suki shite sounds so dreamy, Love Sagerinaku has more sexiness in it, but I am more biased toward Delicate ni Suki shite because it was the song I remembered most when I was 5 years old, and the chorus of the song just hits me real hard :') That's right, a girl's heart Can float a moon-shaped little board in the starry sky It can even, search for her own dreams too And when she falls in love, she delicately Falls in love, falls in love, fall in love.

Also check out the anime too if you can, it's awesome <3

City pop originates from Japan, you guys all know that, right? But what if we have city pop sung in Korean? :D Now let me introduce you to a gem in K-Pop music (in my heart, of course) whose name is YUKIKA ! She is a Japanese, who went to Korea and started her singing career there. It seems that one of her songs, SOUL LADY had become a big hit and inspired some K-Pop artists to try out city pop too! I personally like SOUL LADY the most in every song she has released. The choreography, the catchy beat, the lyrics, the MV, everything is literally perfect 💖 The song tells a story of a girl, who was so overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Seoul, has become so confident walking on her own road, as if she is truly the "Seoul lady".

To end this, I will write down here the part which I find so meaningful in SOUL LADY chorus:

I am now a SOUL LADY (Seoul Lady) Giving off that feeling I guess you can tell, I've been studying hard. It blends into my smile It'll be addicting Even the way I talk sounds natural now Such a SOUL LADY (Seoul Lady) Giving off that vibe I guess you can see, I've been studying hard. Confident and mesmerizing This Seoul lady that I am Is so pretty

#city pop #aqours #creamy mami #furihata ai #yukika

[strawberry-fields-things]

Sista no tengo el cerebro como pa escribir en ingles pero sino lo escribo ahora se esfuma

Un día en el campamento habia una actividad de natación donde reader estaba a cargo de los campistas, so, un infortunio pasó, una broma pudo haber salido mal pero uno de los campistas no podía estar aflote, asi que reader va en su rescate ayudandole a salir del agua, y este niñe le dice "se me cayeron los lentes" y reader se va a buscar los lentes pero se queda atorado.

Todo este disturbio alertó a los otros líderes del campamento y cuando vieron que se estaba demorando mucho en salir del agua Dream se lanza sin pensarlo ni un segundo

Anyways, sorri pero mi cerebro deberia estar estudiando

SKDHEJDHSJJW ESTO. ESTO. weon esto esta increible que chucha si.

contestaría todo el resto en español nomas pero puta que me gustó este headcanon asi que para que todos lo puedan ver y apreciar pongo el resto de mi respuesta en ingles >:))

just in case i’m gonna translate it for those that don’t speak spanish because ohmygod you guys:

one day at camp there’s a swimming activity where the reader was being kept in charge of the campers. something unfortunate happens, maybe a prank gone wrong, but one of the campers (that was swimming) couldn’t stay afloat, so the reader helps them get out of the water. this kid tells the reader: “my glasses fell into the water” and the reader dives back in to find the glasses, only to get stuck.

all these disturbances alert the other camp counselors, and when they see that the reader was taking way too long underneath the surface, dream jumps into the water without thinking it.

imagine being left with a small-ish group of kids as the rest of the counselors set up a few activities up ahead by the lake. quackity and dream are stationed nearby as they set up one of the courses, all while you sit by the shore keeping an eye on the campers.

one of the kids whose name you can’t quite remember stumbles onto the water with a scream, and you suddenly jolt awake. you spring into action. soon enough, you’ve managed to get the now coughing camper back into shore.

“miss—“ he coughs again. “miss y/n? my— um, my glasses.” his voice sounds rough, lake water still scratching against his throat. “i think i dropped— my mom, she’ll kill me if i— i need to—“

you exhale, nodding, “okay, okay— don’t worry, alright buddy? i’ll get them back in a second, yeah?” you rub his forearm gently with a smile. “don’t worry, okay?”

you dive into the water soon after that. thanks to the day being a relatively sunny one, you don’t encounter much trouble reaching the spot where you had rescued the camper— you know its the spot because of the camp raft tied down to the place.

you take a deep breath, and you sink underneath the water.

you see the light of the sun reflecting off what must be the poor kid’s glasses. you swim deeper, hands finally securing the glasses.

finally.

you start to swim up when something tugs down at your leg. your heart leaps to your throat. you can’t tell exactly what it is— a branch, underwater root or some especially tough seaweed— either way, it won’t budge.

you try to swim down, try to break free from it— but your hands are slippery, your pulse is skyrocketing, and whatever plant decided to latch onto you won’t let go.

dream starts hearing more noise and loud chatter from one moment to another. he quirks a brow as he watches more and more kids start to run around in disorder. he walks closer to them, sapnap and quackity trailing close behind him. “hey, aren’t you kids supposed to be watched by y/n?”

sapnap looks around the shore, confusion evident in his features. “where’d she go?”

“oh! she went into the water,” one of the younger ones explains.

“into the water?” quackity furrows his brows. “where?”

“right over there!” another boy explains. “she went to get my glasses, but she hasn’t gone up in a while.”

“she what?”

dream’s following actions become a blur he barely registers. blink. he’s listening to this camper mention you’re still underwater. blink. he’s swimming faster than his arms will let him. blink. he’s diving underneath the water. blink. he’s carrying your body back to the shore.

water sticks to your lungs as you cough, cough and cough, sunlight harsh against your unfocused eyes. someone sets you onto the sand, where you can vaguely make out several blurred silhouettes surrounding you.

“leave her some space.” you hear someone call out distantly. as the silhouettes pull back, you vision focuses.

the first thing you see is golden hair and green eyes filled with worry.

“…dream?”

“are you okay?” dream asks softly, his voice dripping with something you’ve never heard coming from him.

you blink back up at him, inhaling sharply. he’s close, too close— close enough that you can see the freckles painting his cheeks. close enough that if you were to reach out, you would be able to trace them with your fingertips.

heat rushes to your cheeks and panic spreads in your mind. “i-i, um,” you stammer, suddenly keenly aware of all the eyes on you. you raise one of your hands futilely.

“i got the glasses.”

#this is such an old ask that i had forgotten to post im sorry sorry sorry #but how do we feel about this little enemies to lovers hm hmmm #ramblings: dream #camp counselor!dream #brainrot hours #dani’s chat room

[nflstreetsanimereviews]

The Great Cleric Vol. 1 Review

Welcome to my latest edition of ‘Reading Isekai Light Novels’ – today’s edition is for Seija Musou Salaryman Isekai de Ikinokoru Tame ni Aymu Michi, known in English as The Great Cleric. The Great Cleric is due to have an anime adaptation air this summer. I know, another isekai anime, woo…anyways, there’s no reason the judge a book based on its cover. I mean, The Great Cleric’s cover is pretty good by light novel standards, but illustrations rank pretty low when it comes to what makes a light novel good. ‘Isekai’, while often garbage, doesn’t have to be garbage. The same can be said for light novels in general.

The Great Cleric’s main character, whose name on Earth is unknown, is known as Luciel in Galdardia. He’s isekaied to Galdardia after being shot and killed in Japan. Imagine being killed by a firearm in Japan! Talk about horrible luck! Even worse, Luciel, a salaryman back on Earth, was just about to get promoted! His death is seen as so unfair, the powers that be reincarnate him in Galdardia, a magical world that resembles one from an RPG. Luciel is spawned in this new world with close to zero information about its society and how it functions.

Luciel, with decades of experience in real life in the business world, decides to become a healer, since his goal in this new world is to ‘die of old age’, and because being a healer sounds like a safe job. What Luciel didn’t account for is that the reputation of healers in Galdardia is at rock bottom. Healers in Galdardia are known for their sky-high rates, which many adventurers can’t afford. Those who can pay can. Those who can’t pay don’t get healed, or are sold into slavery as repayment. In short, the most prominent healers have decided to maximize their profit margin, charge extortionary rates, and use social control in order to maintain the status quo. Good thing that only happens in fantasy worlds…well and in America too.

Unknowingly, Luciel throws a wrench into the Healing Cartel by being isekaied. Along with joining the Healer’s Guild AND the Adventurer’s Guild, he decides to start training under the tutelage of Guildmaster Brod. Brod’s training makes boot camp look like recess, but Luciel is up to the task and ready to receive daily ass-kickings. He’s doing what it takes to not get killed in this world–something he couldn’t prevent in the other world. Also, it helps when you’re able to track your progress numerically (remember, this is an RPG world). Brod, seeing what potential Luciel has, gives him a residence at the Adventurer’s Guild. For only one silver, Luciel will heal your wounds–sure beats paying thirty gold for the same treatment. Luciel’s cheap healing and non-discriminatory practices make him a favorite within the guild’s quarters. 

Unfortunately, the analysis of the internal healer-adventurer struggle is only at a surface level. I can’t deny, it’s certainly interesting–but it takes a backseat to the development of Luciel. I understand why, since Luciel is the main character and all, but I can’t help to find the guild dynamics to be more luring than reading about Luciel’s months-long grindfest. 

If I had to pick one thing from The Great Cleric that turned me off the most, it would be how predictable most scenes went. Luciel spends most of this volume training under Brod, which doesn’t sound bad at first–but considering each day goes about the same, it does get tiring at a point. Each day Luciel:

Gets the shit kicked out of him by Brod

Drinks ‘Substance X’, which is a grotesque concoction that’s supposed to give you a skill buff

Has a conversation or two with the ‘beastwoman’ clerks and has the same thought every time (“oh nooooo people are staring daggers at me for talking to two beautiful women for what’s probably the 400th day in a row, hope I don’t get my ass kicked!”)

The first point actually isn’t bad, considering it’s the only action that really happens in this volume. Slapstick will never be boring to me. Repetitive, but not to a point where it gets grating.

‘Substance X’, an unknown drink made by ‘The Sage of Time’, is supposed to ‘help ya grow’. Well, thankfully it does! Having the ‘Access Mastory’ skill, Luciel can see that Substance X does actually give you buffs! The only downside is that the smell and taste of Substance X is putrid–and The Great Cleric makes sure you know that every time Luciel takes a swig of it. You’d think the surprise of Luciel being able to drink what apparently is too revolting for any other person would die down after the first year of him being there, but nope. Oh well. I’m being a bit nitpicky here, but I didn’t really care to read what’s pretty much the same conversation several times.

The last point is what drove me up the wall about The Great Cleric. Luciel, despite mentally being middle-aged, has the same temperament about talking to pretty women that timid teenage boys have. Perhaps he was one at some point, but he’s a grown-up now and should know better. This is a bit of conjecture since we don’t know how our MC talked to women back on Earth. For all we know, he could be a virgin that’s never had a girlfriend! Who has time for women when you’re a salaryman? Either way, the fear that Luciel has is largely unfound. Those who ‘discriminate’ against Luciel do due to the assumption that he’s the standard money-grubbing healer that discriminates against beastpeople, something completely understandable given the reputation healers have.

All together, Luciel has pretty much recreated his salaryman job in another world. Yes, healing those for cheap is way more virtuous than being a cog in a corporate machine, but ostensibly it’s the same structure. Considering Luciel’s goal in this new world is to die of old age, this isn’t a bad deal for him. Does sticking to this routine for months on end make for good entertainment? Well, it’s a mixed bag–altogether it makes it hard for me not to give The Great Cleric the moniker ‘The Mid Cleric’, but it would be dishonest to say that it’s bad. 

The Great Cleric does have the potential to be one of the isekai series to stand out from the rest–you know, like Re;Zero and Konosuba. It’s hard to see since this volume was little more than an introduction to the series, but there are genuinely some interesting parts about this series that I hope the author expands on. I have a feeling it will, since by the end of this novel, Luciel’s existence is such a thorn in the side of other healers that some attempt to get him assassinated. Luciel is pretty much a walking Urgent Care–he’s apparently the only healer that sees healing as a virtue and not as a cushy job. Again, parallels could be drawn to the American healthcare system, but that’s a whole other conversation that’s way more complicated than the way healers screw over adventurers in Galdardia.

Most of the things I complained about above (the last two points in particular) should resolve themselves as the series progresses. This volume was Luciel’s grinding time–of course reading about someone grinding isn’t that fun. It’s rarely fun to grind in games! With a change in location, Luciel’s daily routine should be shaken-up. Well, I say should. There’s always a chance that Luciel finds another Brod to train under, continues his daily routine of gulping several cups of Substance X, and continues to be frightened when attractive women talk to him. Being a light novel, I wouldn’t be surprised!

The Great Cleric does have the potential to be a good series, but I personally would wait until the anime airs to consume it. I’ve been betrayed by light novels before, so there’s no telling if the quality of the series plummets after this volume or if it actually progresses in a fashion that is engrossing. The anime will clear that up for us. Personally, I’d like to see Galdardia’s society to be expanded on. We get a nibble of it in this volume, but with Luciel being cooped up in the Adventurer’s Guild for about 90% of this volume, we’ve only explored a tiny sliver of this magical world. As I said above, this should sort itself out as the story progresses, but I’d wait until it’s animated.

60/100

#the great cleric #light novel #light novel review #review

[marknee]

about me.

some facts about me!

why is my username marknee?

my user is a play on words, and partially a running joke in my life. the first portion of my name sounds like ‘knee’ (ni), so i combined that word with one of my biases, mark lee - whose last name rhymes with said word. thus, i merged my own name (of sorts) and mark lee’s together and you get: marknee (mark-nee) or also seen as (mark-knee [ni]) or (mar[k]-nee).

who are my biases?

BTS. namjoon biased, yoongi bias wrecker. (re: hyung line enthusiast to my core.)

SEVENTEEN. scoups biased, jeonghan and seungkwan bias wrecker.

ATEEZ. hongjoong and mingi biased, seonghwa and jongho bias wrecker.

P1HARMONY. soul biased (he is my son), keeho and jiung bias wrecker.

what groups do i listen to?

honestly, i will listen to any group, any song, any genre if i vibe with the music. my main playlist is about 48hrs long! i listen to red velvet a lot though. their whole discography is worth dying for - especially their b-sides. but i love love love nct’s music too. and shinee. and every sm group ever.

when did i get into kpop?

unbeknownst to me, i actually started listening to kpop in 2016! my first song was boombayah by blackpink, and i just remember absolutely loving it. but i officially got into kpop mid-2017! best decision ever.

other:

my favourite songs of all time are: don’t by eaeon ft. rm, same dream, same mind, same night by seventeen, restless by bibi, everythingoes by rm, and guerrilla by ateez

i used to be dog person, until i had quite a traumatic experience with one, so now i prefer cats

my hobbies are photography, reading and finding new songs

my left and right pinkie are the only fingers on my hands coated in nail polish. this is for the polished man campaign to raise awareness for violence against women and children. i’ll link the website here if you’d like more info!

i describe myself as a private person. i like my own space and company and i’m not ashamed of it :)

i am currently reading almond by won-pyung sohn

i don’t like loud or sudden noises

i have a strange obsession with pirates - or really any kind of mythical folklore

i’ve recently started loving purple, green and brown

i’m not a shy person, but i’m quite hard to crack (i’m like an onion, i have layers to me hahaha)

i actually started the shakespeare series as a joke. the whole idea of it made me laugh, so i decided to give it a go

i cry easily, especially at certain films and songs

you’ve reached the end.

© marknee 2023. all copyrights reserved.

#thebees : knees #about me

[syncogon]

(yb time travel fixit: a pitch for a story i will never be able to write)

“With that, the Seventh Room has fully assembled.” 

The voice that spoke was one he hadn’t heard in years. Yuan Zhongxin blinked startled eyes as he took in the scene before him: warm sunlight filtering in through the windows to land upon polished wood, gently contrasting the soft whites of the room’s curtains; the backs of his friends arranged loosely before him, clothed in their pale blue school robes once more; in front of him, Headmaster Lu, sitting at the instructor’s desk. 

“I didn’t expect the afterlife to look like the Secret Pavilion, of all things,” Yuan Zhongxin commented lightly. He hadn’t appreciated those days at the time, but he could only admit now how precious that time had been. Memories of home, of carefree idyll, to warm them during that final, bitter winter in Western Xia. 

Headmaster Lu simply arched an eyebrow, regarding him. “I assure you, the Secret Pavilion belongs to the earth, and remains tightly intertwined with the affairs of men. Now, regarding your first mission…” 

The headmaster continued smoothly with his speech, leaving hardly any room for Yuan Zhongxin to interrupt again, but Yuan Zhongxin found his words had, for once, dried up. His eyes fell upon Wang Kuan, whose eyes were fixed forward, whose arms—both of them—were clasped behind his straight back. Xue Ying seemed as stoic as usual, but then there was Wei-Yanei uncharacteristically fawning over Xiao-Jing, with the younger girl shying awkwardly away. And when Zhao Jian spared him a glance… it was raw, genuine contempt in her eyes. 

It was impossible. Yuan Zhongxin blinked several times in rapid succession, his breathing suddenly shallow. It was impossible, but here he was. 

Yuan Zhongxin’s final memory was of the six of them, surrounded by sheer snowy cliffs and scores of armored Xia; Mozang Epang faced them with a pitying smile. You are the only ones left who know the truth; you understand, of course.

Yuan Zhongxin had met that ending with his head held high. After all, they’d entered Western Xia knowing full well the risk. Whether life or death, the Seventh Room remained together. 

Except, it appeared, for him. 

For a moment he allowed himself to mourn. 

But Yuan Zhongxin had not survived for so long by grieving the unfulfilled. What he had lost was unthinkable, but what he now stood to gain was unfathomable. 

If he accepted this as the truth, that he had returned to the start of it all, with all his memories intact, then this was his chance to do it better. The wound of his fallen friends stung fresh, but other faces, too, flashed across his mind’s eye, all those he’d failed, if only he’d been quicker, more clever, more knowledgeable—Tian Hu, Yun Ni, Xiao-Hua, Liu Sheng, Chen Gong, on and on and—

He could save his brother. 

He could avenge his brother. 

It was a fatal wound, but not exactly quick, and not exactly painless. It was as close as Yuan Zhongxin could manage to the very wound dealt to Yuan Boqi. 

The prison camp was exactly as it was in his memories. Just as before, it was child’s play to break into the weapons room, except this time, he pocketed one additional blade for himself. 

Now Yuan Zhongxin had time. Bloody knife in hand, he crossed into the dying man’s field of view, and knelt down beside him. 

Ding Er’s eyes flickered with a mixture of recognition and confusion. This time, Yuan Zhongxin had not even waited to earn his ire before acting. “My father finally grew impatient…?” Ding Er guessed, voice faint, laced with self-mockery. 

Yuan Zhongxin knew nothing of his life, nor did he particularly care to know. He told him simply, “You killed my brother.”

The corner of Ding Er’s mouth twitched. “I’ve… killed many brothers.” 

“You’ll remember mine.” And when Yuan Zhongxin spoke the name, Ding Er, he… laughed. Even choked with blood, the sound was unmistakable. His eyes, tired and resigned, slid off Yuan Zhongxin’s face, into an unknowable distance.

“I couldn’t save either of us, then…”

Staring down at the unmoving body, Yuan Zhongxin wasn’t quite sure what emotion he was feeling. It was the first time he’d ever killed like this. He thought of how fragile the body had felt, far easier to overpower than he would have expected of a military general.

But, ever practical, he told himself that his first concern was to get away from here. Even in a secluded corner like this, it wouldn’t be long before the body was found. 

Yuan Zhongxin made to rise. But then, he suddenly found himself pitching forward, into darkness. 

“With that, the Seventh Room has fully assembled.” 

Yuan Zhongxin blinked open startled eyes, and then cursed. 

Of course. When had his missions ever been so simple?

#young blood #synco writes #self indulgent writing fuck yeah #i do have many thoughts here about context and set up #but in the spirit of self indulgence i am posting first and clarifying later (never) #ding er posting on main again #the biggest reason this is a loop and not just travel is bc i like him too much LOL #synco talks

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

Watch It Or Drop It Challenge - Drama 4

I'm in that mood where I just want to watch something new but I'm not sure what so, instead of obsessively reading every synopsis of every drama to ever exist and ultimately running out of time to watch anything, I've decided I'm just going to let fate decide and spin the wheel for a second drama on my Plan to Watch List!

Aside from one notable exception (notable in that I dropped it straight away without watching it), so far fate seems pretty set that I catch up on all my years of not watching BL and has only put forward BLs (despite them currently being no where near the majority of dramas on the list), so I'm interested to see if the trend manages to continue with....

👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen

Fate is a BL stan, pass it on 😋

Country: Japan

Episodes: 3

Genres: BL, Comedy, Romance

Director: Kumasaka Izuru

Screenwriter: Toyama Erika

Summary: This work stars Akafuji Yuichiro, a popular and handsome actor, and Aoyagi Hajime, a former popular child actor who has the ability but is currently unremarkable. The story begins when they are chosen to play the double lead roles in the live-action adaptation of an extremely popular BL manga.

They start living together in order to prepare for the role and get publicity, but Akafuji has a curt attitude toward Aoyagi, and Aoyagi doesn't like Akafuji either.

However, there was a reason for his curt attitude. In reality, Akafuji was deeply in love with Aoyagi.

Akafuji tries his best to hide his feelings, and Aoyagi tries to get along with the other but mistakenly thinks that he hates him. The misunderstanding between the two leads to an unexpected slapstick comedy in this "Cohabitation Romantic Comedy".

(Source: TV Asahi)

Why It's On My Plan to Watch List: A very recent addition that came about thanks to this post by @bengiyo. It was a very impulse decision (and maybe not one I should have made given I'm trying to shorten my PTWL rather than make it longer 😅) but what can I say, a few simple bullet points managed to make it sound very very appealing and I couldn't resist.

Prediction: So, fun fact, the first time I watched a Japanese drama was nearly 8 years ago and I had such a bad time of it I haven't been able to watch another one since. In hindsight, I am 100% certain that the reasons I had such a miserable time are:

1) it wasn't a genre I would normally go for and I have no idea why I thought watching it in a different language would change things (it did not)

2) it was one of those classics, you know, the kind that are big names in the fandom but that you wouldn't recommend to a newbie straight away because they are a bit of an acquired taste, and

3) even once I realised I didn't like it, I forced myself to finish it because at the time I was physically incapable of dropping things which meant that not only was I not enjoying it, I was finding myself actively resenting.

So yeah, mainly my fault but it was such an un-fun time that I was so scared of a repeat scenario that I steered clear of all j-dramas for the next 8 years out of fear.

BUT NO MORE!!! THE CYCLE ENDS NOW!!!

I'm a completely different drama watcher now and I know myself and my tastes and limits much better now so it's finally time to face my (very silly) fears and get back to a country whose dramas I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy once I've broken the ice 💪 And what better way to do that than start with a drama that has recieved lots of love from the all people I've seen watch it and is nice and short to boot? The worst that will happen is that I won't like it, but it's only 135 minutes long and I know how to drop things now so.... WATCH

Watch It Or Drop It Masterpost

#watch it or drop it #watch it #bl drama #bl drama no shuen ni narimashita: crank up hen #genuinely very excited about this and to have this as my much needed reintroduction to jdramas and introduction to jbl

[depressedacadamia]

Lightweight

Summary: Will Solace can’t realy hold his alcohol but Nico doesn’t really mind.

A/N: 2 fics in one week? Oh my gods, who is this writer and what have they done with Persephone? Enjoyy yall- I really enjoyed writing this one!  

Read on A03

“Hands off sunshine!” Nico warned as he held the bottle of vodka above his head, his arms outstretched.

“Give meee!” Will cried, his hand sloppily hitting Nico’s arm. The summer air was warm and Nico could feel the thin layer of sweat on his forehead- considering he had to stay in his tiptoes to hold the bottle above Will.

“Will, you didn’t even drink that much! How are you so drunk?”

“You don’t love me! Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you, ya little drunk shithead. You are totally wasted, no matter how many times you will doubt it,” Nico sighed, throwing Will’s arms over his shoulders in a vain attempt to carry him back to Cabin 7.

Will gave one long blink. Then another. “ Where are we going?”

“To your cabin. I’d shadow travel but I've seen a regular person’s reaction to that, I don’t want to see what chaos would come out of shadow travelling a hot drunken mess.”

“Did you just call me a mess?” Will pouted.

“Yes but I called you a hot mess. Focus on that part. It was mostly a compliment.”

“You’re sooo mean to meee. Do you even love me?”

“Yes I love you, stop being so heavy and carry your own legs please.” Nico shifted his back under the weight of his boyfriend's entire body and tried to manage a few steps- they would have been easy if his boyfriend wasn’t so damn fit and if he himself wasn’t slightly inebriated.

“Ni-” Will hiccuped. “-Co!”

“Yes?”

“Do you love me?”

Nico sighed again, slightly frustrated by the constant question. “Yes I love you, ask again and the answer may vary.”

“Phi Phi is so much nicer than you,” Will grumbled, his head leaning into the crook of Nico’s neck. Nico could smell the twinge of alcohol in Will’s breath along with the regular smell of the spearmint gum he would always be chewing.

“Phi Phi?” Nico snorted. “ Who in the name of God is that?”

“Your stepma! Phi Phi! She gave me so many nice flowers last time we visited!” Will paused before giving Nico an innocent look of disapproval. “ Do you not remember Phi Phii?”

Will accidentally dragged out the last ‘ee’ syllable in the word ‘phi phi’ making it sound like he was a 3 year old trying to read for the first time. Nico almost shivered at the mention of his stepmother; the last time he checked, she still had at least 157 variations of dandelions that she could turn him into the second he did anything going against her liking- afterall, she may have been the Goddess of the Spring but she was still the Queen of the Underworld.

“Yes, of course I remember Phi Phi.” He lowered his voice as he muttered the next few words under his breath to prevent them from being heard. “ How could I forget her and her stupid dandelions?”

“Phee Pheeee!”

“What about Phi Phi?”

Will paused for a few seconds. He tilted his head looking at Nico. “ Do you love me?”

Nico, awfully frustrated, decided to not answer the question honestly. “ No, I do not love you right now. Drunk you is a mess whom not only subject hops but also cannot walk coordinately.”

Nico did not think Will would take anything he said seriously but to his horror he was greatly mistaken. Will’s slow and steady breathing quickly became a rapid torrent of quick and unsteady breathing. Nico had thought that he was just mucking about but then he felt warm tears stain his shirt.

Tears streamed down Will’s flushed face, his freckles were almost invisible as the tears continued running down his face like a current. His chest racked with sobs and he pulled away from Nico and collapsed on the ground. He buried his head in his hands and let his heart beat harder with every cry that left his lips.

Nico watched, his mouth dropped. He had no idea what he had done or how to make it better. He reached out, trying to console the drunk and overly emotional Will but instead found himself feeling guilt beyond any he had ever felt before.

“Will?” He whispered. “ Will? You’re drunk. I was just joking, I didn’t mean anything I just said.”

Will's loud sobs started to slowly quieten down but the tears still freely ran across his face. He glanced upwards at Nico, his eyes rimmed red. His bottom lip wobbled and his eyes were wet.

“But.. but you said that you don’t love me…”

“I was joking. I was lying. I do love you. Only you.”

Nico plopped himself beside Will and shuffled himself closer, awkwardly. He tried to wrap one of his arms around Will but he found it to be too short and only barely touched Will’s other shoulder. So instead, he settled for rubbing soothing circles on Will’s back, calming him and forcing him to breathe slower.

“How do I know you are not lying to me now?” Will’s eyes were innocent and once again brimming with tears. “I always worry that you're just lying to me and then one day you’re going to just go poof and stupid me will be all sad.”

Nico thought he could feel his own eyes stinging- was this how Will really felt? Was Nico that bad a boyfriend that Will felt that every word, every kiss, every moment was a lie? Or did Will just consider himself so unloveable that every good thing that ever happened to him was just temporary or fake?

Nico glanced at the blonde eyelashes that were clad together with tears.

What happens inside that gorgeous head of yours, Solace?

“I love you William Andrew Solace. I choose you. You’re my significant other, significant annoyance- whatever you want to call it. And if I ever disappear, you’re sure as hell coming with me.”

Will wrapped his arms tightly and unexpectedly around Nico’s waist- causing Nico to be pushed onto his back while Will snuggled into his abdomen. Nico could feel his t-shirt stick to him due to the tears from Will’s face.

“I love you soooo much,” Will murmured into Nico’s stomach. Nico could feel his breathing hitch at the words. Nico kissed Will- light and innocent. That's what the kiss meant. He could taste the salty tears on Will’s lips and the bitter aftertaste of the vodka on his tongue. The kiss was quick, chaste and it may have not satisfied Will’s desire but it made him feel safe.

And to both of them, that’s all that mattered.

Will awoke the next morning with several life regrets but none as strong as the stupid amount of alcohol he had decided to consume the previous day or night. He could barely remember anything- let alone figure out where in the name of Zeus he was. The cabin seemed dreary but at the same time it was beautiful. It was dark and light and terrifying and beautiful all at the same time.

Wait. What Cabin was this? Whose Cabin was this? He didn’t think there was any Cabin that was so roomy with such a lack of accommodation. He almost felt like he was in a Cabin for a child of the Big Three- He remembered the one time he had taken a glimpse of the Poseidon Cabin and he remembered it to be huge- something he deeply envied Percy for.

It was only until Will noticed the black clad figure kneeling beside him that he realised where exactly he was. Beautifully tousled hair, gorgeous lips and eyes that one could get lost in forever- he only knew one person with features so defining. The question was, what on earth was he doing in Cabin 13?

Cabin 13- His boyfriend's cabin. Immediately, Will scrambled upwards. He looked Nico straight in the eye and tried to recall to what extent he embarrassed himself as a drunken idiot last night.

“How bad was it?”

“Shall I sugar coat it or give it to you straight?”

Will managed to squeak out, “Give it to me straight.”

“You tried to get into my pants and talked about how hot you thought I was.” Nico shrugged nonchalantly.

Will blanched and he immediately wished that had asked for the sugar coated version. He heard Nico laughing and he could feel his nerves both calm down and panic at the same time. Nico’s laugh was calming and beautiful and warm and made him feel all fuzzy like he was under a fluffy blanket. But he worried for what reason Nico was laughing.

“Calm down sunshine. I was joking- you should have known that I wouldn’t have been able to give it to you straight. You just asked dumb questions and cried a bit.”

“I cried?”

“It’s not a big deal.” Nico batted his hand. Will collapsed back onto the bed with an ‘ow’ and groaned something unintelligible about it being ‘too early in the morning for this’.

“It’s actually 1 in the afternoon but to each their own I guess.”

Will wanted to shout WHAT but he did not want to rack his head with an already painful headache so he instead settled for dropping his jaw.

“Close your mouth sunshine unless you plan on using it,” Nico mumbled. Will felt his jaw drop further before he snapped it back and swore internally. He made a mental note to never have a hangover near Nico because he would use it to his advantage.

“So why exactly did I cry yesterday?” Will asked as he sipped from the glass of water that had been placed at the bedside by, he could only assume, Nico. Will noticed that when asked that question, Nico tensed, his hands digging slightly into his jeans.

The corner of Will’s lips tilted upwards. “ What did you say?”

“What makes you think I said anything? Drunk you is a crybaby and you know it,” Nico huffed defensively, refusing to meet Will's eye.

“Yeah but you’re acting guilty.”

“What if I killed some boring skeleton zombie this morning and I’m only now mourning their already dead body?”

“Spare me the dark and frankly dry humour,” Will deadpanned, excited to hear the cause of his outburst yesterday.

Nico mumbled something under his breath, all while looking away from Will.

“What?”

“I said,'' Nico took a deep breath. “That I didn't love you-”

“-What?”

“But it was a joke!”

Will could feel his stomach churning and he couldn't tell if it was from the hangover or the current situation. He managed to resist a gag. “How is that a joke?”

Will’s voice was so hoarse and weak, Nico thought that he was going to break into tears all over again and he knew that if that happened, he would end up with tears flooding his own face.

“It’s because, well, drunk you kept on asking Do you love me and of course I do but drunk you is just so heavy and you kept on asking and so I of course gave a sarcastic quip and you just burst into tears and..”

Will stared at Nico and for a second, Nico was terrified that he had really blown it.He watched as his boyfriend buried his face into his hands and began shaking. His back was shivering and Nico could hear little whimpers.

“Fuck.” Nico had subconsciously let the profanity pass through his lips.

Will, suddenly, threw his head back and his laugh echoed around the empty Cabin 13. Nico felt stuned. Was he laughing in rage? Should he run?

“Will. I am so so sorry. I swear, it was a joke. I love you, I chose you William Andrew Solace. I’ll do it again and again.”

“You,” Will wheezed. “ Idiot! Did you really get so worked up over drunk me being dramatic? I was being hyperbolic!”

Nico tilted his head ever so slightly but his ravenous locks still fell over his eyes however he didn’t seem to mind as he made no effort to move it from his sight.

“So… you aren’t mad?”

“I mean I won’t reject any special treatment if you were thinking of offering as a way of showing your sorrow,” Will teased.

“Shut it.” Nico pouted. “ Do I not get a dramatic love confession? I gave you two.”

Will raised his eyebrow and threw his legs over the edge of the bed. “ If I can count correctly, and I can, I only recall one dramatic love confession.”

“You were too drunk to remember the first one.”

Will let out a groan before softly smiling.”I love you. I choose you, Nicolo Di Angelo.”

“Don’t call me Nicolo!”

#will solace #nico di angelo #solangelo #solangelo fanfic #will solace fanfic #nico di angelo fanfic #nico x will #will x nico #solangelo angst #solangelo fluff #pjo #hoo #toa #nico x wil fanfic #will x nico fanfic #will solace angst #will solace fluff #nico di angelo angst #nico di angelo fluff #Nico and Will #william solace #percy jackson #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo

[beauty-and-passion]

Silly fun challenge prompt: what languages do you associate with the Sides/what would be the 2nd language each Side learn?

For example I am a big fan of Hispanic (Spanish speaking) Creativitwins fanon. And c! Thomas too could've learnt Spanish in high school and the fact his love interest is hispanic too just makes perfect sense-

And in contrast to Hispanic twins I headcanon Janus as a francophone (French speaking) for two reasons: 1) it was still lingua franca around Victorian era, his aesthetic inspiration and 2) dividing American high school by Spanish class vs. French class is like causing Civil War (I was and still am a language nerd, so I learnt both languages, which was a mistake but the kind of mistake that was worth it when you think about it later)

German suites Logan since lots of famous philosophers are German. I associate Japanese or Korean with Virgil since those two are really dominant in the current subculture world (and maybe our emo could've been inspired and turn into E-boy - wow that sounds terrifying)

I don't have strong preference on Patton's but Italian sounds nice, since all those music and dessert and anything sweet are often from Italy. And maybe 'Orange' can be some language that sounds harsh like Russian, so he can murmur in that in sleep and scares everyone else

I know you're in Europe: 1) you use GMT and 2) Americans wouldn't care about Eurovision. So I wonder how you would think based on your European experience!

Oooh, I like this! As European Who Studied Languages, I definitely approve this and I'll gladly add my two cents about which languages the sides should learn.

_________

Roman: He canonically knows Spanish and that's perfect like that. Spanish is a romantic language, someone speaks Spanish and you can't help but swoon. It’s a great choice for the Side responsible for romance and passion.

_________

Remus: Remus isn't just intrusive thoughts, but there’s a very high chance he’s also responsible for Thomas' sexual urges. So, what is the language made for sex? You’re right, it’s French. French is sexy. You can say anything in French and bam, ✨sexy ✨.

"Je sors la poubelle." Sexy, isn't it? Well, I just said "I'm taking out the trash". See? Very sexy.

(French people, please confirm my words. We all know it’s true)

_________

Janus: Your points are incredibly valid and I love them. But if we should choose among all languages, I would love Janus to be one of the very few (extremely few) people in the world who can speak Latin.

I know Latin is a dead language, but it would be great - and not just because of the connection with his name.

Let’s consider that the other Romance languages, despite evolving from Latin, cannot entirely understand it, because they all changed a lot through the centuries after mixing with the Germanic ones. On the other hand, the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish and so on) are part of a completely different group, only slightly influenced by Latin, so they cannot understand it.

In other words, Janus would speak a language that only sounds familiar - and maybe you can grasp a couple words here and there if you know a romance language, but the true meaning is hidden. What is he actually saying? Who knows. Is he actually cursing someone? Who knows. After all, do you understand Latin? Yeah, me neither.

If I have to pick a language that is still spoken today instead, I think I'll join you with French. Your points are valid and French is a very elegant language, fitting for Janus’ whole aesthetic. So yes, French could work.

_________

Logan: German is a great choice and you are absolutely right with your point about the philosophers. Also German is a language of harsh sounds and strict grammar rules - for example:

declensions that should be used accordingly for articles, adjectives and nouns

specific verbs for specific meanings

words made by putting together shorter words (like Haustürschlüssel.  Haustür means “front door”, Schlüssel means “key” -> this word means “front door’s key”)

sentences that should follow a specific construction, with parts of the compound verb after the noun and part at the end of the sentence. And secondary phrases also have a specific syntax and should always be introduced by a comma

In other words, it's a very organized language and I think it would fit Logan.

But also, considering that almost all words related to science and philosophy come from Greek, I think Logan should at least understand some Greek. As a treat.

(Also because Greek is another incredibly complicated language, so if someone has the patience to learn it, it’s definitely Logan.)

_________

Virgil: oh my gosh, I never thought about an eastern language for Virgil. In a way, it would be a very peculiar choice and I kinda like it. Japanese and Korean are extremely complicated languages, they have a very specific alphabet (I'm especially thinking about the Japanese one, that even asks for a specific direction to write words) and require a lot of work (and memory) to learn them.

But Virgil is also a poet and when I think of poets and sonnets my first connection is with the french ennui, le mal du vivre and especially Baudelaire and his works. Virgil would appreciate Baudelaire a lot. So French, again.

But hey, there’s too much French now. So I’ll pick the other european literature full of sadness: the russian one.

Russian is supposed to be a big scary language and its alphabet is weird and omg what if they're cursing us? But if you learn it a little bit, you’ll find out that Russian has a lot of soft/open sounds (due to a good use of vowels) and it's very poetic.

So the language itself is a bit like Virgil: he seems scary and evil at a first glance, but if you learn about him, he's actually kinder than he looks.

But never underestimate Russian, because just like Anxiety, fear is just behind the corner: you start learning it and wow, there is just one present tense, one past tense and one future tense? This is great, what a wonderful language!

And then, before you’ll realize it, you will find out that each verb has a “doppelganger” used for entirely different purposes AND there a gazillion verbs of motion and you will end up crying on the floor, because there are just too many verbs - and look, there are also one trillion particles you can put before these verbs and they give them EVEN MORE MEANINGS.

No, this isn't entirely based on my personal experience, what makes you think that.

_________

Patton: I have never thought about Patton learning another language, because English just fits him too well.

But when you proposed Italian... well, my heart just wiped out everything else. There is nothing here, only Patton speaking Italian.

So yes, Patton's second language should be Italian. No, it must be Italian. Because French is the language of sex, Spanish is the language of love, but if you want to declare your eternal love to someone, you use Italian. Do you want to marry someone? Italian. Do you want to tell your significant other how much you adore them? Italian. Italian has one million ways to express love and Patton should use them all with his kiddos.

And yes, Italian is also associated with warm people, warm places and good food, all things Patton deserves and should enjoy. So Italian is a big yes.

_________

Orange: since Orange is a mystery, I am a bit torn between these two languages:

1) Esperanto: This language is amazing, because it isn’t a natural language, born like all others, but it has been built by a man, who wanted to create an universal language in order to foster world peace and international understanding.

So this language has been created to be as simple as possible, with a very regular grammar (unlike all other natural languages) and its words all have references to other language groups (romance, germanic, slavic, indo-europeans, finno-ugric languages and so on).

And if you actually listen to it (especially if you know some latin languages) you will find it weirdly understandable. I found this video in particular and I was impressed by how strangely familiar esperanto sounds.

And... that’s it, I just think it would be kinda poetic that the last side knows a language that all others can use and understand.

2) A Greenlandic language. Why? Because they are insanely polysynthetic.

What does that mean? If in German you can make words by putting together other two/three words (like in the example I used before), in the Greenlandic languages you can build an entire sentence by putting together nouns, verbs, articles and everything else. All together in one single word, whose meaning can be translated with an entire sentence in another language.

Do you want an example? Here is an example from Wikipedia: tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq.

Yes, this is a word.

This word is from the Yupik language and means "He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.". And this word is made of:

tuntu- (= reindeer)

ssur-  (= hunt)

qatar- (future tense)

ni- (= say)

ksaite- (negative)

ngqiggte- (= again)

uq  (3rd.sing.IND)

Is this insane? This is fucking insane. Do you want to be scared? This is real fear. What the heck. How. Why.

You know what? This is perfect for Orange, I’ll leave Esperanto to Thomas. Orange deserves to be this scary. I can already see the other sides quiver before him.

_________

And so, here are my guesses! If someone has other ideas, feel free to add yours and tell us why, so we can all have a nice discussion :D

#sanders sides #ask #roman sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #orange side #thomas sanders #this is a great ask #also I may have been a little too involved #but I studied these languages #and there's even my own <3 #side note: Americans don't know what they're missing #eurovision is the best #it's our trashy glittery camp show #with arson and gays included #sides and foreign languages

[rostovs-lover]

ah-leet

din djarin x reader | pregnancy, considerable amounts of self doubt, pregnancy symptoms, mentions of something bad happening | gender neutral reader | fluff with a small side of angst | wc. 1252

this was an adorable request and much appreciated! as someone who knows nothing about pregnancy and never desires to experience one i hope i did this justice, enjoy!

@dancingwiththeplanets​ :  mando x pregnant!reader where she's scared to tell him cause theyre not married and living a stable life but when finally tell's him (when she's basically already showing cause she put it off so long) he's so overjoyed.

The Child seems to catch on to the fact that you’re pregnant about the time you do but with pesky bounties and the  weight of everything bad that could happen you can’t seem to find the words to tell Mando.

   Aliit (ah-LEET) is the mando’a word meaning family or clan

    You’d lend the discovery to The Child, the little monster and his strange connection to anything that allowed him. He had begun to act strange at the same time you began to feel strange. It was as if he was instinctively drawn to whatever maternal essence radiated from you. You were, in fact, pregnant. You knew, even without any solid evidence; it was more a feeling, an awareness that ebbed its way into your conscious telling you you were with child.

    You couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it began, it crept in like ivy, taking over your thoughts. Being a healer you knew the symptoms, morning sickness; cravings; high emotions; missed menstrual cycles; so on. So perhaps that's what drew you, toting Din’s tiny green terror, to someone more trained - a midwife on a desert planet where Mando had to hunt a bounty.

      It was on that same planet, one whose name Din neglected to tell you, that you experienced the brunt of the dreaded illness. The name, morning sickness, was deceiving, it came at all hours, hitting particularly hard in the evening. It was miserable, terribly so, and with your beloved companion off stopping some injustice you had to go it alone. And despite how badly you wanted to tell him when he returned you couldn’t. At first, you were simply too tired, with too little drive to say anything more than a small ‘hello’ when he first arrived. But after, when you felt more kin to something living it didn’t seem right, you couldn’t find the words.

      It had spun out of control after that, every time you planned out how exactly you would give Din the news you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. There were so many reasons, and despite your rationalization, you weren’t able to bring yourself to do it. Boiled down, this was terrifying and the thought of what could happen to your baby nagged at you incessantly. It was limitless, Din’s job was dangerous; your job was dangerous. How could you raise a child on this ship, in this environment? How would The Child react to your child; how would the birthing process go? And of course, the sickening worry at the back of your mind, what if something happened to you or Din? It was always a concern, of course, but more with a baby. Where would it go, what would become of it? Din had been lucky when he was orphaned, being rescued by the Mandalore, but chances of that happening to every misfortune stricken child? Almost nonexistent. It petrified you, the thought of your child being all alone in the world, defenseless and without anyone to care for them. Even worse, it could happen. It did happen, more frequently than you’d like to acknowledge. 

      Time was quickly running out, and Din’s knowledge of his child's mere existence would have to be put into the open eventually. You had been throwing things in front of the inevitable for months, three to be precise, and now you had begun to show. Not very much, just slightly, but you could tell.

      “Are you still awake?” Din asked, visor still straight forwards, facing the never ending expanse of space in front of him. He was, in fact, the pinnacle of grace and composure and you admired him for that. Everything he did was elegant, words spun like prized poetry and steps confident and calculated. The time you had watched him thrust his blaster into the face of a stormtrooper it viewed like a meticulously crafted ballet.

      You drew your thoughts from how all encompassing he was to properly respond, “Yes, but I’m not sure that your The Child is,”

      “That's fine,” He flicked a few switches, “He's been a terror all day, it’ll be good if he sleeps.” Something clicked loudly and the ship began to start to do things on its own accord, Din turned towards you, “Bed?”

      You nodded softly, “Sounds wonderful,” Standing you offered a hand to him, which he took in kind, pulling himself up and tugging you into him. Despite the hard beskar and cool leather, there was still something so warm and lovely about him. Din carried an energy of fervour and homeliness but it wasn’t something he willingly exposed. You had to dig and break away his walls but it was there. And now it enveloped you completely, sucking you into him and his arms and the smell of blaster residue that clung to his armour.

      “Are you alright?” Din asked softly, taking your face in his hands to draw your eyes to his visor.

      “Just fine Mando. Tired, that's all.” You gave him and gentle smile and patted at his wrist.

      He made a soft sound, something of a sigh, and rested his forehead against yours, “I’m not convinced but I do have full confidence you’ll tell me when you’re ready. I trust you.” There was a lull as you wallowed in the presence of each other, “Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum,”

      “I love you,”

      The Child squirmed between you, making a noise of annoyance, clearly looking to be tucked into his pod.

      Din gathered the grumpy bundle, “You go get to bed, I’ll put it down.” He shooed you off to the sleeping quarters.

      You hadn’t been in bed very long before Din came. In the pitch black of the room, you heard him begin to discard his clunky armour. His helmet was set under the bed and the sheets shuffled as he settled in next to you. You curled into him, nosing into the space where his shoulder met his neck. His skin was soft and you could feel a few strands of hair brush against your forehead. One of his hands began to trace the length of your spine and he felt like home. This was where you felt the safest, with Din, who you had surrendered yourself to and who had done the same in return. He was safety. And as you lay, body tangled with his, you realized the weight of this thing. The baby, that was. His baby. Your baby. The life forming in you, being kindled and nourished by your body.

      “Din?” It was a mere whisper, barely audible with the sound of space rushing around you.

      “Yes, cyar’ika?”

      You gathered a bit of composure and whatever dignity you could muster, “How do you feel about children?”

      You felt him shrug, “The kids fine, I like him. I guess I haven’t been around many children, it’s not really in the line of work.”

      “I’m pregnant.”

      It felt like all the air in the room got ten degrees hotter. He pulled back from you and the fragile sense of worth you had plastered to yourself began to crack. You hadn’t even considered the possibility that he wouldn’t want this, maybe he despised the thought of having kids.

      His hands were soft, pressing to your face as if he could hold you together just by that, “You’re... Is it- I mean I’d assume but, and are y-” He took and breath, “You’re going to have my child?”

      “Yes Din, your child,”

      Something similar to a laugh left him and he darted down to pepper your face in kisses, “This is… incredible? I don’t know what to say-” He kissed you softly on the mouth, “Thank you,”

      You snorted, “I can’t take all of the credit, you played a pretty big part too,”

      “Aliit,” He whispered, and thought you could detect a soft sniffle, “Family, our clan.”

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian imagine #mando #mando x reader #mando imagine #din djarin #din djarin imagine #din djarin x reader #lennie writes

[oumakokichi]

hello! could you talk a bit more about the original (as in jp, not localization) ouma's personality and speech patterns? you've mentioned that he tends to trail off or speak more softly when it is implied he is speaking the truth, etc. and how he is not so loud/intentionally obnoxious. //btw when does he call himself a fairy? that's so cute

I got a couple of questions asking about the fairy line Ouma has, so I don’t mind sort of rolling them both into one! And I’m more than happy to talk a little more in-depth about Ouma’s speech patterns and personality in the original game, too!

Since I’ll be covering some late-game spoilers, I’ll put the bulk of this under the cut, so be careful when reading!

First off, I cannot stress how much I recommed playing ndrv3 with the Japanese voices enabled. If you’ve already played through the English dub but never experiened the original voice acting cast, I promise you won’t be disappointed. The Japanese cast are all fantastic, incredibly talented VAs who, unlike the dub, were hired specifically for these roles and not just re-casted from previous DR games.

Hiro Shimono as Ouma gives an absolutely incredible performance. The localization might still have many flaws in its translation and omission of certain lines or punctuation, but you can still very much get a feel for how Ouma’s character was intended by listening to Shimono’s performance. Re-playing the game with the Japanese voices will definitely let you hear how soft and tonally different Shimono’s performance is in places from the English dub, and compare it to the way in which many lines are written and punctuated as if Ouma’s yelling at everyone.

That isn’t to say that Shimono’s Ouma is never loud or excited: Ouma is a character whose moods and façades are all over the place, and therefore his performance requires a voice actor who can similarly change moods and intonation on a dime. Ouma is very much loud and haughty and deliberately annoying when he’s supposed to be, but his voice is also low and ominous at other points when he’s trying to be scary. And again, it’s soft and hesitant in places where he’s considering divulging some of his information, or when he’s insisting that all the things he does are for everyone’s sake, because he cares about them and doesn’t want anyone to die.

These moments feel so much more genuine in the Japanese version of the game--because they’re meant to be. As fantastic of a liar as Ouma is, it’s much easier for us, the player, to tell when he’s lying on a re-play, knowing the information from chapters 5 and 6 that we do, and looking at cues like his sprites (often his blank-faced ones) and, yes, his delivery of certain lines.

This probably sounds like me just gushing about what a fantastic voice actor Hiro Shimono is, and in part that’s exactly what it is, but I want to stress that pretty much every single voice actor in the Japanese cast is just as fantastic and that they all do their jobs incredibly well. With all that gushing out of the way, I’ll move on to talking about some of Ouma’s actual speech tics and the way he refers to other characters.

Like most things about him, Ouma’s speech patterns are sort of an interesting mix and even seem a little contradictory at times. He uses the very masculine pronoun “ore” (オレ), but he also refers to nearly everyone (with only a handful of exceptions) by their surnames and the much more childish honorific “-chan” (i.e. “Saihara-chan,” “Akamatsu-chan,” “Amami-chan,” etc.)

The use of “-chan” is very interesting. Honorifics in Japan are extremely complicated and tend to mean different things depending on who is using them. Typically, “-chan” is seen as a very feminine way to refer to someone else, commonly used in close-knit friend groups among school girls.

There are, of course, a few notable exceptions to this however: often times, middle-aged or elderly people will call a child “-chan” regardless of gender, as a way of showing they find them cute and endearing. And sometimes, people will use “-chan” to refer to other things they find cute, such as pets, or even to refer to themselves in a sort of informal, tongue-in-cheek way.

The fact that Ouma uses “-chan” as an honorific to refer to nearly everyone in the game stands out quite a lot: by and large, boys don’t use this term to refer to other boys. Using “-chan” to refer to anyone you’ve just met or don’t know very well is already somewhat frowned upon, but a boy using it to refer to other boys is especially rare. This helps set Ouma’s character up as someone who is both incredibly casual and informal with others (not to mention, you know, quite coded). Considering childishness and lightheartedness are traits Ouma values, and how much emphasis is put on him having “a very innocent, childish streak that’s hard to hate,” it makes sense then that he would talk like this.

Not counting Monokuma and the Monokubs, the only characters who Ouma doesn’t refer to with “-chan” are Gonta and Kiibo, who he simply calls by name. This also says some interesting things about his character.

Gonta is easily the character who Ouma interacts with the most often, as well as the charater he hurts the most in the end. Ouma’s choice to exclude Gonta from his usual way of calling people is, I think, a testament to how much Gonta really wanted to be friends with him, even if their friendship was never exactly on equal footing.

Meanwhile with Kiibo, I feel the choice to exclude him from his usual way of addressing others is indicative of how much Ouma tried to remind himself that Kiibo “wasn’t human,” and therefore how suspicious he found his presence in the killing game. We know Ouma suspected Kiibo and likely even had an inkling of his role as the audience proxy/camera in the game, due to how Kiibo’s picture is one of the only others set aside on his whiteboard besides Saihara’s, with the word “weird” written next to it (he also clearly guessed about the cameras after Gonta’s line in chapter 2, as we see from how he commissioned Miu for the bug-vac).

Ouma clearly enjoys teasing Kiibo a lot, and their banter reads very much like a manzai comedy duo; I feel like Ouma often tried pushing himself to remember that Kiibo “wasn’t human” on purpose in order to not get too attached to him or too distracted from his goal of ending the killing game. I don’t think Ouma’s decision to exclude Kiibo from the way that he very particularly referred to most of the rest of the group was just an accident or a coincidence.

Honorifics aside, Ouma also refers to several characters in interesting ways. He often uses “daisuki na ___-chan” (大好きな) to refer to some of the other characters, a phrase which more or less equates to “my beloved.” He uses this phrase with Saihara more than any other character of the game, but there are a few other instances where he does use it with Amami, Momota, and (if I’m remembering correctly) Kaede. Pretty much every single instance where the localization put, “because I love you” or “because you’re my favorite” whenever Ouma was talking to Saihara was usually a point where he would specifically call him “my beloved Saihara-chan.”

In chapter 4 during the scene where Ouma is alone in the parlor of the VR world, he also specifically, exclusively refers to Saihara as “suki ni natta hito” (好きになった人), literally: “the person I fell in love with.” This line was changed in the localization to, “when there’s a person I like,” which is more or less literally correct--however, the phrase “suki ni natta” is much heavier and more loaded with explicitly romantic implications than “suki” would be on its own, as it’s often used in Japanese love songs and shoujo manga love confessions.

Worth noting in my opinion is the fact that this is the exact same phrasing Maki uses to describe her romantic feelings for Momota. Since Maki’s feelings for Momota are considered canonically confirmed because of this, Ouma’s feelings should be considered equally canon, but a lot of people don’t know this because, well, it’s sort of been lost in translation.

And now, on to the fairy line! Ouma calls himself a fairy in chapter 3, when he pops up in the middle of Saihara and Korekiyo’s discussion of the katana in Korekiyo’s lab. Full of enthusiasm, he decides to touch the sword and examine it for himself; Korekiyo starts to object, but Ouma interrupts and says:

“Come on, it’s not a big deal! I’m like a fairy, so it’ll be fine!”

I’ve always really loved this line and thought it was super adorable, both as a nod to how fairies aren’t supposed to be able to touch steel in most fae mythos, as well as the fact that fairies tend to also have a love for mischief and pranks and lies. The localization apparently didn’t like it so much though, because this line is simply changed to, “Come on, would I lie to you?” instead.

One final thing I can think of as far as Ouma’s speech tics go is that his laugh in Japanese is romanized as “nishishi” instead of “neeheehee,” as this is closer to the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound horses make--but I actually don’t mind this localization change at all! “Neeheehee” definitely looks a lot closer to the word “neigh” and helps capture that horse joke in a way that I feel like western players can more easily understand.

All in all, while I still definitely feel people can like and enjoy Ouma’s character from playing the localization alone, I still stand by my opinion that listening to the original Japanese voices helps give a much better picture of how the character was intended to come across, and really shows how much depth Hiro Shimono put into his performance. He’s quoted in the official ndrv3 artbook as saying that he believes Ouma is someone who’s actually “really meek if you take away his strong wish to outwit everyone” (credit to @kaibutsushidousha for the art book translation), and I think this interpretation of Ouma really shows through in so many of his lines.

Thank you both for the really fun questions! I hope I could provide some more interesting information about Ouma and the translation!

#danganronpa #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #new danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers // #ask #my meta

[junko-and-riri-domain]

❦ ɢᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴘᴏᴛɪᴏɴ ꜰᴏʀ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ? | ɴɪ-ᴋɪ

↬ ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ɴɪꜱʜɪᴍᴜʀᴀ ʀɪᴋɪ / ɴɪ-ᴋɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

↬ ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: ꜰʟᴜꜰꜰ | ʙᴀʀɪꜱᴛᴀ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀꜱɪᴛʏ!ᴀᴜ | ᴄᴀғᴇ!ᴀᴜ

↬ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: ɴᴏɴᴇ

The chains of familial obligations and expectations were suffocating, to say the least. For as long as you could remember, your parents expected you to be the perfect student, smile for the camera when you got an award, and exist for the sole purpose of becoming someone they could brag about. When you first discovered the Eggy Cafe, you didn’t quite know just how much of an impact it’d have on your life. You visited with the sole purpose of finding a place to study in peace and quiet. It first started off as you going every few weeks, usually before a test or when you wanted to be alone in a place where no one knew you. 

Never in a million years did you’d think that you’d become friends with Jieun, the owner, or that she’d offer you a part-time job. You weren’t looking for one nor did you need the money but for some reason, you accepted it. And so for the past year, you’ve been working as a barista for the Eggy Cafe, enjoying your job more than you should be. The scent of coffee beans and freshly baked pastries became embedded into your clothes, the sounds of conversations from customers you chatted with became music to your ears, and in the Eggy Cafe, you found the constant warmth you’ve been longing for your entire life. Just a few months ago, the Eggy Cafe started gaining attention from students on campus due to the school’s basketball team star player, Min Yoongi talking about how good your drinks (mostly the Americanos) were. You became known as a sort of fairy of caffeine, supplying people with their caffeine fix and pastries that tasted better than the overpriced Starbucks on campus.

It was nearing midnight and there were a few people still in the cafe, studying and working on homework but you could handle it on your own. Your coworker of 3 weeks, Jay had to leave a few hours before his shift ended for a reason you’d didn’t care enough to remember. You were currently making a drink for yourself when suddenly,

“Uhh, hey,” a voice said somewhat unsure of themselves. You looked at where it came from and saw someone standing awkwardly by the side of the bar counter somewhat of a distance away from you.

“Hi, do you know what you want to order yet?” you asked. He shook his head and looked around. There was an air of loneliness that surrounded him, he looked familiar for some reason probably because you’ve seen him around campus.

“Take a seat and however long as you need,” you said with a smile. He sat down by the bar counter, two seats away from you and you continued making your drink. A silence befell the two of you until finally,

“Why are all the drinks named like potions?”

“Because this place is magical and I’m a witch,” you joked.

“I heard from Jay-hyung that a fairy working here,” he said, causing you to smile,

“What kind of potion do you want?”

“Got a potion for making friends?” he asked. You knew that he was only joking but you could feel a sliver of truth in his words. Working in the Eggy Cafe for so long allowed you to get to know various types of people and how to help them out, even if it was for a few brief moments.

“Give me a sec, I’ve got just the thing.” It didn’t take long before you placed a cup in front of him and you leaned on the other side of the counter to start a conversation.

“Drink this,” you said. He looked at the cup, then back at you in confusion,

“Tea?”

“What’s on your mind, babe?”

You learned that the practically 6 feet tall guy’s name was Nishimura Riki but people often called him Ni-ki. You realized that the reason he looked familiar was because he was a dance major and you saw him practicing by the quad sometimes. Throughout the next few months, you started noticing him more and more after that day, saying hi whenever you passed by each other and smiling at him when you couldn’t say hi. One lunchtime when Ni-ki came to the cafe his order was in a to-go cup, you figured he’d be leaving. As he waited, you gave him a plate with some mochi on it. 

“I didn’t order this,” he said, looking at the plate of mochi.

“Try it out for me, let me know if it tastes good. I made it this morning and I’m thinking of asking Jieun to sell it.” He took a bite, eyes lightening up as the taste settled on his lips. He had had lots of mochi and desserts throughout his lifetime but this was unlike anything he’d ever had before.

“What is this?” he asked, looking at you in pure amazement. You made a mental note to yourself that food was something that made Ni-ki smile.

“Smores mochi, it’s good, yeah?” he nodded,

“You should sell this. Definitely.” As you handed him his drink,

“Great, it’ll give you a reason to come by more often.” You got back to work, not quite noticing the tinge of red that was starting to show on his cheeks or how he muttered,

“I already have a reason to come by more often,” to himself, just out of earshot from anyone else.

Ni-ki came to the cafe later that week with some people, one of them included Jay who also wasn’t working. The only thing was that when he saw you, you weren’t behind the register with an apron. Instead, you were sitting in the booth by the window with a laptop in front of you and what seemed like hundreds of papers on the table. Your hair was brought up in a messy bun with strands of hair around your face and you sported an oversized hoody.

“What’s up?” a voice asked, turning your attention away from your laptop and whoever it was.

“Jay-hyung, don’t bother her,” Ni-ki said as he went to your table. A guy whose name you later found out was Jungwon sat next to Jay while the other 4 guys were in line at the register.

“It’s not a bother, I’ll always welcome your company Ni-ki,” you said. He knew damn well that you were saying it out of friendliness but he couldn’t stop the heat that rose to his cheeks. You were introduced to the 5 other guys and learned that Ni-ki and Jay were a part of a group that put out performances.

“Y/n-ah, you work here?” the one whose name you found out was Sunoo asked already comfortable with you. Sunoo was bright and cheery at the first meet, the opposite of Ni-ki but you realized that the two complimented each other. 

“When I’m not studying I’m either sleeping or supplying caffeine,” you replied with a smile. As everyone settled into their own conversation, you started eating the chocolate chocolate chip muffin you baked earlier. Even though you weren’t working today, Jieun still let you have access to the kitchen and coffee. Seeing Ni-ki eyeing your plate, without thinking much of it, you ripped out a piece and brought it up to Ni-ki’s mouth. As he accepted the bite, his arm reached over behind your shoulders to get his cup of tea which was by the ledge of the window.

He returned the cup back to its original place but his arm stayed around your shoulders. You didn’t mind it, if anything you were glad for Ni-ki and his presence lately. Somewhere down the line, the once 7 guys you were with became just Ni-ki by your side.

“Can I walk you home?” Ni-ki asked as you started packing up your things.

“Well, if you’re offering to be my bodyguard tonight I won’t refuse” As you and Ni-ki walked to your dorm, it didn’t quite register how much you enjoyed being with him until he had to leave. Once at your doorstep,

“There’s a dance showcase happening at the festival tomorrow, I’m performing with everyone else and solo. If you’re not busy, do you wanna... come?” Dancer Ni-ki was a part of him you had yet to see and you heard so much about it from everyone else. Over the past few months, his closed-off persona was slowly fading and little by little he was letting you into his world.

“I’ll be there, we can celebrate your win at the cafe after!”

“Yah, what makes you think I’m going to win?”

“If you lose then we can celebrate the fact that it’s over.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Mhm.”

The next day came by quicker than you were expecting, the only part you were looking forward to was the showcase. You were able to be close to the front of the stage with a few of your friends and you cheered as loud as you possibly could when it was time for Ni-ki’s performance. In awe of how he commanded the stage, you couldn’t believe just how powerful Ni-ki was, practically leaving you more breathless than when the two of you were next to each other. He was definitely going to win. And if the judges thought otherwise you were going to throw a riot.

Later that night, the Eggy Cafe was full of chatters as the group and solo dance performance trophies were set on the counter. The boys were clearly tired but still happy nonetheless. While Jay was teaching Jake how to make a puppuccino for Layla, Sunghoon was washing the dishes that you guys used since it was after closing time, Jungwon and Sunoo taking selcas, and Heeseung asleep on the couch, Ni-ki was sitting across the counter from you.

“Y/n?” he asked.

“What’s on your mind?”

“You updated the menu names?” he asked, looking behind you. They were still as crazy if not more as they were originally.

“Which potion do you want?”

“Got a potion that’ll give me the courage to ask you out?” Unable to stop yourself from blushing, you set a cup of tea in front of him. He took a sip,

“Are you free tomorrow?” Nodding as you took a sip of your own drink,

“I am.”

 ↬ ᴀ/ɴ: 

first of all, thank you so much for 100+ followers! thankful to everyone out there who reads the content from this blog :)

sorry for not having any updates since like 2ish? weeks (school has just been giving out so much work)

hopefully there’ll be more fics when we go on break!

if you have any reqs feel free to send!

❦ end of story, written by riri | blog masterlist

Qᴜɪᴄᴋ ᴄʟɪᴄᴋꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ɴɪ-ᴋɪ ꜰɪᴄꜱ

huh? | exam season 

#enhypen imagines #enhypen oneshots #enhypen fluff #enhypen x reader #enhypen fanfiction #enhypen ni-ki #enhypen nishimura riki #nishimura riki #ni-ki #ni-ki x reader #nishimura riki x reader #ni-ki fluff #nishimura riki fluff #ni-ki imagines #ni-ki oneshot #enhypen ni-ki fluff #lee heeseung #park jay #park jongseong #shim jaeyun #shim jake #park sunghoon #kim sunoo #yang jungwon #enhypen ni-ki x reader #enhypen barista au #enhypen cafe au #barista reader

[justalarryblog]

📄 Hometown by @allwaswell16 (2k) | Not Rated

On the day Harry gets his driver’s licence, he drives through the suburbs, heartbroken that he can’t drive home to Louis.

📄 Overkill by @fivesecondsofmae (4k) | Explicit

Louis was never going to get over how fucking attractive Harry was. How glorious his big, tall, curvy body was. The feeling of Harry behind him, hot and heavy, trapped on the tube after they’d been somewhere during rush hour. His thick hands, full of pretty rings sometimes, handing Louis a cup of coffee, then getting one for himself.

Or Louis and Chubby!Harry are as close as best mates can be and clearly are in love. Time to take it to the next level.

Top!Harry smut and fluff.

📄 New Places, New Possibilities by orphan_account (12k) | Explicit

Harry has always longed for Louis from afar, never sure exactly what Louis wanted, or if they could even have what they wanted. Even though Louis would sneak into Harry’s bed every chance he could, they’d never gone further than cuddles and innocent kisses. But when the boys are finally away from home on their first visit to LA, things finally begin to change.

📄 In All Its Imperfections by @BriaMaria (15k) | Explicit

From: Louis Tomlinson

To: Undisclosed Recipients

Hello!

I’ve asked the front desk and you lovely folks are the ones who are on the same level as me in the car park. I found a to-do list today that looked somewhat important because it has lines of poetry scribbled at the bottom that seemed like they might be for a card project. The stationary has a moose in a canoe at the top of it (and he is quite adorable). Let me know if it’s yours!

Cheers!

“Oh. My. Fucking. God,” Harry whispered, his eyes darting over the sentences again willing them not to make sense. They did, they did make sense. “Oh. My. Bloody. Fucking. God.”

The next thing he knew he was on the floor, staring at the ceiling, with a very concerned Liam hovering over his head.

“What happened, mate?” Liam asked.

Harry just pointed to his computer.

Liam bent over Harry’s desk to read the email. “What? This isn’t bad. Is that your to-do list? Did you finally come up with the inside text for those cards?”

“Leeyum" he groaned. “It’s what’s on the list.”

“Oh,” Liam paused for a beat. “Is it dirty stuff?”

Harry nodded.

There was more silence. And then, “Dirty stuff with Louis?”

📄 If We Have Each Other by @pocketsunshineharry / ishiplouis (23k) | Mature

“When are you going to accept my offer to go out again? It’s been seven years and you’re still saying no to a fun night?” Niall complains.

“A night in with Mads is a fun night for me Ni, I already told you that.” Harry responds while serving a customer.

“You’re infuriating, I just want my best friend to go out with me tonight, is it too much to ask?” Niall pouts but all Harry does is chuckle and prepare the coffee machine for the double espresso the customer ordered.

“Playing the victim, are we now?” Harry is so used to Niall’s techniques. “Well, I have good news for you, Maddie is having a sleepover at one of her friends so tonight so I’m all yours.”

OR AU where Harry is a single father and a one-night stand is going to change his life forever.

📄 In Dreams by @dolce_piccante (23k) | Mature

AU. When Harry moves to a new city, his new flat come with a number of sweet, anonymous gifts and surprises that brighten his days. Could it be a friendly ghost? Another friendly presence in his new building is his tattooed neighbor, Louis, who seems determined to put a smile back on his face.

📄 Love Is on The Radio by @whatevertearsyou​ / perfectdagger (sincerelyste), @star_k (35k) | Explicit

“So Louis, who’s the lucky person that will not only get to see Arsenal and Manchester United facing each other, but will also possibly become your girlfriend… or boyfriend? I mean, that’s a good catch, to ask someone out like this on the radio. It will be hard to say no after this.”

“It’s, hm, his name is…” Oh boy, Harry was about to pass out, he couldn’t bear to hear what Louis would say. Susie was looking at him, worried eyes watching him from the till as she noticed that Harry had simply abandoned his cupcake duties. “Harry. Harry Styles.”

To win a pair of tickets to watch Manchester United playing, Louis may have possibly lied to Nick Grimshaw on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, asking Harry, his best friend, to be his boyfriend. Problem is - Harry has always been in love with Louis and so, this Valentine’s he’s gonna see his dreams come true, with a tiny bit of a twist, in order to watch the football team they have loved together since they were kids.

📄 That’s What I’m Here For by @taggiecb (46k) | Explicit

Louis Tomlinson is a dairy farmer on a tiny farm in eastern Canada. His wife of nearly thirty years has left him and his children are all grown up and out of the house. Louis needs help running his business but has no idea where to even start looking. Luckily for him his children know just the man for the job.

Part 1 of Grace, Too

📄 Pinkies Never Lie by @alltheselights (83k) | Explicit

“I just think if we’re both into it and neither of us is looking for something serious, why not?” Harry asks, eyes soft and voice sweet. He pauses and gives Louis a moment or two to answer.

There are countless reasons why Louis shouldn’t agree to this, but in the end, none of them really matter. This will end with Louis in pieces, but he’s been in love with Harry for four years. There was only ever one answer.

“Yeah,” Louis answers finally, hoping his voice sounds normal. “Why not?”

AU in which Louis hates his job and loves Harry, Harry just wants a distraction, everyone else wants them to get their shit together, and Louis learns the hard way that new beginnings are only possible when something ends.

Part 1 of Pinkies Never Lie

📄 Dress you up in my love by @LucyStarkid (103k) | Explicit

Harry is single, and more than anything wants to find love. Agreeing to sign up to a dating website was a bad, bad idea. Niall’s bad, bad idea. Louis is single, but has no interest in relationships. Or so he tells himself. ??Harry is a lawyer, his boss, Nick, happens to give him a bonus, which he decides to splurge on a new work wardrobe. Louis is a frustrated designer, working as a personal shopper at Selfridges. Louis happens to be working on the day a very beautiful, but out of his depth, new customer ambles into their department in need of advice. Louis might have just found the muse he never knew he was looking for.

Featuring: Sophia as Louis’ colleague, with a somewhat unhealthy obsession with his love life, whilst being oblivious when it comes to her own. Liam as the ‘IT bloke from downstairs’ with the mother of all crushes on Sophia. Niall as Harry’s sport’s writer flatmate who spends most of his time making Harry’s life as complicated as possible. Zayn as Louis’ flatmate and lifelong best friend, whose cat, Noodle/Princess/Princess Noodle loves Louis more than it loves him. And Nick as Harry’s boss and one of Louis’ regular customers: is Imelda Marcos reborn.

📄 amaryllis by @hattalove (146k) | Explicit

“Where are we?”

“Um. A little while out of London?” Niall tries, seemingly the only one willing to not be mysterious and provide Harry with information, and. Oh.

“London London? As in, the capital of England London?” he asks, just in case he’d misheard.

“No, the other London,” Louis laughs, low and biting. He comes closer finally, the moonlight just enough to reveal a sharp-cut jaw and pale skin. “Sorry, Pup.”

Nobody’s ever called Harry a “pup”. Frankly, he finds it quite insulting, but he lets it slide to try and comprehend his current crisis.

or the one where harry gets bitten by a werewolf. louis is the mysterious not-quite alpha, liam and zayn have Things going on, niall is their token human, and together, they watch a lot of TV.

📄 This Multiplicity of Powers by @helloamhere (149k) | Explicit

Maybe in another universe he isn’t different. Maybe he hadn’t been given an impossible choice. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost everything and broken everything and then fallen impossibly, irrevocably in love with the first next thing that was kind. Maybe in that universe he doesn’t feel like he’s never breathing, always pretending, teaching the kids even though they all have to learn alone, trying hard not to read the headlines, and so afraid, every day, that he won’t be a good enough teammate to the superhero he can’t live without. He knows that love isn’t supposed to feel this way, slid secret under your skin like a surgical razor, an invisible war held close over the tender vein that keeps you alive. On the other hand, Louis wonders, had he ever known how to do it any other way?

Maybe there’s a universe where he doesn’t have to keep all his secrets on the inside.

But this isn’t that universe.

//an X-Men AU.

📄 Have Faith In Me by @stylinsoncity (183k) | Mature

As the son of Anne Styles, millionaire owner of one of the world’s most luxurious fashion labels, Harry has spent his last seventeen years living in carefree extravagance. And now he’s grown tired of it, along with the pressure from his mum to follow in her footsteps and the constant care given to him by her past assistants.

When his mum’s newest assistant, Louis, moves into the guesthouse, Harry determines to be treated differently. To be treated like an adult. Except Louis is not at all what Harry was expecting…

This is a story about growing up, growing in love and having the faith to make it last.

📄 Built Memories by @fresharold (211k) | Mature

“It was a comet.

The boy saw the comet and he felt as though his life had meaning.

And when it went away, he waited his entire life for it to come back to him. It was more than just a comet because of what it brought to his life: direction, beauty, meaning.

There are many who couldn’t understand, and sometimes he walked among them. But even in his darkest hours, he knew in his heart that someday it would return to him, and his world would be whole again… And his belief in God and love and art would be re-awakened in his heart.

The boy saw the comet and suddenly his life had meaning.”

» where louis and harry after long years start over again. they’re strangers again and introduce themselves, they relearn what they already know and what they don’t know, come with new inside jokes, create new memories and give each other a second chance.

📄 Relief Next To Me by @dolce_piccante (333k) | Mature

AU. What happens when a baker and a graphic designer meet via a very specific Craigslist post? Fate, friendship, food, and maybe more.

✨You can also check my fic tags for more fics! ✨

[mudhornchronicles]

dreamboat | greaser!frankie | part three

photo credit

pairing: frankie morales x f!reader; greaser!frankie x f!reader

warnings: violence, mentions of racism towards latinos, cursing

dreamboat: part one | part two | part three

masterlist

Frankie has been in this cold and dark cement cell for what feels like months – it has been 19 hours. It was only 3 in the afternoon and would be in this cell until 5 when his mother got off work. He may have been 18 years old, but the sheriff did not care – especially being Frankie. Frankie would not stop pacing to and from one side of the 6-foot by 8-foot jail cell and the sheriff was getting quite annoyed.

“Frankie, ya want a metal cup to rattle against the bars or will ya quit bein’ dramatic? Stop pacin’ or you’ll make a hole through the cement, kid.” Frankie stops pacing and looks at the sheriff sitting at the desk situated in front of the holding cell. “Ya actin’ like ya goin’ to federal prison. Tu madre viene por ti a las cinco, hijo. Relajate.”

Your mother is coming for you at 5, son. Relax.

Frankie sits on the floor, putting his head in his hands. He lets out a sigh as he rubs his face. He looks back up at the smiling sheriff and raises an eyebrow. “What’s so funny?”

The sheriff takes a drink of his coffee and nods his head over at Frankie. “You are kid. Ya only got in a fight; ya didn’t hold up a bank.” He reaches in his desk’s cabinet and pulls out a silver flask. He pours a generous amount of a golden liquid in his coffee and goes to close the flask. He tuts as he looks back at the steaming black liquid and pours some more whiskey. This causes Frankie to laugh at the sheriff he came to know and like. The sheriff stands and walks over to Frankie, his mug of coffee in one hand and dragging his chair with the other. He places the chair in front of Frankie’s cell and takes a seat. He takes a swig of his coffee and looks at Frankie.

“I hope ya know your mom is goin’ to have a cow when I tell her why you’re in here.”

Frankie smirks and nods. “Ya ain’t tell her, yet?”

“What? That ya gave Oberyn a beatin’ ‘cause he was givin’ ya shit? Hell, that little bastard deserved it. If I don’t tell ya mom, you will.”

“Yeah? Well he was cruisin’ for a bruisin’. He should’a seen it comin’. Next time I see that cat, he’s gettin’ more than a couple’a shiners,” Frankie huffed. All he was able to give Oberyn was a good black eye and a couple of other bruises. The sheriff got called the second the boys went outside. He knew Rosie must have called the sheriff, but Frankie couldn’t be mad. The boys promised Rosie that there would be no confrontations in front of the diner – they did not do that last night. “Why I gotta tell my mom for? Aint you the sheriff? Shouldn’t ya be the one to tell ‘er why I’m in the can?”

The sheriff takes a deep breath and sighs. “Frankie, listen to me.” Frankie scoffs and rolls his eyes, waiting for the sheriff’s spiel about being responsible for his mother’s sake.

The sheriff sits straight and places his mug on the floor. He clears his throat and speaks to Frankie in the tone Frankie knows to shut up and listen. “Francisco, you listen here you little shit. You been in this very cell three times now, Tom having the record of 38, and ya feel like what? Ya feel like ya cool or somethin’? Ya mom already don’t like the friends ya hang with, except for Santiago. Ya think she likes seein’ you behind these,” the sheriff bangs on the metal bars for emphasis, “bars here? Now, I ain’t ya daddy, son. Nobody will ever compare to the man ya father was, but I know good and damn well he wouldn’t wanna see his only kid behind these bars. That man fought too fuckin’ hard for you and ya momma for you to be fuckin’ up ya life.”

Frankie stands up and leans against the cell, holding a metal bar in each hand. “’The fuck ya on about? You said it ya’self! I just got in’a fight. How’s that fuckin’ up my life?”

The sheriff stands up and gets close to Frankie. “Watch ya tone with me, boy. I ain’t one of your little friends to be gettin’ an attitude with, got it? You know that little betty you had ‘round ya arm? Her momma don’t like ya. Her momma got her head way up her ass, she don’t like anyone whose shoes aren’t new every day.”

Frankie chuckles at this.

“Hell she don’t even like me very much and I’m the law. Ya think she wants her daughter ridin’ round town with ya? Ya like her right? The more you get behind these bars, the further you get from her, you got it?”

Frankie nods as he walks away from the sheriff and sits on the concrete bench with a slump. The sheriff lets out a sigh and drags his chair back to the desk, taking a big gulp of his coffee. He grabs his newspaper and flicks it to straighten it out. He looks at Frankie and frowns. He decides to give Frankie one last piece of advice – something he promised himself he’d never use but he knew the young man needed to hear it.

“Francisco,” he says to catch Frankie’s attention. He continues even if Frankie doesn’t look at him, he knows he’s listening. “Tu padre murió por ti. El murió para que tu vivieras la vida que deseabas. Yo sé que este estilo de vida no es para ti y si lo eliges, entonces tu padre murió por nada.”

Frankie’s head snaps up and watches as the sheriff stands and walks out for a smoke. Frankie knew the sheriff wanted to leave the room for air because he would always smoke inside. From this moment to a quarter after 5, Frankie remained silent and still as he pondered on what the sheriff had said to him.

Your father died for you. He died so you could live the life you wanted. I know this lifestyle is not for you and if you choose it, then your father died for nothing.

As much as he wanted to cry and fight the sheriff, Frankie knew that the sheriff spoke only truth. Frankie’s father would have been incredibly disappointed, which only hurts Frankie the more he thought of it. The sheriff said that his father died for him and it’s true. If his father would have put Frankie’s name on that sign up, Frankie would have been dead by now. Instead of drafting 18-year old’s as stated, the US became desperate and sent off 16-year old’s with the promise of compensation for their families – that didn’t ever happen.

Frankie heard rapid heels clicking coming from the corridor and he knew it was his mother.

“Francisco Morales! ¿En qué pendejada te metiste ahora? Fue por ese Thomas, verdad? Ni se te ocurra mentirme.”

Francisco Morales! What bullshit did you get into this time? It was because of that Thomas, right? Do not even think about lying to me.

“Hi Mom.” Frankie sadly says. His mother holds up one finger at Frankie and turns to the sheriff. She offers him a tired smile and a quick hug.

“Ahora que hizo, Javier? Por favor dime que me lo puedo llevar a casa.”

What did he do now, Javier? Please tell me I can take him home.

Frankie hears his mother say. She sounds as if she’s about to burst into tears, her voice pleading and shaky. Frankie immediately feels a wave of guilt wash over him. He saw his mother break apart when they lost his father and was thrown as being the sole breadwinner – he couldn’t put her through pain again.

“Yes, Monica, you can take him. He just had a run in with that Oberyn kid again.” Frankie’s mother lets her head fall back as she groans. She looks back at Frankie and shakes her head.

“How many times do I have to tell you to ignore that boy, Frankie? He isn’t worth getting into it with. Did Tom throw you into it? He can never fight his own battles and he threw Santiago in last time. Pope’s lucky Javier called me and not his mom - poor woman would have a heart attack.”

Frankie shakes his head. “No mom. I got myself in it.” Frankie looks at Javier, the sheriff, and Javier gives him an assuring nod. “The boys and I took the new girl in town out to Rosie’s and Oberyn decided to ruin the night as usual. He just got out the can so he was lookin’ for a fight I guess.”

His mother and Javier stride over to Frankie. Javier unlocks the cell, allowing Frankie to come out and hug his mother. His mother gives him a kiss on the cheek and holds his face in her hands.

“Francisco, I know you thought you were doing the right thing. Did Oberyn lay a hand on the girl?”

“If I hadn’t punched him, he probably would’ve.”

Monica, his mother, gives her son a warm smile. “If you got in here for defending someone because you thought it was the right thing to do, then okay. I suppose what done is done, but I never want to see you behind bars ever again. Tal vez tengas 18 años, pero todavia te doy una paliza, cabrón.” she jokes - well half-jokes.

You may be 18 years old, but I’ll still beat your ass, dumbass.

As Frankie and his mother collect his things and sign the necessary paperwork, Javier calls for Frankie’s attention. He simply tells him “remember our little talk, Frankie. I ain’t try’na see you behind those bars again.”

A little talk Frankie will always remember and think about every day.

Frankie knew he should be going to his fifth and sixth periods, but he had already missed the first four, so why they hell not miss. He wanted to because he wanted to see you after the fiasco, but he was nervous. You saw him fight, get arrested, and get dragged away by Javier. He saw your eyes widen and fill with fear when he spat out blood and get put into handcuffs.

“So ‘Fish… where’s that little dolly of yours? You two get it on yet?” Redfly says. “Oh wait… ya been in the can!” The Bandits all laugh and Santiago slaps his knee while Will wheezes at the thought of Frankie in jail. Frankie takes a drag of his cigarette, staring at his friends and offering an eye roll.

“Alright laugh it up. I made it out, didn’t I?”

“yeah,” Santiago starts, “that’s only cause Javi likes us. If it were Oberyn in there, Javi would’a still had his ass locked up.” Pope gives his best friend a slap on the shoulder paired with a laugh and a quick just kiddin’ buddy.

The bell rings and the sea of people wave into the hallways. The boys bid farewell to each other, Will and Frankie walking to their class together. Will was the first to spot you in the crowd of people. He saw you walk with a student you had all your classes with; Maxwell Lorenzano, or Max Lord as he liked to be called now. The Bandits knew him, they knew him very well.

Max was a soc kid who would hang out with the other popular socs, but in actuality, Max was another Latino kid whose family were more like the Bandits. Both of his parents were greasers, and they knew what it was like to work hard yet not have a lot. His father worked all the time as a mechanic and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. His dad was always working on a motorcycle that would become his son’s first ride, but then something in Max changed. His whole life, Max wore a leather jacket and slicked back hair, not caring what the world thought of him, but as the times went on, the bullying got worse.

Just like Frankie, Max’s family was not always welcomed, but his aunt’s family was. His aunt was a greaser too, but her husband was a complete socialite. His family created and owned an oil business which allowed them to want for nothing. When Max saw the acceptance his aunt had received from her in-laws, it was a flipped switch. He asked to work with his uncle to learn all about the business. His uncle was elated to find out his nephew wanted to leave the “delinquent” life and become a businessman. Max’s face was plastered on the company’s ads and the popular kids wanted to be friends with him. He was accepted as a soc and even though his parents were upset, Max wasn’t entirely honest at school.

Max still worked on his dad’s motorcycle project. He still had his leather jackets and wore them at private family gatherings. He still knew the slang and attitude. He was still loyal to the people who liked him for him.

Max and The Bandits looked after each other as brothers. Even though he was not officially a member, Max had his BANDITS leather jacket at home, hung and clean. In order to keep his soc image at school, Max and the boys pretended to hate each other. Max pretended to be disgusted with their way of life and would throw insults here and there when the other kids would.

When Max saw Will and Frankie coming their way, Will gave him a discreet nod and Max reciprocated.

“Look what the cat dragged in… a couple of worthless hoodlums.” Max said. He turns to you and says, “C’mon, you shouldn’t associate yourself with these… things.” You look up and meet Frankie’s beautiful eyes. He seemed as if he wanted to jump out and say something to you but couldn’t.

“Don’t get yourself twisted up, Lord. Your little petty pants will wrinkle,” Will snickers.

Max rolls his eyes at him. “Move out of our way, Miller. We’ll be late.”

Will laughs and moves out of the way and gestures for him to walk. “C’mon, Polo. Keep it movin’.”

As you walk past the boys, Will offers a quick hey and you answer with a smile. You walk away, but Frankie calls you by name, causing you to stop and take a breath. You ask Max to give you a minute, him checking his watch and agreeing. You walk up Frankie and look at him, silently asking him to continue.

“I… I- Hi. How are you?” Frankie sputters out. He mentally slaps his forehead and cursing at himself. Is that the best he can do?

“I’m doing fine, thanks.” you quietly say.

Frankie tries to put together a mix of words, but none of it is coherent. Will lets out a loud and obnoxious sigh and puts his arm around Frankie’s shoulders.

“Catfish here wanna know if you wanna hang with’im after school. How ‘bout it sweetheart? The guy just got out the can and in need of company.” You raise an eyebrow at Will.

In need of company?

Max lets out a sarcastic laugh and walks to you, grabbing your arm and pulling you away.

“Her mother would have her head if she were caught with you guys again. You already got her in trouble once; no need for it to happen again.”

You look back at Frankie, silently apologizing, but in the end, Max was right.

When you got home that night, Will assured you that nobody would talk about it. The next day, your mother came back furious and you were ultimately grounded for being seen with those boys. Your father was not too happy either, but was mainly concerned about your safety, which was a valid concern. Your mother demanded for you to never talk to Frankie or she would have to take action.

What action? You were not too sure.

No matter how hard Frankie tried to talk to you, Max would either pull you away saying he needed your help, or your teacher would ask him to quiet down. Frankie was not one to give up, but he also did not want to be a pain in your side. He felt as if the odds were against him, but he was going to get you to talk to him one way or another – at least a single hello in the hallway so he does not feel as if he messed up entirely.

It was now Wednesday, and The Bandits sat at one of the outside tables by the cafeteria. They “joked” with people, rough housed as usual, having a good day so far, but when the soc table kept staring, the boys didn’t feel so cheery.

“Fuck ya lookin’ at, soc? You got a starin’ problem?” Tom yells.

“You should get daddy’s money to check that out,” Benny continues. Frankie turns in his seat and looks at the group of the popular rich kids sitting at the opposite table from them. He lets out a sigh, letting it pour out of his nose, as he sees you sitting next to Max at that same table. When he gets a chance to really see you, he sees red.

Michael, the school’s top athlete, has his arm around you and you appear to be uncomfortable – something Frankie never wanted to do. You look around awkwardly as Michael stands up and confidently walks over to the boys, other soc boys in tow.

“Look here boys. A bunch of nothings thinking they’re something,” Michael says. The soc boys all laugh and Tom remains tall, chest puffed out.

“Ya better watch what ya sayin, Mikey. Wouldn’t want ya to get hurt.” Tom rebuttles.

Two of the boys behind Michael walk up to the Miller brothers, a bit shorter than the two but still reeking of false confidence.

“You three must be tired of carrying these two brown boys, huh? Always quiet and only get involved when they’re forced.”

Max walks over to Michael, you trailing behind him, and tells Michael to stop and to come back to the table. Michael refuses, asking Max if he is worried about him hurting his own kind. You gasp and get in front of Max, facing Michael.

“How dare you? You dare call Max a friend and still, you berate him and these boys,” you start, motioning to the Bandits, “because they aren’t “your kind?” I’ll have you know that these boys are some of the most intelligent people I have ever met, a lot smarter than you.”

“Is that so, sweetheart? You think these delinquents are worth getting in trouble?” To this, you give him a confused look. “You think your mom hasn’t gone around rambling about how her daughter was seen with the worst kids in town? These guys bring their parents shame. Well… except Francisco over there… he got his old man killed.”

Michael barely got his final word out before he was on the floor holding his bleeding jaw Santiago caused. Santiago grabbed his hand in pain; it was a while since he punched someone so suddenly like that. No matter the pain, he wasn’t about to let the spoilt rich kid get away with insulting his best friend and his best friend’s father.

You look over to Frankie, who is still sitting at the bench stone faced. How could he just sit there after Michael insulted him and his father? You go to walk to him but Max pulls you, walking away telling you that you’ll talk to him later.

“I’m taking you home after school, okay? Michael called a meeting after school and I told him I’ll be there when I get you home,” Max explained. He talked fast and seemingly out of breath. He knew something was going to go down – no one drops Michael like that without consequences.

“Why are you worried? Max, is something going to happen?” You ask. He looks around and explains to you what has happened when Michael wants revenge. From legal actions to physically hurting someone, Michael will stop at nothing to make himself look strong and important. Max just told you to be careful and to stay inside.

And something must have happened because Max came knocking down your door and asking your mother if it was okay if he took you around town. Your mother oddly was happy to agree and Max piled you in the car. He drove fast and parked inside a green home’s garage. For a second, you were terrified that Max was forced to bring you to Michael, but soon let out a breath of relief when you saw Will come into the garage and greet you.

“Alright, Maxie,” Will said. “What is so important and secretive that you called us all here and brought her along?” Frankie adjusted his hat, a baseball cap that suited him quiet well, and played with his hands.

“We have to hide Frankie’s car. Now.” Max stated rapidly.

Frankie’s head shot up and the boys all together threw questions as to why we had to temporarily get rid of Frankie’s car.

“Max. What are we hiding my dad’s car for?” Frankie asks. His voice is quiet and laced with worriedness.

Max takes a deep breath and apologetically looks straight into Frankie’s eyes.

“Michael’s planning on crushing your car.”

dreamboat taglist:

@ickleronniekinsemotionalrange​ @funerals-with-cake​ @seasonschange-butpeopledont​

taglists and requests are open!

#frankie morales x reader #frankie morales #frankie catfish morales #frankie morales x you #francisco morales #francisco catfish morales #francisco morales x reader #francisco catfish morales x reader #francisco morales x you #catfish morales #francisco catfish morales x you #triple frontier #dreamboat

[chalkrevelations]

Street Dance of China S3, Ep 3. It sounds like maybe I should step up my pace on these, as they’ve announced the captains for S4 now? (Yibo back, Lay Zhang back, plus a couple of new guys I don’t actually recognize yet.) When is this going to air because it is just LAUGHABLE that I can keep up with 3+ hours of this a week. Particularly if I’m going to keep obsessively re-watching Word of Honor AND try to finally finish Killer & Healer in the miniscule free time I actually have for teevee. There’s certainly no way I can watch and dither on about 3+ hours/week worth of dance show in realtime before January, at least.

ANYWAY, this ep, we get a recap of everyone falling out after the captains’ cypher, and we learn who got the final extra towels and passed through to the next round: Lu Jiao Ni, who we barely see, on Team Jackson Wang; Yuan Ye (as promised) and A Li (who we barely see) on Team Lay Zhang (ETA: Wait, we find out later that A Li isn’t even on Lay’s team, she’s on Yibo’s - he wouldn’t move her on, and she gets one of Lay’s towels instead); Bullet (as promised) on Team Wang Yibo; and Xiao Ming (as promised? maybe? as we’ve barely seen this guy?) on Team Wallace Chung.

This week: Out of 400 people, we’re down to 105. Not all of these faces are familiar, and I suspect I don’t really need to learn 90 percent of the unfamiliar faces. I … am going to go out on a limb and make a guess that one of the dancers whose name has been bolded in one of the past two episode recaps is going to be the ultimate winner, because I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ, and I suspect I know how this works. I wouldn’t even put money on any of those five bolded names in the previous paragraph, quite honestly. Anyway, now it’s time to start culling down to 60. We bring out the team captains, and my first reaction is “MY EYES” because wth are some of you wearing? Wow. Yibo’s shoelaces are all over his jacket. Wallace looks like he rolled a flasher on the street for his trenchcoat. Lay Zhang is wearing a baggy pink jumpsuit, and I guess, OK, it’s easier to maneuver bathroom breaks in one of those when you have a dick, but that’s definitely a fashion trend that should have stayed back in the ‘80s. I guess questionable fashion is an international phenomenon.

There’s also an empty chair for the promised Mystery Guest, and there’s a game with clues, and a lot of guesses from our captains about who the Mystery Guest will be, and Jackson does A Bit through the whole thing. I don’t know whether to be entertained or annoyed by him. He’s the only one without some egregiously questionable fashion choices (so far) this episode, so maybe he gets a pass. Anyway, I don’t have the pop cultural context to understand the guesses, and I also don’t have either the pop cultural context or the knowledge of this area of dance to grok the Mystery Guest’s identity, but he’s Huang Bo, and apparently he had more than 1000 dance performances in the 1990s, so he must be at least as old as me and Wallace, if not older. Yibo takes the opportunity to make the – very NON-politic – remark that maybe HE wasn’t even born yet at the time? That … is not the way to win friends and influence people, Infant. Also, the Mystery Guest is NOT the person Jackson kept doing A Bit about. The reveal is all very dramatic, and he does a lil’ bit of choreography from of each of the four Extant Captains’ videos before he takes off his mask, and they act appropriately impressed, and there are some girls with short shorts among his backup dancers, so that all happened. The show obviously wants me to be very impressed by him. Show also tells us he’ll have a special skill that will be very important and at least leads us to believe that he’s going to be the “life-saver,” so the audience immediately curries favor, or at least plays at it.

Next up: Rules. Eliminations this week involve contestants self-selecting into groups of anywhere from one to five people and performing for a panel of all the captains. Teams pull a number out of a hat for performance order. Thumbs up from all four captains, you go to the next round. Abstentions from all captains, you go home. Thumbs up from some and abstentions from others, you face the possibility of a call-out from other contestants, whereupon you have to dance for your life battle to find out which of you stays and which of you goes. Oh, and we’re only going to keep going until the 60 available seats are filled, and then we’re done. If you’re number 35, you’d better be prepared to battle someone earlier and kick their ass, or you’re fucked, you don’t even get to dance. I’ve said it before: Audentes Fortuna adiuvat. Only wait, ETA: There will be some last minute BS rules fuckery, in a way that is clearly intended to save someone in particular, which I feel some kind of way about - and it is not really the way that almost everyone on the show seems to feel - but I guess we’ll get to that later.

And cue ridiculously long nattering, so we’re going to cut here.

First group is Lin Meng (Team Wallace), Teng Zai (Team Lay), Bing - of the infamous motorbike flirtation - and Dian Men (both Team Yibo), along with a dude we haven’t actually seen yet, Tang Qian (also Team Yibo). Your lack of even B-roll so far is concerning re: your chances in this competition, Tang Qian. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, this is a powerhouse group, and at least Lin Meng and Teng Zai are familiar with each other because they’re from the same crew, and Xiao Bao remarks from the audience of contestants that these guys are going to go through, no matter what. They’re going to do a totally popping routine. My sound drops out at the beginning which … yeah, makes them look even more like a boyband at the beginning, in their matching baseball uniform shirts. So, here’s the thing, they’re a little muddled, they don’t move smoothly around each other on stage - their dance moves are coordinated, but they’re not moving in space like a group that understands each other. (Somewhere in here, my sound comes back, and Yibo already can’t hold still to the music.) The other thing is, though - all of these guys are very good at what they do, they finally hit their stride a minute or so in, and when they do, they hit it hard. I’m frankly surprised they don’t get passed right through to the next round, but Jackson abstains on the vote, and when called upon to explain himself, it turns out he just wants to see them battle. I can understand the impulse, Jackson, but this is already super stressful on all the dancers, and it doesn’t escape my notice that you’re the only one of the four captains without a dog in this particular fight, so a little bit you look like you’re doing this just because you can. Remember this, because it will set a bad example for an 11th -hour vote. Anyway, there’s the chance for a callout, which no one takes because the entire audience is convinced this group is too good to beat. Five of 60 seats taken.

Group two is Shen Kai Xiang – the Jack Ma lookin’ dude. He’s flying solo. He gets to stand around uncomfortably for a while onstage while Special Guest Huang Bo does A Bit making fun of all of the captains’ speech patterns and accents and pronunciation, except Yibo’s, because Yibo apparently never talks. Ha ha. (I’m also wondering if there’s some socio-cultural stuff underlying some of this that I’m not cued in enough to fully understand.) Huang Bo then tells the contestant that Jackson has probably fucked him over by praising him too effusively (he came from Jackson’s team, and Jackson already is displaying a tendency to rhapsodize about how everything is “ART”), so all the captains now will have inflated expectations that Shen Kai Xiang is surely only going to fail to meet. I’m beginning to suspect that Huang Bo’s Special Guest Superpower is not “lifesaver” but “kind of annoying asshole.” Maybe it’s to take that particular spotlight off of Chick. ANYWAY, Shen Kai Xiang FINALLY gets to perform, and he gets a little bit of a slow start, but he packs in a lot of elements and gets a LOT of good air in his moves once he gets wound up. He’s lyrical and super emo about it. I’m kind of “eh” on him – technically, he’s good, but I’m not particularly connecting with him, which I’m willing to admit could be a me thing, as everyone else seems super-impressed. Three captains pass him through. Yibo does not and explains this decision as personal preference – he likes more “underground” styles, more battle styles. Huang Bo brings back the issue of too-high expectations to help explain why Shen Kai Xiang isn’t being passed directly to the next round, even though Yibo just explained his decision and that is literally not the reason he explicitly gave. Anyway, Shen Kai Xiang gets no call outs, which seems to surprise Yibo, and we’re at six of 60 seats taken.

In quick succession, we move through Liang Hua Jie – we don’t see much of him, but we learn that while Wallace likes his musicality, Yibo doesn’t like his face (OK, doesn’t like his facial expressions, which, what can I say? I get this. If I’d had the power to unilaterally send home Lacey Schwimmer on her season of SYTYCD, I’d have done it, that’s how fucking annoying I found the way she’d mug for the camera the entire time she danced. Like I couldn’t even watch her dancing, because I was too distracted by what she was doing with her FACE the whole time.); Jian De Chao (wait, is this Chao from the first episode?) & Chen Zui – who, from what we get to see of them have some good flow and move pretty well together, but can get a little bit mushy in their moves, and Yibo likes their skills, but Lay thinks they don’t feel like a group, which what? Incorrect; and a group that’s dubbed themselves Purple Storm Show, which includes Alex from Jackson’s team and four other people who I can’t even catch – we barely see their performance, and Lay likes them, but Jackson thinks they’re flat. I can’t tell if any or all of these guys were sent through to the next round or sent home, but if they didn’t make it, then  :(  because I liked Alex, and he got hit in the eye for this, he deserves better than to get sent home because his team can’t get it together. We still have no group that’s been passed through by all four captains.

And then, next up is another powerhouse team: Gongsu Wu Ming and Hei Zai (Team Lay), George and Xiao Ming (Team Wallace), and (Xiao) Bai (Team Jackson). Yibo is skeptical about an all B-boy group, and don’t make me fight you, Yibo, because an all B-boy group is like my dream come true (sorry, poppers; sorry, lockers; my heart truly belongs to the B-boys, they are my favorite). We learn they added a flip at the last minute – an assisted flip, with a couple of them flinging George into the air over the other two of them. Wu Ming thinks that George is the only one of all the competitors who could do it, but George – who has a little more skin in the game than anyone else, as the guy who could potentially land on his head wrong - is a bit concerned about whether they’re going to pull it off. They start, and they’re all good, a little bit muddled before they hit their stride, but the slo-mo cartwheel is great, and from there, they’re off and running. This is why I like the B-boys – I know it takes a lot out of you to do this, but there is nothing – nothing­ – like the magnetic energy they can generate when they’re in their performance headspace and everything is flowing. This is a performance, and Wu Ming has talked a little bit about wanting to step up breaking, and if this is the sort of thing he wants to do, I’m all for it – give him the platform now. I’m going to take just a minute to single out Bai and say that he’s better when he’s not doing A Bit like he did in his initial performance for Lay Zhang – he’s much more electric here, and someone else’s choreography may make the difference. Jackson, Yibo, Lay – they’re all out of their seats, none of them can hold still in the face of this. We get to the end, and unfortunately, everyone else is kind of cluttered and mushy moving into position for the flip – that is not a way to go out guys, DO NOT DO THAT at the last minute – but then George f’kn NAILS the flip, so that’s thankfully the last impression they leave. The captain’s faces are a picture. (Except Wallace, who’s suddenly too cool to give us anything, apparently.) FIRST ALL-PASS. George’s assessment: “Not bad.” :facepalm: OK, Mr. Cool Guy. They also cut in a post-interview bit with Bai about the performance, and he notes that they all know each other, they’ve been battling each other for like, a decade, now. Dance together more, guys.

Moving on, we fortunately have another very strong group to follow them: Gai Gai, Wang Tao and Huang Xiao, all from Jackson’s team, and you can tell he badly, badly wants to start in on the ART! bit but he (loudly) keeps his mouth shut about this group until after the performance. The only one of these three we’ve seen so far this season has been Gai Gai, but they all dance in the same group together, and they seem to be well-known by a lot of the other competitors, particularly Huang Xiao, both as a dancer and a choreographer. They say they’re doing jazz, although I’d be more likely to call this contemporary, if I was going to put them in a box. They are gorgeous – lyrical, fantastic dance vocabulary, amazing choreography, beautiful musicality, and the way they move together as a unit is … :chef’s kiss:  I think Huang Xiao may be the best of the three, technically, but there’s something ineffably charismatic about Gai Gai that’s pulling focus a bit – just a bit – more than the other two in this performance. If there’s a weak link, it’s Wang Tao, and really, that’s only by comparison with the other two, which is a really high bar. We get some shots of the audience of competitors worrying about Yibo’s reaction, given his preference for the old-school battle dancers and an apparent “strictness” with urban dancers and related genres, but these three also get an All-Pass to the next round, and Yibo talks to them a little bit about the choreography and his (complimentary) reactions to the performance before they leave the stage.

And then. Oh, dear. Then we get a group of three – Da Mao, A Li and Tall(? Maybe? It looked like he was going to get out of this anonymously – probably lucky for him – but then the subtitles threw up this name on him at the last minute) – who are the only krumpers who’ve made it this far. Lay Zhang is really promoting them, because he really wants to see a bigger krump presence, and he’s really nervous about their performance, and he really, really should not have pinned his hopes on these three, because I hate to say it but they are a hot fk’n mess. They are … not good. I can’t believe any of the three made it this far, and in fact, we learn after their performance, while everyone is sitting in a kind of stunned horror (and y’all, I am not exaggerating for effect there), that Yibo did not pass A Li on from his team, that she got one of Lay Zhang’s final extra battle towels. I mean, there’s an obvious gap in the quality of this performance compared to everyone else we’ve seen. There’s also a lot of pacing around and standing around instead of dancing. They’re trying for the attitude, but they’re not managing it. They do manage to get an embarrassed reaction from Chick, which says something all on its own, as I wasn’t aware that he had any shame. Other competitors also are doing the embarrassment-squick cringe in the audience. Lay Zhang is literally hiding behind his clipboard. This is the first All-Out we get, where they’re directly eliminated – not even Lay can bring himself to vote “yes” on them. Now, all the krumpers are gone, and Lay is visibly sad and frustrated, but as we appear to move to a little bit of a break, Yibo displays the most emotional intelligence of anyone there and asks Lay to teach him how to krump, to distract him and get him actually doing the dancing he enjoys for a little bit. It’s also a chance for Yibo to learn a new thing, and he talks about his chance to improve in a little interview bit from later on that’s cut in here. I mean, yes, that actually was kind of a sad attempt at krump during the cypher, my dude, so this can only help you, but you also are being an extremely good guy, giving your fellow captain some emotional support right now. Thumbs up.

Next up, we have AK Dong (Team Wallace), also flying solo, and they give us a little heart-tugging B-roll about how he doesn’t have a team with him there, so he’s going it alone. He’s fantastic right out of the gate - good musicality, clean and precise, and he’s got a nice texture to his performance, it feels … full even though it doesn’t feel as big and expansive as some of the other dancers. Unfortunately, Lay doesn’t agree with me (incorrect), says he wants a performance that’s more elegant and “balanced,” and is the single holdout vote, which opens my dude up to a call-out challenge. This is the guy who looks like comedian Hank Chen, which has overshadowed his dancing twice now, because he had to listen to it from Haung Bo when he came out to dance, and he CANNOT catch a break, because now he gets challenged by three teams, including Bouboo’s team, which also includes Klash, Bullet and Colin (all Team Yibo), plus Boris (Team Lay), who we’ve only seen B-roll of so far although he speaks good Chinese, despite being from … I’m not sure where, but not China? AK Dong complains about how Boris looks at him with innocent eyes and tells him that they have no option other than to challenge, which is true (ETA: insofar as we know at this point), because they’re #36, and the 60 slots would almost certainly fill up before they even get a chance to dance. This team wins the bottle spin against the other two challengers, and I mean. :hands: This is a slaughter. They’re five-on-one, and they’re all really good at what they do, they make it look effortless, and AK Dong’s face is going to kill me. Wallace actually does vote for him, but the other three vote for the team, and that’s five more seats filled, and AK Dong eliminated, and I’m annoyed (although not as much as I’m gonna be) because I liked him, and I would have liked for him to get a chance to dance without having to listen to the Hank Chen nonsense at least once.

Next, we have Li Yue & Sha Sha, who appear to dance together on the regular. They have a kind of sultry number put together as the Green Snake and the White Snake that is … hm. I don’t know if we’re classifying this as urban or jazz for the purposes of the show, but it’s another piece that fits more into my contemporary box, if we were classifying them for most of the Western dance spaces I’ve seen. They’re good, as befits this stage of the competition, but a little inconsistent, technically. Also, I don’t find them particularly exciting to watch – I feel like something’s missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what. I’m not sure their flow is consistent, and they’re probably not helped by following Gai Gai, Huang Xiao and Wang Tao. They get three yes votes from Lay, Yibo and Jackson, although they are … enough to maybe make Yibo a slight bit uncomfortable, being the shy and fragile homosocial forest creature that he may be, or that he may be getting edited as, who knows. Huang Bo pokes at Lay Zhang about his reaction to and vote for them. He also basically says that Wallace didn’t vote for them because Wallace wasn’t turned on by them, because Wallace is still doing his imperturbable cool-as-a-cucumber routine. Wallace’s hold-out vote opens them up to a call-out, and several groups come down to challenge, including – bad luck for Li Yue and Sha Sha – TI, who win the bottle spin. This group includes choreographer Zheng Jian Peng, as well as Su Lianya, who I didn’t realize was a TI member, both Team Wallace, along with … oh my god, Wei Ming, who’s the “Sir, what are you doing?” guy from Episode 2 when Wallace was giving out towels to poppers like candy, and I’m kind of pleased he’s made it this far, just based on that moment, alone, never mind any dancing skills. Rounding out the group are Long Long and Wei Lin, both from Team Yibo, and I think we got B-roll of Wei Lin at some point during Yibo’s eliminations in the first couple of eps. I know nothing about Long Long at this point. At any rate, everybody in this group is so good, I can finally see how they got their rep – fantastic musicality, and a great job of working as a unit. They feel like a team, even when they don’t manage to be quiiiiite synchronized. I’m not really feeling their costumes. Su Lianya continues to be a standout, even in a group that sets the bar this high. Wallace’s composure finally breaks when the other team captains evince interest in poaching her, and oh my god, he still has the hair elastic that he held for her at her initial performance, that they said would be a token of their vow to go all the way in the competition together. OK, I give Wallace a lot of shit, but this is actually kind of adorable. He literally pulls it out of his pocket to tell the other captains they can’t have her and to plead with her to remember their promise to each other. TI gets three votes and moves on. (Lay, still apparently captivated by the snake ladies although not enough to bald-facedly vote for them in the wake of TI’s performance, abstains.)

Next up are Tao and CiCi, and OK. I’m going to be honest here. I think they’re leveraging the “couple” schtick for all it’s worth, and good for them, it looks like they can pull it off, because I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is influenced a lot by their coupleness, but at the same time, I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is actually influenced by their coupleness rather than their dancing. I mean, Su Lianya and Wei Lin are in the audience of competitors clutching each other’s hands and crying, and it seems to be just as much about Tao telling CiCi out loud that he loves her just before the music starts and the fact that they kiss as part of the piece, if not more than it’s about their actual dancing. The show is also really pushing me on this, because whereas, with everyone else, it tosses up closed captions that tell me what moves are happening (in addition to dialogue subs), now I’m getting things like “heaven-made match.” They’re good, but I think they actually also suffer a bit from following the Gai Gai/Huang Xiao/Wang Tao powerhouse, because I think we’re unlikely to get anything on the lyrical side of things that’s going to match up to that for the rest of the day. Tao and CiCi are better than Li Yue and Sha Sha were, and it is pretty badass the way she manages to make herself so small and compact she literally disappears behind him for that last little bit, and if they’d won the bottle spin on the last callout, they would have won the challenge, I have no doubt. But. :hands: I think the show has actually done that thing Huang Bo accused Jackson of earlier and set my expectations too high. I’m’a sound like Yibo – or like Yibo normally would, because he also seems to get suckered into the overwhelmed reaction for this – and say that I think Tao was better in the less lyrical style when he danced with Yibo and Bing in the Ep 2 towel battle. They get an All-Pass from the captains and talk about their inspiration for the piece, which apparently is a couple who confessed their love to each other the day before the girl had to go into COVID quarantine, and well, now I guess I feel like just a little bit of an asshole for not appreciating the COVID love story properly? Anyway, the captains then keep asking them intrusive questions about their relationship, and Huang Bo mocks Lay for apparently never being in love so he won’t understand what it’s like, and I’m cringing in my seat a little before Jackson gets us back on track and Tao and CiCi finally go sit down.

Then Huang Bo takes the chance to go over to the contestants who haven’t performed yet and stress them out about how few of the 60 available seats are left. I mean, I guess it’s part of competition, but come on, dude.

ANYWAY, next up, we have a group calling themselves Team Wake Up – it’s the waackers, and this group includes Xiao Bao and San Jin from Team Lay, along with a guy we haven’t seen yet, Tu Zi; Meng Di from Team Yibo; and Gao Shi Yu, who we also haven’t seen, from Team Wallace. They start working it, and I’m like, oh wait … and then they hit the Cat Walk, and I’m like, oh shit, and a light bulb finally goes off, because I’ve been super-fk’n slow, but now they’ve shown me what this genre is about, and I’m interested to see what they do here, because a lot of this performance could be straight off the floors of the ball scene. The entire group is pretty good, although I do think Gao Shi Yu is the weak link, she’s not quiiiiite up to the standard of the rest of them. They move well as a group, though, good coordination, sharp and clean, fantastic musicality, high energy all the way through, with EXCELLENT attitude, which is half the battle, because if you’re not confident for this kind of thing – or if you can’t at least fake it flawlessly – you might as well not even be out there. They all do lose a little bit of focus when they’re in the background as they break out for their individual moves, and they fall apart a tiny bit near the end. Also, Meng Di’s belt is off-center, and I know that sounds super picky, but it kept distracting me, so I wish that hadn’t been the case. Xiao Bao is definitely still the standout here – he takes the lead from the minute they come out, with the mic, and never really relinquishes it. We finally get to see San Jin perform, and his extension could be better. Tu Zi must be lacking in the charisma department to not have shown up before this, because he’s better than I expected. Before they started, the group that Xiao Jie and Yang Kai are in together – who still haven’t performed – were debating if they should challenge this group, but Xiao Jie advised waiting to see how good they were, and then after the performance is all, “nooo, we should not challenge,” and props to you for not just writing off the waackers, my man, because they get an All-Pass, and there’s not even a chance for a callout. Before we move on, Wallace clams he’s learned some waacking during the show, and the other captains (led by Jackson, who calls him gege) make him demonstrate, and the contestants, who know what side their bread is buttered on, applaud.

Available seat check. Yibo participates in further stressing out the contestants by saying “Like, a dozen?” All y’all need to be challenging whatever chance you get. Now I bet you’re sorry you didn’t challenge Shen Kai Xiang back at the beginning, aren’t you?

Next up is our group of X-Crew representatives, hop-hop, and Yibo is excited. I almost expect him to do a little dance in his seat. Yang Kai helpfully lets me know that this group is from the top hip-hop crew in China. Oh, hey, that’s Qin Yu, from Team Wallace, the guy who Gongsu Wu Ming immediately recognized as the weak link in one of the towel battles and got up on; the guy who subsequently got taken out by Teng Zai, My Beloved. Qin Yu, the guy we hadn’t even had B-roll on, and still don’t. I wonder if I’m reading too much into that. He’s joined by Flea (which I’m assuming is a direct translation, as it doesn’t sound like “flea” when he says his name?) and Ding, also from Team Wallace - neither of whom we’ve seen before, I think - along with Ting and Lei Xiao Yang from Team Jackson. This is also the first time we’ve seen Lei Xiao Yang. I … feel weirdly unconfident about the famed X-Crew, given we haven’t seen more of them before this. Then again, we’d only seen Gai Gai from her group, so maybe this is a BigSurprise!edit … Ting comes out hard and heavy, and I actually think this is the best performance we’ve seen from her so far. She spends a lot of time out in front on this one, and I don’t think I got from her initial appearance or from her towel battle performances just how good she actually is. Overall though … I am … not that impressed with this group. They start out strong, but then they get sloppy. They have trouble working as a unit, which is surprising from people who supposedly have experience dancing together. They’re all very good, but they’re not synchronized. A lot of their solo showcase bits lack complexity, and that is an understatement. Qin Yu still has some of that nice fluidity along with his pretty face, but he’s not balanced, and he absolutely does not have the finesse he needs to pull this off. They all do move into the end strong, together again, hard, power behind their moves - almost everything from the slo-mo move is good - but … it’s a little late, y’all. That took way too long to get back together. And then, they inexplicably descend into … it’s not even sloppiness, it’s an utter hot mess during, like, the last 15 seconds of the performance, which is absolutely not the final impression you want to leave. And … wow. Shit. There are captains who actually agree with me on this. Sometimes you see the expected top dancers allowed to slide some in these early rounds of competition shows, but not this time – Wallace and Yibo both vote yes, but Jackson and Lay both abstain, and Jackson … wow. Wow. Is disappointed in them and expected more. Despite the fact that he’s like, 12, and that he’s done this to past groups just because he wanted to see them battle, a little bit this actually has a vague feeling of your dad telling you how much you’ve let him down. The audience is shocked, but I’m glad to hear someone say it. It was a good - if spotty - performance but certainly not the best we’ve seen.

So, we have a callout, and the group with Xiao Jie and Yang Kai, which also includes some guys named Shen Zi Hao, Xiao Zhi Bin and Oscar, pounces. And that is a very deliberate word choice, because these guys are on X-Crew like a lion on the trailing gazelle. They’re in their Men In Black suits (ETA: Wait, no, I think maybe they’re Agent Smith suits), and the audience of other competitors is losing it. Xiao Bao is very excited about Xiao Jie. Both Yibo and Jackson look like they’re in actual physical pain, to be forced to make the choice that’s coming up. Ting looks like she’s getting ready to throw up – she’s accepting this with less equanimity than she did the possible results of her initial performance, at least on the surface. I … am dreading losing her, actually, because I suspect that’s what’s getting ready to happen, and I am so so sorry, baby, that you worked so hard to carry your crew like that and they couldn’t keep their shit together. On the one hand, I’m impressed they’re pitting this level of competition against each other so early. On the other, I feel Jackson’s and Yibo’s pain. God. God. The Xiao Jie-Yang Kai group is here to f’kn battle. This is shaping up to be a slaughter. They are fast, clean, precise, great musicality, complex moves, super performance. They’re synchronized, high energy, fantastic animation – which could be a little cheesy, but they’re confident and fearless enough to pull it off - fun and interesting. They are maybe a little bit too gimmicky to be perfect for my taste, but I’m not the one voting them through, and what they’ve come up with is perfect for the audience that matters – the captains, the majority of which are 20-something-year-old boys – and knowing your audience, and performing for them, is a skill, too. BIGGEST (and frankly, only) ISSUE: Somebody fucked up a move, right at the beginning … I think maybe Yang Kai? (ETA: Yah, it was Yang Kai, ugh, what a time for that to happen.) If you’re going to fuck up, best to do it at the very beginning, I guess, and then give this performance afterward, to mitigate it as much as possible, but that one misstep gives the captains enough excuse put off a decision they really don’t want to make, like it’s not just going to make it worse to kick the can down the road a few minutes. Split vote, 2-2 (I thiiink, Yibo and Jackson for X-Crew, Lay and Wallace for the challengers?), which throws it to a further battle. Ting and Xiao Jie, one-on-one, and both of them are feeling the pressure of competing for their entire team instead of just themselves. Two rounds, hiphop and locking. So, each of them is better in their specialty. Ting’s got some fantastic, precise moves for the hiphop round. Xiao Jie is not as good in this round; I do notice he’s got a more directly confrontational style when he’s battling. I feel like she’s doing more waacking than locking in the locking round. Overall, she’s cleaner, more precise, he’s got a little bit more energy. I wouldn’t want to make this decision, frankly. I think Ting was better technically, but Xiao Jie might be the better performer – better at all that other stuff that adds up to stage presence. I do wonder how much of the captains’ decision is influenced by the groups, and who the captains are or aren’t willing to lose, even though it’s supposed to be based on this 1x1 battle. Just looking at who the show has put emphasis on already, we’ve got Ting vs. Xiao Jie AND Yang Kai, and I don’t know that they’re going to want to let that one-two punch go. Wallace votes Ting and X-Crew. Yibo and Lay vote Xiao Jie and the challengers. Jackson, the coward, abstains. Looks like Ting and X-Crew are going home, and this is the first cut that I’m genuinely upset about seeing. Ting feels bad for letting her crew down, but they let you down first, baby, or you wouldn’t even have been in that position.

Available seat check: 12. Dancers left: 27. Well.

We’re coming up on two hours now, and there’s clearly some kind of drama we want to get to, because we whip through the next few performances – few names, limited time spent on them. The ones who do make it through are likely cannon fodder in the next couple of rounds. There’s a group of four in khakis that gets sent through to the next round; Yibo liked their moves. Guy named Zhan Ke in a suit goes through to the next round. We’ve turned into a clip show now, and the screen literally says “ … ” at one point as each group of competitors gets 3 seconds of airtime. Cut to three seats left out of the 60. There’s about seven people left, and … that includes Chick. I have a sinking feeling this guy is going to be the real focus, at this point. He’s paired up with some dude named Long, and they have lost the bottle spin on callout after callout after callout, so they’ve never had a chance to challenge, and now, look at these morose motherfuckers, still sitting in the bleachers. I almost feel bad for them.

So, three seats left, and the next group is three people: Yang Qi aka “Apple” from Team Jackson, Lin from Team Lay and Bobo from Team Wallace. Urban dancers. I lose sound on them right at the beginning, but they’ve got some nice sharp moves, good choreography, they work well as a unit. Solid performance, if not the best we’ve seen. Apple’s got the best technique, I think. Audience likes them a lot. We get a cut to Chick and the other competitors who haven’t danced yet as we count down for the vote, and they are all dying. Three votes yes. Yibo abstains. Huang Bo is so prepared for this group to be sent right through that he starts clapping and congratulating them, and Yibo has to be all, “Wait, no. Not yet.” The captains give their reasoning: Jackson says that he felt their power, emotion, speed all deserved full marks. Yibo agrees.

Yibo agrees.

…

...

…

Their faces in response, y’all. Their little WTF faces as he explains that he really just wants to see the other dancers, too. Oh my god, Yibo. You can’t just say that out loud. Are you serious with this, you can’t even make up a thing to fake critique them on? Cut to a later interview with Bobo, who’s been the least able to school his face journey in response to this: “Wang Yibo, I won’t forget.” Also, Bobo says, you’re not even hot. (lol) Joking aside, the group goes on to make all the correct noises about sure, it’s a competition, you face competitors, it’s what happens, because what are you gonna say? Meanwhile, to be completely honest, I’m probably the person who’s been least able to school their face journey in response to this, because come on, Yibo. It’d be one thing if you were making some kind of statement about the way they set this up from the beginning, with all competitors unable to participate, but I’m pretty sure you’re actually doing this to give Chick another chance, because you have been inexplicably all up on his jock since he showed up, what is it about this guy? I don’t get it. At all.

So, we get a callout, and everyone left challenges, of course, because this is probably the last chance. The audience is rooting for Chick. I still don’t get it. Bottle spin ends up on … Zhao Hai Jie, from Team Wallace, who we’ve never yet seen perform. Here’s the thing: If he can win this battle, then he only takes one seat, leaving another two seats available. However, he is NOT going to win this battle, not without ripping off any figleaf of fair competition that the show may have, because he’s just not that great. If he wins, there’s no way around the fact, right in your face, that it’s a strategic vote. He does not win. Four votes for Apple, Lin and Bobo. Sixty seats filled.

HOWEVER, just in case you were worried there may be any integrity here, director Lu Wei comes ambling out to say, hey, you know those rules we have in place? Well, fuck ‘em. Who cares. Let everybody left battle, and whoever wins that battle can have a seat along with the 60 other people. I’m going to translate this one, because despite the limitations of my Level 1 Duolingo Mandarin, I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ and I feel like I’m pretty fluent in Dance Show BS: “We really want to keep somebody who’s left, so there’s going to be some chicanery on our part.” They really do not want Chick to go home, y’all. I know it’s him. It’s super extra obvious they’re desperately trying to save him, at this point. And I am here to tell you that if Chick ends up on this show and Ting goes home, there will be nothing on this earth that could possibly resurrect Chick from the Pit of My Dislike.

Anyway, we get Dai Dai from Team Lay, who describes herself as a fusion dancer and is pretty good for the first 40 seconds or so of her music and then completely loses the thread and kind of falls apart. The captains do not seem impressed. Possibly they also know we’re just killing time until we get to Chick. Up next is Su, who is Very Dramatic. He doesn’t say what team he’s from, but given Wallace’s reactions, I suspect he’s from Team Wallace. I suspect Yibo’s not going to like his face. His performance goes increasingly off the rails as he goes on. He’s got a lot of goodwill from the audience of competitors, but no. This is not a winning performance. And then we get Chick & Long, literally the last to perform. Chick spends the entire time doing A Bit. Long, who anyone barely remembers is even there, does 2/3+ of the dancing. Everyone – everyone – is apparently vastly entertained by Chick, and I just … :hands: Fine. He’s a character, but I have yet to see anything in three episodes, across, like, 7 hours, that lets me see whether he can really dance or not. Yibo literally tells Jackson, “He doesn’t have many tricks, but he’s got a ton of ideas” and later says he’s a B-boy without a power move. Anyway, one vote for Su (Wallace), three votes for Chick and Long. We’re at 62 dancers, and I cannot believe I’m going to be subjected to Chick’s continued clownery when Ting has to go home.

Thank GOD we’re activating the Special Guest Host Powers, the first of which is “REVIVE,” i.e., bring someone back who was eliminated. Yibo is immediately like, omg, the hip-hop group. Then we do Yet Another Bit where the captains cater to Huang Bo so that he’ll take their advice on who to revive, and it goes on too long when we are, my god, two hours and fourteen minutes into this. Meanwhile, Yibo reiterates, the hip-hop group. Yeah, Yibo, this I approve of - if I gotta watch you fall all over yourself over Chick, you need to get Ting back for me. So, we’re finally getting the captains’ actual recommendations: Jackson says the hip-hop group, possibly feeling bad about the fact that he’s the one who spiked their chance the first time around? Yibo is all, me too! Yes! That one! It’s kind of adorable. Also, yes, Yibo, you need to get Ting back for me. Lay says Li Yue and Sha Sha, the white and green snakes. Wallace recommends a popping group that I don’t even know if we saw perform? At any point in the past 7+ hours of three episodes? Wallace, are you high? Anyway, THANK GOD, Huang Bo brings back the X-Crew group. We’re at 67 dancers.

Second Special Guest Host Power is … “battle?” So, we’re setting up Qiang Qi Da Zhan, aka Seven to Smoke, which they’ve apparently done in past seasons? Each captain picks two people – eight total – to participate. Twenty minutes total. Increments of 30 seconds each to battle. And I guess you have to accumulate seven points in various battles. We don’t get to hear the captains’ picks, but I can see that AK Dong is called back for this one. Also, I spot one of the krumpers. (:eyeroll: Really, Lay? Because I know that was you.) We see some clips of this. We see AK Dong get to six points. He … maybe gets his seventh point? Anyway, he says in the last interview clip that he’s here. I guess we officially find out the Seven to Smoke results next ep?

Also next episode: Divided into two groups and battling by genre for the next elimination. Five rounds. Also looks like captains might get a chance to poach from other teams. Also some wacky fuckery with the dancers’ heads that looks like it’s going to be stomping all over my embarrassment squick, argh.

Finally, we get a peek at hotpot, and it sounds like they ended up with 70 dancers, so three people managed to get seven points in Seven to Smoke? And somebody’s mom is apparently coming to hotpot, but I’d have to watch the actual hotpot show to find out whose mom, and we’re out.

#wang yibo #jackson wang #lay zhang #zhang yixing #wallace chung #street dance of china #sdoc episode reax