#(or at least didn’t use in their debut gen)

[ranger-kellyn]

Do you think he knows??? About the trouble I just went through?? To evolve his ass???? Do you think he knows??? How many times I had to lose to cooltrainer nick??? And camper barry???? Do you think his smiling ass knows????

[heejinkwan]

[ STELLARS — a guide to astella’s fandom . ]

WHAT ARE STELLARS ? ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ stellars is the name given to the fanbase of kpop idol astella , the name was given to fans on january 10th , 2022 – three months after her debut . the fanbase is known for being fairly nice to get along with , only getting rowdy when it’s time to ‘ defend heejin ‘ . they’re very loyal , quite literally known for getting astella out of ‘ nugudom ‘ , convinced her company to have her perform at coachella , although she didn’t headline , it was still an amazing achievement for her . they even have their own community on twitter (x) , called stellars!

THE OFFICIAL STELLARS COLOURS ! ... the official colours for stellar are the swan ( #FCD417 ) , the sun ( #FF709C ) &&. the cyclop ( #FE8650 ) . each color is meant to represent astella’s growth ; her time in promise being the swan , first year as a soloist being the sun , and the cyclop being her revenge (reputation) era , the one she’s currently in .

THE OFFICIAL STELLAR LIGHTSTICK ( insp. venusvity ) ! ... THE FIRST lightstick , also known as the stellabong , was the very first light stick that dropped 2 months after astella’s initial debut in 2021 and came free with the physical album copy . stellars absolutely loved the design of the lightstick , it’s chargeable and can change into three different colors when you press the button , it is still available on astella’s website to this day .

THE ORIGINAL lightstick was released a month after the stellabong , it’s the only lightstick that stellars have where there is a handle. it’s known to be the least favorite light stick out of the the generations , although it is still used when astella performs on inkigayo or music bank , this really played into the mermaid feel a little bit , her international fans aren’t very fond of it , but her korean fans like it . the current retail price is $34 USD ( ₩45,307 ) , although as of 2024 it isn’t bought as much . however , at concerts astella still uses it whenever she can!

THE LATEST stellabong was release early june 2022 , just in time for astella’s performance at lollapalooza paris , replacing the previous one after a year run to mark the start of the ‘ revenge era ’ . simply being a modified version of the first gen stellabong , fans enjoyed improved shaping and quality , they definitely think this one is the best lightstick out of all three , it looks pretty , and just like the first one can change colors! the current retail price is 65$ USD ( ₩86,617 ) , astella likes to keep the prices of the lightstick’s in range so that most of her fans are able to afford it . but , there are still resellers in the fandom who either sell the lightstick for more or a cheaper price .

WHAT IS STELLARS FAVORITE ERA? ... NOBODY KNOWS is the most popular era out of all of astella’s comebacks so far , she gained tons of fans during this era and going viral almost every day thanks to her beauty . in a fan vote , 50.5% of stellars said they liked this era the best . ever since this era started , stellars started to get the ‘ stellars are so toxic ‘ treatment , they don’t care , they obviously act the way they do because of all the things heejin has been through . she also is active a lot on bubble and instagram threads , where she talks abiht things behind the scenes .

SUGARCOAT comes second in terms of popularity , having been voted by 45.1% of fans . most of this popularity stems from the fact that she just got out of her contract with her old company , almost getting blacklisted , and her name being infamous for the amount of months she was gone , a lot of the streams from this song , which garnered over 70 million views , came from people hate watching , wanting to see what’s all the hype about , but they ended up loving the song . before nobody knows became the best era in stellars eyes , sugarcoat was their roman empire .

QUEENDOM , is in third place , with a whopping 5.05% , queendom was the era of heejin being in promise , stellars don’t even want to talk about astella being the group . a lot of them like to pretend she was never in the group and was always a soloist after finding out in the lawsuit she made against her old company of the way she was treated , stellars don’t hold anything against the girls! a lot of them are still fans of them , they just won’t hesistate to hate on the company , a lot of ‘ toxic stellars ‘ would berate the members , saying they should’ve said something about her mistreatment but seeing how they really had no power stellars understand why the girls didn’t say anything . but it is thought to be known that the members still support her and astella does the same .

very much inspired by @mvneaten btw! it’s this post!

[attuncd]

tw: child abuse, child exploitation, grooming.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ 4TUNE ﹙ 4곡조 ; pronounced ATTUNE ﹚❫ is a south korean boy group formed and managed by LIGHT UP ENTERTAINMENT. originally known as a predebut group called DRAGON BOYS ( due to all of the members being born in 2000, making dragon their chinese zodiac sign ), despite their young age, the six members XIN, JITAE, YUYEON, JAEHO, JIANHAO, and KAIZ would quickly cement themselves as an act other third gen groups should be worried about; being the fastest group to achieve a perfect all kill, and winning best new artist and a dasaeng for song of the year at the mama awards just months after their debut.

like everything else, 4TUNE’s highs were also accompanied by lows. behind the scenes, the boys were pressured to be nothing short of perfect. being LIGHT UP ENTERTAINMENT’s only act, they were constantly forced to practice and make several comebacks and appearances to uphold their reputation.

the company was starving for fame and more specifically money. they would sell the boys personal schedules and sometimes even the hotel rooms they were staying at to get extra cash here and there. the boys had no privacy at all.

just before their first comeback, their original seventh member YESEONG would be pulled out of the company by his parents due to them being concerned about his safety. after seeing the other members with bruises YESEONG’s parents would also try to contact the other parents to let them see what was truly going on. but the boys were already so accustomed to it that they convinced their parents to let them stay. after all, they had been told that this was the price to fame, and that every other company would do the same.

the company would be under control of 4TUNE from their debut in 2016 until early 2024 when their contract would be terminated by LIGHT UP, harmonies are still awaiting the news of the group being bought by another company.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ YUYEON ﹙ 임유연 ; lim yu yeon ﹚❫ is the leader of boy group 4TUNE born march 31st, 2000. he started training because he loved dancing, he went to the audition with his friend YESEONG and didn’t really expect much from it but got accepted anyways. he’s always been very quiet and shy, the most introverted in the group. to be honest he’s never really been very confident in his abilities as a leader; and it’s often speculated that he was chosen for such role because he was the least likely to talk back and protest to the things happening to the group. despite being really quiet off stage, he really tends to shine on stage. many harmonies say that he’s the member that drew them to 4TUNE.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: yuyeon.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: lim yu yeon.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( OTHER NAME: aiden lim.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: march 31st, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: aries.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: south korean.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: hwang hyun jin.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 179 cm.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ XIN ﹙ 黄雨馨 ; huang yu xin ﹚❫ is the oldest member of kpop boy group 4TUNE born february 14th, 2000. xin is almost ALWAYS in his own world, if you watch their variety show he’s spaced out, behind the scenes of practices, spaced out. its something that took the staff a while to get used to. he’s often oblivious to the things going around him or even involving him and the members have to explain things several times for him to understand. the one thing that does come easily to xin though is music, in fact he has perfect pitch. he’s played the cello and viola since he was a child, and because of this passion he wanted to be an idol.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: xin.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: huang yu xin.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: february 14th, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: aquarius.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: chinese.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: zhang hao.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 181 cm.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ JITAE ﹙ 지태 ; ji tae ﹚❫ is the second oldest member of kpop boy group 4TUNE born march 12th, 2000. jitae is someone who’s very confident and secure within himself. he’s the social butterfly of the group, if 4TUNE is friends with anyone outside of their group its probably because jitae set them up. he LOVES talking to people and making friends. however, with his charms also comes stubbornness. he is very hard to reason with, and often gets into arguments with 4TUNE’s staff and managers because he just does not know how to shut up even if it would save his life. he was urged to start training because his parents were worried that with his mouth that he wouldn’t be employed otherwise.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: jitae.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: ji tae.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: march 12th, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: pisces.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: south korean.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: park jihoon ( treasure ).

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 178 cm.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ JAEHO ﹙ 민재호 ; min jae ho ﹚❫ is the third youngest member of kpop boy group 4TUNE born july 18th, 2000. jaeho is someone who seeks action in order to live a “fulfilling life”. because of this he is considered rather impulsive and reckless. he does things without putting much thought into it because he believes no matter if it goes well or not, he’s still going to have fun, and no matter the reaction he still technically got something out of it. he joined the company because of this, he was dared to send in a rap audition as a joke and being someone who doesn’t not fulfill dares, he did it. he was just shocked when he got in.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: jaeho.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: min jae ho.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: july 18th, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: cancer.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: south korean.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: lee dong hyuck.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 175 cm.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ JIANHAO ﹙ 蔡建豪 ; tsai jian hao ﹚❫ is the second youngest member of kpop boy group 4TUNE born october 29th, 2000. jianhao is the most 4TUNE person ever, he is the definition of someone who wants to just live his youth to the fullest that he can. which is why he and jaeho aren’t allowed to be alone together. he’s known for liking to have fun, but only for a little while. he will try literally anything at least once. he’s flirty with anyone he meets but is TERRIBLE at any kind of commitment. he wants to be known and famous forever and he doesn’t not really care how he does it.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: jianhao.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: tsai jianhao.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( OTHER NAME: jacob tsai.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: october 29th, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: scorpio.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: taiwanese.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: liu yang yang.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 174 cm.

❪﹝ ฺ★˒ KAIZ ﹙ 말라카이 ��� ; malakai hong ﹚❫ is the maknae of kpop boy group 4TUNE born november 11th, 2000. while on the outside he has a confident and intimidatingly charming personality, on the inside he’s just a boy anxious about everyone’s opinion on him. he’s grown up in the spotlight and has had his life constantly monitored to the point that he gets so excited when someone shows the slightest bit of interest or appreciation of him. he strives on words of validation, something his members make sure to do often. he fears being forgotten and alone because maybe he isn’t as cool as he wants people to think he is.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( STAGE NAME: kaiz.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTH NAME: malakai hong.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( OTHER NAME: hong seok hwan.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( BIRTHDAY: november 11th, 2000.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( ZODIAC SIGN: scorpio.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( NATIONALITY: american.

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( FACECLAIM: kim sun woo ( tbz ).

𓍢 ✷ꜜ ࣪ .( HEIGHT: 178 cm.

[superm4ks]

Do you maybe know if there are articles with the reactions of younger drivers to max coming into f1? Like maybe what drivers like esteban, pierre, alex, charles or even like george were thinking at that time. I'm just really curious to know what the younger Gen of drivers (especially esteban since he won the previous championship) were saying when they saw one of their peers in a f1 car, winning in an f1 car, before they were even on the grid.

Thats a fun question!! idk if I went looking for it the right way but well here u go. 😽🌼

Just somethign to keep in mind is that teen athletes are literally being held at gunpoint at all times by somebody whose sole job is to make sure everybody likes them and they're like thee most employable people in the world. So they wont exactly come out and say how they feel in that moment u shud prolly look to older drivers or mentors or pundits for that. Also Reddit is down and that’s usually where u can find some real juicy and biased one liners without context. The real stuff yk.

Ok so in 2015/2016 I think all Esteban said when asked was that Max had become his 'reference point' and that he hoped to join Max in f1 and ‘eventually beat him’. But something he's admitted since then is that Max's f1 debut was 'difficult to swallow' because he was the one who was winning in f3 and yet Max got the invite. I think Esteban understands why and ultimately he used Max's achievement as motivation, and still does. Last year he called Max a ‘shining example of their generation of drivers’ which I thought was very beautiful.

Baby sharls declarations to the media on the other hand are literally just chatgp wid a mortal conscience. No fr. In 2014 he called Max a 'formidable rival' and said competing wid Max 'builds character' and 'multiple crashes wid Max on track gave him 'additional experience’ in his career. Also ‘coming within 2 seconds of Max Verstappen in KTM was exceptional’. 😭 bro had that experience section LOCKED he wasn’t taking any chances. George I couldn’t find any quotes from that year but George has always had a backhanded type of media game he likes to play wid Verstappen that imo, is very insecure and boring. Last year he said that Max was ‘very patient wid Red Bull’ because in ‘5 years he only won won like 8 races’ and now this season he’s won ‘like 15’. Even tho he ‘deserved to fight for titles sooner’ he didn’t have a ‘championship car’ and now he does so he can. Remarkable. George later adds to this completely unprompted that maybe if Max had ‘signed wid merc first’ and gotten Lewis Hamilton for a teammate’ he wudnt have had such an ‘easy time’ and maybe his career wud resemble George’s more. I have nothing to say to this because I’m an incredibly mature person and it’s pride month. I will instead take a sip of water and listen to my gf snore and wonder what nick latifi is doing. If hes happy.

Now here is where we’re gonna put the Max Generational Limit because the following drivers are all at least 2 years older than Max and had their careers inadvertently shaped by helmut putting an underage child in a f1 car.

So Daniil Kvyat as u can imagine wasn’t exactly ✨thrilled ✨ considering max went on to steal his seat ((and his baby mama.😐😐)). When asked about the mid season swap wid Max he said, ‘I don't know, 18 years old is probably on the edge. But who can say? It is his seat now and it is up to him to do something with it’. To Kvyats credit Max did do something wid it lmfao. He has also recently talked about rbr ‘stabbing him in the back’ and that he wishes he could’ve ‘competed wid Max in equal machinery’ in toro rosso which is funny to me because the mf who did that also got beat for the rbr seat. 😐

Carlos unfortunately suffered from the incurable Max Rivalry disease that has affected 1 in 100 drivers in the world is highly contagious and symptoms include: hallucinations, helmut marko hate crimes, possible mclaren implications. In 2014 while helmut was reshaping pediatric care under the guise of a ‘Junior Programme’ and floating the idea of signing Max because he’s literally allergic to not giving everybody the tea all the time Carlos immediately said he ‘deserved the rbr seat more than Max’ because ‘Max was third in his championship and was beat by another rookie’ ((ESTEBAN MENTION)) and Carlos was ‘the level above that’ which I presume is like Jesus. So ok he wasn’t. That’s fine, it happens, its the disease. Pierre. I don’t care for Pierre he was terminal.

Finally, Alex. Again I literally couldn’t find any direct quote from 2014-2016 about Max but in 2020 Alex said even in karting max was already ‘the young guy to beat’. He’s also made some infamous comments about the way rbr builds their cars that he’s had to backtrack and explain so many times and I kinda feel bad for him because he’s sm bigger than his time wid Red Bull it shouldn’t even matter anymore. However. He did give us this sexy quote on verstappen’s untamable big nosed twin: ‘And when I got into the Red Bull … I mean there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn. If you play Call of Duty, or a game like that, turn your sensitivity up to the highest it will go. That’s what it’s like to drive that car’ 😋

[frozenangelcosplay]

The Case for Jimmywing

You can skip to “Let’s start at the beginning” for the actual content of what I’m analyzing.

So about a year and a half ago, I happened upon a trade paperback of “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: who killed Jimmy Olsen” at a comic book store we regularly drive an hour just to go to. I found the coat tail riding title self deprecating and hilarious and it instantly became a favorite of mine. And it fucking ruined my life.

For a split second I mistook Jimmy Olsen for being part of Nightwing’s “Ginger Harem” as they call it. I thought “he had to be, right? Like statistically?” He’s part of the young adult demographic, or ‘gen 2’ as I call them, he and Dick are both huge parts of Clark’s life to the extent where they gotta at least be friends, and no one would be shocked if he was one of the redhead’s Dick’s “collected” as they say. So why the hell was there nothing on the internet falling for this obvious set up?

(For context the human geography of fandom behavior is of high interest to me)

This was quite a bit of an anomaly, so I set out for some research. I brushed over results from the silver age initially and saw there was just one panel coming up with both of them in present art style (a twenty years in the future thing). It was more of a Jimmy Olsen cameo than anything where all I learned is they’re not familiar these days. I still liked the idea though and if I left my digging there I probably would’ve let it go a while ago. But then I looked INTO the silver age stuff and OH BOY IS THERE A LOT TO UNPACK HERE.

Long story short, they were written as close friends for years and I feel like DC is trying to gaslight me personally into pretending it didn’t happen. There’s a lot of potential to pick up where they left off with everything that’s happened in their stories since but there’s little to no sign of taking advantage of that anytime soon.

Let’s start at the beginning…

In 1940 both Batman and Superman separately acquired child sidekicks. A pair of eyes in the story the same age of the target audience’s to see themselves in and relate to. Robin would make his debut in the comics as Batman’s sidekick, would be Bruce Wayne’s legal ward, and also dawn combat training, gadgets, and a costumed vigilante identity. Jimmy Olsen would be a cub reporter at the daily planet where Clark Kent worked (a position specified beyond it’s dictionary definition as a teen internship position in “Superman Smashes the Klan”, which is set in the radio show cannon) and help at Superman’s side as himself.

Later, particularly with the classic comic run “World’s Finest”, in a world much less saturated with superheroes, let alone sidekicks, than we have today, the sidekicks of the stars of these comics easily became close friends. Most notable adventure by today’s standard would be World’s finest # 195, probably due to it’s shock and meme value cover of Batman and Superman making their sidekicks dig their own graves.

A personal favorite of mine would be World’s Finest #141 where the sidekicks run away to an island and fake their deaths, making it the first of at least twice they do that together (another being near the end of #195). Here they establish a secret hideout in the mountains in an abandoned observatory to keep souvenirs from their respective mentor’s adventures, and some of their own. (Notably two dummies of themselves Batman and Superman had just used to get back at them for pulling this stunt).

In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Jimmy has also filled in for Robin twice. First time was to get Jimmy into the Mystery analysts (#111), second was to settle a bet after Robin beat him in a “Young Man of the Year” pageant (#130). In #111 this is where Robin trained Jimmy in combat, and some gadget use so he’s got that under his belt now enough to do it all again at least.

Also quick fun fact before I move on, Jimmy knew Robin and Batman’s secret identities LONG before he knew Superman’s. In World’s Finest #144, due to the fact that Jimmy was radiating kryptonite, he and Robin switched mentors and Batman pretty much immediately told him that he was Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson was Robin (told with Robin’s approval). A bit of an anomaly, but it carried forth in continuity.

Anyway, if you try to look up any shared adventure’s in recent comics, you’ll unceremoniously get nothing. I mentioned earlier Jimmy’s cameo in “Nightwing the New Order”, and there’s also like two crossed paths in the current World’s Finest run (a flashback continuity) and it just seemed like their dynamic then was just that Robin was relatively annoyed with Jimmy for being the one to debunk Mr. Mxyzptlk and Batmite’s disguises. (Rude?!)

I can’t find ANYTHING that explains this drift. My estimate would be that their dynamic died out some time between Dick joining the Titans and becoming Nightwing. But still remains a glaring connection.

Nightwing and Flamebird

So the first time that the Nightwing mantle debuted it was Superman as Nightwing with Jimmy as Flamebird. They went as these heroes into the bottle city of Kandor on multiple occasions. At the time they modeled these personas off of two kinds of birds found in Kandor, taking inspiration from Batman and Robin. The people of Kandor were convinced that Superman was actively refusing to grow the city again, and deemed him an enemy, which justified the disguises.

You still see this referenced every now and then, usually in museums and stuff, in fact, remember that observatory hideout? Statues and/or costumes of Superman’s and Jimmy’s Nightwing and Flamebird are on prominent display. In fact, Robin and Jimmy landed on naming the place itself “The Eyrie”, because as Robin said:

“In a way, we’re both birds. You’ve been Flamebird, and I’m Robin. So let’s call it the Eyrie!”

They revisit it now and then, but it seems to have been forgotten at this point.

Now since then there have been multiple pairs of Nightwings and Flamebirds. Obviously we know Dick Grayson is THE Nightwing and has been for a long time. The most consistent Flamebird however would be Bette Kane, and here’s where this gets interesting.

So there’s a full Krytonian legend surrounding Nightwing and Flamebird, from what I can tell, different versions, from heroes to gods etc. The most complete version I can only find on the wiki, so if you know where it’s from please let me know!

Here’s the link: https://superman.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwing_and_Flamebird

Here’s the quote:

“The true Flamebird is a massive, flaming dragon-like creature from deep in Krypton's past. The bird's partner is Nightwing, who is also its mate and opposite.

Among the early Kryptonian Gods, Flamebird was charged by almighty Rao with constantly refreshing the world by burning down the new creations of her brother, Vohc-The-Builder. She did so, but there was no hostility between the two; Vohc was grateful that Flamebird constantly pushed him to reimagine his works.

However, to help his friend, Nightwing, Vohc made it possible for him to meet flamebird. As such those two fell in love. Vohc's next creation was a monument representing all of his love for Flamebird. While Flamebird truly admired and appreciated the work, she fulfilled her duty to Rao by burning it down. This time Vohc actually begged for this work to be saved, but Flamebird ignored him. This destroyed much of Vohc and changed him into Vohc-The-Breaker. (Comic Series: Action Comics)

In each cycle, the Nightwing and the Flamebird are reborn, and must find each other. Also in each cycle, they are betrayed by a friend and killed.”

It cites action comics but I can’t narrow it down. My guess is that it came up when Thara Ak-Var and Chris Kent held the mantles.

So Bette Kane initially took up the Flamebird mantle to get Dick’s attention (while he was still Robin). He rejected her and it didn’t really work out which in the grand scheme of all things considered, makes sense thematically in a “pushing fate” kind of way. She was Flamebird for a while after that, even seen fighting beside Dick Grayson’s Nightwing every now and then, but hasn’t been Flamebird since before rebirth so currently no one seems to hold the mantle at present (technically).

So where does that leave Flamebird now?

Well this year, two interesting things have come up. One, in the new cartoon “My Adventures with Superman”, Jimmy is Flamebird again in the form of a username for his conspiracy blog. As of now, he just seemed to come up with it cause it sounds cool, so unless they pull out a “what a coincidence” or back story of how he found the name, that’s probably the extent of Flamebird’s roll there.

The second is in Action Comics #1058 where Kara reveals that Nightwing and Flamebird is actually the fable of the House of El. Each Krytonian house had a fable and this one is spesific to Superman and his family.

Now from here on out this is all just my thinking. “Theory” would even be a strong word implying that I legitimately think this is what is going on. Call this “if I were in charge of this story this is how this would go”

So what now?

Dick as a fated Nightwing makes so much sense for him. Pretty much all of his best qualities as a person can be seen in Superman and in it’s been said time and time again that he got the title from him. There’s that connection. That has my thinking that Nightwing and Flamebird would have a strong connection to the House of El, i.e., Superman. We know Nightwing is Dick, we know Dick looks up to Superman like, frankly most of the time, a better dad than Bruce. Low bar, but still.

And with this connection in mind, and all the history stated earlier with not just Jimmy’s long history with not just Dick, but Superman as well, he seems like the obvious choice to me. They state over and over again how Jimmy proves his loyalty, he’ll charge into danger like it’s nothing (a trait I personally think he picked up from Lois) and he is always such a fun narrator when handed the mic. He’s earned it.

As far as the ship goes, aside from it potentially being a huge payoff for a sixty year old saga of legends of love, heroism, and fate, the dynamics of their modern personalities would be unparalleled.

Over all its fricken WEIRD that their dynamic was just randomly forgotten like that, especially with everything built around them that you’d think would have them at least cross paths. I don’t hold not having a romantic relationship between them against DC, nor do I ever expect them to ever take that route any times soon, but come on man why aren’t they at least friends anymore?

[gladiatorcunt]

Didn’t know you were a kpop fan babe 😧 Kinda not surprised, but still… Your faves?

“kinda not surprised” erm

(i got into it like around 2015 and i typically go for 3rd gen to earlier when it comes to music, also i don’t interact with any fandoms on social media anymore since i’ve gotten older (and i don’t rlly keep up with the idols themselves) beyond what edits i see or what gets so popular i have to see it on my fyp)

red velvet (my girlies)

loona (haseul could’ve been the baekhyun of loona if they used her properly beyond 1 line)

exo (masterclass in discography and actually being a capital i idol but also mess and mismanagement, arguably a big part of some of their issues is the tension between sk and china, etc.)

vixx (still a fair bit underrated imo when you consider how long they’ve been active, their vocal ability, being known for their concepts, like ughhhhh leo is one of the only idols who i will be like ‘that’s my husband and we have 6 kids <3’ about)

monsta x (very solid discography, talented, rappers that genuinely have something which there a lot of rappers in kpop groups just bc they’re trying to get appeal, still mildly irritated over the wonho thing bc the way companies deal with stuff like that when the idol is innocent is just so annoying. queen is one of the best bsides in kpop history.)

ramble under the cut

honorary shinee (jonghyun is my golden standard male vocalist), boa, snsd, sunmi, btob mentions

unfortunately jay park is cute and i do like mommae, dean’s like one album he did (i didn’t listen to the other one if that even was a full second album), i used to fw hyuna but she’s pissed me the fuck off

fave time out jail ig: bts (just really grew out of being into them ig since boy with luv came out, some of their tiktok fanbase proudly bullying people and how i feel about the quality of their music now (missing house of cards type quality) + the western validation debate + being on tumblr when people made jungkook’s whole personality at 19 yrs old being goo goo ga ga over banana milk and having a noona kink)), nct (the t*eil thing, but imo if people like that want to hide then they will so i think at least some of the members didn’t know, i don’t keep up with that so i’m not sure if any other info has since come out. i believe he did it with how things are rn and as a csa survivor i just feel a bit gross with being overly supportive of them)

and then there is the can of worms that is the group named after colors (another case where imo they were better earlier on, playing with fire >>>>)

i don’t really have any 4th gen faves, i love ateez and i like some stray title tracks (as in random not stray kids lmao) & bsides from groups here and there

i have mixed feelings about 4-5th gen (imo music is not the focus so much as international reach and social media presence), riize (wonbin is so fine though like sm employs pretty boy idols and refuses to manage them properly) and new jeans (i really wished i liked their music because literally everyone else does), ive’s title tracks are pretty solid (i don’t know anything about their bsides), le sserafim is ehhhhhhhh (i think i literally only like anti fragile + they do need to improve technically for me), enhyphen (i will say is the closet to being a fave for me because i eat up their obsessive songs that are apparently about their webtoon???????? and that one jyp cover (i assume bc he was there) bangs, also again they’re fine 😖)

for the life of me i can’t fully commit to aespa but their concept is cool (and the lore should stick to them and not be attached to every sm group imo)

talking about the songs i like & listen to regularly/industry opinions is a different discussion (that i dipped into too much here) i fear so i’ll shut up!!! i could probably get back into it if a company debuted a group and was like ‘안녕하세요! we are D.I.L.F!’ and the members are all at least in their mid 40’s and they groan when they try to bow

[married-2-the-music]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: TXT

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

Here are my credentials: yeah…none. I think the amount of TXT songs I know can be counted on one hand, and besides one, they’re all singles. But like with BTS, I’ve been a K-pop fan for four years and I figured that it was about time I make an effort to give them a try. It’s funny; I feel like with every girl group I cover I’m like “well obviously it was July 2017 because Joy had red hair” and with every boy group I’m like “um…are there seven or eight of them again?”

But I digress. TXT was formed in 2019, by Big Hit Entertainment, with five members (and yes, it’s five, I googled it, I promise), Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Heuning Kai, Soobin, and Taehyun, and they’ve been pretty popular since then, which is an achievement in and of itself, coming from an agency best known for the biggest boy group of all time.

They debuted with double title tracks, the first of which was Crown. With the somewhat moodier image they have now, I didn’t expect to think their debut so adorable, but that’s definitely the word I’d use. Despite them being a 4th generation group, the way this is shot, the bright colors, and the comic book drawings remind me very much of late 2nd, early 3rd gen, which hey, I’m not complaining. The song, fittingly, is upbeat and bubbly, very much pop with some synthy influence. Overall, I liked it, as a 2nd and 3rd fan, but something about it doesn’t leave that much of an impact on me. Maybe it’s that I’m not the biggest fan of very young-sounding music, and this is a little too reminiscent of Chewing Gum by NCT Dream for my liking.

Cat + Dog is also from this first EP, and basically all of the comments I had for Crown repeat here, though I did like Crown more. I know that this is more me than the song, but something about this one just…creeped me out?, in a way that Crown didn’t. I know that they were young when this came out (between 16 and 19), but they’re acting like they’re 10 and it’s a bit unnerving. From the EP The Dream Chapter: Star, I liked the calmer but still poppy beat of Our Summer, though I wish it was a little slower to stand out from the other songs in the album more.

Run Away is a song I’d already heard from TXT, but I like it more in the context of their work thus far. It’s still pop, still full of that youthful energy and hope, but leans into an ethereal and nostalgic feeling, and overall feels a lot more suited to them as older teenagers. It has some good humor, and both its Harry Potter references and its message of running away from the monotony and cruelty of the real world with your friends turns it into something universal.

From The Dream Chapter: Magic, I enjoyed the odd percussion and the melodic chanting in New Rules, the gentle vocals in Magic Island, and the sweet love story between childhood friends in 20 CM. My favorite was probably Can’t We Just Leave The Monster Alive, for the interesting trope deconstruction and its encouragement of taking your own path in life.

Can’t You See Me starts with some interesting almost-stop-motion in its ruffling pages, and I couldn’t decide where I thought it was going to go. At first, it combines both the young love idea of Crown and the themes of magic and isolation from the world from Run, which work pretty well, but it soon devolves into something resembling a cry for help with its unusual structure and odd vocal fry segways. It leans very into ethereal, while speaking about the dark side of a friendship gone bad. It took me a couple listens to make up my mind, but I do like this one.

From The Dream Chapter: Eternity, I had two standouts in Fairy of Shampoo and Maze In The Mirror. Fairy of Shampoo (despite the odd name) feels a bit like floating with its citypop synth and jazzy background, and I wish it’d been promoted as a special single instead of Puma. Maze In The Mirror is another song here that was written by the members themselves about their time as trainees, the difficulties they faced, and their friendship. As I’ve said before, some of my favorite songs in k-pop are this kind of acoustic, genuine b-sides that convey such honest emotions, so of course I loved this one.

Blue Hour’s very calm vocalizing and acoustics caught me off guard before the synths I was expecting came in, and I found myself nodding my head. Like with Run, I appreciated the brightness and humor here much more than I did in the first couple of songs because I thought it was better balanced here without overdoing it on the aegyo. It’s not a world-changing song, but I did have a good time with it and it made me laugh a few times (especially with that cowboy hat because what on earth were they thinking).

Minisode 1: Blue Hour reminds me a lot of BTS’ ON album, down to having a song about COVID (in this case the aptly titled We Lost The Summer), which I can’t bring myself to actually critique because of how sweet it is, though in the year of the whoever 2023 I wince to remember 2020. Besides it, I loved the airy vocals and video game esque synthy production on Ghosting and the anthemic chorus in Wishlist.

0X1=Lovesong was another song I had already heard of TXT’s, because I happen to be a fan of Seori, who’s featured on this track, and I have to say that my biggest gripe with the track is that she’s just not featured enough, but that’s really the only criticism I have of this one. I confess that I love this song, and it was actually the reason I wanted to do this review. Remember how I called Wishlist anthemic? Well, clearly I don’t know the meaning of the word, or didn’t until I heard this song. It takes TXT’s youthful energy and pairs it with a full on alt-rock ballad. It feels like a follow-up to Run with its immaculate roadtrip energy, and though the verses are a bit slow, that chorus is just a knockout and just makes me want to be a kid again, grab my best friend’s hand, and run for the goddamn hills. Probably won’t be lighting a car on fire, though, sorry.

Far be it from me to dissuade from some extra drama, but LO$ER=LOVER…well, it’s giving full on “when I was…a young boy…my father took me into the city…”. No but really, I want to think that this level of ridiculousness is some kind of intentional My Chemical Romance parody, because it’s honestly hilarious. It has some of that anthemic quality that I so loved in Lovesong, but that great build-up in the front half of the chorus is just undercut by a lack of payoff and the abject silliness that is “I’m a loser, I’m a loser, lover with a dollar sign is a loser.” I think that I would like this more if I was sure that the joke is intentional, but I’m honestly not sure that it is. Either way, they’re clearly having a lot of fun with this, so it’s tough to dislike.

From The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape, I have a lot to talk about, since it’s such a long album. Firstly, I already knew the chorus of Anti-Romantic due to its popularity, but I liked it more in context with the rest of the song. No Rules (which I assume is a follow-up to New Rules) has a great beat and in my humble opinion, there’s never enough disco. MOA Diary, a song for their fans, is very sweet and I can totally see it being a crowd favorite at a concert; I loved the harmonizing. Dear Sputnik was probably my favorite though; it’s another song written by one of the members and has an excellent alt-rock drive that totally should’ve made it be the single instead of LO$ER=LOVER.

Good Boy Gone Bad had me wincing before it even began, because the title already hints towards more non-self aware drama. And it turns out my instincts were right, because while LO$ER=LOVER is so ridiculous it’s basically camp, Good Boy Gone Bad just had me rolling my eyes and wondering not why the good boy had in fact gone bad but why I had to hear about it. Also why Yeonjun was driving a motorcycle in a faux fur coat, but that’s a story for another time.

From the EP Thursday’s Child, which is the second “minisode”, I liked the intro Opening Sequence more than I expected, mostly due to the charisma in their vocals, which really do the heavy lifting in such a minimalistic song. I also enjoyed Trust Fund Baby (give it a chance, I know the title doesn’t inspire confidence), again due to the strength of their vocals and the emotion they carry, when singing a song about a relationship that’s ended due to poverty. This is overall a very melancholy EP, a sharp contrast to Blue Hour’s optimism. Even the more synthy Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go isn’t totally upbeat, but as an album closer, it does hold a little hope that things won’t always be bleak and ended up being my favorite.

Sugar Rush Ride is, thankfully, a return to the synthy, ethereal, upbeat sound that has become TXT’s signature for its verses and pre-choruses, but for some reason opts for a very simple whistling hook and an incredibly jarring anti-drop chorus instead of resolving its great build-up. The bridge, likewise, feels harsh in what’s otherwise a calm song, and honestly, I find this song more disappointing than I would if it used a style I hate throughout, because I really enjoy the greater part of it…but I just can’t get past that chorus.

From The Name Chapter: Temptation, there’s three b-sides I want to talk about. Devil By The Window is a fully English song, which normally I would complain about, as I often do. But this one’s actually really good; it’s tense, attention-grabbing, and has a very taut arrangement. Also, this is probably me reading too much into it, but the chorus is giving me such queer energy (“I met the devil by the window, traded my life, temptation touched my tongue, spread the wings of desire. He’s whispering ‘give up, don’t you put up a fight.’”). But…c’mon guys, maybe I’ve missed something, but last time I checked straight people don’t get seduced by random devils of the same gender standing near their window, but hey, how should I know?

Besides that, I also liked the acoustic guitar in the pop-rock Farewell, Neverland and the chill vocals here as they sing goodbye both to a childhood lover and to childhood as a whole. Tinnitus (Wanna Be A Rock) pleasantly surprised me with its Afro-pop influences, because it’s not a common pairing in k-pop and I was surprised by how well it works here. Also, apparently some of the members wrote both of these, so kudos!

Do It Like That is an English-language collaboration with the Jonas Brothers, and between its very mainstream pop sound, the English, and its beat, I admit that it gave me war flashbacks to Dynamite. Here is where I invoke my disclaimer of: Dynamite is not a bad song (see my way-too-long BTS review for a whole two paragraphs of thoughts on that), but k-pop doesn’t need to try and replicate it. I know that this is totally down to my own bias, because Do It Like That isn’t a bad song either, but I won’t be returning to whatever concerningly white void they filmed this in anytime soon.

Back For More is another English-language collaboration, this time with Brazilian singer Anitta. I was preparing myself for another paragraph of disclaimers and having to do some overly dramatic sighing, but actually, I liked this! It feels like any other TXT single with its disco influences and catchy beat, just in another language, as it should be. I also appreciate that they collaborated with a Latin pop star, who sings in both English and her own language too, which made it feel less like a cop-out. The first time I heard this one, it was the shortened version that they performed at the VMAs, but the longer version with the bridge really elevates the song and I’m glad I watched it. It’s not my favorite but I’m not going to throw a tantrum if it comes on.

Chasing That Feeling is from their latest comeback just a month or so ago. I was feeling optimistic from the first verse’s beat, although after being burned by Sugar Rush Ride, I was still a bit wary. But, thankfully, Chasing That Feeling does what it predecessors didn’t do: it delivers, with those head-bopping synths, citypop influences, and electronic background. I admit that I wish it had a bit more of a climax and went against the grain, but it’s hard to not be won ever when a song’s chorus starts by saying “I’ve turned my back on heaven” and telling fate “come on and kiss me”.

The Name Chapter: Freefall is another full length album, so I have a lot of highlights. I loved the exploration of a harsher version of rock mixed with metal in the teen angst driven Growing Pain, which their voices were surprisingly suited to. I also enjoyed the vulnerability and slowing rising vocals in Deep Down’s pre-chorus, the acceptance that “life is not a fairytale” but is still worth living in Happily Ever After, and the moody Skipping Stones, which tells the listener not to be too hard on themselves, because what they’re going through will pass. I think that Skipping Stones was also written by the members themselves.

So, I enjoyed this more than I expected! I confess that I did expect something similar to BTS, which is probably unfair given the fact that besides having the same company, they have nothing to do with each other. Calm down, I’m not laminating my stan card just yet. I’m not a MoA, but I think that I could probably consider myself at least a casual fan after this. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe the next comeback will absolutely blow me away.

My Top 5 songs are Lovesong, Run Away, Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go, Dear Sputnik, and Maze In The Mirror, with Skipping Stones as an honorable mention. TXT gets an 8.75 out of 10 from me, which, again, is a surprise for both of us. I do love synth, rock pop, and disco, and I’m excited by the fact that they’ve already written a bunch of songs. Here’s hoping that they keep getting better and they end up getting as much creative freedom as some entirely self-produced groups.

We’ll be covering a girl group next week (that was supposed to be a one parter but accidentally became two posts long, oops), so stay tuned! Tschüss!

[cephalog0d]

Batfic - "Catch!"

Rating: General Audiences Category: Gen Characters/Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd Additional Tags: Canon Adjacent (mainly to Nightwing Year One with some Robin Year One in there, too), Jason Todd is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing (specifically Discowing), Sibling Bonding Words: 1,197

There was a small collection of batarangs spread out on the work table; nothing about them was obviously different from the ones Dick remembered, but maybe Bruce was just messing with composition again in his eternal quest for perfection. Dick picked up two of them and inspected them, absently testing the weight and balance. They felt the same as always to him, although in fairness it had been a bit since he had actually used proper batarangs. He smiled lightly, grabbed another one and idly started juggling them in a wide, easy loop. Good to know the important skills hadn’t faded with disuse.

In which Dick teaches Jason how not to lose a finger juggling batarangs.

Full text under the cut or over on AO3!

It was weird being back in the Cave. Most of it was exactly what he remembered, all the computers and scientific instruments, the trophies and training equipment, but there were little changes that made the whole thing feel a little uncanny. Upgraded gear laid out for repairs or maintenance, smaller pieces of equipment that had been moved around, little things like an unfamiliar sweatshirt and a new coffee mug sitting around. The whole effect was vaguely disorienting.

Dick did his best to push all of that aside, idly picking at some of the gear sitting on the prototype work bench while he waited for Jason. At least he could be almost positive he wouldn’t have to interact with Bruce. Alfred hadn’t offered much detail for exactly what Batman was up to this weekend, but it was apparently big enough to keep him thoroughly occupied, giving Alfred the opportunity to gently suggest that Dick come for a visit, both so Alfred could see him and so he could spend some time with Jason. Considering no amount of stubborn obstinance on Dick’s part was ever going to stand up to Alfred, here he was.

(Alfred may also have promised crab-stuffed mushrooms for dinner, because the man was not afraid to play dirty.)

There was a small collection of batarangs spread out on the work table; nothing about them was obviously different from the ones Dick remembered, but maybe Bruce was just messing with composition again in his eternal quest for perfection. Dick picked up two of them and inspected them, absently testing the weight and balance. They felt the same as always to him, although in fairness it had been a bit since he had actually used proper batarangs. He smiled lightly, grabbed another one and idly started juggling them in a wide, easy loop. Good to know the important skills hadn’t faded with disuse.

Dick decisively did not startle when he heard a voice behind him on the stairs. Apparently the kid had been practicing his stealth.

“What are you doing?”

Without losing the rhythm, Dick swiveled in place to face Jason.

“Practicing,” he said breezily. He let two of the batarangs fall into his hand and, without looking, flicked the other one towards the training dummies. It didn’t quite hit the bullseye, unfortunately, but it did get pretty close, which was a relief since he was sure if he had missed entirely Jason would never have let him live it down.

“For your big debut as a party clown?” Jason asked with a smirk. “Guess you’ve already got the costume.” He made a gesture with his hands up from his neck, presumably indicating the collar of Dick's Nightwing suit, which, rude.

"First of all," Dick pointed one of the batarangs at him and then drew his arm back, broadly telegraphing his movement before he tossed it lightly. Jason startled a little, but recovered quickly and caught the batarang easily enough. "Being a clown is a perfectly respectable profession anywhere that isn't Gotham. I know plenty of clowns who are good, hard working people. Second of all,” Dick raised his remaining batarang and tossed that one, too. Jason was more prepared this time and spun the batarang between his fingers in a little flourish after he caught it, grinning. "I don't think the kid dressed as a human traffic light gets to judge anyone else's suit."

"That's your costume-" Jason started indignantly, but Dick just talked over him and kept going.

“And third of all,” he grabbed one more batarang off the table and held it up, wiggling it back and forth without making any move to throw it, “I can teach you if you want. Part of the non-Batman training curriculum.”

Probably not remotely what Jason had in mind when Dick offered to teach him things Batman wouldn’t, but not everything had to be serious vigilante training, and Dick did like the idea of having a chance to share a little part of his old life, before Bruce and Batman and Robin.

Anxiety flickered very briefly across Jason’s face before it scrunched up in a defensive scowl as he set aside the batarangs he was holding and crossed his arms over his chest, side eyeing the projectile in Dick’s hand.

“Not with these, obviously,” Dick clarified, dropping the batarang back on the table and moving to rummage through one of the drawers. “I am not explaining to Alfred why we have to go to the ER to sew your finger back on.” He found a few slightly worse for wear tennis balls stuffed in among the various odds and ends they used for training exercises and held them up as a heads up before tossing them to Jason underhanded one after another. Jason was still frowning, but he did unfold his arms and catch all of them.

“When am I ever going to need to know how to juggle?” he asked, looking like he would rather throw the ball he was holding at Dick’s face than anything else.

“Probably never, although in Gotham you never know.” It wasn't like it would be the weirdest thing any of them had ever had to do for their night job. Gotham was a unique city. “More importantly, it’s good practice for reflexes and coordination and timing. A bad guy is probably never going to challenge you to a push-up competition, either, but there’s still benefits to doing them, you know?”

“That...actually makes a lot of sense,” Jason conceded.

Well he didn’t need to sound quite so begrudging about it.

“Of course it does!” Dick said brightly. “I am full of wisdom and you should listen to me.”

“You’re full of something.” Jason rolled his eyes hugely and did, in fact, throw the ball at Dick’s face with surprising force, although not hard enough that Dick couldn’t catch it before it clocked him in the nose and not hard enough to stop him from elaborating.

“Wisdom, talent, good ideas, joie de vivre-” He deliberately overexaggerated his accent on the French, waving his empty hand theatrically.

Jason hefted one of the other tennis balls as a threat and Dick laughed, tossing him the one he was holding and turning back to the table.

“Besides, you said you wanted to beat all my records,” he continued, collecting up more of the batarangs and starting another easy loop with them. “My record for these is five, after that I always seem to lose track of one of them.”

He heard Jason make a vaguely affirmative, thoughtful noise and caught a flash of a grin right before a fuzzy yellow projectile interrupted his careful rhythm, making him scramble to not slice his damn hand (or face, or foot) open. He refused to acknowledge the strangled noise he may or may not have made, although judging from Jason’s cackling he was definitely not going to do the same.

(Although the way he yelped when Dick tossed a (deliberately aimed wide) batarang back at him was also pretty funny, so maybe they would just call it even and not mention either.)

(...that or they would end up playing projectile tag until something or someone got broken.)

((This definitely doesn't end with any broken equipment or anyone needing first aid, they're fine. Hiding injuries and/or things you broke from your adults is a critical part of sibling relationships, anyway. It's a bonding experience. (Jason does eventually learn to juggle and then proceeds to practice with single minded determination in an attempt to manage six and beat Dick, because he is motivated by like 80% pure spite. And maybe also a little just wanting to impress Dick but shhhh.) (Also specifically referencing the end of Nightwing Year One where Jason says he's going to break all of Dick's old records and that panel in Robin Year One of Dick juggling batarangs like a very normal child.)))

[deus-ex-mona]

good evening~~ here’s my very cursed(!!!) top 10 list on the most redundant [redacted] anime features off the top of my head~~

debates and disagreements welcome~

10- lxl and basketball

pointless inclusion that was pretty much just an excuse to get chiz to openly thirst over aizo. and to emphasise on just how much better aizo is at sports as compared to his poor sidekick yujiro. just male leads being male leads, ig

i mean, sure, it gave us that beautiful ball e mv, but lxl’s sporty [redacted] anime-induced hobby wasn’t worth much in general.

9- the inclusion of ⅘ of gen 2 tbh

they were pretty much just background extras for the most part, except for ken, who gets bonus moments thanks to being the male lead’s brother. heck, poor kodai doesn’t get much time to shine, despite being the adoring bf of one of the three heroines of the show. mans got more screentime either behind his camera, or as juri love flashbacks during her conversations with the jk trio.

as for the others, arisa got like 5 seconds of screentime (and 4 of them occurred in the sports fest ep, romeo ed included), and kotahina were nerfed to heck and back. they were written to be competitive and stubborn characters, so why were they portrayed to be nothing more than your average caring senpai towards hiyoko? a nd cultural festival w h e r e ? helloooooooooo~~~?

sure, the sports fest ep did give gen 2 in general a chance to show their stuff, but it was clearly more of viewer fanservice for pre-[redacted] anime fans who know and love these characters for who they truly are.

8- aizo’s “trauma reveal”

idk about you, but hiyoko does not need to know about aizo’s trauma. i mean, yeah, i totally get where ken’s coming from. as a scumbag older sibling myself, i, too, get the urge to dump lots of info about my brother to complete strangers. but. it’s just that. hiyori… really didn’t need to go “oh thank god it wasn’t real trauma. now. how can i fix him?”.

she really didn’t need to say that mans. all forms of trauma are valid forms of trauma… if that makes sense. she can’t just decide that someone’s trauma “isn’t real trauma” and then go ahead and liken it to her dislike for squid. and that includes aizo’s trauma with ladies. not cool.

on the bright side, at least aizo’s local idol boo yujiro took his trauma seriously and stood by him even as their manager had a trauma minimising session with his brother. and speaking of yujiro…

7- that someya ‘scandal’

what the heck was that ep 4 someya scandal lmao. it’s never brought up again????? not even by koichiro and tamagoro in the later episodes??? do they even know that there was a scandal about them??? bruh. what was it even there for lol. the gayze???

i mean, yeah, he’s totally the shame of the someya family for going ahead to be the less popular member of a popular idol duo, with said idol-ling being something he had received the head of said someya family’s permission for. but he had debuted without his family’s name anyway so??? does it even matter???

it would’ve actually made sense if it had a call back in a later episode, with, like, the reveal that maybe chizuru or one of the 100000 aizo stans there apparently are had leaked yujiro’s last name online in an attempt to take him down so that aizo can have a solo idol career or something. but no. it’s just never brought up again.

but before we drop the topic of yujiro like how his in-universe popularity dropped to 0 in the adaptations…

6- yujiro arrest reason

this. made. no. sense. either.

did the [redacted] anime throw darts at a dartboard of possible plot ideas to decide how the someya family side plot was going to go?? or was it decided with an online prompt generator?? or was it the result of a game of mad libs with the office crew????

like? lol? who smuggled koichiro into the bar??? and wh o let baby face yujiro into the bar??? and how did none of the staff at the bar question it?

though. wait. how the heck did hiyoko even see enough distinctive features of yujiro’s during the night that she witnessed his police encounter to identify him when they next crossed paths in the classroom? she was looking at him from above from her spot on a flight of stairs in dim lighting. just how good is her eyesight? hello?

5- repurposed yumefan

yeah yeah i k n o w the [redacted] anime staff justified their choice to use yumefan as a song to encourage hiyoko bc “it’s a song about encouraging others” and stuff. but still. yappa saikyou would probably have worked too, since it’s about not wanting to lose to your rivals and aiming to surpass the rest and stuff like that. or they could’ve just. y’know. kept nonfan in their setlist anyway if they wanted to dedicate a song to their friend(?) slash manager, since that song’s mv was the first mv that hiyoko had worked on, and thus, ✨memories✨ are there, y’know?

either way, the [redacted] anime staff saw yumefan, decided “ok it’s for women now” and had it dedicated to hiyoko and got the narumi sisters to cover it as a special ed. much wow. aizo would be proud. and speaking of aizo…

4- yuko in the countdown live

she moved to france in the lxl movie, so what is she doing here in the first place? to watch her estranged son hxld hxnds with some rando onstage? go back to france, yuko.

3- nagisa arc

the main problem i have with nagisa’s arc is how forced it felt tbh. it kinda felt like it was just. shoehorned into the plot? it just. didn’t flow well. like… especially how nagisa was completely written out of the plot after he hopped on that train. lxl had been teasing hiyoko relentlessly about nagisa till he left. then it was just like. he never existed?? excuse???

i mean. i love nagihiyo. don’t get me wrong. it’s just… the way the [redacted] anime staff plotted it into the story felt… off.

look, you see, i think the nagisa plot would’ve worked better as a season closer. like, after all that friendship drama and scandals and stuff, we get a breather in the form of the nagisa visit. he could be visiting for the countdown live, or for a christmas or new year’s visit for all i care, but it’d give the lxl + hiyoko trio, with newly strengthened bonds of friendship after all they’ve been through (thanks chiz), a chance to show off their cooperative skills with the hiyoko makeover sequence and subsequent nagisa encounter. heck, it’d even give nagisa another reason to be wary of lxl, since “aren’t these the dudes from that relationship scandal you were in? you should be more careful around them fr” could be a legit point of concern. plus! it could lead into a post-series uni timeskip or something for that sweet, sweet nagihiyo uni arc crumbs!!

hmmm. well. in the end, i still hate how nagisa’s existence was all but retconned after his episodes. poor lad. he deserves better!!! and speaking of deserving better…

2- the narumi sisters’ appearance

for sena, as she has co-starred with lxl in the past, and since she is still in the industry, it’s no surprise that she’d make an appearance or two. however, the r e a l problem is how she was handled. she was only abruptly thrown into ep 6 to fit in yet another “uwu woe is me im not cute uwu” hiyoko moment in the 24 minutes of terror. plus, those sena-mona moments make no sense whatsoever if you’re a [redacted] anime-only who doesn’t know how lxl and the narumis know each other. viewer fanservice at its finest, ig.

now. mona.

#notmymona

w h o is that girl and why does she have our angel’s name and face? i swear, the only redeeming trait she has is that her character design was done by moge, which is. yeah, much cuter than her lxl movie cameo appearance.

but aside from that. who is she? she has no goals, no ambition, all she does is go “uwu i look up to my sister who i envy… but nvm i’m here to be your relationship therapist so that’s enough about me—”

she doesn’t even get to perform in the [redacted] anime even though there was an entire joint-artiste concert in the last episode. she doesn’t even salt about her nasty encounter with yujiro (which would’ve made for a more interesting topic during her second encounter with hiyoko when they talked about conflicts with friends, instead of being demoted to a bonus manga tbh). she’s so bland, she makes plain spaghetti taste like carbonara.

and speaking of carbonara, we return to lxl for number one, which is…

1- the lxl shower scene (no image bc g o o d l a w d w h y w o u ld i include it)

they are 15. we don’t need that extended shower scene. we don’t need to know that hiyoko has no qualms about barging into the showers for the opposite gender, with said members of the opposite gender being completely nude and uncomfortable when she did so. we just. didn’t need to see any of that.

who was that scene even made for? help???? just how bad did they think their own show was that they felt the need to put in an out of place scene of teen boys showering to pad the runtime?? excuse???

[dlstmxkakwldrlarchive]

Ok thank you for saying that abt okm solo careers bc it doesn’t make any sense at all when ppl compare them. For one when jongtae debuted the industry and sm were completely diff than when onminkey did, both in terms of production and promotion choices as well as what audiences wanted. shinee were already approaching senior status but were still young and had a lot of untapped potential.

And honestly taemin specifically was pushed in a certain way, I know taemints hate when you imply that he’s ever gotten special treatment bc loll but at least back then he was their million dollar baby. plus jongtae were at diff stages artistically and personally 10 years ago so ofc they had a diff range of options than onminkey, who debuted closer to enlistment and with the freedom of a renegotiated contract

also if you didn’t know they were in the same group all five of them are in different niches both musically and conceptually and don’t overlap that much in terms of general public appeal imo.

anyway i just count it lucky that they’re all amazing soloists on their own terms and also put 110% into shinee too

honestly we also need to take to account that esem doesn't like it when the artist gets bigger than the agency and thats why a lot of their senior groups (esp their ggs) get disbanded without getting disbanded after their busier years and if they're still able to promote they aren't getting the same opportunities or promo as the younger groups not only for group stuff but also solo. while shinee were kinda of old as a group and exo had debuted too, jongtae had the opportunity to be promoted fully as solo artists when they debuted, like esem wasnt trying to sell you shinee jjong and taem, they were selling you yk them (not saying jongtae were trying to isolate themselves from the group btw!) and as a consequence they kinda treat them as rookie idols and promoted them at 100% /for esem standards ofc / and make their talent known.

okm debuts are hmmmmm. its true that they don't have to prove anything as idols, like we all know they can sing and dance but we know they can do it in a group not as solo so i think them being branded as senior group stopped a bit their career bcs they weren't able to promote in variety shows abt music or just yk chill shows or festivals or fashion events (like its crazy they sent nct dudes to those over kb but 😔) & be known for xy talent bcs they aren't 'new faces'. like idrc abt music shows wins or streaming numbers but if we need to talk abt it they're 2nd gen artists and i think 3rd & 4th gen fanbases have a different fandom culture from the old ones which makes them stream and vote like crazy so its also abt the debut/cb timing

the thing abt tm is... yeah its true that he used to be their golden child but sigh... theres this thing snsd sooyoung said once in an interview that even if snsd did well & reached new records etc the only thing the members used to get back was more work not freedom or yk and this kind of applies to tm too like i get why no one really brings up him being the esem favorite bcs it didnt feel like it, like he was the first to debut but he never got a proper world tour under esem, his solo promo got sidelined bcs of superm and if we talk abt promoting his music esem did the bare minimum ❌️ but still he got more opportunities! like there was a period where jinkibum used to do nothing like no drama no musicals no mc just nothing which is crazy

[behyejin]

with the auditions that studio delta had done and now with another season of next gen occurring, hyejin wonders what is going to happen. will she she new people around studio delta or would they join different companies? it kept her on edge in a way but she was excited to see who would join and end up with a contract at the end of the season. she knows she’s gonna tune in and watch everything that happens just like she’s sure the new contestants did for the first season. besides the first episode already has her eager to see what they’ll do next

she lets that eagerness flow into her practicing. she’s pushing herself more to make sure her skills are pushed in the way they should be. she can’t let herself be too comfortable. maybe a part of her saw new trainees as a bit of competition since they didn’t know if they’d debut in a group or solo. maybe this was the fire she needed to do better as well. 

she felt her training was coming along much better and she was enjoying getting to practice alongside everyone when in the axis building. at least those lonely feelings were subdued when she was focused and got to use her enormous social battery. it made her feel more at ease in a way. maybe she’d practice a different skill to see where that could take her. it never hurt to try plus she was feeling a bit more ambitious and wanted to break out of her little bubble more. maybe she’d try being more of a leader since she knew if debut happened, they’d need a leader. not sure she’d make the cut for that but it didn’t hurt to put herself out there with those skills in some way. she’d figure it all out in the end. she was sure of it.

[besaea]

A LETTER moon saea reads a letter written to her grandmother

     after hearing that the next task that she had to do was write a letter to someone, she has a little bit of a hard time thinking of who to write to. she has a few friends on the show, and even her brother there. she also has friends who have been eliminated, and she thinks of the friends she had made who had also been eliminated. stevie, haein, matthew. she wants to write letters to them all.

     but, after thinking about it for a while, she realizes she has someone she wants to write a letter to. someone who used to be her biggest supporter and had turned into her biggest critic, as well as the person who seemed to not support her dreams at all.

     “i feel like i’m being petty,” saea admits to the staff when she sits down to read her letter out loud, wondering if she’s going to regret reading this letter to the world. she’s not sure if they’re going to air the entire letter, but she can’t really take back anything that she’s written down once she’s said it aloud. 

     part of her now wishes she had maybe written to cam or to stevie, because at least both of those letters would’ve been cute or heartful, thanking them for being good friends to her. she could’ve told cam that she hopes he debuts again and she could’ve told stevie that she cried for hours after he was eliminated because she had no one to fool around with anymore and that she hoped he didn’t feel too down and would bounce back. she could’ve written any of those things and yet ...

     “this is to my grandmother,” saea says, and she doesn’t think anyone knows about how the relationship between her and her grandmother had deteriorated over the years. she doesn’t even think cam knows how bad it’s gotten. he would probably blame himself though, and she doesn’t need him to think that his past failure was the reason for this. 

     “halmoni,” she starts, pausing and she decides that it’s now or never.

     “you used to be my biggest fan when i was younger. you told me that i could be a star, that i was born to be loved by more than just the people who knew me. you were front row seat at all of my dance performances when i was younger, even when i was barely even in the ensemble because i was so young. you used to brag about the granddaughter you had who loved to dance.

     “but then, as i grew up and my love for dance grew, you changed. your expressions turned sour to downright disapproving whenever i mentioned i had gone to dance camp. or if i had mentioned i was performing. what changed? you used to be my biggest supporter and then you became the person who disapproved of my choices the most.”

     she takes a deep breath, trying not to sound like she’s accusing her grandmother of anything aside from what she’s already mentioned. “well, i want you to know that i’m here now. i’ve succeeded in making it this far on next gen. you’re probably not proud at all, you’re probably scoffing at me for even auditioning to get onto the show in the first place. but, i hope that somewhere deep down, you remember how you used to watch me dance when i was younger. when you still supported my dreams of being the ‘best dancer in the world’ and when you told me i had to choose between that or being a fairy princess ... and i still chose dance. you always used to say that you would support me in all my endeavors, but then you stopped. i hope that i can make the grandmother who used to support me all the time proud.”

      pausing again, she stops and looks up from the notebook she had written her letter in and makes eye contact with the camera lens. “i’ll make you believe that i can make it as a dancer, and as a performer again. thank you,” she ends her letter there, taking a deep breath. 

     tears well up in her eyes and she has to take a moment to calm herself down, not having realized how much this had meant to her until it was all out in the room. she can’t decide if she wants her grandmother to watch this or not, but she guesses she’ll cross that bridge when she gets to it.

[benayoung]

mentioned: @eunkyungxbe @behyejin

the interview room is just as familiar as always, and as always, nayoung tries to judge how she should present herself. this week, she made more of an effort to get along with everyone, so should she be nicer in her interview too?

no, she didn’t say anything wrong last week; mnet probably could’ve chosen to make her look bad, but they didn’t. she can be herself again this time, just refrain from saying anything...mean. 

you just finished performing. how are you feeling?

“it’s always a great feeling,” she replies. “i never feel better in my life than i do on stage.” that’s true. she forgot how it felt, after so long of being off of it, and so much failure. no matter what happens in next gen, she’s at least thankful that she made it back onto a stage, and that it’s reminded her what she loves doing more than anything. even if she’s eliminated, she’ll have the motivation to fight to return to the stage again.

she has her dream back, and if she made it this far, she knows she’ll have what it takes to become a trainee again eventually, and then finally debut after years of hard work. she knows she’s still not in peak condition now. if she fails here, she doesn’t think she’ll take it as hard as she has in the past. she knows what improvements she needs to make, and one way or another–– whether it’s under a company or not ––she’ll make them happen.

how was working with your team?

good question. nayoung might be quiet for a bit too long. “we had some trouble,” she admits with a half-grimace, half-smile. “at least at first. but i think the most important thing about teamwork is being able to work through challenges and compromise when there are disagreements. i think we accomplished that.” she doesn’t want to comment on their skills: on the fact that she still thinks eunkyung is lacking, but that hyejin ultimately did well. she knows that won’t do her any favors, so she hopes that answer is both diplomatic and complete enough.

if it airs, the audience might be able to tell she’s holding back, but isn’t that a sign of maturity? she could complain about her team, but even though she has her reservations and disappointments, she chose not to. doesn’t everyone disagree with things sometimes? 

you mentioned disagreements. can you elaborate?

no. why does she need to elaborate when they caught it on camera? ah. they want footage to use of her commenting on it when they inevitably air the squabble, don’t they? she’ll need to choose her words wisely, and maybe it’s best to remain brief. “eunkyung wasn’t happy with our line distribution,” she tries to sound neutral on the subject. “but we fixed it up into something everyone was happy with.” she hopes, if they ask eunkyung about this, she agrees about being happy with it. maybe happy is an overstatement, but she doesn’t know how else to word it. she figures if eunkyung calls her a bitch on camera eunkyung will take the fall for that, anyway.

she’s been reasonable this week, hasn’t she?

you took on a bit of a leadership role this time. do you think you're leadership/role model material?

that’s a good question. “i’m not sure,” she answers honestly. “i think my experience is useful, and puts me in more of a position to guide people.” in her last company, she wanted to be a leader. she thought she always knew best, and that she was better than everyone. it’s not like those feelings are totally gone, but she’s more aware of her flaws now, and of the difficulty of the leader role. “i think i’m good at getting things done, as well. i think i just...naturally take charge, and am good enough at it to be a leader, yes. maybe, anyway. i don’t know about a role model. i’m not sure if someone that was told to get along better with others is an ideal role model, so...that’s something for me to work on. i’ll have to work on it if i want to be a leader, as well, but i do think i have a lot of the important qualities a leader should have.”

after your last performance, you’re in eighth place. how do you feel about your ranking?

her expression falls into a brief frown, before she fixes it into something more level-headed once again. “of course i’m disappointed,” she admits, but she makes sure she doesn’t look too dejected. “i felt confident in my performance. i thought the challenge suited me well, and that if there was any time for me to rank high, it was then.” maybe that’s too honest, but the words are already out. no taking them back now. for a more optimistic spin, she adds: “i’m glad i rose in rank at all, though. i hope i can continue to do that. if i keep making progress, and rising little by little, i’ll be happy with that. i can be impatient,” she laughs a little, figuring if she confesses one of her flaws it’ll make her seem more genuine and relatable. “but sometimes it’s a slow process, and we have to be thankful for the small bits of growth, too. regardless of what happens, next gen is making me better at what i do, so i’m thankful.”

when you faced a rap challenge on one of the previous shows you were on, you were eliminated. do you think you'll fare better this time?'

ah. that one hurts a little, but it isn’t like it hasn’t been in the back of her mind constantly during practice. she knows who they’re up against, and their skill. she knows her team losing this battle is possible, if not even likely, and she knows, if the judges deem her lacking, whether in personality or talent, she could go home. if she does, she won’t know if that’s a sign to keep rapping and improve to prove everyone wrong, or that she’s not cut out for it and should give up.

“our opponents are strong,” she begins. “beating them will be a difficult task, but i did my best, and i do think i’ve improved a lot since back then. all of us improved from the start of practice for this. i hope it’s enough, but,” she shrugs. “i guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

[bexcam]

the stars the light up the dark nighttime sky | next gen pt. 2 solo

the first challenge of the show and cam is already frustrated. they wanted to see some original  content from him and he couldn't know because the song was set for them all. if he didn't make it through this round he wouldn't be able to deliver on their expectations. really, it was his own damn fault. going into creating the audition vid he hadn't even expected to make it on so his low expectations of himself kind of bit him in the ass. he should've used any one of the songs he'd been working on during his late night shifts at the convenience store. sure none of them were truly ready for anyone to hear, but it would've been something of his own making. he would just have to get through this round in order to prove himself.

he felt more of a push now, knowing his sister was also working alongside him. so much of cam's strength stemmed from his family and the support they'd shown him time and time again, never wavering despite his self-proclaimed failures.

he's nervous, of course, while he's waiting for his turn. it's a familiar feelings, and although it's something he would push down before- now he embraces it. the nerves mean he's excited and that's because he's back doing something he loves. the hot overhead lighting is almost welcome, because it's familiar. once he's in front of the judges, stage feeling sturdy underneath his sneakers, he gives them his smile- one he knew was charming and was once his signature feature. "hello, i'm contestant moon cameron."

the music is queued for him and he takes his spot. cam takes a second to make a small testing noise into the handheld mic, careful not to make any sound too grating. it was a little unfortunate most of the song was singing. cam may have had a nice tone and quality but he was lacking in technique, something he didn't get to explore much in improving once debuted because his company had had other things to focus on and so did he. the higher notes were challenging despite his practise in the time they had, but what he could rely on was his stamina to keep up with the dancing and singing at the same time. even if he was one of the struggling singers of the group, he wasn't going to lose all his confidence, he would still give them a performance. this was something he could get better at eventually, he just needed to show them he had the potential to and wanted to.

the kick in the choreo was something he wanted to show off for though. while he wasn't a star dancer, he was flexible. he could do the split so something like this was easy peasy as long as he could stretch a bit beforehand- which he had, extensively.

he tried not to let it show that he noticed every time his voice cracked at the higher notes, keeping steady and continuing on because if he'd learned anything, it was that the music didn't stop just for mistakes, the show must go on. what he lacked in the singing department he could at least show off some of his natural charisma. he made sure to keep eye contact and a performer's face.

the rapping section wasn't very long or anything very impressive but made sure to put a bit of his own personality into it, winking at the judges as if they were in on the joke, they knew he'd joined in as a rapper, and the other rappers of the group probably were struggling in the same places as he was.

he's a little out of breath at the end of it but overall he's happy enough with his performance and knows what he'd need to work on if he made it to the next round.

"thank you!"

[bejinyoung]

out tonight.

bejoomi​:

very strange phenomenon in joomi’s life lately: things don’t suck so much anymore. it turns out there was some truth to his therapist saying he’d feel better if he got himself out of toxic situations and away from toxic people. she was overjoyed when he told her he left his old band, and that he got away from his equally toxic roommate and moved. even stranger phenomenon: he has hope these days.

he still doesn’t have any big dreams, really, but he has a nice new apartment and he really likes his new band, and when he steps off stage after their first public performance together, he feels…joy? he’s hesitant to even name it out of fear of jinxing it and snuffing it out, but even after just performing one song the rush is unlike anything he’s ever felt before; definitely worth all the nerves he felt right before making his debut as a new frontman.

he gets to be nervous again though, apparently, because after saying bye to the rest of the band, he agreed to meet up with moon jinyoung for food. he doesn’t know why he’s nervous; okay, he does know why he’s nervous, it’s just stupid and he hates it. it’s because he knows jinyoung didn’t want to come to enkor today and he wants him to feel like their performance was worth coming for. he’s afraid, when he sees him, that jinyoung will still be miserable and regret coming. joomi now, for better or worse, feels personally responsible for moon jinyoung’s wellbeing since he made him come out here.

he likes to think that overall, by spending time with jinyoung, he’s helping him. jinyoung is still in pain over next gen and maybe other things he won’t talk to joomi about either, but he hopes that even if it’s just for a few seconds, that when jinyoung is with him, he…has fun, and feels better.

joomi still instinctively searches for a tall blonde when heading to the spot he agreed to meet jinyoung at, and has to do a double take when he spots him, even though he knows jinyoung dyed his hair black. he looks really good with it, too. unfortunately. 

when jinyoung meets his eyes, joomi smiles at him, even if it’s close-lipped. the crowd seemed to like you, jinyoung says once he’s closer, and joomi’s smile widens a little. “it was fun,” he chuckles, still a little breathless, apparently, then takes the water jinyoung hands him with an inquisitive look, a little surprised. still, he takes a sip, because he already drank the water he brought, and gave his extra bottle to one of his friends who likely otherwise would’ve shriveled up and died under the summer sun. “thanks,” he says afterwards.

“yeah. figured if they thought we could debut together on next gen that we’d be even better in a band.” it’s mostly a joke; joomi wasn’t really considering that at all. if anything, frost team was his favorite he was on for the show, and he became pretty good friends with all the guys on that team, if he wasn’t already. it just ended up working out. he realizes after he says it that he might’ve touched on a sore subject for jinyoung, though, even if jinyoung brought it up first. “we could probably still use like…tambourine, or triangle, if you’re interested in a spot,” he jokes, trying to keep the mood light.

joomi looks around at the surrounding festival, too. is there anything else he wants to do? he already explored a little bit before their performance, but joomi feels like it would be a shame for jinyoung to come this far for them to just eat and not do anything else. unless jinyoung really does just want to eat and go home. “overpriced food is part of the festival experience,” he says lightheartedly, then more seriously, adds, “honestly, i don’t know much about everything going on, or kpop in general, so i’ve just kind of been wandering around today. i think the winners of the cover contest are gonna be announced tonight, though, so i should probably stick around, or at least…come back later, if we do go anywhere else.”

he almost tells jinyoung about how he accidentally went to a nana cupsleeve event with cam earlier, but decides he’s already talking enough and that jinyoung probably doesn’t care, so he just shrugs. “what groups do you like? maybe we can find something for one of them and check it out, if you want. after we figure out what we want to eat.” he thinks about what he wants to eat for a moment, because he figures leaving it all up to jinyoung is annoying. “i think i kinda feel like something fried.”

“you’re welcome,” moon jinyoung does, apparently, know some of his manners. he doesn’t ask for the water bottle back, letting joomi keep it instead. “it’s fucking hot up there,” he would know; this is actually the second time and the second day in a row he’s dragged his sorry self to enkor fest. yesterday it was his turn up on stage, dancing with a small group of friends only because they made it seem like they couldn’t accomplish anything without him. jinyoung likes feeling important and needed, so he agreed. he can’t say he regrets it, he still loves being on stage. but he didn’t love the low that inevitably follows that high; he might’ve felt worse when it was all over.

that’s right, the judges did say that about them. and yet, somehow, none of them were signed. he wonders why that is, what they did between that performance and the finale to fall so far out of favor. did the audience hate them? or did they just not fit the plans the companies already had in place? jinyoung knows he’ll never know, but it doesn’t stop him from wondering. he frowns, but it only deepens when joomi starts trying to offer him some shitty percussion job. it feels like more of an insult. “no thanks.” his tone is rather flat, not really willing to pretend to play along with this joke right now. “you have kou for that, or something.” 

quiet falls between them for a moment and at least the space is filled with the background noises of the festival; the constant hum of the crowd as a thousand voices fill the air with their individual conversations, the distant sounds of music from the stage, the screams of delight from some female fans who don’t really know how to act in public with normal people. jinyoung takes the opportunity to look around. is there anything he wants to do here, other than just find the exit and go home? he tries to imagine himself if neither money nor shame were an issue, if he were just some normal guy with an average allowance for fun stuff and no history of failing on a nationally televised and heavily marketed program. maybe he’d want to browse, at least window shop. maybe he’d make sure he attended every random play dance game he could just to test himself and show off everything he knows. maybe he’d buy merch from his favorite groups and not have to skip lunch for a week to afford it. but the whole imagination feels wrong, like that normal guy isn’t moon jinyoung. maybe he’s not; maybe moon jinyoung is forever inevitably bound to suffering.

“i like goeun and somin,” they’re not groups, but both female soloists put out bop after bop and jinyoung’s been a fan for a while. “i liked bxy too.” before, at least. now they kind of remind him of his failure. his stomach drops whenever he hears their stuff these days; he even met them and still couldn’t manage to find a way to get signed. “but it’s fine. i don’t have an album collection or anything, don’t worry about it.” money is better spent elsewhere, such as on food. jinyoung is thankful when joomi makes sure that’s their first plan anyway. “fried is fine.” he doesn’t feel like fighting today and he’s not really sure what he would want anyway. food has felt a little tasteless these last few days and he’s not sure if it’s just poor quality ingredients and a mediocre chef that’s to blame. “you’re paying, i guess it’s only fair if you pick.”

out tonight.

@bejoomi

honestly, he didn't want to leave his apartment this morning. he didn't even want to get out of bed. and surely, the last thing he ever wanted to do was march himself down to that stupid kpop fan festival—the single most likely place where people will recognize a loser of a heavily marketed audition show—and expose himself to ridicule and ravagers who no doubt will want to mock him and his poor luck. for only failing two auditions in the past year, he certainly feels like his window of opportunity to be an idol is closing rapidly. the word failure still haunts his mind, even months after the program came to a close. honestly, if jinyoung had it his way, he would never show his face in public again.

but apparently the universe has other plans. or maybe just jung joomi, who for whatever reason seemed determined to get jinyoung to the festival. "my new band is going to perform for the first time for the cover contest you should come watch us" was the first text, which was a little tempting since jinyoung does like live music, and joomi's a decent musician so the rest of his new band can't be that bad... right? no, maybe they suck. jinyoung tried to get out of it by promising to come to the next gig after they've ironed out any kinks from their debut. but then joomi promised to buy jinyoung food and... well, he hasn't said no sharing a meal, especially one he doesn't have to pay for, in a very long time. if anyone asks, it's the only reason he went out at all today. he's dyed his hair since the show ended; maybe he'll get lucky and no one will recognize him enough to approach him.

it turns out that joomi's band doesn't suck too, which is a plus. jinyoung didn't try to force his way to the front of the crowd, it's not like he doesn't know what joomi looks like up close or something. but they had picked a landmark to meet up at once the show was over and jinyoung waits for his weird little friend to show up, half a water bottle in his hand in case joomi needs something to drink after being up there under the lights. jinyoung knows how dehydrating that is, but water is too damn expensive at this event and he was thirsty too. splitting it is the best joomi will get from him today.

"the crowd seemed to like you," jinyoung greets the other man as he finally approaches, handing over the water. he doesn't say if the performance was good or bad, not really being a good judge of those sorts of things himself. or maybe he's just loathe to give joomi compliments based on the history of this relationship and how new the friendship really is. he can be weird like that. "with cam and kou you have like... half of frost team in your band now." he thinks it's a little funny; only he and haneul are missing from the lineup. when they did so well that week, jinyoung was sure that they'd win overall. alas...

"is there anything else you wanted to do here? or else we should go somewhere else for food. these prices are stupid." he glances around, looking at the crowd to notice if there's any pattern, any must-see attraction that everyone is headed towards. jinyoung doesn't really have spare cash for fanmade trinkets or other merch at most of the booths here to begin with. "your choice though, since you're paying," he shrugs.

[five-rivers]

Danger First Chapter 13

@pocketramblr

Thank you for everyone who suggested names! They were very helpful for this chapter.

.

Midoriya Hisashi lived and worked overseas, coming home to Japan only rarely.  His job had bounced him to every continent, and he’d even been to Antarctic City.  It was taxing work, but he enjoyed it, and, most importantly, it allowed him to provide for his beautiful wife and wonderful son, who he loved more than anyone or anything else in the entire world.  

That description was true except for one desperately important point: Midoriya Hisashi did not so much have a job as a sprawling criminal empire.  

But sprawling criminal empires sure were hard work!

Especially when you had your face literally punched off by your unfortunately-smarter-than-he-looked heroic nemesis.  Curse All Might, his entire family line, and the family lines of anyone who happened to succeed him.  

It had really been looking like Hisashi had successfully suckered him into dying without passing One for All on, but then his stupid smiles had become more genuine, and he’d started teaching at that stupid school, and well… one thing had led to another, and Hisashi could only reach the conclusion that All Might had picked a successor at the absolute least convenient time for Hisashi.  That is, the same year his beloved son, Izuku, started high school at that very same stupid school.  

Now, without a quirk, Izuku wasn’t going to become a hero.  Society as a whole was too bigoted, a fact Hisashi was grateful for.  So grateful, in fact, that he only tortured to death those bigots who direcly laid a hand on his son, rather than starting at the top of the refuse heap known as the Hero Commission and working his way down.  

However, despite this, Izuku was naturally brilliant enough for even the imbeciles at UA to recognize.  Was Hisashi happy with this?  Not exactly.  It meant that he had to plan around his son while looking for All Might’s successor.  But if Izuku hadn’t been admitted…  On some level, it saddened Hisashi that he wouldn’t be able to use the plans he’d made for members of the admissions board in the case that they did reject his son.  

Anyway, Hisashi could plan around Izuku being in gen ed, or management, or support, or business, or…

Hisashi was, admittedly, somewhat ashamed that he hadn’t managed to ask Izuku exactly which of the courses he’d gotten into.  He’d been… not sulking.  Supervillains did not sulk.  He’d been… less than thrilled about Izuku’s admission, and he hadn’t wanted to ruin Izuku’s celebration, so…  He just let Izuku ramble on about the hated school in that adorable and endearing way of his, without commenting.  

He had not been sulking.  

But, secure in the knowledge that Izuku was not in the hero course, Hisashi could simply arrange things so that any attacks on All Might, the hero course, other people at UA that annoyed him, etc., didn’t involve any of the non-hero-course first years.  So, he sent his minions (Kurogiri, Tomura, others whose names he hadn’t bothered to remember) to go find a time that the hero course would be nice and far away from anyone he actually liked (Izuku).  

To Hisashi’s great cheer, they’d seemingly managed to find the perfect venue for Tomura’s debut.  A hero course field trip to the USJ with All Might!

But Hisashi had forgotten the incompetence of said minions.  

Somehow, they’d confused the hero class with Izuku’s class.  All Might, the practical heroics teacher, hadn’t even been there!

Needless to say, Izuku had wiped the floor with Tomura.  Tomura, versus Hisashi’s son?  It wasn’t a contest, really. 

Hisashi didn’t have details about how Izuku had managed it, Tomura had mentioned something about ‘green children,’ and that one of them had a frog quirk and the other could fly, but neither of those matched Izuku.  Unlike the strained phone call from Inko and the brief conversation he’d had with an exhausted Izuku.  

After those calls Hisashi had almost decided to kill Tomura, regardless of how much he'd invested in him.  How in the world had they managed to mix up the courses like that?  Yes, Hisashi hadn't caught the mistake, either, but then he was blind and unable to read the itinerary Tomura had stolen.  It was hardly his fault!

So.  Yes.  Hard work.  Hard, stressful work, and he couldn't even go home to complain to his wife about it, because of the aforementioned face-punching-off incident.  

Tragic.  

Which is why he felt no guilt whatsoever about brushing off the good doctor to answer a call from his home phone number.  Not that he would have felt guilt, anyway.  It, along with shame, wasn't an emotion he experienced.

… Except with regards to still not knowing exactly which course Izuku was in.  

… And, possibly, never being home.  

But that was it!

"Midoriya Hisashi speaking," he said, smoothly into the receiver.  

.

"Holy crap," said Banjo.  "It is him."

"Hey," said En, kicking at and missing Hikage's ankles, "why isn't Danger Sense making Nine freak out?"

"Most likely because he isn't in any danger."

"Y'know, if this is 'no danger,' I'm shocked that Danger Sense is working for him at all."

.

"HI, Dad!" said Izuku.  "Sorry to call at a weird time.  You- you aren't busy, are you?"

"Not at all," said Hisashi, ignoring the doctor in front of him and the crime against humanity, science, and reason they were supposed to be animating on the table in-between them.  "Today has been unexpectedly slow."

"Oh, good.  I was wondering if you could help me with something?"

"Of course," said Hisashi.  For a moment, he let himself hope that his son had finally killed that explosive brat, Bakugo.  He mentally cycled through quirks that he could use to cover up the deed.  "What do you need?"

"It's for school.  You know the sports festival is coming up soon."

"Ah, yes," said Hisashi.  Some of the best quirk window shopping there was.  He'd tried to get Eraserhead's after his performance, but his first attempts hadn’t gone well, and he'd been forced to abandon the project.  "What do you need?  Who needs to be eviscerated?"

.

"No, really, how is this guy not registering as evil?"

.

Izuku giggled.  "Well, this year, they’re having everybody pick hero names beforehand."

Hisashi felt his heart stop.  Using a quirk he had acquired for just such a purpose, he kicked it back on and waved off the doctor.  "Everyone?" he asked, desperation expertly masked.  "Including the non-hero courses?"

"Ye-yes," said Izuku.  "I was wondering- I was wondering if you could help me with figuring one out.  I- I mean, my friends gave me lots of good options, but, um."

"I suppose your teachers vetoed Small Might?" Hisashi teased, gently.

"Don't remind me," groaned Izuku.  "I didn't even bring it up."

.

"He kind of did, though," said En.  

Nana shrugged.  "He crossed it out.  It hardly counts."  Then, undercutting her argument, she mumbled, "All Might is a great name."

The others nodded, some because they agreed, and some because they didn't want to wind up on the same side as All for One.

"If he tries to give Izuku a stupid villain name, I'm going to tear his throat out with my teeth."

"I thought you tried that already," said Hikage.  

"Third…"

"Hey!  You actually did try to do that!"  Third protested from his hiding spot.  

"Does it really matter?" asked Nana.  "You're a ghost."

"I'll haunt him, then."

"Now, I know we've all tried that one."

.

"Hm," said Hisashi, "why don't you tell me what your classmates came up with, first?"

"Ah, well."  There was the sound of shuffling paper.  "They had Strawberry, Marimo, Rabbit, Wonder, Augur and Auspex."

Marimo was obvious enough.  The others, however…  "Strawberry?"

"Because of what I look like when I'm blushing, I think.  I'm just glad it isn't tomato or something…  Marimo's kind of the same thing.  You- you know, my hair?"

"And Wonder is because you're wonderful?"

"Noooo, Dad.  Todoroki didn't mean it like that.  It's a play on, um.  Wonderland.  Like, the Rabbit of Wonderland?"

"The one who is always late?  I do hope you're getting to school on time."

"Dad!  I'm on time.  They just think my, um.  You know, the All Might antenna on my hood look like rabbit ears.  And they think I'm bouncy, I guess?"

So, Izuku was still wearing those awful novelty hoodies.  Not that Hisashi had expected otherwise.  It was still disappointing.  

"And the last two?  Augur and Auspex?"

"Those are because of my quirk," said Izuku.  

"Your what?"

There were only two possible avenues for a quirkless person to develop a quirk.  As Hisashi had decided against repeating the mistake he'd made with his brother, that left one.  

One for All.

All Might.

All for One was halfway out of the facility before Izuku answered.  

"O-oh!  I guess I never talked to you about it, because it manifested at the USJ.  Sorry, I was just so exhausted after everything…"

"It isn't your fault, Izuku," said Hisashi.  No, it was All Might's.  What, was the irresponsible idiot so convinced he was about to be killed by the noumu that he passed the quirk to the closest child?  If so, he was even weaker than he'd thought!  "What is it like?"

"It, um, it's a stockpile quirk!  We think that's why I never could activate it before.  It stockpiles danger and releases it as personal levitation.  The USJ just…  pushed it over into critical mass."

That… wasn't One for All.  

Hisashi killed a lab technician who had the misfortune of being close enough to hear part of his conversation and casually dumped them out of their chair so he could drop into it.  He'd experienced the phenomenon of having his bones turned to powder before, but now they felt practically liquid.  

He was still going to murder All Might, though.  Just not right now.

"That might be why I'm so anxious, too- I can feel the stockpile when it gets bigger."

"Fascinating," said Hisashi.  He could see how it might come about.  All for One was, technically speaking, a stockpile quirk, and both personal levitation and Attract would be telekinesis type quirks…  And since Hisashi was a first generation quirk user, odd quirk mutations were to be expected.  “I recall your mother mentioning that her biological mother had a quirk like that.  Something to do with flying.”

“Grandma’s quirk is Green Thumb, though,” said Izuku.  

“Your grandmother’s, yes,” said Hisashi, shuddering at the memory of that formidable woman.  The fact that he couldn’t kill her without upsetting his wife was criminal.  

Well.  So was he, but, really, what was the point of being a being of ultimate evil if you couldn’t be a hypocrite, too?

Not that he was a being of ultimate evil.  Yet.  It was a work in progress.  There were some travesties he hadn’t stooped to, yet.  Like taunting All Might with Shimura’s grandson.  Oh, and sexual crimes, he supposed, but those didn’t seem fun at all, so he was inclined to skip them.  

“But,” continued Hisashi, “your mother was adopted.  She only has her biological parents’ general quirk and medical history.”  Hisashi could have uncovered more, of course, but if Inko didn’t care, neither did he.

Although, with such a strange quirk manifestation from Izuku, maybe he should.  Just in case.

“Oh,” said Izuku, quietly.  “I didn’t know that.”

“Ah,” said Hisashi.  “Perhaps… don’t mention this to your mother?”

That earned Hisashi a faint but genuine chuckle.  “I won’t tell if you don’t.”  Izuku paused.  “Assuming she isn’t listening in on the line.”

.

“On one level, I’m surprised that Nine’s mom would do that,” said Nana, “on the other, she did marry this bastard, so…”

“Speaking of Mrs. Midoriya’s family,” said Hikage, “don’t you think it’s an interesting coincidence that her mother has a quirk similar to yours?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty convenient, isn’t it?  I was half convinced we were screwed the minute Nine picked up the phone to dial.”

Focused as Nana was on the conversation, she did not notice Banjo wrapping Hikage in Blackwhip and dragging him away.  

.

“You think she might do that?” asked Hisashi, nervously.  He nudged the cooling body of the technician with his toe. 

“I think you offered to kill people for us too many times, or something,” said Izuku.  “She said she wanted to make sure you weren’t giving me the wrong idea about things.”

Hisashi remembered that conversation, come to think about it, but it was more about Hisashi’s rather… vocal distaste for heroes than killing people.  Alas, that Izuku took neither talking point seriously.  

“I see,” said Hisashi. “You’ve gotten a quirk counselor, I hope?”  Oh, how Hisashi wished he could guide Izuku himself!  Maybe take the quirk for a test drive.  He’d give it back, of course, it would just be a minute…

“Mhm, my teacher has a license!”

Hisashi shook himself out of the fantasy.  “Good, good.  Now, you wanted help with names.”  The only way he’d get through this is if he considered them to be villain names, not hero names.  “In keeping with the theme of the last two, might I suggest Omen?”

“That sounds more like a villain name.”

Drat.  Izuku was always too smart for games like that.  “If you want something undeniably heroic, how about Skywalker?”

“Would that make you Darth Vader?” joked Izuku.  

“Please, I would be far more successful!”  Especially on the ‘living forever with one’s loved ones’ front, although he supposed he could take a loss in the ‘tempted one’s children to evil’ category.  

“Considering Anakin Skywalker, I think it’s a bit tainted, anyway.”

.

“He’s not even hiding it!” complained En.  “He’s basically stating that he’s evil outright!”

“This is why we didn’t want this kid as our ninth,” said Third.  

“Shut up,” growled Yoichi.  “You don’t get to talk, since you turned me into a folktale postmortem.”

“Maybe you should have done more actually cool things when you were alive, then!”

Yoichi gasped, offended.  

“Like, seriously, what kind of moron manages to miss this kind of evil metaphorically punching them in the face?  Even if it is a family member?”

Yoichi gasped, offended.  

“Oh,” said Third, belatedly remembering who he was talking to.  “Oops.”

“Can you guys be quiet?” snapped Nana.  “This is important!”

.

“Ah, well,” said Hisashi.  “It was worth a try.  Continuing with fortune telling, Tarot?”

“Like the cards?  That’s kind of far away from what my quirk can actually do.”

“Yes, but that can be a good thing.  You don’t want to be too straightforward.”  Even if he only wound up using it once.  “Risk, then, or Clover?  Both reference luck, and Clover again ties back to your appearance.”

“I kind of like Clover,” said Izuku, “and Risk sounds cool.”  There was a pause as Izuku wrote something down.  “It sounds like you have more?” Izuku’s voice tilted up hopefully at the end.

“A few,” said Hisashi.  “Apollo, a Greek god of prophecy also associated with spaceflight.”  Izuku made an interested sound.  “Comet, a ball of ice and space dust that was considered an omen of ill fortune to come.”  Hisashi sighed.  “Then, if you prefer the rabbit theme--” something Hisashi hoped was not the case; he didn’t want his son to have even an obscure homage to All Might in his name, “--Caerbannog or Gyokuto are appropriate.”

“... Isn’t Caerbannog the man-eating rabbit from that one ancient movie with King Arthur?”

“It may be.”

“We aren’t allowed to name ourselves after movie villains.”

“What’s the fun in that?”

Izuku laughed.  “You sound like Ashido,” he said.  “She wanted to name herself Alien Queen.”

“She sounds like she has good taste.”

"She does," said Izuku.  "You've given me a lot to think about."

"I certainly hope so," said Hisashi.  "I could also help with assuring your dominance over your enemies.  Bakugo Katsuki is in one of the hero courses, yes?"

"I- I'll be- I'll be okay, Dad.  Plus, you never take stuff like this seriously."

While Izuku couldn't be blamed for not knowing about Hisashi's less-than-legal activities, the statement still hurt.  Hisashi's offers of massacring Izuku's rivals were always serious!

"You told me I should go ahead and break Kacchan's arms to establish superiority when I was eight.  Who does that?"

.

"Yes, Ninth," said En.  "Who does that indeed?"

"He's so close but so far away," mourned Nana.  

.

"He would have recovered."

"There you go again," said Izuku with a slight laugh.  "My friends and I are working on a plan to win, don't worry!"

Ah, Izuku was collecting minions.  Excellent.  UA graduates were often sho-ins for positions of power and importance.  Making a network early on would help him later.  

"I should probably let you go if you're still at work," said Izuku, a little sadly.

"Mhm," said Hisashi, aware of the need to keep his cover as a normal businessman.  "I'll call at the normal time and we can talk more, alright?"

"Okay.  I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too.  And Izuku?"

"Yeah?"

"You are a wonder.  Never let anyone tell you otherwise."

.

Izuku frowned down at the spreadsheet of names and their respective pros and cons in front of him.  It was very large.  

He sighed.  "I'm going to have to sleep on this."

.

Yoichi clapped his hands.  "So, are we all in agreement that we cannot let Izuku pick a name my brother came up with?"

"Sure," said En, "but it's not like we can do anything about it."

"We could give him Blackwhip about it," said Banjo.  "That would screw up all of his ideas."

"We're not doing that," said Yoichi, serenely.  "My plan is to hope we have some influence over Izuku's subconscious and scream at him not to take any of my brother's evil names."

"All night?" asked Nana, resignation carved deep into her face.  

"That's what it takes."

"Wouldn't it be better to scream a name we do like at him?" suggested Hikage.  "A single, simple, message is more likely to connect."

"I like the way you think," said Yoichi.

"Oh, no," mumbled Nana, "I see what's coming."

"So, what name do we like?" continued Yoichi, oblivious to the coming disaster.  

"It can't be Strawberry," said En, quickly.  "Ichigo is the wrong number."

"Singularity!" shouted Banjo.  

"Nine would be the right number," continued En.  "But a hero can't be named suffering…"

“Naming him Nine would be counterproductive in the ‘let’s not get Ninth murdered by All for One’ department,” said Nana.  

“If it helps,” said Yoichi, “I think he’s more likely to get vaulted.”

“Like a ceiling?” asked Hikage.

“Troubleshoot!” yelled Banjo.  “Danger Fist!  Harbinger!”

“A ceiling?”

“A vaulted ceiling.”

“Reflex!  Nemesis!”

“Dude,” said En.  “Nemesis isn’t a very heroic name.”

“What,” said Yoichi, “do you think vaulted ceilings have to do with this?”

“I don’t know,” said Hikage.  “You brought them up.  I thought maybe he had a quirk for them.”

“For vaulted ceilings?”

“Yes.”

“Black Cat!  Magpie!  Nexus!  Versatile!”

“You do remember that the name has to make sense with One for All as it currently is, right?” asked Nana.  

“How about Sixth Sense?” said En.

“You just want your number to come up again,” accused Banjo.  

“My number came up almost as long ago as yours, old man.”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Okay, so, when I say vaulting I mean bank vaults.  Imprisonment.  Isolation.”

“I see,” said Hikage.

Yoichi nodded, then sighed as he realized the other ghosts had dissolved into chaos.  “This is going to take a while, isn’t it?”

.

“Hi, Mr. Yagi!  How are you today?” asked Izuku, having run into his mentor outside the teacher’s lounge.

Mr. Yagi took a long, slow sip of coffee.  “I had a very strange dream about people yelling at me to change my hero name.”

“Huh,” said Izuku.  “What did they want you to change it to?”

“Either Troubleshoot or Troubleshot.  It was…  strange.”  He shook himself.  “But what brings you here so early in the morning, my boy?”

“I was hoping to talk to Ms. Kayama,” said Izuku.  “I think I’ve got my hero name pinned down, but I’d like to talk to her about it, first!”  He held up the paperwork for submitting his hero name.

“Oh!  That’s wonderful,” said Mr. Yagi.  “May I see?”

“Sure!” said Izuku, turning the paper around so Mr. Yagi could see it.  

He fluffed Izuku’s hair.  “I think that suits you very well, young Midoriya!  I’ll go see if Ms. Kayama is here, alright?”

.

Unfortunately, the past users of One for All were not listening to the conversation.  This was less because they had worn themselves out from shouting, and more because Izuku’s choice of name had shown that all their efforts to communicate were useless and they were wallowing in self-pity.  It was a whole thing.  

.

Kurogiri’s wounds had healed acceptably, with the doctor none the wiser.  So, as usual when he wasn’t rescuing Tomura from trouble, helping the doctor in the lab, engaging in miscellaneous criminal activities, or giving random small-time villains alcohol poisoning, he was doing housework, tidying up the hideout.  

It quickly became apparent that Kurogiri wasn’t very good at tidying.  Cleaning in general, really.  

It was equally obvious that Kurogiri was also the only one that even tried to clean the hideout.  

(In the back of his mind, Kurogiri thought it… odd… that these two thoughts felt so newly discovered.  He and Tomura had been here for years.  He should have already known this.)

Yes, he couldn’t expect his master to clean, that was ridiculous, and the doctor was rarely here.  But Tomura…  No, no, not Tomura.  But Kurogiri wasn’t the only minion to ever inhabit this place.  Most of the others were dead now, but even when Kurogiri had been alive he’d helped with classroom cleaning and kept the apartment clean.

Wait, what?

Regardless, this was no place to raise a child.  Not that Tomura was a child anymore, nor was Kurogiri, which…

Kurogiri had never been a child.  

In the context of sanitation, the hideout was wretched.  That was the point of this.  

Dispirited, Kurogiri wrung out the mop, nearly black water drizzling into the small plastic bucket he’d scrounged up.  Maybe he’d be better at cleaning if he had better supplies.  It was like they wanted Tomura to grow up in soul-crushing squalor.  

They who?

It would be better for Tomura to have grown up somewhere else, somewhere safe, away from them.  

Kurogiri pressed a hand to his head, and then his neck.  No.  

It wasn’t too late--

Kurogiri slammed his hand against the corner of the hall, where two off the walls came together.  There was a satisfying, agonizing click in his wrist and some of the paint on the wall flaked off, revealing a metal bracket.  Kurogiri breathed shallowly, listening.  The only sound in the hideout was the faint music from one of Tomura’s games.  

It was Kurogiri’s job to protect and nurture Tomura, to help him carry out his goals.  Yes.  And to do that…  

Kurogiri leaned the mop against the wall.  Tomura couldn’t carry out his goals alone.  His goals which were…  His goals.  Defeating All Might.  That was at least a goal.  

Tomura would need allies.  

Kurogiri teleported himself up to the bar.  Allies.  He would need--  The nomu were right there, weren’t they?

They weren’t enough, though, they weren’t right.  Had Tomura ever had friends?  He must have.  Even if they were just online friends.  He mustn't have.  Sensei would never allow it.  

It troubled Kurogiri that he couldn’t remember.

He’d get some friends for Tomura.