#I WAS disappointed she didn't ask The Question at the very end of the episode though.

[musical-chick-13]

(Mild DW Christmas 2023 Spoilers in tags)

[violettathepiratequeen]

How could the Shanshu Prophecy NOT have been about Spike in Chosen?

The Prophecy states that a vampire with a soul would play a pivotal role in the apocalypse, and would be rewarded with becoming human when that happened. This was introduced in S1 of AtS, where it was also explicitely stated that the vampire in question isn't named, just that it's one with a soul. And since Angel was unique in that way, naturally it's assumed that he's the one they're referring to (but then why not name him if he was the only one it could apply to hmmm?) Wolfram and Hart took the extra step of research to learn that it was unclear whether the vampire would play a pivotal role on the side of good, or the side of evil, so they tried their darndest to get Angel on the side of evil through all five seasons.

But, hello? Angel has had a soul for a hundred and something years. And he's been through an apocalypse or two, first with Buffy, then on his own show. What's he been doing all this time? Which apocalypse are we talking about here? Lindsey claims the apocalypse has been going on all around them in Season 5, but the Buffyverse has always had clearly marked events signalling the end of the world that had to be prevented. The world being a mess is NOT an apocalypse in and of itself.

And then another vampire gets himself a soul, that could only have been forseen in prophecy, because he decided on his own to go and fight for it. After getting said soul, the First Evil immediately latched onto Spike and started grooming him, manipulating him, and brainwashing him into killing people. Random bystanders at first, probably testing to see if it could work on Buffy and her friends.

So Spike could very well have been on the side of evil in S7, if he didn't work so hard to resist the First's influence, if he didn't ask Buffy to help him, if he didn't break through his trigger. Or hell, even if he'd left town.

And then Angel is handed a mystical amulet and some info meant to help with whatever is going on in Sunnydale. He hands it over to Buffy and offers to be the champion in question, but she says no, and chooses Spike instead.

I'm not gonna get into the whole Spuffy side of this, haha, but S7 was about Buffy choosing Spike, every single time, in every aspect of her life, in love, and in battle. And this universe did originate with her, so she ought to be the one to determine this, within the confines of the show, anyway.

Spike takes it willingly, they both know he's probably going to die, Buffy does try to get him out of there when she sees he IS dying, and he stays, giving his life so that she and everyone else can live. His soul powers the amulet, his love sets their hands aflame, and his heroic act bathes him in sunlight before he's destroyed.

In the battle against THE FIRST EVIL. If I was gonna pick which apocalypse the Shanshu was talking about, I would choose one that had a villain called THAT. Plus it's Spike's first apocalypse with a soul, so that would also make sense that it's the one the Prophecy is referring to. No resting on his laurels for THIS vampire.

Except, instead, he dies and shows up on Angel's show disoriented and alone and without Buffy and with a complete 180 personality, battling with Angel on who the Prophecy is about, and you'll notice the show never does answer that question. Because Spike objectively makes the most sense. But it's not like they could make Angel play second fiddle ON HIS OWN SHOW.

No, what they should have done, is let the finale of Buffy cross over with Angel properly. Not just a cameo, but bring the whole Angel crew in, so that anyone watching the show would be forced to watch that specific episode of Buffy just to keep up with the story.

And Spike should have Shanshued. And Angel would have been disappointed, sure, but hey, he's BEEN human before. And he didn't like it. He even got a ring that made him impervious to harm. And he didn't like it. He loved Cordy more deeply (and more recently) than he ever loved Buffy. So it's not like he's really waiting for her anymore. Plus Cordy is part demon now, so Angel doesn't have to worry about not being enough for her. (Oh yeah, they should have brought Cordy out of her coma for this ending, to make any kind of cohesive sense).

But Spike... Spike was always more human to begin with. He may not have ever thought becoming human was on his bucket list, but he didn't think that about a soul either, until the time came where he needed it. He would LOVE to take Buffy out in the sun, and grow old with her, and give her the family and white picket fence that she's always secretly wanted and didn't think she could ever have. He would have still died, the same way soulless Spike died the minute he got a soul, but without all the heartbreak the canon ending gave us.

I'm partial to the stories where the Shanshu means some vamp powers like extra strength and healing remain, but those are just semantics.

As a cherry on top it would prove to anyone who's ever called it into question, and I include Buffy and Spike themselves on this list, that it's not that Buffy wants normal, nor is it that she wants a demon. She loves Spike for who he is, demon or not, human or not, but the soul and humanity would have helped him be the best version of himself, a man worthy of loving her and living with her, and after all the battles they've fought in their relationship to get here, it feels like it would have been kind of a sign that someone out there gives their blessing on this pairing. And Buffy could have said she loved him and chosen him AGAIN, in front of everyone, including Angel, and that would have been our endgame ending. (Though... to be honest if the comics still happened after this and Spuffy broke up at any point I would have been betrayed in a whole different way.)

And that's how BtVS could have ended. Angel could have gone on to have another season more or less the same, without any Spike or Buffy or Shanshu to speak of. And it could have ended EXACTLY the same.

The writing was literally so perfect and set it up for Spike so beautifully and unexpectedly. It wouldn't have even had to be a slap in the face for Angel because a. neither show was afraid of disrespecting a character at any point, and b. if it had been done on Buffy's show, it would have been less of a blow and made more sense, that Angel went back to BtVS to watch this unfold, where he wasn't the main character anyway. The Prophecy introduced on his show was really intended to be in service to hers, as any spinoff show ought to be.

Plus the episode title Chosen is such a beautiful one that has so many double and triple and quadruple meanings that one more would have been awesome.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts on the Shanshu this fine evening. Obviously many, many Spuffy fics (including my own) have given it to Spike or Angel or neither, all with their own reasons. And of course there's lots and lots of opinions on whether we would even want that for Spike, or if Spike and Buffy would want it.

But I think it just needed to be spelled out that from a writing standpoint, this would have made the most sense, and why.

[disregardandfelicity]

i was lucky enough to attend the premiere on tuesday (as the +1 of a contest winner); in case this is of interest (and, indulgently, to preserve it for my own memory), here are some tidbits from my night:

for the screening, the cast had assigned seats (jacob and delainey in the same row, sam behind jacob, eric behind sam, assad on the other side of the aisle, the same side as rolin, hannah, and mark johnson). sam and jacob were off to the side chatting during intros and never sat in theirs

delainey got applause from the audience upon her first on screen appearance, the only cast member to get one

daniel had a fair few interview beats which got laughs from the audience

afterwards, an actor from the venue came up and gave a little speech as though he was from a sister coven to the TdV in paris. then we were dismissed to the party, which was upstairs

initially post party, assad and luke were in the front larger room of the reception - sam and jacob were, i believe, already gathered in a far back corner in the second room, along with some other people. eric didn't stay for the party

the venue had a couple little 'shows' - at one point the whole cast and some other guests went up several flights of stairs to a room (delainey commented on how many flights there were as we climbed) where a version of the no pain scene from the books was reenacted by venue actors

kalyne coleman was there, i saw her chatting with jacob. i let her cut in front of me for drinks as an excuse to talk to her. there's a nod to grace in the episode and it sounded like that was a surprise to her (a pleasant one!)

my conversations with the cast were deeply unsubstantive, i was too pleased to be there to come up with anything too clever or probing to say tbh

when i spoke to jacob, i started by saying "sorry" (just reflexively) and he immediately, very warmly, was like what are you apologizing for! when i said how excited i was for the season and he said something like 'i hope it doesn't disappoint' (which i did think was surprisingly pessimistic for a premiere party lol but having seen the quote about hoping ppl still like louis by the end, maybe he is actually a tad concerned! i did obviously say i didn't think it would)

sam was the best at these meetings because he very naturally asks questions back. i told him i loved him in the newsreader as well, and he asked whether i was pirating it (i'm not exactly, i had a vpn). then we all walked off to do that no pain scene experience

after the no pain scene, we exited down some stairs which opened to the second smaller room. assad was behind me so i asked him who did it better (these actors or the show), and we joked about that. he then introduced himself to me, and when i couldn't help noting that i did in fact know who he was, he said he would never want to assume. sam came up to us and assad introduced him to me, and i got the joy of saying we'd met!

(SKIP this bullet if you don't want newsreader vibes-based spoilers) sam asked me what i liked better, iwtv or the newsreader. i said iwtv but that newsreader was great and season 2 was so sad! he said season 3 is the last of the series, and told me it's dark and bleak, worse than season 2, maybe only a second of peace/happiness at the end. so. there's that to look forward to....

he also told me about the crossover staffing between shows (emma and the DOP). i tried to ask if he was responsible for any of that but dont think i articulated it well but he said 'you want to work with the people you like'

my delainey convo was brief, i turned while we were walking up to the no pain thing and realized she was next to me, so just took the opportunity to let her know i was excited about her in next season

around 10-ish, sam and jacob left to (i believe?) go to levan's friends bar, along with hannah and others i didn't recognize. assad and luke were around for another 30-40 minutes after that, then the whole thing ended at 11. i didn't notice when or with who delainey left

delainey, as far as i noticed, did the least mingling; assad and luke did the most. generally speaking (and as expected) sam and jacob hung around together or in the same spaces. also perhaps as expected, assad and luke were hanging around together for lots of the night. at the end of the night, when it felt less burdensome to ask, i got a pic with those two. they were very cool about it, luke was sweet, we'd spoken earlier, he stuck out his tongue for one of the shots and he found me again later to chat

that photocall video i took (above) was after the 'no pain' experience.

[genericpuff]

The excessively passive voice when talking about Minthe being intended to have BPD is hilarious. "It was thought to have her written with BPD"? So weird

Honestly, once you start noticing this passive voice in how Rachel writes and talks, it's kind of hard to unsee.

Like, for starters, the BPD example. It's very non-committal, almost as if to sound like she never actually wrote her with BPD, it was just an 'idea' that she could neither confirm or deny as canon. But then you read the episode with the slap and-

It's- it's literally called "Splitting". It's about as subtle as a brick to the face. This entire episode showcases Minthe having an actual literal episode of splitting and it's plain as day to anyone who can read the title card and put two and two together. So for the wording to be so passive around her characterization... it wasn't "thought" to have her written with BPD, she was written with BPD.

Another example that sticks out in my mind of Rachel's passive writing is far later in Season 3, when Demeter reunites with Persephone and naturally expects her to come back home with her.

This line still fucking bothers me to this day. Besides the fact that it's just really poorly written dialogue, Persephone describes her being in love with Hades as if it's just some coincidental thing that happened to her that she can't avoid and not a deliberate choice she's making. "It would seem" my ass, Persephone is a coward for not being upfront and just talking to her mother like an adult by saying, "Mother, I love you, and I understand why you want me to come home, but I'm in love with Hades and want to stay in the Underworld with him." Instead the way it's worded is almost designed to absolve Persephone of any and all agency in her own decisions and active participation in her relationship with Hades by instead making it out to be just some circumstance that she can't get herself out of.

Again, this isn't quite as egregious as the aforementioned BPD scene, but it's still irritating because Rachel writes like this a lot throughout LO. And it's not just the dialogue either, entire decisions throughout the comic are flip-flopped and kept vague by Rachel so she can give herself plausible deniability over the narrative. I could come up with some of my own examples, but I think she managed to speak for herself just fine in the end-of-series Q&A that left both critics and fans of the series massively confused and disappointed:

LO is full of half-committed plotlines because Rachel herself can't commit to her own decisions. So the decisions she does make are left vague enough that hardcore fans are willing enough to fill in the blanks themselves, but anyone who asks her genuinely what her plan was, she just gives the same wordy "IDK it's up to your interpretation!" response. It's like she thinks people are asking her as just another reader who can only speculate, but she's literally the author, so why is she acting like her guess is as good as theirs?

Well, because that's how she wrote LO. That's how she's always written comics, with vague half-finished thoughts and just enough for readers to do the mental gymnastics of making sense of it all just to give her the credit for "smart writing" that she never actually did because she stopped paying attention after the first sentence. And that method of being vague for the sake of audience interpretation is fine for illustrations or anything that isn't trying to be a concise narrative, but LO did try to be that and it really shows how hard it failed in doing so when its own creator can't even come up with something slightly plausible to explain all the questions people had in the end. "There is some backstory there" but proceeds to not actually expand on said backstory. "I like to imply things without outright telling people", so do I, but the difference is that Rachel is using that as a crutch to not answer the questions she setup for her readers and then didn't resolve after five years. There's not wanting to spoon feed people the plot, and then there's literally refusing to explain your decisions when writing said plot, almost because you don't know any more than they do.

The entirety of LO is rooted in Rachel's passiveness, from her inability to answer questions concisely to every little plot point that was established and dropped throughout the comic's run. Writing a story is a series of decisions, deciding what to keep, deciding what not to keep, deciding what has to be changed, etc. and Rachel just... doesn't seem like someone who's ever been capable of making those decisions, especially when she's writing an actual long form story to the end and doesn't have the luxury of dropping it whenever it feels convenient for her like she did several times with The Doctor Pepper Show. Once she was actually held to a standard, once she was actually signed into a contract that expected her to make those decisions, she failed to and it culminated in one of the messiest conclusions to a story I've seen since Game of Thrones.

LO is kind of like Schrodinger's Cat - a plot point can be or not be whatever it needs to be so that Rachel can be either praised for smart writing she never did or absolved of bad writing that she did do. It's equally parts interesting and vague enough that whatever her readers give her credit for writing, she can give them a thumbs-up and go "you're totally right, champ!" and proceed to take all the credit of being a "good writer" from the efforts of her own audience who had to jump through a million hoops to make sense of her own messy writing.

But when she's put on the spot by those very same readers to answer for her own decisions, she can't.

Because she never made them.

Because there was never anything "deeper" going on, that's just what her style of "distraction writing" made you believe. The plot never lets you stop to think about what you just read long enough before zipping away to the next thing and distracting you with a new twist or a new character or a new plot point, and before you know it, you've gone weeks without reading about the last thing that was established you probably haven't even realized that those questions never got answered. Sometimes Rachel remembers to get back to those things and resolves them within a handful of panels, other times she forgets them entirely and just leaves them to rot in the hopes that no one ever calls her out on it. And when they do... she can just pull the get-out-of-jail-free "Welp, it's up to your interpretation!" card and get that credit all over again for being deep and insightful, meanwhile those who are rightfully dissatisfied with that answer are blanket-accused of "getting mad at Rachel for not writing the story they wanted".

To close out this ask that, per tradition, turned into an essay, I'd like to recall the famous words of fictional detective Benoit Blanc: "Look into the clear center of this glass onion... Miles Bron is an idiot!"

[wonwoosthetic]

Helloooo

Can you write about the NANA TOUR with minnie? plsss (can you also include the reaction of carats to her waking up and her closeness with wonwoo)

series masterlist

word count - 12k

a/n: thank you for the request!! I was very happy to write Minnie into these episodes/parts bc omg even just watching them was so much fun already! I had to change up a few things, for example like them not waking up Minnie but her already being up, I hope that's okay :) at the end of the chapter you can find a link to some Fan Twitter edits, I hope you like them too :) if there's anything else you'd like to see, please let me know! Love you all! <3

[everything in brackets like this was added by me]

everything in italics wasn’t caught on camera, but is just for you <3

Go Together NANA TOUR 🌷Minnie

EP1-1. Don't Let SEVENTEEN Know

Yeongseok was getting every piece of information about the other members out of S.Coups. What will they be doing at 5 in the morning? Which members are going to be drinking most likely? Who will be the most excited? The leader of the idol group was giving him every answer in detail, knowing the rest of the group like the back of his hand.

"Who will have the best reaction when they find out we're going?"

The question was thrown into the room, making the wheels in Seungcheol's head start turning right away. It didn't take him long to have the answers, remembering each time the members had excitedly talked about the Youth Over Flower program even before they had the luck of picking it out of the hat as a prize for their hard work. 

The '95 Liner started listing off some of the brightest members of the group. At the, once again, mention of Mingyu, the producers couldn't help but chuckle, remarking that the leader had repeatedly talked about the taller member.

Amid their conversation and after a particular question from the producer, the two men realised that while Minghao would be definitely excited, he might also be possibly slightly disappointed in the trip. Seungcheol explained that it might surprise him that it would suddenly not only be him and Jun in Rome but he and the 12 other members. Na PD made sure to let the leader know he'd be looking out for the '97 Liner with an extra eye and keep him close.

A follow-up question from one of the producers behind the camera caught Cheol's attention.

"Other than Myungho-shi," he wondered, "are there any other members we need to take care of?"

For a second, 'Coups let himself think.

"Minnie."

"Minnie-shi?" The producer asked him again.

The '95 Liner nodded. "She... you'll see... she can get... how do I say this?" He wondered out loud. "She tends to look for a person for.. comfort? She wants to have someone right next to her that... she can trust and she can be comfortable with because... It's like... she gets like this and just wants to have someone that will... lead them well. She's just very careful sometimes," he explained. "Especially with this program because she won't trust you well at first," Cheol chuckled, "because of the past 'Youth Over Flowers' episodes."

[Leader who knows his members very well]

"Okay, okay... I see... So, Minnie will be clingy? Once she trusts us." Yeongseok questioned him further.

Cheol nodded. "Yeah, maybe... and it might seem cute, but don't let that fool you," he suddenly warned the older man, making him chuckle.

"W-What? What do you mean?" He laughed.

"She has a very strong personality," Coups smiled with wide eyes, embellishing his statement.

"Aaah," Na PD nodded his head. A memory made him chuckle again as he put his hand on the idol's shoulder. "She was already making deals with me during the first Game Caterer episode."

[Kids who like debating]

The comment made the leader laugh out loud and touch the older man's arm as he threw his head back in glee. Yeongseok joined him, chuckling along with the '95 Liner while some giggles could be also heard from behind the camera.

"That means she's comfortable with you, hyung. That's a good sign," S.Coups assured him with a nod. "If she puts up a fight with you, it means she likes you. Then she'll also be more fun."

Na PD took a deep breath in, "Aah, ok. That's good then, I guess... a bit confusing, but..." his eyes closed for a second as he chuckled before catching himself again. "Then I'll make sure to keep Minnie close to me as well. Along with Myungho and Mingyu."

"And anyone else?" The producer from behind the camera asked furthermore, clearly wanting to make sure that each member would be in good hands.

Cheol pressed his lips together before the next member's name rolled off his tongue. "Woozi?"

-

After knocking on the hotel door, S.Coups let himself in.

"You're so loud," he commented right as he entered, the camera not following him.

"Come in," Hoshi just ushered him inside. Followed by Joshua, who repeated it,

"Come in, come in."

"You're too loud," the leader told them again.

Minnie sighed softly, a smile evident through her voice, "I've been telling them that."

Mingyu interrupted her before she could say anything more. "But-" and suddenly started singing a random tune. The maknae was quick to join his hyung, coming up with lyrics that would fit the instrumentals the group was playing in the background.

"Did they wake you up?" The girl suddenly wondered.

Seungcheol shook his head, "I was already awake."

"Why are you awake at this hour?" She sounded clearly confused, maybe even slightly concerned, but the '95 Liner just brushed off her worry as he remembered the 'script'

"I think I lost my phone."

-

Dino was still in the middle of his written-on-the-spot song when he called the leader's phone as he asked him to do. Hoshi and Na PD were still in the hallway of the hotel floor when the phone rang. Unbeknownst to everyone but the '96 Liner, Yeongseok picked up the call and followed the idol back into the room, hot on his tracks.

After the two came in, the older man revealed himself to the six members who were in the room. Starting on the left side of the room, Seungcheol had taken a seat on one of the extra armchairs while Joshua and Seungkwan were occupying the couch and table right by the window. Mingyu had gotten comfortable laying on the bed, while Minnie was sitting up and the youngest decided to stand right next to the mattress.

Na PD barged in, still on the phone, "Coups-ya, how can you leave your phone just lying around?"

As soon as he came into view, the members jumped back in surprise. Joshua sat up straighter while Mingyu just continued to lounge off. Minnie's mouth was hanging open wide, gazing at the man in front of her with big eyes.

But he kept up his act, "How can you leave your phone lying around?"

Their leader had fallen into a fit of laughter, gripping his crunches tightly as he tried to collect himself again while the rest just looked around the room in a state of shock and surprise. With so many cameras on you all of a sudden, the expressions on each of their faces were understandable.

Hoshi joined Minnie on the side of the bed she had claimed, reaching out for the hand of the producer.

"Ah... wait a minute- we really... woah..." He kept on starting sentences and not finishing them.

"This can't be it," Joshua threw into the room, now also up and closer to the bed as all eyes were on Yeongseok, who held onto the '96 Liner's hands tightly as he talked.

"Hey!" He started, "This is what was promised."

Hoshi sighed out loud in frustration, "No, but our concert just ended yesterday-"

"Wait," Mingyu suddenly jumped in, scooching up further to the front of the mattress to stop right in front of Na PD. "Are we not going to Korea?"

The producer shook his head with a smile, "You can't go! That's not where you're going." Making the rapper's grin widen even more and eventually errupt into bright laughter as he threw his hands up and let himself fall back onto the bed. Even before his back hit the white sheets again, his arms wrapped around the girl who was still quietly in the background, hiding her mouth behind her hand that was covered by the black zip-up hoodie she was wearing.

"WOAH, that's so nice!" He called out happily, tightening his arms around her as if she was to thank rather than the man standing in front of the group.

-

Each member received a microphone to be clipped by the collar of their clothing and got to sit back down comfortably. Minnie decided to stay on the right side of the bed, her shoulder brushing against Hoshi's.

Everyone but the leader was still in somewhat of a bubble of the unknown, unsure of what would be happening next or where they would even be going even after they had started interrogating the producers and staff members about their schedule.

The performance unit's leader had another important question, "What's the thing where Myungho and Junnie are going to Italy, hyung?" 

"Myungho and Junnie are going to Italy," Na PD simply answered, making the girl's eyebrows scrunch in confusion.

"Ah, so separate-" Hoshi started but was interrupted by Seungcheol, who chuckled at the disarray of his members.

"No," he smiled, "You're going together."

"We're going?" The '96 Liner looked up at the older man, who seemed to be also very much amused at the situation, but one member caught his attention.

"Minnie-ya," he turned to the girl with a smile, who met his eyes, "You've been so quiet."

She chuckled to herself, taking a deep breath in. "I... I'm still in shock," making the other producers smile as well. "Are we really going to Italy?" Her big eyes were fixed on him, not even daring to blink, too scared for it all to be a dream and blinking would wake her up.

Mingyu had fallen to his knees, clasping the producer's hands into his, practically begging him to not be lying to them. He desperately wanted the news of their apparent Italy journey to be true.

"Can I tell them that?" The older man asked his fellow producers who nodded with multiple chuckles. So, he turned back to the '97 Liners who were still gazing up at him with expecting eyes. "We're going to Italy." He assured them.

With big smiles and eyes, Minnie and Mingyu turned to each other, giggling before the rapper let his head into her lap, his cheek brushing against the white silk of her pyjama pants.

[Dream destination of the younger ones?]

Very quickly, Yeongseok explained the next few steps that would involve waking up the other members who were sleeping and gathering them all in one room to let the program officially start.

Only problem: some of the members were still drunk enough to most probably hardly remember anything about the events the following day.

"Right now, I-" Dino explained, "We're kind of drunk."

"We are drunk," Joshua agreed, his voice just underlying the statement he had just given.

"It's okay," Na PD assured them. "Everyone's drunk."

"Noona isn't," the youngest pointed at the girl who had stood up and was straightening out the hoodie she was wearing.

Yeongseok looked over at her. "Minnie, you're not drunk?"

The camera focused on the female idol who shook her head. "No," she chuckled, "I was sleeping, but my phone kept going off," she explained. "These idiots were texting me to come over." 

[Interruption of her beauty sleep]

Her comment got a round of chuckles from the producers behind the cameras, making her smile and shake her head.

"So you haven't been here for long?" Shin Hyojung, one of the female producers, wondered.

"No," Minnie answered again. "I actually came like five minutes before you barged in."

"Woah," Na PD gasped, "So you could've caught us even before Hoshi..."

[Lucky timing]

"We really wanted her to drink with us," Hoshi walked over to the '97 Liner, linking his arm with hers.

"And I wanted to sleep," she added with a smile at the older member.

-

First on the list: Waking up Dokyeom.

The group, along with the producers exited the hotel room and rushed into the lobby, on their way to find the room of the other member. Minnie walked alongside the leader, Seungkwan was right in front of them, walking backwards so he could face the two.

"Pledis really does this?!" He continued to question the reality of the situation.

The girl shook her head, looking down at the floor before glancing forward again. "That can't be real. They can't just take us to Italy like that, right? Pledis wouldn't allow that."

"But they are," the leader stated, continuously laughing at the situation.

"That's crazy," she mumbled to herself, hugging her arms close to her torso

-

She had found the idea of barging into the other members' rooms entertaining, yet scary at first. She wasn't able to get the thought of them doing the exact same to her out of her head. 'Thank God, I was with the drunk part of the group...', Deep down, she knew she had to thank Dino and Hoshi for blowing up her phone and getting her out of bed because the situation could've gotten quite uncomfortable for quite a few people. These thoughts led to her staying in the background during their break-in into Dokyeom's room, choosing to laugh along with the members as they loudly shouted out for the '97 Liner to get up. 

With his bloodshot eyes, he was still looking around the hallway on their way out towards the next victim's room. He tapped the girl's shoulder, making her turn to the right, immediately a giggle tumbling from her lips as she took in his dishevelled look.

"Minnie-ya..." Dokyeom gasped, "Is this real? Are we really going?"

The female idol patted his back with a smile, "Yes, we're really going right now."

"Woah..." he breathed out as they stopped right in front of the producer's room.

Seungkwan reached out to unlock the door with the master keycard, but his hand was slapped away by the '97 Liner rapper.

"Just go!" The leader, from the back of the line, called out, "Just go in with 'Woozi!'"

"What if he's not sleeping..." Seungkwan wondered out loud.

After a few more moments of debate, the members agreed to let Yeongseok walk in first to wake up the '96 Liner by pretending he was one of their managers. Waking him up softly like one of the staff members was definitely the better choice rather than barging in and screaming at his face like they did with the main vocalist right before.

Na PD didn't need much convincing before opening the door and stepping in. Everyone was surprised by the brightness of the room due to the lights that were still on - hardly anyone expected Woozi to be still up at this time. Well... he wasn't exactly. Walking further into the hotel room, the group of idols and producers found the singer lying on his bed, no sheets covering his body, still in the clothes he had worn before, spread out on top of the mattress.

One chuckle after the other fell with each step they took further into the room. All the while Yeongseok kept up his act of their road manager, trying to get Woozi out of bed.

Clearly confused, the '96 Liner pushed himself off the bed, the sound of each member's laughter echoing through the room as they started surrounding him. Mingyu's distinct laugh bounced off the walls specifically.

Minnie's eye drifted from the flustered member who had just been pulled out of his slumber, to the table right next to the bed. She immediately laughed even harder than before, walking up to Hoshi to show him.

After smacking his arm, she pointed forward, "Look at his protein powder!"

"Ah!" The performance unit's leader laughed out loud, "His protein! Look at the protein!" He caught the attention of the rest of the people in the room. Each member started laughing even more at the mention of the massive box of protein powder he had brought along for their, in relation, rather short Japan trip.

The producer was still too dishevelled to form proper sentences, just clearly wanting to get the group out of his room and onto the next one.

"Woozi-hyung, why are your sunglasses on the bed?" Dokyeom commented once his eyes found the accessory lying close to the pillows. Hoshi had reached out and grabbed them, handing them over to Mingyu, who put them on the older member's face and pushed them up to keep his hair looking somewhat sane.

Minnie chuckled with a shake of her head, "Woozi-hyung might just be the most fashionable sleeper I've ever seen." Then she turned to the producer. "But without them, you currently look like a crazy scientist." Getting a sarcastic grin from him in return, as Mingyu hit her arm with a chuckle.

-

"To which door are we going next?" Yeongseok wondered right away, as soon as Woozi was ready to go. He had gotten into the flow of the Seventeen members waking each other up. Each time, using their creativity and knowledge about one another to come up with fun ways to rip them out of their slumber and surprise them with the news.

"The room next door is-"

"Wonwoo," Minnie finished the sentence of the staff member quietly under her breath. Not enough for the rest to notice, but the camera right next to her had caught it.

Mingyu's voice suddenly rang through their ears. "But- I'm sorry. We'll skip Wonwoo-hyung."

The girl's eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she looked at her fellow '97 Liner, "Why?" Followed by Na PD who threw the same question into the room, sounding slightly more concerned than the girl, who just seemed confused by Mingyu's sudden comment.

"I just don't think it's going to be funny," he told the older man before meeting the eyes of the female member.

Minnie opened her mouth, still a slight scrunch in her eyebrows, but as soon as she closed her lips again her eyebrows returned to a neutral facial expression. Dino was quick to react.

"No, no, no, Wonwoo-hyung is fun," the youngest commented, already ready to make his way to the next room.

The girl was next. "Mm, it's gonna be okay," she assured the rapper, speaking softly as she walked up to him. "We'll make it fun."

-

Arrived at the next room, Seunkgwan and Dino were the first in line, right next to the door. The '98 Liner was already holding the keycard up, excited to wake up the next member.

"Wonwoo?" Na PD asked them again to make sure.

The main vocalist nodded, "Yes, we'll go with Wonwoo."

The producer of the show had caught up with the two youngest, standing next to them as the Seungkwan reached out to knock.

Minnie had come closer, stopping between Hoshi and Dino, waiting for the singer in front of them to finally open the door.

For a moment, the group waited after Seungkwan had knocked on the door three times. Only that Hoshi had already become too impatient,

"We can just go in." Not even wanting to wait another second, making the girl next to him chuckle.

"Let's go in," Dino whispered along with the older member, ushering Seungkwan to just open the door. With a soft push down on the handle, they opened it. Before they let themselves in, Hoshi had pushed Minnie forward, right past the maknae, who added another quick whisper of,

"Noona, go in first."

With quick, yet quiet steps, the female member pushed the door slightly more open and stepped into the room right after flicking on the lights.

"Oppa?" She greeted him at first.

Dino followed right behind her, with Seungkwan afterwards, who held the door open for the cameraman.

"Wonwoo-hyung, they say we need to go," he commented as soon as he walked in.

"Huh?" A raspy hum came from the other side of the room.

While all the other members were toddling inside in a line, one after the other, Minnie's voice was caught by the microphone.

"Oh- pull up the covers," she hastily stated. "Cover your body."

"Why-" Wonwoo was about to ask her a follow-up question when Na PD's voice echoed through the room.

"Wonwoo-ya!" He called out as he revealed himself from the hallway, appearing at the foot of the bed, on which Minnie had sat herself down, while the rapper was holding up the covers over his chest. "It's time to go!" The producer chuckled at the reaction of the '96 Liner as he let himself fall back against the mattress. "Wonwoo-ya... why are your shoulders so wide?" He laughed as he got closer to the bed, his hands finding his bare shoulders that had gotten famous ever since their Game Caterer episode.

The female idol laughed along with her members, holding onto the massive block of a power bank and his glasses as her eyes switched from watching the group in front of them to the man to her right, still hiding underneath the white hotel bedsheets.

"They're definitely wider than Mingyu's!" Cheol commented with a chuckle, making the girl divert her glance over to the '97 Liner, who continued to stand still with what could almost be considered a pout on his lips. She tilted her head with a tight smile decorating her face.

Yeongseok's laughter and voice filled the room, "I think we need to cover him up!" As he tried to do exactly that by tucking the sheets closer to Wonwoo's side. "Stay like this! Stay like this right now!" Pulling them even higher up to his neck.

Not able to hold back a smile, Minnie carefully opened his black frames and tried to place them onto his nose, knowing just how blurry everything must have been for him, making the situation even worse. As they happened to fall slightly crooked, she reached out again to fix them. "Wait," she chuckled, "You have to wear them properly."

"Oh," Na PD looked at him, "Yes, wear your glasses, please."

While Seungkwan's attention was now on the magazines that had been placed on the nightstand, the girl seemed to have noticed the redness shooting to the tips of the rapper's ears, making her smile even wider as she tried to cover them with his hair, running her hand over them and through each strand. 

With a quick hand motion and moving lips towards the '98 Liner, he immediately knew what the girl had asked him to do.

"Ah- wait, wait, where are your clothes, hyung?"

"Oh, where are your clothes, Wonwoo-ya?" Yeongseok immediately engaged with them, looking around the room before the '96 Liner pointed towards the couch. He pushed himself up to sit up straight, the white blanket falling off his shoulders exposing just the very upper area of his torso.

"Oh? Hi, PD-nim." Wonwoo threw everyone off-guard at the sudden greeting. He had only now straightened his glasses properly and blinked enough times to get adjusted to the bright lights in his room. 

Along with Yeongseok, who greeted him as well with a surprised tone lacing his voice as their hands interlocked, Minnie chuckled with the other members at the conversation happening in front of them. With laughter, the girl let herself fall forward, the palm of her right hand hitting Wonwoo's bare skin and shoulder muscles.

After being handed a shirt, the rapper turned to the two members that were closest to him - for one, Minnie on his left, sitting on the bed, and Seungkwan still standing to his right.

"What is this?" He asked them, the corners of his lips curling up into a tired smile.

"Hyung," the '98 Liner started, "We're going."

"Youth Over Flowers is starting," the girl explained further, giggling once again as the surprised eyes of the '96 Liner met hers. 

"Going now?"

"Right now," she nodded, her hand still on his shoulder, only leaving it when he pulled the black shirt over his head and torso.

The quick comment, "That's my shirt," by Mingyu was met with a blank stare from the girl as she pressed her lips together, and quietness washed over the room. Wonwoo having to put on pants first, was the next big attention seeker.

While the rest of the group was debating who to wake up next, either Jun or Minghao, Na PD also admitted to his guilt of having to explain to the '97 Liner that he'd be going to Italy, not alone with his fellow Chinese member as he had thought, but with all the Seventeen members together. Minnie's hand was gripping the sheets, holding them up just slightly after she had noticed the struggle the rapper was having as he tried to put on pants without revealing himself to an entire camera crew and staff members.

-

They decided to go with Jun next. Apologising to him would be easier, or so Na PD thought before they barged into the '96 Liner's room, ripping him out of his slumber. Now, the producer was standing by the left side of the bed, his hands intertwined in front of him as he tried to find the right words.

"Jun," he spoke ever so softly, "I have something to tell you." The still dishevelled member looked to his right, trying to find the eyes of the older member while Dokyeom was trying to place the microphone onto the collar of Jun's shirt.

"I don't know from what point I need to start telling you," Yeongseok admitted, getting a round of laughter in return.

Minnie, who had taken her place next to the maknae, let her head fall onto his shoulder as the giggling shook both of their bodies.

"We lied about so many things," he admitted. "I don't know what to talk about first."

Jun let his eyes drift around the room, trying to find some explanation in the glances from his members, but they were all just smiling back at him in pure amusement. With a hand, he covered his mouth nervously.

"From what is it the truth?" He wondered, hoping to be able to figure out the starting point of what the producer kept on claiming to be 'a series of lies'.

"There's no truth," Minnie stated with a chuckle. "It's all lies."

"Hey!" Na PD turned to the girl, pointing at her with a smile, "Don't say it like that!"

"You have to be honest with him, hyung... He was so excited for the trip." She fought back, all while fighting her own giggles as Jun kept up his confused facial expression, switching between the two arguing parties.

"That..." He started once again, still flustered by having to admit to the fake schedule they had created for the idol group. "The... this program," Na PD finally let out. "That entire program."

Still slightly unsure of what exactly the man was talking about, the '96 Liner slowly nodded his head, "Aah... ah... okay..." Making the members around his bed chuckle.

The older man kept his stance with his intertwined hands, looking down at the performer with pure guilt written all over his face. He repeated his apology, explaining that the schedule wouldn't include the other two famous men, but the rest of his group instead. Trying to lift the mood by elaborating on how wonderful it is to be able to spend that time with the rest of his members was used to more so soothe him instead of the idol as Jun was still very much disoriented by the sudden intrusion.

"Do the members know too?" He wanted to know.

In chorus, they started explaining to him they had only just found out as well and weren't in on any 'plan' as he had thought.

Na PD placed a comforting hand on the '96 Liner's shoulder. "The people in front of your eyes right now," he started, "They didn't know anything 5 minutes ago." What he did leave out was the fact that not only were they unaware of the situation they'd be thrown into, but also unbelievably unprepared, as a rap battle seemed much more important.

The youngest of the group had another confession to make as he opened his mouth. "And hyung... I'm drunk right now." He suddenly revealed. The girl on his right wrapped her arm around his waist, patting his back as the room erupted in another round of laughter. Wonwoo was quick to jump into the situation, holding up his hand, showing four fingers that he moved around in front of Dino's face, a fond smile making his lips curl.

"Oh-" the maknae was surprised by the sudden action, "Three?" He called out, getting another chuckle from everyone in the room. Minnie's palm hit his chest with a giggle.

-

On their way out, onto the next room, the female member was interrupted in her conversation as the youngest called out for her.

"Noona!" He turned around to face her while she was walking a few steps behind them, next to Seungcheol. 

She hummed in response, "Hm?"

"I really wasn't too weird, right?" He stopped in his tracks to let her catch up with him before he interlocked his arm with hers. "You were the only really sober one, so please tell me. I wasn't too weird, right?"

With a tight smile on her lips, their looks met. "Well..." she started, already making the maknae close his eyes and groan in embarrassment. "You weren't weird. You were just being you. But you did start a rap battle all of a sudden," she recalled with a giggle.

"Ah...," he sighed, letting his forehead rest against her shoulder, "Noona, why did I do that?" 

Her lips formed a fond smile as she patted his back. "Don't worry about it. The people watching this will find it funny."

"Are you sure?" He asked her further, still with a slight sulk lacing his voice.

[Younger brother looking for affirmation]

She nodded, her hands brushing over his hair, making him smile.

-

The members had made their way into Vernon's room. Seungkwan had gone in first after the group was convinced that he the second youngest was actually still awake and not sleeping, like the rest had been. Inside, they were greeted with yet again the bright lights of the room, and, just like with Wonwoo, another two copies of their magazine cover on the table that Dino presented proudly to the camera.

The '98 Liner had himself fully covered by the white bedsheets, confirming the suspicion they had of him, like his fellow HHU member, not wearing anything to bed.

Mortified by the sudden amount of people invading his room, he had pulled the blanket up to his face. Even with Seungkwan's warning, nothing could've prepared him for this moment.

Minnie and Hoshi had joined him on the mattress, sitting down on the left side that was kept free while Na PD tried to get the younger member out of the comfort of the bed.

"I'm in such a dirty state right now," Vernon confessed, now hiding his entire face behind the safety of the sheets. "I'm only wearing this right now," he pointed to the thin piece of clothing working as a robe.

Yeongseok chuckled flustered. "Oh- you're only wearing that?"

Without a warning, Hoshi's hands suddenly travelled underneath the covers, getting a look of confusion from the girl in return. He patted around the mattress and body of the man underneath them when he suddenly nodded with a big grin.

"Ooh, he's really only wearing this," he told the rest of the room. The members and crew chuckled at his uncalled action. Shocked, but definitely not surprised.

Minnie, who kept her eyes on him, leaned closer to him, slapping his leg with an amused scoff, "You can't do that!"

Her fellow '97 Liner and rapper right next to them, hunched over in laughter, his hands falling to the shoulder of the performance unit leader, pushing him away.

They agreed to let him put on clothes first before they would move on to the next room. But the blanket still covering him turned out to be more of an obstacle than expected as he started squirming around, Na PD trying to lift the sheets to give him some more room to put on the pants that were handed to him. The movements seemed too funny for the group not to comment on them.

"Are you shedding?" Seungkwan was the first to comment.

Minnie smiled at his struggle. "You look like a transforming worm, Vernon," getting a round of chuckles from the members.

-

Getting Jeonghan out of bed was easy for the group. The '95 Liner was quick to play along and jumped into character almost instantly when Yeongseok was the first to walk into his room. He was up on his feet and ready to jump into action. You could've thought he hadn't even been sleeping.

"I don't know," Jeonghan mumbled, "I don't know how I am right now." While some of the other members were still focused on the magazines with his pictures on the cover. Somebody had placed a few copies of them on his table as well.

Na PD chuckled warmly, "You're very pretty right now. It's okay, it's okay." His assuring words made the vocalist nod and ready to go on to the next room.

Minnie sighed, "You could really wake up Jeonghan-hyung at any hour and he'll look pretty. That's so unfair." Followed by a slight sulk that was caught by the members. She was just about to turn around when Seungkwan's follow-up comment made her stop.

"Then you gotta work on your beauty sleep, noona." His words made her open her mouth but close it quickly, reminding herself of all of the cameras that were on them, so she just nodded. But a sarcastic smile was plastered on her face.

Woozi couldn't help but shake his head in amusement at the two. "Don't listen to him," he mumbled, patting her back before he turned around to leave them alone.

-

Next and final room: Minghao. The member Na PD was dreading to face, having to, once again, explain the situation and the lie they had come up with, making the '97 Liner believe he'd go on a trip to Italy with Jun alone, along with two other people from the entertainment industry. Well, now he'd get to enjoy the Italian flair with 12 of his members.

Standing in front of the last hotel room they'd break in, the debating started. How would they greet the member who was looking forward to the trip the most?

Seungkwan proposed that Yeongseok should go in first, clapping and congratulating Minghao on the trip. Jeonghan had the idea of letting the '98 Liner walk in first to wish him 'safe travels', but he stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, deciding that it would take too long to let one member after the other inside. Final decision: all of the barge in at the same time, clapping and celebrating. That would wake him up, for sure.

After one flick of the lights, the members rushed inside, their loud voices immediately filling the room as their claps bounced off the walls. Wide eyes welcomed them as Minghao looked around the room in surprise, taken aback by the sudden appearance of his members along with crew members he didn't recognize right away. Only after Seungkwan introduced Na PD, did the '97 Liner realise who was standing in front of him. He sat himself up to greet him.

Then it was time. The explanation.

Yeongseok started. "Oh, to be honest, Myungho-ya... there's something I need to apologise to you about."

As soon as the soft and delicate words, "What is it?" Left Minghao's lips, the producer stepped back. You would've thought he had to tell him Santa wasn't real by his reaction.

But after a moment of silence, he spilt the truth, explaining that Jun and his 'trip to Italy' was happening right at that moment, adding that the rest of the members were coming along too though. From her position next to S.Coups in the corner of the room, Minnie, along with the rest of the members burst into laughter when he started clapping and smiling almost painfully fake.

-

Minghao got dressed and the others got themselves comfortable around the room, spreading out onto the bed, and the couch, and some chose to stand up.

That's when Na PD spoke up again, "Okay, everyone's together, right?" A conversation easily followed. Hoshi started by explaining their fully packed schedule, which made the members realise that they would not even have the time to film 'Youth Over Flowers' at any point during that time, but the producer clarified the careful thought process that went into kidnapping the idol group and giving them a well-deserved break during such a busy time.

As the realisation of it happening right now hit Dino, he groaned and let his face fall into his hands, catching the attention of the girl. Minnie chuckled at the youngest antics, elbowing the leader on her right before she nodded towards the bed, where the maknae was contemplating all of his life choices.

"Look at Dino." Seungcheol joined her giggling, eyeing the youngest member carefully. "He's still drunk," she shook her head with a smile.

While Hoshi and Dokyeom discussed which month they had thought they'd get to film the program in, Shin Hyojung spoke up from behind the camera.

"Considering that, too," mentioning the packed schedule of the idol group. "we freed space for a week." Which caught the attention of each member.

Various gasps and hums echoed through the room.

"An entire week?!" Minnie wondered out loud in shock, getting a nod from the female producer in return.

"An entire week," she confirmed.

After she dropped the next lie, which had been the fake schedule they created for the entire week, another round of gasps could be heard from the singers. None of them could really believe the time and dedication the production crew had put into this - just for them.

"All fake," Seungcheol commented.

Minnie turned towards him. "Did you know about them being fake?!"

He was quick to shake his head, "I swear, I knew as much as you guys about this. I only found out a few hours before you."

"That's crazy..." the girl mumbled, her arms crossed in front of her chest, tightening the zip-up hoodie around her frame.

-

"I'm going to make some announcements," Na PD called out to get the attention back to the moment. "And we can talk about other things later!" Firstly, he let them know about their destination as only some of the members had caught onto where they were going - Rome, Italy. While sounds of surprise and happiness filled the room, Minnie stayed quiet and surprised Cheol when she suddenly wrapped her arm around his. The crutch made it slightly awkward, but it didn't stop her.

"Who has been to Italy?" Yeongseok wondered, getting a round of shaking heads in return.

"None," was repeatedly thrown into the room as different members answered him.

"No one?!" Na PD was well surprised by the answer. "Minnie," he caught the attention of the younger woman. "Not even you?" Expecting for at least her to have been to one of the most visited countries in Europe. But she shook her head as well,

"Not to Italy, no."

"That's why we picked it," another female producer explained from the other side of the room.

"We've never been to Europe," Seungkwan wined.

Woozi nodded in agreement, turning to Yeongseok, "We haven't been to Europe either."

Minnie's head dropped to Seungcheol's shoulder. He let go of his right crutch, using his now free hand to caress the arm she had interlocked with his.

Na PD's speech went on. "To be honest, Seventeen has had a really packed schedule up to now. I know that you had a really hard time." He got sounds of agreement and nodding heads in return. "You must've had no time to rest at all. So, the concept of this Italy vacation is different from our usual 'Youth Over Flowers'." He continued to explain the differences in the program the group would film. They wouldn't face any hardships, not suffer as they go along. It would be an 'all-inclusive package' for a real holiday.

"So, you just need to play. We searched and rented all places where we could play and enjoy. At breakfast, go visit stuff and eat delicious things. At dinner, we get together and play," he explained further. "We're going to spend a week like this." As expected, the members reacted in glee. Happy, surprised and yet still not fully believing things that good would happen to them.

Woozi was the first to question the sincerity. "We can believe this, right?" Which made Yeongseok turn to him in surprise,

"You can trust me! You can trust this!"

Minnie squinted her eyes jokingly. "I feel like that's exactly something that someone who'd try to trick us would say."

"No, ah-" He sighed and shook his head with a smile, "Really. Trust me with this." Turning to the other producers, he looked for help. "Tell them that this is right!"

After revealing the new name of the program 'NANA Tour', the group almost forgot it was too good to be true. But the following words from Na PD made them realise they may have started celebrating too early.

"Since our trip is an all-inclusive package," he stated, "there's nothing that you guys need to prepare."

"Huh?!"

The members started to look for each others' gazes, trying to find some sense in a moment of confusion.

"You don't need your bag or anything else," Yeongseok explained further. "The things you need are the clothes you're wearing and a cell phone. You don't need your wallet."

"Really?" Dokyeom asked out loud.

Minnie glanced at the man in confusion while mumbling to herself "But I'm wearing pyjamas." Her worried tone got a chuckle out of Seungcheol as he looked over to her, shaking his head.

But even with all the good news the group had gotten, bad news was about to follow as well.

"The problem is that we- our package's departure schedule is a bit early."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, but Woozi beat her to it as he pointed at the man on the bed.

"I'm saying that his eyes are scary!" Making the crew of producers and cameramen laugh wholeheartedly and zoom into Yeongseok's face.

"How could you let us leave us without anything on us?!" Minnie called out in frustration. "That's not right... You have something planned! Don't lie!"

Na PD couldn't help but chuckle, hunching over before holding himself up from the mattress by his hands. "No, I promise. We're going to go to Italy. But the problem is that we have to go kind of early!" He argued back.

A comforting hand found its way to Minnie's back as Cheol shrugged his arm out of her grasp to wrap it around her frame. Her eyebrows were back scrunched up in confusion as she whispered to the leader,

"I don't trust him." To which he chuckled.

"It's okay, you can trust him." But she just shook her head with a pout on her lips.

Her attention went back to listening to the producer as he spoke, "You guys are going to get dressed starting now and in three minutes-"

"What?!"

"In three minutes?!"

"Hyung!"

"This is so much fun," came from Jeonghan, who seemed to be the only one to enjoy the stress that was put on the group with that statement alone.

Na PD was quick to add, "Because you don't need a bag or wallet! We have all of your passports."

Right away, questions started coming from left and right.

"Can I still brush my teeth?"

"Can't I take a shower?"

"Is there underwear in the package?"

"Everything!" Yeongseok answered Dokyeom's question. "Just wear what you're wearing now-"

"I can't wear pyjamas to the airport," Minnie sighed out, running a hand through her hair with a deep breath.

Jeonghan grinned at her, "Don't worry, Minnie-ya. You make everything look fashionable."

With scrunched eyebrows, she glanced over at him, not able to hold back a smile once she came to sight with his.

As soon as Na PD gave the official 'ok' to split up and start getting ready, the members split up quickly. They rushed out of Minghao's room one after the other, trying to get to their own rooms as quickly as possible. Jeonghan didn't seem to be nearly as stressed as the others as he decided to stay back. Minnie was doing the same, standing still in her place next to the leader.

"Oh... oppa...," she sighed. Cheol immediately knew what she wanted to say, so he was quick to interrupt her, patting her back once again.

"No, go, go. Get ready. Change your clothes. I'll meet you downstairs," he assured her.

"Really? You'll still be here?" She asked further, getting a nod from him in response.

"Ok..." she mumbled. before she left, she hastily threw her arms around his shoulder, giving him a quick squeeze before exiting the room as well, thoughts of which clothes to take out of her suitcase already rushing through her mind.

-

She had already finished packing her luggage the evening before, right after the concert, wanting to spare herself the stress of packing it right before their flight back home. Therefore, Minnie's baby blue suitcase was already in the hallway, where she had to put it on the ground to open it.

"Ok," she thought out loud, "Rome is probably hot right now at this time of year... but I want to be comfortable on the plane. So... I'm not gonna wear shorts, but thin long pants. But a short shirt. That should be fine, right?" She looked up from her position on the floor, glancing at the cameraman, who just shrugged back. 

The girl chuckled and nodded to herself. "It'll be fine," she stood back up after gathering everything from her suitcase, including a pair of sneakers. "More important is... what will I take in my small bag," with a hand on her chin, she contemplated. "Sunglasses... maybe tissues... I can't bring make-up, right?" The cameraman shook his head. "Ok... that's... ok... but suncream. I'll need suncream. OH- and chapstick- hold on. I also need to brush my teeth..."

-

After Wonwoo, Minnie was next to enter the meeting room, getting greeted by Na PD immediately, and the '96 Liner along with S.Coups, Hoshi and Minghao who had already taken a seat on the chairs and couch. She had changed into a pair of jeans along with a slightly cropped white shirt and a grey cropped cardigan on top. A black hat was on her head, but she had taken it off once she walked in.

"Minnie, come in and sit," the producer ushered her inside. But something caught his eye. "Ah- Minnie-ya," at the sound of her name, the girl stopped in her tracks.

Yeongseok reached out his open palm. "Give me your bag."

Her hands found the handle on her shoulder in an instant, clinging onto it tightly.

"But I need it," she fought back.

With a sigh, the producer continued looking at her. "I promise you, everything you need, you'll get from us. Come on, give me the bag."

Hesitantly, the female member let the leather brush off her shoulder, before slowly handing it over. But just before Yeongseok could get a hold of it, she pulled it back, "Wait! Can I take out what I need?" 

A chuckle tumbled from his lips as she shook his head. Glancing over at the other members, he only found amused faces looking back at him. He took a deep breath, "What is it that you need so desperately?" 

As an answer, Minnie placed the bag on the console table on the left side of the room and started rummaging. Picking out the important things, she counted them, "Chapstick, sunscreen, and... sunglasses!" She showed the things to the producer, who nodded after inspecting them.

"Ok, ok, you can take them. If they fit in your pockets. Now sit down." With a nod and a quick, "Thank you," she went after his orders.

-

Na PD, Cheol, Joshua, Wonwoo, Dokyeom, Vernon, and Minnie made their way downstairs with the elevator. Stopping in the garage, where a car was already waiting for them. Just as they were about to leave, the '96 and '98 Liner of the Hip-Hop-Unit walking towards the vehicle first, Yeonseok calling out for S.Coups caught their attention and made them turn around again, almost forgetting that their leader wasn't going with them.

One after the other, the members said goodbye to him, hugging him one last time before they'd be on their way. Minnie stood still between him and the producer.

"Aah, you're not coming with us!" Vernon suddenly realised.

The girl pouted, "How the heck is he supposed to come with us with his injury?!" Clearly frustrated by the situation.

"I totally forgot about that," the younger member nervously chuckled. After individually making sure they had said goodbye properly, wishing him a comfortable ride home, it was Minnie's turn to hug him. Without a word, she threw her arms around his shoulders as Joshua patted the head of their leader. With a sigh, she let him go again.

"I don't like this...."

"Don't be like that, Minnie-ya," he nudged her. "Have fun in Italy. Be careful."

She nodded hesitantly, "I guess we will."

"You guess?!" Na PD gasped next to her, making the girl chuckle. "You guess?! We'll make sure that you guys have fun."

"Ok, ok," she nodded again. One last time, Seungcheol opened his arms to pull her in. Just as she was about to let go of him, the '95 Liner whispered something into her ear, to which she frowned at first as soon as they separated, but then she assured him, she had understood him. With a last wave, she bid him her final goodbye before she'd get to see him again in about two weeks.

[they will reunite well]

-

EP1-2. Off to Italy

Minnie took her place by the window, with Minghao on her right. The bus had started its engine and was about to start driving away. The members looked outside to see their CEO, managers, and most importantly their leader standing on the side, waving them off.

[bye bye]

With a sad smile, the girl waved back, nodding at S.Coups after he had motioned something with his hands. Her gaze didn't leave the window until everyone was out of sight. Only then did she let herself fall back against the seat, looking down at her hands with a sigh. Her fellow '97 Liner noticed her quietness and placed a hand on top of hers, making her look up.

She was greeted with the kind smile of her best friend, making her grin in return. He gave her hand a little squeeze, which she copied, quickly developing into a battle of who could squeeze the other person's hand harder. Even if it was obvious who would win, Minnie still put up the fight, grinning down at their hands, and just taking a moment to be thankful for the person to her right.

-

Hoshi, Wonwoo, and Minghao were sitting together at Incheon Airport, waiting for the connecting flight with Na PD, who was behind the camera they had set up, engaging in a comfortable conversation.

Minnie suddenly appeared from the background, joining the group on the floor, her phone in her grip.

"Did you talk to your mum?" Yeongseok asked.

The girl nodded with a smile. "I told her we're going to Rome."

He chuckled, "What did she say?"

"'Why not closer to us?'" Minnie changed her voice into a slightly higher tone, impersonating her mother. "'I could've brought you guys something to eat.'" 

[caring words of a mother <3]

The members around her started laughing, with Hao leaning onto her shoulder.

Na PD scoffed with a chuckle. "Does she think we won't feed you?"

Minnie shrugged, "I think she also thinks this will be more like 'Youth Over Flowers'." To which the producer laughed in return.

-

Deep in her slumber, the female idol was catching up on the few hours of sleep she had missed out on due to the intense rap battle her fellow members wanted her to witness.

[beauty sleep]

"Minnie-ya," a soft voice from the right spoke up. When she didn't react, a hand reached out to nudge her. 

The camera angle expanded, to expose Wonwoo, who was trying to get her to wake up. With one more gentle shove to her arm and a repetition of her name, his voice ever so soft, Minnie's eyes fluttered open. For a second, there was clear confusion written on her face, but as she looked to her left, she found the rapper's eyes already on her, she smiled.

"Hm?"

"Eat something before we land," Wonwoo spoke quietly, not trying to distress her as she tried to adjust her eyes to the brightness. Minnie nodded and with a quick click of a button, she let her seat straighten back up. 

"When do we land?"

"In like two hours."

"Ok," she answered, trying to hold back a yawn without any luck. Then she glanced at the clock. "Ah... I forgot about the time difference... it's evening now."

"Mm," Wonwoo looked away from his phone to glance over at her, "Are you still tired?"

For a second, the girl seemed to think about it. "A little bit. I hope I'll get to sleep."

-

EP1-3. First Step of the Travel

After landing and walking through the airport for a good bit, they arrived at the visa checkpoints. Jun and Minghao were separated from the group due to their Chinese passports, but what caught the members off-guard was when Minnie was directed towards a different line than them.

"Where are you going?" Mingyu asked the girl as he filmed himself.

"We took Minnie's EU passport, not her Korean one, so she has an easier way," one of the producers behind him explained to him. The '97 Liner nodded while watching her walk away.

The female member had gotten her own vlogging camera, filming the lower side of her face that was still covered by a mask. She didn't start talking until she came to a halt and pulled the mask down and the camera up to show her entire face.

"And now we'll wait. Because the members are gonna take a little bit longer than me." And ended her commentary with a smile.

-

Dino, Hoshi, and Wonwoo were the first to join her.

"Noona, you just walked through the gates!" The youngest called out as soon as they had caught up with her.

Minnie chuckled, "Yeah, it's like this within some countries in Europe. If you were born here."

"Aaah," he nodded. "Practical."

When she saw the vlogging camera Hoshi was holding up, the girl put her own one down, focusing more on her surroundings as they walked through the entrance/exit of the airport and out into the warm late summer air.

The rest of the members, besides Jun and Minghao, were already hot on their tracks as well and followed them to the bus that was waiting for them outside. Walking in, they greeted the driver before cramping together into the seats at the back. Vernon and Minnie decided to sit together with the younger member by the window and the girl by the aisle.

During their little gaming session, the girl decided to relax, mostly focused on her own phone, texting her mum about their arrival, sending a quick message to their leader and scrolling through Social Media.

When Minghao and Jun finally joined them on the bus, they were ready to leave. Right from the start, the producers could feel the energy coming from the group. Everyone was excited and most of them had slept enough on the flight, explaining their high energy levels.

"The name of the airport," a staff member suddenly spoke up, "is Leonardo Da Vinci Airport."

"Ooh, Vernonnie." Dokyeom's voice rang through the ears of the girl. Only a split second later, she started to laugh. The members quickly caught onto the comment by the '97 Liner.

"No, Leonardo da Vinci."

"Not that Leonardo, Dokyeom-ah," Minnie and Mingyu spoke at the same time, both smiling at the situation. It was only then that Vernon, the man in question, realised what was being said, making him chuckle as he ran a hand over his face.

During the rest of the drive, Na PD was in charge of entertainment. He started with the description of their accommodation, mentioning that it was an Airbnb they had booked. But before they would get to their housing, the crew had decided to make a quick stop by the Colosseum to take a group picture and let the idol group roam around a little bit.

The producer started them off with some facts.

"You all know what it looks like, right?" 

The group agreed in union.

"Round and pretty," Minnie added with a bright face. At the sound of her voice, Wonwoo turned his head to glance over at her, a fond smile on his lips.

"Right," the producer answered, "Round and... yeah, pretty I guess too." Making the girl chuckle. "It's a building that was built about 2000 years ago. It's an ancient theatre. Simply put an amphitheatre. There's an audience, and what do you think they did in the centre?"

"Duel," Wonwoo and Minnie answered at the same time. With grins, they glanced at each other, chuckling when their eyes met. European history had always been a big interest of theirs.

"Exactly," Na PD pointed at the two. "Duel. Gladiators would fight each other or a tiger vs. human."

The girl suddenly gasped quietly, "Hoshi-hyung..." Which only seemed to have reached the ears of the two '96 Liners next to her, who had turned to smile at the other one, clearly amused by the comment of the female member. 

-

After they arrived at the sight, the group quickly split up again into smaller portions, each member wanting to see and explore the ancient building for themselves.

Minnie stood still as her eye raked up and down the height of the Colosseum, astonished at what she was seeing with her own eyes.

"It's so much bigger than I expected for some reason," she commented out loud, catching the attention of Yeongseok, who had stopped to her left.

He nodded. "Mm, but you must be used to buildings like this, or not?"

The girl shook her head with a smile. "I don't think you can ever get used to this. Ancient buildings are always so shocking when get to see them in real life."

"The Eiffel Tower for you too? You must've seen that quite a few times already," he continued the conversation as the two made their way further around the arena.

Minnie chuckled, "Yeah, I guess so," she explained, "But it's a lot smaller than people expect."

"Oh, really?" To which she nodded.

"So, this," she pointed towards the building right in front of them, "Is... insanely beautiful. Especially now at night."

-

Once the idol group had gotten back together, the individual sightseeing coming to an end, they decided to try to give their leader a call, reminding themselves of the fact that the time in Korea was 6 a.m., so the chances of him picking up were slim. Explaining, why they were so surprised when Seungcheol did in fact pick up the call, revealing his tired face on the screen of Hoshi's phone.

"Oh, he picked up!" Dino called out, making the girl, who was still in awe of the arena, turn around.

"S.COUPS!" Jun shouted out in glee. Minnie chuckled, watching the screen, seeing how clearly tired the '95 Liner was, assuming they had ripped him out of his sleep and that ungodly hour.

"We came to the Colosseum," Hoshi explained to him.

"Is it fun?" The leader wondered, his voice laced with pure exhaustion and still deeper than usual.

"It would be more fun with you here," the girl smiled, getting a chuckle from him in return.

"Mh, I bet," he sarcastically answered.

The performance unit leader suddenly announced they'd be taking a picture, surprising Cheol over the phone, who did his best to do some kind of pose in his position on the bed. Even with his absence, a group picture with all of them together was necessary.

-

EP1-4. Something Happened in Their House

In groups, the members were ordered to leave the bus and start their seven-minute walk towards their Airbnb. Minnie was in the second group that got to exit the vehicle, along with Hoshi, Wonwoo, and Minghao. As soon as they stepped out and fell into their usual walking tempo, for comfort, the girl looped her right arm with Wonwoo's left - no reaction from him. The group easily fell into a natural conversation, commenting on what was around them, what they passed, and the warm weather they were lucky enough to catch during this time of year.

"I'm not normally sentimental," the '96 Liner from the Hip-Hop-unit suddenly stated. "But it's gonna become sentimental."

The female member nodded. "Because we're on our first real vacation as a group, minus Seungcheol-oppa. And in a really nice city as well." The three men agreed with nods.

-

When they finally arrived at their housing for the night, they got to walk through the apartment in the old building the crew had rented out for the group. Each room had its own charm and the members already knew it wouldn't be easy to choose. But then again, their individually designated rooms often get lost after nights of drinking and playing games, and suddenly four people are sleeping in a two-person bed. So the choices weren't all that important to the singers.

They decided to let faith decide and play a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The winner would get to choose first, then the second, and so on until each member had a bed assigned to them.

One after the other, the singers walked around until they reached the room they had chosen to sleep in. Dino and Jun had decided on the three-beds room, leaving one still free. That's when Minnie appeared from around the corner to glance inside.

"Ooh," she commented with a smile as she came in. "I don't think we've ever shared a room together in this constellation, right?"

Jun agreed, "Yeah, I don't think so."

"Noona, stay, it's gonna be fun," the maknae, who had already made himself comfortable on one of the beds that had gotten pushed together.

Minnie chuckled, walking in to throw her cardigan and the pouch she had taken from the plane, onto the mattress. "Of course, I'm gonna stay with you guys."

"Yeyy," Dino looked up at the older member, who smiled down at him. He was quick to sit up straight once he noticed she had gotten comfortable on the other bed right next to him. "Do you want to sleep by the window?" The youngest asked her.

"Hm?" Minnie wondered, turning to her right to see the window being closest to her bed. "I don't mind it."

"Okay," he nodded before throwing himself onto the sheets.

-

Minnie and Jun had left their assigned rooms. He had joined the four beds Joshua, Hoshi, Mingyu and Dokyeom-room, engulfed in comfortable conversations as they settled into their housing, while Minnie paid a visit to Jeonghan, Woozi, Wonwoo, and Seunkgwan's room.

The girl was sitting on the bed with the '98 Liner when Na PD surprised them with a visit. "Please wait in the room for five to ten minutes!" He announced as he waltzed in.

"Okay," he got a reply in chorus back.

As soon as he left again, the group started talking.

"His eyes are weird, I keep on saying this," Woozi commented, getting a round of chuckles from the members in return.

"They're spun around," Seungkwan added.

Minnie sighed, "I'm telling you, we still can't trust them. What are we gonna sleep in? We don't have any extra clothes." Her question seemed to get the roommates to thinking, the wheels inside their heads visibly starting to turn.

"Maybe... maybe they'll give us something," the youngest of them answered her with a shrug.

"But we're definitely gonna have to work for them," the '96 Liner stated. "They're not just gonna give us everything."

"Yeah, I don't think so either," the girl agreed, letting herself sink into the mattress.

-

After a few minutes, the members were called to gather in the kitchen. Walking in, they could already see that something had been set up.

"Tax-free?" Minnie wondered out loud as soon as she had entered the room. Joshua, who was already sitting down, turned to where she was looking at - a poster on the wall.

Slightly confused, yet intrigued, the girl took a seat opposite Woozi and next to Jeonghan, waiting for the next steps as the two main songwriters of the group grinned at each other. Both were still carrying only a small amount of trust with them when it came to the program they were filming.

Yeongseok brought in a shopping trolly, that he placed on the table the two were sitting on, revealing it to be filled to the brim and explaining the meaning of it to the group. As they hadn't had time to pack anything, aka the crew didn't let them bring anything other than what they could carry on their body, the producing team would provide them with everything they could possibly need. 

Ranging from toiletries to clothing or even electronics, the crew had thought of every single thing. The first thing they presented were T-shirts. But not just any shirts. Custom-made T-shirts for each member. The group gazed at the item of clothing with wide eyes. Every shirt had a different design, fitted to the member whose name was written across the chest. Cherries for S.Coups, dumbells for Woozi, and so on.

Next was underwear. A true essential.

"Hold on," Minnie suddenly stopped. She pointed to a pack of black underwear with a rim she only knew too well. "I have to work for the underwear I model for? I thought I'd get them for free." As they were Calvin Klein underwear the production team had packed for her, the girl was surprised.

"AH!" Seungkwan suddenly shouted out. "You don't have to remind us of that photoshoot!" Getting a round of chuckles from the members in return, and a sarcastic big grin from the girl.

"You're welcome!" To which the '98 Liner only glanced at her in disgust.

"I'm sorry, Minnie-ya," Na PD told her. "But you also had to work to become an ambassador, right?"

With a squint, she glared at the man to her left. "Touché," she mumbled loud enough for the other members to hear, who laughed at the conversation.

The show continued as he presented the rest of the containments of the bag: Kimchi (jongga, of course), dumbells for whoever would want to work out, cup ramyeon, shorts, shampoo, a NANA Tour guidebook, zip lock bags, fans, wet tissues, stir-fried gochujang, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a bag, merch, and even earphones.

Then, last, but most definitely not least, the producer pulled out an envelope, with a quick side-remark.

"Jeonghan-ah, you'll really need this. You're going to cry," he explained. "For all of you, filled with his heart S.Coups' letter." Without missing a beat, the vice leader of the group suddenly erupted in fake tears, his groans echoing through the room. The girl couldn't help but chuckle as she nudged him with her elbow. Once he returned back to his normal state and Na PD sat back, she leaned over to the '95 Liner.

"Cheol told me to choose the letter."

"When?" He looked down at her in slight confusion.

"When we said goodbye to him. He mentioned a letter, but I was so confused about what he meant. But it must be this." Jeonghan nodded, leaning apart again to avoid suspicion from the production crew.

After they were introduced to all of the items, the group was clearly intrigued by what they could get. They knew they could, but how? Well, definitely not for free, of course. Yeongseok explained they would have to play a game, earning item after item with each round they'd win. The game they had decided on was 'Human Zero'. A game Seventeen was somewhat familiar with, but since they hadn't played it in quite a while, the worries were accordingly high.

But as soon as the game started, every fear had made its way out of the window. The group was surprisingly good at the game Na PD had chosen. In each round, the members made the right decision with who decided they should and shouldn't stand up. They were very good. Too good in the producer's opinion. Suspicion rose.

Even when they asked Hoshi what number Yeongseok should shout out next, the idol group stood strong and won another round.

It went as far as that the members even individually promised to stand up, making him almost want to shout out '13!' but if there's one thing Seventeen was flawless at, it would be teamwork - and teamwork only worked amongst the team, individuals outside of the group wouldn't understand.

Even though the idol group won each round unexpectedly, even with repeated attempts to change the game's rules and make it less likely for them to win and to prove they weren't cheating, it was still as entertaining as everyone expected. The entire crew was laughing along with the singers, surprised by the unexpected win after win.

The planned five rounds quickly turned into fifteen with Seventeen winning each round and the production even adding products they could win. But just because it didn't turn out the way the crew had planned, didn't mean it was any less entertaining. If anything, it made it all that much more amusing. It was the living proof that Seventeen talked, slept and breathed a language only they could understand.

"Just take all of this," Na PD sighed in defeat as he pointed to the prices on the table.

With all the interesting things they had earned, there was one thing that was still a mystery to the group and they'd finally get to reveal.

Jeonghan got handed over the letter Seungcheol had written to his members. He opened the envelope and opened the piece of paper, a piece of plastic being the first thing to catch their eyes.

Minnie glanced at it. Her facial expression of confusion quickly changed into surprise as she realised what the '95 Liner had just picked up - Coups' credit card.

"Oh wow..." Jeonghan gasped out loud along with Dokyeom who looked at the letter with wide eyes.

"That's not a letter," the girl commented, leaning in to try and read the words that were written on the piece of paper the card had come in. He read it out loud.

"Thank you for picking my letter. I feel so sorry for you guys going without any preparation. You can use this card however you want. I will be waiting for you well in Korea. You can use this card however you want, okay? Have fun. I love you."

A round of claps and gasps in affection filled the room.

"It really is his personal card," Dokyeom pointed out.

"His personal card?!"

"Woah... he really is the best leader," Minnie commented. A round of heads nodded in agreement.

They decided on Dino to keep the card safe as he was already the manager of the pocket money they had received before their departure.

So after a long day of travels and finally also a game, the group was released.

"Since it's late, hurry up and wash up. Change into these clothes and let's rest well," he dismissed the members.

"Good night," Minnie's voice echoed through the room as some members clapped in appreciation

"Well done, guys."

"Great job."

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[starlight-bread-blog]

The Fortune in The Fortune Teller

This is an isolated look into this specific episode.

The Fortune Teller is the 14th episode of book 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is famous for supposedly developping the show's romantic subplot between Katara and A\ang. The episode does two things: A\ang attempts to flirt with Katara, and Katara is finally willing to consider him as more than just a friend.

However, I believe that this episode could have masterfully foreshadowed the pair not getting together in the end. In this essay I will detail how each step the episode takes towards a Kat@ang endgame is actually foreshadowing the opposite.

1. Katara and the Nature of Destiny

In the beginning, the Gaang meets a person getting attacked by a bear. He is acting incredibly passive, simply dodging the bear's attemps at his life. Then, A\ang and Appa interfere to help the man. When the Gaang questions him on why he was so passive, he says it's because the Fortune Teller told him he'd have a safe journey. They then have the following exchange:

The man's logic is obviously flawed. If the Gaang didn't interfere, if the man continued to passivaly dodge, the bear would have attacked him. Fortune and destiny come from agency – from actively shaping them.

However, Katara is delaited at the prospect of seeing the future. Her and the Gaang go to meet the Fortune Teller, Aunt Wu. Aunt Wu tells her she'll marry a very powerful bender. Later, she comes back asking more details about her future husband. Remember her excitment, fantacising about her future husband:

After that, Katara becomes somewhat reliant on Aunt Wu's prophecies. She goes as far as to ask her what she should eat.

And she obeys her "prophecy", despite not wanting to. She became like the man from the beginning. She knowingly follows the fortune even though it doesn't make sense. She had given up on forging her own destiny.

Although by the end of the episode, she is no longer in this state of reliance, she still believes in the prophecies. Then, Sokka says that A\ang is a very powerful bender. This reminds her of what Aunt Wu said about her future husband. I don't want to cherry pick, so I took 4 different pictures of her face when she realizes A\ang might be the powerful bender she is to marry:

With the look in her eyes, with her mouth tilted down and with the ominous music, this could easily be read as disappointment. Especially when remembering how she fantacized about the powerful bender earlier in the episode. She doesn't smile, but looks concerned. As if she doesn't want this. Earlier in the episode, she says this:

A\ang is like the papaya. The fortune says he's right for her, but Katara doesn't want him. Now, she isn't like the man, passively dodging the bear attacking her. She shouldn't sit and wait for the prophecy to come true point blank. She has the agency to shape her own destiny and not to choose A\ang as her future husband.

2. A\ang, Meng, and First Crushes

In this episode we're introduced to a girl named Meng. Aunt Wu told her she'd end up with someone like A\ang, and so she developped a one sided crush on him. Throughout the episode she attempts to talk to him, all to no avail. Because A\ang is not interested in her.

Interestingly, her one sided crush is directly paralleled to A\ang's crush on Katara.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Please note that in exhibits B and C in particular, there is an emphasis on the other party not reciprocating their feelings.

In this parallel the show draws, A\ang is Meng, the younger, shorter one the one who is in love; and Katara is A\ang, the older, taller one who... *checks notes*... doesn't reciprocate.

But in the end, A\ang and Meng have a heart-to-heart.

Sometimes you'll like someone, and they aren't going to feel the same way, and even though it's hard, it's okay. They're young, just kids having a crush. A\ang responds to this with "I know what you mean". Because he, just like the audience that watched the parallels, knows that Katara likely doesn't return his feelings.

———————

In conclusion, The Fortuneteller could have been brilliant foreshadowing to Kata\ang not being the endgame couple, and it would have done so through beautiful, mature lessons about first loves and destiny. Thank you for reading.

[1asbrightasthestars3]

One thing I particularly like about the heartbreak high gang is that everyone there hates each other but they're like a big group of friends. (SPOILERS!!)

Let me explain.

Season one (1) . we got the obvious groups, Dusty, Ant and spider,

Amarie, Darren and Quinni,

Sasha, Missy and Harper etc etc

Then we can clearly see everyone's hatred towards Amarie, Spider refusing to sell her tickets and humiliating her every chance he gets, Darren first makes fun of her, Harper hitting her and not talking to her, Sasha and Missy not speaking to her and bully her as well , yada yada yada

But you can still see the moments where they are all together with her, it starts with Darren helping her fix her bangs, then we have Ant not being really mean to her.. more disappointed about what she did and the way he got in trouble with his parents, we got Malakai "befriending" her despite everything that's going on, overall you can see how despite everyone hating her they do help her when needed, for example the time dusty made that rumor about her and JoJo, everyone teamed up and helped. Another example of that episode is Amarie going over to Ant while he's working out and just demands him to buy snacks and shit, no questions asked. (+Missy & spider teasing him about eating at all)

And it's not just with Amarie, Spider protects Ant, Harper joking around with him about Darren and their fling, Ant and Spider hyping Missy up, all of them calling each other nicknames which simply will not happen if they didn't like each other at all, it will all just be mockery.

It's all very friendly when you really think about it. It's less like a class and more like a Hugh group of friends who hate each other but will secretly do anything to protect each other.

We also see it in season two (2) . For example Ant kissing Malakai's cheek, congratulating him about his new relationship with Rowan or Darren supporting Malakai after coming out and helping him figure out his feelings for Rowan. And after they break up we can see Missy coming over to Malakai, helping him get over the breakup although they aren't really close. Or them dropping everything to help Quinni (while I can promise you if it was my class they would leave her there to rot)

In conclusion, they are all very important to each other's lives and I find that really beautiful because at the end they do help each other when needed and if we're being real that wouldn't have happened in real life.

(tell me I'm not the only one who sees that.)

[accirax]

As of the latest episode, with all the secrets out in the open, do you have any changed opinions on the general outcomes of your “Secret Swap: For Better or Worse”?

Now that is a fantastic question! Thank you for remembering that this post existed-- I wasn't sure if anybody other than me did 😅 (And also, thank you for your patience while waiting for me to respond to you.) Here's a link to the post in question for anyone who might not know what fatherfigurefusion is asking about. As for the contents of that AU...

DRDT Secret Swap AU: For Better or Worse - REVISIONS

(CW for the suite of issues that we always have to talk about when it comes to the DRDT secrets: murder, death, suicide, implied homophobia/transphobia, self harm, eating disorders.)

Well, first of all, it's good for me that (other than the Xander/Teruko swap thing still not being confirmed) all of the secrets landed in the way in which I thought they would at the time I wrote that post. I would have had a lot more workshopping to do if, say, Hu had been the murderer without remorse and Levi had been the hopeless child.

I think I'll run through each choice I made individually, and then maybe try to fix any issues I encounter at the end after summing up the situation.

The Good Timeline

Eden receives Levi’s secret

Well, Eden did have a more negative reaction to Levi's secret than I initially anticipated in this post, criticizing him for being selfish in hardly even remembering whose lives he took. However, Levi also (presumably) has a more positive reaction to being approached with his secret than I feared. He was willing to share it with everyone himself, so I doubt he would threaten Eden if she were to approach him with it.

An updated summary of what might have happened: Eden receives Levi's secret, and is a little frightened, but might want more details before judging Levi fully (after all, she already knows that his family weren't the best of people). If she decides to approach him about it, Levi coolly explains what exactly his secret means. Eden's discomfort grows, which makes Levi feel bad.

Is it a fantastic scenario? Not really. But are there any better solutions to Levi's secret out there? Debatable. I think this one held up decently.

Nico receives David's secret

I still stand by this one, despite David being even more wild than initially expected. There's definitely a chance that Nico would just bluntly say the secret at some point if they determined that David was being manipulative. But, at the very least, Nico wouldn't be bringing their own drama to the situation-- just potentially elevating others' via timing.

It's a hard secret to deal with, but I still think that Nico is one of the better options.

Hu receives Ace's secret

So, this one obviously gains the new complications that we now canonically know that Ace was the killer, and that he was planning to do so basically before the motives were even revealed. I still think that Hu would probably react in much the way I "predicted" (assuming Ace's former bullying of Nico didn't already damn him in her eyes too much). But, I also don't think that hearing kind words from Hu would be enough to dissuade Ace from wanting to kill for his own safety.

Therefore, what happens to Hu after Ace kills? Is she now stuck in the opinion of defending Ace at the Class Trial, and being inevitably disappointed when he's revealed to truly be the killer? I guess that's not that different from what Hu canonically did with Nico, but it's not like that's going to be great for her mental health either. Not to mention 1) she would have been speaking up for a previously more controversial figure, therefore bringing her judgment even further into question for ever trusting Ace at all, and 2) Ace would actually die at the end, which would be worse for Hu's "wanting to be reliable and save people" bit.

For those reasons, I think this assignment is... dubious, but Ace's secret is also much more of a loaded gun now that we know that he was already planning to kill prior to the secrets' existence. I don't think there's any assignment I could make that would convince Ace out of killing.

J receives Eden's secret

This one still makes a ton of sense to me.

Rose receives J's secret

While I may wind up shuffling this one around in order to defuse another secret's problem, I think the logic behind this assessment holds true.

"Xander" receives Arei's secret

Also still makes sense to me. Let my girl rest. (But not in peace.) (Well, wait.) (You know what I mean!!!)

Arturo receives Min's secret

I don't think that any of our further explanations of Arturo's traumas would make the "poisoning the competition" secret any more traumatic to him. Thus, it still works.

David receives Xander's secret

I. Um. Wow.

I'm pretty certain I wasn't the only one caught off guard by the true extent of how much David cares/d about Xander. With the "knowledge" that David was planning on throwing the killing game and slaughtering everyone in pursuit of Xander's ideals-- taking into account that his actions may have been falsified/exaggerated, of course-- I fear that leaving David with this secret might be irresponsible.

If his emotions surrounding Xander grew even fiercer, so might his determination to bring the killing game to an end. No matter how much what David said in the Class Trial was the truth, I don't think giving him Xander's secret would have the "out of commission" effect I wrote about. This is definitely one I'd like to reassign, if possible.

Arei receives Whit's secret

Now, we have the confirmation that Arei didn't tell anyone about having Levi's secret! We still (understandably) don't know anything about Arei's relationship with her mom, though. Still, this one is looking good.

Veronika receives Charles' secret

As it turns out, Veronika actually found the secrets overall pretty boring (or at least, so she tells us), and only didn't reveal Hu's secret because of the pact she made with Hu. However, I still think that the logic behind her revealing the secret to Charles early holds, and that it's for the best that Charles learns this information on the sooner side. So, this one is still good!

Levi receives Arturo's secret

Well. We know that Levi wouldn't condemn someone for murdering a family member! If anything, if he treated Felicity's death like his own father's, he'd just forget that he ever read the secret. That's a joke, but I think I did a good job with deescalating Arturo's secret.

The worst consequences I can see here are 1) Levi coming to believe that Arturo is a bad person (which may have been the case already?), and/or 2) Levi could callously spill Arturo's secret to the group if he didn't understand the gravity of the sentiment. We don't exactly know how Arturo would react to his secret being shared publicly in a non-Class Trial setting, but given how he treated Eden in his mini-breakdown in 2-10, I can't imagine it would be good.

However, those are only hypotheticals, and I don't know if I'd really get any better by giving Arturo's secret to someone else. I still stand by most of the logic, so I think this choice would remain.

Ace receives Veronika's secret

I still think that nothing bad would happen from this assignment. Which means... Ace would proceed in his plan to kill Eden. Yay...?

Now that we finally have the answer as to who the killer is, it's really weird to look at this good AU. Every time, I'm like, "phew, we didn't do anything to give someone the motivation to kill!" But, as I don't think there are any secrets Ace could receive that would convince him not to kill, that just means that the "good timeline" is condemning Eden to die. Is that really better than some of the other timelines?

That's a bit more philosophical than I think is required for this AU re-analysis, so we'll just give this one a pass.

Teruko receives Hu's secret

Honestly, I think this one got better since I proposed it. This was probably my least favorite assignment of the original good AU. However, now we know that Hu had interest in forming a pact of secrecy with the person who held her secret.

Naturally, it's possible that she was only able to make this pact with Veronika because they had each other's secrets. I have no idea how Hu would have figured out that Veronika had her secret otherwise, barring a Hu!Mastermind situation.

However, as we saw in canon, Teruko decided to approach Rose and ask Rose about her secret. If Teruko did that in this AU, then Hu could surely ask Teruko not to tell others about her secret, and I imagine Teruko would oblige. It removes the possibility I was worried about with Hu feeling insecure about someone learning this about her; while that may still be the case, we can assume that instead of lashing out, she would just ask Teruko to keep it on the down low. This one's good!

Charles receives Rose's secret

I mean. Yeah.

Whit receives Nico's secret

Yeah x2. I do wonder how Whit would react if Nico tried to ask him for help with regards to Ace's bullying, though. I doubt that would actually happen, given that Nico doesn't trust anyone. Still, I'm curious if Whit would turn a blind eye like he did to their arguing canonically, or if that direct connection to Nico's mental health would call him to action a la Charles.

"Min" receives Teruko's secret

If David's creepy-ass smile didn't convince you that this secret should remain dead and buried, I don't know what will. This one can stay.

-

Finally, we've finished recapping the good version! In the end, I was still happy with 13/16 of my answers, which is a pretty good batting average.

But, how would I fix it? Well, as I alluded to in Rose's section, I think I would wind up giving Rose a different secret than J even though it was fine, just because Rose is a really useful slot to have. The best solution I could come up with is that Rose gets Ace's secret, David gets J's secret, and Hu gets Xander's secret.

I don't think that anyone would get mad at Rose for throwing away Ace's secret because it's pretty personal and likely not murder-related. And, Veronika was able to figure out that the secret belonged to Ace mere moments after hearing it for the first time anyways.

While giving David's secret to J is a bit of a dangerous game, I don't think he'd really be able to do much with it pre-Trial without blowing his cover. He might reveal the secret at the Trial just to throw things off track, but even when the secret was with Rose, it probably would have been revealed via process of elimination at the Trial anyways. We don't get the "take David out of commission" factor that made the assignment extra good the first time around, but that was a fluke. I don't think there's anything here that could stop David from David-ing.

I am banking on the fact that learning about Xander's suicidal tendencies wouldn't reignite any old feelings in Hu, but I think it would be okay. I would imagine that their circumstances are pretty different, and (on the surface, at least) Hu seems pretty resolute in her newfound desire to live.

As for Levi's secret, I think the best path for it would be to bury it in the "Xander" or "Min" slot and hand Eden either Arei or Teruko's secrets. Obviously, both of those are very loaded choices, given that Arei and Teruko are almost certainly the two characters that Eden is most connected to in the narrative right now.

In Arei's case, if Eden approached her about her secret, I think that encounter would play out much like the canonical clock-making scene did. However, that means that (if David is still in the area, I guess) they would also have that same rebound that would lead to Arei declaring herself Eden's friend-- albeit probably not as dramatically, given that in this universe, Arturo never attacks Eden. Of course, if Ace is still in the area, that then raises the question of whether the target would still change from Eden to Arei if Arei didn't make such a bold declaration. Which is the better scenario? That's impossible to say, because they both suck. Still, things to think about.

In Teruko's case, it really depends on how kindhearted Eden is feeling at the moment. I want to believe that Eden would approach "the killing game is all your fault" with skepticism and patience, and talk to Teruko to learn that she (most likely) has no memory of anything like this being the case. If Teruko could see that Eden wouldn't immediately turn against her at her literal worst, it would probably go a long way. That being said, it would be totally reasonable for Eden to be upset and worried about reading this secret, and to therefore begin to distrust Teruko.

Both of these situations raise enough issues that I can't decisively determine if they're better than just leaving Eden with Levi's secret. I'll leave it up to you to decide which iteration you personally prefer.

On to the bad section!

The Bad Timeline

As I said in the original AU post, it's difficult to determine which options are truly the worst when there are so many terrible options. Therefore, I expect that most-if-not-all of these options will still get a pass at least. We'll see if I wind up having enough brain cells to change anything in the end.

And, on that note...

Ace receives Levi's secret

Yeah, this one is still bad! Knowing what we know now, Ace is definitely killing if he gets Levi's secret, possibly faster. I do wonder if it would wind up leading Ace to target Levi, even if I'm not sure how he would pull that off. If Ace tried and failed, could it lead to Levi killing Ace instead? Eh, Ace probably wouldn't even try, given that everyone would suspect him if Levi were to turn up dead. "A reason to stay mad at you," indeed.

Veronika receives David's secret

The logic behind this one still cracks me up. Totally still think I'm right, though.

Levi receives Ace's secret

This one is okay. Really, the pushback I'm running into is just that things are already so bad with Ace that I don't think this extra layer of distrust would make things all that much worse. Plus, I don't know if Levi would pick up on the subtler implications of Ace's secret anymore. The question is just, "is there a better way that we can screw over Levi in this situation?" We'll just have to wait and see.

"Xander" receives Eden's secret

Sorry for kinda closeting you, Eden. But, that's what makes this selection so bad. And that's why it stays.

Arturo receives J's secret

There's no way to make J more miserable than to directly hand her secret over to Arturo. We'll continue sticking with canon on this one.

Hu receives Arei's secret

I didn't even mention in my original passage that Hu's love for her family would put her at odds with Arei's treatment of her sisters. That's really terrible, I say with a thumbs up.

Rose receives Min's secret

Tracks.

Teruko receives Xander's secret

While the whole David thing didn't really pan out, I do think that Teruko's segment still makes sense. It's possible we could do worse, but it's not like giving Teruko more reasons to hate herself is a terrible conclusion. I mean, it is, but not for the sake of crafting the worst possible timeline. You know how it is.

Charles receives Whit's secret

Charwhit angst :((((( Good thing that'll never happen in canon! Ha ha. This section is oxygen-potassium, which would also be potassium oxide (K2O), a corrosive compound! Or, you can just call it O-K.

Whit receives Charles' secret

Meanwhile, this section gets a heart from me.

Arei receives Arturo's secret

So if Arturo were in this even worse mental state after Arei wrecking his shop, possibly even being the blackened himself, would Levi also die? Because, Teruko was presumably planning on enacting her plan no matter who the blackened was, and DefaultTV would presumably always punish Teruko for it, and Levi (unless he too was too distracted by this motive) would probably still step in front of Teruko to repay his "debt" to her. However, if Arturo was either the one up for execution or too hateful of himself or anyone else to be spurred to surgery, we'd probably lose Levi too. It's even worse than I thought! Which means it's fully approved.

David receives Veronika's secret

Although this one kinda reads to me as "not that bad," it's important to keep in mind that I gave David a "not that bad" secret so that he would continue to encourage other people to share theirs. That's important for screwing over everyone else. So, I think this one will remain, but I could see blowing it up if it would help something else worsen.

Nico receives Hu's secret

This choice has always been one that I've felt was difficult to talk about, as was probably apparent by the million disclaimers I put at the beginning of it. Because of that, I'm sort of inclined to dissolve it. However, I... think it still holds up?

We also now have the direct confirmation that Hu wanted to keep her secret under wraps because she didn't want others to see her as weak or unreliable. If Nico was holding on to Hu's secret, she would likely only figure that out in a moment of stress, when people needed her to be reliable the most. My point is, she might go into further overdrive trying to prove to Nico that she really is reliable, which would only make things more stressful for Nico and more annoying for everyone else. With that additional reasoning, I don't currently see any reason why this should be changed.

"Min" receives Rose's secret

I didn't realize before that I had Rose and Min swap secrets-- not that it really matters, given that I could have just as easily given Rose's secret to "Xander." Anyways, this also tracks.

Eden receives Nico's secret

I still feel mean for this one 😅 But, y'know, that's just what life is like for a professional Eden Bully. Which is worse, threatening a lesbian with homophobia or falsely accusing her of murder for a year and a half? (/j) Jokes aside, this will remain.

J receives Teruko's secret

Guys, did you know that J HATES MURDER? Forget the theorist's "I feel like" disqualifier, J would definitely tell everyone and their annoying celebrity mom that everything in Teruko's life is worth killing for. Like a fine wine, this got better with age.

-

Unsurprisingly, after what I predicted at the beginning, I wound up approving 15/16 of these options. The only one I really had any issues with was Levi getting Ace's secret.

The worst secret for Levi to receive would probably be either something that makes him perceive a "good person" as a "bad person" or a "bad person" as a "good person." So, like, Teruko maybe for the former? And the worst person for Ace's secret to go to would probably be someone who would outright weaponize it against him, so possibly someone like Arei or David.

If I wanted to shuffle things around, I think it would give David Ace's secret and give Levi Veronika's secret. Ace's secret is also the kind of juicy insight that could still allow David to pull his manipulator BS, and David could absolutely destroy that man in the Class Trial, blackened or not, with the info when the time was right. Meanwhile, I could see Levi being like, "well, if it's stopping Veronika from hurting herself, then... her talent is a "good" thing, right? Every day I grow more jealous of you and your amazing perception, Veronika..." Honestly, I think I do like that one more than what I originally wrote. Let's roll with it.

And now, nearly two months after this ask was sent in, I'm finally done with it! Once again, I'm sorry I spent so long to complete this relatively simple ask. I hope this lived up to your expectations! Thanks for sending it in :)

[silenceismychoir]

i have a theory surrounding hae jo's biological father (spoilers ahead)

i think ko jae geun (candidate number 2) is his father - they were the most similar, in terms of mannerism and looks too: jae mi comments how similar they are in terms of them both being wanderers and not wanting to be tied down to one place. in the marketplace, one of the ladies comment that they look similar and have similar temperaments.

when hae jo gets the text with the paternity results, we don't get to see the results.

we see the results clearly with candidate 3

and with candidate 1 we see hae jo receive the text with the results

and while we don't get to see the results in this case as well, we see hae jo let go of his hand that he was holding on to

which makes us think that the results showed that he was not his biological father. i think the reason they kept the results of two dna tests ambiguous instead of just one to make it as somewhat of a misdirect (if that makes sense??)

we hear ko jae geun saying he had an illness some years back and had to undergo brain surgery multiple times which is probably the same illness that hae jo has (the doctor in episode 1 does say that the illness is hereditary) which feels like a dead giveaway that he is hae jo's biological father

after they realise he stole hae jo's money, hae jo gets the result of the paternity test which we don't get to see. but he looks somewhat defeated/disappointed/???

when hae jo goes to confront him about stealing his money, he hopes jae geun would apologise

he beats him up in the end not just because he stole his money but because he was disappointed that his biological father would end up hurting him that way too. we see him reminiscing on their short time together and hae jo asks jae geun why he did all of that if he was planning all along to con him. he seems genuinely hurt by jae geun's actions - which begs the question: why would a stranger conning you of your money hurt so much unless they meant something to you?

in the end, jae mi asks hae jo about the test results

hae jo's answer feels more like he's trying to comfort himself in denying the truth

it is also after this that he tells jae mi to leave and go her own way

which could allow us to deduce that he's trying to say that they've achieved the goal of their trip and she can now go back to her life the way he promised if he did end up finding his biological father

im probably stretching this very far lmao but towards the end of the show, hae jo tells jae mi that kkari told him that when you meet your biological parent, you just get a feeling of recognition

and this was hae jo's reaction to meeting ko jae geun

obviously i cant capture his emotions well in a screenshot but watch the scene and you can feel its different to when he met candidate number one

(okay okay i do admit that that last point is a proper stretch but i really believe in this whole theory lol)

in conclusion (lol) i think the reason why they kept it so ambiguous and didn't even explore the other candidates in depth is because that wasn't the point to his adventure. it's ironic that jae geun mocks hae jo and says "it's not like i haven't given you anything and just stole your money. you enjoyed these last couple of days and i did that for you. you'll never have a father like me in all your life." its ironic because throughout the show we see that hae jo already had a loving father when he was younger. jae geun's statement sort of hints that the meaning of the journey (of trying to find his sperm donor) was just to come to terms with the fact that he was yearning for his father chae yeong jo all along.

[fillingthescrapbook]

Let's Talk About: A Place of Knowing

First thing: I admit, I'm a little disappointed we immediately dropped the M&M theme on the third episode.

Second: the anon ask didn't scare me away. I had something going on in life, and I've only finished the episode today. (Also, I shouldn't watch at night. Because tired + Aabria's very soothing voice = Very good sleep even while sitting on a narsty chair.)

Third… Well, on with the show!

Okay, so. Last week, I complained about the episode not being plot-forward. And guess what this week's episode turned out to be? Another character-driven episode! But, you know what? I liked this episode better? Because the cast BROUGHT IT.

Danielle's breakdown? Lou's shutdown? And Erika? Erika was so good at shrinking her character to a point where you just want to reach into the screen and grab her. Just so she doesn't shrink anymore. And all their decisions make perfect sense.

Yes, especially Evan's very Brennan question that he wants answered. Because Evan is Brennan dialed up to a hundred. And with magic.

The episode's high point for me though was the emotional lows. We killed someone right off the bat. Aabria did not pull punches. Oh my goodness. (That said, I kinda really wanted the character to stay dead. And not just because of the interesting new mechanic. Sorry to the poor little meow-meow.)

Now, I also do feel like Aabria had to do a bit of reshuffling this episode because of how the last episode ended. I absolutely did not think we would have gone to the yellow iceberg island second had someone's arm not exploded. Intention seems to be key to navigating the islands, and their intention remains on Boudicca and Tabby. But Aabria pivoted so seamlessly it's… it's chef's kiss.

Going back to what I said earlier about liking this episode better than last week's… I think I understand now what I found missing last time. It's a sense of purpose. Getting to Fire Island 2, the players was just exploring. The "onsen episode" felt meandering because they were casting out nets to see where they need to go next. Meeting new people was fun, sure. I was just very ready to move. And then in this episode: we moved. Swiftly. With a sense of purpose.

I know table-top role-playing will not always be plot-driven. I know that and I accept that. And, as I said before, the episode last week was fine. But with a fire premiere, and a blazing episode 3--I don't think it's hard to understand why I didn't resonate with the second episode.

And I apologize that I keep bringing it up. I just wanted to process my emotions. Because we are now on the fucking move. And next week? Bouddi-boots!

[adh-d2]

Ok. I'm going to need to wait for the next episode to truly decide how I feel about this, but right now I'm like, pretty pissed off at Hunter and Wrecker?

You'd go to the ends of the galaxy for your sister, spend the rest of your lives searching for her, stop at nothing to get her back...yet when she returns with your long-lost brother you look at him like this?

Look, you've been on thin fucking ice since he told you he'd had his chip removed and you just believed him. The guy that you know had a mind-control chip in his brain. The effects of which you've seen and felt and know for a fact are impossible to resist. And you just believed that the people who put it in him in the first place voluntarily took it out? No follow up questions? No doubt?

How little did you care about Crosshair to begin with that you'd so readily accept that he was of sound mind and acting of his own autonomy?

Just for fun, let's review what you know about Crosshair right now:

His chip activated. He was forced to say, think, and do horrific things; and these things were outside of his control.

Those horrific things included trying to kill you. He's shot at you multiple times. He's an unparalleled marksman. He's always missed.

You left him behind on Kamino. It was the right choice at the time. He was literally trying to kill you, you didn't know why, and you couldn't have safely extracted him. But he still got left behind.

He has expressed how painful this was for him every time you've interacted since ("we didn't have a choice" "and I did?" | "They don't leave their own behind...most of the time").

He also said some really mean things to you.

He was horribly injured while under the Empire's control.

He rescued Omega from drowning.

He maybe had his chip removed? No need to confirm, I guess.

You left him behind on Kamino. Again. But he asked for it this time, and he said he knew what he was doing, so...

He became a prisoner of the Empire. In the facility that houses dissenting, disloyal clones.

He managed to get a message out to you while imprisoned. That message wasn't a cry for help, but a warning. Go to ground. They're after Omega. Protect yourselves.

Omega just told you he helped her escape the Empire.

AND, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, YOU LOOK AT HIM LIKE THIS?!

I'd say I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed...except actually nah I'm pretty mad.

Episode 5 is going to have to do some serious work to salvage my opinion of these two. Or at the very least stop framing them as the moral centre of the show.

[rainwalker-dragonblade29]

YOUR SOUL IS MY TREASURE

So, I can't remember whose post it was, but I think someone has hinted that Callum could trap Aaravos in that cursed coin, sealing him in that realm between and death forever to solve the "what to do with the unkillable immortal" problem. And I think that's a genius solution. Aaravos in a coin? Twisted irony but deliciously scrumptious.

But crazy part is this.

IT IS DARK MAGIC. THE SPELL ITSELF.

And there are three mages who can perform it:

1. Claudia: for this outcome she has to betray Aaravos. Something she is unlikely to do unless she sees her own path and STOPS IDOLIZING VIREN AND AARAVOS (she will idolize him, be let down more corrupted roads abd terry will steer her clear maybe #wishlist). She definitely can joi the good side and stab him in the back and save the world in a cruel sense of irony.... or she might not. But this is an outcome i truly deeply want. Claudia's realization of who aaravos truly is.

2. Callum: he gas shown to break his morals to do the right thing before. Thus he can do it again. As saving the world is very very important. And if he realises this solution? Well hurray for the world but not for him.

3. Kppar: he's in a coin, but Rayla found that coin. They have one quasar diamond, maybe they'll break him out just to ask of his help or smth related to the jailor etc. And rayllum will be a lil disappointed that he gave up dark magic at first maybe, but then he will do the spell anyway for them? But thematically this is not a strong option. The weight has to be either callum or claudia because if the choose to do this act this means two very important outcomes for their character arcs.

WHY CLAUDIA?

Firstly Claudia, the whole "I have to see my dad again", exactly stepping I'm viren footsteps in his dream, the "I will do anything for family, however dangerous, however vile" all speak of one fatal flaw. Her idolisation. As i mentioned before. She had only viren to look upto as a kid, thus he became the one whose words she religiously followed and believed in hum her whole life, for other than viren she knows no truth. It had been the only stable thing in her life, everyone else has abandoned her. Left for themselves. Viren? Never. But now he did. And now she questions her belief.

Her father was everything, so him choosing different path and changing his fate... messed with that core belief. She needs to follow him to know. She needs to get answers from him cuz he is what she looks upto, her only truthful eye. And now that I aaravos. Who will give her answers. And most importantly, direction. The one thing she needs. And that's why she will now plave him in Viren's place, and his every word. Will. Be. Followed.

So to break that. Would mean a change to good. To the right side. A negative spiral fixed.

Thus she could coin him.

WHY CALLUM?

He has had a lil touch of darkness. And now he has rid that. He is free because of Kosmo's inner truth ritual.

He has done dark magic for Rayla, both times. With aaravos back, there could and would most definitely be an all states high ultimate fight with him. And maybe then, he will again have to face this. Rayla's life, or dark magic and save all this time. And the thing is he will choose dark magic.

Rayla has extracted the promise to sacrifice her for the greater good yes. But will he stick to it? If no... . IF all that rayllum talk in the ship and then the whole Moment of truth episode is foreshadowing, then he will do dark magic again.

If yes? Well, I'm sure my boy will not see Rayla die. IF HE WILL THAT MEANS HIS CHARACTER ARC ENDS AT A NEGATIVE NOTE EITHER WAY. YES OR NO. THATS WHY KOSMO SAW DARKNESS DIDN'T HE? IF CALLUM KEEPS THE PROMISE, DARK CHOICE FOR LOVE. DOESN'T KEEP, DARK CHOICE FOR SELF, FOREVER CORRUPTED BY DARKNESS, OVERWHELMED BY THE MAGIC AND POSSIBLY INJURING HIMSELF. BOTH ARE BAD OUTCOMES IN CALLUM'S CASE.

A long conclusion.

Sorry for caps locking but this is crucial people! Callum's arc will have a low note, claudia's a high note. Dragon prince has very complex things that it explores, a show like that might choose to take Callum down the dark path because the tragedy creates beauty. Terrible beauty. Sometimes life is like that. Cruel. A half moon. Bright and dark. Both combined. A dark deed for the greater good screams it thematically that both coexist. How did this become Yin Yang?

I think the dragon prince always had this planned for callum that his journey to learn all primals will push him to question dark magic itself and see it not as an agent of evil but a tool that is helpful in certain times but comes with a heavy price. And besides, it could also be said that kimdael arguably does dark magic even as an elf, so this practice is not only for humans.

He will resolve the while dark magic conundrum forever. Perhaps. So it makes sense for his arc to end in acceptance of inner darkness and doing the spell that seal aaravos' fate. One could say he faced his inner darkness in Finnegrin's Wake but no, the act gave him more fear in S6 that peace that comes from acceptance.

It has to he callum if he has to become the game changer and break the laws of magic in a way that leaves the world shocked.

OR

Ir has to be claudia if she has to fully realize herself and break free of the darkness with one final act.

I may not be the best theorist like @raayllum but this show and its story roles me up every time I think about it!

GOD DAMMIT WHY IS THIS SHOW SO GOOD!!!

(Forgive my typos I wrote this at 1 am at lightning speed 😅)

[rin-hanarin]

Dudeee I want to draw another rookanis I hallucinated at work but I have more work in the morninggg.

Ok so here's another episode of our Murder of Crows telenovela.

Spite takes over Lucanis' body to finally "talk to Rook", and Renzo isn't particularly eager because he wanted to catch up with Lucanis actually, so Spite decides to be, well, a spiteful bitch and do a little trolling. It goes "He doesn't even like you back, why are you trying so hard?", and instead of taking the bait Renzo just kinda goes through stages of grief and ends up on 🥹 this.

"Okay... I guess you would know... I didn't want to talk to him that much, actually..." and goes to the window to dramatically leap out of it or something. Spite freaks out because it takes the joke literally, Lucanis is going through it while trapped in his own mind head in hands like the babygirl man stock image, Renzo is pretending to be terminally heartbroken and wishing to end it all via jumping out of the window, but he's actually kinda hurt by the idea that Lucanis might genuinely dislike him and tolerates him because Renzo functionally is a leader.

The drama, the pathos, Lucanis takes his control back and is trying to drag Renzo down from the window, even though there's (probably) no fall damage in the Lighthouse, but only Renzo knows this because he's enough of a reckless dumbass to try.

Renzo, however, is also a gremlin and very much is not over Spite's little jab, so he goes "So you do like me back?", and it's the wrong question to ask Lucanis who's supposed to be the mature one between the two of them, but he's also awkward as fuck with any kinds of feelings and he's all "Well, I mean..."

So at this point Renzo is tired of this bit and done with this shit, jumps, lands on all four, doesn't respond when Lucanis tells him to wait, and then goes to annoy Neve and complain that Lucanis' shitty demon is bullying him. Neve is amused, but rubs some salt into his wounds, saying that she's not surprised, considering how much Renzo gets on Spite's host's nerves and that there are more mature ways to express his affection. Renzo says that those are boring and leaves to find another person to annoy, but he initially went to literally just spend some time with Lucanis, but met a demon instead and was disappointed. He decides to go to Bellara instead, and Bellara distracts him by dragging him around her lab and showing her new cool magical contraptions she made.

Lucanis meanwhile retreats to his brooding chambers to go through it again, and Spite is very, very quiet.

End of the episode :D

[francesminos-tt]

Did you see the leaks? What you think about the season in general? Did you like Gwayne? AND TESSERION? for me, the leaks were disappointing. rhaenyra begging for the war to end going to alicent and alicent wanting to hand over her children!? It's like the war makes no sense, is completely pointless and s3 seems disheartening and boring

To answer your first question, Gwayne is probably my favorite character in this season. He is exactly what I imagined him to be, a bit more playful perhaps, but overall, I like his character. He's like the voice of reason in the Green's side tbh. Freddie Fox's acting added to the characterization as well. I will touch more on Gwayne while talking about the Green's plot later. As for Tesserion, I didn't get a good look at it actually. I hope it is not too small. (Size of the dragons and people's obsession over it is another disappointing point in the show)

For the season itself, well, I am so glad you asked. I can write an essay about how the show killed almost all characters' arc with bad plot, unnecessary dialogue and forced conflict. Let me explain.

In my opinion, the biggest problem of S2 is that the show failed to recognize the dire situation of war. In fact, it seems to me that the show writers do not think there is a war at all. They seem to think the conflict between the Blacks and the Greens is just a family dispute, and it can be resolved by calling back to Rhaenyra and Alicent's bond. Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? Why is Rhaenyra begging for the war to end going to Alicent and Alicent wanting to hand over her children? Because they see this so-called war not as a matter of life and death, but as a dispute between themselves that can be solved by begging the other. The show focuses too much on the emotional bond with Rhaenyra and Alicent that it killed both women's character development. They act like innocent maidens as they were in S1E1, while in fact, decades have passed and now they are both mothers and both has suffered child death. It is as if the death of Luke and Jaehaerys did not change them at all, which is absurd to me. I want to drop a bomb on someone who hurt my cat, so why does Rhaenyra still think the so called war can end peacefully when the other side killed her child?? Rhaenyra insisting to behead Aegon in the leaks seems strange to me as well. Rationally, I know Aegon is the enemy king and he should be symbol of the Green's usurpation, but in the previous episodes of this season, no one really sees him as king. Everyone, both allies and enemies, is talking about Aemond, Vaghar, Aemond, Vaghar, without even mentioning Aegon the Usurper. So I don't think publicly beheading Aegon can have the desired effect of ending the usurpation.

Another problem is that the show wants to put Rhaenyra and Alicent both in a very oppressed position so bad that they sacrificed a lot of character development and logic to achieve this. The show wants to paint both Rhaenyra and Alicent as victims of discrimination against women, which is fine by me, but being the victim is the not the solution. I, as an audience, want to see them fight the system. I think it is one of main takeaways from the Dance of the Dragons era. Disappointingly, all I see is them complaining and whiny about how the men don't listen to their commands, but I want to see them plotting, scheming, threatening, being diplomats, and most importantly, making a change. The show clearly wants to draw some parallels with Cersei, but at least Cersei does not sit in a room throwing a tantrum or go out to take a bath in the woods. Rhaenyra doing the red sowing seems like an attempt to make a change, but the way she did it (recruiting people from enemy territory is just beyond me) and the fact she doesn't seem to have a comprehensive plan of what to do next is just lame.

The show tries to force their out-of-place ideas and values upon the audience, namely feminism and the importance of people(smallfolk). Firstly, the show puts a lot of focus on female characters and in order to make these women shine, and it castrates all the men. I am not joking. Can you point out a single male character who doesn't go against the women? Not a single one. Gwayne is a possible candidate, but I think why he acts so logical and somewhat kind is to make Alicent even more devastated when he dies in the next season. Daemon, Jace, Corlys, Aegon, Aemond, Cole. They are all obstacles of Rhaenyra and Alicent, instead of their supporters. Putting men against women is not feminism. Secondly, I admit that smallfolks play an important role in killing the dragons in the F&B book, but the show makes it too far. This show is a medieval fantasy, not the French Revolution. Preconditions need to be met in order for the smallfolks to fight against the aristocracy. Productivity, social changes, urbanization, and movements like the Enlightenment are all contributors for the commoners to rise against their kings and queens. Ignoring all these factors and putting modern standards on smallfolks in the asoiaf world is just arrogant and disrespectful.

In terms of plot pace and development, S2 is also a failure. If you look at S1E1 and S1E10, things have become so different that you will probably feel sorry for the characters. But if you look at S2 premier and finale, they are practically the same. Even though supposedly a lot of people died and a lot of battles fought, the main characters still seem to be in the same place. They have no development whatsoever. They still immerse in their personal issues and fail to recognize the grand situation.

The final point I want to make, and this is completely personal, is that I hate them making Joffrey a clingy mommy's boy. He acts like an idiot who only knows how to say mommy. The scene with Rhaena, it pains me to watch it. They are not even having a intellectual conversation! They sizes down Tyraxes and just leaves Joffrey in the Vale like he's unwanted luggage.

Okay, thanks for giving me an opportunity to rant about the utter failure of S2. I have so much more to say(like how killed Jace and Daemon's character, how they made Aemond an anime villain, etc) but I think I will stop here. Let's just say I am not looking forward to S3. AT ALL.

[starartist]

Hi! I just discovered your blog and it’s wonderful! Your art is great, and it’s impressive how you’ve improved since the start of this blog!

Long live Zutara nation! 💙❤️ Wish you good luck creating and a lot of feedback, you deserve all the best!!

May I ask about your story of falling in love with Zutara? Did you ship them as soon as while watching ATLA for the first time, or did it take time to realise how awesome they were? Maybe some creators from the fandom were the ones who showed you the beauty of Zutara?

And the second question: what are some of your Zutara head canons? You probably have hundreds of them, so feel free to provide only the favourite ones!

That’s all for now, have a good day! 🫶✨

Hiii, thank you so much! 😊 I've been working hard to improve my drawing skills, and I'm glad to hear that the progress is noticeable✨️

I fell in love with Zutara when I was a kid and watched Avatar for the first time. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I saw the kiss between Aang and Katara in the final episode🥲. I had hoped that she would end up with Zuko until the very end. Of course, I've watched Avatar another 100 times since then, but that's okay. Later, I started seeing Zutara fan art on Pinterest, and I really enjoyed looking at them. About two years ago, I bought a tablet with a stylus just so I could draw on it. Honestly, at first, I was drawing myself and Zuko together, trying to insert myself into the story—whoever says they didn't have a crush on Zuko as a kid is lying! 😂

One day at school, I was drawing some human figures and thought, "Hey, this could be a Zutara fan art." When I finished it, I debated whether or not to post it on Tumblr, which I had installed just to look at Zutara fan art. So, I uploaded my first piece, not expecting even 20 likes, but the Zutara fans really liked it. From then on, I started drawing almost every day at school and posting my works and ideas.🫶

My favorite Zutara headcanons, even though there are hundreds of them, are:

• The Fire Nation Ambassador- if Katara had stayed true to herself, she would have become a powerful politician, serving as an ambassador for both the Fire Nation and the Water Tribe, dedicated to maintaining peace across the world. Naturally, she would have grown closer to Zuko and they would fall in love❤️‍🔥 .

• The Fire Lady Katara- just imagine if Katara and Zuko had ended up together—I think the show would have ended with Zuko's coronation and him proposing to Katara with a necklace, or maybe even their wedding where Katara is crowned as the Fire Lady🔥.

• Love After the Agni Kai - Imagine the Agni Kai is over, and while Katara is healing Zuko, he confesses the feelings he has long kept hidden inside. He declares his love for her, and she admits that she feels the same. And they are kissing💋.

• Love Without War - Imagine if the Fire Nation never declared war and peace prevailed. Avatar Aang's era has passed, and a new Avatar is born—Katara from the Water Tribe. While traveling the world, the time comes for her to learn firebending, and she is assigned a talented young prince, Zuko, as her teacher. They fall in love, and the rest is history💞. (This is my idea, and it’s for the next drawing that you’ll soon see on my profile)

I'll get back to regular drawing in two weeks as soon as I return from vacation and start my final year of high school. I have a thousand ideas for new pieces, and I hope you all will enjoy them! 💙❤️

[grounded-gryphon]

I'd Die (Again) for Y'all -- Episode 15

AN: If you are wondering what happened to 14, I'm done fighting it. If I can flesh out 14, later I will. If it ends up being multiple chapters, I'll deal with that later too.

Episode 14 summary -- Danny thinks about Red Robin's request, and agrees to give a code phrase for Ms Lane to identify herself to Sam with. The GIW continue to give Diana a headache, but she manages to start compiling a list of known bases from info they drop. Later, Danny, Jason and Tim are talking when Tim makes an offhand comment about Jason hating him. Jason bluescreens.

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Episode 15

"Tim…" Jason looked up at Tim from where he knelt on the floor and swallowed. Tim watched his throat bob and wondered how the crystal tension ringing in the air could be so silent. "Tim, I don't hate you. I… the Pits still fuck with my head, some days pretty badly. But I know they lie. I'm… you don't feel safe with me, and you shouldn't. So I stay away, even when the Pits are quiet.

"But I don't hate you."

Tim struggled to breath. To blink. To do anything but stand there like a statue while Jason shattered his understanding of how the world worked.

"I would do anything for you," Jason said. Red Hood said. /Robin/ said. Who had been everything Tim wanted to be, and grew up to be everything Tim wanted. His greatest nightmare and his untouchable dream.

"Anything?"

"Yeah, Tim," Jason dropped his eyes finally, and Tim could breathe again. "Anything."

Tim ached for the pain in Jason's voice. But there was something else mixed with the pain. Something he'd never dared to imagine he'd hear from Jason.

He glanced at Danny. The shit had conjured popcorn from somewhere and was 'sitting' in the air watching the show. Danny saw him looking and winked.

Tim took a deep breath and turned back to Jason. The shit wanted a show. Somehow, that made it easier. The showmanship of being Robin had never come naturally to Tim. He didn't have Dick's cheerful boldness or Jason's brash surety (Jason didn't look very sure of himself now, did he?). His skill was in the sneak and the stalk. But he'd learned, as all Robins had to.

The shit wanted a show and Tim wanted answers. Tim wanted answers, but he didn't dare /ask/ the questions he wanted. Didn't dare make himself that vulnerable. (Jason was vulnerable. Jason was on his knees before Tim, offering /anything/.) He can't ask, but he can accuse.

"You always tell Dick that we'll never be brothers. You threatened to shoot him last time he said it." (Tim had been devastated and relieved. He didn't want to be Jason's brother. But if he was Jason's brother, then Jason wouldn't hate him.)

Jason flinched, clenched his fists. "I… is that what you want? To be brothers?"

"No," Tim said after a long moment. Jason looked up at Tim then, and Tim saw a familiar mix of devastation and relief in his eyes. (Fuck, Danny was right. Dannywasright. Dannywasrightdannywas--) He crouched down in front of Jason and prayed that this time, his analysis was correct. "You're right that I don't feel safe around you. But that doesn't mean I never can. Or that I don't want too."

He leaned in and kissed Jason. Gently at first (he did /not/ hear Danny's soft 'Yess!' in the background. If he heard that, he would have to hurt Danny. So he didn't hear it), deepening after a moment when Jason didn't pull away. When Jason tilted his head to return the kiss: hesitantly at first, then with increasing fervor.

Tim cupped Jason's face in his hands, felt Jason's hands hovering over him, but not touching. Afraid to touch. Tim was disappointed. Tim was grateful. Tim didn't know what he would have done if Jason had touched him (grabbed him, pulled him close, trapped him--). Tim tensed and Jason froze, but Tim refused to stop, refused to let go of Jason's face, his lips, his tongue. Jason's hands fell away and Tim relaxed, tried to lose himself in the kiss he never thought he'd get.

A sound penetrated. Clapping. Someone was slow clapping.

He reluctantly broke the kiss and turned to look a Danny, who was smirking at both of them. "Very nice. 9/10. Bit of a fumble in the middle there, but you stuck the landing."

Tim rolled his eyes and Jason chuckled a bit. "You're an asshole, Danny."

"Certified." The popcorn disappeared with a (Tim almost groaned) /pop/ and Danny hopped down (how did he DO that?). "Here," he said, coming over to crouch behind Jason, "Let me help with that." Before Tim could ask what he meant, Danny had Jason's arms pinned behind his back. "He's all yours, hoss."

If you had asked Tim five minutes ago, he would have sworn that Jason would never let anyone pin him.

But Jason only relaxed into Danny's hold, murmuring, "Protector."

Danny leaned forward and kissed Jason's temple. "Always." He smiled at Tim. "You just tell me how you want him, hoss. Even if he didn't want to be good for you, he knows better than to mess with me when he uses /that/ name."

Tim had so. Many. Questions.

But he also had his priorities straight.

He looked into Jason's eyes. There was no anger there. No rage. Nothing but need and hope and--

"Anything?" Tim asked again, putting his hand on Jason's thigh.

"Anything you want, Tim."

Danny huffed a laugh at that (Why?) and nuzzled Jason's neck. They were so fucking beautiful together. Like statues of the Greek gods brought to life. And waiting for his command.

It should have been weird to have Danny there. It wasn't. It was right. It was perfect. It was.

"Danny?"

"Yeah, Tim?"

Tim swallowed, his throat gone dry. He'd already been offered something he never dared hope for on a platter. Was he really going to…? But Danny just looked at him with a wicked glint in his eyes. "I want you, too."

Danny grinned and Jason shuddered against him. "I thought you'd never ask."

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Cut scene coming next week.

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