#I WILL finish season 2 in the next 24 hours

[madelynn-sienna]

coney island p. I (max verstappen x reader)

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★ prompt: ❛❛ what's a lifetime of achievement? if I pushed you to the edge? ❜❜ ★ pairing : max verstappen x reader ★ face claim : lily collins (+ one picture of kelly piquet and margot robbie each) ★ genres : angst ★ a/n : this will be a two-part hurt/comfort story inspired by the song coney island. be rest assured while this half is quite sad, the second half will make up for the angst and we will get a happy max x yn ending! also, per some creative liberty i took, max is only 23 years old here (he started racing in 2019, won his first gp in 2021 and was in school with the reader before he dropped out to pursue racing full time). ★ feedback and requests are always appreciated!

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liked by yourinstagram, redbullracing, landonorris and others

maxverstappen simply lovely race 🏆 what an amazing weekend and victory in jeddah, thank you all for your incredible support 🇸🇦

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yourinstagram another fabulous performance #mv01 🔥🔥🔥

redbullracing incredibly strong race today, a 1-2 finish is all we could have asked for 💙

user1 tu tu tu du max verstappen! user2 fastest pit stop too.

yourinstagram made me so proud max, ik houd van je 💕

maxverstappen ik hou ook van jou mijn liefste ❤️ user3 they said they loved each other in dutch. user4 he also called her 'his sweetheart' 🥹 user5 max and yn are literally the it couple on the circuit rn. user6 right? three time world champion and a bestselling author. user7 they so need to make a movie about it. user8 or a book, imagine a twisted lies style drama 😭

ruthbuscombe the strategy 💯

landonorris congrats mate!

maxverstappen thanks. user9 we're waiting for a win from you too lando! user10 this aged well haha

schecoperez ¡bien hecho!

user11 presenting our four time world champion everyone!

user12 we're only on the second race of the season 😭 user13 i mean if last year's anything to by, that's enough.

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text exchanges between yn & max dated 23/07, 02/08 and 04/08.

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yourinstagram it's supposed to be fun, turning twenty-one...

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user1 faster than the flying dutchman?

user2 yoo-hoo, @.maxverstappen where are you? user3 right? like he's usually the first one here...

carmenmmmundt happy birthday🥂

danielricciardo happy 21 yn 🍾

user4 why isn't max in the pictures?

user5 he's been busy with the belgian gp! user6 dude, that finished on sunday — it's the next saturday. user7 he's prolly just really stressed, he hasn't won since canada. user8 yeah, but yn through him a massive party last year. user9 so? circumstances were different... she isn't busy 24/7. user10 she literally has a job.

alexandrasaintmleux belle fille❣️

charlesleclerc joyeux anniversaire 🎉

user11 that caption's giving me bad vibes...

user12 me too! user13 its from all too well, that's such a sad song 😭 user14 i wonder why she chose it? user15 this better not be a sign.

user16 seriously? where is max, it's been 24 hours...

user17 check their stories, they're like done done. user18 nooooooooo😭 user19 she gave so many signs...

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･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ

yourinstagram added to their story. maxverstappen added to their story.

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liked by charlesleclerc, redbullracing, landonorris and others

maxverstappen 5 wins in 5 races - thank you for your support in monza, baku, singapore, texas and sao paulo. you've made me happier than you know, happier than i've ever been before.

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user1 he really do be out here pretending he didn't break yn's heart.

user2 of course, he needs to maintain his bravado. user3 otherwise people, and he will realise, he messed up. user4 i can't believe he's trying to snub our girl yn.

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liked by visacashapprb, schecoperez, maxverstappen and others

redbullracing max verstappen wins the world drivers championship 2024, after an outstanding race at the las vegas street circuit that leaves him at with a 62 point lead in the standings ❤️ 💛 💙

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user1 max, max, max, super max, max

user2 tu tu tu du max verstappen user3 i called it! i said he'd win the wdc back in jeddah 🏆

user4 were you standing in the hallway with a big cake? happy birthday.

user5 of course, he just painted yn's bluest skies the darkest grey. user6 you are getting pressed for a breakup you know zero about! user7 max literally said it in his interviews and his statement. user8 they broke up because he was too busy. user9 ergo, he wasn't there for her, not even on her birthday!

lewishamilton amazing work - congratulations max

user10 what a goat ❤️

danielricciardo maaaax verstappennnnn! four time world champion.

user11 why'd I read that like pierrreeee gaslyyyyy? user12 me too😭 daniel's an icon.

fernandoalonso ¡muchas felicidades!

user13 real question here is, what's a lifetime of achievement?

user14 especially when he pushed her to the edge. user15 right like did you see her in miami, she looked so sad😭 user16 we all know she was just too nice too leave. user17 i'd have dumped his ass ages ago.

user17 definition of a LEGEND

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f1 🚩 Red flag in the Abu Dhabi as Max Verstappen suffers a huge crash. The medical rescue team is currently trying to get the Red Bull driver away the resultant debris and fire as safely as possible.

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[ssivinee]

❇︎Meeting Doyennes❇︎

BEBE! Bada Lee x OC Team! F Reader: The first mentions of being on SWF 2 had you excited. Everything seemed to be going well in the process... well, that's until you figure out who your competitors are.

Word Count: 2.1k

Note: Reading the girl's profiles beforehand would really help you, just so you don't get confused :) Also, the contact names are what you named each other.

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It was a warm day in April, and the Interflow Agency building buzzed with sounds of chatter and music. In a dance studio on the 7th floor of the company, loud tunes could be heard blasting as two individuals moved to the track. As the loud bass filled their ears, their limbs followed, feeling the sound and beat as playful grins upheld their faces.

“I need to know how your body moves that way,” the younger girl, Serena, asks. “Simply years of experience,” you quickly answer as you finish off, posing to the aggressive ending of the tune. “I don't think I’d be as good as you in 10 years.”

“You're already as good as me now, Serena. Stop doubting yourself so much, girl.” The older says as she walks over to her phone, turning down the music as they talk. 

“You have any classes later today?” “Nope, the company called an emergency meeting. Didn’t tell me why, though,” you tell her, shoulders shrugging at the text you got this morning from the CEO. “Wonder what it's about,” Serena mumbles, going deep in thought.

“Well, I guess I’m about to find out 'cause I need to go~,” you say, waving off with your bag in hand. “K, see you later!” You hear her say as the door shut.

As you entered the 10th floor, you were met with greetings from fellow co-workers. You enter the meeting room, feeling the serious air settling in on your brain. “Y/n, please take a seat.” You sat in front of the CEO, showing a friendly face, “What’s going on?”

“I actually have some exciting news for you.” You moved forward in your chair, a bit intrigued, “and that would be?”

“The famous Korean televisor, Mnet, reached out to us about a dance show called Street Woman Fighter 2, and I want you to represent us.”

A shocked look appears on your face. You were a fan of the first season, enjoying the fact that “normal people” get to have an inside look at the dance community in some way. “I’d be honored! But that show needs a crew.”

“And that’s why, as the leader, I’m giving you full control over who you want on the team.”

Your eyes widened at the man's statement, “Are you sure?” “I trust you’ll make the right decisions, Y/n. You are one of the most experienced and trusted dancers in this company, so I’m sure you’ll pick the right ladies.”

The CEO told you more about the details and finally concluded the meeting after an hour. When leaving the room, your brain began throwing around names that could possibly join you on your journey to Korea. The CEO had stated you could pick five to seven women, and you already had your first pick in mind, Serena.

But who else?

You were in a dilemma, unsure whether to assemble a team that closely resembled your own style for a more unified look or to opt for a more diverse group to avoid limiting your crew. As you contemplated this, you eventually shook your head, realizing that variety would be the better choice. The CEO had provided you with a folder containing profiles of all the other dance instructors at Interflow. You settled in the building's cafeteria, flipping through the thick folder while snacking on some food.

As your fingers flipped through each file, you began picking women whose styles varied and weren't necessarily too popular. That was until you limited down to four other women. 

Emi Tanaka, 28 years old and specializes in contemporary fusion.  Isabella “Bella” Vasquez, also known as Bell, is 25 years old and specializes in ballet.  Maya Chen, 25 years old and specializes in waacking. Iris Onasis, also known as Athena, 24 years old and specializes in tap and ballroom.

Once you've decided, you immediately text Serena.

Dancing Queen👑 I’m taking u out later tn ill txt u the dets later

Flow Baby🧸 is this you asking me out?

You chuckled at the younger girl's response, finding her humorous even when knowing it was a genuine question.

Dancing Queen👑 noooo but it is important😉

Flow Baby🧸 alright then just lmk

You then got into contact with the other girls and told them your unsuspected plan for tonight.

All six of you now sat at a table in a pristine restaurant, all of you dressed up in gallant attires. As the girls chatted away, Serena couldn’t help but wonder why they were all sitting at a table together. It was a fairly unusual combination since most of the girls never worked together. Yes, they were friends, but that was pretty much due to them all working under Interflow.

“I don’t wanna ruin the moment, but can I ask why we’re all here?” Emi asks, almost as if she was reading Serena’s mind. “Well, I just had a meeting with the CEO today, and he said that I have an upcoming project coming up, so I just wanted to celebrate with you guys.”

The girls somewhat eye each other, feeling that there was more to the story. They literally worked in different areas of dance. Why wouldn’t they be suspicious about this? “Well, what’s the project?” “It actually involves you guys,” you let out calmly, but the girls seemed to take your tone a bit too seriously. “Is the project hard?”

“Oh fuck that, what is the damn project?” Iris cuts Maya’s question short as her bluntness turns on blast. “It’s Street Woman Fighter 2.”

…

“WHAT?”

“No way!”

“Is this real?”

You giggle at the several questions being thrown at you, “Yes, 100% real.” “Holy shit!”

“I guess we’re going to Korea, guys.”

The restaurant buzzed with excitement as the news sank in. You and your five talented friends were going to Korea for the viral show, and more people may finally have the chance to see who they were. The initial shock turned into enthusiasm, and the celebration continued.

You shared stories of your dance journeys and discussed the upcoming adventure. How would your diverse dance styles work together? What challenges and opportunities awaited in Korea? The group's unity grew, and you made plans for the project.

As the night progressed, you exchanged contact information and solidified your commitment to this new dance crew. The journey was just beginning, and you were all eager to showcase your talents on the international stage.

So, the next following weeks were busy for the six of you. The team had begun bonding over the hectic time, going out to eat, playing games, dancing together, filming tiktoks, and even coming up with the crew name.

The naming was the most difficult part. Everyone had such good ideas being thrown around and wasn’t agreeing on one. Athena and Maya liked ‘The Sirens,’ explaining that we gave off a dangerous yet elegant vibe. Emi stated she likes the name ‘Unity,’ but the other girls found it a bit boring. 

Bell and Serena stayed silent about the suggestions, saying how they weren’t really creative enough to think of one. So when you suggested ‘Doyennes,’ you were expecting the girls to hate it or even contemplate it but instead received such positive remarks.

After a wait of a month, Mnet released the statements of the show and all the crews joining. The team sat in the dance studio as they scrolled on a shared tablet, looking through their competitors. The team members weren’t released, but the crew names were, so seeing the crew with the pink logo gave the younger dancers chills.

“Jam Republic? They're probably gonna be out biggest competitors, huh?” Emi asks, and all the girls nod. Athena then looks at you and wonders, “Aren’t you under Jam, Lotus?” Her words cause all the girls to stare at you, all beginning to wonder the same thing. “That’s right! You signed with them 2 years ago. So why aren’t you with them?”

“Interflow has always been my top priority over Jam. The contract is a big achievement for me, sure, but I first started here.”

“Did they reach out to you?” Bell asks, but you shake your head, “I was told that Jam already knew I was the first dancer picked for our company, so they didn’t bother.” 

You began to think, Jam Republic had many talented dancers under their belt, so who was going to be chosen? “I’m sure they made a very diverse crew as well,” you tell the girls. “Is there someone you expect to see on the team?” “Oh, Kirsten, for sure.”

Their eyes widened at the famous name, and Bell could be seen fangirling as she sat on the couch. “Kirsten? Like Kirsten Dodgen? Kirsten of the Royal Family? The girl that went viral for being the green shirt girl in Justin Beiber's music video?” You laugh at Bell’s ramble, following it with a nod. “Wait… do you know her?” Emi questions, and you simply nod, typing away at your phone.

As you bring it up to your ears, everyone looks at you like you're crazy. “What are you doing?” Maya asks, but you hold up your finger, silencing them a bit. The person you called picks up, and you smile, “Hey, Kirs,” Bell goes crazy and starts shaking your arms in excitement. “I wanted to ask you something,” you say, and Emi mouths ‘put her on speaker,’ to which you nod, clicking the button on your phone.

Everyone hears the girl’s accent coming through, “and that would be?” “Are you a part of JR’s crew on Street Woman Fighter?” Before she responds, you hear her adorable laugh from the speaker, “Yeah, and I’m assuming you are a part of Doyennes, huh?”

A smile creeps up on your face, “Got that right. I guess I’ll be seeing you in Korea then, Kirs.” “Better give me some good competition, Lo,” you smirk at the nickname, “Of course, you know I never back down.”

“Right, right, well, I have a busy schedule today, so I have to go, but talk to you soon?” She questions, and you hum in agreement, “Yeah, see you in June, girl.” The team hears the line end, and you hear Bell squealing, “You never said you knew her.” “Well, it never came up in a conversation,” Athena says, pinching the girl’s leg jokingly with her obvious tone.

As your crew kept chatting, you scrolled more through the article, and the name in light blue bubble-style letters popped up. Bebe?

You could’ve sworn you’ve heard of them before, so you go to Instagram on your phone, typing the crew name in your search bar. Your finger pressed on the first profile page, and you saw multiple videos of younger girls dancing. But your eyes trailed to the tallest woman in every video. You checked out the tagged pages and saw the familiar name, a light gasp coming out of your mouth.

The girls stop their conversations due to your audible gasp, feeling a bit concerned. “What? What is it?” “Apparently, we won't be the only crew with another JR dancer.” The dancers looked at you confusingly until you flipped your phone, showing them your phone screen with her profile on it. 

“Bebe has Bada Lee as their leader.”

Silence fills the room until Emi breaks it, “Isn’t she the one with viral Kpop choreographies in Korea?” You could only nod at the question. Not only was Jam Republic gonna be a huge rival for you guys. 

This new information made you realize that your talents wouldn’t be the only important thing on this show. Popularity was gonna be a big factor, and knowing that many Kpop fans would likely watch the show, you immediately knew Bada would take the crown for that.

You weren’t oblivious. Bada had the charm, looks, charisma, height, and appeal that would get her trending, and you were sure she'd be trending fast. You grumble, your shoulders slumping at the heavy realization. Maya looks at you worryingly, “Is that bad for us?”

You shook your head, “Not necessarily. It just makes it harder for us. We’re pretty popular, but knowing someone on the show has gone viral multiple times for their dances puts us at a disadvantage. Especially on a Korean show.”

You may only be half Korean and raised in the States, but your mom raised you well enough to be involved in the culture. You knew a lot about Mnet and the way Korea worked, and it had you slightly worried for your crew. 

The Korean public reaction to three international crews wouldn’t be bad. They just may not be as good reactions in comparison to Korean teams.

You shook the thought out of your head, trying to be as optimistic as possible for your team, “We can do it, guys. We’ll aim high, like we always do, and make it to the top.” Everyone nods in agreement, smiles taking over their faces.

“We’re gonna show the world what the Professors of dance can do.”

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[cheriladycl01]

The Rookie Prodigy - Carlos Sainz x Driver! Reader - Part 2

Plot: You are a rookie coming into the 2022 season of Formula One into Alfa Romeo with team member Zhou Guanyu, being in a mid tier team can you help them rise up the ranks. What pressures occur for the only rookies within the 2022 line up!

The interview was good, everyone was really kind to you and your PR team made sure that the questions were only about racing which was nice as you really got to talk about the teams and cars with the others there.

There was a joke that you were being ganged up on as there was two Ferrari drivers sat next to each other, the two Mercedes drivers sat next to each other and then there you were sat in the middle with Lewis and Carlos either side of you.

"So Y/N what more can we expect from you in 2022? We've got Saudi Arabia next weekend that I'm sure you are excited for it" he says and both Carlos and Lewis look at you as you raise the mic.

"Jeddah is one of the toughest tracks on the line up this year in my opinion. I just hope i can make my team proud and i can finish the race with some more points for them!" you smile settling a hand down on your lap.

"And Lewis as a World Champion do you have anything to say to the new rookie this year that will inspire her in her future career"

"Jheez man, you out here making me sound so much older than her! But listen you'll always here people talk about the car and driver. Sometimes the car and driver are on the same level, sometimes the car is better than the driver and sometimes the driver is better than the car. And i think today proved that Y/N is already out-performing in her Alfa Romeo and I think all the team principles will be keeping an eye on her throughout the year. Keep driving the way you are, and you know where to find me whenever you wanna talk" he smiles at you, he leans into you hugging you slightly making you blush and smile at the contact.

After the conference it was a shamble getting you back to the hotel. PR had pulled you out early while the other in the interview stayed behind a little. You hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye before you were whisked out to multiple fans. You stayed to sign stuff with Zhou who had kindly waited for you so you could go back to the hotel together.

You and Zhou knew there was no point going home or going to the factory when in a week you had to travel across the short flight to Saudi Arabia. Monday you and him went to the water park in Bahrain for the whole day. After that you guys flew to Jeddah on the Tuesday readying for the week ahead.

You had a good qualifying coming in P8 and you were happy that you were starting in a points worthy place. You'd reported to your team that something felt wrong with the car, its pace just wasn't as good today and you were told that the overnight engineers would take a look for you.

It was getting late and you should be sleeping, but you just couldn't seem to shut your eyes. The nerves of tomorrow eating away at you. It was about 11pm when you decided to throw a hoodie on and walk down to the hotel bar.

The elevator music was soft and you checked you phone, thinking it probably wasn't the best thing to upload a photo to show everyone you were currently awake right now.

You walked out and sat down at the 24 hour bar, only a few people were there, not that you took much notice of the people around you.

"Got anything to knock me out?" you ask the bar tender who looks at you in shock.

"Rough night?" he asks.

"No, just struggling to sleep" you smile lightly.

"Well if you don't like cherry juice or Chamomile tea I have some bricks out back that may help" he laughs out his offers trying to lighten your mood.

"Cherry juice?" you ask having never heard that it was a drink for helping sleep.

"I dunno, but it works!" he defends before you shake your head opting for the tea.

"Y/N, what are you doing here?" a voice asks and you turn seeing Lewis steps up behind you. He opens his arms gesturing to the seat next to you.

"Oh, Lewis hi. This is so embarrassing. Sorry you have to see me like this. You can sit, only if you want to though" you smiled at him.

"Thanks. I cant sleep either" he's smiles at you before flagging the bartender and asking to have what your having.

"I think I'm just nervous about tomorrow"

"Yeah, i get that! You have a lot of pressure on you as a rookie! But your are one of the best rookies we've had for years! Qualifying was good today! Keep that smile up" he smiles at you placing a hand gently on your shoulder.

"What's going on here?" a voice behind you asks. You and Lewis both swivel to find Carlos standing there at the entrance to the bar watching there pair of you with narrowed eyes.

"Carlos! What are you doing awake?" you ask in shock, even Lewis being down here was a shock to you.

"More like what are you doing down here?" he frowns.

"I couldn't sleep, and then Lewis was down here so he joined me!" you smile, and point to the seat on the other side of you. He takes it and shimmies into the seat, waving the bartender off when he offers a drink.

"So, what are you also doing awake?"

"I also couldn't sleep, I've got a lot on my mind" he says looking over the pair of them.

"So, how do you think tomorrow will go?" Carlos asks trying to run a conversation but the vibes were awkward after his arrival. He'd stood watching them talk for a little before he had made his presence known.

"She doesn't want to talk about it" Lewis huffs out sipping on some of his drink.

"Oh i didn't realise she didn't have a voice anymore" Carlos sasses, making you shake your head an push away from the bar so you chair scrapped back, enough for you to hop down.

"I'm going to go try and sleep, i can practically smell the testosterone overload and that tea has made me far to dopey to have any clarity of this tomorrow" you admit and with that you left the two along who stayed for a little longer ... to talk.

Race day was always fun, however this year Saudi wasn't your shot. You wanted to cry when you heard the words to come back to the pit because your car had a cooling system failure and it was a danger to drive meaning you'd gone from 8 all the way down to 15.

You had spent a significant amount of time crying in your drivers room, before you went out to congratulate Zhou on his P11 finish. He hugged you and told you reassuring phrases that sort of went past you head because you were worried you were about to get butchered by your team principle Alessandro.

You didn't want to do the interviews, knowing there would be derogatory comments coming your way, but it was something you had to put up with.

"So Y/N not your best rest today" the interviewer asked the minute you walked up to them.

"Yeah, unfortunately there was a cooling system errors in three of the cars out there tonight and mine was one of them. I reported to my team that the car didn't feel right yesterday during qually, so I don't know if that was what happened out there but yeah pace was slow, car was faulty not much else to report. Hoping for a comeback in Australia but congrats to Max, Charles and Carlos for the podiums!" you smile trying to make it as quick and painless.

"Thank you for your time!" he smiles politely before letting you wonder off across the paddock.

"Carlos! Carlos Hey" you shout over to him and see his and Charles head whip round to look at you.

You run up to them, placing a hand on Charles shoulder that doesn't go un-noticed by Carlos.

"Well done on the podium today guys!" you smile, trying not to show your sadness at the lack of points you'd gained today.

"Thank you Y/N! You know, were you invited to the after party today?" Charles offers first before Carlos can even thank you.

"Oh, no I wasn't told. But I don't really like clubs so ..." you admit sheepishly.

"It's not really a party, just dinner with us, Lando, Daniel Yuki and Pierre" he offers.

"Could i bring Zhou with me?" you ask knowing you were closest to him right now and getting through a dinner with that many people, you'd for sure need him them.

"Of course!" Charles exclaims.

"I'll see you guys tonight then?" you smile before walking off to go tell Zhou the good news.

A/N: Next part is going to be this cute ass dinner, should there be any interruptions from any other drivers? Or should it be kind of a private thing?

Taglist

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc

[lilghostiequinni]

Podium & Champagne Kisses

Main Masterlist Lando Masterlist

Pairing: Hamilton! F1 Mercedes racer!female oc (Layana) x Lando Norris

Warnings: Fluffy,

Summary: For the first time in history, there is no photo finish that can choose the winner of a Formula One Grand Prix. It becomes less about the win and more about the champange.

Requested: NO / yes

2024 - Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton stood before a few interviews talking about his emotional, record-breaking 9th win at his home race of Silverstone.

His sister had gotten to him even before their father, toughing her arms around Lewis, tears streaming down her face.

When the hug was over, she looked at him, and he nodded. She moved out of the way for their father, then went over to Lando and hugged him, having a long-time friendship with the McLaren driver.

But now, Lewis drew back to the present after talking to his team for a few minutes, he was told it was okay to make the announcement of his replacement in the 2025 season.

He stood in front of the interviewer and the microphone; the question he was asked was, "Who would you like to replace at Mercedes next season?"

"Well, there are a few different answers to that question on who I would like to replace me because there are many great drivers who have and are being considered, and I was given the okay by the team and Toto to tell who would be replacing me. It was a long and lengthy decision on who. It was decided that my little sister, Layana, would be taking over my seat; she actually doesn't know yet that she's being offered the seat. So, Surprise!" Lewis said at length.

The interviewer expressed surprise, as did Layana, who was inside the Mercedes garage watching the interviews.

When Lewis got back to the garage, he told his sister that what he said was true, that she was, in fact, the new driver for Mercedes with George come 2025.

The week between Silverstone and Hungary, the contract between Mercedes and Layana Hamilton became official, and it was announced that Layana Hamilton would be taking her brother, Lewis's seat at Mercedes in 2025.

It was accompanied by an article detailing the career that Layana had followed.

The article/

Layana Hamilton's rise to Formula One seat in Mercedes

Layana Hamilton started her career in karting alongside other drivers such as Lando Norris, George Russell, and Alex Albon. She raced in Formula 2 alongside both drivers, opting out of joining the 2019 season of Formula One. She entirely changed motorsports for the 2019 season, opting to be a backup reserve driver for McLaren F1 but pursuing the season in the sport of MotoGP, the motorcycle version of Formula One.

In 2020, Hamilton returned to the sport of Formula One as a reserve driver for McLaren. During the 2020 season, she had gone off to the 24-hour Le Mans race, replacing Norman Nato in the Rebellion Racing at the last minute.

In 2021, Layana returned as a reserve driver, actually being able to race in Silverstone for a sick Daniel Riccardo and again in Russia.

2022 wasn't much different than 2020, having just been a reserve driver and again racing in the 24-hour Le Mans, changing teams to the Toyota Gazoo Racing, replacing Mike Conway for the race after what happened about 2 days before the race.

In the 2023 season of Formula One, Hamilton was offered a death at McLaren F1, which she did not take again, opting instead to move to the new McLaren team in the latest endeavor of the F1 Academy, eventually winning the season. She was also added to Ferrari AF Corse at the last minute in place of James Calado.

In the latest season of 2024, she moved from McLaren to Mercedes in F1 Academy and is again leading the championship. Layana also again competed in the 24-hour Le Mans race and, for the second time, with the winning team of Ferrari AF Corse.

So, it can be expected for great things from Layana Hamilton in the coming 2025 season.

Layana Hamilton celebrated her contract signing at Mercedes with her long-time boyfriend, Lando Norris. She went out and celebrated and partied because she got a seat.

She was ready, though before she offered, she wasn't ready. It didn't feel right each time she offered, and this time it felt right, it felt different.

Lando had been with her through it all. He knew the circumstances of other seasons that she turned down in previous seasons.

Lando knew why it didn't feel right each time. It was because of Lewis. He knew that it was different because of her brother, it wasn't some team offering her a contract like the last two times, it was her rock for the better part of her life, her big brother that offering her something she wanted.

2025 - Silverstone

It was Layana's first home race.

Her nerves were almost getting the better of her when arms wrapped around her from behind.

"It's okay, love. Just breathe. Come on. In. Out," It was Lando, Layana knew just from the tone of his voice.

Layana followed him with her breathing, calming down with each breath.

The race started with Lando at the pole and Layana at the second.

Before the end of the first lap, Layana was leading, and Lando had fallen behind Max into second.

5 laps to go, and Layana and Lando had been switching lead of the race the whole race.

When the chequered flag waved, it was a tie.

Lando and Layana crossed the finish at the same time. Not even a photo finish could determine the winner. The stewards determined that they both won.

"And the winner of the 2025 Silverstone, for the first time in history, is a tie. The winners are Layana Hamilton, for her maiden win in Formula One, and Lando Norris, for his first win at his home Grand Prix.

After that, there were bottles of champagne and kisses til there was no air in their lungs.

There was also the publication of Layana and Lando's relationship when he kissed her on the podium.

A/N: Follower Cele 1, here. I'm a little behind. I know that's what I'm doing today.

Tags: @poppyflower-22 @samantha-chicago @barcelonaloverf1life @tallrock35 @ellen3101 @llando4norris @hellothere9597

If you want to be removed from a tag list, let me know so I don't keep tagging you. If you are striked through, I don't know if you want to be tagged, but just let me know if you want me to continue or stop

[svcredveins]

Finally a new file dropped! 🫀

My apologies I haven’t been all that active with files. It was a bit busy with also prepping for the 24 hours of Nordschleife that happened last week and then also just not being much in the loop on here with my own little heart. But once the ears listen to the heart, the euphoria comes back and it all sounds just magical and poetic haha.

So how is everyone doing today?

It’s race week for me! So I’m in between good and a little bit…not stressed but hmm…not sure what’s a weaker word for stressed but that’s because I still have yet to get my race recap video finished from last week. Don’t know why I’ve procrastinated that a lot lately to the last minute. May take a season break from doing race recaps and just do fun spontaneous video edits on Assetto Corsa Competizione like the Nordschleife cinematic I’ve been wanting to do for the last few months. I may not even do next season anyway depending where I’m at with being in my new sim rig so I must practice a lot so I can get back into Division 2 haha. But anyway! Here is a file :)

[i-am-grell]

Anotha One (Anime Poll)

Twitch is acting up (giving me ads on a channel I'm subscribed to (if anyone's found a working Twitch adblocker for Firefox lemme know)), so I'll spend my evening finishing up Zombie Land Saga Revenge (I'm on Revenge now), and you'll spend yours telling me what anime to watch next (pinned post).

If you're new here, I give the internet free reign to decide what anime I watch.

As always, propaganda* (*I will yap) below the poll. You can reblog to rally your followers or yap about anime in the tags (I do, in fact, read them). You do not have to know me, follow me, like me, or like/know the shows in the poll to vote.

Propaganda:

Sailor Moon - If the world reset, shouldn't I have my cunty evil men back? I'm just sayin... This poll option will count for Season 2 of Sailor Moon: Sailor Moon R.

Free! - If it gets voted, cool. If not, it'll keep showing up with different 50% Off! quotes. I am nowhere near running out of 50% Off! quotes so up to you.

Fairy Tail - Ahem.

I made it. I'm getting mileage off it. 24 Hour Road Race, my beloved. Also, Edolas arc (my beloved), but I'm counting this first because I love 24 Hour Road Race so much. This poll option will count for Season 3 (eps 73-100) of Fairy Tail.

Castlevania - I do not have nearly as many Brian David Gilbert "I wasted 3 weeks of my life finding Castlevania's hottest monster" quotes as I do 50% Off! quotes, but I am putting them to use.

Given - The button is not a lie, that was a Google suggested search I got with exactly that wording. Uh, anyway, I know they are a band and gay. I do not need more information.

Nichijou - My Ordinary Life - Came pretty close in the last poll, so I'm sure it will do well in this one. From the gifs I've seen the animation in this show is on another level and so I am excited.

[sukisheadlights]

MAKE ME STAY!

landonorris x famous!oc

summary: where she sends the Internet into a slow spiral after releasing a song out of the blue (except it’s not out of the blue, it’s papaya)

part 2: make me stay, series masterlist

faceclaim: dua lipa 🫶

rory’s voice mail 🎧: PART 2! sorry it took a while I was just waiting for ms.lipa to post more photos of herself and her red hair. anyways, enjoy! love you (say it back)

ALSO!!! i was supposed to finish these parts before the new season started but that didn't happen so I'm quickly going to catch up to the next few races and move to this year's season :) mwah

@THEHOLLYWOODFIX • 2 hours ago

"Red-Hot Romance? Lando Norris Seen Leaving Vegas Party With Same Mystery Woman as Before — Are They Hooking Up or Dating?"

In a city where parties never cease, it seems that Formula 1 driver Lando Norris just can't get enough of nightlife. Just a week after being spotted leaving a Vegas party with a mysterious red head, the 24-year-old was seen doing the exact same thing once again! It's unclear whether Norris and the red head are just having a little fun or if a deeper relationship is brewing, but we're sure his fans are keeping a close eye to see what happens next.

Who is this mystery woman and does she have the beloved driver wrapped around her finger?

"Waking up in the bed of a Formula 1 driver..again..I guess I can scratch that off the bucketlist." liz thinks to herself as she slips out of the bed she spent the night in, quietly making her way to the kitchen.

She stops infront of a mirror to fix her hair and tug the giant white shirt she's wearing further down even though that wasn't going to fix anything. She looks for her own clothes around the house before she ends up pulling it out from under his sofa. How did that even get there? I don't think I want to find out.

She makes her way to the kitchen, the cool marble flooring against her feet waking her up almost instantaneously.

The morning starts with her on call with her manager, arranging her private jet to leave as soon as possible while she raids lando's fridge in hopes of food. I guess a kinder egg still counts?

Chomping into the chocolate she quietly (but quickly) gathers her things and leaves his appartment, praying she doesn't get spotted by any paparazzi. If there's one thing she learnt the hard way it's that boys are no good.

liked by paiselysterling, sabrinacarpenter, and 162,988,970 others

lizcolton thank you for all the love on my newest single! number 1 on charts and 1 million streams the first week of it's release!? you guys are all INSANE but I love you for that.

@ lizzerator mother says we're insane but proceeds to write the lyric "Kisses to my exes, I know that I did you dirty Little messed up, little selfish, we ain't married, I ain't thirty Yeah, we hooked up, then we broke up, then I said you really hurt me But I still got your number and your necklace, kisses to my exes"

*liked by lizcolton*

@ lizcoltonlover OH IM SORRY, SORRY THAT YOU LOVE ME CHANGE MY MIND UP LIKE IT'S ORIGAMI?!!??!?!??!?! MOTHER WHAT IS THIS!?!?!?!?!?!?!

@ lizcolton @ lizcoltonlover a slay I hope

@ paiselysterling YOUR HONOR SHE ATEEEE

@ paiselysterling I'm so proud of you my love <3

@ lizcolton love you, pails <3

@ lizcoltonhq mother is mothering 😍

@ lizislife HELP WHO'S THE ADMIN HERE @ lizcolton @ lizislife beats me 🤷‍♀️ but you're getting a promotion that's for sure @ lizcoltonhq @ lizcolton thanks mother!

@ lewishamilton loved it! wished you didn't ditch us at the party yesterday night tho.

@ lizzerator @ lewishamilton what. explain!? right now!? @ formula1fanatic LIZ COLTON!!!! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF @ lizcolton @ lewishamilton damn it's so weird howw you STOPPED SPEAKING after "love it!" @ lewishamilton @ lizcolton my bad.

liked by lizcoltonhq and 24,678 others

@lizzerator clips from the "kisses to my exes" music video.

@ user she ate and she KNOWS

@ user that running clip was definetly a reference to euphoria omg

@ user she looks stunning

@ user liz I lovee you

@ user HAVE MY BABY RAAAAAAAA

@ user whoa, take a chill pill babe.

@ user GUYS GUYS GUYS she has black hair in the video meaning she filmed this LONG BACK OMG

@ user girl has been KEEPING the tea from us

liked by lizcoltonhq and 56,984 others

@lizzerator stills from the "kisses to my exes" music video.

@ user gorgeous.

view comments

@THEHOLLYWOODFIX • 3 minutes ago

Pop Sensation Liz Colton Spotted in London as She Prepares for Her Comeback — Are We in Store for a Fresh Batch of Heartbreak Music?

In a city known for its celebrity sightings, pop singer Liz Colton has been spotted leaving her recording studio in London, fueling speculation that the singer is gearing up for her long awaited return to the music scene. Colton made headlines when she released her single "Kisses to my Exes" which took direct aim at her former partner, actor Jacob Elordi. The track hit number one on the charts and garnered over a million streams in its first week alone.

With such an explosive release under her belt, fans are anxiously awaiting what's next from the talented songwriter. Could the songstress be gearing up for a full-blown comeback? After such a long break from the music scene, it's sure to be exciting to see what direction she takes this time around. Stay tuned for more on Liz Colton and her highly anticipated comeback music.

here's some pictures provided by the paparazzi team here at the hollywood fix.

lizcolton

seen by 8,37,870,299 people

[musical-shit-show]

dancing is a dangerous game

Pairing: Dewey Finn x Reader

Inspiration: Prompts #2 (“apparently all our friends have a bet going that we end up together.”) from Prompt List 1 and #15 (“would you ever consider going on a date with me?”) from Prompt List 2 requested by @animetattoochick

Warnings: mentions of drinking, strong language, suggestive dialogue, anxiety, mutual pining

Word Count: 2,305

Author's Note: We’re back baby! Thank you so much to @animetattoochick for this request and so sorry for the delay. I’m working through my other requests now and have more time this coming month to catch up. And very fitting since it’s spooky season and I have some more BJ requests in the pipeline ;) As always, check out my Masterlist, About Me page, and Prompt Lists if you’d like to submit a request! Happy reading!

“Do you want to go? I feel like it’s getting a bit crowded in here and the door’s right there—”

“Are you drunk?” Dewey asked incredulously, “We just got here!”

You groaned, wishing you were more drunk than you were. Dewey had a natural charm that allowed him to get away with way too much, including convincing you to go out. This time, it was a birthday party for one of Ned’s friends, and the degrees of separation barely warranted you being there.

The party was in the back room of the Roadhouse, and you nodded at some familiar faces as you still tried to formulate an escape plan. You weren’t the biggest partier, and would much rather be hanging out with your best friend on his couch.

You didn’t know when you first became friends with Dewey. You occasionally moonlighted as a substitute teacher, and after a few instances of bumping into Ned, he introduced you to his girlfriend, Patty, and Dewey.

The rest was history.

And although he was one of the only people you could truly rely on, you still found yourself cursing him for pushing you out of your comfort zone.

“Come on, I thought you liked the Roadhouse,” he egged, noticing your arms crossed over your chest in protest, “And they’re actually taking requests tonight! Maybe they’ll play some of that pop bullshit you like.”

Your mouth fell open slightly, then lilted upwards in an indignant smile. Dewey was also a master of getting under your skin.

“Excuse me, Finn,” you responded, “Just because you listen to metal and classic rock 24/7 doesn’t make your music taste any more superior to mine.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetheart,” he joked, pressing the bottle of beer he was nursing to his lips.

You scanned the room, and relaxed your shoulders as you noticed some familiar faces. Dewey was always the more adventurous one, the one who lit up a room. You didn’t mind fading into the background.

“I’ll uh, go find Patty,” you said, and Dewey’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He really thought you’d put up more of a fight, “I’ll stay. For now. If you buy me a drink.”

He flashed a toothy smile, glad he could keep you around for a little while longer. “A fair trade. I’ll get right on it.” He gave a small salute, causing you to break into a grin of your own.

You made your way over to the other side of the bar to greet Patty, who was furrowing her brow at her phone. Never a good sign with her.

“Hey!”

“Hey, sorry, just finishing up this email,” she droned, rolling her eyes.

“Work?” She nodded wordlessly, and after a few silent moments, she locked her phone with a click and breathed a sigh of relief.

“I love my job, I love my job, I love my job…” she affirmed, rubbing her temples. You sat down at a stool next to her.

“Hey, well, at least it’s done, right?”

“Right, and I don’t have to think about the mayor’s schedule for another 48 hours, so I’m gonna get wasted,” you laughed at her directness as Ned sat on the other side of her, “You in?”

“Oh, uh, maybe?” you were still on the fence about staying too late, and the thought of a hangover did not sound enticing. “Dewey’s grabbing me a drink now, so—”

“Ugh, Dewey,” Patty said, earning an eye roll from Ned. You guessed he wasn’t thrilled about his best friend and girlfriend constantly warring, “When are you two going to hook up already, anyways?”

Your felt your face get hot with blush at the question. You and Dewey? The thought hadn’t crossed your mind. Not for a while, that is.

“What?”

“Oh my god, you’ve already hooked up, haven’t you?” she said, pulling you closer. You could feel sweat forming on the back of your neck, “Tell me everything.”

“Patty—”

“Ned, I swear to god—”

“No!” you said over their bickering, “I mean, sorry, no. Dewey and I, we’re not, I mean, we’re just friends.”

Patty looked at Ned, who quirked an eyebrow. Suddenly you felt very out of the loop.

“Does he know that?” she asked, a devious smirk spread across her face. You loved Patty, but sometimes her gossiping was beyond dangerous.

Before you could answer, Dewey arrived, a drink in each hand. “Jack and Coke, per usual,” he smiled, handing you the glass. You grabbed it, and immediately took a long swig.

“Whoa, killer, slow your roll,” he laughed. Patty and Ned both shifted on their stools. Dewey eyed the three of you suspiciously, “Why do I feel like I missed something?”

“Don’t worry about it, Dew,” Ned replied. For all of his nervous tendencies, he was pretty good at deflecting, “Wanna play some pool?”

You breathed a small sigh of relief as the two men headed towards the billiards tables, leaving you to finish off your drink and work quickly to order another.

***

“Why do you think me and Dewey hooked up?” you asked Patty, several hours and drinks later. Though you hadn’t crossed the threshold into full drunkenness, you were just tipsy enough to gain some courage.

She sighed, twirling the straw in her gin and tonic. “Because, my love, I see the way he looks at you,” she said, not an ounce of irony or sarcasm in her voice, “And don’t act like you don’t spend every waking moment together—”

“Because we’re friends!” you shot back defensively, “I mean, I’ve never even…I didn’t think he’d like me that way.”

Patty quirked an eyebrow. “Well, do you like him that way?”

A pit formed in your stomach almost instantly as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other. The alcohol in your veins was making you particularly honest.

“I guess, I don’t know…yes. I think. It’s complicated, okay?” you finally spat out, your voice hushed in fear that someone else would hear you, “He’s my best friend, and I didn’t want to ruin what we have so…I never did anything about it.”

For once, she shot you an empathetic look. Her and Dewey were reluctant roommates on the best of days, but even she was heartened by your babbling. “Well, no time but the present,” she said with a smirk.

Patty grabbed your shoulders to turn you ninety degrees, and you saw Dewey standing next to Ned, also a few beers in and clearly having a good time. You gulped, a slower pop song blaring in your ears as the weathered disco ball spun languidly.

“Move along now,” Patty taunted in your ear, “Ned and I have a little bet going about you two.”

“What?!”

“Just for fun,” she said, giving you a little nudge forward, “we have to entertain ourselves somehow, don’t we?”

You walked away from her, and before you had time to think, you heard yourself asking “Wanna dance?” to Dewey, who looked genuinely surprised by your proposition. Ned snuck off without a word, leaving the two of you alone.

A small smirk played on Dewey’s face as the two of you stepped towards the dance floor; there were several other couples dancing near you, and despite your liquid courage, you were praying you wouldn’t be the center of attention.

There was a brief moment of awkwardness as you placed your arms around his neck. It wasn’t like you and Dewey had never danced with each other before; he always had a way of dragging you to the dance floor when one of his favorite classics was played.

But now, you were acutely aware of the way his hands rested on your hips, and how your breath smelled like vodka, and the thin veil of sweat that was making his usually unruly hair stick to his forehead.

“Oh, come on,” he teased, his eyes flickering to your stance, “I think we can do better than the ‘leave room for Jesus’ bullshit, don’t you?” You laughed, realizing how far you were standing from him. It was as if you had been transported back to your 8th grade school dance.

Dewey grabbed one of your hands and laced his fingers with your own. You couldn’t help but let out a small gasp as he pulled your body flush to his, while his other palm gripped your waist tightly.

“That’s better,” he smiled, giving you another once over. Clearly the booze had made him more daring as well. You grinned back, doing your best to hide your newfound nerves.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I don’t know, I’m just having a good night,” he shrugged, the two of you swaying in sync as the song continued, “You should try it sometime.”

Your mouth fell open slightly at his jab, “Hey, I’m the one who asked you to dance, remember?” you fired back, “Or are you drunker than I thought?” He shook his head in denial. “Quick,” you mocked, removing your hand from his and flashing three digits, “How many fingers am I holding up?” Dewey barked a laugh, gently grabbing your hand again. You smiled nervously at the gesture, your heart beating faster in your chest.

“Why did you ask me, by the way?” his voice uncharacteristically soft, “Not that I mind, but you know I’m used to more headbanging while I dance.”

You smiled, glancing over at Patty and Ned. They were watching you intently, drinks in hand. Of course.

“Apparently all our friends have a bet going that we end up together,” you tried to say nonchalantly, “Or more accurately, that we’ll sleep together. Or, have slept together. I don’t know—”

“Breathe,” Dewey stopped you, “It was Patty, wasn’t it?” You nodded sheepishly, and he shook his head in disbelief, “I swear that woman knows exactly how to drive me insane…I told her nothing is going on between us.” You couldn’t help but notice that his voice had a slight tinge of sadness.

Now was your chance. You said a silent prayer that your nerves wouldn’t get the best of you.

“I mean…it’s not that crazy of an idea, is it?” you probed, doing your best to not shift your eye contact away from Dewey’s brown ones, “We do spend a ton of time together…honestly thinking about it, I kinda get why everyone thinks we’ve…”

Dewey’s eyes widened in mild surprise as you trailed off, the implication clearly hanging in the air. He never would’ve thought he’d be the cautious one when it came to this topic.

“Yeah, sure,” he conceded, “But wouldn’t that, ya know…change things?”

He always had feelings for you, but he didn’t want to risk ruining your friendship. You were too important to him, and an amazing friend, so he had silently resigned himself to hold those feelings close to his chest.

You swallowed your fear and shoved it down your throat. “Of course,” you became acutely aware of your palms growing sweatier by the second and hoped he didn’t notice, “But is it bad that I don’t care? Maybe we could give it a try. It could be good. Really good, even.”

“Goddamn, what has gotten into you tonight?” he threw your own question back at you as you felt your face getting flush.

“Maybe I don’t want to be a wuss anymore,” you smiled, “You should take notes, Finn.” He barked a laugh at your teasing.

Your stomach flipped as a completely new expression came over Dewey’s face. Well, at least completely new to you; who knows how he looked at you when you weren’t paying attention.

But you could tell from the way he eyed you that something finally shifted. “So,” he said coyly, “Since I’m a gentleman, I’m just going to make sure I do this the right way: Would you ever consider going on a date with me?”

Before you could answer, he spun you around and dipped you playfully, a giggle bubbling out of you as the song came to a close.

“Duh, you idiot,” you laughed, heart swelling in your chest now that the pent-up feelings you held onto for years were finally released. How could you have missed what was right in front of you for so long? You were almost embarrassed that Patty had to spell it out for you.

“Or maybe we could skip the date and go back to your place instead?” Dewey couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow suggestively. He certainly didn’t wait to start the blatant flirting, and you weren’t exactly complaining.

Still, you couldn’t help but roll your eyes, “Why, so you can avoid Patty for the rest of the night?”

“…Maybe.”

“No.”

“Can you blame me? She’s a nightmare.”

“She’s fine, Dew,” you said as you both walked away from the dance floor, “And you have to admit, she clocked us pretty well.”

“I am not drunk enough to pay that woman a compliment,” he retorted, crossing his arms across his chest. You knew he was only partially kidding but still laughed anyways, “And she wasn’t right about everything. We haven’t hooked up. Again, we can definitely change that—”

“Don’t make me punch you, Finn,” you threatened, a playful smile dancing on your lips. You couldn’t believe how easily you both slipped into casual flirting; then again, you wondered if you had always been doing it without even realizing.

It was clear everyone else noticed, not that it mattered anymore.

“Kidding,” he said, throwing his hands up in mock surrender, “Kind of.”

“How about this,” you proposed, reaching the bar again. Luckily none of your friends were around to grill you just yet, “You buy me another drink, we dance some more, and see where the night takes us?”

Dewey’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a deal.”

*****

Thanks for reading! Like/comment/reblog if you enjoyed :)

[coimbrabertone]

Team Orders: The Dirty Little Secret of Motorsports

In most team sports, your entire team either loses, wins, or draws. There isn't a state where some of your team wins and some of your team loses. Whilst in individual sports, it's you versus everyone else, so your job is pretty simple. Motorsports, however, exists in an awkward middle ground: you are both part of a team, and you are competing for individual glory.

This can meltdown in one of two ways. The first is when individual glory prevails over playing the team game, such as the Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost crash at Suzuka 1989, or the various Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collisions, most prominently at Spain 2016. Then there's the other way: when the team prevails over individual glory.

The team orders.

This last weekend we saw team orders come into play as Oscar Piastri was leading the Hungarian Grand Prix, but McLaren pit second placed Lando Norris early to cover off any potential threat from Lewis Hamilton. This was an odd move as Lewis wasn't really all that close to either McLaren at this point, and the undercut gave Lando a massive advantage over Oscar.

Oscar Piastri pits two laps later and comes out in second. The gap widens to about six seconds, and McLaren spends the next chunk of the race trying to tell Lando to be a good teammate and let Oscar by in the end. McLaren started with light requests, then told Lando to remember the team, and eventually just started guilt-tripping Lando into giving up second.

Lando eventually lifted off on the straight, let Oscar pass, and Piastri took his first Formula One Grand Prix victory.

Now, Lando got the pole and was clearly the faster car at the end of the race, however, Piastri got the lead off the start, pulled away, and was in the lead when McLaren decided to pit Lando first. Really, I think the biggest problem is that McLaren decided to pit Lando first despite the fact that everyone could see that fresh tyres were a massive advantage at the Hungaroring.

Still, it's clear that Lando didn't particularly want to move over, and it's clear that McLaren was pretty desperate to get him to let Oscar by.

The big lift off the straight necessary to let Piastri by is also somewhat of a statement, Lando was making a point over how choreographed this switch was.

So, the team made the strategy call that flipped the order and made the drivers flip it back despite the fact that Norris didn't particularly seem to want to.

Where does that leave this case in comparison to a few other famous cases of team orders?

Well, one of the most famous examples is from the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, where - as seen in the movie Ford vs. Ferrari - where Ken Miles and Denny Hulme's #1 Shelby American Ford GT40 Mk. II was leading from the #2 sister car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. In third - albeit twelve laps down - was another GT40 Mk. II, the #5 Holman & Moody car of Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson. Ford man Leo Beebe ordered the three cars to finish in a dead heat for the photo opportunity.

Miles in the #1 car slowed down to let the #2 catch up, and Ford got their photo finish. The only problem was that McLaren and Amon finished a nose ahead, on top of the traditional part of the story where they started a further two spots behind the #1 and therefore traversed a greater distance.

The commonalities between this and Hungary 2024? Well, the lead car was ordered to slow down and that led to the car in second place taking the victory.

Then in the late 1990s into the 2000s, we got a slew of controversial team orders in Formula One, which eventually culminated in team orders getting banned.

First comes the 1997 European Grand Prix at Jerez, where, after the championship deciding crash between Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher, Schumacher is out of the race, out of the championship hunt, and will soon be disqualified from the 1997 season altogether, while Jacques is limping his car home, currently in the lead.

However, Williams then tells Jacques to let the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard through. Jacques thus finished third, narrowly ahead of fourth placed Gerhard Berger. Now, it made sense for Jacques to let the faster McLarens through since he only needed a single point to match Michael and then beat him on countback, or two to beat him outright. First was worth 10, third was still worth 4.

The thing is that Williams and McLaren actually had an arrangement where, if McLaren helped Williams - or at least didn't get in their way - then Williams would help McLaren, so it wasn't just a matter of Jacques protecting his car, he was ordered to let the McLarens by.

To add fuel to the fire, McLaren had used team orders in that very race already, as Hakkinen started ahead at Jerez only to wind up behind Coulthard on pit strategy, something McLaren "fixed" with team orders, in a case very similar to Hungary 2024.

Also similar was the very next race, Australia 1998, where Hakkinen had some sort of radio mishap - accounts vary from him mishearing something to someone outright tapping McLaren's comms to call Mika in - went through the pits and emerged behind Coulthard. Ron Dennis again used team orders to correct an issue that came out of pit lane.

Also in 1998 was the Jordans at Spa, which I talked about in last week's blogpost. There, in treacherous wet conditions, Jordan ordered Ralf Schumacher to stop catching teammate Damon Hill and remain in second place, conserving the team's first 1-2 finish on the stormy day.

Now that I've established Williams, McLaren, and Jordan were all doing this stuff too, let's get to the name synonymous with team orders in this period: Ferrari.

First was a rather understandable case: the 1999 German Grand Prix, where Mika Salo - filling in for Michael Schumacher who broke his legs at the British Grand Prix earlier that year - was ordered to let Eddie Irvine by for the win. Mika Salo was just the fill in driver, Eddie Irvine was competing for the championship, and championship rival Mika Hakkinen crashed out after a tyre failure, so this was a ten-point gain for Irvine. All of that made sense.

What made less sense was Austria 2002, where coming onto the start-finish straight for the final time, Rubens Barrichello lifted off big time to let Michael by and allowed Schumacher to take his fifth win of the season - fourth in a row - in just the sixth race of the season. Yeah...it was not particularly necessary...and the fans let Ferrari know by booing the podium.

Even Michael didn't seem proud of it, as he let Rubens stand on the top step of the podium in his place.

The similarity to Hungary 2024? The big show of a lift to let the teammate past, though this was more dramatic given Rubens did it quite literally on the run to the line.

In the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis at the end of that season, Schumacher would lift off and let Rubens finish alongside, which actually led to Rubens winning the race by 0.011 seconds. Schumacher and Ferrari have maintained that this was a botched photo finish, much like Le Mans 1966, but there has been a persistent theory that Michael was returning the favor for Austria earlier that season.

All of these incidents in quick succession and the growing controversy around them led to the FIA, after the 2002 season, banning the use of team orders.

So why were team orders allowed to happen in Hungary 2024?

Well, it turns out enforcing a ban on team orders is hard.

The crashgate scandal in 2008 - where Renault ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash deliberately as Fernando Alonso was coming to the pits to bring out the safety car - was revealed in the summer of 2009.

Then in the 2010 German Grand Prix, we have the famous "Felipe, Fernando is faster than you, confirm you understood the message" case, where Massa was ordered to let Fernando by for the championship.

These two incidents led to the FIA conceding that they weren't actually able to police team orders, so as much as they would ban Briatore and Symonds on the Renault front and fine Ferrari, neither race result was overturned. The team orders ban was gone after the end of 2010, having only lasted eight seasons.

So team orders are now legal again, and the case of Multi-21 from the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix is the most famous example. Sebastian Vettel was ordered to remain behind Mark Webber, refused, and overtook the Australian to take the win. For what it's worth, Mark Webber is Oscar Piastri's manager. Multi-814 doesn't quite have the same ring to it though.

Disregarding team orders and taking the win is something a lot of people have suggested that Lando should've done, that yielding proves he doesn't have the ruthless edge to be a championship caliber driver.

On the other hand, McLaren's team radio to Lando insisted that Lando and Oscar have helped each other countless times and they'll need each other's help to win the championship. Multi-21 was in Vettel and Webber's last year as teammates and there's always been the suggestion that Vettel refusing to yield is part of the reason why Mark retired.

Lando and Oscar are both young and quick, they can both be with McLaren for a long time provided Zak Brown can keep his lust for young drivers in check, so maybe Lando yielding to Oscar was the right call.

Time will tell if giving the position in the end was enough, or if all the will-he-or-won't-he itself will ensure Piastri won't be as trusting of Norris in the future.

Always in motion the future is.

[mare-sanguis]

People i'd like to know better

Tagged by: @andaniellight, @kanronotatsu and @frouponical

Thank you so much for the tag but you guys need to stop tagging me in such little games because then i will never shut up yapping (pls never stop tagging me, bored 24/7) 😓

Last song: "have you had enough" and "vital" by poppy are currently playing on loop (they just perfectly set the scene to that monster of a SCJW fic that got my fingers screaming in pain), "ticki-ta" by the fix, "follow me" and "umm umm umm" by kave

Favorite color: black (cuz i'm a basic bitch, i feel most comfortable in it and as an avid techwear wearer it's THE color) and these specific shades of lavender, purple and blue (upper two remind me of a happy childhood and lower two of the midnight sky)

Last book: human acts by han kang but it's been a while since i picked up that book tbh, i think by the start of this year, as i haven't had much time and motivation to read anything more. it's such a beautifully written and thought provoking book- anyone who hasn't read it yet should. i think i'll continue reading lapvona next (my taste in books is very questionable 😹)

Last movie: venom 3... i cried in the goddamn cinema omg, right next to my a friend (for reference, i never once cried in cinema) who's left absolutely clueless lmao, but SYMBROCK MY BELOVED and i just started "woman of the hour"

Last TV show: the fiery priest s2: god i love the directing this season, the camera work is very entertaining (the staircase scene in ep1 hello???) as well is the editing- they already improved from s1 in such a short time, and don't get me started on kim namgil's insane acting and how he still does his own stunts. miseinen mijukuna oretachi wa bukiyo ni shinkochu: this one already had me in a chokehold by episode 1, what a beautiful JBL that tackles so many issues at once (domestic abuse, child neglect, academic pressure, loneliness, ignoring of own feelings, superficial friendships) the acting is a soldi 10/10 and the editing? oh the editing dont get me started.

Sweet/spicy/savory: what ever doesn't make my tummy hurt 😓 but if i had to choose its savory

Relationship status: situationship with life

Last thing I googled: something about SA (do i even want to elaborate? no... but it's for the fic i promise) and the "it wasn't me it was patricia" meme

Current obsession: i have no original thought so... black out (let me rewatch it a hundred million more times, hmm the taste of autism)

Looking forward to: finishing the 2nd chapter of that (⬆️) SCJW fic (as well as some other 2 fics) and my 7 black out fanarts in the next weeks before the ship and fandom sinks to the depths of the ocean. i especially look forward fo finish this face/blood study painting

Lastly (No pressure) Tagging @senshipluto and @mondscheingarden who's the silent member of the black out fandom and my bestie (as well as @zhivchik @existingingrey @thedevildeer @angeru-hatake and @ikjun ... we're all just tagging the same people atp🏃🏻‍♂️)

[the-conversation-pod]

Summer 2023 Ep 2 - The Eighth Sense

AND WE'RE BACK!

It seems like every season we're going to have a single show dominate the conversation and the zeitgeist so much that we have to dedicate an entire episode to it! This season it was the Korean-German team-up about a boy so sprung that he joined a surfing club even though he couldn't swim. Strap in for a long discussion!

Nini and Ben dive deep into The Eighth Sense to discuss the international nature of BL, the way film history plays into our stories, the role of forgiveness in our lives, and the role of community in queer development.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Google Podcasts

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond to chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

0:00 - Welcome 1:04 - The Eighth Sense 18:00 - The Relationship Between the Seniors and Juniors 27:45 - The Hedwig Incident 36:32 - Ae Ri 42:50 - Ji Hyun and Jae Won 50:38 - Joon Pyo and Boss Lady 56:28 - Let's Talk About the Kissing (and Episode 6) 1:06:21 - The Party Scene and Forgiveness 1:17:14 - On a Possible Second Season 1:24:10 - Checking in Two Months Later

The Conversation: Now With Transcripts!

We received an accessibility request to include transcripts for the podcast. We are working with @ginnymoonbeam on providing the transcripts and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes. When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

1:04 - The Eighth Sense

Ben

Welcome to The Eighth Sense episode! Nini and I had so much to say about this that we decided to give it its own episode, separate from our overall consternation from whatever is going on in the land of K-BL, because this felt distinct. This was a piece of work from a German and a Korean filmmaking team, and it created unique results. So we're going to speak to you all for the next hour and a half? [laughs] about it, and then we'll come back at the end with some reactions to the show and how we're feeling about it a few months later.

Nini

Let's go.

Nini

We are here today to talk about The Eighth Sense, and only The Eighth Sense. Benjamin. What is The Eighth Sense about?

Ben

See I had her a little bit annoyed before we started talking. She gives my full name because she's still mad at me for being obnoxious. The Eighth Sense —

Nini

[laughs]

Ben

The Eighth Sense is an age gap college romance between a new freshman from the Korean countryside and a very wealthy Korean man, who is the heir of his family, who's recently back from military service and trying to finish school. They kind of meet by happenstance at the freshman's job and instantly have a connection between them which they both find themselves drawn to and pulling on. 

And over the course of the show the freshman, Ji Hyun, ends up joining the surfing club to hang out with Jae Won, the senior, and a romance blossoms between them… but we hit a lot of very familiar western queer storytelling drama beats. It blends fairly well with the Korean storytelling beats, as these two eventually choose each other as they're trying to move forward with their lives. Much drama ensues because of the older boy’s deep mental health issues. It's a really simple plot. It's just incredibly well executed.

Nini

Well, let's talk a little bit about that execution. So this is a… it's a Korean production but it's co-directed by a Korean director, Baek Inu, and a German director, Werner du Plessis. And I think that that interplay between the two filmmaking styles, between some of the hallmarks of Korean filmmaking and then some of the hallmarks of like classic German bildungsroman… They interplay really interestingly I think, in terms of the way that it's executed. A lot of people are saying that The Eighth Sense made them think of Skam? I have not watched Skam so I can't really speak to that, but in terms of certain aspects of the techniques of the filmmaking that I've seen, in terms of lighting and color and all of those things, I could see the comparisons that they're making. 

But I feel like this show… it's something all its own? We've talked on this show about how K-BL was starting to get a little repetitive and feel like it wasn't, you know, using its time well and all those other things. And I think that those are criticisms that you can't level at The Eighth Sense. It does use its time well. I feel like it is well thought through, I feel like it uses its budget well, I feel like it… really engages me, like I'm not going to forget these characters. I'm not going to forget Ji Hyun, Eun Ji, Tae Hyung, Jae Won, Joon Pyo, Yoon Won, [laughs] I'm not going to forget these characters. You know what I mean? These characters have sort of touched something inside of me, particularly Jae Won. 

I feel like it came along at just the right time for me to not write off K-BL. [laughs]

Ben

I mean, is it really K-BL, though?

Nini

Well, that's the question isn't it? Because a lot of people are like, ‘oh this isn't, this isn’t BL.’ I think it's very firmly BL, but I don't know how much it feels like K-BL.

Ben

It is not relying on… the tropes or beats of traditional yaoi, as evolved by Thailand's fiddling with the formula, and what's recently been happening in Korea over the last three years-ish. When you called it like a German coming of age thing, I can feel some of those influences here. In terms of the pacing, and the knowing. 

So one of the things that BL is not very good at doing that I don't always enjoy is… BL doesn't know how to make characters always gay. Like their queerness activates when it's relevant, because they're thinking about it now. It isn't… built really into the way the character is functioning. But when you're writing queer cinema, a queer character is always queer. It is always complicating their life in some way, and that feels present here with Ji Hyun and Jae Won. Particularly when it comes to the ways that two of them engage with each other. 

Ji Hyun gets clocked constantly by everyone, because he's obvious to them. Jae Won and he bump into each other at the restaurant and recognize each other, flirt outside of the restaurant. Ae Ri recognizes these things in him very quickly and she starts covering for him; Eun Ji sees this in him right away, and beefs with him immediately over Jae Won. Yoon Won I think picks up on it right away, which is why she's always calling him cutie. And I think the boss picks up on it too, which is why she's kind of protective of him. 

This works for me because he's so clearly different, and I like how he clearly had these big dreams about ‘I'm going to move to the city and I'm going to live my best gay life.’ Then he moved to the city and got scared, because it's such a big place, all these strangers, and it's confusing because he's not used to dealing with urban systems… And so like, he immediately retreated a little bit. He just picked up a job, so he would only have to deal with one person, because it's like a one woman operation and like the freshman temp worker she's relying on? [laughs] And I think that's one of the big things that separates it for me with most of the BL we've experienced, like Ji Hyun always feels gay for me, in the way that Ji Hyun is very… protective of himself but very honest in general. Like Ji Hyun doesn't offer himself up easily to other people, but he's consistently honest and forthright with them. And like, after his big ol’ incident — where he almost dies, and I’m calling it ‘the incident’ [laughs] — he turns really sassy, but he's still being honest, he's just not tempering that. And also he's a little bit pissy, because he has a right to be. 

So like that's the biggest, I think, line between like, BL per se, and what we might call queer cinema, when I'm watching them. Like their queerness is not active only when they're flirting, like other BL characters often feel for me.

Nini

Hmmm. That's something to ponder… It is clear that Ji Hyun does get clocked pretty regularly. You know I always have a soft spot for the ones who can't hide, and… so, I can get like why the boss is protective of him, why Joon Pyo is protective of him — like, even though Joon Pyo doesn't really know? He knows something, but he doesn't really know that Ji Hyun is queer, and it's this really funny scene when he finds out in the end, and he's just really upset that, you know, Ji Hyun didn’t tell him that he had a boyfriend. 

Ji Hyun feels recognizably queer, in some intangible way? Like I think about my gay friends and my gay family, and… that thing that you said about a person who is gay being gay all the time and not just when they're flirting with somebody? [laughs] That really resonated [both laugh] Thaaaat really resonated, and I think is also a little bit of shots fired for some of BL.

Ben

I don't know that I want to fire shots at the other dramas in this regard, because… it's not fair. Because some of these things are intangible, you can't really always do them really well or correctly. It's not like I have obvious guidance, like ‘hey, here are the five tips to make your character seem authentically queer when you're writing your little stories!’ [both laugh] And like, that's not fair. 

What I can do as a amateur critic, is point out that this character reads queer to me: from the little gay rainbow lamp he has, to the way he had big dreams for the city then feels a little bit disappointed about it, to the way he sees a really hot boy and immediately decides to do — to join a dangerous club just to get some dick. Like that's the kind of dumb shit that baby gays do! Like can you swim? No. So you joined the surfing club? Was — was the dick even that good? Yeahhh. All right, well, shit! [both laugh]

Nini

The man said that, before he nearly died, he was the happiest he had ever been in his life. He literally said that. [laughs]

Ben

This poor boy's whole brain got rearranged by some good dick! God damn.

Nini

Our other protagonist is Jae Won. Jae Won is a poor little rich boy, he's a tragic figure with a tragic past.

Ben

He's a sad little meow meow.

Nini

He really is the saddest little meow meow. It’s up in the air whether he's closeted or not. I don't feel like he is? But I also feel like he doesn't advertise. Because it doesn't feel like any of his angst about Ji Hyun is about the idea of him dating a guy. It doesn't feel that way.

Ben

Jae Won feels therapized. He… definitely is aware of his queerness, and seems mostly inconvenienced by it. His father is described as aggressive, and there's all of these pressures on him to be a certain kind of man, and a certain kind of son. Like they get mad about how emotional he is, they get mad that he's out drinking with his friends… so he's definitely been forced to be closeted about it? So I think he is definitely aware of it, and the reason why I think he's aware of it is, Ji Hyun calls him out on it in the last episode, when he's like, ‘You had a lighter in your pocket, the first night you met me.’

Nini

It's not that I feel like he doesn't know himself, like he knows himself, I think that much is clearly obvious in the story, he knows himself. The question is whether the people around him know. I feel like Eun Ji definitely knows, that's why she's so im— one of the reasons she's so immediately hostile to Ji Hyun, because she knows.

Ben

She knows, but I don't think he's told her. He just feels really modern about it, like, yes he's gay, if you ask him directly he'd probably just shrug and be like yeah, sure, whatever, but people aren't going to ask him that. They don't want to cross that line, because they want to use him, and trying to embarrass him about that is just gonna get you iced out of his life. Again, like we know that the surfing dudes hadn't really considered it, because they're like no, Jae Won's not that way. That's also like the men, though. Like every single girl in the story clocked every single gay boy the whole time. The boss, Eun Ji, Ae Ri, Yoon Won, all clocked Jae Won and Ji Hyun. And Jae Won didn't even know about it, because Yoon Won was like ‘you better do right by that boy,’ he's like ‘what are you talking about?’ and she was like ‘girl!’ and he was like ‘all right, shit.’ [laughs]

Nini

Jae Won is not closeted but he's not out either. Let's put it that way.

Ben

I think he was closeted by default, but he had already worked through the, ‘if I really connect with someone, I will step out for them.’ And you can feel that, with the way he tries to casually say to the boss, ‘yeah I have feelings about my boyfriend,’ and the way he's forthright about it with Ji Hyun. Because I feel like he had emotionally prepared for the moment? And once he decided to commit to it, all of that work came out right away.

Nini

Well, even before he says it to the boss or to Ji Hyun, he says it to the guy at the, at the rest stop, when they're heading off to that fateful trip. It's not even a big deal for him to say that. And that's why I was wondering like, well is he closeted or is, has just nobody just ever asked him about it? And I think I'm going to land on your side of things here with, probably nobody ever asked him about it, and he didn't feel the need to announce it.

Ben

Right, and I think that's where — that's, that's mostly how he reads to me.

Nini

Do you think that Tae Hyung knew?

Ben

Yes, because he kisses him all the time. But, he knows it in the way that stupid-ass straight boys know. Where they know, and they want the attention, and they kind of want it, but they would have to be gay and they can't actually do that. Which is why he gets so… bothered about Jae Won caring about other stuff. It's the same thing we see all the time, he gets mad that he's not being paid attention to, or that Jae Won doesn't care about the things he wants him to care about. Or isn't being as miserable as they want him to be.

Nini

You know what I think is actually a subtle hint? In the first few episodes of the show, the way that Tae Hyung keeps pushing Jae Won and Eun Ji together, keeps pushing them towards each other, keeps bringing Eun Ji into the spaces. Now that I'm thinking about it, at the beginning I just never quite figured out why it mattered so much to him? But now, it makes like a strange kind of sense, if he knew or if he at least suspected… why he would keep shoving Eun Ji at him.

Ben

Right, because if she — he chooses Eun Ji, it's at least, like, the woman that he was okay with, I guess. And like it gives him some sort of weird control or investment in whatever they have going on. I feel like at some level Tae Hyung knows. But again like that's part of why this show feels more queer for me than some other stuff, because we're having this really complex conversation about who knows, doesn't know, at what level do they know, what does their knowing imply about the way they perceive Jae Won — like that's the world real queer people exist in. Where it isn't just who knows, it's what do they do with the knowledge.

Nini

I'm really recasting, like, my initial reactions of the whole Tae Hyung, Jae Won thing.

Ben

I mean if you, I don't know if you remember, I hated that motherfucker from the very first time we saw him! [both laugh]

Nini

Ben could not stand his ass from jump.

Ben

Like, the very first episode I was like, ‘oh I hate this boy so much Nini!’ [laughs] and she was like ‘damn bro, they just had like one fight!’ and I'm like, ‘oh no, it was not just one fight.’

18:00 - The Relationships Between the Seniors and Juniors

Nini

Speaking of fights between Jae Won and Tae Hyung, perfect segue. 

Ben

Let's talk about him tagging that ass though.

Nini

We're kinda jumping around here, and one of the reasons that we're jumping around is I feel like, talking about The Eighth Sense, like it doesn't really, it's not really useful to talk about it in some kind of chronology, or in terms of the plot. The plot's there and the plot is good… 

Ben

The plot is… a country boy snags a chaebol. It's very good.

Nini

Yeah, the plot is very simple, I feel like The Eighth Sense, the, the real meat of the discussion is in the relationships — in all the different interactions that these characters have bouncing off of each other, in some of the ways that they interact with society? I feel like that's more of where the meat of talking about the story comes from. There's going to be a lot of jumping around in this discussion I think because of that.

Ben

We’ll talk about Tae Hyung, but more specifically we'll talk about how strong the characterization is for all of these characters. Like the biggest thing that's interesting about this show is, all the seniors are miserable horrible people.

Nini

Terrible. [laughs]

Ben

All of the freshmen are not — but some of them could be. I think that's Bit Na's role in the story. Yoon Won, Eun Ji, and Jae Won are all seniors who probably should have graduated already, but because of the funding model of school and how you need to get a job, they're all stuck and they hate it. They're having the millennial problem of, we were told that if we were really good at school and we went to college and checked all the boxes, we would get decent jobs, marry wives, live in the suburbs, have a van, and have two point three kids. And uh… we didn't! And we've lived through crisis after crisis for… literally 22 years, and it sucks! 

And so like I get why Yoon Won, Eun Ji, Jae Won, and Tae Hyung are so frustrated and so pissed about all of it. And like they can't even be happy about any of it, like Tae Hyung wasn't drafted, but it's not like it worked out for him, it's not like he got to do anything useful with school, and like get ahead and go work somewhere, which is why like he's glomping back on to Jae Won. Because he's his last hope, that maybe somehow Jae Won getting control of his dad's company will get him a useful job, and maybe he won't be such a piece of shit. But he's such a selfish prick that he can't do anything with it. 

Eun Ji is clearly a status chaser, and she really wants to be the wife of a chaebol. And that's why she's trying to lock Jae Won down. 

Yoon Won is the only person that Jae Won ends up having a real connection with, because she's frustrated, but she's trying to do something positive, like ‘hey I'm gonna be stuck in school for a while but I'm [gonna] try and keep the surfing club afloat while I'm here. I hope you can get a chance to relax and I'm really glad that you came back and helped us out because — you’re really good at it, and I'm really glad that you're here.’ Like, she's the only person who's thankful for Jae Won's presence because he offered it. And she asks for literally nothing else beyond him except, ‘so hey you feel like getting a pizza and a beer with me? I really want to go to this place but the guy only speaks English even though he lives in fucking Korea.’

Nini

[laughs] That was bizarre.

Ben

And he's gonna be such a dick about it! That felt like a dig at foreigners moving to Korea.

[both laugh]

Nini

I completely agree that Yoon Won feels like the only person who is interested in Jae Won and not in what Jae Won can do for them, in terms of the seniors. And that's why their… thing works. And Jae Won says it when they're drinking in that foreigner's bar. He's like, ‘you know, when we started school I really didn't like you. But now you're kind of the only person who—’ [laughs] Basically he tells her that she's the only person he doesn't hate, so.

Ben

Right? And he call — she calls him out, like ‘I know you hated me, you piece of shit. But it's fine. We're cool now.’ [laughs] But again like, in terms of like, early episodes… she's the only person in the series [who] respects what he wants. She's like ‘Okay, I'll take the new kid because he clearly can't swim. You take the two girls, because you gay, you ain't gonna do nothing with them girls. Teach them girls how to swim right.’ He's like ‘No. I wanna go with the boy.’ She's like ‘Girl. Are you sure?’ and he's like ‘Nah nah nah, I really wanna go hang out with this boy.’ ‘Allll right.’ [laughs] 

But again, everyone else disrespects him — ignores his stated desires, constantly. Yoon Won is the only person in the show who, when he says he wants something, she lets him have it. And then she's like ‘Hey the cute boy drew a picture of you… wanna see it?’

[both laugh]

Nini

She gives him so much shit in like her own way, I love it. You know I’m all about besties who give you shit, you know that's my favorite, [laughs] that's my favorite trope. Besties givin’ you shit. 

But yeah, so you've got all the seniors who are stuck and miserable because, I mean, other than Jae Won — if they all came in at the same time, other than Jae Won because of his military service — they should have all graduated already. And the fact that they haven't, and they're all there just kind of, you know, sitting there miserable staring at each other, is a big commentary on everything. 

So compare them to all the freshmen. Now, the freshmen are… still young and hopeful and they have all this energy and all that stuff, and it’s such a contrast to the seniors who’re all fucking miserable. Even though there's fear there, particularly, like sort of shown up in the person of Ji Hyun, there's still this kind of enthusiasm? And then there's this brightness that comes off of them? And you kind of understand why Yoon Won and Jae Won gravitate, kind of, towards the freshman. And they feel protective of them, and they, they want them to have a good experience? That's one of the things that I really enjoyed about, for example, the surfing trip. They really invest in making sure that the freshmen have a good experience, like they keep the skeevy senior guys away from them…. they tell them they don't have to drink, they tell Tae Hyung, like, stop being a creep.

Ben

Right? They keep telling him to fuck off, they're like, ‘None of these rituals or things you're supposed to do that we did did anything for us. It didn't move us forward, it didn't make us closer to our seniors, it didn't help us succeed at school. We just got bullied by people who are older than us. And you hated it too, so chill the fuck out.’

Nini

Yeah! I like how invested they are, Jae Won and Yoon Won, in making sure that the freshmen have a good time, and that they're taken care of and protected. I really did like that. Like, it's almost like they want to help them preserve their innocence for a little bit longer, which I found was a great commentary to be quite frank… [laughs] I did love that. And then you also see, like you were mentioning in the character Bit Na, you're seeing somebody who could go along that trajectory towards misery, that landed Eun Ji and Tae Hyung where they are now.

Ben

Exactly, it's implied that she's doing all the things, like, you're Expected To Do(™), but there's a little bit of her being like ‘No I'm not gonna drink all that stuff from you’ and like at the end, like, she's furious with Tae Hyung. She's like, ‘No! I know that you've been causing problems for me, because you have a possessive crush on me. Fuck you. Get out of here.’

Nini

Scram! Beat it! [laughs]

Ben

Pulls out her little spray bottle: sks sks sks Move! [both laugh] Go on now, get!

Nini

So, she's sort of the antagonistic force that's pushing back against that stuff, while Ji Hyun and Ae Ri are more like that force that's laughing at that stuff. One is like, dismissive, and the other is… antagonistic. And it's two ways of dealing with the same thing.

Ben

I love how when the two of them start to bond, they just turn into like the meanest little catty duo. They're like ‘Oh well she hasn’t mentioned you at all” and “Oh has she really not? If I had a crush and had a best friend I know that I would be talking to my best friend about the crush, so… it's really embarrassing for you that she really hasn't mentioned you at all to her, right? Oh geez.’

Nini

[laughs] And he says that and then he doesn't tell Joon Pyo about his crush. Terrible.

Ben

And that's why Joon Pyo was pissed.

27:45 - The Hedwig Incident

Nini

Let’s talk about Ji Hyun and Ae Ri being catty for a second. So, we've already seen Ji Hyun and Ae Ri in class making fun of, like people giving their presentations… for this class on, I guess some kind of film studies course or whatever, because they're doing these presentations about films that they've watched or whatever. So we've seen them doing their little mean girl duo act in class already, where they, you know, kind of quietly snicker at whoever is in front of the class at the point in time — which I mean, come on, who hasn't done that with your friend in class? [laughs] 

When Ji Hyun comes back from his accident, the one that they're making fun of — and this is the part that I wasn't quite sure what they were trying to say, because I didn't recognize the character. So at first I didn't know if it was a character we had already met or if it was just a character that we hadn't seen before. And I think not knowing that also made things a little more difficult to parse? Because you get the sense from the way that this character talks to them that this is a character we're supposed to know who it is. That we have seen before or something. But I don't recognize him. Anyway. So this character is doing their presentation on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is a… queer classic?

Ben

I have not commented on this particular moment on Tumblr, because I didn't feel like getting flamed? But this is The Conversation! So I will say what needs to be said. So a big part of this film critic class that they're taking is that most of these presentations people are giving are only doing surface level reads of the source material. And this guy's read is not that deep either, but he dresses as Hedwig and thinks like he should be getting a lot of points for that. Whereas, they give a really solid read that understands the themes being explored in the Park Chan-wook film…

Nini

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay?

Ben

They give a really solid presentation, they clearly understood the themes involved, but their presentation didn't have a lot of pizzazz, and they barely passed the class team. But they don't really care, because they took what they needed from the course: they engaged with the source material, they understood it, and they moved on, whereas he's cosplaying as Hedwig, a gay character. Does he appreciate the life of this gay character? 

Which for me felt like this show taking shots at performative queerness happening with BL in particular. A lot of these boys are cosplaying as gay: do they understand gay people? Do they understand the lives we live? Like you're sitting here beefing with me, an actual gay, and my hag over our presentation. But do you have any appreciation for who we are? Why don't you go ahead and scamper your ass down a little gay district off here and figure out what gay people actually live through? Like people didn't like that because they thought it read as transphobic, which it probably did, and I'm not going to begrudge people what they took from it. But for me I read it as you can cosplay as us, but you ain't us.

Nini

Hm. So I have never watched Hedwig, so… I couldn't really get a read on what they were trying to do with this? Because I didn't know if what the guy was saying had any weight of understanding to it.

Ben

It didn't… like even just knowing the film by reputation alone, and knowing older gay men who loved it, his read on it was weak. And it's, that's what, that's what I got, like — I don't want to drag anybody who is like ‘this is transphobic, and gay people should be better’ — it's also a surface level read on what's going on there. You're reacting to the fact that they diss a guy in drag, but not why they dissed a guy in drag — who started beef with them! I come from the school of talk shit get hit. So. [laughs]

Nini

[laughs] My main reaction to it, like I said because I, I don't have the… the context. Right? So my reaction to it was just kind of confused? I think that's what my overwhelming reaction was. I was confused by what was happening, I wasn't sure. I'm seeing all the takes, you know saying this is transmisogyny, this is transphobic, this is this that and the other, but the only thing that didn't read right to me about those takes — again, acknowledging that I didn't have the context — was that I don't know that this guy is part of queerness.

Ben

You know he ain't one of us because he couldn't walk in heels! You don't cosplay as Hedwig and not walk in heels.

Nini

Fair.

Ben

It's fine… The reason why I let everybody have it is, it was a deep cut and it wasn't for everybody. And that's kind of why I love The Eighth Sense because, the people who don't do their homework, who don't do the research on the genre history, who don't watch this stuff, who don't really engage in complex interactions with queerness — they kind of miss these sort of things. And I think that's okay, like, does the interaction read a little transphobic? It does. Do gay men's interactions with drag queens and other trans people often read transphobic? Hell yeah, they do! But I got it. 

Like, is it a great interaction? No, but… you ain't gonna last long in queer spaces if you can't handle a botched interaction.

Nini

I feel like it was probably the only really clunky part of the show, in that it wasn't clear. I feel like everything else that happened in the show was, it was very clear — it was abundantly clear what the show was saying, what the characters were saying and feeling, what they were trying to do. But I feel like this moment, this particular interaction, was the only time I felt like the show got a little… got a little clumsy.

Ben

It's the only indulgent thing that the show really does. It's the German director's favorite film, and he was taking a dig at people who get caught up in the fact that there's… gender performance stuff in Hedwig, and the wearing of the wig and dressing as a woman stuff, but they're missing, maybe the meat of the story. They focus on the wigs and the makeup, but not the person and the story. 

I have this particular beef too, like — I had an interaction with a colleague about what parts of queer cinema that they should maybe check out. And they really just wanted me to validate the things they wanted to watch. And that's kind of how this guy reads to me… like, the gay boy in the room is laughing at his performance. ‘How dare you laugh at my performance, I know I did my fucking research, I know gay people!’ [both laugh] That's — that's how that felt for me. Like, bro, why are you in my face? Like, go drink your juice Shelby, shit!

Nini

When you just said it like that, it made me think about white gays appropriating the language of the ballroom.

Ben

Well yeah, exactly, that's exactly what it feels like! Like… you aren't us, but you're wearing us. And it's fine, like you can get your little grade, you can make your little coins. But like, the rest of us are still here, trying to create queer lives that have meaning and comfort to them. Are you going to be with us there? That’s, like, if we're going to beef with this show for being rude to a guy in drag… what have you done for us lately? Like you might be queer too, and I don't mean to make you feel bad… but also if you're queer and all you do is watch BL, there's way more work to be done sweetie! 

Let go of your beef about the Hedwig scene, go watch Hedwig. Go watch I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay. Then go watch the fucking sequences where these kids gave weak-ass takes about these really classic films, and then understand why they were getting laughed at by the teacher too. Like sure you dressed as Hedwig, but do you appreciate her? No? Okay, you get a B plus, I guess. Thank you for wearing drag.

It's not the most elegant moment in the thing? But it's one of those moments that it's like: who knows and who doesn't know?

36:32 - Ae Ri

Ben

Let's just talk about some fun gay shit. Let’s talk about Ae Ri! [laughs]

Nini

Ae Ri’s an interesting character. Ae Ri is a Seoul kid, so she's not like a country mouse innocent like Ji Hyun. She's with it, she knows what's going on, she, she understands the haps, you know what I mean? She's savvy. And she becomes Ji Hyun’s…

Ben

She becomes a hag. Let's call her what she is. Let's give her the term of endearment that we used to hand out to the best of the ladies.

Nini

She becomes the hag, yes, she becomes his fairy godmother. The way that she just kind of scoops Ji Hyun up? And is just like, ‘oh you poor little baby, come, let me help you because you very clearly need help’ [laughs] I just think that's delightful. I think that the way that their friendship develops — because at first Ji Hyun is convinced that she has a crush on him. And honestly, I'm not sure that he was wrong.

Ben

Elaborate.

Nini

I think that she clocked him when she had actually like, spent time with him?

Ben

I don't think she was paying attention to him until he drank the — until he drank the liquor for them, and then she's like, ‘Why would he do that, because all he does is look at Jae Won — Ohhh.’ [laughs]

Nini

Yeah, I feel like that's, that's where we go with this, it’s like ‘Aww! He's nice! Let me go scoop him up because he clearly needs help! Because he is not going to make it like this.’

Ben

He did though, like he needed somebody to be like ‘Bro. If you're trying to be closeted, because it seems like you are, let me just be clear: you’re doing a terrible job sweetie. Also? Them fits is busted. We need to buy you some clothes, like immediately. We're going shopping right now.’

Nini

It's like, ‘You’re trying to get Jae Won's attention? This is not how you do it. Okay, we're gonna need to accentuate those eyes darling. Ok?’ [laughs] 

She's the best girl. She ends up being protective of Ji Hyun, and because she's protective of Ji Hyun she also becomes protective of the people that Ji Hyun cares about, and Ji Hyun cares about Jae Won. So she becomes protective of Jae Won [laughs]. And she has claws! And she will use them. We talked about it earlier, but that scene where she just very neatly — she and Ji Hyun very neatly take Tae Hyung apart. The reason that they take him apart is because he goes for Jae Won, and Jae Won just looks really sad about it, and they're like ‘Not to-fuckin-day! We are going to end your entire career.’ 

She's the best girl. She's the best girl. I want her to have everything that she wants. I don't know what she wants, because it's not really clear, but I want her to have whatever she wants. She just seems to be vibin’, and I always love a character who's vibin’.

Ben

The reason why I like Ae Ri is, in a room of seniors being awful to her friend, she stood up and challenged them — and that was scary for her. Like she broke down in tears after that confrontation with the other seniors and Eun Ji. If you read that a certain way you're like, well is she weak or whatever? Like no, it's, it's scary to stand up in front of a bunch of people who are being awful and tell them like no, you guys are mean and this is not right.

Nini

That confrontation among the surf club after Ji Hyun has his accident is so ugly. You really see how self-centered these people are, these seniors. They do not care that this kid nearly died. 

Like yeah ok, they're upset about their club getting canceled because it's not technically fair. It's not like, you know, this was a club activity that he got hurt at. So yeah, ok, it's not technically fair, but the claws that they have out! And the way that they completely dismiss that at this point Ji Hyun is still in the hospital! It's not like he's back. He's still in the hospital, and they are so catty and vicious.

Ben

I don't even know if he was conscious at that point.

Nini

Yeah! He's — like he's, they're all so vicious about it. It's like they don't care whether he lives or dies? They don't care about anything other than the fact that this is inconveniencing them. And… that, Ae Ri takes that in, she like feels that, she internalizes that, and she realizes: y'all don't give a fuck about us. 

Which, which we’re dealing with like intergenerational relationships, and you're in a situation where you are the low man on the totem pole. You expect a certain amount of care and consideration to be taken with regards to you, because you're, you're the low man on the totem pole, you can't protect yourself necessarily. You need these people to care for and protect you. And… realizing, quite clearly and unambiguously, that these people will not protect her. They will not protect any of them. They don't care. Like I can understand why she breaks down.

Ben

Exactly. Like it's terrifying to realize that the people you're asked to respect do not give a shit about you. They'll demand abasement all the time, but when some shit popped off, did they care about Jae Won? Did they care about Ji Hyun? No, they're like: wow this is awfully inconvenient for us isn't it.

Nini

It was so ugly. I just remember being shocked, like you — I felt that one, you know what I mean? It wasn't just like, the intellectualization of what was happening on screen, I felt that deep somewhere inside of me.

42:50 - Ji Hyun and Jae Won

Ben

My appreciation for The Eighth Sense is more intellectual than it is emotional. I think it's very excellent: I gave it a 9.5 when I rated it? But I'm not… obsessed with the romance of this the way I might have been in another show. I like the way this one unfolds; I really like the way these two talk to each other. I like the way they see each other, I like that they totally misunderstood each other after the near-death crisis moment, and I like that other people pulled their heads out of their asses for them, so that they could be together, and then they followed through on that. 

But because this is just a very ‘boy likes boy’ sort of story, there isn't really a whole lot to say about the romance, but I do think we should take some time to unpack how we see Jae Won and Ji Hyun engaging with each other.

Nini

Yeah, so let's do that. These two are, as you would have said before, drawn to each other from the start, like Jae Won clocks Ji Hyun in the restaurant, Ji Hyun clocks Jae Won… I haven't rewatched the first couple of episodes as yet, but I think I remember that when Jae Won goes outside to smoke, Ji Hyun follows him?

Ben

Ji Hyun is outside, maybe on like a break or whatever? Just decompressing after a stressful moment, and all of Jae Won and his friends are maybe thinking about leaving. And then Jae Won asks for a lighter so he can light a cigarette.

Nini

He asks for the cigarette first, because he doesn't have a cigarette. He asks for a cigarette and he asks for a lighter, which is why I thought I remembered Ji Hyun following him outside, because the lighter that he gives him is the gas match for the restaurant, not like a, a standard bic. It's the big… gas match that he uses so — to light the cigarette for him, and he gives him two cigarettes. One for now and one one for later.

Ben

Jae Won was definitely flirting in a subtle way, and then Ji Hyun responds in a way that's like, I see you, but it both gave them the chance to back off of it and just write it off. Which is where I started to really appreciate the show, because… BL flirting is too overt sometimes.

Nini

It’s a dance that I've seen before, this kind of, I think you are but are you? And there's like these little subtle signals, and all these other things… I mean I don't need to tell: you're gay, you know.

Ben

[laughs] No no Nini! Go on!

Nini

Hilarious. [both laugh] Fine, read me.

Ben

Nah, it's, it's legitimately fun for me to see what other people are picking up on.

Nini

The thing is that it's so easy to dismiss, and it has to be. So these two, they clock each other, they do the dance, you know — ‘are you? I think you are, but are you? I think you are’ kind of dance.

Ben

What's so fun about them dancing is, like it could have been a one off moment. But then Ji Hyun joins the surfing club. And Ji Hyun forces Jae Won to see him. Like ‘No, my name is Ji Hyun, what's yours? You said you wanted to be friends. Were you just bullshitting me, or were you just flirting?’

Nini

Yeah, Ji Hyun is actually pretty…

Ben

He's so brave! I love him!

Nini

He is pretty forward for a baby gay, I will say that.

Ben

He knows who he is. And he sees a boy in pain — who's very pretty — and he's like, ‘I can help him.’ Not ‘I can fix him.’ ‘I can help him’ — Ji Hyun doesn't really demand anything of Jae Won really. He just won't let Jae Won fully push him away, and continues to offer him emotional support. He's incredibly patient, in a way that maybe city folk aren't used to.

Nini

Being city folk myself I can't, like, speak to city versus country in that regard, because I simply don't have the country experience.

Ben

I'm from Louisiana! [laughs]

Nini

The extra shot in that daiquiri gettin to ya, huh?

Ben

It really is. We are two-thirds of the way through this 32 ounces? That's a lot. [laughs]

Nini

There is something to be said for like, the way that Ji Hyun is… he's brave, he's forward, but he does it in this kind of quiet still way. He's pushing, there's definitely no doubt that he's pushing. But he's also not pushy?

Ben

When I was really on Twitter a lot, there’s this writer I used to follow, his name is Anthony Oliveira? He's queer, and he used to say like once or twice a day on his Twitter, he would say: Be brave enough to be kind. And that's where Ji Hyun fits for me. Even when he's being catty with people, it's only with people who came at him sideways. It's… the Hedwig boy coming at him for no reason, it's Eun Ji beefing with him for no reason, it's Joon Pyo picking on him a little bit, and him being like nah, fuck you bro. Other than that, he treats people really well. He gives people back the energy they give him. Like when they drag Tae Hyung, we mentioned this earlier, he was being shitty about Bit Na when she wasn't even there. And it's like bro, she don’t owe you nothin’. 

That's kind of what I love about Ji Hyun, because that's what he gives Jae Won. Jae Won flirted with him a little bit, he flirted back. He won't let Jae Won run away after starting that with him, like ‘Hm! You made a mistake — you should not have started this!’ And like, he's so confident at the end, like he's singing a song, like, ‘I won, ha ha!’

Nini

It's like ‘Jae Won’s miiiiiine, Jae Won’s miiiiiine’ [laughs] I love that so much! 

Ben

And Eun Ji’s like, ‘What’s it like to win?’ and he’s like ‘Hm, I’ll tell you later tonight!’ [laughs] And let's talk about that boy later that night, because he pinned that boy down… he's like oh no, we've been here for four hours of this TV show? It's time to get mine.

Nini

Ahhh, he literally said — what's the line that he said? ‘Don't laugh, you don't know what's coming next.’ 

Ben

Right? I was like, baby boy!

Nini

I loved that, I loved that!

Ben

I was in my — I was like yeeeeees bitch, yeeeeeees!

[both laugh]

Ben

Get! It! In!

Nini

He's like, I — he's like, I may look, I may look innocent but I ain't that innocent, you know, kind of…

Ben

He said I am suited, tooted, and booted!

Nini

He’s like, I have the internet, I know how these things go… [laughs]

Ben

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.

[both laugh]

Nini

God I hate you. [both laugh] Oh god…

50:38 - Joon Pyo and Boss Lady

Ben

Speaking of getting it in… let's talk about my boy Joon Pyo.

Nini

Hello! Hello. I said it in the clown server and I'm gonna repeat it on this podcast and I don't care how filthy it is okay? You just know — I'm sorry he might be a virgin, but I know that dick game bomb. I know it!

Ben

Look, we've been here a while; anybody who's still listening wants to be here. Let's talk about this for a second. Both Yoon Won and Joon Pyo are fat characters, who are seen enjoying food repeatedly in this show, and I am so glad that the two of them get to have what was clearly a very enjoyable makeout session with each other. And got to vibe for the rest of the night, and are confirmed to dip — off to wherever they're going on their own, so we got time to do our little gay thing we need to next to my rain! bow! lamp! in this room. 

My boy! He's been there for his homie the whole time, because he knows his friend gets lonely, he tries to make sure he does social things with him. Maybe he's a little overbearing, maybe he's a little codependent, but he had his boy’s back, and when his boy was down for the count? He starts working at his job, treating the boss with respect — because the boss seems like she might be picky about who she lets work with her. And she seemed to like Joon Pyo too! He brought that man his school supplies to make sure that he didn't have to lose a semester. And when he found out that his homie was gay, and the reason he almost died was for some dick? He was like, ‘shit was it worth it? Yes? We need to secure that bag, don't we? What we doing next?’

Nini

He was for it!

Ben

He stumbled briefly, he's like ‘Wait, Ae Ri knew before me?’ ‘Yeah, but she's from Seoul, she clocked me, I don't know.’ ‘All right, so she's just smart. Is she cool? Are we friends now, does that mean I get to hang out with cool people?’ My man is always looking at the best way to proceed forward. Ain't nobody doing it like my man Joon Pyo.

Nini

Not just that — when, after all this shit when Ji Hyun and Jae Won finally get back together, Joon Pyo clears out of the room that first night, he's like, ‘clearly y'all got some stuff to be doing and I don't want to be here while y'all do it.’ 

Ben

Right? Jae Won, he's like where'd you, like I felt — I felt it for Ji Hyun, like he wakes up in the morning and Jae Won's gone and like, that boy is not well. We knew that boy almost hurt himself in the show. Ji Hyun’s, ah, understandably worried, he goes out and he's just vibing with with Joon Pyo and he's like ‘well what's going on here?’ He's like ‘well Joon Pyo hung out outside all night for us, so. He brought us coffee, I'm honoring the man's commitment to us.’ And Joon Pyo’s like, ‘you're very pretty and popular, like… would you please take me clubbing?’ He's like ‘hell yeah, let's go clubbing. Let's get you some, son!’

Nini

[laughs] I love that!

Ben

And he's like ‘how do I need to dress, how do I need to be?’ He’s like ‘man you just need to be yourself’ … says the rich boy with all the nice clothes. [laughs]

Nini

You just know that Jae Won gonna make it rain on Joon Pyo at the club. He's going to make sure that he has everything.

Ben

I love Joon Pyo. I liked how there were kind people even in Seoul, like… like these are two freshmen clearly not used to Seoul who want to try specialty drinks for the first time. And I like how that bartender only teased them briefly, and then gave them the kind of popular drinks people their age might want to enjoy. Like that felt so gentle to me in a way, and it really stuck out when I watched it.

Nini

I feel like one of the things that the show gets right, that I really enjoyed, was that the businesses around a university are really accustomed to having students — particularly new students who don't know what the fuck they're doing. The people who work and who own and work in businesses around a university can really be quite nice like that.

Ben

That's how I feel about the boss character. She clearly loves young people, in a genuine way, and like Eun Ji thought she was really doing some stuff, ‘Oh I'm about to post a negative review on you on Yelp.’ And I like how she's like ‘Business improved as a result of your negative review, you insufferable waste of human flesh.’ [laughs] People were like, ‘So this mean catty person got chewed out by, by a business owner for being rude to the support staff? Yeah, we should go to that place.’

I like how the boss doesn't have a name, because it doesn't really matter if she has a name or not, because she's a temporary component of their lives. They're not going to really remember her name in a way that it matters, they're going to remember the things she said to them. They're going to remember how she treated them. They're going to remember like, how she helped them grow, how she pushed them to choose the things in their lives that they wanted. And like that's what matters about her character. Like, that's why they don't give her a name, because it doesn't matter what her name is, because she's so much older than them that we don't have to distinguish her. She is the positive older mentor figure in their lives.

Nini

I just think of her as such a, I mean, [laughs] Because you’re right, she doesn’t get a name, but she is so important to… not just having the story unfold, but she's important to the characters. 

56:28 - Let’s Talk About The Kissing (And Episode 6)

Ben

Let's talk about the kissing?

Nini

You go first.

Ben

Oh absolutely not. [Nini laughs] You of the… you of the, ‘all of the kissing is bad and I have notes?’ [laughs] 

No, it's fine, I'm gonna go first cause, I have more fun than you sometimes with these terrible kiss scenes. I will say that overall I enjoyed the execution of intimacy in this because everyone is very earnest, and I never feel like I'm not observing the character. This is shored up by the fact that Im Ji Sub gives absolutely terrible kisses with Eun Ji’s actress, on purpose. Straight actors will win me over so much in queer cinema when, when they're forced to kiss women, they look like they hate it. [laughs]

Nini

From a character standpoint I found it very believable.

Ben

Okay.

Nini

I found it extremely believable from a character standpoint. It wasn't pretty, but it's not supposed to be pretty? Jae Won is definitely more experienced than Ji Hyun, and that shows? It works for me, because I don't feel like Ji Hyun is supposed to be good at it. I feel like he's new to the whole thing, and because of that, the enthusiasm carries more for me than the technique. He's new to it but he's going for it in a particular kind of way. There's some little acting choices that Oh Jun Taek does, like he opens his mouth, like really wide when —

Ben

I loved it! The first time I thought, I was like, go — I was like go in baby boy!

Nini

I loved that, because — that's the kind of thing you do when you're learning to kiss, you overcompensate.

Ben

I love it.

Nini

You overcompensate when you're learning to kiss, it’s one of the things that you do, so I actually really like that detail? He looks like he wants to swallow Jae Won whole, and I really [laughs] really like that —

Ben

I fucking love it, I loved it so much —

Nini

I really love that and that's, that's the kissing at the end, but then the kissing sort of in between as well, is really… good, because those kisses — those kisses like towards the end… like they're together at that point, you know what I mean, it's a whole different thing. But the way that he kisses him before that, there is a little bit of tentativeness to it, some — in some parts? When they're surfing when they're on their trip, and he kisses them in the sea? Like, in terms of pretty? Those are the pretty, those are the prettiest kisses, like you know what I mean? Those, those aesthetically pleasing, all that good stuff, and you feel the sense of euphoria that's coming out of it? They are having this whole moment, there is so much joy in those kisses, which I truly love. 

And that's the other thing, like every — all the kisses have different moods. And you know I like to follow the trajectory of a relationship through the… to the intimacy and how it's being portrayed. So watching all the kisses and the, all the intimacy have different moods to it? Fantastic. I can't complain about it. Is it pretty? In a lot of instances, no. Does it feel real? Absolutely a hundred percent, all the time.

See? See?

Ben

I'm so relieved y'all, because normally I'm like ‘I really enjoyed that!’ and Nini's like ‘Hmmm… it was terrible’ and I'm like, ‘Awww.’ [laughs]

Nini

You know, I'm out here being Beyonce, ‘look at my technique,’ you know kinda thing [laughs] And Ben's like ‘No!’

[both laugh]

Ben

Leave them alone! They're doing their best, shit.

Nini

No… No but I really, I did, I did like it here. It's also maybe something to do with the style, because the style is so vérité? When you get an ugly kiss — quote unquote ugly kiss — in a vérité style, it feels different…

Nini

…than when you get a quote unquote ugly kiss in a style that's very polished.

Ben

I know what you mean. Like a —

Nini

You know?

Ben

Right, right. When it feels very fanciful and like ‘this is the best kiss that's ever happened,’ and you're like ‘oh but it wasn't.’

Nini

Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Precisely.

Ben

All right, so, while we're talking about the intimacy and stuff, I think we should talk about episode 6 reactions. First, I'm going to say that I loved episode 6, and I particularly enjoyed the way they handled the intimacy of episode 6? I think that was very appropriate for… the newness of the actors, the lack of an intimacy coordinator… 

I want to talk about the reaction. I don't know if you were on Tumblr for this, but there was a lot of discussion at the end of episode 6 where people were saying that episode 6 was not real. That it was fake — and I have written on Tumblr on record about how much I hated that take, and I want to unpack it here.

Nini

I did see the reactions on Tumblr, I mostly stayed out of it… I didn't really delve too much into The Eighth Sense discussion? I did do, like a little thing about Eun Ji, but I didn't really delve into The Eighth Sense discussion because I wanted it to play out. I felt like The Eighth Sense is one of those shows that… the episodic discussion wasn't going to give much. I felt like it's one of those shows where I needed to see the full, the full thing, to really… understand. Because it's not — as, as we said earlier in the show, it's not really one of those… episode by episode kind of things where the plot is what's driving it or whatever, it's really about the interactions that these characters are having, the way that they're interacting with their surroundings. 

It's why we've been jumping back and forth in discussion, and like it's how I felt about it while it was airing, so I really kinda, didn't really delve too much into the whole episode 6 discussion. I saw it, but… I wasn't getting into it.

Ben

I guess I'm just gonna deliver a little read while we're here then.

Nini

Okay!

Ben

[laughs] Here we go!

Nini

Here we go.

Ben

I don't want to disrespect anyone before we get into this. Let me be clear. Like, I do believe people were relying on very fair reads of traditional filming techniques, for why they believed that some parts of… episode 6 might have not been real, or that Jae Won would— became an unreliable narrator for it? But I think it's very important to talk about this. 

Just because it's unpleasant to consider does not mean it's not real. This is not meant to be read as disrespect to those of you trying to make sense of what's going on because you were nervous and concerned for Ji Hyun. That is valid. But, please understand, that for me — this is just me! As a queer person in these streets with y'all — whenever you all seemingly get squicked out because one of us isn't being entertaining or sexy? It makes me feel a little bit unwelcome. That's all I'm going to say about that, because you know who was right as of episode 7? Me! It was real!

[both laugh]

Ben

I was insufferable that week, I feel sorry for everybody who had to talk to me.

Nini

[laughs] I didn't think you were insufferable.

Ben

I felt insufferable. I was smug! My crops were watered.

Nini

The field in which you grew your fucks was barren.

[both laugh]

Ben

I don't want anyone to feel embarrassed if you just — felt called out by what I just said. But I would like you to approach these shows with just a little more kindness. The goal of watching TV is not to be right. It's about finding connection — with fictional people, and the real people who are also finding that connection with you. It can bring you closer to other people. It can help you understand other people. It can bring you just a little bit of peace and joy in an otherwise difficult time. There are no points to be awarded, you are not taking a test when you watch these shows. So please… be kinder to yourselves. Be kind to the people making these stories, and be kind to the people who are also watching them alongside you.

Nini

[singing] Message!

Ben

I'm a little drunk but that's all I'm going to say on that!

1:06:21 - The Party Scene and Forgiveness

Nini

Let's talk about that end scene, the party.

Ben

Okay, let's talk about forgiveness for the next thirty minutes. [laughs]

Nini

I think that's a good segue from what you just said: let's talk a little bit about forgiveness.

Ben

I'm gonna let Nini talk, because I just made you guys feel bad for like, probably 10 minutes of this edit. 

Here's the thing: Nini and I… came down on the side of forgiveness for this. But Nini and I are a little bit older than some of the viewers, so… I'll let you talk about the final scene and particularly how there were mixed reactions to Jae Won’s and Ji Hyun’s decision to reconcile, at a party, with Tae Hyung and Eun Ji: the two worst offenders of this particular story. Nini?

Nini

See here's the thing: I didn't read it as a reconciliation? And that's probably why I have a, like a different view of it. So the way that I read that is, when you're stonkingly giddy happy… when you are at a celebratory event, when you are… drinking, let's just be real about it… It is so easy to just be like, ‘You know what? I don't want to fight, I don't want to argue. I just want to let all this go… like, there's so much love in this club, I'm just gonna…’ [laughs] 

Ben

And there is love in this club tonight! Some of you don't even know.

Nini

That's part of it. That's definitely part of it. But also, you have to understand what's happening with Tae Hyung, and with Eun Ji in here as well. 

Tae Hyung is a dick. That doesn't change throughout the show. He was a dick at the start of the show, at the end of the show he's still a dick… nothing about him changes. But you get to understand the value that Jae Won finds in Tae Hyung. Because he… outright asks him, Tae Hyung asks him ‘Why are you still friends with me?’ because Tae Hyung doesn't even understand why Jae Won keeps him around. And what Jae Won says about that, he’s just like… Basically he tells him, ‘I keep you around because you don't mask and I find that really refreshing.’ That's basically what he tells him. 

And that makes so much sense to me. And it also makes me understand why he would just let the shit go, at this point. Because Tae Hyung's not going to change. We see that at the same party. He continues to try to hit on Bit Na. He has to get read to the ground by Bit Na for his bullshit. Tae Hyung is never going to change.

Ben

That's true. He's the most bitchless motherfucker in the whole show.

[both laugh]

Nini

Completely! A hundred percent. He's never going to change, and Jae Won finds that comforting. Also, I have seen men forgive each other for all kinds of shit? So that just read a hundred percent true to me. I have seen dudes fight, box, wrestle, nearly kill each other… and then two days later they're out together hanging out.

Ben

Dude I've seen them after the fight bloody, like crying, hugging each other like I love you bro! [laughs] And I'm like, the hell just happened?

Nini

That rang a hundred percent true to me… I think that if Tae Hyung and Jae Won stay in contact — because there's no guarantee that that's going to happen either, because they're coming to the end of things now. The fact that they're having this party because Yoon Won got a job means that things are starting to move. Where all the seniors were stuck before, things are now starting to move for them. They're coming to the end of this period of their lives anyway, so they've also got like a hefty whiff of nostalgia permeating the whole thing, and also? They don't know if they're gonna see each other really, after this. They don't know if they're going to stay friends. It's easy in that situation to just let the shit go, and I've seen the situation happen so many times before and I'm just kind of like, you know what? That rang true for me, I wasn't worried about that.

Ben

I’m with Nini. As a boy, I have friends like that. Where… you know who this person is: kind of a sad sack, kind of a shit heel, and you get it. But they're weirdly there? And so, you just accept these losses, like yeah he tried to get me kicked out of school but he failed, because he sucks, so… whatever. Was that annoying? Yes. Is he going to apologize for it? No. But he wouldn't be himself if he apologized. And like that's not great, but this is again a reflection of the current state of social… politics.

Nini

It's more of a question of, is this realistic? And to me, yes it is.

Ben

Nini and I are both from cultures that have carnival. And so like, I've seen this happen at Mardi Gras, where blood feuds have ended because, like, we ran into each other at a parade. And like, the right thing was said at the right moment, and people just let go of decades worth of beef. Like it can happen! And like, the question is like, does holding on to this anger at Tae Hyung help Jae Won take care of Ji Hyun? So let it go.

Nini

The way I can best describe it is: whatever, I'm over it. It's not like he's gonna, like make him like godparent to his first born or anything like that, I don't think that's where their relationship is going. I'd be surprised if they're speaking to each other in two years. For now, at a party? Everybody's happy, everybody's drinking. You're gonna go home with your boyfriend later and have a great time, like… [laughs]

Ben

Right? The music is good, the drinks are flowing, there's love in this club tonight.

Nini

The other one that everybody’s upset about is Ji Hyun forgiving Eun Ji. Now I also found that incredibly believable. Not just for party reasons but also for career reasons? Eun Ji is still his senior. The first thing he does, like when he walks up to her, is he apologizes for being snarky with her. In the moment and like the heat of battle so to speak, he might have popped off at the mouth, but he's gonna feel bad about it later. And I can see him, like, apologizing to her about it. And I can genuinely see her, having lost so comprehensively? Licking her wounds, taking a step back, and reassessing her entire life.

Ben

Here's the thing about the way she lost to Ji Hyun. What she realized from Jae Won handing her her entire ass was, Ji Hyun was never her enemy. She lost way before this boy showed up. And so all the beef she had with him in this whole competition for Jae Won? Was nil, because he said, ‘I saw you.’ And so all of the presumption she had about, like, what was at stake, is this a battle for Jae Won’s booty or whatever… Like none of that works out. He had already dismissed her. And he was adamant: he did not want to be with her, the whole time. So she feels like an asshole, because she's been in the wrong the whole time. 

And maybe like a part of her was true about this. Maybe she was just bitter that Jae Won was gone. She's mad about him being gone, but she didn't do right by him and she lied. That's the big thing, like she's been caught lying. There's no coming back from that. Whatever her goals were for Jae Won, she had to eat that bowl of shit, and set it aside. And like there's no value for her in beefing with Ji Hyun anymore, because it just further exacerbates how much of an asshole she is. This boy did literally nothing to her, and they are not equals in a struggle for the heart of a bisexual boy. She lost her chance before this boy showed up. And so it's actually good to see her becoming the senior she's supposed to be, now that she has some experience to maybe pass on and grow from.

Nini

I agree with that read, I really think that she's reassessing and reevaluating her entire life at this point? She's feeling a little vulnerable, she's feeling a little… raw. She’s feeling a little humbled, and so… when you're feeling that way, just what do you do? You sit quietly and you try not to do too much. I don't know if this feels the way that it feels to me because I am an old bitch? But… [laughs] The first and hopefully last time you ever find yourself beefing with a fetus? Like… [laughs]

Ben

BEEFING WITH A FETUS! AAAAH! [laughs]

Nini

You know I'm right. You know I'm right.

Ben

I know what you mean! I mean there’re times, I'm like, oh lord I almost threw hands with a 12 year old today.

[both laugh]

Nini

You literally like, when somebody slaps into you like, what are you doing? Like this is a child! Hopefully it only ever happens to you once. And hopefully you very quickly realize that you are, in fact… you're in an antagonistic situation with a child.

Ben

It's really hard to realize sometimes that you are wrong. And to accept that and try to, like, move on from it properly. Like, I think she does okay. And like, she's still an asshole… just like Tae Hyung’s still an asshole. But I think she does okay.

Nini

To me it feels right, that the end is not… a comeuppance in that sense or a vengeance, but it's more like everybody being like, ‘Look okay, we all been through it. Let's just hug that shit out. Maybe I'll see you again, maybe I won't, but for right now, we’re here, it's a party, let's just have a good time, and not like do all this shit.’

1:17:14 - On a Possible Second Season

Ben

Speaking of ‘maybe we'll see each other again’ how do you feel about returning to these characters?

Nini

As you always say: Dick is not magical, it does not fix you.

Ben

It does not!

Nini

And there's still a lot, particularly on Jae Won’s side, like there's stuff with Ji Hyun too, but especially with Jae Won, there's still a lot there… in terms of his mental health, in terms of his family, in terms of all that stuff. So… there is room there? For something else, that could be interesting, but… I feel like if this was all there was, I would be good with it. 

How do you feel? What, what are your thoughts on a potential sequel?

Ben

So we talked about sequels in the spring season and I was really amped about sequels! I don't… feel the pull for one here yet. I'm not opposed, because… these characters are so strong, like we're gonna remember these characters, we're gonna remember Ji Hyun, Jae Won, Joon Pyo, Yoon Won, Eun Ji, Tae Hyung, the boss… Ae Ri! Don't forget my girl, I'm sorry boo boo. We're going to remember these characters, and their characterizations are fairly strong. So I am confident that the voice of the characters is strong enough to carry them into whatever new situations they want to put these characters through. 

However… I believe that this particular outing had a lot of very specific things they wanted to say, about queerness, about being Korean, about being young in Korea… and I hope that if they really want to continue the story, that they have more things that they think are worth saying, and they do that in a way that's legible. I am just concerned that they aren't prepared for… a domestic story where one of them is still in school? And the other one is trying to survive their homophobic family? And abusive dad. And I'm not entirely certain that I am… eager to explore that? 

I'm not opposed to a sequel, I'm not yearning for one, but I do hope that we get more melodrama out of these guys. I enjoyed this production a lot! Even if we don't get more of The Eighth Sense, I hope that this team continues to make cool stuff. I really loved the way Oh Jun Taek played Ji Hyun this whole time. I loved the way he moved, I loved the way he spoke, I loved his smile. And like, I like how in the final episodes when Jae Won has, almost the Japanese running-to-the-boy moment, I just love the way that… Ji Hyun is just so ecstatic to finally get what he's been hoping for. And he's clingy for the final parts of this show, and he's having a good time! He's literally radiant for the rest of the show! Oh Jun Taek plays the relief and joy of that character so well. 

Like you see, even Jae Won, like you can see his old bones creaking. That's, he's like ‘I can experience joy again?’ as he quickly wakes up for this, and like — I feel like some of the… final bits were a little bit rushed? But I'm not going to complain, because like… I like the therapy bit with Jae Won, like it allows me to be forgiving about a character — who's had a lot of emotional struggles for the whole fucking show — to very quickly adapt to the situation, and like ‘no, we're boyfriends now.’ Like you can see the work of somebody who spent a great deal of time working with a professional about how he's feeling and how to manage them… expressing them properly, now that the hugest block is out of his way. And that lands really well for me in the final moments, like in another show it might have felt like this got resolved too quickly.

Nini

I don't feel like it did get resolved too quickly. If I have to do like, one more ding for the show: I think that the passage of time, particularly in this last two episodes, wasn't really clear?

Ben

It is not.

Nini

There's a sequence where Ji Hyun is in a classroom and he's sitting in different positions in the classroom and wearing different clothes, and we're meant to understand that that is time passing. So there is a bunch of time that passes, in episode 9 in particular, that I don't think it’s very clear to the audience that there is a lot of time passing. We're seeing Jae Won becoming stronger and stronger and happier and happier. But because it all happens in a montage where it's not clear that time is passing, it feels rushed. I don't know how much time there is? But it feels like they go through a season, because you see his clothes change. At one point he's just wearing a t-shirt, and then the next time when they meet each other up, they're back into like maybe something heavier, like more like fall clothes? So I feel like they at least went through the summer.

Ben

Though I did love this show, this is not a show that's going to be, like, part of my personal canon.

Nini

For me, it's like… I can appreciate it as being objectively good. I can feel the emotions that it was going for?... Watching it is kind of… ticking something off a film syllabus.

Ben

That's the exact feeling… that like, I think it is!

Nini

That makes it sound bad in a way, but I don't mean for it to sound bad.

Ben

It goes on the must-watch list, but you're like, ehhh.

Nini

It's all the things: it's good, it's worthy, it's enjoyable, it's emotional… It's all of the things that you want a drama to be. I will recommend it for sure, I think it's important work. I… don't really see myself rewatching it? It touches me but it doesn't give me the visceral feelings.

Ben

This is not calling the show bad!

Nini

Objectively, this is a 10 show for me.

Ben

Don't let our mid commentary at the end of this two and a half hour recording deter you. We loved this show! And like we said in the beginning, we will remember every single one of these characters, because they're so vivid, and they're so expertly crafted. Do we recommend The Eighth Sense? Wholeheartedly yes! Please! You should experience this. Go watch this.

1:24:10 - Checking in Two Months Later

Ben

Okay, Nini… it's been about two months I think since The Eighth Sense ended at this point? How are you feeling about it two months later?

Nini

As I predicted I have not rewatched it. I have not felt the need to rewatch it. When I was doing the edit I was listening to us talk about it and everything just came flooding back. Like I could remember distinctly how I felt watching it, the things that we were talking about, but I still don't feel compelled to rewatch it. 

I feel like it's one of those things where… it has stuck? Somewhere deep inside? And because it stuck I don't need to go back to it and reinterpret it and review it and look at it again, I feel like it was so clear. It was so legible. It spoke for itself really, and so I don't feel the need to go over and over and over it. It's very different from how I normally consume media because if I'm really into something I will go over and over and over and over it. This is… very different for me, a very different experience of taking in media. 

What about you Ben, how do you feel about it a few months down the line?

Ben

I feel a bit weird about it, and I think a big part of it is the way that the team behind it is continuing to release behind the scenes content in a way that I wasn't expecting — like I was hoping it’d feel more akin to… the gravitas with which Boss and them released the I Told Sunset About You documentaries. But it's been a little bit on the silly side? 

There's talk about them doing a second season. And I'm not opposed, but I feel like it's left me in a liminal space with the show, like I feel like I'm sitting on a, like a train station waiting for the next train to come. 

What has stuck with me, and I was thinking about this when I listened to the edit, is: I'm so glad that we had that whole conversation on forgiveness. Because let me tell you, the amount of peace I have had over this show because I'm not sitting here hating on Tae Hyung or Eun Ji all these months later? Because they just don't matter. I really like that the show left us with these two driving down a tunnel together and saying, ‘Whatever is coming next, we'll do this together.’ That's so lovely. 

Like I feel like where I was with the show at the end of it, like it is one of those things that goes… in my cataloging of, this is a really good piece that I am going to remember and recommend to the youths, when they ask me about things that are worth watching from certain places or from certain angles. But I don't necessarily find myself yearning for Jae Won or Ji Hyun the way I have for other people. It was fun though, revisiting our absolutely unhinged love for Joon Pyo when I went back through this. [laughs] I still love that boy so much.

Nini

Joon Pyo the MVP! Everybody needs a friend like him. Everybody.

Ben

He was a really good friend. 

I think what stands out for me really about The Eighth Sense is that the field itself is just so much more crowded now. So much good stuff was airing when this show aired, more good stuff has aired since this show aired. It's not a knock on The Eighth Sense, it's just that… we have such a wide variety of excellent offerings to choose from, that I find that you're going to be able to find shows that hit your specific emotional resonances more consistently. Regardless of how good The Eighth Sense is, it didn't fully resonate with the exact weird queer sensibilities I have, that would make me put it into one of my heart shows.

Nini

You know what it is I think, Ben? I think we're getting older. [Ben laughs] I think this is an intensely youthful show. I watch these coming of age dramas all the time I mean, you spoke about ITSAY and that still like hits me like a ton of bricks. But that's because it feels like my youth? 

Whereas, I feel oddly… both connected and disconnected from The Eighth Sense. It feels like a youth that I'm familiar with? But not one that I have experienced? We talked about the millennial thing when we were talking about the show, and how this feels like that. But it still feels distant from my experience of being a millennial somehow? I think maybe I'm just too old for the show. Like, I can appreciate it for what it is, but I'm too old for it and it doesn't hit the nostalgia buttons that I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You the Moon and shows like that hit. I think this is one for the kids, Ben.

Ben

I don't think that's bad! What I'll say is, I'm really glad that there is room for that now. We've been talking in other spaces about how fandom feels like it's bifurcating too many times now, that it feels thinner than it used to be? Like it feels like there used to be a lot more of us around. But I just feel like a big thing at this point is, we're not all trying to get some sort of energy from the exact same shows anymore. 

Right now I'm yelling on Tumblr about a whole show that Nini is just not watching. And I think that's okay, because Nini and I are still screaming at each other about at least two or three other shows, and so like I'm not feeling despondent because Nini, who's one of my best friends in fandom, isn't watching one of the shows that I'm really enjoying right now. It's okay that The Eighth Sense is the type of coming of age experience that maybe is more suited for the Gen Z types than the millennials.

Nini

So now that we have fully memento mori’d ourselves, I think that's that's a wrap for us. [laughs]

Ben

It's a really good show guys. Don't, don't get us wrong like we're, we're being a little bit wistful at the end of this, but — I really liked this show. Like I still, I stand by everything we said in the original recording. 

I really like the performances here, I really like the gumption of this entire production. I really like the casting choices. I like the way Oh Jun Taek and Im Ji Sub really worked together. And… sincerely, if they want to do more work with these two guys and reprising these characters, I will be there, seated, to see what they do next. 

Nini

All right! And with that, we out! Say bye to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace!

[avorbl]

Avor's Watchlist

I spent most of the last 24 hours rescuing my PC by connecting and configuring a new hard drive, which has put me a bit behind on the series’ I wanted to finish this week.

Currently Airing

4 Minutes 4/8 It currently presents itself like I am watching the fixit fic alongside the source material and I am enjoying it.

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko 7/8 The last two episodes were so uncomfortable and made no sense in how they handled Hiroko

Battle of the Writers 3/12 Silly pretty pictures

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days 2/12 This looked like it could be a solid Chinese University BL with all the alienation and abandonment typical of the genre

Cosmetic Playlover 4/8 Story overall moves too fast but also in-episode arcs feel miscalibrated alot of space is given to the setup and not much to the resolution

First Note of Love 2/12 I am hoping for more chemistry between the leads next time. They both look interesting

I Hear the Sunspot 8/12 Apparently the plot was moving to fast after EP6 because they made Maya the only active character in EP7 and that was very jarring

With You I Bloom 11/20

Mr Mitsuyas Planned Feeding 4/10 Slowly but surely the relationship develops. Acting and story are great the badly done seasonal changes are as funny as they are distracting though

Seoul Blues 1/8 Sukfilm has this very narrow interest in their queer stories. But they find more angles to look at it.

Sugar Dog Life 2/10

Takara’s Treasure 7/11 It gets better with each episode.

What I am catching up on

Boytoy 5/13 Feels like an early BL

Like Love 2/15 I need to catch up Chinese Bls

Love in the Air 11/13 Someone explain to me why this is one show and not two

The Double 31/40

The Founder of Diabolism Donghua Season 1 4/15 I’m trying it out but if the other two seasons are harder to find I will probably not be inclined to search for them

The Princess Royal 19/40 the royal aspect of this couple makes this weaker than The Double

Unstoppable High Kick 21/167 Its fun but I cannot imagine watching more than two episodes a week

Word of Honor 13/36

Finished in the last two weeks

Bad Guy 06.08.24 8/10 Another short series where Sukfilm examines the struggle between societal pressure and being true to your own desire.

Century of Love 08.08.24 7,5/10 A good core idea and story, music was a bit off and had few odd choices esp in ep 9

Knock Knock, Boys! 08.08.24 9/10 At bit slow at the start. A light hearted show that was suprisingly earnest in its potrayal of queer life

Meet You at the Blossom 15.08.24 7,5/10 Failed to maintain the comedic balance it set out with. Otherwise the Chinese costume BL it seemed to be from the start.

My Sweet Mobster 17.08.24 7/10 It had some good points on rehabilitation but overall standard fare with some lengths

Dropped in the last two weeks

Bad Guy 8/50 11.08.24 -/10

[suzie-shooter]

ELMS interview with Clem (link above, copied text under the cut)

Double WSK Super Master Series Kart Champion and Formula 2 race winner Clement Novalak will begin on a new chapter in 2024 when the 23-year-old French driver makes his ELMS debut with Inter Europol Competition in Barcelona, ​​competing for the overall title in LMP2 alongside Ollie Gray and Luca Ghiotto.

After clinching his second WSK Super Master Series title in 2017, Novalak moved up to single seaters winning the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 title with Carlin and finishing third in the 2021 standings of the FIA ​​Formula 3 Championship. A move to Formula 2 garnered another win with Trident Racing last season, but now Clement Novalak has his sights set on glory in the ELMS and beyond.

Novalak was due to make his endurance racing debut at the Daytona 24 in January, racing in LMP2 with his new team. However, a pit lane incident during the final practice session sidelined the French driver before he could compete in his first race. After suffering a fractured rib, Novalak has now recovered and is ready for the start of the ELMS season in April.

So w hat influenced Novalak to change from single seats to prototypes? “I have always enjoyed the longer format of races; being able to get yourself into the zone at the wheel of the car for multiple hours,” he said. “The format is a real challenge, and enjoyable as we get to work with other drivers. I've always been interested in endurance racing from a young age when I watched the 24 Hours of Le Mans with my dad.

“In saying that, this is a new challenge for me, it's very different from what I'm used to with the sprint races in Formula 2 and Formula 3, but I'm really looking forward to it,” Novalak continued.

“ELMS is good for me, with WEC not having the LMP2s on the calendar anymore, ELMS now has so much racing talent within the championship and this means, that it will be harder to perform well. Inter Europol Competition are a mega team, they have great experience at the highest level of sportscar competition, and I am delighted to be racing with them this year.”

The next obvious question is how the Oreca 07 compares to the single seaters Clement Novalak has raced up to now. “Surprisingly, the car is not too different to what I have been used to,” Novalak admitted. “While heavy, it still has a single-seater vibe! The tires are more complaint than what we had in Formula 2, so overall, it feels similar, and I felt at home from the get-go.

“You can change your driving style and the car responds well, it does what you want so you can play around with it. It’s been extremely enjoyable getting to know the car and hopefully, we’ll be fast out of the box in Barcelona.”

Another new thing that Clement Novalak will have to learn and that is sharing a car. So how does he approach sharing a race car with two other drivers for the first time? “I'm looking forward to working alongside them both to try and extract as much performance as we car from the car and have some fun on the way!

“I don't know either particularly well. Luca (Ghiotto) was someone I looked up to in Formula 3 in my formative years, as he raced against the likes of Callum Ilott and those guys. Ollie (Gray), I know of, he's been in F3 and did a season with Carlin, as did I, so I expect we can share some stories and experiences.”

The competition in the ELMS is always fierce but with 22 LMP2s on the grid, 14 in LMP2, this season is likely to be tougher than ever for the overall title. So how is Clement Novalak approaching the start of the season and what is the goal for his debut year in Le Mans Prototypes? “For sure it's going to be the toughest LMP2 grid in the history of ELMS. There are so many professional drivers joining the series, so it’s going to be a huge challenge,” he admitted. “From my side, I unfortunately fractured a rib in Daytona, so I have not been able to be in the gym as much as I would like, but I have been around the sport and will do as much as I can physically, use the simulator, talk to the engineers and test when I can.

“I'll approach each race weekend as a standalone event, and not think too much about the championship. My job is to maximize everything in the car and the added benefits of having two teammates on the same car is, that we pool our knowledge and feedback to adapt and develop together.”

With six of the most challenging circuits in Europe the ELMS offers a good variety of challenges. So which circuit is Clement Novalak looking forward to the most? “I've had the pleasure of racing on all of the tracks, and to be honest, while there's only six rounds, they are probably the best circuits in Europe.

“It's difficult to pick and choose a favorite, but for me, Le Castellet is a home race and will therefore be special. The elevation changes make Spa-Francorchamps a favorite of many drivers, and for me Imola is one to look forward to with the flowing layout and great atmosphere.”

So what does Clement Novalak get up to when he is not racing? “For me, it is important to be able to switch off, outside of racing. I really enjoy playing tennis and watching football with friends. I'm starting a business at the moment – ​​related to motorsport – so that is taking up quite a lot of my time away from the racetrack.

“I think once you're an athlete, you always enjoy – and respect tremendously – others excelling in other sports. So apart from sitting on the couch watching F1, its football, tennis, and golf; plenty to do in the time I do have off!”

The opening round of the 2024 European Le Mans Series, the 4 Hours of Barcelona, ​​will take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain on Sunday April 14.

[olivia091108]

DEFINITELY WILL

Summary:bam meeting one of the playbunnys. Based of season 3 episode 1 of viva la bam

Pairing:bam margera x reader

Word count:1032

I hear loud shouting coming from the gate and I look outside my window and see 3 men 2 of them seem my age and the other man is around 50 maybe shouting into the speaker that he wants to meet Hugh Hefner

Every tourist always comes to the mansion thinking they can just walk in so it’s nothing new but a black car pulls up and a very handsome man jumps out followed by his friends he looks oddly familiar but I can’t place his face

There’s no point me watching them from my window all they will end up doing is getting security called and get taken away. I finish getting ready and head downstairs when one of the girls pulls me towards the front door.

“There’s some boys here and you need to give them a little tour”

“Why me?”

“Because I don’t want to they have a weird man with them plus you are play bunny of the year. Good luck” she walks of after giving my ass a quick slap

Might as well get it over with

I step outside and see that the boys from outside earlier have been let in but the man has been tied up with tape to a weelchair.

“Hi boys” I say my eyes stuck on the handsome boy. “I’m y/n I’ll give you a little tour if you want”

For a couple seconds they all stared at me before someone answers” hi y/n I’m bam this is don vito he doesn’t understand the difference between a good touch and a bad touch so we’ve had to tie him up”

“Alright I’ll be careful standing too close to him” as I turn away I already see his hand reaching out before being restricted by the tape.

Bam catches up and walks next to me. “ me and my friends are building a Drive way skate park and we’re looking for a few things from famous people.”

Well how about after this tour I can see if you find anything for you” I stand even closer so my arm brushes against his when we walk.

I can’t keep my eyes off him his dark hair and blue eyes especially his rockstar attitude just make me like him even more

“That would be great thank you”.

Right as we get to the pool I feel a big hand squeeze at my bum which makes me jump a bit since I already know it’s from don Vito.

Before I can say anything they put his wheelchair on the ground so he’s stuck there and as they all brag about being able to go see the other girls bam gently takes my hand and pulls me along with him and his friends

After showing them around more and introducing them to some of the other bunnies i beckon bam over and he follows me into the mansion.

“I have just the thing for you” I hope this doesn’t come across rude but why do you need this for a drive way skate park”

I see his eyes shoot up to meet mine and he goes a shade of red since I caught him staring “ oh um it’s for my show on mtv”

“What’s it called maybe I’ve seen it?”

“Viva la bam”

“I think I watched an episode actually the one where you didn’t let your dad eat for 24 hours it was pretty funny”

He blushes even more after hearing that I’ve seen his show. I push my bedroom door open and immediately notice that I should of cleaned and try and pick up any clothes that have been thrown to the floor “sorry about the mess”

“Nah it’s all cool you should see my room”

“Maybe I should.” In shocked at myself for being so bold in never like this

“If you have your own show can’t you just ring up your famous friends”

“I could it’s just not as fun.”

“I probably shouldn’t be giving you this but here is one of Hugh’s famous robes he has plenty so hopefully he won’t notice. Wanna try it on?”

“Fuck yes” I laugh while sliding the robe onto him and I have to admit he still looks pretty hot.

He reaches his hands into the pocket and then pulls out a thong not just any thong my red sparkly thong. My face is probably redder than the robe and he picks up on that straight away.

“Can I keep this too….you know for the collection of course” he says with a smirk on his face. I nod and I feel my confidence rushing back agian

“You have given me the idea to start my own collection of things form famous people wanna be the first to add to the collection?”

“Y-yeah um anything in particular like my belt or sunglass-“

“How about a kiss”

“A kiss?yes yeah sure”

Seeing as he was quite a bit taller than me I reach on to my tiptoes and cup his face in my ands and slowly lean in while he bent his neck down as his arms snakes round my waist and I feel his soft lips connect with mine.

I pull away but just as I do bam pulls me back and the kiss is a lot more passionate than before. My hands move from his face round to his neck and his arms Slide Over my ass and onto my thighs supporting me by holding my ass and squeezing it every now and the as he easily lifts me up. I hear my bedroom door open and we both disconnect the kiss and he puts me back down on the floor.

“Oh sorry” his friend Ryan quickly apologises “kind of have to go or they are going to kick us out don vitos trying to touch all the bunnies”

“Yep I’ll be right there”bam tells Ryan before he leaves the room. I lock eyes and can’t contain my laugh as I see my lip stick has transferred to his a bit. As it dies down i reach onto my bedside table and grab my pink sparkly pen before rolling up his sleeve and writing my number down and a big heart next to it.

“Call me I’ve got to see your room sometimes remember”

“Oh I definitely will”

First try at writing I would love feedback

Liv

[herohimbowhore]

On This Day in F1: February 29

Present: Bahrain Day 1

History: 1932 Masten Gregory is Born

Today was the start of the Bahrain race weekend with two hour long practice sessions.

In FP1, much to the annoyance of Zak Brown, was led by Daniel Ricciardo in the RB as Yuki Tsunoda in the other RB was close behind in P4. In FP2, the two Mercedes led the session with Lewis Hamilton at the front.

(I won’t lie that despite knowing better this is fueling some of my most delusional thoughts. And well if you’re not the littlest bit delusional, then how do you have fun?)

To conclude the short month of February, we look back to 1932 and highlight a driver who pioneered American participation in European-dominated Formula 1.

On February 29th, 1932, Masten Gregory was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

Called the Kansas City Flash, Masten Gregory is considered to be a motorsports pioneer and hero for several drivers. On his first Formula 1 World Championship entry - the Monaco Grand Prix - he stood on the third step of the podium. It was the first for any American. Gregory pioneered American involvement in Formula 1 as the first US-born driver to regularly compete in the heavily European-dominated Formula 1 World Championship. Throughout the early 1950s, there had been several American drivers participating in Formula 1 races here and there, but until Gregory, they hadn't regularly participated in races.

He was also one of the few race car drivers to wear eyeglasses whilst he raced. Gregory wore very thick glasses that have been described as thick as Coke bottles due to his nearsighted vision. Even today, very few drivers wear glasses when in a race car. Though notably, today, Jenson Button was seen wearing glasses while wearing his helmet.

Masten Gregory raced in Formula 1 from 1957 to 1963 and then made a return for the 1965 season. In his 46 official Formula 1 entries (38 starts), Gregory was on the podium three times and scored a total of 21 points. He also competed in various non-championship races and the 24 Hours of Le Mans during his active years.

In the 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gregory and fellow American Bob Holbert finished 5th overall and first in their class.

In the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gregory and Jochen Rindt finished first overall and in their class while driving the Ferrari 250LM.

In 1962, Gregory won the non-championship race at the Karlskoga circuit in Sweden.

____

Previous: Feb. 23rd - 1958 Fangio Kidnapped

Next: Mar. 1 - Bahrain Day 2 (FP3 & Quali)

On This Day in F1 Masterlist

[svcredveins]

😴

What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?

I think yesterday actually! I was gonna answer this but it’s been non stop busy watching 8 hours of Bahrain and then doing my own endurance race for the 6 hours of Brands Hatch. My brain doesn’t do well when watching something or in a conversation and trying to think of what to type for these questions so I just don’t do it until everything is done lol

So what happened was I couldn’t sleep so I pulled off an all nighter because I had to get up at 7 AM for the 8 hours of Bahrain (the World Endurance Championship real race, also time zones) and then I had about an hour and a half when it was over of a break (it went by too quickly and I needed to practice for 6 hours of Brands Hatch in Assetto Corsa Competizione) so there wasn’t much time to nap and I didn’t want to just end up naturally sleeping and then not waking up because I had to start the race or else…yeah, we may not have raced, who knows. So…I definitely went over 24 hours I think?? Or maybe not because I woke up at 4 PM (whoops) then didn’t sleep nearly 24 hours straight. So yeeeeah there’s that lol.

No wait! I have actually slept about 2 hours because again, I couldn’t sleep, but a few weekends ago I did the 24 hours of Nordschleife and couldn’t nap because Petit Le Mans was on (again another clash with real racing) and I needed to watch it because my favourite team was in the contention of winning the championship and needed to watch it so I never napped and pulled through, did my night stints as well and finished off the race with a shorter stint still without a nap lol. So that was actually 24 full hours because well, it was a 24 hour race lol

But to be fair though my school youth group thing had an all nighter event and after that I had to go to my sisters house and so I had to stay awake lol. I think that might have been the longest lol

Next is the 24 hours of Spa and IMSA and the WEC season is over so there won’t be any clashes of real races on November 9th so I’ll be napping for Spa lol. Plus it’s not my best track so my stints will be a lot less than on the Nordschleife because I did the most stints and I was happy haha. I could’ve done more if there was no limit to the driver time. We all were set with 8 hours and I went through 7 of it haha