#Which doesn't sound like a lot compared to a regular job but I have to take off of work and I'm in school full time

[aviesnapkindoodles]

This is my last community theater play after 8 years and let me tell you they better be very grateful I'm an art major

[astupidweeb69]

You know x-virus don’t get enough love…. Do you have any head cannons regular or nsfw (maybe both)??

I've been thinking about this guy a lot lately for some reason. Also I've never written for Cody before so hopefully this came out okay.

I was going to work on Toby's but.... I have more inspiration for Cody at the moment. He absolutely doesn't get enough love!

X-Virus Headcannons

SFW

Isn't related to Toby at all. In fact doesn't really look like him either. Sure, he's got the brown hair, but he looks waaay more dorky than Toby does. While Toby has kind of a boy-next-door-from-hell look to him, Cody is more slender and works out less. He looks like your typical STEM student (sickly complexion, poor nutrition, etc.). His whole schtick requires him to stay indoors most of the time, in a make-shift lab.

Has a refrigerated van, which he paid to be converted to safely transport whatever science experiments he's got going on in a temperature-controlled environment.

He tries to stay in one place. He's less of a drifter than most of the other creeps but sometimes... the things he does requires him to uproot his life and start over in another town. (No Cody you can't just infect your landlord with a mutated form of tuberculosis when they raise your rent! There will be consequences!)

Has kind of a nasally voice. I feel like he always has a bit of a cold too.

Ironically has a shitty immune system, and probably drinks those Airborne Immune Support drink mixes like it's his job. Also a germaphobe, wearing medical gloves all the time, and his hands are dry and cracked from overusing sanitizer.

LOVES Re-animator. He's rewatched that movie more times than he can count. But he has a love for science fiction movies in general, with horror elements to them. Like Alien.

Also loves zombie apocalypse movies, but that's an obvious one. Specifically 28 Days Later and World War Z.

Sometimes he's like... should I try to make a zombie virus? nah.... unless...?

I also think he was raised by a single father, who worked for a large pharmaceutical company.

Antisocial. I know Toby and him are compared a lot and people give them similar 'hyperactive' personalities, but I don't see that for Cody at all.

Cody's more focused, and is less inclined to interact with others. He doesn't really get lonely?

I'd say he'd get along okay with someone like EJ (both like science, ya know?).

Toby and him hang out a bit - they'll stay in and watch movies together. Or Cody will tag along with him to a bar and watch as Toby fails to pick up anybody. Cody wouldn't say it to his face, but it makes him feel better about his own social skills to see Toby strike out like that.

NSFW (Under the cut!)

I don't know how he'd find himself in this situation - but if he DID have a partner.... the sex would be kind of bland at first?

He doesn't know what he wants and frankly is too much of a germaphobe to get up close and personal with someone he doesn't know well.

You'd have to spend months getting to know him for him to feel comfortable to engage in anything sexual.

I think at the start of the relationship, he'd want to experiment with voyeurism.

He'd be across the room watching you touch yourself, giving you directions while he slowly strokes his cock, loving the feeling of ordering you around.

But as things escalate, of course, he'd give in to his urges. However, the voyeurism would become how he likes to foreplay.

Out of all the creeps (most of whom I view as being dominant) he's actually pretty tame.

He whimpers a lot, and it sounds almost pathetic when he moans. He's been holding out for so long for the right person, and when he finally gets to fuck he's absolutely drunk off of you.

That said, his sex drive is about average.

One of his roleplay fantasies is him being the experienced scientist, and you being his lovely little assistant.

Probably started after the first time you helped him in his lab.

He just kept thinking of you in a tiny little lab coat, bent over his desk - papers and test tubes falling to the ground while his hips piston into you.

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

Closer pt.2: cbf!soap x f!reader

Warnings: smut mdni (18+), mentions of sex, mentions of masturbation, nudity, awkwardness, body image issues, reassurance, slight hand job

Long part but real stuff will happen in this next part due to length

Ever since that night it was hard for Johnny to keep his hands off you, more so than usual.

He tried not to make it obvious when he pulled you into him and held you by the waist. Truth be told it wasn't any different than all the other times he held you, but to him it was so much more. Ever since he felt you flutter around his fingers and heard how you sounded, how he made you sound, he was addicted to feeling you.

Johnny wouldn't admit that he had thought about having sex with you a lot more than a best friend should. There were countless nights at basic training and AIT where he'd touch himself after ending a call with you just thinking about what it'd be like to have you with him.

He thought it was a little embarrassing how he wanted it to only be you, that he wasn't sure there was anyone else out there he trusted right now to take his virginity but you, so when he found out you felt the same he felt immense relief.

And that's what gave him enough courage to start.

Neither of you went any further than touching each other. You both barely kissed each other while it happened, Johnny too afraid it might be a step too far and he assumed you felt the same when you avoided his lips.

He didn't have a problem with what you were doing together, he'd be content if he left and all that happened was him fingering you especially because he was a little nervous about having actual sex with you, but that didn't mean it wasn't on his mind often.

Johnny could only imagine how good you'd feel around his cock...

"You make me worried when you get this quiet." You teased him, bringing him out of his thoughts, and he sent you a look from your bed.

You were at your desk doing homework while he talked your ear off from your bed, a regular routine since he had come back.

"I'm not gonna do anything." He huffed and couldn't help but smirk when he saw you smile. "Unless you want me to tell your neighbors to fuck off."

"Please don't, I still have to live here until I graduate."

"Fine."

He sighed dramatically and flopped back on your bed, his eyes on the ceiling. He went quiet again, feeling his stomach tie up in knots at the thought of asking you if you wanted to take it further.

Would you want to go further with him? Fingering was one thing but actual sex?...he wasn't exactly the most attractive man and he may have gotten more muscle but he didn't think he was all that impressive compared to a lot of the other men's dicks he'd seen in porn.

Though he knew that wasn't real he just couldn't but feel like maybe he wouldn't be up to standard, which was mainly the reason he stopped you every time you tried to touch him.

"What're you thinking about?" You wondered innocently and he swallowed hard.

It was you. He could tell you anything and he knew you wouldn't judge him but this was getting into uncharted territory.

"Do you...want to take things further?" He couldn't look at you as you both fell silent.

He could feel his heart in his throat before you spoke.

"Like now?" You asked and he sat up, finally looking at you with pink dusted cheeks.

"It doesn't have to be now." He shrugged and pulled at his mohawk. "Just...whenever I guess."

You had a flustered look on your face as well while you struggled to look at him. You went quiet again and made the face you always do when you were in deep thought, the face he loved but almost dreaded right now as he waited for your answer.

"We can." You told him and his eyes widened. "Like you said, I trust you and...at this point I can't see myself doing it with anyone else."

Johnny tried not to let that get to his head, or his heart, but he felt some sort of pride and relief knowing that you felt that way about him.

"Awesome...I mean great-" He fumbled and cringed, but you gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah."

"I'm going to take a shower." You told him and he nodded, his entire body on fire.

When you were gone he tried everything to get rid of the nervousness he felt. He wouldn't say he was anxious guy, in fact he was overly confident in literally everything he did yet when it came to this, when it came to you, he was a mess.

How was he supposed to do this? He wasn't sure if he could live with himself if things didn't work or if he made it bad.

He paced around your dorm, stuck in his own thoughts before he glanced at your bunny. He propped it up on your bed without further thought and stood in front of it with his hands on his hips.

"What the fuck am I gonna do?" He huffed as it's beady eyes stared back at him. "I should know what to do but I'm lost. She might not even like what she sees, she might think this is a bad idea."

Johnny was in the SAS, he had practiced disarming bombs and sniped professionally yet this was the most nervous he had been since his last exam. He almost felt pathetic, especially as he aired out his anxieties to your stuffie.

He stared at it, noticing how it's fur was more worn and how it had discolored from the years of use. It was your prized possession, something that gave you comfort when you needed it and he wished it helped him the same.

"You don't even have to worry about anything." He sighed as he picked it up gently. "Wish I was you right now."

He ran he thumb across the bunny's face, a soft smile pulling at his lips. To think that a stuffie was the reason why he was here in the first place, the whole reason why you two became best friends. He had never lived his life without you in it and despite all of the other embarrassing stuff that had happened you were still here.

"What're you doing?" You stepped in and gave him a curious look.

His smile only grew wider.

"Remember when I got this back from Holly?" He asked, knowing you did but wanting to reminisce with you.

"How could I forget you calling her a 'daft cow' at the age of five." You laughed as you tossed your towel in your closet and he chuckled.

"Yeah, that was kinda mean."

"It was deserved I think."

"Worth the phone call to mam."

Johnny set your bunny back where you had him, the fondness taking over some of the nervousness as he watched you hop onto your bed. He joined you immediately, sitting close enough that he could smell your body wash.

You snuggled up close to him, melting into his side like you always did and he naturally wrapped his arm around you.

Neither of you said anything, both of you too focused on taking in each other's presence rather than anything else.

"Are you nervous?" You asked softly and he sighed deeply.

"Yeah, you?" He asked just as softly and you nodded.

You surprised him when you straddled his lap, his hand holding onto your hips firmly while you struggled to look at him. You placed your hands on his chest and he stared at you, holding you close to him while you chewed your bottom lip

"What's wrong?" His eyebrows knitted together. "We don't have to-"

"I know, I'm just worried about..." You trailed off before you gestured at yourself, at your chest and stomach.

Johnny shouldn't have been surprised knowing that you felt insecure about yourself just like him but for some reason it made him forget all about his own. How could you be insecure when you looked the way you did? Hell, you were the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, there was no reason for that and he'd gladly change your mind.

"I can take my shirt off first." He offered with a smile but you still looked nervous.

"It's different." You argued but he shrugged.

"Better if I'm half naked too."

Johnny tossed his shirt on the floor and gave you a grin, suppressing a shiver when you place your hands on his bare chest. It wasn't the first time you'd touched his chest but everything felt heightened right now.

You scoffed as you squeezed his pec and his ears burned.

"What?"

"Even your chest is bigger. What were they feeding you?"

He barked out a laugh and you giggled, your shoulders loosening up while you ran you ran hands across his chest.

"Nothing good, but a man's gotta eat." He said and you hummed, your smile faltering. He frown as he rubbed circles into your hips and waited until you looked him in the eyes. "I could close ma eyes. Would that help?"

You hesitated but nodded, looking a little guilty as you did so, but he just smiled and shut his eyes. There was moment before you took off your shirt and he clenched his jaw, imagining what you looked like right in front of him, on his lap.

You let out a shaky breath, you hands shaking as well when they returned to his chest. He gave you a comforting squeeze and you told him to open his eyes.

When he did, he felt himself began to grow hard and stopped you from moving anymore on his lap to save himself. He had thought about what you may have looked like bare in front of him but his thoughts had nothing on the real thing.

You looked beautiful. He's not sure what made you think he wouldn't like what he was seeing because the long he stared the harder he got and the more he had stop himself moving his hand to touch you, especially as your nipples hardened.

Johnny licked his lips.

"Can I touch you?" He wondered, as if he hadn't touched you many times before.

When you nodded he ran his hands up your waist, cupping your breasts and massaging his palm into them. You sighed and leaned into his touch, pressing yourself against his lap.

He groaned and began to kiss your breasts. He reveled in the way you whimpered, in the way your soft skin felt against his lips and tongue and grinned when you shuddered underneath his touch. He took a nipple into his mouth and ran his tongue across it, playing with the other between his fingers while you squirmed.

Every time you moved it only made him harder and it was hard to keep his head straight. You threaded your fingers through his hair and tugged lightly, which practically short circuited him.

"Johnny!" You squealed when he lightly nipped your breast.

"Sorry, couldn't help it." He grinned and you whined when he ran his tongue over the spot to soothe it.

He pulled away but held you close to him, his forehead resting against yours. He stared deep into your eyes, clenching his jaw when you purposefully began to grind against his hard cock.

It felt good but some of the nervousness came back.

"You know, I'm fine with staying like this." He admitted but you didn't look convinced.

"Really?" You breathed out and he nodded.

"Yeah...you're beautiful."

He didn't miss the way you became flustered and god it made his heart flutter when you smiled before you wrapped your arms around his neck.

He opened his mouth to say something when you pressed your lips against his. He was stunned by the kiss but didn't pull away this time and instead melted into it. He hummed as you kissed him tenderly, your lips soft against his own while you stole the breath away from him.

Soon he was passionately making out with you, his head going dizzy as you held onto his face while he lightly pinched your nipple. You moaned into his mouth and he stuck his tongue in, tasting you like he had dreamt about.

Johnny was so caught up in you, being consumed by you and consuming you as well that he missed the way your hands had gone to his sweatpants. It wasn't until he felt you tug at the hem of them that he pulled away.

He couldn't look at you, shame bubbling up inside him while he caught his breath. His face had to be red.

“I can close my eyes.” You offered sincerely and he clenched his jaw.

“Nah, I can’t do with the suspense.” He let out a shaky laugh. “Just, don’t get your hopes up?”

“Johnny, don’t say that.”

He grunted but grabbed the hem of his sweatpants. Despite his racing heart, he pulled them down and let his cock spring out, unable to look at you as the cold air made him twitch.

You were silent for a moment and he was sure his entire body was red.

“Johnny, Jesus fuck, how is that supposed to fit?” You squeaked out and his attention snapped towards you with confusion.

“It’s not that big-“

“Yeah it is. Believe me compared to the dick pics I’ve gotten this is…you’re huge.”

He wasn’t sure if he believed you but the way you stared at him made some of the nervousness disappear.

You were telling the truth. He was just a bit over average length but he was thick, and yet somehow he didn’t realize that.

“Can I touch you?” You wondered and he shifted.

“Uh, yeah.” He swallowed hard.

You hesitated for a moment before you attempted to wrap your hand around him. Your fingers couldn’t even connect and the feeling of your warm skin against his throbbing cock made him get even harder.

His breathing got heavier as you held his heavy cock and watched a bead of precum form at the tip.

You gave him a tentative squeeze, not hard, and a moan got stuck in his throat. He guided you on how to move your hand snd soon he was squirming underneath you.

He was impossibly hard and he could feel the tingling pleasure race through him with every passing movement. Your hand felt so good, better than he imagined. He was so close and it was only your hand.

“Holy fuck.” He cursed breathlessly. “I’m gonna come-you need to stop.”

You didn’t stop however, a gleam in your eye as you listened to him moan and watched as precum dribbled down his shaft and over your fingers.

He groaned and grabbed your wrist, pulling you into a heat kiss that you gladly returned. He held onto tightly as he rolled on top of you.

Before long it was just you and him completely naked on the bed together.

tags are closed! Sorry no more tagging

A/n: boom. I know I said I’d wait until tomorrow but I’ve got other stuff planned so here’s this enjoy

Tags: @elysian0612 @cassiecasluciluce @pepsicolacoochie @hayleybarnesx @tiredmetalenthusiast @misshoneypaper @sodavrr @ghostslittlegf @glitterypirateduck @comeonatmebruh @mandalover2023 @blush-haze @xxshadowbabexx @infpt-zylith @sadsackssss @fandomsfanficsfantasize @blush-haze @writingmysanity

[xeno828]

IS VI THE SHERIFF?!?

I would normally say I'm late to the party but I've been researching for far too long and realized barely ANYONE has noticed this!!

So looking at the season 2 trailer for Arcane, everyone seemed to focus on the fact Vi has become an enforcer. But look at this badge that the camera focuses on...

Call me mad, but that isn't just an enforcer badge, that's the SHERIFF'S BADGE!!!!

If you compare the regular enforcer uniform (which ngl is annoying to do cus there seem to be SO many different versions!) they do all have 1 thing in common, the lack of this badge. Some do have a symbol on their belts but it's different from this one, a lot simpler and seems to be a belt decoration/buckle more than an official badge.

But guess which uniforms we DO see with this badge, Grayson and Marcus, both only wearing it while holding the title of Sheriff!

Seriously, compare Grayson and Marcus's badge to the other enforcers!

I'll concede, you could argue that since this is the symbol for Piltover as a whole that it is just to represent the Enforcers in general. But then my question is, why are Grayson and Marcus the only ones wearing this symbol if that is the case?

The only other time we see an enforcer with this specific badge design is when Caitlyn is crossing the bridge back into Piltover and gets stopped by the barricade. But notice this badge is silver, whereas Grayson, Marcus, and Vi, all have gold badges. Looks an indication of status. Regular enforcers carry silver badges while the higher ups have gold ones on display 24/7.

Honestly, the way these badges are presented on each character can also line up with the individual person. If this is true it's a really cool snippet of storytelling through character design.

Looking at Grayson, her badge is big, front and center, she's showing it off. Grayson is proud of what she does and of her status, she earned her title through her own hard work and desire to protect the city.

Marcus's badge is slightly smaller and a bit more off to the side. He is the Sheriff and wants that to be known so, he will use that to his advantage so he doesn't hide his badge. But he is ashamed of how he got the title and is ashamed of himself. He's got what he wanted but has dug a hole for himself so deep that he can't crawl out of it, the only thing he has to show for his efforts is a badge won through blood shed and lies.

Vi's is WAY smaller than both and nearly unnoticeable on her belt to the left side. She has hated the Enforcers and topside her whole life, and now shes found herself becoming one. Oh the misery!! (Sorry!) She doesn't want to be here but feels she has too due to everything that is going on; Jinx, Zaun, Caitlyn, etc. She ended up with this position out of necessity rather than ambition or desire. Her hiding the badge away, the evidence of her 'betrayal' to the Under City, shows how reluctant she is to be doing this. She is only wearing that badge out of needing to comply with the rules that come with being Sheriff. And probably as soon as the job is done she'll toss the thing aside (which also works with the cannon cus that'll probs be how Caitlyn ends up being Sheriff like she is in game).

This entire concept is just SO fascinating to me, all the signs are there but the trailer made us so focused on Vi becoming an enforcer AT ALL that we all missed the other clues. It's a perfect example of misdirection and hiding the truth right under your nose. In the trailer we hear Caitlyn planning a strike team, sounding very in charge. When she is standing by Vi and their team she holds herself high, looking very much like a leader compared to Vi's resigned look and slightly deflated stance. Easily making us think she is the new Sheriff already - notice as well in this picture that neither Cair nor the rest of this team have any badges at all on display with their uniforms (would include a pic but I've reached the limit for this post!!!).

A good chunk of people already know that in game Vi is an enforcer and partner to Sheriff Caitlyn, the show makers know this is the assumption people will be making for season 2 and so went to imply this in the trailer without specifically stating it. Only leaving a few breadcrumbs suggesting we're all looking the wrong way.

I could be stretching here and be completely wrong, but if so PLEASE explain to me why only these 3 people are seen with this damn badge!!!!!

If this is true it's a pretty damn cool way to misdirect and subverse expectations to start off season 2.

[cpvnksabm]

anyway here's some fun facts about the choir in my aussie rtc au because i am cringe and i am free

Ocean

genuinely believes "cunt" is a horribly vulgar term despite having lived here her whole life. says "australian" instead of "aussie". gets snooty when people shorten australia to 'straya. generally trying very hard to pretend she isn't here

got told she had a british accent as a kid and she latched onto that REALLY hard because she thinks it's more "proper" english. in actuality she sounds slightly british compared to other aussies but if she talks to anyone outside of australia they will undoubtedly say she has an aussie accent.

as i've said before i believe she is "the kind of povvo cunt who would call her mates dolebludgers despite being on centrelink herself" however i have been told that this sentence is nonsense to non-aussies without a translation.

has occasionally gotten sunburned during winter. tries to go outside during summer anyway. this usually ends badly for her

Noel

works at what i believe to be the shittiest taco bell in sydney. i've never eaten taco bell myself, but i've walked past this place a couple of times, and it looks like it's probably the worst taco bell in sydney.

has absolutely no sense of aussie patriotism. as far as he's concerned fuck this country fuck the flag and fuck the wallabies too

his father, who is a serial child abandoner, fucked off to new zealand when noel was 13. he went through a phase of very seriously romanticising waiting until he was 14 years and 9 months old, so that he could get a job and be in less shit financially. he compared it to the part in the hunger games where katniss is waiting to be old enough to enter her name in the reaping more times to take out tessarae. in actuality the "you have to be 14 years and 9 months old to get a job" thing is just a myth that a lot of aussies believe for no real reason so he could have started working much earlier than he actually did. also it didnt really help financially because employees here literally dont get paid minimum wage until theyre 21 and at 14 you get like way less than half of minimum wage

saving up to move to france as per canon. his french is absolute dogshit and i'm not convinced he'd survive in europe. i'm also not convinced he's successfully saving money he's still years away from being able to earn minimum wage

genuinely does not really believe that 30 degrees celsius is even warm. 35 degrees is the point at which he will consider taking off his jacket. he does not own one single pair of shorts. ocean's proudest moment is the time she caught a screenshot of her lock screen having a notification from noel, complaining about it being too hot for the first time in his goddamn life, and then 3 minutes later a notification from a news app, reporting on record breaking high temperatures

misha

willing to second noel's statement regarding this country, the flag, and the wallabies too

has actually seen an impressive amount of sydney (and the surrounding area) compared to most of the choir who never go anywhere or do anything. this is because whenever he doesn't want to be somewhere (often) he will just get on a train and go wherever the fuck. he's like a "tom scott introducing places" compilation video bc he's always just texting the groupchat to say he's In A Location and when people ask what he's doing there he doesn't know. he'll get back to you when he finds a part of sydney/nsw that he thinks doesn't suck.

he has his sleeves rolled up all the time because he thinks it makes him look tough and gangsta, but more importantly, because he thinks 30 degrees celsius is "too hot".

i hate to say this but he'd probably be a fucking eshay

in summer he constantly takes photos of regular everyday items to send to talia with the caption "did you know this can melt".

i've never been in a house that had a basement so he doesnt have one. his adoptive parents still ignore him and expect him to Stay Out Of Their Sight, but like, he just has way less space in which he could do so. this is definitely part of why he's so often on a train to bumfuck nowhere to do fuck all rather than stay at home.

ricky

straight up does not like it here tbh this place is insanely ableist

so chronically online (and just generally isolated) that once he starts interacting with the choir he has to google the aussie slang they use regularly. his sleep schedule is Bad so he mainly interacts with americans.

refers to mcdonalds as "maccas" not because it's easier for him to call it that, but because it pisses off the americans in his discord servers

perpetually fighting tooth and nail for the school & the government to recognise that he is Really Disabled. he has several diagnoses on record. he can't walk unassisted. come on this is ridiculous.

big fan of "aussie cuisine" specifically because he cannot cook. fairy bread is a meal if you use your imagination.

penny

the aussie equivalent of Elysium is in katoomba or somewhere similar, in the blue mountains. this should explain most of why she's so insane i think.

she probably still lives in the blue mountains but closer to sydney, or maybe in one of the parts of sydney that we all secretly think of as being Basically Not Even Sydney (sorry emu plains)

since high school starts in year 7 here, ezra 100% goes to the same school as her (maybe he already did in canon tbh, i feel like it was kind of unclear if uranium city had a middle school or if it was one of those towns so small that st cassians would be a k-12 school)

ezra and penny usually avoid each other like the plague at school (because having siblings is #cringe) but occasionally they will pass each other in the school hallways, reference some utterly incomprehensible inside joke, exchange some bizarre assortment of objects that they needed to borrow from each other, and then leave and go back to avoiding each other

because nobody ever goes to their house (because theyre both loners/outcasts and also because they live in the middle of fucking nowhere and nobody wants to travel that far), the fact that they're siblings is Deep Lore that you only find out once you're really close to them. it was a rumour once but most people brushed it off because it seemed too unbelievable

#1 aussie animal apologist

really does not understand noel & misha's beef with the wallabies. she gets stressed every time they mention it.

constance

frequently goes for walks alone at night, often in notoriously "dodgy" areas. she hangs out at parks and goes on the swing. she's honestly more scared of the bats than of other people. why are there so many fucking bats here

pretends dropbears are real

hates the weather here. so much. all the time. if she complains about the cold then she is inevitably smugly reminded that in other places it gets cold enough to snow, so this is just chilly. if she complains about the heat then she is inevitably smugly reminded that it's not record-breaking hot. if it is record-breaking hot then she still can't complain because everyone is focused on being surprised that noel finally noticed it was hot. she suffers like jesus here.

has never actually seen snow in person. really wants to. at some point penny probably takes her down to the mountains in winter to see it and it doesn't really live up to the hype.

would probably super enjoy a "let's get on a train and go Wherever The Fuck to do Fuck All" trip with misha but people (ocean) always expect her to justify why she's going anywhere. secretly really enjoys whenever something inconvenient happens requiring her to travel far

i've never seen bluey but i feel like she'd be one of those people that watches it as an adult

[akookminsupporter]

Kpop is just an industry not genre. They release songs in different genres.. especially BTS have a wide variety of genres.

For me, I know many kpop groups... know as in just know their names. And some of the very popular members. I listen to kpop songs I vibe with.. but that doesn't mean I stan them or even take an effort to atleast checkout who are the members. Maybe it's one song I like or maybe it's many of their title songs. For eg. Seventeen. I like their 'SUPER' but I can only identify few members of that group. But for TWICE I know most of their title songs and knows members too but except watching their performances like watching a pretty performance I don't have any other connection with members. I don't listen to any groups regularly nor watch any of their vareity contents.

Mostly because even after listening to their songs none of them were intresting enough to check out more about them... It's not that I'm purposefully doing it lol...but just that they don't intrest me much. Now even if I watch some variety contents, in my mind I automatically compare them to bangtan shows because wow the difference is so clear just like the difference in year end shows we watched 🥲💀

Yesterday I watched a skz code episode of straykids with my sister who's a stay. Ik many people enjoy it.. but for me it felt wayyyy to dry and scripted. For eg. They were at a country side for a break, cooking and camping. Now what have we watched in Bon voyage countryside episode? Them wearing minimal or even no makeup, wearing regular clothes suitable for cold climate, each doing their own jobs and cooking delicious looking meals. That's what we've been watching all these years... our standard. And what I saw here ? 8 boys who are styled like they are about to perform on stage with pretty jewelery and designer clothing. Playing football or volleyball to decide who will do each job and cooked some plain af food.. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that chicken was plain af 😭. It was like a cultural shock for me who watched JK taking a lot effort to cook sauces or Tae waking up with drool on his chin or Jimin wearing his puffy jacket and beanie.

So yeah.. till now only bangtan broke that artist vs casual listener barrier for me. They are the most rich, most successful artists in kpop but my broke ass can only relate to them 😭🤡 I can't relate to an idol who's looking like he's on stage to perform while doing a simple live when here I'm seeing JK's 4 hours kinda live.

I agree that it's an industry, but it's also a genre, think about it. Although it's true that K-pop is a blend of many genres, influences, and sounds, there's something intrinsic to them, and indeed, that's one of the differences between BTS and many of their peers, which is why many consider BTS in a different category, and some are even bolder in considering them an entirely different genre, at least compared to their peers in Korea.

When you're so immersed in this, as many of us are, it's normal to learn about the industry, which means learning the names of other groups. I can mention the names of many groups, but I couldn't identify a specific member, much less one of their songs, even if I've heard one of their songs before.

The point is, it's not that we don't believe these other groups are talented or don't have good songs; the issue is that what they have doesn't interest us. And it's not that we don't want to give them a chance; it's that what we've seen hasn't been enough to want to give them one. That's not our problem.

I understand regarding variety content. It has happened to me too; on TikTok, several times I've seen clips that are funny and catch a bit of my attention, but when I look for the full video, I get bored after the first minute, and like you, I can't help but make comparisons with BTS's variety content. Is it fair? I don't know, but that's what ends up happening.

For most of the fandom, the most important thing is the music, the connection to BTS's music, but it's also them. It's the sincerity in their words when talking about the fandom. It's everything they've done for their fandom. It's the fact that, to some extent, they've always been honest with us and have shown us their true selves. And being a bit cynical, it's the fact that they've organically known how to nurture the social relationship the fandom has with them.

[taintedmantis]

2023 Wrap Up! What I Achieved (and What I Didn't) Plus 2024 Goals

We're at that time of the year again! What a blast this year has been for me as a Gaming Content Creator to look back on. For this, I'll be referring to these Tumblr blog entries:

1. 2023: Reevaluating My Content and Developer Goals For This Year

2. End of 2023 Content Creator and Developer Goals (Updated as at August)

Let's start with what I didn't manage to achieve this year.

Indie Game Dev:

Achievements

The hobby dev team I'm in managed to recruit a graphic artist, and we were able to create something out of a game jam back in April. As mentioned in the August blog entry, the game still needs polishing and honoring the team's agreement to not showcase it yet until it's ready, it was still a fun dating sim project that involves mycelium! However, we're at the point where we aren't quite able to do this on a more regular basis due to new job schedules for a few of our team members. So...looks like my time as a game developer is currently on hold for a while.

Having gotten that out of the way, let's continue with what I did manage to achieve and where I'm headed in 2024.

YouTube:

Achievements

As at now (December 31, 2023), I'm sitting at 690 subscribers, just 10 subs shy of hitting 700 at time of writing. It doesn't sound like a big number, but at this time last year, I was only over 300 subscribers, with me hitting close to 400 on January 18 this year.

Specific tweet here.

This means almost doubling the number of subscribers on my channel, which I am grateful for, and already a fabulous achievement for a small creator like me. ❤️

Targets for 2024

Will the upcoming year be the year I'll finally hit 1000 subs? I'm absolutely positive it will be! With the trend of my best videos being the Get Better At Mahjong series that constantly receive views daily, I can see it coming. Despite only producing possibly 1 mahjong video annually at this point, it's the tabletop game that will always be in demand no matter what, especially during the Lunar New Year period when the entire community that celebrates the festival plays this game to entertain the rest of the family. The better question is exactly when this will happen! Let's see if this will happen by the Year of the Dragon!🐉

Content Creation:

Achievements

1. Festivals and Why You Should Play series: Having covered several Steam festivals, ranging from Next Fest to LudoNarraCon, I have come across many games that would have otherwise flown under my radar. With so many amazing games released in 2023 in particular, I had to start a new series that goes a little more in-depth on individual games. This is when I decided to start the Why You Should Play series. The playlist is still a little too short to have it appear on the landing page, but I hope I'm able to give the games a little more justice and attention to some of the details that I wasn't able to cover in the more generic festival videos that usually only offer demo coverage. There are still many games that I have planned videos for, but with my ability as a one-man-band doing everything while also honoring other commitments, many of these have to be on hold. Hopefully less so in 2024, but let's see!🤣

2. Let's Plays: Noticeably, I have done a lot less Let's Play style videos in the past year. This is not to say I don't want to keep doing them, but due to lack of views and my inability to be amusing enough to be entertaining, I've decreased the frequency of this video style in favor of more structured videos. It also means putting more effort into increasing the production value for the other videos, which means my video releases are less frequent compared to 2021 days. However, seeing the improved quality of videos I've released in 2023 is a great reason to continue that trend. I will see if I can finish off some of the Let's Play titles that are in progress at a later time, but with upcoming new schedules, I cannot make any promises on that. I will try to squeeze something interesting in once in a while where possible (such as the Two Point Campus Christmas Challenge video).

3. Convention series: As Covid-19 started to ease off in January and Hong Kong finally opening up to the world after nearly 3 years of being in constant lockdown, I began to consider heading back out there and put gaming travel as part of my channel branding as it was my original plan pre-Covid to start travel vlogging. It was one of the best decisions I've made this year with meeting many gaming industry peers at conventions, plus putting faces to Twitter mutuals. This is where I decided to begin some form of gaming related travel series, though I admit I am a little slow in the turnover as the time commitment to editing has been quite challenging on my end. I only have 2 videos related to conventions so far, but more videos are coming!

Targets for 2024

With dates set and churning out travel plans in advance, my convention attendance and coverage will overall increase as with continuing coverage for Steam festivals (Next Fest in particular). The only thing I'm afraid of right now is creator burn out, but by far I'm managing this reasonably well, despite may sometimes requiring me to take a week or two off from video editing on occasions due to sudden mandatory commitments. As long as this trend continues, we're good to go!

Last Words for 2023

Best year yet! Thank you everybody who has been supportive of my journey and am absolutely grateful for the opportunities presented to meet new (and finally non-virtual) faces from the gaming industry. I'll leave a photo of my cosplay of FFVII's Tifa (that I wore to gamescom asia 2023) as a reminder of this year's achievements as I continue my Gaming Content Creator journey through to 2024. Here's to a fabulous 2024!🎉

[popchoc]

How do you feel about the Station 19 cancelation news? I’m shocked but not as sad as I thought I would be. Felt like they’d been flailing for a while there. I’m not sure what this means for Greys but I just started liking it again this season and would love to have 2 more seasons with the new interns before they end it. Knowing ABC they’ll try to get to 25 seasons because it’s such a money maker. I try not to compare them too much but I always thought Greys should’ve ended around season 8 but definitely by season 12. And idk if they’ve started filming already but I’m guessing that now Marina’s story will be a rush job about getting kids asap and being a family which is at least a happy if somewhat boring ending. The person I’m really excited to see get a good ending is Vic though. She deserves more than lucklastre relationships and comic relief. Also Jack. Would love for them to do something coherent with him that isn’t just about women either. What would you like to see for your favorite characters?

Hey anon, pfff where to begin?! I sure was surprised, I really didn't see it coming. Rationally speaking, I kinda get it. I mean, this is how it works; just because some shows do get many/endless seasons, it's not the norm, and 7 seasons is actually pretty decent. (One more than Private Practice, for example). Yet kinda understanding doesn't mean I don't have any thoughts or feelings about it! To start with, I feel like it's always better (to accept) when it's a creators decision, not the network's. And something else that isn't helping (at all!!) is the fact that it's all so rushed, with (suddenly) only ten more episodes. Though I do feel that ten x 40 minutes could be enough to wrap it all up (I am glad that at least they have the chance to write an actual ending), it just feels unnecessarily cruel. All in all I would lie if I'd say I'm super upset (with the chance of sounding preachy: if this year told me one thing, it's to upset about real misery and just enjoy everything else!), but it does feel like a pity - I was definitely still on board - and I do feel for everyone who's sad or upset about the news. Losing something you deeply love is never great, and though there will be other shows and ships, that's just not something most people want to hear right now, so to all of them I can only say: hang in there! (And please do enjoy season 7. It's not over till it's over!)

I personally don't think any of this will effect Grey's (PP didn't either). Who knows, it might even mean that Carina (finally) becomes a regular on there? She sure deserves it, though I'm going back and forth with actually wanting this, which has more to do with Maya or more so: Danielle. I wouldn't want her to be "stuck" on some guest appearance once in a while (or worse: them not knowing how to integrate her, like they's been struggling with Stefania/Carina on S19). So yeah, I see options, but I also have moments where I feel like I can actually be okay with.... I don't know... them moving to Italy (pregnant, for all I care, since it ends anyway and I know it would make people happy).

About the others. Well, I think they're getting full circle with Andy as captain, so at least there's that. I'm with you about Vic, I want her happy and not because of some dude. I guess the key for her will be crisis one. Same with Jack, he deserves happiness, and also a lot more acknowledgement (yes he can act like an idiot, but that doesn't mean he is one). When the show started he was actually doing fine as LT and this close to becoming Captain... so maybe he could (also) become one after all, albeit at a different station? I do like some blossoming romance though, this is that kind of show after all, so for that I'm thinking Travis - I would really like to see him find The One.

And besides all this? I just want fire. A whole lot of fire! And fun. Like... calendar and bar nights fun. Thrills and smiles... that's not too much to ask for, is it?

[lavenderandlaurel]

lol I haven't posted in this tag since may but here we go. long rambling thoughts about 2022:

2022 was a big year for me, which is weird because it doesn't really feel that way. I started the year in a very different mental and emotional place than where I am now, and a lot of the goals I set and things I expected to change just haven't been as relevant as I anticipated. for better and for worse, I'm at the same job and in the same apartment I was a year ago. it seems likely that will be the case at the end of 2023, too.

but under the surface, a lot of things have changed. I started a major solo project at work (as opposed to juggling half a dozen smaller projects), and I got some accommodations that mean I'm a lot less worn out in all the other areas of my life. I completed my conversion to judaism. I started applying to phd programs, then changed my mind, decided to pursue independent research, and started a new creative nonfiction project that may or may not be a book someday. I've also taken on some new responsibilities, not all of them totally planned - team leader for an organization I started volunteering with last january, committee member for a professional organization I'm active in. I've been gradually getting better at being consistent and following through on some of the side projects I say yes to.

having more energy outside of work (relatively speaking) means I've been able to be more intentional with my hobbies, which I'm starting to have rather a lot of. I kept up bouldering from last year, more or less, and in the summer started looking for a kung fu gym to get back into martial arts, which I haven't done for years but have missed a lot. I am really loving the school and style (mantis) where I landed. at this point I am probably in the best shape I've been since sophomore year of high school, though it strikes me that I had to find solutions for my chronic fatigue before I could make regular exercise happen. I do think it contributes to me having more energy, but there's no way I could have been this active last year and still worked full time.

I didn't write as much fiction as I'd hoped this year - only about 50,000 words total, and I haven't posted at all. on the other hand, I'm still happily working on the same projects I was at the beginning of the year, which is truly unprecedented. the goal is definitely to finish at least one of them this year.

I did reach a lot of my language-learning goals, including finishing the chinese tree on duolingo, getting comfortable with the hebrew alphabet, and finding ways to keep up my spanish. on the other hand, I haven't been cooking or practicing piano much - possibly because I haven't been trying much in the way of new things and am getting a little bored.

I've read 64 books this year and will probably finish another two or three before the end of the year, exceeding my (low, for me) goal of 60. a lot of those books were lengthy nonfiction, which may be why the overall number isn't as high as it was a few years ago. I have also been watching a lot more TV, though. 2022 was really the year of the cdrama for me, but there were several other fantastic shows: the sandman, reservation dogs, a league of their own, killing eve. musically, the mountain goats have unsurprisingly stayed my #1 band, but I listened to a wider range of stuff compared to last year (shoutout to my habibi and ibibio sound machine kick of the last couple months). I also tried a couple of new video games, hades and control. I am not good at the third-person shooter format, but it keeps me from destroying things.

the one neglected area of my 2022 goals that I would really like to pick back up in the new year is improvements to my living space, like getting enough shelf space for my books and making sure the kitchen/dining areas stay functional.

[aspens-dragons]

hi yeah sorry i saw midnight lycanroc mention and. GOD. it's so bad. whenever i'm out doing things i most commonly have skully out because yk, he's my service pokemon, and he's very helpful for my mental health, it's almost like that's his job. the thing is, i also frequently also have pebble out because he's very sweet and generally well behaved, and he likes exploring and running around, plus he has more energy compared to my other pokemon which he needs to get out so if he wants i just let him walk with me. while i understand that in a lot of regions, lycanroc aren't native, and people won't be familiar with them and will assume that midnight form lycanroc are dark type, that doesn't fucking give you the right to give me dirty looks for just walking on the street! that doesn't give you the right to glare at my dogs for just existing. there have been too many times where a store owner will just not let me in because my service animal is a dark type or they think my lycanroc is a dark type, and the stigma is just so infuriating to me, especially because THIS ISN'T RESTRICTED TO JUST STORES OR TRAINING FACILITIES. THIS KIND OF BIAS IS SEEN LITERALLY EVERYWHERE INCLUDING HOSPITALS. While Pokemon Centers and public hospitals are legally required allow patients of all types, and it is illegal to refuse treatment because of a Pokemon's typing, over 60% of private Pokemon hospitals have some kind of policy that discriminates based on typing, it's not fucking okay! Pokemon die from this bullshit. I think I mentioned once in a group chat, but a couple months ago, I was volunteering and an elderly woman from another region came in with a Spiritomb for a regular check up, she started crying when we were essentially like, "Okay, sounds good, go ahead and fill out this paperwork," BECAUSE THE DARK (and ghost) TYPE STIGMA WHERE SHE WAS FROM WAS SO BAD SHE COULDN'T TAKE HER SPIRITOMB TO THE FUCKING DOCTOR FOR YEARS.

sorry i have big feelings about this kind of thing.

i fuckin swear im gonna start shoutin and screamin like a loudred if another fuckin person tries to stop me from entering an establishment because one of my two service pkmn is a houndoom

“put it in its ball, its going to scare the other customers” he is legally considered medical equipment and is one of my physical aids, he will not be going into his bloody ball

me when houndoom are incredibly stigmatized because their dark types and also because most of their dex entries are on their wild behaviors and not their domestic ones

[terubakudan]

This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!

[teamsarawatshusband]

Do you think there is a chance that WYB really believes in China's innocence in this? If people in China don't have all the information, then maybe he also doesn't know what is happening.

Okay, I’m gonna be very careful in how to answer this.

First of all, I don’t know him in person (obviously), so I can never know 100% what he does and doesn’t believe. Much like with any other celebrity.

My assumption on what he believes in this is based on what I know about his life and how that might potentially affect his thinking in matters like these. It is also based on what I know from my personal connections to Chinese citizens and what they have told me about politics and human rights affairs in the past.

Since Yibo is living in China, there is a big chance that he doesn’t have access to all the news regarding this specific political situation. So I do assume that he most likely doesn’t know the details of what’s going on in regards to the human rights violations and why exactly Nike spoke out against the government of his country.

However, he is very familiar with the business side of working with brands and he has had political situations affect career decisions in the past. So I can’t help but think that he knows things are fishy.

He must know that brands, especially big corporations like Nike, don’t make business-damaging statements against a whole country like this without global pressure. Let’s not forget, Nike like any other company, first and foremost has to think of their marketability and consumer’s trust. So, Yibo must know that consumers (not governments or political institutions but regular people) all over the world are watching the news and demanding that companies such as Nike take a stand. So, I’m assuming he knows that, in the eyes of the global population, based on their sources of information, the Chinese government is doing something bad.

Whether or not he believes this information to be true is a different question.

Now, if Yibo had lived his entire life in China, had grown up with the censorship and propaganda of the Chinese government throughout his life and not aware that this is different in other parts of the world, then I would assume he’d believe it to be false.

However, he has lived in South Korea for several years. So he did have access to a non-Chinese point of view on politics and life in general. He also has traveled to other countries professionally, both as a singer as well as an actor. He must know that independent sources of information are much easier accessible in other countries. He must know that the amount of freedom to publicly criticize a government or state personal opinions varies largely from country to country. I am convinced he is aware that censorship and deliberate spreading of misinformation is a common political practice in China. So, based on that, I do assume that he takes information from Chinese news with a critical mindset that doesn’t simply trust and buy into everything that is served to him.

He also has witnessed political situations affect his or other co-stars’ careers. He used to be in Uniq which, as all k-pop bands, suddenly wasn’t allowed to appear on Chinese TV anymore, even though they hadn’t done anything wrong. And a big change of course of action like that was kept all hush-hush in the entire Chinese media. He must know that this wasn’t fair, that they innocently fell victim to political agendas. An entire career, fanbase, performance platform simply taken away from all of them, one second to the next, and they hadn’t caused it and didn’t have any say in it either. Are we really assuming that they simply took that blow without wanting to speak out and fight for the success they had worked so hard for?

The 227 situation was very similar. The international success of one Chinese series brought so much traffic to AO3, that the Chinese government noticed it as public platform depicting values that they didn’t want China to be associated with. More importantly, a public platform with content that they couldn’t control. So they went and blocked it. And who had to suffer the blame? The government? Of course not. Xiao Zhan, who hadn’t done anything other that be an actor in the series. Because of this he lost so many marketing deals and job offers that people believed his career was over for good. All while doing nothing wrong.

Yibo, as the second main actor in the same series, 100% saw all of this go down. He knows that Xiao Zhan hadn’t caused any of it, knows that he was blamed unfairly. He also knows that remaining silent under those circumstances will only cause more harm to a career and public reputation. He knows that the only option is to say what you are expected to say, regardless of what you think.

And, I mean, based on all the situations that I have been in in my life, where I was forced to say something against my will, and based on knowing Yibo to be quite headstrong and having a competitive mindset... I just can’t picture him going, “Well, they make me say this. So, I believe it too.”

Now, based on what I have heard from people that I personally know IRL, I think some of the things that my aunt and uncle have mentioned left the biggest impression on me. My uncle is European but has lived and worked in China for decades now. My aunt is Chinese, grew up in China and only after meeting and marrying my uncle has traveled out of the country.

My uncle is very outspoken about life in China. When talking to him in person, he will tell you everything he personally experienced, including things like tax evasion, people avoiding police charges with hush money, countrywide blocking of messaging services and email providers, copyright frauds as legitimate business endeavors, illegal confiscation of items by police/border control etc. etc. etc. Basically, the gist of his reports is, “In China, if you are a regular person, you have to be aware of this, work around the corruption/unfairness and, most importantly, not make a big fuss about it. If you are somebody with money and powerful connections, you can buy yourself out of any situation. Unless if you stand in the public eye, then you’ll be used to make an example of  - under the guise of a just and law-abiding country.“ He will tell you all of this, while over here. Never when in China. Because he knows the consequences.

My aunt is a lot quieter on the matter. She never directly spoke out against Chinese politics and never directly called out the issues of censorship and corruption. But she often asked, “Are we really allowed to say this here? Back home we can’t.” And when I talked to her about specific political situations she confirmed a lot of things with small examples from her experience. While my uncle is mostly angry when speaking about those things, my aunt is primarily careful in her phrasing. She very clearly loves her country dearly (who wouldn’t it’s a beautiful country with wonderful people), and she is very pained by how it is governed, and how that governing affects both the people living there as well as how China is perceived in the world.

I have never spoken to them about celebrities or specific entertainment issues, but what I do know from them is, if somebody in China is a public figure with success and a bit of wealth, they will:

- most certainly be aware that their government’s actions are often unjust and based on corruption and personal gain

- be forced to side with said government or, if they refuse, forced to retire for good

- have to do propaganda related work. Either, if they (or somebody close to them) did/said some non-government-compliant things, for people in power positions to overlook those, or in return for specific freedoms they wouldn’t get to enjoy otherwise.

Especially the forcing of propaganda jobs on public figures, I can’t help not relating that to Yibo.

Just compare some of his songs... “無感 Wu Gan”, for example, with his recent “青春恰时来 - Youth Comes in Time”.

Wu Gan is musically progressive, sounds fresh and goes with the genres and types of music Yibo has shown to love before. And he officially wrote it himself. Youth Come in Time, which he released but was neither composed nor lyrically written by him, sounds like a polar opposite. Musically, it sounds like what you would hear in a 90s advertisement.

And looking at the lyrics, I mean... that song has lines like “strengthen the country”, “we stand in the front row”, “I am with my country”, “the Chinese stage is taking off” - how is that not propaganda?

Do we really, genuinely think that somebody believes in this, even though in the songs that he wrote himself, and has stated to be about his own personal experiences, he says stuff like, “don’t become a puppet whose feelings are manipulated by others”, “every day there’s someone going on and off stage - just remain emotionless”, “You’re famous but you have no works and the voices scolding you only get worse”, “I’ve trapped myself and I can’t make my goals distinct”?

Do we?

Really?

I’ll leave that up to you.

[shut-up-posh-boy]

I have a question for someone who keeps WILTY statistics. I think s14e06 might be the first time Lee Mack has ever scored a point on a lie. He's good at telling true stories in ways that sound like lies and scoring that way. But he doesn't do well the other way around.

In s14e06, he told this story about going on a silent retreat that David thought was true, and it turned out to be a lie. I wrote more about it here: https://tellthemeerkatsitsfine.tumblr.com/post/642697824691224576/3-2-on-yesterdays-wilty-s14e06-i-was-3-1-going. I said at the time that I was interested in knowing whether that was the first time in WILTY history that Lee Mack had gotten away with lying. But there's no way to check that without re-watching every episode and that's a lot of work to check one fact.

However, if you happen to be watching this show and keeping stats on it (good job, by the way, I always have respect for people who keep stats on things like that), are you able to tell me if that's correct?

First of all, this is the best ask I've ever gotten (though it's also the first, so take that with a grain of salt) because it's a very specific ask that has made me notice a pattern that I haven't seen before and it gives me a excuse to run back through old notes and calculate a new number. So here it is!

As of 10x3 because I haven't got stats for most of the last four series yet:

Lee has read 36 lies off cards and convinced the other team they're true only twice. Which about a 5 or 6% hit rate.

Contrast that with his 21 truths, in which he's convinced the other team they're lies 14 times. 67%, which is an impressive fool rate when compared to other series regulars.

David's team almost always guesses lie, no matter what Lee's card is, which I find funny to compare to your post about watching the episode and declaring 'lie' before he's even read his card - that seems to be David's strategy too. There's an incident with a truth where David overrules his team to guess lie and loses the point (4x6, marathon truth), and another truth where David guesses lie but lets himself be overruled (5x7, ouija truth). The emerging pattern is that David doesn't believe Lee under any circumstances, regardless of whether he's telling the truth.

Caveats to this: I haven't included any This is My rounds where Lee's team got the point because David's team guessed Lee instead of the correct guest. Maybe it would be fairer on Lee to do so, but usually, it's because whoever's telling the truth has a story about fighting as gladiators in a supermarket, or talking to crows, or having a toilet seat with Michael Ball's face on it. So it's less about Lee's incredible powers of persuasion.

The lies: 1x2 - "In a restaurant in China, I unwittingly ordered and ate dog." David's team all guessed true. (Which I'd ascribe to it being too early in the show for David's deep and inveterate distrust in every word that comes out of Le's mouth to have established itself)

10x2 - "Possession - I’ve recently got into baking, and here’s a cake I made yesterday, specially for David." David's team all guessed true. (Nadiya Hussain, who won bake off that year - I have a funny story about that episode, but anyway - was the main force behind that, I think. Lee displayed understanding of what a fan-assisted oven would do to the cooking time of a cake, which she found convincing. He also claimed he used 6 eggs in one of the layers though which he backtracked when he realized it was obviously wrong, so it wasn't a bulletproof lie - the only chink in the otherwise impenetrable armour of plausibility, to quote David - but certainly a classic WILTY clip.)

While I'm sorry to say 14x6 isn't the only time he's won a point by lying, it's also very very close to being the case. And in a show that's run as long as WILTY, blue moon events do occur (Lee has asked Rob to do a Ronnie Corbett impression, David and Lee have agreed about something, David's guessed one of Bob's stories correctly, a panellist has responded well to Lee hitting on her, Russell Howard fooled one person, once, barely, etc)

This also only slightly related and I've already made this post about four times longer than it needed to be, but I've actually listened to all of I Can't Believe it's Not Buddha so if you ever need to verify something about that, I'm here for you as well. I really love your blog, Ms Meerkats, if that is your real name, and I hope you found something about this interesting!

[imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl]

Californian Dream (Pt. 11 of 11)

Pairing: Billy Hargrove X Reader

Word count: 2.3 K

Summary: Being part of one of the richest families of California doesn't mean you're happy. Your life is boring, and you're surrounded by meaningless people and their meaningless talk. Even during Summer, with the break you have from college, there's nothing good going on. Nothing but the new pool guy, Billy, the most handsome man you ever saw. You were successfully avoiding him, not wanting to act like an idiot in front of the guy until Billy accepts to be your date for a fancy gala you're forced to attend. The night was going well, even better when he sneaked you out to go to the beach. But a gang of criminals breaks into the party, kidnapping the heirs to the wealthiest families, which includes you. So, for your safety, your parents want you to stay with Billy, living in his apartment until the criminals are caught. And that could take weeks, maybe even months.

Warnings: Light violence

<- Previous part (10)

{Stranger Things Masterlist}

{Dacre Montgomery Masterlist}

×

California Never Felt Like Home

Even though he's not going anywhere any time soon, you hook one leg around his waist, just to pull him a little closer. “You're my prisoner now.” You mutter, sleep still clouding your voice.

“I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.” He answers, placing kisses all over your face.

“The good part is that we'll have all the afternoon to ourselves.” You giggle, moving to lay on your back with Billy hovering over you.

“I'll take you to see the sunset on that beach you like. Completely desert.” He says in a low voice. “If we survive your parents.”

“We already did.” Kissing him, you move to lie on top of him. “It'll be at this super expensive, fancy restaurant, so it means they won't yell at me or put on a show.”

“Sometimes I think you should consider what you're giving up.” He gets sad suddenly, sighing. You know what he's thinking about, and it will take time for Billy to see and understand this is what you really want.

“I'm giving up a huge house I never felt like it was mine. Lots of money that never brought me happiness.” In between the words, you place kisses all over his face. “But what I'm getting...? God, it's amazing.” Sitting up, you straddle his hips. “I got real friends now, and a home. And an awesome boyfriend who doesn't compare to the assholes on my parents' list.”

“I'm so happy I'm around to see the good daughter rebelling.” He sits up too, strong arms encircling your waist. “You look so good, little rebel.”

“You're just saying that because I'm wearing your shirt.” Wrapping your arms around his neck, you raise an eyebrow. Yesterday, you decided to pick one of his shirts to put on instead of your regular pajamas.

“Babe, you look good on everything. But I gotta admit seeing you wearing my clothes is very hot.”

Smiling, you can't help but blush. “We still have a few hours, so I think we can maybe make out for a while?” Biting your lip at his smirk, you giggle.

“Starting the day off with good ideas already.” He mutters, holding you up and throwing you back on the mattress. “This is the first day of the rest of your lives, you know that, right? Because I'm never letting you go. Unless you get tired of me.”

“I don't think I'll ever get tired of you, so yes...” Caressing his cheek, you take a deep breath, the sunlight illuminating his face. “The very first day of the rest of our lives.”

•••

The morning bliss had to be interrupted. But, as you sit across from your mother at the restaurant, you don't feel scared, or nervous. You feel perfectly fine. You're not dressed for this place, you can see it in your mother's eyes, but you don't care. You like the clothes you're wearing, and your mother's disgusting stare makes you chuckle under your breath. Making yourself comfortable, you ignore the silence. Nobody is saying anything, and your father has been staring at Billy as if he could kill him with his stare.

“So... I believe you want an explanation.” You start, cupping your hands together above the table. “Billy and I are dating. And I'll be living with him.”

“Is it some kind of joke?” Your mother interrupts, leaning closer. “You can't possibly think I'll believe you'll do that.” You're about to say something when she raises a hand, and you shut your mouth. “I get it, (Y/N). Billy is good looking, he has this appeal, he's different from the guys you're used to, rougher around the edges, I get all that. But this? This is insane.”

It's only a matter of time for the insults to begin, you're aware of that. “That's not all, mother.” You add, not even considering giving her a proper answer. “I'm not going to course Law anymore. I'll look for something I actually like. And go to the public University.”

“What the–”

“I have a good job now, at a store of diving equipment and I love it.” Cutting your father short, you raise your voice just a little. “That's my life now. I'm not going back to the house, but I want you both to know that I'll visit, of course, and you can visit me whenever you want and–”

“I'm not going to let you throw your entire life on the trash because of the freaking pool guy.” Your father's voice storms out, making a few people look your way. He does seem a little embarrassed, but definitely angry. “This man–” He points at Billy, and you hold his hand under the table. “–he can give you nothing. Nothing. What do you have in life, Hargrove? I shitty job, a tiny apartment. Do you think you can provide to someone like my daughter?” There it is. The insults. And, knowing exactly what Neil told Billy, you won't let your father treat him this way.

“You wanna know what Billy gave me, father?” Smiling, you begin. “He gave me a life. I never felt truly happy, never. Not in our mansion, or those fancy galas, or wearing fashionable clothes. Never. But with the pool guy, as you call him, in his tiny apartment with his lowlife friends? I finally felt something. I finally felt life was worth living.”

“Alright.” He slams his fist on the table, glancing at your mother, a mean smile on his face. “If you insist on doing this, I'll disown you.” He giggles, a hand half covering his mouth. “You won't see any cents from me anymore. Is that what you want?”

He looks like he got everything figured out. Exchanging a stare with Billy, you can tell he's worried. Does he think you'll fall for this? Squeezing his hand a little and smiling, you try to reassure him. He must feel awful, seated here, and listening to all this shit. “I–”

The waiter comes and you're cut short, waiting for your parents to order whatever they want to eat. “Oh, finally. We'll want Muffin Pan Shrimp Ragoon. Thought I'll give my kid one last decent lunch at a decent restaurant. What do you think?”

Seriously? “I can't eat that.” You think it's so obvious, but by the look on your father's face, he doesn't get it.

“What? Do you want to order something more expensive as a goodbye to your good life?”

“She's allergic to shrimp,” Billy speaks for the first time, his voice strong and deep. Both your parents look a little surprised, but soon enough recognition comes to their faces.

They completely forgot, but it doesn't bother you. You're happy Billy actually remembered it. You only mentioned it once, at the gala. “It's alright, though. We'll have lunch by the beach.” You tell them, smiling at Billy.

“Let me guess...” He dismisses the waiter with a gesture of his hand. “Sandwiches and soda?”

“Actually, yes.” Exclaiming, you stand up, and Billy does the same. It's over. You told them what's gonna happen now, and they have to make peace with that. And if your father wants to change his will and cut you out of it, so be it. “I made them myself and they're delicious.”

“For goodness sake.” Your mother mutters, running a hand through her hair. “Honey, please think this through, alright? Your house will be opened whenever you want to come back.”

“Thanks, mom. I will visit, I promise.” That said, you smile at them before turning away, hand in hand with Billy, walking away from the table.

“You better wipe off your bank account, (Y/N), because you'll never get a penny from me again!” Your father yells, and you simply wave at him, not even bothering to look back.

When you're outside, you feel light-headed, relieved. “This wasn't as bad as it could be.” You breathe out, walking to where Billy parked his car, a block away.

“Did he mean it? About disowning you?” He sounds serious, despite the smile that's on your face.

Turning around without letting go of his hand, you start walking backward. “I don't give a damn.” Speaking slowly, you wink at him, stopping suddenly and letting him come closer by himself before grabbing the collar of his shirt and tiptoeing to kiss him, sweet and slow.

“What the– (Y/N)?” Someone calls and since you do know who it is, you keep kissing Billy for a while longer. “Holy shit.”

It makes you giggle when he pulls your closer, deepening the kiss. But eventually, you have to breathe, so you break apart, a smile on your lips.

“Care to explain why the hell you're making out with the pool guy? In public?” Daniel says as you turn to face him. He has a girl with him, but you don't know who she is. He seems better, given the time he spent held hostage. “Have you lost your mind, girl?”

Sighing, you roll your eyes at him. You have a lunch date on the beach, and you don't wanna waste any more time with meaningless people. “Yeah. I'm dating the pool guy.” You tell him, shrugging your shoulders. “Actually, I'm in love with the pool guy. And now I work at a scuba diving store, so you can come up with some kind of name for me too, but you wanna know what? I don't give a damn.” Pulling Billy harder, you start walking again. “I'd love to say that we'll be seeing each other soon, but we won't. So... Goodbye, Daniel.” Turning on your heels, you leave the couple behind.

The drive to the beach is short, and instead of sitting on the sand, you chose to seat on the hood of his car. Which he now calls Lily, and you peacefully eat the sandwiches and drink the soda. You wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world. The ocean, the sunlight, the fresh wind messing with your hair. The simple food, the hood of his car... And him. Billy is certainly the best part. Having him here is indescribable, and knowing you'll go back home with him is even better.

“So... Will you help me chose something to major in?” You ask as he helps you climb off of the hood, taking your hand and starting to walk down the beach.

“Actually, I have some fresh news coming straight from Jason.” He says, a bright smile on his lips.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you stop to look at him. “What news...?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Heeler, from the store.” Billy starts, putting a strand of hair behind your ear. “They want to retire and they're thinking about passing the store over to you and Jason since they don't have any relatives. If you both agree on being associates.”

“Oh my God!” You exclaim, tiptoeing to crash your lips on his. “This is amazing.”

“Please act surprised when Jason tells you.” In a sudden motion, Billy reaches for your thighs, pulling you up and wrapping your legs around his waist. Using his shoulder for balance, you giggle. “He didn't want me to tell you but I couldn't resist.”

“This is just awesome. This is...” Taking a deep breath, you take a look at the ocean. The sound of the waves crashing is low and calming, and the way the sunlight reflects on the water shines like liquid silver. Then, you look at Billy again, his smile warming up your heart. “I love you.” You haven't said it yet, but it feels like the right time. And this is how you feel. You've never been in love before, but you know how this is how it feels. Like someone owns your whole heart. “I'm not sure if you feel the same but I just need you to know that–”

“I'm completely in love with you.” Billy cuts you off, bouncing you up a little and making the way back to his car. “I have been for a while and that scared the hell out of me.” When you reach Lily, he puts you down on the hood, remaining in between your legs. “But now... I'm sure of it. I want a life with you. A future.”

Blushing, you smile, your forehead touching Billy's. “So that thing you said about me getting to pick the kid's names...” You tease, placing a kiss on the corner of his lips.

“I mean it, if...” Pulling away from a little, he locks eyes with you. “If you don't pick something silly like the name you insisted on giving my car.”

“It's not silly!” Playfully, you try to push him away, giggling when he grabs your sides, tickling you. “Alright! Alright!” After a while you manage to stop him, his hands going back to your hips. “We'll pick names we both like. How does it sound?”

“It sounds like we're talking about kids even before getting married.”

“What?” Furrowing your eyebrows, you try to process what the hell he just said. “Sorry, I thought you heard you talking about...”

“I never felt like the type for marriage but, God, I want to marry you,” Billy exclaims, connecting his lips to yours.

You have a lot to say, a lot of things to ask, but you surrender to the kiss instead. This is all the answers you need. His lips on yours, on this paradise on Earth.

California never felt like home because home isn't a place, but a person. Billy is your home. Wherever you are, if he's with you, it's the right place. Nothing else needs to be said. The life you had before vanished like smoke in the air, and this is even better than everything you could ever dream of. Not all the money in the world can buy this moment, and you don't regret a thing. Love is far more important, and now that you found it, nothing will make you let it go.

×

@multific @dontxfearxthereaper @nope-thanks @nikkixostan @shinydixon @clockworkballerina @infinitelycharmed23 @lilred91 @moatsnow

[iwritethat]

Dick Grayson: Fine Cuisine

Summary: Fluff

• Dick is unprepared for a family meal but your offer your fine expertise and have the whole family asking questions about you.

Warnings: Mature language

A/N: Hello lovlies! I’ve missed you all so much, I hope this helps a bit and there’s so much more I could add onto this so please enjoy and lemme know how you all are~

>>>>—————————>

It started with a family dinner.

As many curious situations do in retrospect, but with a family of vigilantes whose relationship ties have frayed, intermingled and been resewn makes for more interesting get-togethers compared to most.

One thing they could all agree on though? Dick Grayson cannot cook.

"I can't believe that, they just assume it's going to end in a takeout?" Came your amused voice as you placed a coffee on your kitchen island that Dick was currently seated - or rather slumped at.

"It's because the last two times I've hosted something like this, takeout has saved my ass." The ravenette embarrassingly clarifies, voice trailing off toward the end and did his best to avoid looking at you.

Dick Grayson was technically a neighbour, albeit living a few floors below your more lavish (and expensive) apartment suite. After moving into the complex on the same day, you quickly excavated the common ground to build a solid foundation for friendship - as such, meet-ups like these became a regular thing, switching apartments each time.

"Then, I'll help you out." You proudly confirmed, gesturing to your grand kitchen which was the sole reason you’d brought the place - one of the many things Dick envied about your luxurious living area compared to the standardised version of his own, though on an Officers salary he couldn’t afford something like this.

"Ah (Y/n) no, I can't let you do that!” Came his instant reply, hands waving defensively as he adamantaly brainstormed another excuse. “Plus you'll be working that night."

"True, but that doesn't mean I can't set you up beforehand. We'll start tomorrow, I'll teach you a recipe."

———

As previously planned, Dick turned up at your door rather nervously even though he’d been around you many times - not once had he demonstrated a serious negative flaw to his character in order to impress you, but cooking was one of them and you were about to witness chaos that’d likely dispel any romantic inclination he hoped you held for him.

“Ready?”

“No.”

With a playful laugh, you rolled your eyes and pulled the male into your kitchen noting how he was likely tired from his shift at Blüdhavens Police Department earlier that afternoon so a good meal should do wonders. Maybe it’d give him a better nights sleep too? The acrobat never seemed to obtain many of those for some unknown reason, apparently it’s ‘too noisy’ in the city.

“Oh and you can host in my apartment, it’s bigger and I’ll have all the equipment you need. You already have a spare key anyway.”

“You’re really amazing, I don’t deserve you - y’know that?” There were deeper feelings involved in that seemily offhanded thank you, ones relating to his role as Nightwing and his past mistakes which all remained a hated secret from you.

It started well, Dick following along with ease and you concluded that he picked things up fast with how observant he was which sped up the process. The main course he’d nailed with your guidance and so, you decided to move onto dessert.

“Now we add cocoa powder to th-“ You’d froze, mouth open out of surprise with the substances dusting your lips, cheek and part of your left collar bone - the offender in question mirroring your expression, albeit holding back his laughter due to his colossal misjudgement.

“I - I didn’t think it’d go everywhere when I ripped the packet open...”

“You don’t ever rip the packet, you tear it gently!” Came your dangerously mischievous correction, licking the sweet substance from your lips before flicking the currently non-chocolate brownie covered spoon at him with flecks landing on the side of his face.

“Oh, it’s on!”

This ensued an all out war, the two of you ducking and dodging oncoming attacks as you danced around the kitchen island with varying results of accuracy until Dick decided to slide over the marble surface and capture you in his arms.

His embrace faltered slightly as your back hit the island during your feeble attempt to get away, finding yourself trapped between him and the cool surface too enthralled in the carefree antics to notice the proximity. A beat of silence passed once the atmosphere had settled, Dick releasing a breathy chuckle with his grip around your waist loosening slightly as you looked up with a victorious smirk - he took the opportunity to lean forward slightly as if testing the waters and careful to note any kind of reaction you replied with.

However, there was a lack of trust as all is fair in love and war, hence your devious reasoning to close the gap some more and with the softness of his warm breath dancing on your lips you swiftly leaned past his whilst dragging your tongue across his cheek. Dick pulled back instantly, a mix of disgust and offence in his eyes as you spoke.

“Needs more sugar.”

“I’m sweet enough as it is thank you, you’d know that if you’d have just kissed me instead of betraying me like that!” Dick wittily snapped back, admiring the melodious laughter that escaped you at his response.

“I’m sure you do, speaking of - these brownies should last until the dinner so you won’t have to make them again on the day alright? I’ll get everything ready so you don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“I guess you’d taste pretty sweet too.” Though referencing your kind nature, you couldn’t help but lightly punch him in the shoulder.

———

Regardless of Dicks wistful prayers, the deadline had finally arrived and his family would be sporadically arriving in a matter of hours - so help him.

"All the ingredients are on the counter - do not use anything else - and I've detailed the instructions on the whiteboard in case you forget anything." You pointed to each item as you spoke, donning a jacket before barely making it past the kitchen doorframe due to your neighbours dramatically desperate pleas.

"Can't you just stay? And do it with me?"

"I have to go to work." You laughed at his antics, the man looking like a lost puppy amidst your vast collection of kitchen utensils.

"Work will survive without you, c'mon you wouldn't lose out on much - I'll even pay for the trouble."

That, truly caused you to hesitate with a look of sheer bemusement, a mischievous glint dancing in your irises that mocked his claim almost as much as your sardonic tone.

"If you truly knew my job and paycheck then you'd take that back.” With that, you were quick to flip to a more cheerful voice as you waved goodbye to a pouting Grayson. “Anyway, you'll be fine and tell me how it went once I get back~"

"Wait (Y/n) h-"

The slam of the front door echoed your departure leaving a Dick feeling more lost than ever, the kitchen seemingly quadrupling in size now.

Bruce arrived first along with Damian, Cass, Duke and Alfred. Then there was Tim who’d apparently travelled from Titans tower and finally Jason who’d sauntered in fashionably late as predicted but only by 5 minutes. Each baffled by the sudden change of location which only intensified when the host brought out plates of home cooked dinner.

"..."

"This... this isn't take out..."

"No, it's actual food.” Dick confirmed almost offended and words laced with a hint of underlying sarcasm. “That I made myself."

"Okay, so uh - is it edible then?" Jason quipped back, smirking at his elder brother in a smug manner that only he could achieve.

"Would you just eat it? I went through a lot of stress and effort for this."

Dick encouraging everyone as he sat down, the action only bemusing the members of his family more as they complied to his wishes with varying degrees of hesitance from each of them. Damian trusted Dick the most, but he patiently waited for his father to finish his mouthful before even touching his own dish.

"Wow, this is incredible, the flavour and everything - Dick what happened to you?!" Duke enthusiastically mocked and continued to devour the meal with a sense of radiance which contrasted to Cassandras pure silence as she savoured every tasteful mouthful.

"Grayson, there is no way you are solely responsible for this cuisine." Damian suspiciously raised a brow at the older hero, tentatively laying his cutlery elegantly on the now clear plate.

"Thank you, and maybe I had some assistance from my neighbour."

“Thank you for dinner Dick, it was surprisingly delicious and please give our thanks to your mysterious friend too.” Bruce knowingly added, proud of his protégés accomplishments - though minor in comparison to Alfreds glowing exterior.

“I told you there was hope Master Bruce.”

"Bro, they left a whole list of instructions so you wouldn't mess up and hey, call if you need anything. Sounds like a plan -" Jason, who had waited until everyone was finished explored your kitchen in hopes of finding some evidence as to who their saviour was.

"Jason no! They're working!"

"It‘s an emergency, you’ve been replaced by a clone with adequate cooking skills!” Tim wittily added once leaning against the kitchen doorframe to observe the scene with Damian inspecting the whiteboard before questioning it’s purpose.

“Why leave this if they couldn't answer then?"

"That's the point, she will answer and I don't want to disturb her right now. They've done enough for me already." Dick painfully sighed, strategically slapping Jason’s phone into the air and catching it with his other hand in one swift motion much to the irritation of the latter.

"Hold up - she?" Duke cut in now, holding his hands out for emphasis and subtlety fishing for elaboration.

"Are you dating...?” Jason hummed, taking a moment to analyse Dicks reaction prior to cementing his assumption. “No, but you want to, right?"

“We are not -“

“You want to date someone?” Cass innocently inquired now walking in with a pile of plates, Bruce and Alfred following in afterwards with clean up of their own.

“I mean I -“

“I’ve seen enough of your crushes to know you have one, you’re already flustered by thinking about them romantically.” Bruce effortlessly deducted, Alfred nodding in agreement whilst commencing the washing up.

“You can’t just call me out like that Bats, after everything with been through too.” Dick feigned betrayal, a hand on his heart whilst Bruce shook his head.

“Oh yeah, how long did he wait for Starfire and Barbara though?” Tim jokingly nudged Jason who chuckled at the small dig, though charismatic and charming - when real feelings were involved, Dick Grayson wasn’t one to straightforwardly act on them.

“Real mature guys.”

“I think you should tell her.” Was the sincere voice of reason, Cassandras kind smile enough to silence the devilish remarks of his brothers who now shrugged in defeat.

“We could help...”

———

Miraculously, you'd attained reservations at the most eloquent restaurant in Gotham, located in the more luxurious district of the wealthy. As a result, it served only the finest gourmet cuisine and had waiting lists longer than any other, so much so that even Bruce Wayne had yet to successfully book a place at the establishment.

You had given him the news when he’d recounted the events of his family dinner (skipping over certain discussions) and how they were grateful for your generosity.

Now, you'd asked Dick for how many he'd like seated at the table so you could finalise the arrangements - he knew you worked there, meaning staff privileges were likely applied in this situation but he was still left speechless.

Gawking at the skyrocketing prices, Dick now understood how much missing one day of work would seriously cost you - he definitely couldn't have afforded your time that night after all.

"So, you say you're paying for this?"

With a painstaking hum of agreement, the eldest nodded with a hint of concern detected on his features, fortunately Bruce had come prepared with his own credit card (just in case). Although his family could be provoking and frivolous toward one another, they were also respectful in situations like these and wouldn't run the bill up too high like certain members would if Bruce had been footing the bill. Dick had a charismatic bond with all of them in that sense.

Meanwhile, you handled everything in your kitchen of organised chaos as the orders came pouring in, including that of Dicks table who you had yet to formerly greet.

"This is cereal..." The head waiter meant it more of a question than a statement, looking to you with upmost uncertainty due to the simplicity of the dish compared to those on your signature menu.

Did they even stock Lucky Charms with the ingredients? The answer was no, you’d intentionally bought them purely for this very day and scenario.

"I know, I know - please serve it to my neighbour on Table 12, he'll get it." You humourously assured the man who seemed to have more to say but didn’t wish to argue with higher authority.

"Ah, Chef..." Your sous chef called moments later, overlooking the scene with mild skeptism before realising the nature of your scheme.

"Hm?"

"You do realise he is currently seated with Mr Bruce Wayne, don't you?" Upon processing that unprecedented information you immediately bolted - hot on the trail of the waiter with a weak promise in your wake.

"What?! I thought he'd bring his friends along not his- oh god, I just sent them cereal- shit, I'll be right back!"

With strategy and precision, you carefully intercepted the tray only seconds before it’d be placed in front of the empty seat of Dick Grayson - the man in question probably taking a bathroom break.

"Aha, pardon me, this was an incorrect order on my part, please forgive the interruption." You bowed with an apology, disappearing in hopes the remainder of the party hadn’t the time to fully decipher the mistake.

Of course, unbeknownst to you, this was a table full of detectives who constantly observed even the most trivial of details.

"Was that... cereal?"

The night followed on as planned, yourself wrapped up in cooking and supervising throughout the night with the only interruption coming from the waiting staff informing you that Table 12 would like to meet the Chef. Such a gesture was commonplace for you, customers regarded as strangers being much less intimidating than your neighbours family - you couldn’t comprehend why, it’s not like you were dating him or anything but their auras just radiated strength.

"Good evening, I'm glad to hear you -" Arriving at the table, you weren’t given the chance to finish before Dick had stood to greet you with a warm smile gently brushing your upper arm once deciding against hugging you out of habit.

"Hey, (Y/n). You didn’t come over this morning, everything alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine Dick I just had to readjust a menu." You waved his worries off with a grateful nod, hands on your hips in accomplishment as you expected to resume natural conversation with him.

"Okay okay, compliments to you, the food was immaculate - but how do you know our brother?" A youthful male bearing a white streak through his hair cut in, genuine sincerity in his tone when offering his praise before incredulously gesturing to Dick.

"He's my neighbour."

"I - he's a what now?" Duke shook his head in disbelief, looking between you both rather unconvinced.

"Are you kidding me Grayson?!" Tim was next, the most exasperated out of the whole table as he pinched the bridge of his nose whilst Dick quizzically scanned each of his company for insight.

"What...?"

"You got cooking lessons from one of the top Chefs in the whole damn country, you're friends with her, and you didn't even know who she was?!" The slimly built youth exclaimed, apparently knowledgeable in regards to the culinary world and had read of your famous reputation.

“(Y/n) (L/n) owns this restaurant Dick. Also, thank for the other week, the recipe was lovely.” Bruce politely added, nodding to you with a smile.

“You didn’t say that, you only said you worked here.” Dick turned to you now, in a feeble attempt to justify his lack of acknowledgment to your renowned status.

“Well, I do. In my defence you never asked, I mean my apartment and kitchen are rather fancy - that didn’t come on minimum wage.” You replied a matter-of-factly with an air of confidence to your voice.

"Are we forgetting that this is also the chef who was going to serve Richard cereal?" At the remark from Duke, a heated flush adorned your skin due to the embarrassment of being caught - the whole table breaking into collective chuckles.

"You were? - Wow that's such a dick move!" Dick was openly laughing at your failed attempt at humour, lightly nudging your side as you pushed him away in playful defence.

"Shut up! I didn't realise you were with your family, or else I wouldn't have done it."

Jason immediately waved that claim off, cheekily smirking at you as he spoke. “Oh no, I'm so glad you did, honestly it's the main reason I like you right now."

“That and you spared us the horror of Graysons cooking.” Damian conviently inputted, conniving grin sent to his favourite brother.

“You’re welcome, ah I apologise but I should get back to work so please excuse me. It was a pleasure meeting you all.” Taking a calculating glance over the expanse of exquisite tables and order exchanges you thought it best to return to your duties with a gracious smile and started toward the kitchen.

“Can I drop by tonight, I won’t be able to afford any thank you gifts after this but I’ll bring you a coffee?” Dick cheerily inquired, causing you to spin on your heel with a shy laugh and confirmation of his proposal.

“Don’t worry, this is my treat. You guys don’t have to pay for anything so enjoy the rest of your evening.” With that you were once again swept up into the busy atmosphere beyond the kitchen doors.

The table remained quiet for a few moments, Dick sitting down and looking to them almost as if searching for their impressions of you only to be met with bemused, impressed and mischievous gazes.

Not for you, oh no - these were shamelessly directed at a now enamoured Dick Grayson.

“Please marry her.”

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 10: Rocky II

(previous notes: Rocky)

When this movie came out I was a little kid living in Northern California, and we used to go to huge drive-in movie complexes that had like six screens. No matter what movie you were watching, you could see other movies from your lot. I don't remember which movie we were watching at the time, but I remember being distracted by a nearby screen showing Rocky II. I totally watched the ending in suspense. It was eventually on cable a lot so I was able to see it for real, but still like 40 years ago.

Anyway, I wonder if this movie will have the effect of dulling the charm of how the first movie ended, so climactically and with appealing suddenness.

Also, is this the only one of the first four movies that doesn't have a rollicking hit song emerging from its soundtrack?

Stallone famously wrote each of these movies all by himself, and starting with this one he is the director of a bunch of them as well.

Same kind of intro with the fanfare, except the music sounds very clearly, to me at least, to not be playing on real horns. I think it's synths. "Modern".

We're now just watching the end of the first movie. We get to relive the intense experience of seeing Adrian's face in closeup closing her eyes for one and a half seconds. The drama.

The whole first five minutes is the whole last five minutes of the first movie. That's weak. Cheap.

Then the whole opening credits follows, and it's following the ambulance that's taking Rocky to the hospital because of all the punchplay. Not a good use of this time. But more importantly: are they going to address the eyelid situation.

Rocky and Apollo confront each other in wheelchairs in front of the press at the hospital. They're still fired up.

After Rocky gets out of the hospital he rambles a lot and it's like an amateur improv scene where he's figuring out on the spot some things to say about where they are. He gets the idea to have Rocky propose to Adrian, then when she accepts he does a Tarzan wail. What a cheeky clown that Rocky is.

His eye seems fine now.

0:18:20 - the a cappela street musicians are still at it, still not very complex with the harmonies. Isn't Sylvester Stallone's brother a singer named Frank, and does he look like the guy in this scene? I bet it's him.

I'm pretty bored of this movie so far. It's like the people were clamoring for an answer to the question, "what happened after the fight", and Stallone's enthusiastic answer was "just regular stuff like you'd guess!!!!!"

Oh my. It's their wedding night and they talk like dumb, uninspired newlyweds and then kiss, and it's like the director, who remember is Stallone, directed the two of them, one of whom is also Stallone, to perform slow, exotic lip dancing and no one told him that's a thing called kissing which is normal and common.

Rocky has some money now so he and Adrian are looking at buying a house. The realtor is all "this whole place is supported by solid steel" and Rocky is all "yo Adrian that would be a great spot for a radio". It's like porn stars that have been told to ad lib for a few minutes in the beginning of the scene. Except that we aren't about to be rewarded with porno.

0:28:05 - Adrian is pregnant! They talk about it. They talk about it in small talk. "What if it's a girl" "Oh a girl I didn't think about that can you imagine".

So one of the adventures of post-the-first-movie Rocky is that he gets to do a commercial. They show the filming of that and that it doesn't go well because of his Rocky personality. And the next scene he has realized that he needs a white collar job so he's at an employment agency office and asks for a job where he gets to sit. But he's not a good fit there. So he goes and gets a job at a butcher place. He promised Adrian he was done with boxing so now we have this boring part of the movie which isn't short enough.

Okay it's definitely going in a direction of not-boxing-is-sucky-for-Rocky, because he lost the butcher job and had to sell his car to Paulie. He said "it's a great car, buckle up for safety!" Do you think Stallone actually scripted that line or did he improvise it and the director, who you may recall is also Mr. Stallone, thought it was really good and kept it in

0:46:30 - He goes to visit Burgess Meredith at the gym. BM is not helping Rocky's morale, tells him he's washed up POI-manently. He begs for a job doing menial tasks at the gym and BM tells him everyone will think he's a loser but okay. Stallone does okay looking humble about that.

When he comes in to the gym everyone is laughing at a very stupid editorial cartoon in the local news publication, it shows Apollo doing harm upon Rocky-as-a-chicken with the ingenious caption "APOLLO CREED VS THE STALLION CHICKEN". It was clearly "STALLION CHICKEN". That does not make any sense.

BM was easily persuaded by Apollo's cockiness and so he then shows up at Rocky's nad easily persuades him to accept the rematch deal. Feels like movie formula but at least it's about to be less boring.

I like BM's voice.

They're doing a thing going back and forth between Rocky training and Apollo training. Apollo's is going better, partially because his facility is kind of luxuriously spacious. Then they stuck a scene in the middle of that of Adrian working at the pet store all preggo, but having trouble lugging a weighty thing and listen my friends, I think Talia Shire acting is not good acting.

We're in a long sequence that's about how Adrian had the baby prematurely and she slipped into a coma or something, and it's made clear that she had health problems because she was stressed out and overworked because of the heavy things at the pet shop and the husband who went back to boxing. Big old guilt trip taking up a lot of the middle of the movie. Adrian is in a coma. They don't show the baby. It's all just sadness about comatosity of Adrian.

But! She eventually wakes up! And after the first ever conversation they've ever had about what to name their newborn son, Adrian inexplicably changes her tune and tells Rocky she wants him to win. "Win!" That's what she tells him. Then she says it again. Stallone writing, Shire acting, what more could you want.

Now an upbeat training montage that's more hopeful and he's obviously high energy. He must be hitting the punching bags better because just look at how confident he looks.

1:29:35 - It is the sequel to the famous running montage from the first movie. The inspired updates include a new recording of that same song but with children singing "flying strong now" or whatever, and also children following him on his majestic dash to the steps of that municipal facility. Someone probably said "do the running scene again just exactly like in the first movie", but no. Stallone was not satisfied. "We will change it a little," he proclaimed. And lo.

Oh I hope there will be a sequel to the shot of Adrian closing her eyes for considerably longer than a blink. Do you think when people stop her on the street they're like "do the eye close thing do the eye close thing! My friends will all ask if you did the eye close thing and I need to tell them yes she did I saw it and it was even better in person"

We're at the fight now. It's about to start. It's all going as expected. I truly believe that everything will be okay.

Before it starts, Apollo tells Rocky, "you're going DOWN". So maybe it will NOT be okay after all…

Seems like the shots of this fight are not as varied or interesting this time, and they're relying more on the announcer commentary telling us what to think compared to the first movie.

Now the obligatory montage to show us the rounds moving forward and them still going at it. Not the same style as the first movie, but whatever it's working fine. I'd maybe watch a boxing match if it were shot and edited like this so that it's just ten minutes.

I swear I remember seeing this imagery from across the drive-in way back in the 70s, I don't care if you believe me or not it's the truth.

Look, I know I don't know nothin' 'bout boxin' but it seems like you're supposed to use your forearms as shields kind of, and Rocky doesn't do that like at all.

The dialogue is telling us that Rocky is maybe losing going into the final round. I wouldn't have thought so… thanks dialogue!

"YOU'RE GOING DOWN" repeats Creed. Such writing I tell you. Rocky II - A Film By Sylvester Stallone.

I will never forget the carefully choreographed climax of the movie. They both crumble onto the floor and the one-to-ten countdown all slow-like as they maybe try to get back up and Apollo doesn't and Rocky barely does so he is the new world champion. Then the last couple minutes of the movie is the same basic energy as the first movie. It's like the first movie's ending was a template and they just replaced a couple of things.

They kept making more of these movies! I'm going to keep watching them! I'm going to do this notes-about-them thing!

(next: Rocky III)