#and Viki of course!

[dribs-and-drabbles]

[lavenderhateswritting]

Bruce Wayne x Male Reader

This is me kinda going further in depth on my ideas about Bruce and divorced BatDad link

There has to be something you're not understanding. At least that's what you have to keep telling yourself there has to be something here that doesn't connect that you aren't picking up on. Bruce has a biological child. A biological child who has been alive for less years than you have been married. Bruce cheated on you. Again.

The air in the cave is acrid. The boy. Damian. His name is Damian. Is speaking to Bruce. He's Talia's son because of course he's fucking Talia's son. God.

The world around you feels like its millions of miles away, muffled and unreachable to you. You should have known. Talia had known him long before you had come into the picture and had always been so much more than you could ever be. It wasn't just Talia though it was so many more than Talia and you kept telling yourself that it wasn't true because you just couldn't believe it.

Now there's no denying it. Now there's a child and now you had to make a choice because if you didn't nothing was going to change.

You must have been standing there for too long looking into space floating into a world where your marriage is happy and your husband loyal because Bruce finally walks up to you. He stands in front of you his cowl is down and his eyes have hardened hemselves. He's prepared for the coversation then great.

"You'll have to start the paperwork to get him in school." You finally say. The first thing you've said for 40 mins and for just a second you can see the confusion hits him for just a moment and then its gone. God forbid he shows you any fucking emotion.

"But you probably shouldn't do that before you acclimate him to average people." Your voice is airy like you're a second away from crying.

"And you're gonna need him to do placement tests - "

"Y/N I know you want to talk about this." He's interupting you.

"Because he's probably ahead of his grade and we - "

"Y/N please can we talk about this."

" We don't want him to take grades he doesn't need to. And I am talking about it. I'm telling you what you need to do for your child. You and Talia's child." Your breathe is starting to come out faster as you speak.

"I mean what else could there be to talk about. You, cheating on me. Again. With another woman. I mean do you even like men Bruce cause god knows you love cheating on me with women." Your hands are shaking now. It feels like you've been drenched in cold water.

"That's not important you have another child you need to take care of and unlik the others you can't fall back on me to handle the the civilian aspect." You finally look back into his eyes there's nothing there. Of course.

"Y/N please calm down we're going to talk about this, we're going to get through this, and handle this Damian situation together." He's grabbed your hands now the gloves of his suit means you can't feel him against your skin only the thick sturdy material.

"No, we aren't, you are." His eyes finally show a flash of fear like he understands what's finally happening.

"Y/N please try and be reasonable. You're in shock and I understand why, but you aren't thinking straight you just need to sleep through the night and then we can talk." His hands are griping you tighter like if he lets you go you'll run for the hills. Maybe he's right to be scared.

"Yeah I'll go to sleep and we'll talk about this later beacuse you need to go on patrol and this mission will always be more important than our fucking relationship. And then when I wake up you'll tell me it'll neve happen again and that you're sorry right. Like how you did with Selina, or Viki, or FUCKING TALIA. And then I'm goint to forgive you again and again and again because I love you, but you don't love me, do you Bruce." You hands have stopped shaking this isn't scary anymore. This is necessary for you you need to get out of this relationship or it's going to kill you.

"Of course I love you. I love you more than anything in the world you know this." He actually for once looks sad and isn't that something.

"But you don't love me enough to not cheat on me and I don't blame you. I keep forgiving you so why would you stop. Not this time though let go of me Bruce." His grip on you had gotten tighter and tighter as the conversation continued it was bordering on painful.

"If I let you go will you be here when I come home tonight." He's scared you've managed to scare Batman isn't that something.

"Don't make me lie to you. Don't make me treat you like you treat me." He flinches back like you've slapped him across the face and finally drops your arms. He probably would have perfered it if you had simply smacked him. Violence he understood. Violence was something he was good at.

"Is there anything I can say that will make you still be here when I come home." His voice hitches the smallest amount pushed down as soon as it comes up.

"No, and I think you already know that. I love you Bruce." You turn toward the staircase back up to the manor. You'll need to pack and stay in the penthouse tonight and then in the moring make a plan. You've reached the first step of your climb when Bruce finally speaks again.

"I love you Y/N I promise you I do."

There's no point in turning back so you keep going forward.

[hermit-tree-project]

The HTP 2024 has arrived!

Thank you to everyone who took part in this project this year, we really hope to see you next year too!

Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

[Organiser]: @yki-dolls

[Mods]:

@clueless-carrot

@Pmiercedrawsoccasionally

[Participants]:

@29snails

@acheykai

@acolorboom

@bearbythebench

@a-seafox

@beeisnotdead

@ari-ana-grian-de

@bitter-honey-with-tea

@pal-blue--ash

@calcium-rods

@dailygtwscar

@jayisgayandtrans

@deadseas

@dentyy1

@drawingaliensketches

@false-lemons

@flareyn

@fitzs-space

@floriscow

@frostnova321

@interdimensional-syndicate

@illprocrastinato

@iicarusea

@inedibleteff

@izelthewashbear

@javaaddiction

@lunaticmocha

@marshyjaye

@corrundumcat

@ringnea

@sparklebeamx

@sac-works

@star01134

@stressed-sock

@totally-ethanwinters

@thetwistedwhiskersshow

@vg-art-blog

@viky-somebody

@deepfriedcowboy

@kanaroli

And of course, our participants who do not have/wish to share their tumblrs!

This post can also be found on Instagram!

[alltomevibes]

reblogging to report that I have finished the matchmakers and MDL is a lying liar who lies because that was sooooo gooooood.

who was going to tell me that "the matchmakers" is so cute???? where was the promo, the tumblr posts?? yall, i binge-watched the first 6 episodes last night....

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - I'm treading water and so is BL

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Feb 2025 Week 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

Your Sky (Sun iQIYI) ep 12 end - I love this show so much.  So sweet. I adored it when Rak (FINALLY!) took the initiative! 

Conclusion

As pulps go this is right up there with my favorite if all time, My Ride, but for different less complex reasons. This is a relatively simple, old school, endearingly soft story of a fake relationship between a sunshine sweetie and an older reserved rich kid who slowly fall in love. Its soft gentle low-stakes leans into everything I personally love about Thai BL. It’s a warm fuzzy robe of a show. 9/10 

ThamePo (Fri YT) ep 9 of 12 - Thame is the poutyest of pouty babies. I love the ribbing that he got from his group the next morning (that wasn't). That said when we got a kiss it was a VERY GOOD kiss. This is a very me truly great show that I’m enjoying so much. 

The Boy Next World (Sun IQIYI) ep 5 of 10 - I really can’t fault the chemistry with this pair. From kissing to making out they're awesome at ALL OF it. I like the twist (that there is not parallel world jsut the edge of insanity). It's delusional and sus and obsessive and very "seme who missed his meet cute with his uke" and is being forced by a narrative to fast forward. So 90s yaoi. Can Mame push this edge in the right way? Doubtful. But BossNoeul will make it fun for us to watch no matter how questionably messy it gets.

(Yes, there IS a "right way.")

The Heart Killers (Weds Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - fun penultimate episode.

Perfect 10 Liners (Sun YT) ep 15 of 24 - It's fine. Even cute. I think I like PerthSanta better than ForceBook but I really want the next pair the most. 

Sangmin Dinneaw (Sun iQIYI) ep 6 of 10 - Enter my least favorite trope of all time, the amnesia trope. Also random doctor couple. This show is nothing if not erratic. 

Flirt Milk (Sat YT) ep 3 or 10 - ugh

Ossan‘s Love Thailand (Mon YouTube) ep 5 of 12 - Is this punishment for how good Cherry Magic Thailand was?

Gelboys (Weds iQIYI) ep 1 of 7 - it started but I didn't realize so I'll catch up next week.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

When it Rains it Pours (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - I adore them so much, these two sad desperate horny cheating boys. Lube! Argh. Please! The stark lack of affection in this show is about as dry and painful as the sex must have been. But, its all very tense and I kinda love it's minimalistic angst. 

Eternal Butler (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 8 of 12 - what a pity, just throwing away that cute color matched BDSM set. Ever 4 is SO CUTE when he smiles, but he would have been cuter smiling and holding that red bullwhip.

Heart Stain (Korea Weds IQIYI) eps 1-2 of 8 - I like it! It’s Korea doing its all-time favorite trope, the love triangle, but an interesting take. One boy is in love with his teacher but his best friend is in love with him. Let the drama commence.

Impression of Youth (Taiwan Weds Viki) eps 5 of 9 - Such a great brother relationship! My goodness the courage on that kid. Also, they jumped into the sack fast, even for Taiwan.

Fight for Love (Vietnam YT) ep 1 - A new VBL that is actually quite fluffy and charming. It is extremely lightweight but I’m enjoying that aspect. I like Vietnamese comedy more than Thai, I think.

Checkered Shirt (Korea YT) ep 1 of 8 - From the same people sho did Seoul Blues. I like it but this studio isn't vested in HEA so I'm wary. 

FC Soldout (Korea Thurs iQIYI) eps 1-4 of 8 - Huh. Interesting. The premise is kinda fun, even if (you know me) I never like obsessed fans. Creeps me out. That said, everyone is surprisingly gay for a KBL - like gay GAY. I know that’s a weird thing for me to say in a BL, but Korea is usually awfully het about their BL.

Anygay, of course I already like the side couple best. The gruff team captain and the pretty idol with a sad past win. WIN WIN. Give me an entire show about them please.

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 18 of 20 - (the end is in sight, but sheesh!) it was OK because mostly it was all the friends over at the house and doing stuff together. But still not a lot is happening.

It's airing but......

I Will Turn Back Time (China Gaga) 6 eps - It’s Chinese, no idea if it will end well or not. But it’s the stepbrothers trope. Still, I’m not gonna watch it until it’s done.

In Case You Missed it

End of year wraps are here!

2024 Trend Report

MY BEST & WORST BLs of 2024

Best Kisses (and sex scenes) of 2024

BL's 2024 Quirky Awards

2024 Awards - Quick Picks

Next Week Looks Like This:

Like last week we already in the middle, I promise I should be back on schedule soon. You'll get you calander image then.

2/14 Exclusive Love (Taiwan Gaga) trailer - Shy aspiring singer inherits funeral business.

2/14 The Last Time (Thailand WeTV) trailer - from 2024, not sure about this one, looks dark.

2/21 Bali Hai (Thailand ????) no MDL listing, only rumors, unsure on deets.

2/27 Secret Relationships (Korea iQIYI) - Stars Wei's Kim Jun Seo. Adapted by Cradle Studio (Kakao). About clever and resourceful Daon who has worked hard to overcome being poor. His cheap ways annoy his coworker, Sunghyeon but after “an incident” with his parents, Daon grows closer to him. But Daon also has feelings for his former tutor. This has the signs of a classic Kdrama all over it: Office setting, love triangle, lead suffering for his self-actualization. I’m optimistic about a longer treatment.

2025 Line Up

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Such beautiful surrender (Your Sky).

Yeah all the build up for some great payout, thanks ThamePo.

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[kaz-dekadent]

viktor x male reader

i saw two or more authors writing vik sniffing underwear so I will hop onto that bandwagon and write it too, and of course I will be the contrarian and do it differently

cw: humping, degradation, underwear sniffing, using vik's cane to restrain him. i wrote it in like 5 minutes and haven't proofread this and I don't even know if it's correct english

You felt your hands being dirty – something ugly was crawling under them. You left whatever you were doing and went to the bathroom, where you knew your roommate was doing laundry.

You opened the door and you saw him. A sight of him not doing laundry, but something so gross and pretty at the same time. Wearing just a shirt – your dirty band shirt –  and a pair of white boxers. His legs split between a pile of underwear, as he was humping it and moaning your name. And he was holding your white boxers close to his sweet face, with eyes closed and dirty material pressed to his nose.

You entered the bathroom quietly, almost on your tips, then turned the tap on so gently the water wouldn’t make a noise. As you were wiping the water off, Viktor cried out a moan, that otherwise would sound like he was hurting.

Without making a noise, you took his cane into your hand, then lifted up his chin with it. Viktor’s golden eyes opened in fear, and he became almost red. He squeaked, trying to get up and run far away. Until his eyes flinched in terror, as he realized he couldn’t.

He covered his face with his hands.

“Ah, ah, ah. No hiding yourself like that,” you said with a condescending smile, hitting his palms with his own cane.

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” he squeaked.

“For what?” You said, holding the cane with both hands. “Tell me, Viki, why did you sniff my boxers?”

“I was checking if they’re dirty.”

“In such position?” You scanned him with your eyes. “For God’s sake, Viktor, just say you want to suck me off. Do you want to suck the cock of your roommate?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me, what were you thinking about when you were sniffing my dirty boxers?”

“Of you.”

“And what I was doing?”

“Fucking me in front of Jayce, in the lab. Until I cried.”

“Tomorrow, okay? Now take me, you made me hard.” You said, unbuckling your pants. You took your length out of tour underwear.

Viktor was already dripping drool. He wiped it off his chin. Then you threw his cane back to the floor and grabbed his wrists, putting them up.

“Finally.” He said, looking up at you with a filthy gaze.

[luxuki-1]

Yes finally! Expressing my love of "robot sentience" sci-fi!

Watched I, Robot the other night (which is a pretty good movie, I recommend) and I think it's obvious that DBH took some inspiration from this movie which is awesome. Of course there are some differences in story but if you like DBH you'd like I, Robot.

(I mean really, Lt. Anderson; hates androids because of mysterious past, investigates homicides involving androids & Detective Spooner; hates robots because of mysterious past, investigates a su**ide involving a robot)

Side note cause I thought it was funny: (spoliers) When I was watching the movie, I turned to my mom as soon as VIKI was introduced and said that VIKI was going to be like GLaDOS isn't she? I CAN SEE THESE TWISTS COMING A MILE AWAY I WAS RIGHT

[emotionallychargedtowel]

subtitle translation, language-centricity, and what support should or shouldn't look like in an LGBTQ+ fan space

I have some thoughts on the discussion that has erupted based on a post by @watchthisqqq regarding Gaga's announced plan to expand their use of AI subtitles. The thread of replies on that post is getting long, though, so I thought starting a post of my own was the way to go.

To summarize the discussion so far:

A lot of folks have made important points already. @twig-tea clarified the announcement, raised concerns about the precedent it sets, but pointed out that it's a good thing they're being transparent. @italianpersonwithashippersheart pointed out that more information on the way the AI in question was trained and its energy usage would be important in order to gauge its impact and that making content accessible across more languages is, of course, important as well. @my-rose-tinted-glasses noted that there's significant reason to believe Gaga has already used AI subs previously and noted that it's reasonable for consumers not to want to patronize a business that doesn't make offering decent subs in their language a priority. @lurkingshan noted that competing platforms are already using AI subs as well and reported seeing other calls for action against Gaga that didn't seem proportional given the much larger companies that engage in the same practices people criticize Gaga for, including the use of AI subs. @wei-ying-kexing-apologist noted that Viki's use of volunteer-based subtitles is also a questionable business practice, suggested communicating with Gaga directly about this issue made more sense than considering a boycott, and noted MDL's apparent exclusion of references to Gaga as evidence of a lack of respect for the platform in fandom.

Before I start talking about my own viewpoint here, I want to stress that I think there's very little actual disagreement happening here. I think all of the points of view I mentioned above could actually be consistent with one another if framed in the right way. Everyone involved in this conversation so far has very similar values and goals. We're all supportive of the work Gaga does and none of us take the idea of being critical of them lightly, much less taking action that could prove harmful to them.

First off, I agree that taking action to start some kind of boycott effort is premature at best. I also hear the sound arguments people are making against engaging in a boycott even if other efforts to influence Gaga on this issue end up failing. I wouldn't fault @watchthisqqq for simply mentioning the possibility, however. I thought they made it clear in their post that they were still at the stage of considering potential action and inviting input on how best to pursue that, not putting forward a defined plan or making a call to action.

I think we should keep in mind that just mentioning the word "boycott" is not likely to harm a business. Boycotts are notoriously difficult to put into action. Even if a campaign to boycott Gaga were justified and advisable, it wouldn't be likely to gain many participants or yield significant results. At the same time, when we take any sort of action to try to change the business practices of some kind of corporate entity, the fact that we have the power to take our business elsewhere is always a part of that, whether it's spoken or not. Even filling out a comment form to state our opposition to the use of AI subtitles is an action that only has the potential to make an impact because Gaga, like any business, knows that keeping customers happy is necessary if they're going to maintain, much less gain, a certain number of subscribers. In other words, the potential threat of losing business is inevitably part of any attempt on the part of consumers to change a business's practices whether the word "boycott" is used or not.

I agree with @wei-ying-kexing-apologist that Viki should be paying their subtitlers and that not doing so is not a sound or optimally ethical business practice. That being said, I think it takes agency away from the volunteers who work on Viki subs unjustifiably if we don't acknowledge that they choose freely to participate in creating subtitles and doubtless get a great deal of satisfaction from that participation. As someone who has worked on a fansub myself, I can attest that when you care enough about a piece of media to put in the necessary effort to create or co-create subtitles, what you want more than anything is for those subtitles to make that piece of media accessible to the broadest possible audience while maintaining accuracy toward the source material. One of the biggest differences between making a fansub and volunteering to create subs for Viki is that in the latter case, someone is profiting from the work of subtitlers. And that's absolutely important. But another salient difference is the fact that Viki subs reach a much wider audience than any fansub possibly could, which again is something that is of great value to those of us who create subtitles out of love for a particular show. I have actually considered participating in Viki's crowdsourced subtitle projects myself because of the potential impact they have. There's a lot more we could say about this complex topic, and maybe it's worthy of its own discussion. But personally, I don't think it's comparable to using AI subs for a multitude of reasons, including environmental impact and the resulting quality of the subs.

@wei-ying-kexing-apologist also made an interesting observation about Gaga being omitted from MDL listings as a streaming source in their post. I'm not entirely convinced that it's germane to this discussion. But I do think it's important to note, so I devoted a separate post to talking about it.

I think @lurkingshan's point about other services' use of AI subs is important to keep in mind. We should be taking care to apply criteria consistently. I'm not surprised that this need would stand out to a fellow social scientist like Shan, since we've had that kind of consistency drilled into us as an integral part of any legitimate effort to learn about the world. That said, I don't think this point necessarily in any way lessens the importance of responding to Gaga's AI announcement (not that I think Shan is saying that either). I'm going to circle back to this point a bit later.

I want to particularly highlight what @my-rose-tinted-glasses wrote about her experiences with Gaga's existing subtitles and her strong belief that they are already using AI-generated material. This is especially important to pay attention to as it is something that's highly likely to be invisible to those of us who are native English speakers unless we are highly fluent in another language and watch shows with subtitles in that language.

I don't know firsthand what it's like to be involved in the tumblr QL community as someone for whom English is a second (or third, fourth, etc.) language. But I've noticed that my friends who fall into this category rarely mention that fact in their posts and tend not to bring it up in private conversations until I've gotten to know them rather well. I even have some tumblr mutuals I consider real friends who have never specified what country they're from or reside in currently. (And I don't ask! If they want to tell me, they will.)

There are exceptions to this, of course. Some folks who aren't native Anglophones are very upfront about where they're from. But it's something I've seen a lot, enough that I started making a specific effort not to assume English is someone's first language or that they live in an Anglophone country unless and until that's confirmed (something I realize now I shouldn't have been doing in the first place). I've also noticed that even when folks mention that they're from a non-English speaking country, they often avoid mentioning which one specifically. That's their right, naturally. I don't mean to imply that anyone should be obligated to do so. But I think it raises the possibility that people might be concerned that they'll be scrutinized, judged, stereotyped, or pigeonholed if they mention their home country/country of origin. If that is a concern, it's probably based on their lived experience and not something to be taken lightly. As a result, I'm pretty sure that the issues with subtitles in non-English languages on sites like Gaga aren't as likely to be discussed in spaces where native Anglophones tend to dominate the space as they would be under different circumstances, even when the people in question are fluent English speakers who are more than capable of discussing those issues with us in English.

Of course, native Anglophone folks like myself don't just get to take up more space in places like the tumblr QL fan community. We also get our subtitle needs prioritized again and again. As with most forms of privilege, we didn't ask to be given this status, but we still have it and benefit from it and have an obligation to do everything we can to make things more equitable for those who don't share that status. Another way that this resembles other forms of privilege is the fact that it's largely invisible to us unless we make a point of looking for it. Occasionally circumstances will highlight it. For example, sometimes fansubs in other languages pop up for a new show while English ones don't. We might be tempted to complain before it dawns on us that we're just briefly being put in a position that non-Anglophone folks are put in on a constant basis.

I find it highly likely that English subtitles are not only more widely available but also, on average, more likely to be of decent quality. It's not hard to see how, as @my-rose-tinted-glasses's post suggests, English subtitles would also be less likely to be obviously AI-generated. For this reason, I think the native Anglophone folks among us need to be really wary of basing any assumptions about subtitles, whether it relates to quality, the likelihood AI was used in their production, or other matters, on our experiences with English subs—unless, of course, we confine ourselves to commenting on our experiences as English speakers only.

Getting back to what @my-rose-tinted-glasses said: I trust Rose's judgment on this, particularly since she has said that she has a high degree of certainty in this case. If, as she contends, Gaga is already using AI subs, what appeared to be praiseworthy transparency in their recent announcement is...not so praiseworthy. Some transparency is better than none, certainly. But if they make an announcement like this without noting current or past AI use, it's somewhat dishonest by omission.

I said above that I would come back to the point @lurkingshan made about comparing Gaga to other streaming services and her observation that she has seen people seemingly holding Gaga to a more stringent standard than other services, including calls to boycott. I don't want to detract from her salient point about consistency. There's no point in trying to engage in anything resembling "ethical consumption" if we aren't consistent in how we apply our criteria. It would clearly be indefensible to suggest that any action, whether in the form of a boycott or something else, be taken against Gaga for doing the same things other services do while ignoring their harmful practices.

But there's another side of this, I think. Gaga's specific mission to offer LGBTQ+ content and their status as a Taiwan-based business are both salient reasons to support them. I want to be very clear here: I don't think anyone involved in the subtitle discussion has advocated unwavering, unqualified support for GagaOOLaLa or suggested lowering our standards where they are concerned. But I do think that there's a temptation in conversations like this one, that kind of hangs around under the surface, to feel protective toward an explicitly LGBTQIA-oriented business in a way that could make it hard to criticize them. And falling prey to that would be a real mistake.

I believe that Gaga's commitment to the LGBTQ+ community is sincere and that the value they place on community voices is the best possible reason to support them. But their alliance with the community isn't a reason to spare them criticism. I actually think that in some ways, as long as we aren't engaging in the kind of inconsistency Shan cautions us against, it makes sense to hold them to a higher standard than we would other streaming services. This is partly because if they want our loyalty as members of the queer community they owe it to us to act in consistency with our values. That's not so different from our reasons for holding other services accountable. But I think it may be part of the reason queer community members are sometimes more unsparing when it comes to Gaga than bigger, more faceless corporations. The results can still be misguided, but I think the impulse is understandable.

But what's more important, I think, is that just as we would speak up if a friend was making a harmful choice, we owe it to organizations we value to speak out when we think they're headed in the wrong direction. Personally, I'd like to see efforts to push back against Gaga's AI usage framed more in those terms.

[victoria-but-ashamed]

You can't just say your name is Viki, you have to say it in the ditziest voice possible and maybe strike a slutty e-girl pose like sticking your tongue out with your eyes crossed. Really let them know the real you, the real you of course being what men choose for you

HECK,,, god,,,,i ,,love leaning into pick me stereotypes so much....i ,,,genuinenly wear pink cat ear headphones 24/7 when im out in public allread so this really whouldnt help,,,fuck id be so ashamed,,,,,......the pose whould probably be stickiing my tounge out with eyes crossed and doing double peace signs with my hands

im such a pickme,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[halliescomut]

Love Sky to Love Sea connection

Alright, so I was going over everything following the news that our beloved FortPeat are going to be the main couple in a new show for Mame.

And if you have been partaking in Mame BLs for a while, you may be aware that all of her novels and the shows that are based on them have existed in the same universe up until this point (a la the MCU). Following the creation of MeMindY she has not cast previous actors from her shows into new roles, instead having them return in cameos as the universe progressed forward.

It's easy to understand why she would choose this moment to recast FortPeat (and very likely BossNouel, but that confirmation will come in a couple of days). The chief reason of course being money, Love in the Air was arguably one of her most successful series, equaled only by TharnType. This is due to the stories, the performances, and also just luck of timing. The boom of BL shows for international audiences, from what I can tell, occurred in late 2021 - early 2022, with shows like Cutie Pie and Kinnporsche (and the impeccable chemistry presented in both) being some of the most common first forays into BL. I have only assumptions and inferences as to why this is, I think the popularity of shows like Love Victor and HeartStopper on streaming services led more people to essentially google more queer media, and found that there is a rather awesome amount being produced in Thailand, but in South East Asia and East Asia altogether. I also know a number of people were on the K-Drama to BL pipeline, assisted by Netflix and Viki. But back to my point, generally I think the popularity of MewGulf and JaFirst locally, or at least within SEA is fairly equal, but the inclusion of a much larger international audience at the time when Love in the Air came out has created a level of popularity that I don't think Mame expected.

I think another very valid reason why Love in the Air is incredibly popular is that while it exhibits some of her 'classic Mame' tropes like histories and instances of SA, and her ever-present 'No Kink', it is arguably one of the less problematic stories that we've seen on screen so far form her. (And this is coming from someone who actually likes a lot of Mame's stories, though I'd imagine my affection for brat-type characters is a leading cause of this.) This means that for many viewers for whom this was a first foray into Mame's universe and characters were not being immediately put off by some of the more problematic scenes and storylines presented in previous shows.

Mame has most certainly observed the potential for success in recasting these well-liked actors/pairs in other companies, top of said list being pairs like ZeeNunew, EarthMix, FirstKhaotung, and many others. So to take a pair whose chemistry and ease onset is equal to those and cast them in a new role, while breaking a previously established 'rule' is certainly a choice where the potential benefits far outweigh the risk. Literally the only 'risk' is potential confusion from those that are aware of the fact that ALL of Mame's work exists in a single universe, which if you came in on the LITA train is not likely to be something you would know. You may know of the clear connection to Sailom and Nuea presented in Wedding Plan, but connections to the further universe beyond LITA are limited to two rather small cameos that even I didn't pick up on immediately. (These cameos being the brief appearance of the twins and Leon from Don't Say No.)

So, I wanted to give an idea of what exactly is the connection between their existing LITA characters, but also the kind of show why it's really not going to be as big of a deal as far as causing confusion. This is a diagram of the existing Mame universe in terms of her novels, I've updated it as needed to include the connections to Prapai and adding in the Love Sea story as well. I have included a link to the original as well.

I've placed stars for the LoveSky/LoveStorm stories and then added ones by Love Sea and The Boy Next World (which we anticipate to star Boss and Noeul). Because the universe is so large, it is a bit confusing, so I did break it down into more simplified connections.

Hearts represent romantic relationships and the dashes are platonic. most of them are just friendships of various types, though Tharn and Pookan are cousins. But as you can see there is at least 5 people between the characters in LITA and the actors' new characters. So even in-universe the likelihood of these characters ever meeting would be slim, but beyond that the connection of LITA to the over-arching Love by Chance universe is pretty tenuous as previously mentioned.

In the case specifically of Love Sea, this is an unpublished novel, so it's possible Mame will remove or choose to leave out any mentions to the greater universe (meaning either changing the name of Kom's character if he is present in the scripted version, or leaving him out altogether). In the case of The Boy Next World, Pookan is related to Tharn, but let's be honest, do we really expect Mew to show up in a cameo? He's already moved on from Mame, TT, and the MewGulf ship. At best we may get fanservice in the way of a name drop, and it's possible we could see other characters from TT, but I'm skeptical. Since Pookan barely shows up in TT at all, the better option, especially with the passage of time since the first season of TT came out, is to have him be Tharn's cousin, but have him attending university after Tharn has graduated. And that's really only if you want to include that connection, you really don't have to. Given the amount of detail that we get about secondary characters in a lot of these shows, it wouldn't really be that difficult to simply rename any characters that cross over into the greater universe because there's just not going to be enough specific detail to really connect them.

I did also want to include the small amount that we know about Fort and Peat's new characters. We of course don't have much information yet, but there was some crumbs dropped at the recent fanmeet and appearances.

Their characters are Mahasamut(Fort) and Tongrak(Peat). Mahasamut is the son of a hotel owner who after a falling out is now living on his own. It looks as though he is quite young, along the same age of Fort IRL, and he is working as a tour guide to support himself. He is someone who is, I would say, likely lower income, and he's very ambitious and at this current time his goal is to kind of amass a certain amount of savings. He is running his own company as a tour guide and is considered very popular among foreigners both because he can speak good English but also because he is very charismatic. The information given at the fanmeet also includes that he has a diving certificate and is also good at fighting. How that will come up in the story, I don't know.😂

If their hints are to be believed, these characters will be in the same age dynamic as Fort and Peat meaning that Peat's character Tongrak will be older than Fort's character. Tongrak is a writer, specifically of romance novels. He is wealthy, though it is unclear if that is through his career or familial wealth. There's a strange emphasis on how beautiful he is, but in fairness Peat does very accurately fill that criteria. It also says that he does not talk about having a partner, he goes his own way, tends to be a loner. And this is with the implication that this is a result of past negative romantic experiences. Because Mame is who she is, there's also a possibility that part of his solitude is the result of past violence from a previous partner. Fort and Peat did state that they felt the story for this series is more challenging than Love Sky (which honestly scares me a little). But out of all of the stories Mame has told so far, I did feel that Sky's story was handled the best, so hopefully that trend continues.

It's not clear currently if Mame will be directing this series as well, previously she has only directed Wedding Plan, while all of her other series, even those produced by MMY did have other hired directors. We can see from the behind the scenes footage that even with a separate director, Mame was heavily involved in the filming, so her touch will be there regardless.

As far as further timelines, based on past series it is usually about 5-6 months from announcement of a series (and the cast) to the premiere of said series. It does depend on many different variables. The length of the show being one, as well as the level of difficulty. LITA was a more complex series with some pretty large set pieces (the night time races) and more complex scenes in terms of filming (the Stop and Payu race) in comparison to Wedding Plan. Since we don't have a published novel to study and theorize about potential scenes and the difficulties of filming, I can't really give much insight. I will say that the specific inclusion of the fact that Mahasamut holds a diving certification could indicate some diving/underwater filmed scenes. While those are not necessarily super complex, they can be time consuming, require special permits, are very weather dependent, and would require special filming equipment. I also very sincerely hope that if Mame does venture in that direction that she will also make sure that specialists with the necessary expertise are on set to maintain the safety of both the cast and crew. I know what the requirements are in western media, but not in Thailand. What all this boils down to though is that I would not expect the series to premiere earlier than February, and I'd put my bets on March. It's possible she may film a special trailer like she did with LITA, and if that happens, then we may see footage in late November or December, if not I expect a trailer after the New Year. A lot of this actively depends on when we get confirmation that filming has started.

I did also want to note, that while we expect Boss and Noeul to be the leads for The Boy Next World, since she is announcing that after Love Sea, I'm also expecting that to be filmed after Love Sea, even though we suspected that BNW was on the docket way back in March, Boss is still attached to Zomvivor with Mandee/Domundi, which could begin filming this fall, though that's not fully confirmed, it's based on the schedule presented at their look-aheads last year and what has already filmed and aired. But my point is that Boss may not be free to commit to the filming of BNW for a couple of months. There's a lot of variables that go into it.

But anyway...I hope this little rundown/update was helpful. If you have questions and I can answer them, my asks are open.

[coquelicoq]

Jiang Li's family tree and familial terms of address in The Double

I'm making this guide for my own reference because there were several family relationships in The Double that I misinterpreted at first based on how they were translated in the English subs, so I've gone back and compared to the Chinese subs. I'm also hoping it will be helpful to people wanting to write fic in English! What little I know about Chinese terms of address has largely been gleaned from other tumblr users' posts predating this show, and I'll link to my sources.

The only significant potential spoiler is some basic biographical information about Jiang Li’s older sibling, who is not directly mentioned until episode 26 but whose existence can be inferred from the fact that Jiang Li is referred to as Second Lady Jiang.

I am basing all of this solely on the drama, not the novel it was adapted from.

Apologies in advance for any inconsistencies in the pinyin punctuation (hyphen vs. apostrophe vs. space vs. smooshed together); it varies widely across sources and I don't think I have a clear enough understanding of the nuances to be confident I'm being consistent in applying the conventions, but I'm including the hanzi as well as an English translation (if the translation is in quotation marks it’s from the subs, usually Viki but not always). Also apologies if I messed up any of the hanzi. I welcome corrections and insights from those with more knowledge!!

I'm referring to Jiang Li in the present tense here for convenience, but since she's dead for the majority of the show, when I say "Jiang Li calls so-and-so xyz," of course it's almost always actually Xue Fangfei acting as Jiang Li who's doing that.

Each image is of that character's first appearance, when the hanzi for their name is given. The hanzi and any other caption are transcribed in alt text.

Jiang Li

Jiang Li (姜梨), aka Jiang Ruoyu (姜若雨), is the second child and second daughter of Jiang Yuanbai. She’s his only child with his first wife, Ye Zhenzhen.

According to this title card, her given name is Ruoyu and her courtesy name is A'Li (阿梨). This means that in this universe, people are given courtesy names in childhood rather than upon maturity. No one ever calls her or refers to her as Ruoyu that I noticed.

She is 18 or thereabouts (she was sent away from the family 10 years ago at age 8) when she dies at the beginning of the series.

She was accused of fratricide and attempted matricide at age 8 when she was blamed for her stepmother's miscarriage.

Sometimes in the subs she's referred to as the eldest daughter or the firstborn. For instance, when Ji Shuran says in episode 7 梨儿终究是我��嫡女, the Viki subs give "Li'er is the firstborn." Another example is in episode 5; someone in the crowd at Jiang Ruoyao's coming-of-age ceremony refers to Jiang Li as Jiang Yuanbai's 嫡长之女, which Viki translates as "eldest daughter". I think this might be a mistranslation. The character 嫡, di, means "legal wife" or "child of legal wife" and also is one of the characters in the title of the novel The Double was based on, 嫡嫁千金 (Marriage of the Di Daughter). (The other relevant character in the above examples is 女, nü, meaning daughter.) She's not the eldest daughter, but she is the eldest legitimate daughter (born to a legal wife rather than a concubine). In episode 6, Jiang Li refers to herself as 嫡女, and that time it's translated as "legitimate daughter" (Jiang Ruoyao also refers to herself as the same thing in episode 26, and it's "legitimate daughter" there as well). In episodes 26 and 32, Jiang Li is referred to as 姜家的嫡娘子, translated as "legitimate daughter of the Jiang family".

As the second daughter of a noble family, she is referred to outside the family as Jiang-er'niangzi (姜二娘子, “Second Lady Jiang”, or sometimes translated as "Miss Jiang"). Family servants call her niangzi or er’niangzi (translated in direct address as "My Lady" or "Miss Jiang"). (Note that Tong'er calls Jiang Li niangzi but tends to call Xue Fangfei jiejie (姐姐, older sister) when they're alone.)

Her younger sister Jiang Ruoyao and younger cousin Jiang Yu'e call her er'jie (二姐, older sister, second in the birth order; subs translate this as "Second Sister" or, more often, “Li” even though they’re not actually using her name at all) or er'jiejie. Her younger brother Jiang Bingji calls her jiejie; Jiang Ruoyao also sometimes calls her jiejie.

People in her family who are older than her call her A'Li (阿梨]) or Li'er (梨儿). A'Li, according to her title card, is her courtesy name, but "A" and "er" are also affectionate/familiar prefixes often used in families. Most people who call her one of these things (including Xue Fangfei, her paternal family, her mother, and her mom’s friend Liu-furen) call her Li’er, while her maternal family (other than her mother) tends to call her A’Li.

Her paternal grandmother calls her Li'er, haizi (孩子, child), and er’yatou (二丫头, literally second girl). The latter two are generally given in the subs as Li or Li’er.

Her aunt (her father’s younger brother’s wife) calls her wo de hao zhinü (我的好侄女, “my dear niece”) at one point when she's feeling particularly appreciative.

Her older maternal cousin Ye Shijie calls her/refers to her as Jiang Li initially, then as they become closer starts calling her both Li’er and A’Li, though I noticed him using Li’er more often. He also calls her biaomei (表妹, younger female maternal cousin, maternal meaning you're related through your mother and/or her mother; in this case, Jiang Li's mother is his father's sister), as does her other maternal cousin, Ye Jia'er.

Her older paternal cousin Jiang Jingrui calls her Jiang Li. As they become closer, he starts calling her A’Li or Li’er.

Her school friend Liu Xu calls her Jiang Li in the earlier episodes and A'Li as they become closer.

She refers to herself (that is, Xue Fangfei refers to Jiang Li and/or herself-as-Jiang-Li) as Li’er or A'Li.

Note that while some people close to Jiang Li call her A'Li (阿梨), when Su-guogong calls (Xue Fangfei as) Jiang Li A'Li, the Chinese subs use 阿狸 (different "li" character). They are pronounced identically, but the latter is the way that Xue Fangfei’s given name, Xue Li, is written (薛狸).

Paternal family (Jiang jia 姜家)

Parents

Jiang Yuanbai (姜元柏) is the current head of the noble Jiang family and a high-ranking minister in the imperial court.

His title is Jiang-xiangguo 姜相国, translated as "Grand Chancellor" or "Secretariat Director", depending on the subs.

Xiangguo is a more general honorific that is used for some other ministers as well. His position more specifically seems to be zhongshuling (中书令, “Secretariat Director” or “Chief Secretary”) and taishi (太师, “Grand Preceptor”).

The emperor calls him (and other officials) qing (卿, noble, minister). He also refers to him at least once as laoshi (老师, teacher).

Servants call him zhujun (主君, translated as “my lord” in direct address and "master" in reference).

Jiang Li calls him fuqin (父亲, formal term for "father"). I don't think Xue-Fangfei-as-Jiang-Li ever calls him die (爹, less formal term for "father") at any point, but he refers to himself as diedie a couple times.

His brothers call him da’ge (大哥, older brother, first in the birth order). His sister-in-law (Jiang Yuanping's wife) also calls him da'ge.

Jiang Jingrui and Jiang Yu'e call him da’bofu (大伯父, father’s older brother, first in the birth order, "Uncle") or just bofu.

Hi wife Ji Shuran calls him fujun (夫君, husband).

Ye Shijie calls him Jiang-bofu (“Uncle Jiang”) a couple times in the late episodes.

He and his brothers share a generation name (one shared character in the given name of each descendant of the same generation), 元, yuan. However, they don’t appear to have continued the tradition in the next generation, because Jiang Jingrui's and Jiang Bingji's names don't share a character. At first I thought at least the girls' names shared a character, because Jiang Li (whose given name is Ruoyu) and her sister Ruoyao both have 若, Ruo, but their older sister and their uncle’s daughter don’t have that character in their names.

Ye Zhenzhen (叶珍珍) was Jiang Li's mother.

She died when Jiang Li was a baby, at least six months after giving birth.

She was Jiang Yuanbai's furen (夫人), his official wife (as opposed to a concubine).

When Jiang Li talks about her, she refers to her as a'niang (阿娘, mother) or shengmu (生母, birth mother).

Xue Fangfei addresses her as Ye-furen in her head/when praying to her.

Her younger brother Ye Mingyu calls her Zhenzhen-jie (珍珍姐).

Ji Shuran (季淑然) is Jiang Li's stepmother.

She is Jiang Yuanbai's current furen. Jiang Yuanbai married her after Ye Zhenzhen died.

She's over 30 and probably under 40.

She's the mother of Jiang Ruoyao and Jiang Bingji, who call her niang. Jiang Ruoyao sometimes calls her or refers to her as muqin (母亲, formal term for "mother").

She's referred to as Jiang-furen (姜夫人, “Madam Jiang”) by those outside the family (women keep their own surname when they get married, but when honorifics are used, they're attached to the husband's surname). At one point she refers to herself as Jiang jia de zhumu (姜家的主母, "madam of the Jiang family").

Her husband and the family servants call her furen.

Jiang Li calls her muqin. In flashbacks, young Jiang Li calls her niang. She’s sometimes referred to as Jiang Li’s houmu (后母, stepmother).

Consort Li, her younger sister, calls her jiejie.

The Marquis of Ningyuan calls her xiangguo-furen (xiangguo being her husband’s court honorific).

Jiang Jingrui calls her da’bomu (大伯母, wife of da’bofu) and sometimes refers to her as Ji Shuran when talking about her to Jiang Li. Jiang Yu'e calls her bomu ("Auntie Shuran").

Jiang Yuanping, her husband's younger brother, calls her saozi (嫂子, sister-in-law). Jiang Yuanxing, her husband's other younger brother, refers to her as da’sao (大嫂, “Eldest Sister-in-law”).

Before her marriage, as the eldest child/daughter of the Ji family, she was called Ji-da’niangzi.

Paternal grandparents

Jiang Yuanbai's mother is referred to as Jiang-lao'furen (姜老夫人, "old Madam Jiang").

She was Jiang Yuanbai’s father's furen. Her husband also had at least one concubine.

Jiang Li and her siblings and paternal cousins call her zumu (祖母, father's mother, "Grandmother").

Her two biological sons and Jiang Yuanxing, her husband's son from a concubine, call her muqin. Jiang Yuanxing’s wife also calls her muqin.

Members of her household, including servants and her daughters-in-law, refer to her as lao’furen (“Old Madam”). Her daughter-in-law Ji Shuran also addresses her as lao’furen (translated as “Madam Jiang”).

[Not pictured because he never appears onscreen] Jiang Yuanbai's father, who's deceased, is referred to a few times.

Tong’er refers to him as Jiang-lao’taigong (姜老太公, “Old Master Jiang”).

Jiang Li refers to him as zufu (祖父, “Grandfather”).

His widow refers to him as taigong (太公, grandfather, “Old Master Jiang”). She addresses him as lao’Jiang at one point.

Paternal aunts and uncles

Jiang Yuanping (姜元平) is Jiang Yuanbai's younger brother from the same mother and father.

Jiang Li calls him er'shu (二叔, father’s younger brother, second in the birth order; “ Second Uncle Jiang”).

His son Jiang Jingrui calls him die (爹, "Father").

Jiang Yuanping’s wife's surname is Lu (卢).

Jiang Li calls her er'shumu (二叔母, wife of er'shu; “Second Auntie Lu”). Interestingly, all the tumblr guides I’ve seen say the wife of your father’s younger brother would be shenmu, not shumu, but she is clearly saying shu according to the subs, and shumu is in the dictionary.

Her husband Jiang Yuanping calls her furen (translated as "My Lady" or "my dear").

Her son JIang Jingrui calls her niang ("Mother").

Jiang Yuanxing (姜元兴) is Jiang Yuanbai's younger half-brother; they have the same dad, but his mom was their dad's concubine.

Jiang Li calls him san'shu (三叔, father’s younger brother, third in the birth order; “Third Uncle Jiang”).

His daughter Jiang Yu’e calls him die and fuqin.

His eldest brother Jiang Yuanbai calls him Yuanxing and refers to him as Yuanxing and san’di (third younger brother).

He calls himself (and other people call him) shuzi (庶子, bastard, translated as "concubine's son").

A servant calls him 主家 (zhu jia, which Viki translates as “Master”).

There’s at least one instance in which he’s referred to outside the family as Jiang jia lao'san (姜家老三, “Third Master Jiang”).

Jiang Yuanxing’s wife's surname is Yang (杨).

Jiang Lu calls her san'shumu (三叔母, wife of san'shu; “Third Auntie Yang”).

Her husband Jiang Yuanxing calls her gunainai (姑奶奶, aunt, translated as “my dear”).

Her daughter Jiang Yu’e calls her niang and muqin.

Her husband’s older brother refers to her as san’mei (三妹, third younger sister; in context, he’s talking about both her and her husband and says “san’di san’mei”, translated as “Yuanxing and his wife”).

Siblings

Jiang Yue (姜月) is Jiang Yuanbai’s oldest child and Jiang Li’s older sister. She was born to a maid (so, not the furen). This means that while she is the oldest child, she's not the oldest "legitimate" child.

She’s not directly mentioned until episode 26, so I won’t say anything else about her, to avoid spoilers.

Jiang Ruoyao (姜若瑶) is Ji Shuran's oldest child, Jiang Li's younger sister, and the third child and third daughter of Jiang Yuanbai.

She can't be much younger than Jiang Li, possibly two years younger at most would be my guess? They don't ever specify her age. She has a coming of age ceremony in one of the early episodes.

Her parents call her Yao’er.

Her older sister Jiang Li calls her san'mei (三妹, literally "third younger sister", which refers to her position in the birth order as the third daughter of the Jiang family, rather than meaning that she's the third youngest of Jiang Li's younger sisters (Jiang Li only has one younger sister), translated as "Third Sister").

Her younger paternal cousin Jiang Yu’e calls her san’jie (三姐, older sister, third in the birth order, translated as “Third Sister”).

Her paternal grandmother calls her Ruoyao and san’yatou (三丫头, literally "third girl").

Those outside the family call her Jiang-san'niangzi (姜三娘子, “Third Lady Jiang”). Family servants call her niangzi or san’niangzi.

Jiang Bingji (姜丙吉) is Ji Shuran's second child, Jiang Li's younger brother, and the fourth child and only son of Jiang Yuanbai.

He was born after Ji Shuran’s miscarriage (source: he refers to the fetus as gege (哥哥, older brother), meaning it would have been born before him). This means he’s less than 10 years old, since the miscarriage/Jiang Li’s exile was 10 years ago.

Jiang Li doesn't have a lot of interaction with him, but in his intro she calls him didi (弟弟, little brother).

His parents call him Bingji and his paternal grandmother calls him Bingji or xiao��Bingji (小, xiao, is a diminutive meaning "young" or "small").

Family servants call him xiao'gongzi (小公子, "Young Master").

Paternal cousins

Jiang Jingrui (姜景睿) is Jiang Yuanping's son.

Xue Fangfei calls him tangxiong (堂兄, older paternal male cousin, i.e., son of father’s brother, older than her) the first time they meet, which causes him to accuse her of not being Jiang Li because it's too formal. Jiang Yu’e also calls him tangxiong.

Jiang Li's childhood nickname for him was xiao'Ruirui (小睿睿). In the present she mostly calls him Jiang Jingrui.

His parents call him Rui’er.

Liu Xu refers to him as Jiang Li’s gege (哥哥, older brother). He refers to himself as gege when telling Jiang Li to listen to him.

Those outside the family call him Jiang-gongzi (姜公子, “Mr. Jiang”). Tong’er calls him da’langjun (大郎君, “Young Master”).

Jiang Yu'e (姜玉娥) is Jiang Yuanxing's daughter.

She has a lower position in the family because her dad's mom was not the furen but a concubine.

Her parents call her nü’er (女儿, daughter) and Yu’e.

Her paternal grandmother refers to her as si’yatou (四丫头, literally "fourth girl") and Yu’e.

She and Jiang Li refer to each other (and others refer to them) as sisters (Jiang Li calls her si'mei (四妹, younger sister, fourth in the birth order, "Fourth Sister") and she calls Jiang Li er'jie), but they're actually cousins; their dads are brothers.

Jiang Jingrui also calls her si’mei.

As the fourth daughter of the Jiang family (though again, not the fourth daughter of Jiang Yuanbei; she's the fourth girl born to the previous generation of Jiang sons), I think prior to her marriage she would be addressed by those outside the family as Jiang-si’niangzi (姜四娘子, “Fourth Lady Jiang”), but I can't remember if we see any examples of this.

After she gets married, servants call her furen or niangzi.

Jiang family servants

Tong’er (桐儿) is Jiang Li’s maid.

Sun-mama (孙妈妈, “senior maidservant Sun” or "Madam Sun") is Ji Shuran’s maid.

Ji Shuran calls her Jindai (锦黛) at least once. Perhaps this is her given name?

[Not pictured because I never saw a title card for her] Zhang-popo (张婆婆, “maidservant Zhang”) is Jiang-lao’furen’s maid.

[Not pictured because I never saw a title card for her] Jinhua (金花) is Jiang Ruoyao’s maid.

Maternal family (Ye jia 叶家)

Maternal grandmother

Ye Zhenzhen’s mother is referred to as Ye-lao’furen (叶老夫人, “Old Madam Ye” or “Old Mrs. Ye”).

Jiang Li calls her wai’zumu (外祖母, mother’s mother, “Grandmother”).

Ye Jia’er calls her zumu (祖母, father's mother, "Grandmother").

Her son Ye Mingxuan refers to her as lao’furen and calls her muqin.

Her son Ye Mingyu calls her and refers to her as niang.

Her daughter-in-law, Ye Mingxuan's wife, refers to her as lao’taitai (老太太, literally “old lady”, translated as “Old Madam”).

Maternal aunts and uncles

[Not pictured because he never appears onscreen] Ye Zhenzhen's oldest brother, who is deceased, is mentioned, though not by name. He is Ye Shijie's father.

Since his brothers share the first character in their names (明, ming), it seems like they might have a generation name, so it’s likely his name also began with that character.

His younger brother Ye Mingyu refers to him and his wife as da’ge da’sao (大哥大嫂, oldest brother and wife of oldest brother, translated as “my brother and his wife”).

Ye Mingxuan (叶明轩) is Ye Zhenzhen's brother, the second oldest son in the family.

Ye Mingxuan’s older brother and father are dead, making him the current head of the family.

Jiang Li calls him er'jiu (二舅, mother’s brother, second in the birth order, translated as "Second Uncle").

It’s unclear if he’s Ye Zhenzhen’s older or younger brother. It's impossible to tell from what Jiang Li calls him, because the term for a mother’s brother is the same whether the brother is older or younger than the mother (舅, jiu). I don’t think there are any flashbacks in which Ye Zhenzhen talks to or about him. And we can infer that the birth order terms used for the men in this family do not include the women, because we know Ye Mingyu, who is referred to as third uncle and so must be the third son, actually must be the fourth child overall (assuming there aren't any other Ye daughters), because Ye Zhenzhen calls him younger brother, which means he has three older siblings (the two sons who are older than him, plus Ye Zhenzhen). So we know that Ye Mingxuan is second in the birth order of sons specifically, but he could have one or more older sisters as well.

His wife calls him er’lang (二郎; er is “two” or “second” and lang is “young man” or “husband” (the “second” refers to his birth order, not to him being her second husband; presumably he’s her only husband); translated as “Mingxuan”).

His daughter Ye Jia'er calls him die.

His younger brother Ye Mingyu calls him er’ge (二哥, second older brother, translated as "Mingxuan").

Ye Shijie refers to him as er'shu (二叔, father's younger brother, second in the birth order).

Family servants and the clerk in the family shop refer to him as zhuren (主人, “Master Ye”).

Ye Mingxuan's wife’s surname is Zhuo (卓).

Jiang Li calls her er’jiumu (二舅母, wife of er’jiu).

Her husband calls her furen (夫人, translated as “my dear” or “darling”).

Family servants call her furen or er’furen (夫人, "Madam").

Governor Tong calls her furen (夫人, "Madam").

Her husband’s younger brother Ye Mingyu refers to her as er’sao (二嫂, wife of er'ge).

Her daughter Ye Jia’er calls her niang.

Ye Mingyu (叶明煜) is Ye Zhenzhen's younger brother, the third oldest son in the family.

Jiang Li calls him san'jiu (三舅, mother’s brother, third in the birth order, translated as "Third Uncle").

In his flashback of Ye Zhenzhen getting married, she calls him san’di (三弟, third younger brother, meaning younger brother who’s the third son; it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s the third of her younger brothers. She does have three brothers, but it’s possible one or both of the other two are older than her; see above).

His older brother Ye Mingxuan calls him san’di (三弟, third younger brother, translated as “Mingyu”) and Ye-lao’san (叶老三, lao as in old, san as in three; translated as “Mingyu”) when he’s being annoying.

His older brother’s wife calls him san’di.

His mother calls him erzi (儿子, son).

Ye Jia’er calls him san’shu (三叔, father’s younger brother, third in the birth order).

Jiang Jingrui calls him san’jiu. Jiang Jingrui is not actually related to him, but san’jiu is what Jiang Jingrui’s paternal cousin Jiang Li calls him.

The clerk in his family’s store calls him san’lang (三郎, “Third Master”).

Official Zhu calls him Ye-lao’ban (叶老板).

Maternal cousins

Ye Shengxuan (叶圣宣), courtesy name Shijie (世杰), is the son of the oldest (now deceased) son of the previous generation of the Ye family.

Jiang Li calls him biaoge (表哥, older male maternal cousin) and refers to him as Ye-biaoge. At one point after they know each other very well, he refers to himself as Jiang Li’s gege (older brother), and she calls him ge. Jiang Jingrui refers to him as Jiang Li’s biaoxiong (表兄, another term for an older male maternal cousin) at least once.

Jiang Yuanbai says that Jiang Li and Ye Shijie are around the same age and refers to them as xiongmei (兄妹, brother and sister), which Viki translates as “cousins”.

Jiang Jingrui calls him Shijie, or (similar to how he calls Ye Mingyu san'jiu because that's what Jiang Li calls him) Ye-biaoge or just biaoge (表哥).

Ye Jia’er calls him tangge (堂哥, older male paternal cousin, translated as “Shijie”).

His aunt, Ye Mingxuan’s wife, refers to him as Shijie. So does his uncle Jiang Yuanbai (his father’s sister’s husband).

A family servant calls him da’langjun (大郎君), translated by Viki as “Young Master”.

Social inferiors or people who are being polite call him Ye-gongzi (叶公子) or Ye-langjun (叶郎君), both translated as “Mr. Ye”.

His classmate Liu Xu calls him Ye-langjun. Some other students call him Ye-xiong (叶兄, brother Ye).

After he’s appointed a position in court, a palace servant calls him Ye-yuanwai (叶员外), translated by Viki as "Mr. Ye". Ji Shuran also calls him Ye-yuanwai, translated as “Official Ye”.

Ye Jia’er (叶嘉儿) is Ye Mingxuan's daughter.

Jiang Li calls her/refers to her as biaojie (表姐, term for an older female cousin when you’re related through one or both of your mothers), Jia’er-biaojie (嘉儿表姐), or Jia'er-jie (嘉儿姐; the “er” is part of her given name, rather than the “er” meaning “second”).

Her parents and her uncle Ye Mingyu call her Jia'er.

The clerk in the family store calls her Jia’er-niangzi (嘉儿娘子). This is also what Tong'er calls her.

Family servant A'Fu calls her Jia'er-jie. Other family servants call her niangzi.

Ye family servants and employees

[Not pictured because I didn't see a title card for her] Li-mama (李妈妈, “Madam Li”) is Ye-furen's maid.

[Not pictured because I didn't see a title card for him] A'Fu (阿福) is a servant in Ye Mingxuan's household.

[Not pictured because I didn't see a title card for him] A'Shun (阿顺) is Ye Mingyu's servant.

[Not pictured because I didn't see a title card for him] The clerk at the family shop is called Qian-zhanggui (钱掌柜, shopkeeper Qian, “Mr. Qian”).

[qpjianghu]

shaking crying screaming throwing up re: Desire Catcher (2019)

(Show CW: there is sexual violence involved in the core case. Please take care!)

I need to just ramble incoherently for a hot sec because oooooo boy the vibes are impeccable??

The TLDR is:

The two male leads have a relationship that's like Wangxian spiced with Pingxie. I know. I KNOW. The pining is off the charts, my friends. Truly unparalleled.

There is absolutely no romance whatsoever! (Except for the case where there are two men who adopt an abandoned baby together?? I mean?? ^_^) Huge win for the aros!!

If that's all you need, read no further, I shall not spoil. Come back and scream with me when you're done.

More detail below:

There are lots of surface-level similarities to Under the Skin: Frenemies-to-bromance male leads, one is a cop with a chip on his shoulder and impeccable dark/leather jackets, the other is a floppy-haired, khaki-wearing consultant with a peppy demeanor that hides deep personal trauma... but, honestly, I think Desire Catcher is what Under the Skin WISHES it was. (No shade if you loved Under the Skin -- I just personally wanted a bit more from it.)

The male leads, my goodness. Zheng Yecheng plays Lu Fengping, and Xin Yunlai plays Luo Fei. They are both so FREAKIN' good. Their characters at first just seem like typical archetypes of the stoic one and the bubbly one (WHICH I LOVE ANYWAY) but they take everything to the next level with their microexpressions that both reveal and conceal their haunted pasts, and extreme pining. Which leads me to...

The Wangxian of it all... *delighted sigh*... The person who wrote like the one fic on Ao3 in this fandom pointed out (much more eloquently than I'm about to) that Luo Fengping spends most of the show trying (and not knowing how) to save Lu Fengping the same way that Lan Wangji spends so much time trying (and not knowing how) to save Wei Wuxian. I won't spoil anything about their successes vs. failures in this post, but I have been turning around this brilliant point in my head for a week now and I am still vibrating at a totally normal frequency about them.

Which brings me to the devastating trope of how do you save someone who doesn't want to be saved? Yes yes yes OF COURSE this is a Mysterious Lotus Casebook reference. Come chew glass with meeeeeeee

And there's also: The Girl Cop!! (lol) Liang Yin!!!!! I ended up loving her. I need to watch the show again just so I can love her more, because the whole time I was worried she would become a love interest to one of the guys she shared a past with. But they all find solace and redemption WITHOUT romance!! What a concept!

Which brings me to another show this one reminded me of: the k-drama The Guest. That show also has a glorious polycule who are all connected through a shared trauma and need each other to heal. HOOK IT TO MY VEINS.

The case of the week stuff was pretty good. And by pretty good I mean completely devastating.

The big final plot resolution was a little werd ngl but you just gotta squint through some of the copaganda, shhh, it's fine

(The ENDING though.... literally just heart eyes all over the place, motherfuckers)

Look I know I said there wasn't any romance, but Luo Fei and Lu Fengping spend at least five minutes every episode pining at each other / into each other's eyes RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY SALAD while a dramatic ballad plays in the background, so, like. That's a thing. <3

Did I literally pay for the more expensive Viki subscription service so I could gif their pining in better HD?? Who's to say???

[visualtaehyun]

Do you mind sharing your Thai language learning journey?

Hi there anon 👋

My memory is awful but I'll try anyway sldkslskd

I first got interested in Thai at some point in late 2022. At the time, kpop was my main hobby and fandom space so I stumbled across Semantic Error via DKZ's Jaechan, then remembered I'd watched Puppy Honey and Theory of Love (+ partly 3 Will Be Free as it was airing) a few years prior so I went to look up if OffGun had been in any more shows together. I'm not sure anymore if it was during my first or second watch-through of Not Me but I recall rewatching the tent scene in ep. 9 and very suddenly taking note of the pronouns they use, like- at the time, I'd spent years halfheartedly learning Korean to arguably little progress apart from being able to read & write, knowing some beginner vocabulary, expressions, and numbers - mostly, I'd gained a familiarity with the sound, speed, and structure of spoken Korean. Meanwhile, I'd never gotten a feel for Thai while watching the previously mentioned shows! So I don't know how or why all of a sudden but I think that moment of picking up on reoccurring words (and what would be more recurring than pronouns?) and those two little words (กู /guu/ & มึง /meung/) sending me down a rabbit hole of different registers of pronouns? That probably did me in 🤣

Next thing I remember is watching more Thai BL and mostly GMMTV because GMMTV BLs were the most easily accessible. And since I'd gotten a Viki subscription for Semantic Error, I also went to check out their selection at the time, which is how I found Cutie Pie, for example, the Viki subs to which also tickled my brain cause they gave some insight into wordplay and pronoun choices! I don't recall the exact order of things but at some point, while watching more Thai BL, I started lurking on twt as I was watching my first on-going show, Love in the Air, so I had to find fan translators on twt to make sense of actors' tweets and bts & variety content.

Yadda yadda yadda I became aware I was well on my way of developing a new hyperobsession lol so it was maybe around October to December of 2022 that I struggled to attempt to learn to at least read Thai. Hangul had been so easy to learn and opened up a world of recipes to me! So how come I couldn't find a helpful app or any starting point really to get a foot in the door with Thai and its countless consonants?!

I think it ended up being a combination of actually actively studying the Wikipedia article on the Thai script (but especially the IPA chart cause that made it so so much more accessible to me!) and an app called PTM / Pocket Thai Master which looks to be unavailable on the play store now??? but really helped me get more familiar with the look and sound and tone classes of the different consonants. After sufficiently cracking the code on Thai script, I started looking up and studying specific vocab groups, like seasons, days of the week, animals, fruits, body parts, super boring beginner language learner stuff :p

I was on vacation in Bangkok in May of 2023, at which point I started keeping a vocabulary booklet to reinforce writing, reading (which I was terrible at lol), and interacting with new words. I had already well and truly fallen in love with the language and that vacation made me fall in love with the people and culture as well. :)

Afterwards, I basically started surrounding myself with Thai media! It wasn't just Thai BL but so much variety content and tweets and other social media posts and Thai music and recipes and I'd long found NuNew to be my favorite so of course I was excitedly following his debut as a singer, too. I was and still am basically learning by immersion, looking up words in various dictionaries or on pantip or twt as I go, getting lost in deep dives around the most random things, and trying to keep up with viral expressions at all times in order to make sense of what my favorite Thai artists are joking about and referencing. :D

When Last Twilight aired, I bought a Thai copy of The Little Prince, thinking it might be a good introduction to starting to read novel-style language but which I only finished a few weeks ago because my perseverance is awful lol Last year, I also stubbornly bought both the English and Thai novels for The Next Prince and made myself read both, even if the royal language was at first difficult to get used to and novel descriptions were still largely new territory to me as most of my exposure to Thai had been spoken dialogue or monologue but rarely descriptions of actions, expressions, and feelings, or the flowery language of novels. So I guess my attempt to read ข้ามฟ้าเคียงเธอ (aka The Next Prince) made reading เจ้าชายน้อย (aka The Little Prince), which I've read in other languages before, a lot easier in comparison lol

This year I started actually speaking! One of my great-aunts is Thai so I'd had the opportunity last year to speak Thai with her for an entire evening but I was mostly listening tbh and struggling to form my own sentences or even psyching myself out from lack of confidence. During my first Bangkok vacation in 2023, I had an okay level of listening comprehension but only knew a few phrases and expressions to the confusion of a few hotel and restaurant staff members lol but during my stay in Bangkok this January, I tried to speak as much Thai as I possibly could, wherever I went, whatever I bought or ordered, whoever I met! If you don't try and put yourself out there and learn to go with the flow, you'll never dare to just speak and use the words you know and remember and learn via conversing. I was back home from that vacation when February began and since then I've:

gotten a new colleague* who sometimes helps out at my store who's Thai and my age so now I only speak Thai with her

started frequenting a local Thai restaurant, because I was missing Thai food already, the owner of which only speaks English and Thai (I'm German, living in Germany, for context :P) and seemed super excited to have a customer attempt to speak Thai so now I only speak Thai with him

met that same great-aunt again at my grandma's birthday party and this time actually spoke a lot more myself, almost exclusively speaking Thai with her

*When I told her I'd went to Bangkok mostly for a concert, she ofc asked whose it was and I've never been more excited as when I said 'Zee Pruk' and she went 'Omg ขนลุก!' and I realized that finally a flesh and blood person in Germany recognized the name and knows the artists I love 😭🙌 we then bonded over Jeff Satur, language learning, and Thai music and slang555

Honestly, I don't know that I've ever had much of a language learning strategy or a specific goal in mind. I'm just watching/listening to/reading all the Thai media I'm interested in and filling in any blanks along the way. Thai is such a beautiful melodic language and it's just a joy to learn, no matter how small or big the steps I take.

I hope this ramble of a reply is what you had in mind, anon 😂 If it isn't- well- sorry not sorry? My Thai language learning journey is chaotic, entirely self-taught, and highly dependent on what media I'm currently into so it was never gonna be a simple answer :D

[ahgasegotarmy116]

Semantic Error | A Jeon Jungkook Series | Chapter 3

Based off of Semantic Error (bl) by J Soori Summary: y/n meets Jimin and makes Jungkook jealous Pairing: Techie inexperienced fem!reader x Artist fuck boy Jungkook Word count: 2.7k~ Warnings: Explicit language, Idk that's pretty much it for this chapter. A/N: This is heavily based off of the original bl (boy love) Semantic Error and it covers chapters (episodes) 4,5 and 29. I've switched around the timeline quite a bit and got rid of some scenes here and there to make the story progress a bit faster so they're not exactly alike but I would like to stick close to the original story so let me know what you think! P.s. If you don't mind spoilers I would highly suggest reading the original story. I read it on the app Manta with the english adaptation being done by Angy and you can also find the Kdrama on Viki :) Read from the beginning

The next day as I'm walking to the cafeteria I see a guy fall dropping some books and papers all over the floor. I decide to walk past because honestly it's not my problem but unfortunately once I'm in his line of sight he decides to call out to me. "Hey sorry do you think you could help me pick this stuff up? I shouldn't have tried to balance all of it on top of each other" he says clearly regretting his actions. I start picking things up quietly, not making an effort to make conversation and once we're finished I decide to turn and go. 

"Wait! What's your name?" he asks preventing me from leaving. "y/n" I state and wait for him to continue on with whatever he had planned to say. "Well y/n would you mind helping me carry this stuff over to the music building? I'm just worried I might drop it all again" he says taking all of the heavy books and hoping that I'll pick up the folders full of sheet music. I stand there for a second trying to calculate the time it would take me to help him out and if I can fit it into my schedule. 

"If you help me, I'll buy you lunch" he says with a bright almost perfect smile aside from his cooked front tooth. Thinking about it now with that incentive clearly tips the scale, providing him with a favorable result. I wordlessly pick up the things he couldn't manage to carry and wait for him to lead the way. "You don't talk much do you?" he chuckles giving me a sideways glance. "Not unless it's necessary" I say and continue to follow hoping I'll get this over with so I can get back on schedule.

"So...what's your major?" he says obviously trying to maintain a conversation with me. "Computer Engineering" I answer giving his as short of answers as possible. I'm not one for casual conversation, let alone conversation at all. Like I said, only when necessary. "I'm Jimin by the way, and if you couldn't guess already my major is music. Well, music and dance but my course load this semester is very music centric" I nod my head and he decides to keep rambling which seems to be something he's used to doing.

From the casual glances we're getting it seems like he's pretty well known in this department. "Hey Jimin you down to go grab some lunch in a sec?" a guy in a big group of people yells out. "Nah that's okay, I promised to buy y/n lunch for helping me out" he says motioning to me as best as he can with his hands full. "Oh...okay well have fun" the guy says and goes back to one of the many conversations going on over there. 

I turn my head and look back up at Jimin confused, "You could've just given me enough for the cafeteria and have gone with them" I say hoping to brush him off and go back to my solitude. "I'm not gonna buy you food from the cafeteria silly, let's go somewhere! There's a cool pizza place right outside of campus that I've been wanting to check out. You wanna go?" he asks asks and nods towards the classroom that we're meant to leave these things at. "I guess" I shrug not really caring at this point. Since my class doesn't start for another two hours I guess I could afford to go off campus to eat for a change, especially since it's free. 

As we make our way into the pizza place (creatively named Pizza Planet) we're greeted by a pretty big crowd but luckily we're able to find a table near the entrance right away. "Welcome in" someone yells letting us know they saw us come in and they'll be with us in a moment. "This place is pretty cool huh? He says referring to the theme that seems to be trendy these days. "Spaceships, nice" I say barely looking up while scanning the QR code to get the menu.

"Have you never watched the movie Toy Story?" he says, surprised that I don't have a better reaction to it. "No I'm not big on American movies or whatever. My family really only showed us media that was Korean or Japanese" I say hoping to show that I'm not interested on elaborating on the topic any further and luckily before he can say anything again our server comes to our table. 

"Welcome to Pizza Planet guys, what can I get you?" he says with a bright smile until his glance falls on me. For some reason his expression changes to that of annoyance and I'm slightly confused but not enough to comment on it. "Do you know what you want y/n?" Jimin asks me and I take a quick glance over the menu and settle on the most expensive item. It's a free meal so might as well milk it for all it's worth.

Jimin places his order and the server looks back down at me and asks if we wanted anything else to which Jimin denies. "You guys do student discounts though right?" he asks holding out his card and the server takes his eyes off of me to inspect his student ID and confirms his suspicions. 

Once he hands him back his student ID the server's gaze for some reason falls back on me. "Do you need to see my ID too?" I question suddenly weirded out by his glaring. "No" he says full of spite, pushing up the bridge of his glasses. "Okay well then you can go now, don't you have other people to serve?" I say shooing him off, to which he looks down at me with utter confusion and opts to just turn away to go put in our order instead of making an further discussion. 

"Are you okay?" Jimin asks, clearly aware of the weird tension between the server and I. "Yeah I'm fine, he was just acting really weird" I say and shake it off for the time being. "Do you know him?" he asks tilting his head at me. "Why would I know a random guy in a pizza place?" I say confused as to how this all connects in his head. "Well because he goes to school with us, I believe his name is Jungkook, I had a class with him last semester and he seemed like a cool guy or so I thought. Are you guys okay?" he asks clearly concerned, seeing my face contort into an uncomfortable realization when I finally put the pieces together. 

I guess I didn't recognize him because he was dressed so differently while sporting a hat and glasses. Looks like he clearly recognized me though, and he definitely wasn't happy to see me. I watch as Jungkook makes his way out of the shop as another server comes to relieve him. "Would you mind it if I went outside to go talk to him for a second?" I ask already standing up not really caring to wait for his permission. "Oh um yeah okay, I guess I'll just stay here" he says awkwardly while watching me walk out before I'm finally out of his view. 

Looking around I notice that there's a small alleyway between this pizza place and the next building over and I can see a puff of smoke coming out of it as well as hear someone's voice sounding like some sort of argument. I walk over and thankfully it's the exact person I've been looking for. "Hey can you get off the phone?" I say and he looks up glaring at me and he stops leaves a pause in the conversation happening before he tells the person on the phone that he has to go. "What do you want?" he says before taking a drag off of his cigarette. 

"We need to talk" I say seeing if he's open to it. "So talk" he says and purposefully blows smoke in my direction which leaves me having to wave away the smoke and clear my throat before I'm able to start. "I owe you an apology" I start off, "No shit you do" he mumbles under his breath. "Are you gonna let me talk or should I just go back inside?" I say getting short with him. "Yeah go back to your boyfriend, see if I care" he spits out and throws his cigarette on the floor to stomp it out before pushing himself up off the wall and making moves to walk off.

"He's not my boyfriend, in fact not that it's any of your business but we just met today and the only reason I'm here is because he offered me a free meal for helping him carry some stuff across campus" I say in one breath and open my mouth to continue "That doesn't sound like you" he interrupts laughing bitterly at my story. "Well it's the truth and you can ask him yourself if you really don't believe me" I say crossing my arm, becoming aware that this has now become my defensive stance of choice against him.

"No that's fine I believe you, I just find it adorable that you could be so food motivated. Helping out a perfectly good stranger and then making a trip with him off campus. That wasn't very smart of you y/n" he says taunting me. "Just because you're older than me doesn't mean that you get to talk down to me" I say getting even more irritated at this situation. "That's funny that you say that" he says getting closer until he's sure to tower over me, "because it looks like I have to love" he says trying to get some sort of reaction out of me. 

I'm not sure exactly what it could be I decide to take a step back but as I do I find myself slipping on something and I mentally brace for impact but it never comes, now seeming to notice a firm grasp on my waist instead of my back on the cold hard street. "Be careful there y/n, we wouldn't want to have an accident on our hands" he says amused at our forced proximity and my facial expressions because of it. I get back up on my feet and push him away after I've sure I regained my balance. "I apologized okay? Now stop being so hostile, it's annoying" I say while straightening out my clothes. "But I like seeing the faces you make when I'm annoying you" he says with a smirk. 

"What faces? I don't make any faces" I deny. "Why don't you go look in the mirror pretty, I'm sure you'll see why I like it so much" he says before walking past me. "Hey where are you going? Aren't you going to apologize too?" I call after him before he gets too far. "Sorry love, I've gotta go back to work, why don't we pick this up later?" he says sending me a wink before opening the door and walking inside. "But I don't want there to be a later" I say under my breath kicking the rocks that I had no doubt slipped on just moments ago. I shake myself out of whatever headspace he had me in and take a deep breath trying to calm myself down. 

I've never had a rush of so many emotions running through me before, and the only other times it has gotten close to this it seems like Jungkook has been the one to triggered them. I groan and make my way back inside as well and I sit back down at the table not making an effort to say a word to Jimin. "So how did it go? It seemed like he was pretty happy when he walked in" he says intrigued by our polar opposite returns with me being the one who looks upset now. "He's happy because he was able to irritate me and get a reaction out of me. Ugh I should've never went out there" I groan and take a drink of my water.

"Why did you end up going out there?" he questions, clearly interested in the story behind our weird behaviors. "I said some things that were probably interpreted as being mean, I'm not the kind of person who cares much about others but I'm adult enough to admit that what I said was out of line" I say rolling my eye irritated that I let him get the best of me time and time again, but for some reason I end up being the bad guy.

"I swear this man is going to put me in an early grave" I say and then speak of the devil Jungkook shows up with our order. "That's not very nice, are you already trying to be mean to me again" he pouts jokingly. "No but you are being rather rude listening in on people's conversations" I roll my eyes and go back to taking a drink of water. "It's not my fault that you're talking about me right in front of me. Anyways is there anything else I can get you guys?" he asks looking between the two of us.

"No I think we're all set" Jimin responds sending me a smile which I return with a nod. "What about you pretty? Do you need anything else from me?" Jungkook says leaning towards me and tucking my hair behind my ear to see my face better. To which I respond to by choking on my water while also spilling some on the table. "Shit y/n are you okay?" Jimin asks clearly concerned for my welfare. I cough a few times and send him a thumbs up trying to calm my coughs down. "I'll go get you guys some napkins" Jungkook chuckles walking off. 

"Man I swear guys like him think they can get away with anything just because they're more attractive than the average male" he says rolling his eyes at him and handing his napkins over to me. "Thanks" I say and clean up as best as I could while we wait for the rest of the napkins. "It's fine I'm over it" I say clearing my throat hopefully for the last time right as Jungkook returns with more napkins.

"Sorry guys I was just teasing, your meal's on me this time okay?" he says giving us both a charming smile. "You sure?" Jimin asks looking surprised as ever. "Yeah it's the least I could do for interrupting you guys and making y/n upset" he says but I can tell he's still teasing me even though he's behaving in front of Jimin. 

"Thank you so much" Jimin says giving him a thankful shallow bow. "It's fine don't mention it, also you can call me Hyung if you want to, I don't mind" Jungkook offers, clearly trying to get on Jimin's good side. This whole act he's putting on is ridiculous, I haven't known him for long but I can sure as hell tell when people are lying. "Okay, thank you Jungkook hyung" he says and smiles back at me. "You can call me Oppa if you want to y/n" he says offering it to me as well, waiting for me to take the bait. 

"Jungkook is just fine for me, I'll call you JK if you want me to, but that's it" I say not bothering to show any sort of respect and grace to the person who just bought my meal which is probably cold by now. "Aw come on just once?" he says mercilessly taunting me still. "Don't you ever get tired of being a pain in the ass?" I say finally fed up with all of his antics "Nope" he says popping the P at the end before leaning down to whisper in my ear "You look cute when you're feisty" he says making sure to blow on my neck again making me shiver slightly. 

I stand up abruptly and he straightens his posture and takes a step back giving me the tiniest bit of room to pass by. "Jimin I'm leaving if you want I'll wait for you outside so we can take the food back to campus" I say and make moves to leave as quickly as I can, not missing the way Jungkook chuckles at me on the way out. "Um yeah I'll be out in a second. Hyung do you think you could box this up for us?" he asks using the new term he had been encouraged to use. "Sure, see you around y/n" he says making sure I hear it before the door closes behind me.  

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[waitmyturtles]

SPOILERS AND ANALYSIS FOR THE EIGHTH SENSE, EPISODES 9 and 10. TURN AWAY IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET! LONG POST!

MY HEART. IS. SO. FULL. 

Episode 9 almost (ALMOST!) reached Bad-Buddy-episode-10-level for me. That was a hell of an episode. 

And I am so thrilled, SO FREAKING THRILLED, to have been proven wrong about my theories as to whether or not episode 6 was “real” to the series. It was very real, and clearly so meaningful and contributive to Jae Won (as well, of course, to Ji Hyun), that... it sent Jae Won running, literally.

One more passing thought before I dig into the meal: 

I haven’t dug into this at ALL yet, but I think there might purposefully be a lot of similarities between The Eighth Sense and Where Your Eyes Linger, which (I think this is accurate, but PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) was one of the first non-Strongberry Big KBLs to come out. I went back to Viki to make sure to confirm this, but Jung Seo In -- the restaurant ahjumma and Ji Hyun’s boss in T8S -- also plays a restaurant proprietor in Where Your Eyes Linger, and actually asks Han Tae Joo and Kang Gook “who’s top and who’s bottom” when she first meets them in WYEL (a little squick but she made it cute for that time). The promo picture for WYEL on Viki is of the two leads lying on the floor with their heads touching.... a different orientation, but a lot of the same feeling, as the opening of episode 10 of T8S. And, finally: Han Tae Joo of WYEL and Jae Won of T8S are both “the chairman’s son.” They are both sons in need of care.

That’s enough for a comparison for now to WYEL, because I haven’t spent enough time digging into it, but I’ll return to Ji Hyun’s ahjumma in a second, because she’s a badassssssss. Anyway:

Episode 9: What can I say. As with Bad Buddy episode 10, I’m struggling to get words down. I love a ride to a gorgeous union. 

And Jae Won, HONEY, Y’ALL TOOK ME ON A HELL OF A RIDE. DUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEE. DUDE. I wanna be friends with you!

We learned some things. Ji Hyun brings light into Jae Won’s life. When we saw Jae Won with Eun Ji -- it was always in darkness (except for surf club earlier in the series, but Ji Hyun was there with Jae Won). jae Won eats with Eun Ji in a pojangmacha at night. He sits with Eun Ji in a dark library. He walks with Eun Ji on dark streets. She tries to kiss him in the nighttime. 

Ji Hyun sees that -- and something twists inside of Jae Won.

Then we get Jae Won and Eun Ji in the dark library. And, JEEEEZUS. WHOA! UM! I. did. not. expect. the. long. game. to. be. played. LIKE. THAT.

Motherfucker played a LONG-ASS, I’M A NAVY VETERAN, I CHASED AFTER YOU, I SAW YOU WITH ANOTHER GUY, I WAITED FOR YOU, I WAITED UNTIL MORNING, I SAW YOU WERE STILL WITH HIM, I SAW YOU WALKING OUT OF THE MOTEL WITH HIM, I SAW THAT, I CAME BACK, YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF MY FEAR ABOUT JI HYUN AND THE ACCIDENT, AND I REVENGE-DATED YOU, KINDA GAME, HEADSHAKE, SHRUG, I’M LOOKING AT MY NAILS, PSH.

BRO. WHAT. THE. EFF. 

I want a Cardi B song about this shit. Dude, you played that better than ANY female character in a K-drama that I have EVER seen, my man! You actually WENT AND DATED HER, LIKE KINDA LITERALLY-BUT-MAYBE-YOUR-HEART-WASN’T-ACTUALLY-INTO-IT-SO-MAYBE-IT-WAS-FOR-THE-ASSIGNMENT-DEALIE??? Good lord. 

Like, can that become a K-drama/KBL trope? Hot DAMN. ANYWAY. (Actually, one more reference to this for episode 10, but enough of the all caps, ha.)

You know what that means, right? While all that was going on, Jae Won’s heart WASN’T with Eun Ji. He was processing his stuff with Ji Hyun on his own, and with his therapist (once more, lol, @emotionallychargedtowel, take me to your analysis! I gotta know what you thought about the therapist calling Jae Won selfish!). 

Jae Won said it himself. He’s rooted in depression. He’s rooted in guilt about his brother’s death. He’s rooted in guilt over Ji Hyun’s accident. I will posit that episode 6 still felt like a “dream,” likely because of meds, likely because of Jae Won’s headstate. It was a “real” moment for the series but for where Jae Won’s head was at, he was likely battling a depressive episode with the continued, chronic guilt of his life. So things seemed fuzzy and jumpy -- because they were fuzzy and jumpy for Jae Won. 

(Whenever I try to describe these states to people, I try to think of relative moments... like being at work with four hours of sleep. Driving while your contact lens has something in it. You’re fuzzily in and out of reality. Jae Won’s depression is deeper than that. But I try to relate to it somehow with those metaphors.)

So the therapist does her own thing by calling Jae Won “selfish” for rooting in his pain. How we choose to judge her behavior is whatever -- it still gives me the jibbles, and I lean towards the utterly wonderful @emotionallychargedtowel for better analysis about therapy than me.

But, as we very clearly saw -- Jae Won’s breakthrough came through the restaurant ahjumma. Remember: she represents a break from tradition, as I said last week. She’s done with the bullshit of living by the rules of others.

She sees university students in and out, everyday, eating samgyupsal and drinking their sorrows away. She sees former students coming back to say hi. 

She’s been around the block, and has seen people get around the block themselves. She knows the advice that she’s giving to Jae Won. Unlike the therapist, she’s not gonna make Jae Won feel bad about himself. She’s just going to feed him and HELP HIM.

LET GO OF IT ALL, HONEY. GO AND GET YOUR MAN. 

And Jae Won finally let go. He went to the water. He took us with him to a flashback to the sea, to the light, where he’s the happiest. He took us to where he’s the freest that he can be.

And Ji Hyun called him back to Ji Hyun’s side. Called Jae Won back through music, and Jae Won heard him, and ran to Ji Hyun, and they embraced -- and it was perfect. 

I’m gonna be that auntie when I grow up.

Episode 10: There are a couple of side discussions with friends that I want to refer to, but let me say first that I have zero issues with this light, lovely conclusion. I am a SLAVE for K-drama tropes, and I didn’t mind that this episode had a few. This series did so beautifully to NOT hew to tropes, and to create a new paradigm of filmmaking in KBLs, that I was TOTALLY FINE with seeing some sweet tropey behavior -- the drinking, the partying, the dancing, the dance music. The love games. The heads leaning on shoulders. Coffees in cans. Let me give you my jacket. 

Friends @shortpplfedup and @lurkingshan and @wen-kexing-apologist: I’m okay with the forgiveness to Tae Hyung and Eun Ji. Because. 

I think Jae Won’s being a little shady, come awn. I think he popped his umbrella open. Just a little. Ji Hyun ADMITTED to being sassy, but I think Jae Won knew he was being just a little bitty-bit shady, and I’m gonna let the man have his. He’s a game-player. 

Eun Ji HAD TO ADMIT that she got her ass handed to her. And Ji Hyun and Jae Won both knew she’d have a hard time, internally. I’m fine with her being calm about it. She knew she fucked up the game, hard, when she got her ass caught cheating. We know she’s lame, she knows she’s lame, let’s live and move on.

I thought Jae Won’s read on Tae Hyung was great. Tae Hyung IS someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, however misguided it is. Humans are not perfect. Jae Won wants to be with honest people. (That’s why he dumped Eun Ji’s ass and handed her the receipts. He can forgive her, but he certainly AIN’T going out with her again.)

As Bed Friend ended with happy moment after happy moment -- I believe the filmmakers knew exactly what they were giving us with this finale. How we came to SUCH a happy ending just boggles me, but it was a loving and a sweet one. GO YOON WON AND JOON PYO. COME AWN. GO GO GO. (And go Bit Na! Reject that motherfucker. AND AE RI! GURL! I’m gonna miss you, nothing slides by you.)

And I want to refer back to something about the therapist conversation in episode 9 that got concluded in episode 10. I think it’s really important to note that BOTH Ji Hyun AND Jae Won took care OF EACH OTHER in these last two episodes.

Jae Won was rotting in guilt over not being able to TAKE CARE OF JI HYUN during the accident. Jae Won arguably got Ji Hyun in trouble. 

Ji Hyun, upon his recovery, TAKES CARE OF Jae Won. Ji Hyun handled the disciplinary committee. He gives Jae Won a disposable camera and encourages Jae Won’s photography. He continues to send Jae Won text messages, songs. Sending messages of hope and light and love. I’m still here, Jae Won, I haven’t left. Jae Won’s brother might not be here. Ji Hyun never left. 

What shocked Jae Won out of his stasis was the ahjumma’s words. I think Jae Won realized at that moment that -- AS AHJUMMA WAS SAYING ALL ALONG -- THAT JAE WON WAS OVERTHINKING THINGS. Once Jae Won could 

SEE. THE. LIGHT.

he was able to take off, and finally go back to Ji Hyun, in whole. 

(I think we know why the therapist’s office was dark. Jae Won couldn’t see the light in there. 

His light comes from Ji Hyun and the water.)

It’s a rarity, but I’m putting this on my short MUST WATCH list. This BLEW away any filmmaking expectations I previously had about KBLs. This was SINGULAR, groundbreaking, the actors ATE their roles, ATE THEM -- and it was utterly fulfilling.

PHENOMENAL SHOW. I’m going to miss this one TREMENDOUSLY. 

[ppeonppeonhan]

I'm holding off on binge-ing the rest of Be My Favorite and King the Land until the last episode drops for each. So in the last 72hrs, I've started 3 new BLs -- and all three are about guys who are pursuing clueless men: Hidden Agenda (Thai - Youtube), Jun & Jun (Korean - Viki), and Be Mine Superstar (Thai - Viki). And I am shocked -- SHOCKED I tell you -- by how much I'm loving that last one.

Hidden Agenda has a popular college student pretending he wants to help his dorky longtime crush get a girlfriend. Of course, it only took 4 episodes for the nerd to not only question both his endgame and his sexuality.

The series reunites Joong and Dunk from Star and Sky: Star in My Mind. Did not love Joong's character in that one, but I'm looking forward to seeing the backstory for how his character fell in love with this kid, and why they had a falling out.

Jun & Jun has childhood friends reuniting in the workplace as boss and idol-turned-intern. It gets suggestively spicy real quick -- for a Korean bl -- and we're only 3 episodes into an 8-episode series. 👀 Can't wait to see how this escalates.

And Be Mine, Superstar has a fanboy living his best life as a PA on his favorite actor's set, assisting him with everything from coffee runs to massages. The goofy pining looked cringey in the trailer, but Ja and First from Don't Say No have such electric chemistry, it does not matter.

It'll be fun to see how all these guys ultimately woo their longterm crushes, and whether or not their fantasies live up to the reality.