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countrymusiclover · 10 months ago

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13 - My Life with Charles Xavier

Part 14

Battle of Heart and Mind

Whole heartedly I am amazed at how I wrote this chapter 😢 Yes this is an Erik story but should I keep including more on Addi and Charles???

I am conflicted with this story because I love writing for Charles and Erik both. Anyway please enjoy ❤️

Tag list - ask to be added (in my ask box please) @aintinacage @hiraethrhapsody @mostlymarvelgirl @importantgalaxyrunaway

Months after JFK Assination

Running through the hallway I couldn’t help the grin that crossed my face, carrying a folder in my arms tightly against my chest. I had moved back into the old Xavier mansion after Erik had sacrificed himself to get arrested by members of the Pentagon. Kicking opened the office door I saw Charles in his chair at the desk. “Charles, you won’t believe what news I have for you.”

“It wouldn’t take me long to figure it out. If I wasn’t a gentleman obviously.” Charles chuckled tapping his fingers on the armrests of his wheelchair.

Hugging the folder to my chest I glared at him playfully. “I wasn’t worried you’d go snooping around my mind like a pervert.”

“So what’s in the folder?” He asked with a half smile sensing that I was happy about whatever it was and it had been a while since he had seen me this way.

Laying it in his waiting hands he opened the folder reading the document details out loud even though it was just the two of us in the large mansion. “These are all applications to a school for the gifted. I don’t understand, Addi. We don’t run a school.”

“Not yet you don’t. But you will.” I smiled brightly at him sitting myself up on the edge of his desk.

Charles sat the folder down on his lap lifting his head up to meet my gaze. “I still don’t understand how this is possible. I mean I do want a school to help mutants learn to work in society. How did you manage this?”

“I simply got bored one day and made you a website. I didn’t say the word mutant but if your children have been feeling differently lately. Hank has finished your mind machine so you can check out the parents who have signed their kids up so far. But for the most we can use Cerebro to find people who want help.” I clasped my hands together and kicked my legs back and forth against the wooden desk.

Charles reached forward taking my closet hand in his, his bright baby blue eyes focused on mine where I could see something more running through that mind of his. “You are brilliant, Addi.”

“Thanks, Charles.” I tucked my hair behind my ear with my other hand.

The telepath clicked his tongue squeezing my hand that he was holding when an idea popped into his head. He knew that about her feelings for Erik. But he wouldn’t question her about the day his former friend was arrested, not until she was ready to have the conversation. “Forgive me if I come off as too forward but would you be open to joining me for a drink out tonight?”

“Charles Xavier, are you asking me out on a date tonight?” I chuckled feeling my face turning red at the thought but I didn’t hate the idea at all.

He cleared his throat, cheeks turning red. “I…I am. I completely understand if you aren’t interested. A man in a wheelchair might not appear as the most romantic option-“

“Charles it’s not that.” I jumped down from the desk and moved myself to sit down in his lap. “I've just never actually been on a date before.”

He perked up at hearing those words, moving the joystick on his chair. I wrapped my arms around his neck afraid of falling off his lap. “Then we need to do this properly, Addison.” He rolled us through the mansion stopping in front of the large fireplace where I got off his lap when Hank entered the room.

“Hope this is what you wanted, Charles.” He sat down on a tray that had a bottle of wine, two glasses and some sandwiches we had in the fridge. The fire was burning in the fireplace since it was early January. “Have fun you two.”

I raised a brow at the telepath after our friend left the room. “I thought you said you didn't read people's minds unless they let you.”

“I only merly put the thought into his mind. Wine?” He sent me a teasing look, holding up a glass and opened the bottle of wine.

Taking it from his hand I smiled. “Thanks Professor.”

“God, I guess I will be an actual professor now won't I.” He takes a sip from his glass handing me a sandwich.

Taking some bites out of my sandwich I leaned back on the couch enjoying the warmth provided by the fireplace. I shifted my gaze over to the telepath just silently staring at him. I let my mind wander off yet not to Erik like it had for the first few months. This time it was focusing on Charles. He was absolutely attractive and I did have a thing for accents. “Would it be strange to play a game on a first date?”

“First date huh. Are you insinuating on a second date?” He teased me sitting his wine glass down on the table.

I take a long sip of my drink blushing. “I didn’t mean it like that. I'm sorry.”

“Don't apologize about that, Addi.” He held up his hands clasping them together with a cheeky smile on his face. “As for any games. We can do whatever you want.”

Tapping a finger on my chin I asked the question like I was a child again feeling so silly for playing the game now as adults. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

I thought for a moment. “Tell me a recent embarrassing moment.”

“God's okay let me think…oh so Raven and I were out at a bar for the evening. I was talking with this girl after I bought her a drink when Raven walked up. The woman I bought the drink for sees her and she immediately blurted out "is she your girlfriend?”

I couldn't hold in the laughter. “And what did Raven or you say?”

“Raven bloody played along like I was her boyfriend. She hugged up on me and everything. I was so horrified when the woman was about to leave till Raven blurted out that we were only bluffing. The woman sent me a glare and left the bar while I was so embarrassed the rest of the evening.” He put his face in his free hand, shaking away the memory. “Truth or Dare?”

I smirked feeling bold after taking another long drink from my glass where my head was buzzing a little. “Dare, Xavier.”

“Hmm. I Dare you to do something you've never done before but you wished you'd done it sooner.” He challenged me.

I lifted my gaze up to his baby blues knowing he could read my mind yet all my nervous defenses went out the window. I parted my lips leaning forward to the telepath. He leaned forward closing the gap between the two of us where we finally kissed and I had to say he knew what he was doing compared to me. “Charles…truth or dare.”

“Addi….dare.” Charles whispered, drawing away from the kiss with our noses touching one another.

“I dare you to kiss me again.” He smiled that dorky little grin, closing the gap once more. I scooted closer to him climbing up into his lap deepening the kiss. Charles raised one hand cradling my face to deepen it even more than I thought possible. I wrapped my arms round his neck threading my fingers into his beautiful brown locks of hair.

We remained slowly making out and holding each other in the other's arms until we needed air. I broke the kiss where I yawned, causing Charles to drape a blanket off the back of the couch moving the stuff from the table so we could put our feet there in its place. “Since we are starting a school you and I. Do you have a name for it in your mind?” He asked me laying the blanket over the two of us.

“I was thinking about….Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.” I turned my head back to him where he smiled down at me kissing my forehead. I laid my head back down snuggling into his embrace…and that was the moment I realized I may love both Charles and Erik.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I slowly sat up on the couch of the airplane. Tossing the blanket that had been laid across me I saw the familiar school logo stitched onto the side. Getting to my feet slowly I saw that Hank had put the plane on autopilot so he could sleep while my mother, Erik and Logan were asleep too. “Charles, why are you still awake? We are supposed to be landing at some point.”

“I felt that I should watch over you while you slept. Since you did the same for me after I first took the serum.” He responded to me sitting at the same table he and Erik had talked at a few hours ago.

Brushing my hair out of my face I yawned, still not fully awake yet at the moment. “You didn’t have to watch me. How are you doing?”

“I should be the one asking you that question, love.” He came over when I sat down making room for him on the couch. “How are you and the little one feeling with all the traveling?”

Closing my eyes I put both hands on my large stomach answering him. “It’s a lot. I am more tired than I have been and hungry.”

“You should have stayed back at the house.” He sighed in defeat.

I cut him off shortly, sending him a knowing look. “You’re telling me you would have been able to face Erik all by yourself. I don’t think so. And besides we are the last few of the X-Men, this is our job. To protect those who can’t protect themselves.”

“Speaking of Erik, what did he think when you told him? I am not sure how he would react to a situation like this. I know for myself I would be overjoyed but scared if I say.” He shrugged his shoulders running his fingers through his brown hair that he had let grow long and messy.

Glancing in his direction I clicked my tongue. “He asked questions about the baby. From what I could tell he seemed overwhelmed…possibly happy I hope. What I would give to know what he was thinking.”

“I wouldn’t recommend such pain to anyone. That’s the main reason why I keep taking the serum you know. It’s not just to get the ability to walk back.” He ran his hands down his thighs stopping at his knees slumping his shoulders.

Laying my head on his shoulder we just sat in somewhat comfortable silence. The noise of the plane being the only sound we heard till I broke it whispering up to him when I raised my head. “Charles, can I tell you something?”

“Of course. You never have to ask.” He perked up at hearing those words coming from me.

Intertwining my right hand through his left I let some silence fall between us once more. My kept picturing the night we had our first real fight ever, specially over said baby in my belly now. Charles lowered his gaze to mine in shock and awe when I finally declared to him. “If the baby is a boy the day it's born. I want to name it after you.”

“Addi, it would be my honor. But….did you tell him the whole truth about the pregnancy?” He kissed my forehead grinning from ear to ear, still fighting himself to not just kiss me on the lips like he desperately wants to.

My smile shifted to a small expression. “Finding out your going to be a father after spending years locked away is hard enough. Erik doesn't need to know exactly how many babies I'm carrying in my belly, at least for a little while. Can you read to me please?”

“Alright, I just hope you know what you're doing, Addi.” He reached over the arm of the couch pulling out his favorite book called ‘The Once and Future King’. Snuggling into his chest he draped his other arm over my body with his voice calming me to sleep through the night. “To break forth bloodily, then the past must be obliterated...and a new start made. Let us now start fresh...without remembrance...rather than live forward and backward at the same time.”

Getting up from Charles' bed we had decided to start sharing a room but I still had my own if I needed space for a few minutes. The school had unfortunately been closed due to the war drafts of students and teachers so now it was just us and Hank living here. Running into the bathroom I grabbed onto the side of the toilet puking. “Addi…here, here let me help.”

Charles came running inside walking since he had been taking the serum and taking his power away. He grabs my hair gently, holding it away from my face until I am done. “Ugh…Why does this keep happening to me?”

“I'll go find Hank. He can try and figure out what is making you sick.” Charles rubbed my back leaving me in the bathroom for a few minutes. We walked down together to the lab where he stood outside one of the security door tapping in the code.

Hank had gathered what medical equipment we had. He rolled over a tv and something to check if something inside of the kids was hurting them. He ran about every test we could with me laying on the cold table, Charles holding my hand the whole time. “Charles I'm sorry to say I can't find anything wrong with her.”

“There has to be something, Hank. She’s constantly been getting sick for the past few months now. “ Charles begged his friend.

Hank nodded in understanding, picking up some cold gel and a reader that was connected to the small rolling TV. “Addi, don't freak out. But I have to ask when did you have your last um…period?”

“Oh uh…it's been a couple of weeks why?” I scrunched my nose up trying to recall but it had been a while. All I could remember was the amount of time I had been getting sick all the time.

The beast man replied, turning the tv around so I could see what appeared to be two tiny human beings on the screen. “I am in no way a doctor for this type of situation. But I think you’re pregnant with twins, congrats Addi.

“Erik! Urgh!” Whipping my head around Hank and I both saw Charles throw a chair across the room getting agitated over this. He knew it had to be his old friend after I told him I had gone to see him in the Pentagon that one time.

Placing a hand over my stomach I began to panic feeling a tightening in my chest. I wasn’t cut out for this on my own. Let alone raising two kids on my own. “Charles, I'm sorry. I….I can’t do this on my own.”

“He got inside your head when I shouldn't have let him. He freaking killed the president and knocked you up when you went to see him. He…I should be the father not him!” Charles huffed leaning his palms on the nearby table. His hair was a tousled mess and he was trying to control his breathing while I saw tears falling down his face.

I swung my legs over the side of the table running my fingers through my messy blonde hair. “Charles, please don’t make me leave because you don’t like him. I….I need your help. I can’t raise these kids on my own. I can’t….do any of this by myself.”

“Addison ... .I'd never abandon you. You have my word….and my heart.” Charles blinked through tears coming over to me quickly. He slowly wrapped his arms around me and I clung to him crying with some many emotions running throughout my mind. He kissed my hair burying his face there. “I still love you no matter what, Addi Shaw.”

Comments really appreciated ❤️

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huiverse · 11 months ago

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idk who is still on here but I just feel the need to say I still love pentagon and hui (and yes, kino) with all my heart 💙 I watched some shine fancams tonight for the first time in a very long time and it made me feel so alive (in a way I also haven't felt in a very long time 😭). I feel so lucky to have been able to experience pentagon's magic, shine era was really something else and I can't believe it was almost 6 years ago now 😭😭

I didn't watch boys planet and I haven't really kept up with much stuff lately (even for other kpop groups) bc of life + bp and all the contract stuff has really broken my heart, especially for hui

I hope one day I can slowly watch and listen to all the stuff I've missed and post hui fantakens and ptg gifs again like the old days 🥺 but who knows. I guess the boys are also in a transition period these days anyway

I hope one day pentagon find happiness and success again, thank you for filling my heart time and time again 💖

#work has been killing me these past two years... I'm hoping it will get better soon 🥺#someone pls interact so I'm not just shouting into the void lmao

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marine-indie-gal · 5 months ago

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I'd figure why not draw something special for one of my Close Friends that being @djinarocks of her Recent OC/Canon Ship between her own OC, Elodie and Lucien Bolok from The French Cartoon, "Space Goofs" (which is funny, considering that I was the one that made her dive into that Show in the First Place, lmao).

Anyway, considering that her own New Ship has got Me Hooked that somehow continues to fuel towards my liking towards Bolok (since both Me and @djinarocks like Him a lot).

Gotta say, Bolok kinda reminds Me a bit of Charlton Hawkfish from SpongeBob if he was a Creature Assassin rather than an Sewer Architect.

Gotta be honest, Bolok's head (compare to my very first drawing of him if he were in an Opposite Species) was VERY hard to draw. Like, seriously, his Skull was so confusing I couldn't tell if he was either Square-Shaped or Triangle-Headed until when I realized that he was more Pentagon-Shaped.

The Pose itself that I did for My Friend's Second Xilam OC/Canon Ship after Z&S! Hadephone was mainly inspired by the Statue of Death and the Maiden by Elna Borch, since I always get amount of Heavy "Grim" vibes from Bolok (even after my First Interpretation of Him as an Alien) so I had to recreate the Statue with My Friend's Ship just because that her Second Xilam Ship fits in that Category as well (at least, according to her when I asked).

(Funny enough though, her own version of Hades/Persephone in Xilam's Multiverse goes all the way back being one of the very first Death/Maiden Ships).

I wanted to draw my Friend's Recent OC in the Show's Artstyle (compare to how I did with some of her Other OCs in their own Fandoms' Media's Personal Artstyle) to see on how Elodie would look like if she was an Actual Character (which I've realized that I kinda made her look a lot like Jessica Rabbit).

Also, drawing Guns/Blasters are an Real Actual Hell compare to how I draw Buildings (which I mostly Hate). I had to took some Screencaps for Bolok's blaster from the Show as a Reference to his own Weapon cause I needed some help figuring out on what his own Blaster might truly look like (as an akin to the Grim Reaper's Scythe from the Statue).

Hope you really like this a lot, @djinarocks and Happy 4th of July! 🤍💙❤️��🤍❤️

(P.S. I do NOT own the Background as I randomly got that off from Google as they were from Adobe Stock).

Lucien Bolok (c) Xilam

Elodie Auclair (c) @djinarocks

#space goofs #stupid invaders #les zinzins de l'espace #friend's oc #oc x canon #lucien bolok #bolok #space goofs bolok #bolok space goofs #stupid invaders bolok #bolok stupid invaders #xilam

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julietashton · 2 years ago

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it’s hard to be anywhere these days (when all i want is you) - one

Summary — There was no such thing as safety, and no one could protect anyone. And yet, Peter was willing to try—it was the point of the whole thing.

Content — tomholland!peterparker, mcu!peterparker, ofc (original female character), irondad

Note — This is a a re-telling of some of the events in Endgame and SMFFH with an original female character that is also Tony Stark’s daughter.

one.

Peter shouldn’t have come.

Every rational part of him had warned him against it and yet, no matter how many years had passed or how many people had been hurt, he still hadn’t learnt his lesson.

He was stupid. He was soft. He was weak.

But how could he have said no to Tony’s invitation? He had finally gained mobility again and his new arm was functioning as well as could be expected. It was the closest to normal he had been for two years, and he wasn’t going to cast a shadow on that happiness—not this time, anyway.

Pepper was the one to open the door, and she was evidently surprised to see him. He knew that, despite the average farm look, the house was probably better secured than the Pentagon and was harder to break in than any intelligence building in the world. He still had access to it, but he hadn’t wanted to use that privilege.

He didn’t think he deserved it.

“Peter?” the woman gasped.

“Hello, Miss Potts,” he replied quietly.

She embraced him in a motherly hug, and he had to gulp down the urge of crying.

***

It was even harder to keep up the façade with Tony, especially when he didn’t hide his tears at the sight of Peter. Seeing him after so long, living up to the legacy of being Iron Man now more than ever with his armour as part of him, made everything more real.

And yet, no matter how much time had passed, Peter would always see him as the father figure he’d desperately always needed and wanted. It was almost an instinct to let his guard down around him, because Peter still felt like the man could protect him. He felt safe with Tony.

Which was ridiculous. There was no such thing as safety, and no one could protect anyone.

(And yet, Peter was willing to try—it was the point of the whole thing.)

***

Peter knew she had arrived before FRIDAY announced her. It seemed that the body and senses didn’t differ much from the mind—they still remembered everything; from the rhythm of her footsteps, to the beating of her heart, to her sweet scent of cinnamon and vanilla.

It hit him harder than he thought it would, no matter how much he’d prepared himself for it.

The sight of her was worse.

Physically, she hadn’t changed at all and, in a way, that hurt him more. It was trickier to keep himself on his toes if she looked the same, because it was easy to imagine no time had passed, that all the suffering hadn’t happened, and that he still had a chance.

“Peter?” Sophia gasped when she noticed him, blinking several times as if she thought her eyes were deceiving her.

He couldn’t blame her, no matter how angry he wanted to be at the way her voice and accent still managed to send his heart racing. When their eyes met halfway, he realised how foolish he’d been, and how he’d overestimated himself.

Had he really thought he could be in the same room as her without feeling anything?

Idiot.

It took everything in him not to fall to his knees, rip his heart out and offer it to her in his bloody hands.

When Sophia approached him slowly, almost as if she was afraid he would vanish into thin air, Peter felt like he was dying. He really couldn’t predict what her reaction would be, and not for the first time, the idea of her screaming at him to leave and never set foot near her or her father again crossed his mind.

His nightmares began a lot like this.

But she didn’t do such a thing. Surprising him the way she had always done, Sophia smiled softly and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, to squeeze it affectionately.

Peter could have burst into flames.

“I’m so glad to see you, Peter,” she whispered. “Welcome home.”

***

There was a ring on her finger; sparkly, with a diamond the size of a golf ball. And Peter heard it perfectly when Pepper asked Sophia about some Brad, even if they had been in another room.

He had been expecting something like that. Not the engagement, certainly, but he had expected her to be in a relationship.

He hadn’t expected it to feel like that.

Peter had never given his future a lot of thought. He had always known he’d wanted to go to MIT and work in science, but he had never thought that much ahead in other aspects of his life. Perhaps it came from his experiences, and the fact that his parents had been very young when they had died so, unconsciously, he had never seen the point of planning his life. What was the point of thinking that far ahead when everything was so unpredictable?

But it had been around a year ago when he’d been stopping a mug near a small chapel, and a couple of newly weds had come out looking radiantly happy. Peter usually didn’t pay attention to that, but, at first glance, the woman had reminded him physically of Sophia.

That same night, flashes of her in white assaulted his dreams, unlocking a desire he didn’t even know he’d had until then.

“Hey.”

Peter turned to look at Sophia, even if he had felt her coming. She was carrying a small plate with cake and a glass of white wine.

“Hey,” he replied, forcing himself not to stare for too long.

It was hard, too hard, because he hadn’t seen her in a year and she was lovely and he had missed her so much it was almost a physical ache.

“I brought you cake,” she told him, extending the plate to him.

“Thank you,” he replied quietly. “And wine?”

“Oh, no, the wine’s mine,” she grinned.

His heart skipped a bit. That cheeky grin had always been his undoing. He had to look away and distract himself with trying the cake, even if his stomach was a ball of nerves.

A silence fell upon them, and there was genuinely no sound around. The farm was isolated in a way that was both peaceful and nerve-wracking. Peter didn’t think he could take it and he couldn’t understand how Tony did.

“Very different from the penthouse in Manhattan, huh?” Sophia said knowingly, somehow reading his thoughts.

It didn’t surprise him. She’d always been able to do that.

“Very,” he admitted. “Do you visit often?”

Sophia nodded. “As much as I can, but it’s really not my scenery.”

Peter’s lips curved up without realising it. “No, it isn’t.”

“Dad’s getting tired of it too,” she commented, taking a sip of her wine. “So I think it’s only a matter of time he decides to move back to New York—or maybe somewhere in the middle, like LA.”

“LA?” Peter repeated, unable to hide his surprise. “I thought he never wanted to go back to LA after what happened with the Mandarin.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the same location,” Sophia shrugged. “But New York’s too crowded. He’s always had more privacy in LA without sacrificing civilization like he’s done here.”

“Right,” he gulped down, trying not to show how the news was crushing him.

He didn’t like the idea of Tony going to live in LA—it was too far from New York. He already had a hard time with their current distance and it was only an hour away, even if he didn’t visit the farm much. It was the notion of it.

Sophia’s eyes were on him, clearly studying his reaction, but she didn’t say anything.

“He misses you, you know,” she told him after a while. “He would go back to New York right now if he knew you’d visit him there.”

He had to put down the cake. He felt like throwing up.

“It’s been—it’s been busy,” he said.

Sophia arched an eyebrow, evidently knowing that was bullshit because, no matter how busy the city could get, Peter would always make time to be with Tony before.

She opted not to address it directly; instead, she went for another kill:

“How’s May?” she asked. “Has she remembered you?”

Peter stiffened. “No.”

“She remembers Pepper and Happy,” she pointed out without mercy. “But I guess that’s because they actually go and visit her.”

She wasn’t intimidated by the glare she got from him. If anything, she grew bolder, because she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him, daring him to contradict her.

The worst part was that he couldn’t, but he had never expected her to understand what he was doing.

“I think I should go,” he gritted out, without looking at her.

Sophia scoffed. “Should I give you my wedding invitation now? I wasn’t planning on handing them out until a few months but who knows when I’ll see you next?”

Peter winced. “Congratulations, by the way.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Will you even go?”

“Go where?”

“To my wedding.”

He stared at her. “Am I really invited?”

“Of course you are!” Sophia exclaimed angrily. “You might be capable of ignoring everyone who’s ever cared about you, but I’m not!”

“I don’t ignore them,” Peter snapped, unable to keep up the façade. “That’s not what I do. I will always be there for everyone if they need me.”

“Oh, really? Then where have you been these past two years?”

“I’ve been protecting you!”

“Protecting us?” she laughed bitterly. “Is that what you call staying away from everyone you love?”

“YES!” Peter exploded, glowering at her. “Yes, that’s exactly what I call it!”

Sophia shook her head. “That’s bullshit, Peter, and you know it.”

“I don’t expect you to understand it, Sophia,” he bit back. “But it’s the right thing to do.”

“The right thing to do? Is that what you tell yourself to quiet down the guilt?” she snorted. “Does it ever work?”

Peter scowled. “It works when I look at you and see you all safe.”

“And you think we’re safe because you’re staying away from us?” Sophia laughed incredulously. “I can’t believe someone as smart as you believes something so stupid.”

He reacted as if she’d punched him, but she didn’t cower. Sophia took two steps until she was on his face and gave him her worst scowl.

“We’re safe because we take care of ourselves. We’re safe because we take care of each other,” she hissed. “Not because Spider-Man’s enemies don’t consider us a target… get that stupid idea out of your head before you end up alone!”

“I’d rather end up alone than attend your funeral, Sophia!”

“I am Iron Man’s daughter!” she shrieked, shoving him angrily, even if it was useless; he didn’t move an inch. “I was a target before that spider even bit you!”

“And I won’t make you an even bigger one!”

Sophia rolled her eyes. “This isn’t even about me, Peter. I gave up on you a long time ago.”

That struck him harder than anything she’d ever said, and even breathing became a painful thing to do. He stilled and stared at her, his blood and bones becoming ice cold.

“I’m telling you this because you’re hurting people—my father, your aunt, Ned. When are you going to stop pushing them away?”

“My aunt almost died!” he cried out. “She almost died because of me!”

“It was an accident, Peter!”

“An accident I should have been able to stop!”

Sophia shook her head, and the disappointment was so palpable that it cut him open.

“It’s evident you’re determined to crucify yourself. I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself.”

She didn’t even look at him again before she went back inside the farm house, leaving Peter alone and in the cold.

two.

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fanfic #spiderman fanfiction #tom holland fanfiction #peter parker x ofc #mcu!peter parker #peter parker x stark!reader #peter parker imagine #tom holland imagine #marvel fanfiction #mywriting

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purpletyn · 10 days ago

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havent seen the new transformers movie yet but can u pls explain who the gay robots are

SORRY IM SO BAD AT INBOXES

This is spoilers for Transformers One btw go watch that movie it fucks

So the yellow one is Bumblebee. Aka B. Because bumblebees don’t exist on cybertron <- alien robot planet where the transformers are from. all you really need to know about him for this continuity is he’s the Kid one. The silly even. Doesn’t shut the fuck up. May or may not get his voice box ripped out after the Michael Bay movies popularized semi-mute B (he talks via the radio instead). Has a banger solo live action movie.

The pink one is Elita-1 though in the movie she’s just Elita. She’s the badass of the group. Doesn’t do a super whole lot in the movies but in comics and other continuities she’s often shown as like Optimus’s counterpart and they usually have some sort of unresolved sexual tension with tones of “we fucked for awhile but it didn’t work and both of us are still awkward about it”. Anyways she is typically some sort of military top brass which you see happen at the end of the film. Other timelines have had a LOT of right-hand-man for autobots including Jazz and Ironhide so yeah. I digress

THE MAIN TWO!!! THE PLOT!!!!

ORION PAX. Baby boy. Red and blue. Because he’s basically robot Superman. Starts out at the bottom of Society but has a deep drive to do good and help people. His “best friend” (this is tumblr you know what that means) is D-16. D-16 is silver. He is very like. We just need to keep our heads down, don’t stir the pot, we need Order in society lets know our Place. While Orion is super like cmonnnn man don’t you wanna DO something. And ends up dragging D to various places for shenanigans.

This leads to a domino effect where they find out the government has been lying to everyone’s faces for literal decades. And they have the the proof of this so basically what happens is

O: awesome we have the Pentagon Papers let’s leak it to the world and we can get this leader out of power!

D: I am going to Kill Robot Nixon.

And then they go to the City and are like Awesome The World Knows!! And the Workers start a Revolution (surprise this is communism) and D goes I’m killing the president now. So Orion says hey man uh. it’s okay. everyone knows you don’t gotta. And D goes FUCK OFFFF and tries to kill Robot Nixon anyways and Orion jumps in front of the blast and saves Robot Nixon’s life and D goes hey FUCK you for that and kicks Orion’s corpse down a ditch. And then kills Robot Nixon.

So then Orion’s corpse falls to he center of the planet where he meets Literal God and gets resurrected via the Matrix of Leadership which is basically like. Only ye who are worthy shall possess the power type deal. Very Thor. So God says ARISE… OPTIMUS PRIME and then Optimus Prime arises and kicks the shit out of D-16 who is now calling himself Megatron. And then Prime is like Aight I’m Robot President now get the fuck outta my city. And megatron does! Happy divorce!!!!

And also Soundwave is there and he’s best boy forever <333333

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heart-shaped-chains · 5 months ago

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Hello Tumblr I'm not dead. Life has sucked ass but I'm too mad and it's too much to describe so somewhat NSFW and cringe COD OC art dump under the cut. Came up with this in a day. This entire sketch was cause I was bored, waiting for my phone to charge and it took FOREVVERRR to even come to life so I decided to sketch/jot down ideas 4 my Little Army Dreamers Fallout (only the show cause I'm weak) inspired AU which. Is a lot.

So I will post screenshots of a synopsis and make a separate blog to post my stuff unless the COD ppl are rocking with me. Anyway um. Here's some doodles out of the way. Shitty ones first 2 build up expectations cause I'M SOO out of practice but anyway pls give me attention I need it m so proud of myself I wanna put these on the fridge....(NOT THIS))

Actually nvm here's an example to hopefully entice u....

Mr stick figure Riley. Ugh. Not very happy with the face but basically. 19 year old rookie goes through shit within a three year span, gets drunk at a banquet hall 2 weeks after a grueling mission bc Price dragged my super cool, war criminal self insert there 2 cool off. Kid goes off on a room full of Generals and royalty and corporate oligarchs and then while he's drunken and coked up and he can barely move and shit, he starts WWIII. In the fucking hall. And the BIG goal is to blow up the Pentagon (IN COD, FBI AGENTS IN COD) to stop them from dropping the big atomic bomb and they have FIVE DAYS to do it!!!.

And this is AFTER the NPD, OCD Autism and more ridden Sargeant goes from fuckin. Scared rookie, to respected team player, to a fierce Sargeant, to the most hated man in the WORLD. All because he didn't wanna go to a stupid fucking party. Anyway here it goes hope this is at least interesting. I **will** make a series. Whether it's an OC/self insert or a reader insert or even new characters to make it super my own. But I hope you guys like it. I'll shut up now and please be nice about any constructive criticism lmao.

LAMEEEEE BOO-HOOO. Not awful like. An artist DIDE draw these and this was my first time drawing Riley so I'm sorry that he's so weird. I hope y'all like my other designs cause they're so good. Gonna stfu let the pics talk and see where it goes from here

But I'll shut up and give my detailed thoughts either in the reblogs or I'll edit them in later. Here it GOES!!!!

This took under 2 hours. Arthritic hands didn't do SHIT!!! Not a fan of everything but considering it was just a bored sketch and not actually meant 2 be anatomy practice, I hope y'all like it. Thank the Lord for big, buff men who could kill me. I NEED. Bf soon man. Any of these body types are fuckin awesome. Please feel free to comment and be as annoying as you want about this bc I want it to b enjoyed.

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cyncialwoo · 10 months ago

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can you make a reaction of pentagon if they gonna see their ex girlfriend after break up

a/n: Hihi! I know I said two weeks, but I've been balancing school and home life. I'm also re-reading this piece I wrote a while back and brainstorming for new things. Also, I've never written reactions before, so I hope you enjoy it. I'm sorry this is so late.

words: 2.2k >>Masterlist

Jinho

He would be the type to avoid a meet-up.

It’s not like the relationship ended badly, but it’s for convenience.

Jinho wouldn’t want to step on your feelings if there were any remaining

Honestly, for him, there was still something left over

He's delusional. Literally gaslighting himself to think he’s avoiding you for your sake.

The meet-up would be accidental like it was meant to happen.

Jinho honestly hadn’t been out of his apartment in a few weeks. He had been having second thoughts about the entire breakup. Was it the best decision? He wasn’t sure. Although, the food had run out in his house, and takeout was expensive these days.

He was walking through the isles bored when he saw a familiar figure. He didn’t see your face, but he didn’t have to. Something inside him wanted to approach you, but he didn’t. He couldn’t and he didn’t know why. He would rather die than go up to you. He stood there for minutes wondering whether to move past you or do a 180.

He ended up just staring at you, taking in this moment of seeing you again. You were looking at some snacks on the shelf when you turned your head and looked over at him. He watched as the smile spread on your face, and how you waved at him. He reciprocated it, all without much thought. The moment flew by too fast for him because, in the next second, you were gone for the next item on your grocery list.

Hui

Hui would most likely become obsessed with his work

Anything to distract himself

Maybe he’d blow money for some serotonin

Anything to give him a quick whiff of some happiness

He’s been writing songs like crazy and they're all sappy breakup songs

He doesn’t like any of them though

He needs a break and a bad

Hui needed some time out of his studio which was now too stuffy for him. Just a simple walk would do for him. For what he meant for a short walk around the building, he ended up in a park nearby. He sat on a swing slowly rocking back and forth. His eyes were closed taking in the sound around him. It was quiet, barely anyone was around. Still, the sound of the wind and the trees slowly dancing to it making their sound, The casual cars driving by in the background. That was the serenity and peace he had been looking for this whole time.

When he finally opened his eyes he noticed a familiar figure sitting at a bench. They were eating lunch alone with their head down. He didn’t have to see their face to know who it was. He smiled to himself, maybe this was the motivation and clarity he sought.

Hongseok

He’d be more of the jealous type.

He’s most likely the type to stalk a page

He made a fake account just for you!

okay, maybe that’s not that charming.

he regrets his decision though

he's sincere about that

Lately, Hongseok had been feeling like you were losing interest in him, or you were getting over this. With all that he still felt for you, he couldn’t let you. He still couldn’t let you go and needed something to drag you in with him. So, he devised a plan. He would “randomly” meet up with you.

He got used to the schedule that you had, and have, so it wasn’t that hard to find you. He had crossed your path multiple times after the break-up, but neither of you had decided to go and talk to each other. He was too shy, and you wanted to get over him. It was better for you anyway, and sometimes seeing him just hurt.

Not this time when you saw him. You two had managed to get on the same bus. Although, you knew hongseok had a car and could drive. It made you wonder what happened to him after you two separated. You locked eyes with him, and he shared a smile with you. He took that as an invitation to come closer to you on the bus. He made small talk with you for most of the ride. Something about the whole experience felt like deja vu almost as if you had met him again, but in a new life.

Shinwon

He plays it off but he’s most definitely hurting

He hangs around other people for a distraction

He is not okay though

When he’s alone or at home he mostly pouts

Dont come about his mood though because he will snap

He also won't leave the house unless he has to

The guys have to make him come out, so they take him to an inside amusement park

They may spoil him a bit too much.

It seemed like Shinwon was as good as new. He was smiling, laughing, and making his awful jokes. Honestly, Jinho and Hui kind of wished they left him at home. It seemed like this was the perfect thing to bring him back from being a literal human zombie.

They were walking around the theme park when he saw you giggling with your friends. You guys had rented school uniforms on. He was happy that you were happy though. The way you laughed or held your friend's hand. He didn’t notice how long he had been staring.

He was sent back to reality when Jinho tapped him on the shoulder. “You ready to head out already?” Shinwon looked back at him just nodding. He didn’t know if Jinho knew if he was looking at you or not. Either way, nothing was mentioned on the way home.

Changgu

He lives in a cafe.

Or he visits it a lot

Either way, he wants to run into you

First, it was the old cafe you two used to visit

Then your favorite cafe

But nothing, he couldn’t

One day he gave up and just started to work part-time at a random cafe

He was working late nights due to his day job. He was enjoying working at a cafe. He loved the smell of coffee beans after all, and wouldn’t complain if he smelled like them all day. One thing was for sure though, he brought a lot of business to the cafe.

Everyone went to the cafe to see the cute barista. He smiled with all of the new attention, but he wasn’t quite sure if he enjoyed it or not. Some part of him still hoped that one day you would walk into those doors. He convinced himself that all of the girls he turned down were for you. He was staying loyal to you.

The only problem was that he only worked at the late-night, and it was not the most favorable time for a cup of coffee.

One night while he was making one of his famous cups of coffee, he heard a familiar laugh. His head shot up, he had to see your face again. Although, he frowned as soon as he spotted you in the crowd. Your arm was locked around another guy’s laughing and leaning into him.

He frowned and turned over to his coworker, “I'm taking my 15.”

Yanan

The relationship was short

Surely not long enough for deep feelings

That's what he thought before he broke the news to you

But lately, he had been missing you

Denies it and tries to play it slick

I’m thinking this is like a college fling thing

So you guys could run into one another

Finals were coming up and Yanan was in the library with his head stuck in one of the textbooks. He had been there for hours, and he was starting to get hungry. He had a six-hour final that he was preparing for, and he could not flunk it. He searched in his bags to see if he had any snacks left over. Luckily he still had some, leaning back and eating it.

He took that time to scan his surroundings. He had been focused on his work for so long that he hadn’t noticed the amount of people that had come and gone. This time around he noticed you dozed off on a desk. Your head was lying on a textbook sleeping soundly. You looked so pretty to him. He went close to you and put your jacket over you.

He didn’t quite understand his actions or what possessed him to buy snacks for you. He smiled to himself as he wrote a note. He teased you about falling asleep in the library and how you should take better care of yourself. He didn’t sign the note, smirking. Maybe he could tease you more like this in the future.

Yuto

He is already a quiet person, so I feel like he kept the relationship very private

Barely anyone knew that the two of you had broken up

The break up wasn’t on good terms

The two of you could not agree on something

He hated arguments and everything that came with it

He also hated telling you when he disagreed with something because it would lead to even more arguments even if it didn’t have to be one

The two of you were petty anyways

He tried to avoid you, and the places you hung out frequently

Yuto was out with a large group of friends. It was unusual for him, but he was enjoying the extra company. They were at a large shopping mall, so it wasn’t an ideal place to be. He was quieter than usual. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to draw a lot of attention to himself. That was the reason. He wanted some quiet time but didn’t want to be alone. Maybe this was the best solution for him.

He thought of himself over the relationship. Maybe he was being too harsh, but he thought if he heard that you died in a week or so he wouldn’t care. Okay, that was cruel of him, but he needed some way to distance himself.

The sad part was, when he saw you at a store with another guy, his heart sank. He was mad that he still felt some type of way about it and about you. He was disappointed in himself, nonetheless, he played it off and went on with his day.

Kino

I'm going with the cliche trope

He’s just a party guy to me

And I think he’d go to parties to let off his cool. Especially if it was a harsh break-up

I feel like he’d still be jealous and possessive after the relationship

If anyone would try to say something bad about you, he would get mad at them.

He’s still sweet as ever, even if it ended on bad terms or not

Kino was at a party, like usual. He had a huge social circle. He was floating around the party talking to a lot of different people. He was feeling better tonight. He preferred to put himself out there when he didn’t feel up to it. Honestly, he was feeling a lot better.

He did notice you when you walked in, it would be hard for him not to stare. He watched over you, still feeling protective. He knew a lot of the people at the party, some of them having a bad reputation. He would rather watch over you from a distance, not ready to face you.

That didn’t matter when a random guy came up to you. He didn’t know him, but he could not stand the fact that another man was talking to you. He came up to you putting his arm over your shoulder casually. “I forgot to ask you what drink you wanted.” Kino kept a sly smirk on his face. You looked a little upset and surprised to see him there, but he just brushed it off. It was fun to cock-block you.

Wooseok

I think he would be quieter about the breakup

He seems like he keeps more to himself

But he’s generally sweet to everyone

I think the motivation would be down

He wants to keep things on good terms, but that doesn’t mean friends.

He’s not the type to text you after

Unless he needed something

Wooseok had gathered up some motivation lately, after looking at how messy his life had been lately. He was picking his stuff up and putting things in their right places. During that, he found some items that were yours, and he noticed that some of his things had been missing. He frowned, he didn’t want to do any confronting, but he wanted his things back. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

His hands were sweaty as he texted you. He simply stated that he had a few of your things and he thought that you had a few of his. It was simple and he tried to be as polite as possible. He was not trying to make anyone upset.

After a few days you hadn’t answered his text, so he tried again. This time his tone was a little hasty, and when you responded, it was in an aggravated tone. He was confused. You didn’t want to meet with him and made that clear. He suggested mail, but that seemed to upset you as well.

When he saw you later that week on the street, he said nothing. He did nothing. Any feelings that he had left over for you, were gone. Then he knew he could move on.

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mizugucci · 2 years ago

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3, 7, 8 & 11 !!!

omggg ty for sending <33

3. create your dream collaboration between idols — which idols and what songs?

i have actually not rly thought about collaborations mostly cuz everyones so separate in my mind but uh i know exactly who id want: jbj95 members kenta and sanggyun, wei's donghan, and mbitious' taehyun. throw hyunbin in there somewhere too LOL and ofc they’d do jbj’s my flower :)

7. create your ideal guest list for a jackson wang party

HAHA oh we gotta start this list with seungkwan and hoshi of course, i think doing a drinking game would be fun with the exid members. no onf members tho cuz they dont. seem like partiers hahaha. except mk but im not even sure abt that. anyway heres a few others: pentagon's shinwon, wei's donghan & seokhwa, nct's johnny & mark, chuu, and any mix/match of twice members. just so i can see them interact with seungkwan and hoshi.

8. create an idol group with some of your mutuals, including positions and a group name!

oh BOYYYY i have lots of mutuals that come to mind but mainly id like to make a group full of adults (for. obvious reasons) and i also avoided mutuals that i knew would never want the attention lmao anyway. introducing the kpop group that can actually rap and gives homage to the history of rap with no cultural appropriation <3

group name: HONOUR

@awek-s -- main rapper, dancer, and face of the group

@changbeens -- also main rapper, dancer, and lyricist

@hwichanis -- leader, main vocal, and choreographer despite not being a dancer

@pinkhyojin -- main dancer, vocal, and happy virus

@hoshifromkpop -- can do all 3 (sing, rap, dance) and is also in charge of style in the group

@seoluna -- also main vocal, dancer, and producer of the songs

this group is a mix of the nicest people ive ever met with people that arent afraid to speak their mind, which needs to be done in the industry tbh. you all dont take any shit but the kindness/hard honesty is evened out and no one comes across bitchy or anything, which is rly nice!

11. song to most likely make you cry

oh this one is easy, except its a tie between two: one is call your name by jbj mostly cuz every time i hear it i can see the mv and taehyun crying... the second one is starlight by enoi bc that song is so beautiful but it also drives me crazy in a good way

send me some numbers!!!

#nico you gave me the hardest questions first shdjfkgfh #yall cant give me creative questions without me going compeltely overboard #sorry its the rules #replies #answered

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boysplanetrecaps · 2 years ago

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Recap of Boys Planet Episode 1 (Part 1)

It’s time for another giant MNET show! Are you excited, fellow Star Creator? Woo!

This is Boys Planet, also called Boys Planet 999 by random incorrect people, including me. And this thing you’re reading is a “watch along” guide/recap to the show. You can read it as you watch the show to get the behind the scenes dirt, or to keep track of who is who and what is going on, or after you watch, or whenever. I don’t spoil anything with respect to who gets kicked off, but I will help you connect the dots with respect to who is who. I’ll use helpful pictures and stuff, too.

All time stamps will correspond to the version on Viki. When I list ages, I’ll use international ages (Korean ages have historically always been 1 more than the way the rest of the world accounts ages).

Who am I?

An internet rando. I live somewhere in the United States and am over 21 years of age. I used to sing acapella and have a strong sense of pitch, but for dancing I just know what I like. I can read/understand a bit of Korean and a bit of Japanese as well, and can tell the difference between spoken Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, so at times I might be able to shed a little light as to what’s going on. When it comes to evaluating performances, I’m not likely to be mean, and I try to understand what might be going on with people but I will be snarky and honest, especially about the editing. Cool? Cool! 🙂To the recap!

Feel free to skip past the drama-teaser to 1:25 for an earnest promise that the show’s producers have paid other people to watch them so that they can’t possibly cheat, before the show can begin and of course, immediately begin to cheat. Yay!

The show’s host, I’m sorry, “Star Master”, Hwang Minhyun, talks earnestly and dully about how there are stars in the sky and foreign members of kpop groups. Hilariously, he appears to be in a futuristic room looking out into a starry sky, perhaps aboard an orbiting space station with a really good gravity system in place. His desk, a cheap Ikea looking affair, is bedecked with a model of the main seating area for the show -- The Space Council Chambers -- a name plate that says “Star Creator”, an unusually huge yellow desk lamp, and an old fashioned globe. This is the shit I live for.

Minhyun is known for his appearance on Produce 101 Season 2 (aka, Broduce 101) as well as for being a popular member of both Wanna One and NU’EST. I’m more of a Baekho girl, but I like Minhyun just fine. There’s something about his face that I never, ever, ever recognize him when I see him, which I find is often the case for Korean “visuals.” He is nice looking, if a bit… personality free? But that could be the directing.

Anyway, Minhyun gets up and pushes a button that says start…

And then we see a (computer generated) room which has been set aside to house a large…. gumball… machine... thing (that is computer generated). Large plastic balls fall from the two parts of the machine to meet in the center. None of this is necessary, or real, and I find that delightful.

Minhyun tells us that now, we are all Star Creators and we’re going to make the next Kpop boy group that the world wants. You know, in case you’re not happy with A.C.E, Astro, Ateez, The Boys, BTS, Ciipher, CIX, Day6, DKZ, Drippin, Enhypen, E’last, Exo, FTIsland, GOT7, Golden Child, Highlight, IKON, JustB, Kingdom, Lucy, Monsta X, NCT, Oneus, ONF, OnlyoneOf, Pentagon, The Rose, Seventeen, SF9, SHINee, Stray Kids, TO1, Treasure, Trendz, TXT, TVXQ, Up10tion, Vav, Verivery, Victon, Vixx, WEi, Winner, Xdinary Heroes, Younite, or Z-Stars. But yes, we need more groups. Bring ‘em on.

Minhyun goes on to talk about how there are two groups of trainees -- K group (Korean) and G group (Global), represented by blue and pink respectively, as well as two heavily mic’d flags.

“Please vote for the boy shining brightest!” the shiny boys chant in unison.

You can vote for whoever you want, whether K or G, though the editors do strongly suggest you vote K, and the votes will again be weighted the way they were in GP999 -- ie, Korean votes will be weighted as 50% of the votes, and Global votes will be weighted as the other 50%. If you want to skip past the voting instructions, skip to 5:20.

So, we look down at what looks kind of like one of those rolling-marble puzzles,

but it turns out to be the hallway through which all the trainees have to walk on their way to the Space Council Chambers.

Lee Da Eul (18) and Lim Jun Seo (17) from 143 Entertainment, the first to enter, are offered sparkly star stickers, and they decide to give themselves 1 star each, adding that they aren’t totally sure if they even deserve those one stars. Ok, politeness is sweet, but why go on this show if you don’t believe in your abilities? Anyway, these chosen two get to say “woah” and “eego buyo?” as the lights turn on loudly. They explore the Council seating, feel the soft seats for the top 9, then decide to sit in seats 4 and 5. (Later on, they’ll perform “Replay” by SHINee as their audition.)

Next to enter are the trainees from Wakeone, who, we see in a flashback, had a pre-show meeting with their sunbae, Kim Chae Hyun from Kep1er, who did really well on GP999. Chaehyun encouraged them to be confident on the show, saying, “If someone is very good but has no confidence then there’s no charm to them.” The five Korean trainees from Wakeone gave themselves 7 stars each -- these are Kim Taerae, Park Hanbin, Lee Jung Hyun, Mun Junghyun, and Park Minseok. Their confidence spurs Lim Jun Seo to go move to seat 9. Wakeone’s maknae, Mun Jung Hyun (17), sits in the chair for #1. (Later on, these 5 will perform “The Real” by ATEEZ.)

From here there’s going to be a lot of fighting as to who gets to sit in that chair, and I’ll be honest, I don’t care that much.

Next to enter is: Canada! One of the Wakeone trainees says “I would’ve never imagined someone from Canada” as the on-screen words say, “What will this Canadian trainee look like?” The combined impression from those two sentences is that people from Canada are unimaginably weird looking. Mun Jung Hyun wonders, “Will people with blonde hair and blue eyes show up?” Which, again, hilarious. Do they not know that Somi (IOI/soloist/future Star Master this season), Wendy from Red Velvet, Mark Lee from NCT, and a bunch of other k-idols are from Canada? Why do I know that, come to think of it? Why do I know that, and not where my keys are?

Also, whenever Koreans talk about Canada, all I can think about is the k-drama, Goblin, in which they talk about “Canada” as if it is a single city with maybe two restaurants, and where it is always the beginning of autumn, encased in a gentle fluttering of orange maple leaves.

We meet Seok Matthew (20), who is independant, and has given himself three stars. He looks a tiny winy bit like Xiumin from Exo to me. In an interview, we can see that he speaks Korean reasonably well. His sister got him into dancing and now he really likes it, and he came to Korean to reach his dream.

Then we meet Japanese trainee Takuto, born November of 2007, dressed for… boxing? He has boxing gloves hanging from a string around his neck and has a sweat band around his head. In his intro package, he speaks in sort of halting Korean -- hey, it’s a lot better than my own Korean -- and poses in power poses to show he’s a “manly man” (they translate it as “tough guy” but google translate says “manly man” and I think that’s funnier).

An up close shot reveals he has actually stenciled “Takuto” in English letters on his cheek with blush.

As the MNET editors mercilessly play the clip of him saying he’s a manly man ( “상 남… 상 남 자” /“Sang nam… sang namja…”) over and over and over again as if to teach us the proper pronunciation, Takuto looks around at the older bigger guys and makes a big heart over his head with his hands. All the other guys react by laughing and clapping, charmed.

MNET obviously isn’t showing everyone who comes in, as eagle eyed viewer will spot additional trainees in the Space Council who were not shown entering, but hey, I mean, whatever, it’s MNET. This has been edited so much it’s basically fiction.

In comes Wumuti (23), who has such a unique look to him that I was curious as to his background. My internet roving tells me that he was also on the MNET show Under 19, and that he’s an ethnic Uyghur from China. I was like, ok, what is a Uyghur? Turns out they’re a sort of Turkish ethnic group but mostly they live in Northwest china, and oh…. It’s really sad and awful, guys. The Chinese government is doing things like work camps and forced sterilization and stuff to try to wipe them out. I can’t help but root for anyone who comes from a background like that. Also, his name written in Korean characters looks cute: 우무티. Later on he’ll perform UN Village by Baekhyun.

So, Wumuti comes in and we see he’s given himself 6 stars. He makes a beeline for Chair 1, where he loses Rock Paper Scissors. Come on, can’t the guy catch a break?

Then we see a montage of trainees fighting for Chair 1, and again, I don’t care. They plank for it, thumb war, etc. Kum Jun Hyeon, 19, who has absolutely covered his nametag in stars to the point you can barely see even his name, is cheered on by his Redstart ENM labelmates as he nabs the chair. They have also gone completely HAM on those stars. (Later on, he’ll do Nunu Nana by Jessi.) I feel worse and worse for our initial two guys, giving themselves just one star.

Apparently, MNET isn’t interested in spending time watching each trainee come in this time, and that’s possibly for the best, but it does make it a bit sketchy that we see certain trainees.

For example, we meet the trainees from Taipei, who come in like this:

Left to right, this is Chen Kuan Jui, Qiu Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong. Kuan Jui, holding that bejeweled stick, has given himself 5 stars, while the others have given themselves 2 or 3 each. Mun Jung Hyun and Kim Tae Rae wonder to each other, is that a magic staff? Like the kind that Sun Wukong carries? (Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, is a famous character from Chinese mythology.) (Later on they’ll do Tiger Inside by SuperM.)

Kuan Jui marches up to Chair 1 and does a full standing split that would actually put Le Sserafim’s Kazuha to shame

And thus, he earns the seat.

I don’t know if the ability to put one’s ankle behind one’s neck is a something I need from a kpop idol. But I mean, good for him? I guess?

In come the trainees from Jellyfish, and Lee Ye Dam reacts as if someone has splashed him in the face with cold water, which, given that this is MNET, is not impossible. Someone says, “no way!” which is very odd, because Jellyfish always sends trainees to shows like this. I mean, Mina and Sejong came out of PD 101. And it’s not as if Jellyfish is doing all that well. They squandered Sejong, they murdered Gugudan, and their most successful group is Verivery, who are very sweet, talented, and hardworking but not exactly smashing sales records. So yeah, not sure what Yedam is so excited about.

We get a bit of a slow-mo to take in what we might reasonably be excited about: sexy Park Gun Wook (18).

To be clear: I don’t personally find him sexy; he’s way too young to seem sexy to me personally. I’m saying that that is obviously what he’s going for. He gives off big time Kang Daniel vibes to me, not really in looks but in terms of what he’s aspiring to. He and his fellow Jellyfish trainees are tall and manly, and Gun Wook already may have a fan following since he did pretty well on another survival show called Wild Idol. Gun Wook goes straight for Chair 1, and the other trainees comment on how muscular he is. He challenges the current seat sitter, a Japanese trainee named Riku, to a thigh wrestling game (??). Poor Riku -- we didn’t see him take the seat, but we sure see him lose the seat.

Time for an American trainee! I love that the Korean word for USA is “MiGuk” (or Bi-Goo, as it’s usually pronounced). Apparently it translates to Beautiful Country, which is so kind of them to say. I hope that the USA will do more things to earn that name going forward.

Out come Jay and Na Kamden. Jay, lovey, there are already enough Jays in Kpop --you have to think of a different name. It seems like Jay strongly prefers speaking English, but understands some Korean, while Kamden understands Jay’s English but prefers to speak Korean. Kamden appeared on Wild Idol as well.

Then we get a montage of tall global trainees, mostly Chinese. For people like me who don’t readily understand heights in cm, it’s good to know that 183 cm is 6 feet. So someone 188 cm is like, 6’2.

We also meet Cong and Dang Hong Hai from Vietnam, who later on will perform View by SHINee. Hong Hai speaks Korean, even if it’s with a really thick accent. It has to be so hard for the global contestants.

Then we meet the group from Osaka, Japan, and it turns out one of them is Keita, who the whole Space Council recognizes. He was on YG’s TreasureBox, the show that made the group Treasure, and then later on debuted with Ciipher. It’s not too weird he’d come on this show, as Ciipher is still, alas, in semi-nugu territory.

Ah, here is Yuehua, who are sending in 4 Korean trainees and 4 Global trainees, each entering via their respective doorway, which is so charmingly unnecessary. The Korean trainees come out in all black, while the “global” team is a bit more colorful in faded denim. If you’re not familiar, Yuehua is a Chinese company with branches in Korea. They co-manage WJSN with Starship, and manage Everglow outright. They also manage new boy band Tempest.

Anyway, then there’s a montage of the trainees finding each other handsome and saying they look like other famous people, capped off by the entrance of Sung Han Bin to the strains of tender piano music that presumably plays in his wake naturally due to his extreme handsomeness.

Even I can tell that he is in fact, quite good looking in that classic kpop way. He looks like he should be with SM entertainment, but he’s from STUDIO GL1DE, which doesn’t bode well for his skills. A guy who looks like that who could do a nice step-touch and could at least carry a tune in a bucket would get picked up by a more prestigious agency. But maybe I’ll be proven wrong on that…. Hmmm….

Cube’s trainees are announced, and we’re treated to a brief montage of Cube’s top artists, including BtoB, Pentagon and G-Idle. The camera pauses for a moment on Hui from Pentagon as the group performs Shine. The trainees talk about how talented the Cube sunbaes are -- how talented would their hoobaes be? Out comes Bak Do Ha, looking like a figure skater. (Later on he’ll be performing My House by 2PM.)

There’s still one more empty chair, and the Space Council wonders: what agency could sending the last trainee? It turns out it’s also… Cube?!? Bak Do Ha smiles and laughs to himself as the other trainees are wondering why this last trainee is being announced last and separately. They all immediately recognize him as Hui-sunbaenim from Pentagon, a group that debuted in 2016, has had some serious ups and some serious downs, and won a bunch of music shows as recently as a few months ago. This 29-year-old man who has already done his military service bows to the 15 year olds and introduces himself as Lee Hoe Taek from Cube, politely saying “I look forward to working with you.”

Guys. GUYS. I have a lot of feelings about Hui from Pentagon being on this show. I could talk endlessly about it, but the upshot is: negative. I have negative feelings about this. When Pentagon went on Kingdom, they actually kind of… fell in my esteem. Hui seemed so sad, like the group was just so sad, and Hui was pushing so hard to make his song remixes cool that he forgot to make them… pleasant to listen to, or fun to see performed. I think Hui is a genuine, top-tier talent when it comes to songwriting, producing, and singing. I love a lot of Pentagon songs, including ones people don’t talk about but should, like Can You Feel It and Sha La La. I am still angry that E-Dawn got kicked out over being a human being with a love life, and angry that it hurt Pentagon a lot, and heartbroken that a lot of that probably landed on Hui’s head.I get it that he’s doing this to get people to notice Pentagon. After all, their contracts are up in 2023, and no doubt they’ll want to leave that awful agency. Maybe they’ll pull a GOT7 and all leave together and stay together. So I get it that he wants to promote. But the thing is, I don’t believe that “all publicity is good publicity.” I think having people feel sorry for you will make them not feel impressed by you, or attracted to you, and I think that will hurt you. I think this was a big mistake and it makes me feel second-hand-humiliation. I hope I’m wrong. Sincerely, I do.

Anyway, this award winning songwriter and top-tier vocalist has rated himself 3 stars. Thinking about it, that was kind of the only move he could make -- he has to pretend to have a reason to be on the show, and that reason can only be to “work on myself and continue to improve to be the best Lee Hoe Taek I can be”, or something along those lines. To be Hui and give himself 4 (or more) stars would feel like an NBA star who came to dunk on a bunch of high school kids.

We cut to his first interview with the staff, in which he said that he had only gotten discharged from the military a week ago and feels shy in front of the camera. We get a brief montage of trainees saying they’re not sure why he’s here, some of them seeming a little irritated. Others say that it’s a honor to be on the same show with Hui.

Hui decides to challenge the current number-1 chair sitter (16 year old Park Ji Hoo, who says “I just got here!”) to a contest to win the chair, and bowing deeply and speaking politely, says he’d like to have a singing contest. Of course. He lets out a delightful musical phrase, and Ji Hoo stands there listening, then scurries away without singing a note.

There’s something so poignant about Ji Hoo saying, “I just got here” to Hui. He just got here in the show, he just got here in this industry -- he just got here on this PLANET compared to Hui. And here comes Hui to take the chair. I like Hui, I do, I just…. Ugh.

Ollie, who is representing China but seems quite comfortable speaking English, notices that the two sides of the room are really different, with K-group mostly wearing suits or leather, and G-group more varied and colorful. Yes, that is obvious. Can we have another season of Youth With You that doesn’t end with a milk scandal, please? Anyway…

Interestingly, Ollie can also speak a decently pronounced, if slightly halting, Korean in his interview. Zhang Hao can also speak a bit of Korean -- it sounds to me like he has a Chinese accent on his Korean, but it’s not like I would really know. But they’re both Yuehua trainees and it wouldn’t surprise me if their agency gave them intensive Korean language training. Love that. It’s really smart of Yuehua, and so truly helpful to their trainees.

0:23:00 The Judges Come Out

The room darkens and the trainees watch a short video about how they’re on Boys Planet now and are trying to become shining stars or whatever the shit. Turns out this year, there will be multiple hosts, and the viewers will be called Star Creators. The boys are nervous in general and in specific.

Time to meet the vocal master: Lee Seok Hoon. The trainees recognize him, and while they clearly respect him, they’re scared of him after his time on Produce101. He’s known for turning his head to the side and looking disgusted when someone hits a sour note, or for nodding appreciatively with his eyebrows raised when someone hits a good note.

Solji is the female vocal master and their enthusiasm seems bigger -- it’s Solji from Exid! Who doesn’t love her? Wrong people, that’s who. A trainee says that she’s been teaching at a University, and like, I hope so. I just want Solji’s life to be full of respect and comfort. She just seems like such a class act. I bet she’s an excellent teacher. And then Onestar comes out, who we might recognize from GP999. The trainees cheer for him and he makes them cheer more.

Then the rap master: pH-1 from H1ghr music, who introduces himself in rapid English. Several of the trainees claim to be big fans. I’ll be honest and say I’ve never heard of him. And I actually do listen to some k-rap. Per Wikipedia, he was born in Korea but moved to New York when he was 12. I guess he chose English as the lingua franca, but in that case, talk more slowly, dude. Anyway. Wikipedia adds, “As the three keywords he pursues in his music are truth, positivity, and experience, his work contains positive or honest messages, generally excluding references to drugs, money bragging and excessive "flexing", and explicit sexual content.” So, look forward to that. Or not. I don’t know what you’re into.

Dance Masters: From 1Million, Back Koo Young and Choi Young Joon. Look I don’t know much about much but I *do* know that 1Million is top tier when it comes to dance. So these guys are good. The trainees are psyched to see them. Also, Lip J, who is “the living legend of waacking.” The trainees say their judges/trainers are like the Avengers.

The judges immediately move into intimidation mode. It’s time to find out how the trainees rated themselves, star wise. The Korean group was more confident, overall.

What’s sort of interesting about this is that during GP999, the Chinese girls were far more confident than the Korean girls. That’s because Chinese culture isn’t as self-effacing as Korean culture is, in general. Kind of interesting, too, that they had the boys do this, but not the girls. With the girls it would have been such a mine field because it’s “unfeminine” to have faith in yourself. Anyway.

Japanese trainee Haruto interviews, in Korean, “Only a maximum of four stars were allowed, but almost everyone did whatever they wanted.” Yep.

The judges explain that their first performance will be the “Style Level Test”, during which their self-assessed star levels will be replaced by judge-assessed stars. Also, we learn that K-group and G-group are being pitted against each other; the team that wins more stars overall will get access to the next song that they have to practice a day earlier. Kind of cruel -- my assumption, without having seen the whole episode, is that the K-group will win, and the G-group will be at a further disadvantage, having one day fewer to practice and needing even more time due to language barriers. Why do I watch these shows? Am I mentally well?

Auditions Begin: 0:32:58

Finally, we get our first audition -- Team Jellyfish, who gave themselves all 4 stars. The trainees are suitably cowed; after all, Kim Dayeon from Kep1er is from Jellyfish. Kim Gyu Vin (who is a serious talent in his own right, and will later on perform Kick It) calls Park Gun Wook “Park Gun-Wook -nim” even though, as he notes, Gyu Vin is actually a bit older than Gun Wook. It’s just that Gun Wook looks so big and mature. Little boxer Takuto met team Jellyfish backstage and backed away from them as if scared, his hands in a fig leaf position, and they encouraged him to come closer and were nice to him and called him cute. Gun Wook is the leader, the all rounder, and is also apparently pretty nice. See? Kang Daniel vibes?

They’re going to be performing GBTB (Go Beyond the Barrier) by their sunbaes, Verivery. One of the dance masters actually choreographed this, but the boys seem confident to perform it in front of the choreographer. Fighting!

Left to right: Jang Yeo Jun, Park Hyun Been, Han Yu Seop, Park Gun Woo

My thoughts:

I’ll be honest, this is my first time hearing this song, and I’m ok not hearing it again after this. Just sort of… like what if you took all the NCT songs and threw them in a blender with an electric guitar? Sorry, VERRER. I still think Verivery are very cute and charming and my bias is Dongheon.

As for the performance: I have not a ton to say, because it was fine. All four of them did fine dance wise. Gun Wook stood out with his charisma and his big nice face. (I know the Korean ideal is small faces, but I like big faces.) I think Jang Yeo Jun danced a little bit better than the others, doing those weird leg kicks a little bit better, and Park Hyun Been rapped really fast and pretty well. Their singing was on key, too. I think Han Yu Seop was the main vocalist, but I actually think his singing was among the weakest -- there were times that I couldn’t even hear him sing. But they were dancing really hard. So for an audition for one of these shows, he was ok.

They ask GunWook to dance by himself, and he chooses a song by Seventeen. The dance masters warn him that it’s hard, but he’s unbothered. He has good charisma, great facial expressions, and sharp movements. As far as I can tell, he’s good.

The judges give them all the same score -- 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ . They took away a star because the boys didn’t sing loud enough. The boys do their best to accept their fate.

WakeOne doing Glitch Mode.

The team comes out in a choo choo train formation -- sorry for that extremely technical term -- then introduce themselves (and I’ll tell you a little more):

Super Charming Anthonny! (He’s almost 19, from Japan, and got all A’s on Produce 101 Japan)

Refreshing energy Min! (He’s 22, from Thailand, and also went on Under Nineteen)

Powerful Dance Haruto! (He’s 18, from Japan, specializes in dance, and went semi-viral for complaining that his profile picture didn’t look like him, even tho it kinda does….)

After they introduce themselves, Haruto asks if they can have a moment to check their formation -- basically, they want to rehearse on stage during the audition? The judges let them, sighing about kids today, but everyone is mildly impressed that these foreigners are talking to each other in Korean. Min’s profile says he speaks Thai, Korean, Chinese, and English, but not Japanese, so maybe that’s why they’ve settled on Korean to talk to each other -- plus it looks better to the judges that they know enough Korean to communicate.

My thoughts:

I have to note that Glitch Mode is the kind of song I’m a bit over. I really like Cherry Bomb and Firetruck and even got on board with Kick It but this sort of shouting-in-unison, wandering base line, jazzy-melodic-SM-bridge when the singers can sing… I just am a bit past it. Sorry, folks. (Update: But I do love Ayo, so who knows anymore?) So I don’t know this song super well. I listened to it twice before watching the performance trying to figure out what the melody is and kind of failed. So. There’s that.

This was a really cute performance, though. I watched the full version on youtube before I watched the show version. All three of them danced well, with a lot of energy and great facial expressions.

Haruto obviously stood out for dancing, doing aerials and backflips and splits. He rolled with the fact that his mic pack fell out of his pocket right at the beginning, and didn’t let it show on his face. But his singing was egregious. He’s not a singer, and this song is incredibly difficult to sing even when you’re standing still. Also, his rapping wasn’t too bad.

Min did some high kicking and acrobatics as well, and his rapping was actually good. I won’t say his singing was good but it was on key as far as I could tell, which is an achievement.

Anthonny was the vocalist of the team and as such didn’t do any flipping around, but he sang the best. Like I said, overall, pretty charming. I have a soft spot for Anthonny for no darn reason. He’s just a cutie.

Interestingly, the version that aired on the show had most of the bad singing edited out. I think the show wanted Haruto to look better. The judges ask him about his dancing ability and he says he used to do ballet and proceeds to do a sort of crazy 30 consecutive ballet turns. Haruto is obviously a really good dancer, but so was Min, who also rapped well. And Haruto’s singing was very, very bad -- did I mention that? But they still gave him an All Star rating ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ , which strikes me as objectively incorrect. I like him, you guys. I do. He’s charming and cute and a great dancer. He didn't sing well in his audition. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. I think maybe 2 or 3 stars would have been fairer. Or maybe Haruto sang a separate song and did a lot better in it, but we didn't see...?

Min and Anthonny both get 3 stars 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐ , though the show doesn’t care enough to bother to show it.

Next up, at 49:00, is Team Taipei. I’ll put their photo back up so you don’t have to scroll back and forth.

Again, left to right, that’s Chen Kuan Jui, Qui Sheng Yang, Chen Ren You, and Dong Dong.

The judges immediately ask about the big stick and he explains he needs it for performance.

My thoughts: They perform Tiger Inside by SuperM. As always, I checked out the Youtube version first, before I watched the MNET edited version. I like this song just fine, if you’re wondering.

The flexible Chen Kuan Jui is 22. His online profile mentions he does ballet and that one of his hobbies is “stretching.” Yeah, that checks out. His dancing is very good -- little details like how he bends his fingers, stuff like that. You just know his toes are pointed inside those boots. That said, his vocal color is unpleasant, and his choice to retrieve and spin that dumb stick was…. You know…. A choice. A wrong choice, but a choice. Sorry if you liked it, but I found it really unimpressive. I’d rather just watch this talented dancer dance.

The blonde Qiu Sheng Yang is 21. He also was on Atom Boyz with Ren You, on the same team but eliminated much sooner than Ren You was. His performance here is not fabulous but not awful. He seemed uncomfortable to me, like he was overdancing a bit.

The distinctive looking Chen Ren You is 19. His online profile states that he’s a singer; he was on a Taiwanese reality show called Atom Boyz that sounds like a frickin’ hoot, but doesn’t seem available in full with English subtitles, anywhere. Ren You has one of those faces -- like GunWook on this show, or Sehun from EXO, or that one guy from Drippin, Junho. Like a face that’s just like HI, I AM A FACE. I dig it, don’t get me wrong. Anyway, his performance was good. I thought his dancing was purposeful, but sort of calm, and his singing was really good. On key, on rhythm, pleasant, all that good stuff. I’m rooting for him.

The delightfully monikered Dong Dong is 22 and represents Stardust Entertainment. I’m old as shit but I am still apparently 12 years old on the inside because I can’t. He apparently was on a Chinese reality show called The Coming One 2. Anyway, he does fine, I guess. On key, dancing is decent, it’s not awful. Bring it on, bringenon, brigggedon!

So yeah, I say Chen Kuan Jui was the best dancer in the group, and Renyou is the best singer in the group, but they were all basically ok. Of course, the MNET editing focuses almost entirely on the stupid stick, and Renyou’s excellent singing is edited out. They give Renyou 2 stars ⭐⭐ . Are we watching the same thing? Maybe his dancing was bad and I just can’t tell because I know nothing about dancing.

The judges focus on flexy Chen Kuan Jui and give him time to dance, and of course, he’s genuinely a very very good ballet dancer. He can get up with his toes and flip around and do all sorts of crazy stuff. But I really dislike his singing voice and I don’t know, I find him off-putting for no good reason. That’s not fair of me, but yeah, it’s where I’m at. Regardless, the judges give him 4 stars. ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ We don’t see it, but Dong Dong gets 1 star ⭐ and Sheng Yang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ .

Now we have a montage of G group groups: team Vietnam doing View, team Thailand doing Kokobop, and a Chinese group doing God’s Menu. The editing here is brought to you by MNET’s editing team, shown here at their most recent staff meeting.

We barely see any of these teams, so I watched their full performances on Youtube and will let tell you about it!

Team Kokobop:

A Thai duo who greet everyone with a sawadee ka. Zhang Hao from Yuehua (good looking guy with auburn hair -- we’ll meet him soon) tells Ricky from Yuehua (distinctive blonde guy, giving us Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys vibes) that he wants to be friends with the Thai guys because he likes Thai food.

Winnie, from FirstOne Entertainment, claims his specialty is freestyle dance. He’s 24. I’ve seen his name spelled Winne, but more official sources spell it Winnie. He’s a member of nugu group NINE.i -- two other members of that group are on the show, but they’re Korean, so we’ll meet them later.

Nice is an individual trainee. He’s 22. He seems scared to look up or into camera lenses.

My Thoughts:

They perform Kokobop, and I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m a huge EXO-L (my bias is ALL OF THEM) and I really love this song, so I know it well. Winnie was actually pretty decent, singing a really difficult song. He was a little sharp here and there but really not that bad. He also looked pretty comfortable and hit the dance moves reasonably well. I never know what the Korean public thinks looks good, but I think his styling isn’t working for him. He’s wearing way too much foundation, that shade of hair color doesn’t suit his skin, and his contact lenses just give him an unearthly, fake look. He looks better in some photos I’ve seen of him online, like this one:

Winnie, I hope for good things for you going forward.

Nice was terrible vocally; the dancing was ok but the vocals were unacceptable. He also looked really, really shy -- like he can’t even make eye contact with the camera. I think he is way out of his league, bless him. You’re very cute, Nice. I assume you’re rich or you wouldn’t be here, so I hope your personal wealth cushions the blow when you are rightfully kicked off. (Smash cut to Nice making the final line up because he’s cute….???)

MNET editing was pretty kind, honestly. Nice can only benefit by being edited down. He’s like the shark in Jaws -- looks great as long as you don’t see him for long. The judges give Nice 0 stars, and give Winnie 1 star ⭐ .

Next up is a G-group team: Team God’s Menu

Oh, these poor guys. They look good in their outfits, to be fair, but poor guys. Non-native speakers of Korean, trying to do this song? As someone said online, “Their souls probably left their bodies when they found out they had to do this song.” I’m trying to think of a group who could cover this song and do it justice. Monsta X probably could. And I mean, of course BTS could. Probably Hui or Jeon Soyeon could do a cool remix that would suit their own teams. Regardless, this is not an ideal song for a rookie group of non-native Korean speakers.

I watched the whole performance on Youtube. I’m not obsessed with Stray Kids but I do like them (my bias is Changbin!), and I love love LOVE this song. Here’s my take:

Xuan Hao also appeared on Youth With You 3, which I didn’t watch. He ended in 62nd place and apparently also uses the name “Swen.” He says on his initial profile worksheet that God’s Menu is his favorite song, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that he did a great job here. His dancing was sharp when it had to be sharp and fluid when it had to be fluid, and his singing was on key and on the beat. He’s a better singer than I.N. anyway. Yes I said it: I.N. is not a good singer. Come find me and kill me for it, I guess? That’s the kind of thing you should end a human life for, right? Anyway, I like Xuan Hao.

Lin Shiyuan was apparently once a Cube trainee, but is now independent. He has the job of rapping Changbin’s intro rap. He doesn’t do very well. He very noticeably rushes the beat pretty much every time it’s his turn to vocalize in any way, maybe because he’s nervous, and his pronunciation is not great. He had definitely learned these complicated dance steps, but he wasn’t dancing them, just doing them. I could see the fear in his face, and when he wasn’t singing or rapping, you could almost see him counting the steps. When they were flipping the pancake, he didn’t look up to wait for it to come back down, which is 90% of the fun of that move. I can’t blame him and I’m not blaming him. Poor guy.

Feng Junlan actually did pretty well. His rapping was on the beat and sounded good, and his dancing was precise. He looked up when they flipped the pancake -- it makes such a difference. If the judges have any sense that have to have noticed how well he did.

When I tried to watch it to focus on Chen Liang, Feng Junlan kept stealing my attention. Liang did fine dance wise, as far as I could tell (but didn’t look up when they flipped the pancake!), but his vocals were very off key (if at least more or less on the beat).

The judges are kind in their manner, but not generous with their stars.

Xuan Hao gets 1 star ⭐ , which seems too low to me.

Lin Shiyuan gets 1 star ⭐ , which must be for the dancing.

Feng Junlan gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems low to me, but I’m glad it’s not 1 or 0.

Chen Liang gets 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which seems high to me.

Team View - Vietnam

My thoughts:

Obviously, like any sane person, I love this song.

Basically, none of their performance gets shown, but you guys, they were pretty good! Honestly, they sang on key and tried to keep their energy up and yeah, I don’t speak Korean but I know this song well and it didn’t sound awful. Check it out on Youtube and see for yourself -- compare their singing to that of Haruto’s and you’ll see what I mean.

The judges give 22-year-old Cong just 1 star ⭐ , which is cruelly low, and give 19 year old Dang Hong Hai 2 stars ⭐⭐ , which is ok, I’m on the fence between 2 and 3 for him. But it’s like the judges are watching these auditions from Minhyun’s space station. And maybe… I don’t know… is there a little racism? Just a little bit? Against these two Vietnamese trainees?

From what we can tell from the editing, the judges really dinged them for their pronunciation, as if that matters the most? As if the ability to sing on key isn’t, perhaps, more important?

In an interview, Cong says, in Korean, that he practices Korean every day. His pronunciation is pretty bad, though. You probably wouldn’t guess from hearing it that that was Korean, but if you listen closely you hear the Korean verb endings. It must be so hard for someone coming from a tonal language, like Vietnamese or Chinese, to learn a non-tonal language like Korean. I think it’s much easier for Japanese speakers to speak Korean -- they’re totally different languages but have similar sounds in them. (To be technical: Japanese and Korean are not related at all, but they have similar phonemes, which are the basic sounds you make when you speak. Korean has additional vowel sounds that Japanese doesn’t have, and there are other small differences, but if you can pronounce one language it wouldn’t be too hard to learn to pronounce the other.)

Then we get a mini montage about how much global trainees want to be kpop idols. Thai trainee Winnie says (in what sounds like very good Korean) that he wanted to be an idol since he was a kid. He turned down an opportunity with a very prestigious university, Chulalongkorn University (it’s the highest rated university in Thailand) in order to come to Korea and pursue this dream. -- in the audience, Kim Ji Woong, a 24-year-old individual trainee we haven’t met yet but who I assume is handsome,* mutters, “Can I go to that school in your place?” which strikes me as… super sad. Like, there’s stuff going on here we don’t know but can kind of guess.

*I have to say things like “I assume this person is handsome” because my standards of handsome/not aren’t always the same as everyone else’s. For example, I think that Chen is the best looking member of Exo. I think all of these boys are nice looking, and some of them are cute or charming, etc, but I can’t always tell who is going to be the “visual King” or whatever for a given season.

At 55:36, we see Qiu Sheng Yang (who we met earlier, in Tiger Inside), then his teammate, the flexible Chen Kuan Jui, then Osuke, a Japanese trainee we haven’t met (he’s going to do Crown), then Min, the Thai trainee who did Glitch Mode, all talking about how much they admire Korean pop music, all to the tender strains of gentle piano, and Koreans everywhere smile in satisfaction, I guess.

And that’s enough for one post! Part II will be linked here.

#Boys Planet #boys planet 999 #boysplanet #boysplanet999

15 notes · View notes

bewby · 2 years ago

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literally nobody will read this but that's fine. okay honestly idek. like. how to properly get into things anymore or dedicate myself to them but also. it's insane but when i don't have an obsession over something i don't know how to live 🤣 like i actually become really miserable even more which is not normal i need to have obsessions to keep me afloat and to dedicate my entire personality to. like i remember when i wasn't into anything i was so miserable all i did was dedicate myself to my ex which is so bad don't do that like i did. but then i suddenly got into genshin and oh my god i played the game day and night i got sooooo into everything like i suddenly had something to look forward to again and idk. it only feels right to exist when i like something alot .

and then i got into skz later on but the thing is like. i love skz but i can't stan them i don't think i can stan anybody actually. i can love them and appreciate them but i've outgrown stanning i think. i talk about this everyday and literally nobody cares but well i wanna talk about it it's my blog ha ha. but yeah ummm. the thing is also i find it really hard to find friends when i don't have an obsession because i literally have no personality it's worrying genuinely . is this normal. it doesn't feel normal. or is it. am i overthinking or am i right. we all have something we relaly love and that's nice but why do i feel like i handle everything really unhealthily 🤣

then again. life is boring when you don'r have interests . it's nice to connect stuff to your interests and make memes dedicated to them and find a community which i find most important!!!!!! i'm so happy i found friends . and you guys also somehow stick around with me when i don't post skz which is so crazy i cab't believe people follow me and like me i literally think there's people who hate follow me mainly. i'm normal.

whatever ummmm what i initially wanted to say is . getting into new stuff fully has become really difficult for me ever since i started my job in late 2021. it's really hard for me to feel satisfied and joyful and when i DO feel it it's only for a short moment and then i feel bad again. like i remember when i played omori i felt so sso fucking happy but then it was over and i felt like the life gor sucked out of me and i don't know how to properly get into the community either JDJFKCJD i think i had luck with stayblr!!!! but i was also manic around the time i joined 😭

UGH what am i even saying now i'm sharing my entire life story like girl what is this a biography. anyways i wanna get into nct a little more or into more groups properly like mx nct pentagon not just half half but idk how to keep up with everything properly anymore cause i'm so depressed🙌🏻‼️😍 OK BYE

#jesus christ this got long . don't mind this i'm just venting sgain about how dwpressed i am

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astralsweetness · 6 months ago

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I had no idea about this group History, and that's awful the industry it's already bad and the company making it worse... I can't even imagine what they had to go through, but it's good to know they are doing better nowadays. In fact I'm still in disbelief at this inhumane treatment they received that's so revolting wtf

It must've been a hard time for you, it's good to know that you're doing good with it now and they were able to move on and live a happy life!!

But Luna since I really just got to know about history do you mind telling me more about 'em? and if you can I would love some music recommendation, also how did you got into them?

About Pentagon, I don't think I can consider myself an universe, but I'm def a casual listener and I like them a lot, such great artists!!! Pentagon is also very mistreated by cube they could be so much bigger!!! so many good producers in just one group, these companies stress me out, not to mention but, lately I've been completely obsessed with Navy blue by wooseok it's soooo good I keep putting on repeat lol, honestly cube is dumb how can they just waste those talents?!

I think I can understand what you mean when you say like this "i guess in a way they are both my ult" I imagine it must feel different... I guess when Svt disband I'll also feel like this, even though there's other groups I like, I don't think it'll be the same

And about Jihoon I get iiitt I totally get itt omg he's just so 😫😫😫 I've been seriously thinking if I have two ults nowadays cuz of him

Ahhh yes I will ofc talk about them! I don't really know what to say, since it's been so long since I got to ramble about them, but I'm sure I'll manage haha.

First off, I will say that if you're interested in BTS, History's maknae Yijeong is very close to BTS' Yoongi and was featured on his.. talkshow?? for the last episode. It's got some really great insight, such as Yijeong explaining that towards the end of working as a History member he had a neurological issue where he was terrified to sing and therefore he hates watching videos of himself from that time because it brings back a lot of bad memories. (Also, Yoongi said he wishes Yijeong would sing again, and.. same. He even said he'd pay for all the hospital fees LOL). Just had to mention it bcs it's one of the rare instances where we actually got to see a History member on screen again, and talking about History.

Anyway! I honestly, legitimately don't remember how I got into History. It wasn't their debut - maybe their first comeback? I wasn't a fan of their debut song Dreamer, though it's definitely grown on me over time. I think Tell Me Love was when I fell for them. I saw Yijeong in a skirt and them trying to make Kyungil look young and went. Yea. These stupid men. I like 'em LOL. (It also helped that I knew about Dokyun bcs of the brief stint where he was lead singer for the band Buzz, in place of Min Kyunghoon).

They don't have a huge discography so it's actually fairly easy to just recommend you all their title tracks.. and it also helps that their title tracks are fucking great.

What Am I To You has a great Latin vibe to the music that, in 2013, was not happening in other kpop songs, along with great choreo and great vocals.. what else do you need lol. Psycho had great choreography and brilliant story-telling in the MV. Might Just Die.. I am so fucking conflicted on. It's probably my least favorite title track of theirs, for various reasons (the injuries sustained while being taught to do the dangerous choreography, having to starve and dehydrate themselves, etc), but it's also their most well-known bcs… shirtless lol. LOST is STILL one of my favorite songs of theirs (I love grittier sounding stuff) and I think they really nailed the vibe of a "one-recording" MV without it looking cheap even tho it.. incredibly was (I recognize everything they're wearing as actual clothes they just own lol). And Queen.. man, what can I say about that song. It's got more views than their shirtless MV and I think was exactly what the industry was looking for at the time - unfortunately, it came too late for LOEN to see any need to continue funding them. I also included a clip of the horrible Show Champion stage for Queen that was covered in water, where Jaeho falls at the very end and breaks his wrist INTO the microphone. Feel free to skip but it's.. wild.

It's hard to recommend bsides of theirs bcs they just didn't have the chance to perform many of their earlier ones, or there's no good quality videos since they're all fan-taken haha.

I'm someone who really, really loves choreography, so I've got to mention their choreography video for What Am I To You, if only because seeing the way Jaeho's hat somehow manages to stay on while Kyungil loses his is kind of hilarious lol. Also obligatory mention of their choreography video for Might Just Die that they did fully blindfolded, until the jump. It's insane, especially since only one of them had a dance background or even LIKED to dance lol. I also really like Ghost's choreo, but I included it below lol.

Personal favorite bsides for me are Blind (it feels very old, but I love it), Blue Moon, Wake Up!, and Beautiful My Girl (the latter two of which are Japanese, so we have no official audios of them online anywhere and are stuck with only performances unless you have the cd.. rip. welcome to the bad video quality from 8+ years ago lol) as well as vocalist Yijeong's... rap song.. 1Century hehe which is a fuckin bop. People also really like Ghost (tho this isn't the full version, ft. Kyungil again losing his hat) and Wild Boy is an.. interesting song lol.

I think this is probably the most iconic version of Wild Boy, simply because Kyungil acknowledged he was severely hungover during it and they were all just vibing and having a good time lol. You'll notice they're very loose with their choreography - this was how they always were unless it was a title track, a choreography video, or a big, professional stage. It's definitely different from how idol groups feel nowadays, and most likely was a product of four out of the five members not being told ahead of time they'd need to dance to be in the group & none of them really cared about it, they just cared about having a good time lol. (Yijeong and Kyungil both jump off the stage in this performance and literally just go vibe in the crowd for a while lol, which was very in-line with how they approached performances). This is not the group to look at if you want clean lines in choreography all the time lol.. a big change from Seventeen, who I know you like.

A couple of them have gone on to have solo careers - Kyungil currently goes by 1il, but his stuff is so.. hit or miss sounding to people that I'm not sure it's worth recommending anything haha. I will say though that his MV for Love It is insane. I love it, pun intended. I have been waiting to see that man get choked by a woman for years and he finally gave it to me LOL. Jaeho is currently working under the name KIMNANO, and his stuff feels very vibey with R&B or ballad roots mixed in.

As for Pentagon, you're right about that - but Cube pretty much mistreats all their artists unless they're making them a substantial amount of money, which is why they're so focused on GIDLE and only GIDLE lol. If GIDLE hadn't blown up initially with their debut we absolutely would not be seeing as much funding for them.

And yeah, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head - I can't quantify my love for History, or Pentagon, or Seventeen. They all mean different things to me and were there for me in different ways and at different times.

jihoon pls you'd make such a pretty girlfriend i love u

#man i haven't talked about history so much in years.. i still have so much to say or recommend but i'll stop there for now #anonymous #ask #history kpop

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valentinaonthemoon · 1 year ago

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Now that I'm home I can finally watch all the #GMMTV2024PART1 videos with audio 🥹 or:

A liveblog reaction

(or or: everyone else is doing this so why can't I?)

Peaceful Property: Let me start with the TayNew one because I am so happy about them having a new series together!!!! (it's very unclear if it's a bl or not, but I love to see them play together and it seems like a fun concept either way!)

Pluto: The trailer for Pluto giving me Not Me and Heart/Li Ming vibes. 😭😭😭 My girlies look so cute, but I don't know if I'll be watching this if it makes me cry though. I'm very fragile.

My Precious: I don't understand the My Precious series!!! I am very curious about the movie, which is the remake of another movie, which is taken from a book. But???? Will they change the ending in the series then? As if it's a parallel universe? Because otherwise, why making one if there's a movie already. I mean. I will be watching because I love Film and Nanon, but that whole cast (Chimon? View?) would be amazing in another original series as well, idk.

Ploy's Yearbook: Ploy's yearbook reminding me of the sisters in Kiss Me Again and the Tees in I'm Tee, Me Too. Love all the female protagonists keeping the spotlight this year, though! Can't wait to see this! (even if some scenes make me think it might be a bit trash like The Jungle before it) (but hey, I'm sure it'll be entertaining and I am seated)

We Are: We Are looks way too confusing somehow????? I have no idea. I don't get it.

The Trainee: The Trainee looks fun! I love the aesthetic of it. I'm not a fan of work romances when a character holds power over the other, but this looks like it might be nice??? Idk, obviously OffGun cute, but Pompam was hilarious, please.

My Golden Blood: oh my gosh????? JossGawin slash Twilight fanfiction, I'm crying. I need this to be so trash, you guys. I can't wait.

My Love Mix-Up!: Aw, this looks cute! I didn't know the manga before, but it seems like it will be a sweet story. I'm actually intrigued by love triangles, if they're well-written, and GeminiFourth are very promising.

Wandee Goodday: This looks like a fanfiction trope in series form (friends with benefits to fake (?) boyfriends to lovers), but to be honest I don't really care for it???? I'm not sure why. I wasn't sold. We'll see.

Summer Night: i have to laugh every time two people fall on each other and accidentally kiss (aka the PeteKao fall) because it's so unbelievably unrealistic that I can't help but laugh at the situation for 10 minutes. But wait! this is also a love triangle??? Wait, it's a double love triangle?? Wait, it's a love pentagon?????? That is definitely too ambitious, but to be honest I don't know enough about high school romances to have an interesting opinion about this whole geometry situation.

Only Boo: this seems nice, but I am afraid it will be too sweet for my taste! But !!! Book?? Out of nowhere??? :O

High School Frenemy: Fight! Fight! Fight!

Kidnap: (what says of me the fact that I immediately recognised that safehouse as Kao's house in KMA??)(anyway) the premise is interesting, but honestly this will be too stressful for me. Just a lil gay Breaking Bad, though. Good for them!

Ossan's Love Thailand: ????? This promo just made me curious about the Japanese version and gave me nothing else. I don't even know what the series is about. People running in an office? People standing very close? Genuinely no idea. Also the general consensus here is "GMMTV shouldn't have done this", so I'm just confused.

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hongshoes · 4 years ago

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I just made my own IPVDb: Internet Pentagon Vids Database with personal ratings because that’s my life now I guess.

This is purely because I’m bored but also because my sad life revolves entirely around them.

Puff Idol

Set during Tomato Kino era, this one’s a great mix of cringeyness (Changgu put that umbrella down pls), musicality (we get the absolute best version of Sha La La that has ever been granted to us) and even educational moments? Who else but pedantic trilingual MUN conference speaker Hongnerd wouldn’t let the members sleep for not saying TEETH the proper way. WHO CARES. Although I’ll forgive him because I, too, once fell asleep whilst standing up, and I feel like we should support each other in this community. We also get Hui speaking English and Kino almost busting a lung which, although they give off very different vibes, are both part of my fav Pentagon’s title tracks. Deserved 5 stars at first but it was until I saw that terrifying cheek kiss at the end. Or whatever that was. But these guys are weird.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fact iN Star

A glorious display of Pentagon’s first passion: roasting each other. Yuto did Shinwon so dirty it made me see the world from a new perspective. But the iconic “I’ll give you more lines” alone deserves a show win. Even Kino calling Hui “Hoetaek-ah” and then being this close to walk through the window to hide in Australia sends me every time. And you know how everyone’s been saying Wooseok deserves an Oscar for the crazy act that makes him look like he’s taking 200V every time he’s on stage? We been knew he invented Hollywood when he acted Yeooner than Yeoone himself in one firy “where’s the camera” gesture. But anyway, the point is that now I can’t listen to Sha La La (2nd best version) without Yanan’s interpretation of Wooseok’s verse now. This video changed me but not sure it’s in a good way.

0 or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ still pondering.

Weekly Idol

Alternatively an hour of Hui embarrassing his members and Yuto laughing instead of breathing. Also the one and only video in which Yeoone made me laugh but he was trying so hard I think that was just out of pity. This video was actually one of the first I watched when I got into them and I started to understand what I got myself into when Wooseok’s special talent was to imitate a broken weeder. Because right that’s something totally normal to be bragging about. I hold this video very dear to my heart, I’ll never say no to Kino dancing on TT or Hui vibin on his piano but you know it was all fun and games until Hong started hugging Jinho from behind out. of. nowhere.

I rate it 1 ugly moon for this very reason 🌝

The Immigration part 1 / part 2

Shinwon only went to tell the host he was ugly then proceeded to sleep on the floor. I needn’t say more. 10 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extreme Live

All the expectations vs reality memes condensed into a 4 minute video and the irrefutable proof that Jinho isn’t human. The only bad thing about this is how short it is. I think I’ve done enough good deeds in my life to deserve a part 2 and I’m still waiting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

M2 Premiere Showcase part 1 / part 2

What is up with them that make them take so much pleasure in role playing a body switch? i WaNt To Be HOng BecAusE hiS aBS my ass, the second they get to clown each other they’re dragging each other down into thick mud and quicksand. All whilst tenderly holding hands. Who are these people? Part 2 is even worse. A year into this madness has made it clear to me they’re particularly bad at all games but I should’ve known when I saw them lose so miserably without any competitors. That’s just another video of them begging the staff to tolerate their incompetency. And even then, they’re supposed to make them laugh and what do they do?? Kino?? Decides to fucking dance his pants off as if three torches weren’t enough to heat up the place. How is that funny??? I give it half a star. But I’ll round it down to one, part of it is because Hui and Shinwon being high on life for two potatoes kinda gives me joy, and also cause there’s no half star emoji.

⭐️

Ddingo video (ft. Wooseok’s long face)

Whoever was in charge of captioning this video needs a raise because I’ve never seen a description of a person be as accurate as “Just a happy dummy in the neighbourhood” to talk about Yuto. And being happy in this kind of neighbourhood surely is a big challenge. This video is pure chaos from start to finish. We get a pterodactyl getting kicked, a member of staff losing an eye, Kino just... ridin a pony in full Ginuwine style and a love story between Shinwon and a bowl of radish that was more emotional than the whole Twilight saga.

🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪

K-Pop Insider Quizz

Hongseok being his annoying over the top competitive self even though they all suck is hilarious. This video is just them being stupid and then mocking each other for being stupid. I mean most Kpop groups are priding themselves on mastering every choreo in the industry and here you have Jinho attempting a twerk that looks like he’s 90 years old lost his cane. But the highlight is Hong’s face when scolded by Kino. Nothing will ever top the distress in his eyes and I would pay real money to witness them arguing about milk.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Telepathy Live

This video perfectly sums up their dynamic. Firstly we’ve got maknae line versus a bunch of nutfaces having a blast drawing mono eyebrows on each other line. Secondly, Jinho as a smoll running poop. Who in the world would say no to that.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dear Mother

Atrocious.

-100

#@variety shows you're all cowards for not inviting them #anyway happy pentagon is needed #pentagon #i think those are some of my fav ones but i’ll probably add more when i’mm be inspired enough to write nonsensical bs again #hui #kino #hongseok #jinho #yanan #wooseok #yuto #yeoone #shinwon #*

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cozylittleartblog · 2 years ago

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Do you have any tips on drawing the Swatchlings?

frankly i am happy that i have gotten good enough at drawing these bird boys (gender neutral) that someone wants my opinions. anyway

i see a lot of fun ways to draw swatchlings tbh and i don't really know what you want tips on Specifically so i will just make notes on a few of the main things i think about when i draw them, most importantly: just make them bitches broad and fluffy, man. they're all canonically Ripped, but an important thing to remember is that they are likely completely covered in feathers! that's going to smooth out those muscular details, so you wont be able to see them, just the broadness of them.

my style is all based in gesture and shapes, so i use a lot of blocks so they look nice 'n sturdy. it's okay if you don't nail the anatomy on the sketch, i am constantly nudging things around all the way into the coloring phase trying to get the shapes right. frankly i would probably bulk out even this Example Bird if i were drawing them all the way. i usually add more fluff or muscle or chub or whatever when i detail them but the absolute bare bones of them is dedicated to blockie

i give mine these sort of vestigial wings on their arms to make them look softer, and i think about how feathers move and stick out on real birds to help inform how they'll sit on these birds, too. and i carry the soft, pointed feather shapes into the fingers so they also look soft.

tip for drawing Soft: don't get caught up making too many individual strands or feathers, soft things tend to come together in big tufts. you want big gentle shapes, not a bunch of little ones. unless you want your bird to look wet or scared in which case you're doing a great job and you've probably just drawn spamton instead

their faces are really tricky so i think of them as these kinda... non-euclidean semi-hollow pentagonal cones. there's five "planes" with the top two dedicated to eyes and the bottom three dedicated to mouth placement. sometimes you can see the far eye even though, in real life, you would not be able to see that "plane" of their face. you don't always have to understand things sometimes they just look cool, especially when characters are cybernetic birds made out of Magical Darkness. there is no rule about when to draw one or two eyes. it's just whatever looks better.

biggest and bestest tip of all about drawing swatchlings! very important! write this one down in your most favorite gel pen and Really Big! give them either tails, or tail coats. i don't care that canon has neither, canon is wrong. you can switch it out, even - my birds have tail coats as part of their standard uniforms but they can wear their real tails out on special occasions.

lastly, if you want to stick closer to a canon interpretation, i would not try to make the birds too unique, when they're on the job anyway - they like being coordinated! tasque manager is very particular about keeping them coordinated as well. but if you just want to have fun then you can make your birds as fun and unique as you want :) even though i draw them all about the same i personally love love love seeing super funky swatchling designs, making them different colors and species and such.

course summary:

make them Large. make them Fluffy. use really broad, blocky shapes and draw big, thick tufts of feathers instead of trying to detail them too much.

their heads are silly magic nonsense. draw a triangle and get funky with it. no rules, only vibes. if it vibes it stays

they always need some kind of tail or tail equivalent and i don't care what Anybody else says

if you want to follow canon, draw all the birds except swatch just about the same. if you're just here for a good time, throw that out completely and have fun with it.

#deltarune #swatch #swatchlings #tutorial #art #ask #anonymous #anon #and now everyone knows about the funny little flap birds have on the back of their pants to fit their tails through #i have explicitly gotten better at broader bodytypes just by drawing birds and i am thankful for it every day #i guess there's some other smaller stuff like i try to make their uniforms more on the fitted side #because the birds apparently like to be Looked At and be Showoffs so fitted uniforms are better for that #but im not sure if my style is detailed enough for that to come through on anybody but swatch #specifically tailored their vest to accentuate the Donbonhonkeros 👌👌👌#aaand it's okay if they lean a little more chubby than tanky sometimes because practical muscle and fat can look a lot alike #but either way those feathers are gonna smooth out those shapes #and they're wearing many layers of clothes on top of that!#once again i am not the Utmost Authority On Birds and this is just some stuff *i* think about when i draw them #if anybody does it differently or You want to do anything differently that's totally okie dokie :)

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julyarchives · 3 years ago

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Thicker Than Blood || (M) || Ch. 01

Growing up in a tough neighborhood had you learning to deal with hard situations, the occasion leads you to cooperate with the mafia organization that took care of your neighborhood - Pentagon. Looking after yourself and valuing your safety brought you to adapt to the moment, but the line between working for them and protecting yourself is very blurry when you are forced to live under their roof.

→ Pairing: Pentagon OT9 x Reader

→ Genre: Smut; Mafia AU.

→ Words: 2.2K

→ Contains: Mentions of Alcohol; Mentions of Violence.

→ A/n: So this is our Pentagon Mafia AU Series! This story will be multi-chaptered and we will add more tags as the story goes on, we have big plans for it! We hope you guys like it and it is worth the wait!

→ Index: 01 • 02 • 03

Chapter 01 - The Collectors

The cute jeans and red t-shirt you wore barely matched the bar you currently were on behind the counter. The place was quite nice but it was still too rustic for your liking, too brown and dark. Usually, the customers were rustic as well, and had a certain grumpiness to them, just like the place. You shrugged for the nth time while lost in thoughts. Working at a bar on a Tuesday night was the perfect situation for boredom, and bored you were.

Thinking back, you barely understood how you got the job anyway, walking in there one day to kick your friend's ass for drinking while you had a job to do with him and the owner liked your style. He needed someone behind the counter, you needed the money, it was perfect. You were rather young and sweet, you knew that often resolving some complicated shit and arguments in the bar but you also knew how to answer when needed and to take no one's shit home, you still stood up for yourself. Ok so maybe working at a bar was the perfect job for you.

Not wanting to dwell on how you wanted a better paid perfect job, you busied yourself by watching the entrance. It was Tuesday, so you've been kind of anxious the whole day waiting for them to show up. You almost gave your excitement away when two figures entered the bar and sat in front of you on the bar stools.

"Hello, boys. The usual?", you asked them with a bright smile.

"Please, Y/N".

"Right away", you chipped as you turned to get them their cold drinks. It'd be funny to see them drink a sweet cocktail instead of anything stronger if you didn't know them a bit better.

Wooseok and Yuto were young. Sweet and awkward boys that most older people liked and wanted to pamper. That's what you heard anyway whenever you spoke to the neighbors. You also knew they were attached to the hip, always together and always messing with each other. They had a third part to their best friend dynamic and you only saw him a few times at the bar, but you knew they clearly loved each other as brothers.

But that information didn't add up to the other information you had on the boys. The reason you expected them every Tuesday was because of their work. And that was what confused you. As every person in the region knew, there was only one force to respect and listen and that was the Pentagon gang. No, not a gang. It was straight down mafia business and these two cute young boys were their collectors. So every Tuesday they went out to collect the fee from every block and at the end, they'd crash at the bar to chat and drink something.

Seeing them every week made you realize how nice they were and quickly put the whole mafia business behind them. You, better than anyone, understood that you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. Since then, Wooseok and Yuto became more open with you and always brought back gossip when they had a good day. After all, mafia men were still men. Well, boys.

"Here you go, guys", you placed the drinks down and smiled sweetly.

"Thanks, Y/N", Yuto had a deep voice and it always managed to startle you.

"So, any gossip?", you chuckled and the boys followed, lowering their heads as if to share a secret with you.

"Guy from the butcher shop was working alone", Wooseok said, "caught his employee with his girl".

"No way!", you truly were shocked at the irrelevant news.

"Yep", he said while Yuto nodded. "Oh, and someone's trying to get inside our territory. We saw a warning at a wall, directed at us and, well, at all of you".

"What?!", you shouted and they looked at you like you just offended their entire family. You were confused. One, why were they telling you information that may be confidential? Two, how could they speak about something dangerous so casually?

"We have orders to let you know, actually", Yuto said as if he was reading your mind. "We know who these people are but not their faces. We thought maybe they'd start by frequenting a place where they can get more intel on our people".

"Here then".

"Hm, yeah", Wooseok nodded. "The warning only said to be careful who is loyal to us or the community would show us. We guess they want to turn people against us"

"More people, more money. An entire neighborhood against us wouldn't be controlled by usual methods. So, that's when you come in".

"If you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, then no way". You were bold enough to talk back and they only raised their eyebrows at you.

"We only need you to be on the lookout for someone different", Wooseok clarified, "if there's at least one person asking the wrong questions about the community, you gotta let us know".

"Helps if we can identify a face", Yuto shrugged.

"Do I have a say in this?", you already knew the answer.

"As much as you do about our fee, Y/N".

"Fine. But if they come for me, I won't wait for your boys to come to rescue me. I'll bolt", you said with a sigh in defeat.

"You won't be alone", Wooseok said as Yuto typed away on an old phone. "You'll be getting a visit from tomorrow on, he's our shapeshifter, blends in wherever".

"If you have a guy like that, why put me to watch anyone?"

"Y/N", Yuto sighed and looked straight into your eyes. "We could burst into any safe house right now and do whatever we pleased with whoever was in our way. But we do value our community, that's why we got hold of this business in the first place. The bar is where everyone comes for information and you know that. Don't forget why you're behind this counter, to begin with. We need the bartender to do her job and chat with her customers as she does. The info will come to you".

"I-", you were starstruck and kept glancing from Yuto to Wooseok, hands on the counter. "I- this is the most you have spoken to me since we met". It came out accidentally and you wanted to slap yourself.

Wooseok laughed and Yuto smiled at you. You could feel the heat on your cheeks but only nodded to yourself, still processing everything. They finished their drinks in one big gulp and got up, Yuto nodding at you still with a cute smile on his lips, one that didn't match his previous words. Wooseok watched as Yuto walked out of the bar and chuckled at your expression that slowly was turning grumpy.

"I know you'll do just fine. It's not like us to put people in our business but to protect people, we need you", he was leaning forward, as if to make you see him and only him. "So, congratulations, you got promoted!", he laughed.

"Yeah, I'm the lookout kid", you definitely were grumpy now. "You need me to protect people but who protects me?".

"Me", Wooseok said a bit too fast. "I mean, Pentagon does. And you'll have the right company for that, don't worry. He'll be here tomorrow night".

Wooseok smiled at you again and turned away from you, leaving you to your thoughts. Why the hell was this happening? You got why this way was safer to find out who was behind the threat but you still were unsure. Well, it's not like you could say no without a valid reason. And apparently, your safety wasn't one.

You watched Wooseok leave and sighed. Getting their glasses to clean up, you kept thinking about all the things that could go wrong but also all the things that could go right. Part of you wanted to impress them and come out as a hero, it'd give you something else to do instead of just being the bartender. You laughed at the absurdity of it all and quickly shoved it all in the back of your head, deciding to let the future self deal with the situation and this guy who'd meet you tomorrow, slipping back into the boredom of a Tuesday night at the bar once again.

Laying on your bed, your mind raced nonstop and you couldn't sleep no matter how much you tried. Yuto's words kept coming back and you felt even more deflated each time. "Don't forget why you're behind this counter, to begin with". You knew your upbringing was shitty and you had to fend for yourself a long time but you honestly thought that it didn't matter much until now.

Your parents fled when you were eight. They had some issues with themselves and suddenly having a family became too much of a cage for them and they fled. They left you with your grandmother and never came back. Your grandma was a saint, she was sweet and loving but she was sick enough to not be able to work, so you toughen up and started bringing money home by twelve years old.

You smiled thinking about how she raised you with such care and love that you managed to get that trait from her even if the streets treated you like shit. You discovered soon enough that all the love your grandma had was all the love you could get because no one liked a little girl who put her hands on whatever she could find to sell and get hers. You met a few people while you grew up and managed to turn out just fine even if it bruised you more than you liked to admit.

When you were around seventeen your grandma passed, you thankfully blocked whatever memory you had of her suffering and only focused on her happy memories. Since then you got her small and simple house and got more involved in the community, everyone who respected your grandma finally understanding why you were a kid like you were. Fast forward a few years and you got the job at the bar and things got a bit better.

You got up from the bed and scoffed at how things were mostly shoved on your face enough that you had to go with the flow every time. Fucking Pentagon taking over the neighborhood when you were a kid and now this. You heard more than participated in the whole protecting mafia business when you were younger, but the situation wasn't strange to you. Getting around in the streets you knew things and the most important one was to follow the organization's rules.

When you were twelve and started to hit the streets, you knew very well to not mess with the men from the org. But also soon enough you learned that the best way to earn anything good was to be on their good side. So you started to run a few errands for them and earned a good amount. Of course, you had nothing to do with them but still, it was a good connection. You didn't know much about the members in the hierarchy but you were sure that no one from the time you were a kid was still in their ranks.

You were sure mafia business was very harsh and violent but the boss was too violent once upon a time and things got out of hand. The neighborhood they swore to protect was being targeted and they brought the fight to all people. Fortunately, it ended after a few months of much fear and blood around the streets and you heard they all changed members. Rumor had it that it was their kids that took over when the parents died during the more violent times, at least in the high ranks. But you had stopped tending to them a few months before it went down so you had no idea for sure.

You only knew that Pentagon had a hard time getting people's trust again and started a more gentle approach with the community, hence why Wooseok and Yuto were dear to some people under their wings. They went over to everyone who had helped them directly and formally thanked and apologized for their trouble. Of course, they still terrified people who walked out of line and when the community respected them again, it was clear they were in charge. But now it seemed like they only cared about their own business and getting richer with their schemes instead of getting involved in a bloody gun war.

You realized you were standing in the middle of the corridor getting lost in thought and laughed to yourself before finishing the path to the kitchen to get water. The cold water helped you calm down and soon you were too busy sitting on the couch looking for any silly reality show to get lost into.

Halfway through the episode, you felt the sleep taking over you but being comfortable on the couch made you just pull a cover you kept there over you and stayed there, falling asleep in seconds. It was a very rough and long day, so you welcomed the slumber gratefully. Little did you know that while you succumbed to sleep in the living room, your phone buzzed in your bedroom, a small text that should be completely out of line appearing.

We trust you to do this safely but count on me to help. -WS.

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