#art fight went on pause bc i realized it was an important time of year

[yunisverse]

Happy holidays! 🎄📅🐀📀 @chongoblog

[famedroleplayarchive]

YOO RIOH is the MAKNAE, LEAD VOCAL, AND LEAD DANCER of VIVE under GOLD STAR MEDIA. He was born on FEBRUARY 25, 2002. He looks a little like YANG JEONGIN (I.N) OF STRAY KIDS.

CHARACTER INFORMATION

faceclaim: Yang Jeongin (I.N), member of Stray Kids

legal name: Yoo Rioh

stage name: ///

pronouns: He / him / his

birth date: Feb 26, 2002

hometown: Seoul, KR

position: Maknae, lead vocal, lead dancer of Vive

claims: ///

BIOGRAPHY

triggers: ///

( YOO RIOH’s LIFE IN VIGNETTES // FROM 2002 → PRESENT )

SCENE I. SEOUL, KR — 2009, Q2. ON-SET, PHOTOSHOOT.

“Yes! You’re doing so good, baby!” His mother encourages from off-set, the harsh, warm light beaming over at him so strong that he’s not able to open his eyes properly. The photographer pauses, readjusts, and continues shooting—the pint-sized “model” for the day doing his best to smile wide and act “cute,” just like he’s practiced in the mirror at home. Honestly, he’s not really sure why he’s here, nor does he know what he’s getting involved in, but it’s easy enough that his family frames it as a fun extracurricular activity… even if he finds himself getting distracted from time-to-time. After all, he’s only here because he was “discovered” in a shopping mall, and when the subject of payment was mentioned, mom and dad became increasingly interested.

Living off of lower salaries made them desperate for more cash, even if it meant utilizing their son’s adorable appearance to their benefit. Luckily though, they love him all the same; their greed has never swallowed them up whole—thank goodness!

Teeny-tiny hands are grasping at the bottom of his shirt; playing with the hemline to self-soothe himself from the constant flashing lights and loud voices all around him. When it’s time for a break, he’s taken aside in order to indulge himself in some sweet treats and beverages—which, to be honest, has been his favorite part of this whole experience.

“Mama, will I get to have cookies and cake every time I get my pictures taken?!” He asked, his mouth and cheeks covered in strawberries and chocolate. His mother laughs, wiping his face. “If you do a good job, of course! Just try not to eat so sloppily, love. You don’t wanna be dirty for the camera, do you?” With that, he shook his head; perfectly willing to obey his mom. Rioh’s always been an easygoing child like that.

When he finished his snack, he was immediately put back to work; changing his outfit and hairstyle for the next few frames, then repeating the process until all was said and done.

Little did he know then that this would slowly, but surely, envelope his entire life for awhile. That, and well, he’ll now forever begin to expect getting rewards for accomplishing small tasks.

SCENE II. SEOUL, KR — 2012, Q1. THE YOO RESIDENCE.

“Hello, Mrs. Yeo? Hi, yes, I’m glad you answered! This is Kang Hyojung. I was who spoke to you a few days ago about representing a company that’s interested in training your son.” She recalls it, but also remembers being suspicious of the offer at the time. This supposed “casting agent” wasn’t exactly eager to share what company they were working for, so all in all, it felt like a total scam. Though, after a somewhat long conversation on the phone, she agreed to meet up with them and the whole casting committee at an address she didn’t at all recognize. Fortunately, it was in Gangnam, so felt a little more promising. When the call ended, she immediately went over to Rioh’s bedroom and knocked on the door; allowing herself in after a few seconds.

“Do you remember that lady who talked to us at the restaurant?” She asked, slightly shocked as to how her child kept getting this recognition. It isn’t like she and her husband were putting him on display by taking him to auditions or casting calls. Sure, he’s taken part in a few small-scale commercials and photo-spreads—mostly in catalogues—but after awhile, he stopped focusing on shoots in exchange for going to school and making friends. He doesn’t truly realize that he’s been “marketable” since birth, and while he’s lucky to possess such a rare quality, it’s one he’s not very comfortable with—even at just ten years-old.

At the question, he nods his head; unsure of what’s about to be said next.

“Well, she called us like she said she would and she wants to meet with you on Saturday. Is that something that you’d want to do? I told her we’d go, but if you don’t want to, I can call back and tell her never-mind.”

What’s sad is, even at such a young age, he knows the situation that his family’s in. Mom’s a waitress, dad’s a butler at a wealthier person’s estate, and most of the time, he doesn’t see him often. Neither of them pull in enough cash to support their lifestyle, especially since Rioh’s the youngest child out of five children. Putting enough food on the table has never been an easy feat for the Yoo household. So, even though he’s not exactly invested in continuing his ever-blossoming career as a child model, he knows it could help his parents out.

Even though he’s the youngest, he still feels the need to contribute.

“Yeah, I’ll go! Hopefully it’s somewhere cool and not something weird,” he added simply; his tone drenched in optimism despite his mind not being on the same page.

SCENE III. SEOUL, KR — 2014, Q3. BC ENTERTAINMENT HQ.

He watches with wide eyes as some of the older trainees practice; the fierce gaze in their eyes containing a fire that he’s never felt before. The way they move is so striking and strong, and it isn’t only impressive that they’ve been able to work hard to hone their skills, but he can’t help but find himself as feeling almost… “attracted” to them without realizing it. Not only is he drawn to the art of their dancing and singing, but also, to how all of them look, as well.

It’s a confusing feeling to him… especially since he’s always been told he’d feel this way about girls as he gets older.

However, when the others slowly begin to leave the rehearsal space, he enters; awaiting for his acting instructor and the few other kids in his division to show up. It’s then when he finds the strength to bravely approach the last of the idol hopefuls still in the room; his shyness slowly creeping over him despite the complete want to speak to him. After a few seconds, though, he’s able to piece together a sentence that’s coherent enough to make sense. He hopes so, at least.

“Hey! Uh, you look really cool when you dance.” He starts, very obviously a little nervous. “How do you do that one move in the middle of the song? The one where you’re kinda jumpin’ but like spinnin’ at the same time?” It’s then when he attempts it and near about falls, but luckily, he’s able to just barely save himself from tumbling over. His face burns red with a blush, but his senior seems to find it endearing rather than annoying.

“Want me to show you?”

Without hesitation, Rioh nods his head; excited enough that his whole body starts to bounce beyond his control. Even though he was approaching adolescence, there was still a glimmer of youthful innocence in his eyes—one that he’d—amazingly—be able to clutch onto even as he ages. It’s that vibe alone that’s carried him this far, even if he doesn’t understand it fully yet.

Carefully, he watches how the dramatically taller male performs the motions, listening intently to his instructions all the while. After a few terrible attempts of his own, he finally does it… mostly. It’s a feeling of accomplishment that he’s not felt while studying acting for dramas and modeling for cameras, and when this mini dance lesson passes him by, he can’t help but feel a bit sad.

The disappointment only continues when his instructor arrives and hands him a script. A deep sigh follows suit, but he does what he’s told… just like he always does.

SCENE IV. SEOUL, KR — 2019, Q4. MOM’s CAR, BCE HQ.

A few notes from the last few years.

Rioh was too young for CHARM when they debuted in 2015.

He eventually transferred to idol training at the age of thirteen.

There, he discovered a true passion for singing and dancing.

He worked so fucking hard; he almost had no social life.

Hard work and passion wouldn’t pay off like he thought they would.

“It’s not an easy decision, but we’ve decided to put our focus into a new girl group, and instead of keeping you in our company, we would rather you try out for other agencies who are actively looking to create a boy group.” Their voice was warm, but that didn’t mean the letdown was any easier to process. He couldn’t help but feel a rush of chills race through him; his eyes swelling with tears as his heart pounded a mile a millisecond. It was clear that he was emotional, but he stood up to bow instead; nodding his head as he suppressed his emotions. That said, they all rained down on him the instant he got back into his mother’s car.

“What’s wrong? What happened?!” She was shocked, but when the situation was explained, she understood a little better; undoing her seatbelt so she could lean over to hold him easier.

“Sometimes you win some, and sometimes you lose some, but what’s important is that you don’t stop fighting for it—especially if it’s something that you really, really want.”

“B-But, what about you and dad? What’re you gonna do now that you can’t work anymore? I want to help, but now it feels like I can’t do anything…”

His words took her aback. She hadn’t realized that her children knew so much about the stress she’s been under lately. Due to an injury, she had to stop waiting tables, and sadly, she’s found it hard to find another job. Laughing softly, she shook her head back and forth; squeezing onto his shoulders a little firmer. “Yes, I’ve been stressed… and yes, I’ve been worried about finding something new to do, but listen to me: you don’t have to worry about me, okay? I promise that I have things together, and I promise that I’ll be fine.” Her words were matter-of-fact, and though he heard them loud and clear, they didn’t quite sink in. Though, they were enough to calm him down momentarily. At the end of the day, he was still disappointed—even if it was mostly in himself.

“I love you, mom… I promise I’ll try harder.”

SCENE V. SEOUL, KR — 2020, Q4. UNDISCLOSED STUDIO.

“Is it just me or is Yoo Rioh really fucking obnoxious?” “Ugh, he always pushes his way to the front and center…” “In my opinion, Rioh doesn’t even compete with many of us.” “I feel like people only like him because he’s handsome.”

He couldn’t hear them all of the time, but he somehow had a hunch that many of the other trainees didn’t like him. Did he sometimes read as desperate for attention? Yes. Did he have little tantrums off-screen if he wasn’t getting enough camera time? One hundred percent. The viewers and some of the producers never saw it, but his fellow competitors witnessed it full force. All of them were in the same boat, and the tension was high, so it was only natural that there would be stupid disagreements, petty anger, and unnecessary drama. How unfortunate.

There’s no excuse for his immature behavior, but he’d argue that his passion is just… stronger than the others. He’s been training for a whopping eight years and he’s only eighteen years old. That’s nearly half of his life. To him, there’s almost no comparison between he and the others. Many of them were older than him, but he’d still consider himself their sunbae. So, he had no idea why he wasn’t being respected for his hard work and talent. His childish ways didn’t make things any better, though, so he wasn’t totally blameless. That, and well, a lot of the chatter that was being thrown around about him was fairly accurate. Again, how fucking unfortunate.

The upside to all of this? The general public that tuned in seemed to fall head over heels in love with him. Whenever he was brave (and lucky) enough to read online comments during filming, he found that many of them were positive. Lots of viewers said he gave off mischievous “little brother” vibes and many claimed that he’d be the perfect maknae if he was in the top five.

At this point, he decided to put more of his focus on appeasing his future fans, so no matter how competitive and annoying he was on the show, he was focused so much on winning that he stopped caring entirely how the others treated him. He made a few friends—some of them he’d later debut with—and he wasn’t particularly hated by all forty-nine other guys, but his thirst for notoriety was truly off-putting to a lot of people. So, when he ended the competition with a metaphoric silver medal in second place, there were plenty of eye-rolls and scoffs to go around.

He tried his best not to let everyone else rain on his parade, though.

SCENE VI. SEOUL, KR — 2021, Q1. GOLD STAR MEDIA HQ.

He reads over his contracts with a lawyer that his father’s employer recommended, making sure that he wasn’t signing onto anything that would negatively compromise him in anyway. As far as he was aware, things looked good enough for him to sign his name on the dotted line, so when the time came, he did just that—overjoyed that his time spent training was finally rewarded with a little recognition.

Took long enough.

“Guys… we’re finally getting everything we ever wanted!” He speaks aloud to his members, the smile on his face genuine. “Like, can you believe that we’re actually gonna be the next big thing?!” His giddiness was infectious, but also a lot to handle. He can’t help it—he’s pumped.

Rioh just hopes his assumptions don’t bite him in the ass, though. The last thing he needs is to jinx the golden opportunity that’s been bestowed upon him by making hasty predictions.

In the end though, his marketability is largely what he got him where he is today. While he can keep up with his seniors as far as singing and dancing are concerned, he still has a long way to go if he plans on being as successful as some of his company’s other artists. He’s young, he’s dumb, but he’s learning—that’s gotta count for something, right?

His career is just beginning, though, so let’s hope he’s able to make it work.

[lostherlemons]

BIG gay post about how my girlfriend i came to be: laura version

i wanna make my own post like that but i don’t know if i could properly convey everything because oftentimes words can’t really do my experience justice. but like. that made me relive everything from my point of you and i can very tangibly feel affection and happiness bubbling up within the depths of my stomach and i gotta spill it out. i just gotta.

for those of you that didn’t know me beforehand bc you followed me from robin or just generally followed me sometime in the last half year or so, my relationship before robin was very very bad. the entire thing was kind of a giant guilt trip where i got emotionally manipulated for months until I succumbed to dating the guy (and being sexual with him when i Was Not Ready) and it was often miserable- but due to the toxic nature of the situation and my inability to assert myself in a way that he could take seriously, the relationship lasted for a pretty long time and took me a good 7 months to finally break up with him. I’ll leave it at that because it’s not the focus and explaining it isn’t a fun experience.

I’m hesitant to start the story like this because it seems so negative but like. It’s important for the context because the aftermath of what he put me through lasted a long time. we broke up probably exactly a year ago but i was reeling and recovering for a very long time and it made me very bitter towards romance in general and very much a skeptic (which robin turned right back around). but anyway. now for the happy part!

robin and i met, as they said, on their 18th birthday at a lgbt ice cream social. my very first distinct memory is of robin being part of the group i was talking to at the time and in a very cute moment, got me to guess what age they were. i guessed 20+ and was wrong and robin was very pleased that they came off so mature to me. we generally stuck together after that through the event (after sharing Tumblrs and such), which i didn’t think much of at the time because I was in the prior relationship still and i was just having a good time with my friends!! eventually we decided to ditch the place and hang out at friends apartment but robin was very new to the Bellingham scene and wasn’t sure about taking the bus and stuff and got left behind. I felt very bad because I was driving everyone and could have easily transported robin without the bus and such. I agonized over it for a long time!! It was very silly of me but I spent a lot of time wishing we could have hung out more than just that night.

We of course had a long period of just being Silently Supportive mutuals and never got to hang out. I remember them staying in school over the summer and wanting VERY BADLY to hang out but not being sure how to go about it because I’m awkward and didn’t know Rob that well. Over the summer we ended up interacting, and low-key commenting and stuff, and it was good. At a certain point I remember thinking Robin was cute. Immediately after this realization I kinda figured out I was in for a shitshow in crush town.

I spent most of September with a big huge growing crush. Every time robin even POSTED a selfie I got so excited! They were so cute!!! At a certain point I was aware of my crush and COULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Every time robin even liked my post I would gush about it nonstop to @funkadacious and you can ask him because I would never shut up and stop sending him their cute selfies. Somewhere in the midst of all this, in an interaction during robin’s fai blogging, i reassured them that they were pretty and robin IMMEDIATELY AND SHOCKINGLY admitted they thought i was hot upon first meeting me and i lost my shit, died, and descended unto gay heaven all while continuing to flirt back and forth for a bit.

I could not believe it. ROBIN. THE ONE I COULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT. THOUGHT I WAS HOT AND WAS FLIRTING WITH ME. WHAT. AM I DREAMING. WHAT IS HAPPENING. you can imagine.

when school started in late september, i posted a few VERY INTENTIONALLY FLATTERING AND CUTE SELFIES, literally only so that i could passively grab more attention from robin. who reblogged them and made me feel very nice.

now, when my year-long depressive episode got to a bad spot in october, robin surprised me by offering to hang out because I probably needed someone to talk to. I of course said yes (all while gushing to nick, casey, all my classmates in theatre class, and literally any coworker that would listen including my poor boss who still hears this all the time) and spent the next few days in a giddy excitement until meeting robin for coffee after my theatre class.

i was dizzy upon seeing them sitting at that last table in the cafe. this was real and robin was there, VERY CUTE and in person for the first time in over a year, and they were waiting for me. ME. WHAT. i got a coffee and a pastry to share and sat down.

We talked for hours and hours and hours. About art, school, growing up, mental health, everything. I remembered how robin talked fast when they were excited and thought it was adorable. Eventually the sun started to set and it reflected in their eyes and I literally had to pause the conversation to admit I could not stop staring at how beautiful they were. Eventually my mom called me and i didn’t have the nerve to tell her I was getting coffee with my crush but eventually she hung up and soon after the dreaded question popped up.

“So. Im kinda wondering. Is this a… uh.. a date? Or like a friend thing? Or both..? I’m just curious, anything is fine.”

“Oh! UH. IT… CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO BE…..”

“Okay! It’s a date then.”

Cue me dying. At the end of said date, robin asked if a hug was ok (right after I made the best pun of my life about kissing) and it was VERY okay and I clung for dear life and it was wonderful.

The weekend after this, I was traveling internationally during what was hyped up to be a VERY BIG STORM to get up to canada for @limes-and-kiwis birthday. I was told by many Not to go, but I’m a stubborn fuck. Robin texted me and was VERY FLIRTATIOUS when I was on my way up saying I had to stay safe! For our second date!! And this text made me so excited I literally had to stop by my work on my way up and show the text to my manager and I was dead!!!!

i of course made it safely and had a wonderful time with casey. Me, being gay, at one point had to go through robin’s selfie tag to show Casey, and I passed her my phone. Immediately after i had the realization that my best friend was an untrustworthy wingman and I was a dead man. I of course get my phone back with EVERY SELFIE OF ROBINS FOR THE LAST YEAR, LIKED, and of course casey is extremely proud of herself and smug as all hell. Me, being mortified, of course had to send a very embarrassing “IT WASN’T ME STALKING THROUGH YOUR PHOTOS I CAN EXPLAIN” message to robin over snapchat, which opened a new can of worms and was a cue for MUCH MUCH MORE FLIRTING.

we of course went on a second date after I got back, and also ran into eachother at the grocery store a few days later which I gave robin a ride home from and got a kiss on the cheek. I was grinning for hours afterwards and my boss made fun of me.

eventually at the party with robin’s friends, I flirted A LOT and we were very affectionate and at one point a friend said we very very cute and asked how long we had been dating. We looked at eachother and I was like “ok so this is official? We’re gfs?? Yeah?” And robin agreed and we were OFFICIAL. GFS. THE ONES YOU KNOW AND LOVE. and the rest of the night was very very good and cuddly and I was the happiest I had been in a while.

the relationship really only got better and better from there. Robin is SO supportive and so loving and smart and I adore them so so much. They make me feel safe and appreciated and I can only hope I do the same. Robin touched on A Lot in their post and described things better than I ever could but like. It’s true. Everything is just… better.

robin’s February Thing was also accompanied by Laura’s February Thing, and so we both had very bad brains at the time and being silly, had a hard time reaching out. But the next day when I found out what was going on, I had a moment of clarity. Sure I was terrified of reaching out, and being rejected, or having a fight, but I realized I couldn’t risk losing what I have with robin. It’s grown to be everything to me and i knew I had to see them no matter what and I did and it was so healing and good and I’ll never regret just marching across campus to their dorm.

but anyway. This got long. Basically I’m very much in love and will never shut up about it. @flovvright is the light of my life and every moment I spend with robin is perfect. Because we fit so perfectly together and it’s just… It’s good. It’s real good. I never thought I’d be at this point and it constantly amazes me. I don’t know what else to say but rest assured there’s a lot left unsaid and I just want my girlfriend to know how much they mean the absolute world to me and how they just consistently make my life a better life no matter how hard things get.