#but I want to interact with people and dk how to make an interesting approach

[arikihalloween]

It's night so time for sillyness because why not

Lots of stuff happening lately and for many reason I'm feeling stressed to the point of being nauseous sometimes ( geez what stress does to the body )

So I want to do talk silly

So if you guys are curious about anything like idk my AUs, my ocs, myself, the wttmv project, or if you wanna ramble about your own random stuff or AU or theory ( can be on anything but I want context ), go ahead the ask box is open !!

[taurianskies7]

Astrology Observation - Nakshatra Edition ✨

Hello! Here’s the promised Nakshatra post, over the course of my learning and just interacting with people, there’s a lot I’ve learned and I’d like to share em! Feel free to correct me, I’m still very much a student when it comes to these, lol.

⚡ The nakshatra of your rising often dictates what life is going to throw at you and HOW you need to approach each issue. Example: Krittika risings might need to deal with situations that comes up by cutting out the unnecessary things in their life, Chitra might need to compartmentalise, organize and focus on the details, Jyestha might need to focus on self-preservation etc. 

⚡ I feel like the reason Purva Bhadrapada is such a “be care of that one” sign when it comes to interpretations, not because of the two-faced symbolism/nature but because of this nakshatra being the last of the Jupiter-ruled Nakshatras. Jupiter is at its peak of expansion here, to the point that it becomes uncontrollable and as a result Purva Bhadrapada individuals often feel like there isn’t a natural limit, anchor or restriction to their actions. These individuals mimic the “dark night of the soul” in a way, that is detached from attachments outside their personal choice. This often leads to two kinds of manifestation, an individual that is uncontrolled in the eyes of society because there’s truly nothing that compels them besides their own motivation, or a highly spiritual person, who ends up utilizing this innate detachment to the outside world as spiritual elevation/motivation through discipline that is brought by true choice. (Saturn’s energy bringing spiritual balance)

⚡ Dhanista is often a very good nakshatra for professional fame, mainly because the nakshatra itself demands attention BUT while these individuals tend to be very talented and often loved, they have a tendency to suffer in their private lives, as their focus and “good fortune” usually comes in their work/professional life. (mann, dhanista celebs are so captivating thoughh) ⚡ Dhanista individuals are actually the nakshatra least present in murderers/serial killers, as explained by Claire Nakti, Mars last nakshatra is the highest form of expression of Mars and it also falls in Saturn ruled signs (Capricorn & Aquarius), refining the aggression and energy towards a more work orientated attitude.

⚡ Jyestha and their tendency to suppress emotions because they(or generally not express them) until it’s too much to the point that they completely break down, and end up going into an almost “berserk” rage. Not to say it’s violent (but can be if mars is involved in anyway, or aspecting the moon itself) but when they do have these anger breakdowns, they tend to act like a pissed off Scorpion placed in a dark hole, striking at anything that is within their reach. Of course, depending on the placement their “world” might shift to specific focus of that planet, but they are very much in the me vs the world mindset.

⚡ Also, Jyestha is an excellent money-making or business-minded position.

⚡ I think the parallels between Purva Bhadrapada and Jyestha are so interesting, they tend to naturally gravitate towards each other, I wonder if it’s because one (Purva Bhadrapada) is radical freedom while Jyesthas usually are distrustful to the point of taking responsibility all by themselves, lol.

⚡ Purva Bhadrapada are attracted to the self-responsible nature of Jyesthas but I think, Jyesthas tend to be attracted to Purva Bhadrapada due to the other’s ability to be so completely free and un-resentful of their emotional expression. Purva Bhadrapada exists fully in their emotions without consequences, unaffected by other’s grievances or the world’s sorrows unless they choose to be, unmoved almost. In a way, they are intrigued by the other’s extreme. 

⚡ Look at your DK’s aka Darakarka’s nakshatra (the planet with the lowest degree in your chart), often times, the nakshatra manifests quite literally in your spouse. Also, the ruling planet of that nakshatra might be prominent or present in their chart.

⚡ Ardra truly embodies the mutable boredom, in a way, they can only be moved or interested by things that particularly interests them and that’s it. They don’t care about what they need to do, they only care about what they’re interested in or what they want.

⚡ Might not seem like it but Chitra nakshatra loves to poke at society’s boundaries, there’s a prominent in presence of perfecting and constructing illusionary forms to the greater masses, often times it’s done for acts of unrestrained self-expression.

⚡ The most auspicious nakshatras aren’t Jupiter ruled ones, like many people would think, it’s the Saturn ruled nakshatras.

⚡ Revati has the ultimate “out of this world” vibe, to the point that they often might feel like they don’t belong in this world.

⚡ Krittika is probably the reason why Taurus gets the underhanded reputation of ghosting, they are not afraid to cut unnecessary things out of their life and it often happens really seamlessly. 

⚡ It’s been said by many people but Rohini IS the ultimate sugar baby nakshatra. I think it also has to do with the fact that Rohini tends to be the placement of indulgence, in a way, there is a want or tendency to gain attention, to have the most comfortable/luxurious life. (also very captivating eyes!) 

[purpleyellow]

Clueless

Seventeen 14th member

Hayun’s masterlist

“The introduction of Hayun’s love interest and her beef with his friend”

a/n: Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well as send me some requests💙. Ask box is also open to random chats.

“Noona!” Yugyeom screamed engulfing Hayun in a tight hug and briefly raising her off the ground “I’m so glad you came”

“Of course I’m here, happy birthday by the way” Hayun snorted, reciprocating the hug and making room for Mingyu, Minghao, and DK to congratulate him as well. Looking around the private area of the club, the girl waved back at some of the JYPE idols without failing to notice one of the Twice girl’s walking up to her.

“Yugyeom-ah, did you really have to invite her?” Jade rolled her eyes, draping an arm on the boy’s shoulders and sizing her up. The other girl tilted her head to the side and pressed her lips in annoyance.

Hayun and Jade’s relationship was a little tough. 

Ever since their groups debuted, the two rappers got constantly compared to each other. And while Hayun knew she shouldn’t get affected by it, she couldn’t help but get insecure when a lot of people seemed to use Jaidee as an example of why they thought she had to leave Seventeen to join a girl group. It didn’t help either that they never addressed the situation or tried to interact when their groups were getting to know each other. 

So even though it seemed reasonable to just move past other people's opinions and the rivalry they pressured on them, the topic stung Hayun a little, and the girl found herself avoiding staying close to the other idol and interacting peacefully, even after everybody appeared to have moved on from it.

“Jaidee, just go back to your place” The seventeen member rolled her eyes while Yugyeom stared at them amused, far too entertained to deal with their bickering.

“My place?” Jade widened her eyes and chuckled aimlessly “It’s my friend’s party. Look around a little and you’ll see you’re the one  who doesn’t belong here”

“Seriously, you talk like a preschooler” Hayun pursed her lips to prevent her from ironically laughing as Jade opened her mouth to say something else, getting interrupted by two people approaching and standing in the middle of them.

“Noona, great to see you here. Let’s go sit with your members” Bambam chatted happily while pulling Hayun to where the rest of the 97 line was. Jackson on her other side gestured for Yugyeom to take Jade back to the other side of the table.

“Jackson, ” Jade called out and waved for him to follow her, making the girl roll her eyes again. The boy looked between them before sighing.

“Wait a minute, I’ll come back,” He told Hayun before going to where the Twice member was.

“She really doesn’t let him live” The girl snorted while approaching the table, mindlessly messing up Jaehyun’s hair and getting an annoyed greeting as he tried to fix it again.

“She usually does, it’s just your presence” Bambam deadpanned pulling a chair for her to sit next to Minghao and smirking before saying with a girly voice “Don’t worry he’s coming back”

“He can stay there if it’ll keep her away from me” Hayun mumbled, getting slapped in the arm by Minghao. “Ouch, what was that for?”

“Let the girl be,” Mingyu said from his seat, making her roll her eyes at him before winking at Jungkook who was looking back and forth with wide eyes “You should be the mature one in a situation like this”

“How is this my fault? All I did was arrive and-”

“Next time arrive quicker” DK joked, making her sigh and rest her weight on the chair. 

“So, what’s good tonight?” Hayun asked and looked down at the dance floor and then back at the group, who had returned to their usual conversation. The girl was just starting to focus on one of Eunwoo’s stories when suddenly a chair got pulled to her side and someone sat there with his arms on the back of her seat.

“What did I miss?” Jackson asked no one in specific and looked at her, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear and fiddling with her piercing “Is this a new earring?”

“I think I’ve had this for a while now but thank you for asking” Hayun chuckled, patting his thigh before looking back at whoever was speaking.

“Ah, interesting” The boy mumbled and looked around again, not so discreetly pulling his chair a little closer to hers. Hayun leaned her head on his shoulder without much thought making a smile creep onto his face. “Don’t you think we’re a little out of place here? I mean, they’re all the same age and-”

“Are you calling me old?” She raised her head with an amused yet questioning smile and Jackson rolled his eyes while shaking his head.

“No. I’m trying to see if you want to go someplace else.” He told her with a smirk and gave her a wink.

“Go where bro? I’m not going to the lion’s den just because you’re too cool for the young kids” She scoffed leaving him with wide eyes

“Wow, don’t put it like that, you know Jade is my friend” He started to say with a goofy grin but got interrupted again.

“I’m your friend too” Hayun laughed, missing how his smile dropped a little “Shouldn’t you be at least a little concerned by me getting eaten alive”

“As long as I got you both under control nothing is happening” He patted her on the back and got up “I’m going to the bar, do you want the usual?”

“Sure, thanks” The girl nodded and looked back at the table. She hadn’t realized but all eyes were on her as they had watched the end of the exchange happen “What?”

“Dude, that was your cue” Bambam smirked, taking a sip from his cup.

“My cue for what?” She frowned when Mingyu held his head in exasperation and Dokyeom giggled at her lost expression.

“Your cue to go with him” Minghao pointed out amused and when Hayun looked at him for more clues he raised his eyebrows “Are you serious?”

“Jackson has been flirting with you for like, months” Mingyu exclaimed with a high pitch tone and restraining himself from standing up and extending his arms to where the boy was “He just told you he wanted to move spots and gave you the perfect situation to tag along. Why are you still here?”  

While the mini-speech had made sense to her, Hayun couldn’t help but laugh at the idea. Sure Jackson was attractive and she enjoyed his presence a lot, but the view she had of him didn’t surpass the one of a friend.

“You’re all overreacting, we’re just close like that” She waved them off making him groan and some of the boys laughed.

“He doesn’t act like that with anyone but you actually” Bambam crossed his arms and leaned back on his seat “Just watch him for a while and you’ll get what we mean”

“Actually, just go there yourself” Minghao rolled his eyes and grabbed the seat of her chair, tilting it until Hayun had no choice but to get up before she fell on the ground. 

“Wow, aggressive much” She fixed the skirt of her dress and walked towards the bar. The girl could see where they were coming from, but part of her didn’t actually believe Jackson could have some sort of feelings for her. Not those kinds of feelings at least.

Confronting it while she didn’t have expectations made sense to Hayun as she walked down the stairs, finding him standing with his back facing where she was coming from, which allowed her to sneak to his side and poke his ribs.

“Hey, thought you were going to wait upstairs” Jackson smiled circling an arm around her waist as Hayun leaned her forearms on the counter.

“Well from what I’ve heard you wanted me to come with you from the start” She smirked not meeting his eyes and hoping he would catch her hint.

“I did actually, thank you for noticing” Jackson smiled, playing with the ends of her hair and watching the bartender mixing up the drinks.

“Cut the crap Jackson” Hayun rolled her eyes turning to him “Have you been flirting with me?”

“Yes. Do you want to go on a date?” It was his turn to smile and Hayun found herself speechless.

“What?” She stared at him with wide eyes and he shrugged

“I figured I should make up for the time it took you to even realize I was flirting,” He said as if it were nothing, and Hayun’s mouth dropped.

“That was smooth” She laughed getting out of her trance and he stared at her with expecting eyes.

“So, do you want to?” He held her face with one hand and brushed it with his thumb, the action felt a little too nice to the girl and she blinked a few times trying to find her words.

“I need to be honest with you here. I don’t really see you like this” She said and he took a step back, opening his arms and looking at her.

“Do you think I’m attractive?” He asked as if it were nothing and the girl tilted her head to the side.

“Uh, sure but-”

“And I’m guessing you’re not annoyed by my presence,” He asked again and she shook her head making him get closer to her again, giving her a side hug and a kiss behind the ear “Then if you agree on the date, that’s enough for me to make you change your mind about how you see me”

Grateful for the bartender finishing up in that second, Hayun stared at the boy’s side profile as he took the drinks from the man, suppressing a smile when he turned to give her hers. 

“So, what do you say about that date?” His tone wasn’t teasing and she could tell he was genuinely waiting for her to either decline or accept it.

“Yeah, let’s do it” She let out a relieved laugh when his face broke into an adorable smile. 

Letting Jackson lead her back to their table, Hayun paid more attention to his hand resting on her back and how even sitting he was usually trying to keep some sort of contact between them. Half of her unusually giddy from it, and the other half wondering what the hell had just happened.

[astrologysvt]

Chart First Impressions - Vernon

For more SVT astrology posts, follow my blog! Check out my masterlist to see all the readings I’ve done so far and what I’ve got coming up! 💫

This is just a very general reading of the member’s charts — the parts that popped out to me, things I personally liked, things I thought were interesting or contrary to the image I have of them. I’m not looking at anything in particular with each reading. Some of their readings may be more aspect focused, where some may just focus solely on their personal planets and their signs. If you have any questions on specific aspects or want to request a more specific reading, feel free to send me an ask!

two aquarians down, one more to go. 

so i do feel the need to explain why i’m not here arguing why i think vernon or even dk may be either a pisces/aquarius sun.

(tho tbh if either of them were to lean towards pisces, i think it’d be vernon). 

but really for me it just comes down to the fact they feel very clearly aquarian.

with woozi, his energies were a lot more vague/muddled and harder to organize where as it’s a lot simpler and cleaner a break with these two aqua/pisces cusps. 

generally, aqua and pisces influences feel very different to me. 

for me to consider them more pisces, i would be looking for them to appear much more yielding within a group and i don’t get that sense.

i’d also be looking for a certain degree of people-pleasing, or at least a strong courtesy towards how they contribute to the room’s energy. an aqua wouldn’t be as conscientious of this. they may be aware of it, but they wont let themselves be inhibited by it. where as a pisces would be hyper aware of this and very cautious. 

not only that, but i’m not looking charts that would be void of explanation on either sign/element’s influence if they leaned either way. 

woozi had no other scorpio in his chart if his sun wasn’t in scorpio.

where as with vernon, regardless of whether he’s an aqua or pisces sun, he’s still got a strong aqua and pisces influence in his chart to begin with so his reading wouldn’t be drastically different if he turned out to be a pisces sun. 

similar with dk, where as his cancer influence in tandem with his aqua and libra would make it so the rest of his reading wouldn’t be horribly compromised. 

if either one of them were to end up being a pisces sun, my reading of them would still be very similar just reorganized.

where as with jihoon, it was an entirely different story. 

so it’s a mixture of pisces and aquas being a lot easier to differentiate than sag/scorpio, and also their charts having both influences in their other personal planets that i’m not too stressed about figuring their suns out. 

but lets focus back on vernon. 

his sun and mercury is in aqua. 

i think vernon exemplifies exactly what i expect with an aquarius — like picture perfect artsy-brand aquarius. 

his style (for one) has been so clearly created by him without any regard with what everyone else is doing. 

and i think this is an important distinction to make with aquarians. 

a lot of people like to think that aquarians like to be contrary for the sake of being contrary, and tbh i do know enough aquarians to know that sometimes that IS the case (but i dunno i think they just like messing with me) 

but i do genuinely believe that when it comes to art and their work, the stuff that they do is genuinely so unique and out there because that’s just how their mind’s work. 

for example, if you’re looking at a painting you’re generally going to focus on the focal points of them. the subject, the name of the painting, the artist, maybe context if ur interested. you’re going to take the evidence given to you to try and form a linear narrative. you’re going to focus on what you think the painter wants you to notice. 

whereas an aquarius is naturally drawn elsewhere, maybe the background. maybe they’re noticing how it looks with the other paintings around it, or how the light is hitting it. maybe their placing the painting in a wild alternative universe and creating a story around it. 

they’re less concerned with building a narrative around what the painter is trying to show, and is more concerned with finding new, uncovered things about it. 

and that’s kinda a very vague glimpse into how aquarians build these crazy alternative worlds and perspectives they live in. 

aquarians are a very progressive sign, this is certainly because they have a strong set of principles that lean very humanitarian. 

but it’s also because they simply hate whatever may threaten one’s ability to exert autonomy over themselves, their expression, and how people perceive/treat them. 

whether it’s them personally, or generally, or symbolically. 

i don’t think it’s a direct correlation (like he thinks this way because he’s an aquarian) but when he was on happy together and they were talking about how his korean was very good and he was like “i mean, i AM korean.” 

this is a very aquarian thing to want to blur the lines, and encourage people around them too approach these potentially hard to understand concepts simply and a matter-of-factly. 

(tho i think in this specific instance he was really just combating the perception that he was more foreign to the MCs than he actually was).

anyway, back to aquas being lovable weirdos. 

i like to think that the many ways aquas like to present themselves isn’t just for show/for the sake of being different. 

sometimes it certainly takes a very physical/in your face form such as with fashion, but i like to think that they dress and act the way they do because they like being in the state of opposition and friction. 

by having this imagine of themselves reflected back to them in how drastically different the other side is, that is something that both gives them excitement as well as a sense of comfort through purpose and identity. 

they like sticking out because it’s a declaration of their character. 

not only that, but they love the ease of just doing what they want without having to think or feel the weight of “what is everyone else going to think?” 

that freedom is very important to them. 

how interesting is it tho that we’ve got two aqua suns with water moons?? 

vernon’s scorpio moon is gonna be VERY different from dk’s cancer moon. 

as social as an aqua can be in concept, they can really and honestly go either way. 

either they are the popular kid whose in every extracurricular and is student council president, or they’re the kid sitting in the corner who just doodles all day in class. 

you throw in a scorpio moon and it really makes him a pretty solitary guy. 

extreme lone wolf vibes. 

he likes being by himself, and it’s partially cuz the world is loud and his mind is entertaining in and of itself, and partially him being an incredibly independent and self-sufficient person. 

he’s got the least social chart in all of seventeen, and any anti-social behaviors he may have simply come from the fact that looking outwards to others is not in his immediate logic. 

it’s not in his muscle memory. 

if he gets excited about a project, he’s probably going to lock himself up in his room and burry himself in it, as opposed to getting others involved.

“i need to get something? great i can leave right now.”

he doesn’t think to ask others if they wanna go because they aren’t a part of his immediate checklist that’s integral to his day/wellbeing. 

his energies churn inwardly, and this is also why you find him just sitting around staring into space. 

not because he doesn’t want to talk to people or doesn’t care about people, but because he’s very comfortable living in his mind and simply doesn’t care to experiment too much with his immediate effect on the world around him. 

you take someone like jun who has so much energy bubbling in him, he can’t help but start doing things just to see what will happen and how people will react. 

vernon may have a similar curiosity, but it’s much more imaginative, abstract, and isolated. he can play out those scenarios in his mind. 

and this has many facets to it: his aqua influence makes him inventive and original in his thoughts where he as absolutely no shortage of daydream material. you throw in that pisces mars that is half daydreaming all the time, and that scorpio moon that makes him very intentionally reserved/independent and you’ve got vernon. 

so vernon’s scorpio moon is everything we’ve talked about before about water moons: empathetic, intuitive, sensitive. 

i think his scorpio moon is more interesting because of the darkness that a scorpio influence implies. 

there’s a alarming depth from where his emotions rise from, which is surprising considering how chill he seems outwardly. 

when it comes to his emotions, whatever it is, he wants them unabashed and unfiltered. no shame whatsoever. 

this is due to his scorpio influence’s desire for authenticity, but also his aqua influence’s deep dislike for the superficial. 

this would make him very discerning and generally pretty good at knowing when someone is trying to manipulate him, though his pisces mars may confuse him here and there. 

he’d really be great for any deep, wild, out-there, maybe even taboo conversations you may wanna have. 

pretty much anything would be on the table.

this is because his aqua influence would be prepared to entertain anything and everything, and is equally prepared take it seriously as you do.  

while his scorpio moon isn’t particularly afraid of whatever you may bring up, and is pretty attracted to the more out-there topics. 

it’d honestly just take a lot to really freak him out, and he’s really just open/excited to entertain any random idea you may have. 

even if he reacts viscerally or even negatively, he’s still very slow to write something off. 

his scorpio moon is sextile his cap venus

this softens his chart up a little bit, may mellow out his out-there qualities and give him a greater appreciation for more classy & romantic things. 

this makes him more fluid in his interactions with people than his forthright aqua and unyielding scorpio may connote. 

wonwoo has this same aspect, too, actually. 

this would make him much more dynamic and flexible in how he expresses/receives affection. 

would certainly also make him a lot more dedicated and stable in relationships than a aqua/pisces influence may imply where normally aqua wants independence and pisces may not be as present. 

then you also have his scoprio moon trine pisces mars.

this is the aspect that really turns this chart upside down on it’s head imo. 

aqua, scorpio, cap? they sound ready to fight at the drop of the hat. 

but you have water meeting water in this trine, and this very seamless exchange of energies between emotion and action really turns him into this amazing peace-keeper because of how level-headed it makes him.

i think i remember they were talking in svt club about how vernon never gets angry, and if he gets angry it’s probably because other people are fighting and he’s like. 

“i don’t get this. why?” 

this is because he really doesn’t understand how people can get so swept by emotion that they’d start arguing with each other. 

and he feels this way because, with a harmonious aspect between moon and mars, energy flows through him incredibly smoothy and easily. 

good, bad, sad, excited. all that fun stuff flows through him and doesn’t experience much of a road block, and so with that he’s not only very familiar with the passing of these emotions, but he’s able to process and regulate them pretty easily without trying. 

this would make him that excitable, expressive, reactive vernon we know and love because the emotions just flow through him. 

but this would also mean that, because of that, he understands how to ride the waves of his emotions so that they don’t end up sweeping him in their undercurrent. 

so when people do get into these heated arguments, he struggles to understand why they’d handle it in certain ways. 

with that being said, he does have his moon square mercury which means he isn’t the BEST at communicating his thoughts on this matter. 

he wants to so badly to put everything he feels into comprehensible words and concepts because of his aqua mercury. 

but that aqua mercury may make his viewing/expression too far reaching to understand, while his scorpio moon may make his emotions hard to grasp and translate in the first place. 

at the end of the day, his way of thinking is far too intuitive and abstract to put into words. 

so, lmao, don’t invite him to mediate ur next fight. he’ll probs just confuse you both. 

but if you need someone to chill with to cool you off and calm you down? he’s great because all that water turns him into this fantastic shock-absorber, and as i said before, his aqua/scorpio means that almost anything is on the table. 

the last thing i’ll talk about is his pisces mars! 

he’s a gentle, gentle boy. 

if it wasn’t obvious enough already, there really isn’t a single angry bone in his body (that’s an exaggeration, we’re all capable of anger). 

but he has such a gentle approach to life thanks to this pisces mars, and he goes about this with such sincerity and it’s so unfiltered and out there that you can’t help but appreciate how earnest he is, no matter how weird at the same time. 

this would also turn his aquarian interest in a much more creative direction.

i know he said he can’t draw, but he has such a strong knack for creative thinking with that unique aqua and his pisces mars giving him a very fluid means of expression and deep understanding of artistic nuance. 

everything he does, even if he’s not particularly good at, will have his signature stamp because he has such a great outlet for him to express his super strong, aquarian sense of self. 

(and that, in and of itself, is an artistic feat). 

super empathetic, a lot more emotional than he lets on. 

but again, due to his moon’s harmonious aspects, even with all that deadpan and logical aqua, emotions are never ultra-abrasive to him so it’s genuinely really hard to catch an extreme emotion out of him unless he’s in a negative place generally.

he just gets emotions, and if he doesn’t understand them immediately he knows how to sit with them and live in them. 

a very healing person to be around. 

[aijee]

tw // mentions of rape

imo u shouldn’t stop updating bc of the accusations against mg. headlines were fucking misleading, i actually thought he raped someone at first bcos of the word choice. ure writing about his public persona, not him irl. we dk him either way so is not like ure violating something or breaking ur morals or whatever. op literally stated that mg never made any comments towards her or touched her in any way, he just made jokes that made her uncomfortable but never directed to her, she explicitly said that mg was not the cause for her to go to therapy & the bullying accusations have been proven to be fake. i-carats decided to translate the new SA accusations without being fluent in korean and that caused a huge misunderstanding, that’s why k- and j- carats have been calmer about it. u shouldn’t believe the screenshots of the other op either bcos there has also been a lot of inconsistencies of them, like the time stamp with the battery issue, etc. due to some mistranslations, all of us thought that the chest touching person was a girl when it’s a guy, inconsistencies like that make the this op more invalid cuz with changes happening constantly, the story becomes less believable, hope yk what i mean. fuck i-carats for mistranslating and blaming him for everything, and for making this issue more complicated than it has to be, like with the chest op. they’re even the cause some ppl don’t believe anything. sorry if i sound like an asshole but i’m mad. if he did make the comments, i believe he’s most likely changed. i used to make rape jokes but now i definitely know better. pretty sure he does as well, yk how the treats ppl now, how gentle and kind he is now, etc. however, if he did touch the guy, obviously i will not support him anymore. i’m not trying to defend him but i’m clearing some things up. hope ure neutral abt this. have a good day & really hope u don’t stop updating.

Thank you for your honesty and raw feelings, anon. It’s okay to be mad and have feelings, especially when those feelings aren’t exactly good feelings. Unrelated to the actual Situation(tm), my therapist told me something like, “Try thinking of feelings as just feelings. They come and go. They aren’t necessarily reflective of you as a person.” I thought that my bad feelings or opinions of others prevented me from being good or a functioning person. Fact: people are multifaceted as hell and that’s valid.

Re: morals, that’s fair insight for sure. I think my hesitation comes with the inherent visualization and association of that persona with the person himself, if that makes sense. E.g. when I’m reading RPF, I still visualize the faces of the individuals involved like actors in my mind. In that sense, perhaps it’s a personal discomfort mixing with morals with regard to writing RPF with a certain name and face in mind, who happen to be attached to a persona/person attached to allegations that may or may not be true. In short, it’s messy and vague and I’m still in the middle of figuring things out myself.

I have and always will be a proponent of professional, paid translations—as in, looking towards people who translate for a living. Professional translation is extremely serious work; imagine how important it is in medicine, law, business? There is always a doubtful voice in my head towards fan translations, regardless of the content. That’s not to undermine the hard work of people learning another language, engaging in content they enjoy, wanting to share it with people, etc. But in very serious cases that could possibly really, really hurt people, I will never fully trust translations I can’t pin to a reliable source. It’s easy to reflexively trust fan translations since they objectively control so much of international fans’ consumption of content. It’s also easy for international fans to fixate on wordings in translations when suddenly the faves are doing something questionable (Do we question fansubs on casual videos? Not really). In reality what we need to focus on is the ideas presented, because translations will never be 100% accurate, especially those done by fans.

If it gives you any perspective, an interesting problem for POC’s healthcare experience is that bilingual kids of monolingual parents are often pinned as the “translator.” Yes, they’re able to communicate in multiple languages, but the specificity of the information presented, and the importance of detail, can be lost in translation, even for those who grew up learning two languages natively. Why? Because they don’t learn the minutiae of translation. You’ll often see professional translators constantly using references, relearning things over and over again, etc. Normal multilingual people focus on getting messages across, not those tiny, tiny details. Food for thought.

How people approach, perceive and interact with people attached to abuse is a very messy thing. There is very rarely a “right” answer. I fully support your approach with whatever happens, whether it stays the same or evolves. For my two cents, I think it’s important to remember that the most important relationship in this moment remains that of Mingyu with the potential victim(s) involved; we hold our relationships with our faves so sacred, but I’m just putting that out there for some more perspective I personally think is important. And a third cent: there are people really close to me in my life who have, frankly, abused me. That’s partly why I’m seeing a therapist. But that doesn’t mean I fully reject them, or will never harbor good feelings towards them ever. Abusive behavior can still be exhibited by fundamentally good people, as paradoxical as that sounds. People are capable of growth; goodness and badness aren’t necessarily inherent and unchangeable. I fully respect and admire you for owning your emotions like that! That can be hard to do comfortably.

I’m not invalidating your response whatsoever! At least, that’s not my intention. I just wanted to present some things to think about. It’s also okay if your opinions don’t or do change. It’s still pretty early in the fiasco.

[kihyuni3]

Seventeen Reaction to Being in a Power Couple

This is another one that I’m not sure if it already got posted or not so I changed up the prompt just a little bit in case. Also are you proud of me I finally learned how to write a reaction that isn’t like an entire 17 (ha ha get it) pages long?

~Izzy

Scenario: In this reaction, I see (Y/N) as being in a newly debuted idol group, like just got out of rookie phase. Her group is not as popular as other groups but has a loyal following kind of similar status to like Astro or gugudan.

S.Coups/Seungcheol -

The both of you were leaders of your groups so everyone respected you both so much already, but when you were together it made the respect double.

I think Seungcheol would love the fact that you were such a powerful person and that people seemed to shy away from the two of you whenever you were together. When people brought it up in interviews he would eat it up, loving to talk about you and how amazing your relationship is. He wouldn't take advantage of the power that came with the two of you being together he would simply like the position it put the two of you in.

(I love this gif soooo much like wow goes from dad to daddy real fast)

Jeonghan -

You two were both seen as the visual of your groups so when it was confirmed that you were dating many people became jealous as you were soon known as the visual couple.

Jeonghan thought it was funny that people always addressed you and him differently just because you were perceived as more attractive. Anytime someone would shy away from you and him because they were intimidated by your looks or couldn’t speak anything to you but mumble-mouthed compliments he would laugh quietly to himself, he was just happy that now you could see how beautiful you were to not only him, but the rest of the world.

Joshua -

The way you announced that you and Joshua were dating was by posting a duet you had done where he was playing guitar while both of you sang. Immediately people became very intimidated by the vocal couple.

Whenever you and Joshua appeared together on shows you were always asked to perform a song together because your voices were just so perfect together. At first, he thought it would get tiring, but it never did. He loved singing with you and he loved the new found confidence and attention you were getting for your talent. You could even see rookies who were nervous to approach you because they were impressed by you. All in all he just really liked the appreciation the entire industry was giving you.

Jun -

You and Jun were both actors in different dramas. Individually you were both praised greatly for your acting ability, so when it was announced that the two of you were dating it quickly became a very hot topic.

For the most part, Jun didn’t take advantage of your relationship to get roles or anything, but he wouldn’t complain if you guy happened to end up as the two lead love interests in an upcoming drama. What Jun did like to do though is show you off at every premiere or awards show that the two of you were attending. He knew the two of you were popular so he always used this as an opportunity to make sure that people knew you were his, cause in his opinion you two were the cutest couple to have ever existed.

Hoshi/Soonyoung -

Shortly after it was announced that the two of you were dating a video was released on vlive of you helping him choreograph one of the seventeen dances. One of your suggestions actually ended up being the point dance of their new song.  

Hoshi didn’t mind the attention you were getting, he actually liked that people were aware that you were a talented choreographer. What he did find funny though was how many people started coming up to the two of you backstage at shows or while you were at the dance studio to ask whether the dance they were trying out was good. He could also get used to the company letting you come and help him choreograph from now on.

Wonwoo -

When your group had debuted you were automatically labeled the cold one by fans (not because you were actually a cold person, just because that’s how you appeared during shows and performances), so when it was announced that you and Wonwoo were a couple both fandoms just agreed that that made total sense.

Wonwoo didn’t entirely like being labeled as the cold couple, he wasn’t a huge fan of all the attention your relationship was getting either, but he did like that people were very accepting of your relationship. He also liked the growing popularity your group was gaining. However, if the lack of privacy was ever too much he would take every precaution he could to make sure your dates were more private and personal. Wonwoo really just wanted you to be comfortable.

Woozi -

Similar to Hoshi, your companies announced your relationship by posting a video of the two of you together, except this video was of the two of you working together in the studio on producing your groups next song.

When your relationship picked up popularity Woozi was not a fan at all. He really valued privacy and the fact that anytime you were together you had cameras trained on you made him very upset. However, this did mean that the two of you got to spend more time in the studio together to have more private time together, which he was a fan of. This way you two could choose what to advertise about your relationship. And he would never admit it, but he did like the fact that everyone knew you were only his.

DK/Seokmin -

Quickly after your debut, you were labeled as the sunshine of your group due to your giddy nature and tendency to be always making jokes and gags. Your relationship was immediately picked up by fans because they loved the funny couple and their interactions.

DK would milk this for all it was worth. He loved showing off your relationship, especially to the fans since they seemed to take it very well. He even suggested that you started a Vlive series together. He loved when people came up to the two of you to compliment your relationship, he especially loved when trainees or rookie groups approached asking about gags and jokes. This relationship would just be so much fun to be a part of.

Mingyu -

Your relationship had already been announced, but it didn’t start gaining as much attention as it did until your group did a broadcast with Seventeen and you and Mingyu started cooking together.

Not only did all the fans love how adorable the two of you were being so domestic together, but also everyone was very impressed how good the food actually turned out. Mingyu was kind of confused that the two of you ended up being the cooking couple, but he secretly loved the attention the two of you were getting. He just loved to show off you and your talents, but he would never admit that was what he was doing when he suggested that the two of you go on a cooking show together.

The 8/Minghao -

You and Minghao had not officially announced your relationship yet, but you were both doing a vlive together where you were both b-boying when every one of your fans and his started shipping you together.

Minghao was another one who kind of wished your relationship was a little more private, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it. At this point, if people found out you two were dating, then that’s what was going to happen. After a while, he even started to facilitate the ship by doing a vlive where he taught you some wushu and nunchucks, where you accidentally hit him and he requested you to “kiss it better”

Seungkwan -

Only a little bit after you and Seungkwan announced you were dating you were both to appear on Singing Battle (there’s a link if you aren’t familiar with this show). When the two of you were to go up against each other you both put on an amazing performance and many of the others were speechless.

Seungkwan loved the attention the two of you were getting. It gave both of you more opportunities as singers as well as getting you the recognition you and your group deserve.  Seungkwan also loved to be able to not hide your relationship, he was always showing you skinship and bragging about you in interviews. Honestly, I think Seungkwan would like this the most.

Vernon/Hansol -

You and Vernon first met on a rap show and ever since then both your fans and his had been asking you to do a collab. After the two of you were announced to be together you ended being scheduled for that same show where got to achieve that for your fans. You quickly became known as the hip-hop couple.

Honestly, Vernon would love this so much. I would let you and him work together so much more and it also made your groups popularity increase so much. Of course, he liked that he was able to not hide your relationship, but what he really wanted most was for you to be happy and successful in life and that was happening through your collaboration with him and he couldn’t be happier. He is honestly such a proud boyfriend.

Dino/Chan -

The two of you had been dating secretly for a while now and your companies had finally agreed to let you announce your relationship. The way you decided to do it was during a special duet dance stage you had with him where at the end you kissed. Since then you had been known as the performance couple due to the stage having so much power and impact.

Since you and Dino had been together for a while he wouldn’t mind much that people saw you doing skinship and other couple-y things. What he did get tired of through was the fact that anytime the two of you were on shows together you were expected to be performance ready. At first, he thought it was fun but recently it just got tiring. However, if it made the fans and companies continue to support your relationship, then he would continue to perform for a thousand more years.

(ignore Hoshi I just find Chan unbelievable cute here)

[the-nysh]

Hey, since you talked about your feelings on td//dk and kr//bk (which were super interesting to read btw!) do you have anything to say about opinions on k//cchako?

Hey there! :) And thank you! So let’s see…Uraraka andKacchan. I see fan content of them on my dash fromtime to time, but it rarely garners any deeper thought, so I often just scrollpast with little to no reaction. Simply put: I don’t harbor enough investmentor interest in them as a ship. Even so! Yes, I still have opinions about them, so I’ll try to go in depth here. 

From their limited amount of canon interactions together, therewere actually two noteworthy scenes of them that I really liked. 1.) During theirmatch in the Sports Festival, and 2.) the databook omake situated after Deku andKacchan’s fight vs All Might. (However, in both cases, their interactionsrevolved around Deku, so…) 

I liked their match in the Sports Festival because it wasone of the first times we get to see another side of Kacchan – an important one thatreveals some of his honor code. Fighting seriously against a girl, thateveryone else in the audience assumed was ‘weak and frail’ based onappearances, and therefore automatically judged their match barbaric andunfair…well. Aizawa (Dadzawa), and Uraraka herself, proved them wrong. Urarakaproved her grit and Kacchan treated her as a legitimate threat regardless ofgender stereotypes. (Actually, he approached their match seriously and cautiouslybecause he thought she had a planfrom Deku.) Further acknowledging herstrength with the ‘what part of her was frail?’ comment too.

It’s herewhere I thought, ‘nice, this is a guythat can be trusted, because he earnestly puts his all into the things he’sserious about and expects the same -the best-from his opponents in return.’ (If they don’t,he interprets that as them underestimating or looking down on him.) Without anyother ulterior factors swaying him, there’s a steadfast consistency and honorto that kind of focused mindset, both in how he handles himself and impartially approaches thethings that matter to him, which makes him predictably trustworthy in the long run. (Also meaning, if there’s ever anyfault/betrayal in that mindset, it’s a break in character…which ayyy, Deku willtake notice! ;D)

However, I took the Sports battle and these establishing traits(Uraraka’s grit and Kacchan’s honor) as separate strengths respective to each character, rather than anything shippy.Because Uraraka ultimately fought for herself (and her parents) while Kacchanproved he’d take any girl (anyone)seriously if they show proper worth and challenge respect. So it wasn’thim showing special treatment for Uraraka in particular, but an example of hishonest and impartial competitive sportsmanship. 

Now we have Uraraka thankful that Kacchan took herseriously, and therefore she’s unafraid to confront/approach him on her ownterms -as equals- later. Which is good! :D And it’s why I like the omakecontent of them so much, where she questions him about his behavior in the endof term test:

Uraraka: “It’s like you’re intimidating (Deku) because you’re scared and wanthim to go away from you.”

It’s greatbecause her intuition can clearly read through him: Kacchan purposely singles out and keepsDeku at bay because he fears how Deku makes him feel. Like, boom! She totallycalls him out. ;D BUT…I didn’t read this interaction of theirs as shippy either,because it revolved around Deku AND showed how much Uraraka is in support of their reconciled friendship. She WANTSthem to get along! (If anything, it makes hermore like their wingman… So ayy, bothshe and Kiri would be supportive of their repaired relationship!)

So, from these two canon interactions (only one was a significant event in the manga by the way…), I see the potential basis for a refreshing m/f friendship, where shecan mentally joust and bicker with him without any major consequence. However,as a romantic ship, no; it’s not enough to convince me.

Aside from how limited their canon interactions are, and howin both cases they revolvedaround Deku…the two of them have other canon characteristics to consider. Notonce has Kacchan ever shown interestin any girls in ‘that’ way (or really, invested interest in anyone other than Deku)…and Uraraka hasher utterly transparent feelings for Deku to resolve. Already, that starts themin separate, opposed lanes with respect to their connection to Deku. So whenconsidering them as a ship instead, Ihave to repeatedly ask myself howthey’d ever manage to merge onto the same lane, and what that would even entail,narratively.

Because what wouldit mean? Would Uraraka’s feelings for Deku simmer down to sisterly affectionsof support and admiration, leaving her to choose the immediate second option:Deku’s riv–…wait a sec, what aboutKacchan’s feelings for Deku? (This is writing off that same elephant in the room issue I talkedabout in my previous post…) Are theyboth actually rivals for Deku’s affections?! XD Would Uraraka choose to bewith Kacchan, for the sake of helpinghim ‘get over’ his feelings for Deku too?? WAIT hold on. This is the SAME thingI talked about with kr/bk: it is notUraraka (or Kiri’s) business, or even their responsibility, to forcibly butt-in with the hopes of ‘changing’ or ‘fixing’ Kacchan’s problems/bad behavior FOR him.Except in Uraraka’s case, there’s theadded, antiquated gendered trope of the ‘good girl’ saving the ‘bad boy’ at theexpense of her own wellbeing. Sacrificing her own happiness to care for him fulltime. Which…oh no. Urarakadoesn’t deserve such a harsh fate like that. And Kacchan is not there to become a ‘pet project’ to coddle and change at theexpense of his feelings either. Theseare all some of the main arguments against the ship that I’ve seen, and I agreethat I’m definitely not interested in seeing a one-sided/harmful relationshipdynamic perpetuate like that…but I still have one final, personal dealbreaker.

Which is how Kacchan (my fav) ultimately becomescharacterized. And it relates to his ‘honor code’ established IN his fightagainst Uraraka too. Consider how Hori likely designed Deku and Uraraka to bethe ‘obvious’ endgame het pairing…with them having ongoing, mutual crushes oneach other (truthfully, I really only see fledgling, one-sided flustered admiration/envyfrom Uraraka’s side…) Now then, HOW does this make Kacchan look in turn, forhim to step in between them like this? If he knows they’re friends who like each other, would he really purposely step in to sabotageDeku’s chances with the object of his affections (Uraraka)? No way, not even outof potential spite against Deku or something. It would betray the very consistent and steadfast ‘trust’ about hischaracter that I talked about before.

Because Kacchan’s a gruff asshole ingeneral, but THIS (essentially ‘stealing’ Deku’s crush) would be an underhanded dick move of a whole new lowfor him. Completely at odds with his established character development. He outrighttells villains how he despisesunderhanded tactics like cheating and lying! Doing something like this would contradictand destroy his own ideals. Even if he somehow had a crush on Uraraka (which would already be a stretch andsuspension of disbelief, since he’s never shown any interest in girls likethat anyway) he’d do everything in his power to stay in his own lane and continueaiming for his goal as the top hero. Kacchan lives by his own strict standards andperfectionism in his drive to become the best.He’s an asshole, but not that other kindof asshole. Whenever I see shippy fan content of kac/chako being together atthe expense of Deku, this is the kindof asshole it makes Kacchan appear to me, which is a mischaracterization Ican’t tolerate. It’s a reason I haven’t seen other people talk about, but it’s alwaysbeen in the back of my mind, and probably the main reason why the idea of theirship rubs me the wrong way.

Whew, but thankfully, I don’t see any signs from Hori that they’llbecome endgame. (And it’s why most fan content of them slides past like water off a duck for me.) Truthfully and honestly,I really want Hori to step up Uraraka’s game, to make her a fully fleshed out characterand therefore, a viable contender in either of the boys’ hearts. Because atthe rate she’s going…she’s falling behind to the wayside compared to how Hori’sdeveloping Deku and Kacchan’srelationship. And she’ll have a tough time displacing the lifelong feelingsDeku has had for Kacchan, unless she does something drastic. (Ayyyy so where’sthat one traitor theory~)

Honestly, using Uraraka (or any girl actually) as shipfodder for the boys, just because of her gender, is something I’m not a fan of.I would rather be a fan of Uraraka based on the merits of her own character,and not from her designation as a satellite love interest to anyone. But IF Urarakahad to end up with anyone endgame, I would muchprefer her with either Iida or Tsuyu. Both of them are loyal and good friendswho would treat her with respect and provide needs in the way she deserves.

Alright! I think that covers everything. This actually got alot longer than anticipated. XD Thanks for reading!

[veryotl]

I'm intrigued by Wonwoo's relationship with the members, and where exactly he fits in. He doesn't have any other idol friends, and tbh that kind of worries me, the poor awkward bean.

Wonwoo is an interesting bean. In my experience writing with him, he’s always been a fun one to try and pin down. Since he’s more introverted, his role in the group is a much more subtle one. However, that ends up playing to his advantage more often than not. If I had to pin down a role musically for Wonwoo, it would be the impact hitter. When you want a bridge that sends chills down your spine, you get Wonwoo. When you want a rap verse that completely changes up the song, you get Wonwoo. His interesting, deep voice is a contrast to all the other members in the group, and I think his role in the group dynamic is similar. He’s a very good foil, he provides a very good contrast to members such as Hoshi and Mingyu. You can see this demonstrated in his individual relationships, how he interacts with each member and who he’s closest with. So I’ve decided to lay this post out like I did for the “Woozi’s relationships” post, going through each of his individual dynamics. So hopefully you enjoy this quick look through Wonwoo and his place in the group and his mindsets with his friendships!

Wonwoo+S.Coups 

For two people in the same unit, there’s not even that many interactions between the two members to analyze. I think the two of them have a pretty chill dynamic, where Coups pretty much gives Wonwoo the space to do his own thing without bothering him too much, and when Wonwoo is feeling playful he’ll open up to Coups because he doesn’t feel like Coups is too excitable or overbearing and easy to handle. It’s a very amicable, sweet dynamic, really. Coups respects Wonwoo’s boundaries and Wonwoo sometimes feels safe and happy enough to open up to playing around with Coups.

Wonwoo+Jeonghan

I discussed a few of Wonwoo’s relationships with members in this post about members who are awkward with one another, but the main one I want to bring up is Wonwoo and Jeonghan. In summary, if you’re not interested in reading that post, Wonwoo and Jeonghan very often point each other out as the member they’re most awkward with and this is likely because they both express affection through receiving and giving attention, however Wonwoo prefers the attention to be individual and to and from those who he really cares about and Jeonghan is very open about giving it and will sometimes try hard to get it from others, making Wonwoo seem too closed off to Jeonghan and Jeonghan too clingy and overbearing to Wonwoo. Despite this disconnect, when they make an effort to see things through one another’s eyes, they understand one another better than they think they do. It’s just a matter of being able to listen to what the other is saying, and it’s really a cute relationship that you can really cheer for them to become closer.

Wonwoo+Joshua

Similarly to Coups, there’s not a whole lot of content on Joshua and Wonwoo interactions, however it’s my belief that Joshua’s quiet but humorous nature causes Wonwoo to be a little more comfortable and drawn out of his shell. Generally, their interactions would be in the background whispering to each other, glancing at each other, making small jokes, or if Wonwoo’s feeling particularly comfortable, Wonwoo poking at Joshua’s arm or pretending to bite him. Again, it’s not a very strong dynamic, but it is a very friendly and relaxed dynamic that makes Wonwoo comfortable.

Wonwoo+Jun

Wonhui is actually an established ship with a dynamic that is noticeable, so there’s quite a bit more content to elaborate on here. Wonwoo and Jun’s friendship stems from their similarities, but also their slight differences that balance each other out in their similarities. They’re both generally quiet people who become excitable when they’re around people they feel comfortable with, however Jun enjoys making his friends laugh and Wonwoo enjoys surrounding himself with people who can make him laugh. I’ve said this before, but a lot of Wonhui moments are very mundane, things like Jun asking Wonwoo’s opinion on ramen or Wonwoo attempting Chinese and Jun telling him that he’s working hard and getting better, but I think there’s a real charm and real feeling to those interactions. Their friendship becomes clearer when they’re not just close when entertainment value is high, they’re close in boring every day aspects as well. As well as this, there’s also a recurring theme in a lot of Wonwoo’s friendships that his friends are people who you generally think wouldn’t be his friends, people who seem hyper and excitable and too loud for him. Wonwoo’s friend circle is very balanced with people who play foil to him; who contrast him in a way that brings out the best parts of him, and I think Jun is no exception.

Wonwoo+Hoshi

I think Soonwoo is a ship that not a whole lot of people saw coming. It flew under the radar pretty well up until about Boom Boom era, and it just grew and grew until culminating in the events of One Fine Day Japan when they had a cute playful rivalry running for almost the entirety of the show with the catchphrase “enemies who have good chemistry like friends”. And they do have good chemistry. Hoshi has a very iconic personality that Wonwoo enjoys being able to make fun of him for and Hoshi enjoys being able to make fun of Wonwoo too, usually to the swift punishment from him. In general, their relationship is like this. They’re very close, but they’re close on a level where they understand when they’re each only teasing and not trying to be mean, which opens up a whole new level of jokes and a fun dynamic of constantly poking fun at the other. Here’s some examples of Soonwoo chemistry.  Also, another subject I haven’t touched on yet is the fact that two prominent friendships of Wonwoo’s are in the same age line as him, born the same year. I tend to emphasize this sort of thing when I notice it, because Korean culture really puts a lot of emphasis on formality in age difference. It’s a very natural thing to be closer to those who are a similar age to you due to the cultural importance placed on proper speech and actions around older people, and while it’s not everything, it does factor into potential friendships, especially for someone like Wonwoo who might have a hard time approaching others to begin with.

Wonwoo+Woozi

This is another ship without a lot of content, and since it involves two members who both aren’t known for being the first to approach other members to break the ice. It’s not a bad thing, though, they don’t seem to dislike each other. Maybe in the future, there’ll be some more interactions with them! 

Wonwoo+DK 

Right off the bat, this pair has my most favorite gif in the history of ever

From what I can tell, they have a dynamic similar to Joshua’s. DK is sweet and outgoing enough to make Wonwoo come out of his shell a little, but most of their interactions are lowkey and in the background. Although the difference I would note is that they take more selfies together. Possibly, they hang out together much more on a casual basis, or possibly they just match each other well aesthetically. I think the takeaway is this: Wonwoo prefers not to draw too much attention to his relationships, and isn’t as outright about it as some others might be. This’ll be brought back up in talking about Meanie, but if it helps make you less worried about him, he seems to have a lot of members who he’s at least comfortable being around, he just prefers to be quiet and not as out front about it. So maybe he has some idol friends that he prefers to keep in touch with quietly, without drawing attention to them.

Wonwoo+Mingyu

Oh. I guess this is the next one up... That last part feels a bit anticlimatic since we’re getting right into it. I don’t think there’s very many Seventeen fans who don’t know the Meanie ship, especially early era/debut era fans. It was a very popular ship, rivaled in size by Jihan and Soonseok, however recently from Mansae era forward it’s begun to fall out of the light a bit. Why? Well, as I mentioned before, it seems that Wonwoo likes to keep a lot of his relationships away from the spotlight, and I’m thinking Meanie got a little too much attention and it started to scare him away a little. I think friendships don’t come naturally to Wonwoo, as he’s a bit more introverted, and while he does try hard, he’s also a little scared of messing up, and the pressure of thousands of people constantly watching you hanging out with your best friend might sap the ease out of letting loose and having a good time. However, as he acclimates and adjusts to the environment, he seems to be getting a little more comfortable and he starts to be able to enjoy himself again. Wonwoo and Mingyu are like peanut butter and jelly, cliched as the comparison may be. They’re almost polar opposites, and they work so well together that their friendship comes off as very comfortable and natural. Mingyu makes him laugh and naturally accepts Wonwoo’s quiet attention without pushing him into bigger things. Wonwoo encourages Mingyu to slow down and Mingyu encourages Wonwoo to work hard and come out of his shell. All considered, Meanie is the most infamous of the Wonwoo friendships, and they work well together, and hopefully they continue moving past the awkwardness.

Wonwoo+The8 

It’s seemed to me that Wonwoo and The8 are kindred spirits in the group. Their circle of friends are almost exactly the same, their personalities bear some resemblance at a base level as well. On a broad sense of their dynamic, I would say it’s a slight reverse dynamic because I think The8 would find Wonwoo a little cute and charming. Since he’s used to hanging out with loud people such as Jun and Mingyu, someone like Wonwoo who is quiet but also likes to laugh would be a nice change of pace for him, and the same would go for Wonwoo. While it would be a bit awkward at first, their paths do overlap due to their similar friend circles and I think they ended up naturally becoming pretty good, casual friends. 

Wonwoo+Vernon

I actually really love the dynamic of Wonwoo and Vernon. They start off a lot like S. Coups and Wonwoo, they’re in the same unit but there’s nothing to really compel them to hang out, but there’s one key difference: Vernon is younger than Wonwoo. S.coups and Vernon get most of the attention in Hip hop unit, and S.coups is older so he can’t really do much about it, but it would be really easy for Wonwoo for harbor animosity towards Vernon. Wonwoo has a really unique rapping tone and some really great lyrics, but he seems to be outshone by Vernon in a lot of cases and he could’ve been bitter over it. However, their dynamic ended up a lot more friendly like a big brother who cares for his younger brother. He hypes him up during his solo parts, he bounces around onstage and dances with him, and will even throw an arm around him. His attitude towards Vernon seems to be a lot more encouraging and lighthearted instead of bitter, and that’s really sweet and awesome and great to see. It’s one of the things that makes Hip hop unit such a pleasure to watch, the support they have for one another even when it could’ve been the opposite.

Wonwoo+Seungkwan

More than anything else, I think Wonwoo’s relationship to Seungkwan is one of admiration. While it seems he’s not always a fan of the spotlight, I think he can appreciate when he notices how Seungkwan keeps control of situations and is able to make everything sound so exciting and fun. Wonwoo isn’t the first person who comes to mind when I think of “overflowing love for his dongsaengs”, but when it comes to Seungkwan he really seems to just melt for him. Lots of laughing and smiling, lots of relaxing out of his shell, and even more skinship than usual for Wonwoo. It’s really sweet to see how much Wonwoo takes care of Seungkwan and watches out for him, and their dynamic is unlike any of Wonwoo’s other relationships.

Wonwoo+Dino

Although, that being said, Wonwoo and Dino are also close in a similar fashion. However, as opposed to Wonwoo thinking Seungkwan is cool, I think Wonwoo wants Dino to look up to him. Dino looks up to a lot of members, like Hoshi and Vernon and even Woozi, and I think Wonwoo tries his hardest around Dino to be someone he can look up to as well. Dino has a lot of potential, and I think Wonwoo sees that and (here’s where there’s a bit of similarity between him and Jeonghan appears) he wants to be someone who helps Dino reach his potential in the future. They aren’t terribly awkward around each other, I think Dino realizes Wonwoo’s intent and pays attention to him, and this leads to a nice cute friendship between the two of them. I hope in the future Dino starts to take his lyrics to Wonwoo and Wonwoo’s able to help him and they get even closer

So, in conclusion, Wonwoo really is hard to pin down in his relationships and he’s very interesting to explore. A lot of his relationships, we just don’t know much about because he’s a more background kind of person, and some it seems it’s hard for him to become closer with because he’s not a proactive initiator type of person. However, as he gets more comfortable being in the spotlight, both in his personal relationships and in his relationships with the fans, we’ve seen him break out and grow and hopefully soon we can see him start to make friends with other idols and really find where he belongs in the industry, as well as pursuing some of his other passions such as OST singing and such~

[saythename17scenarios]

hi! can i request a street performer! au for seventeen like what they do and how they catch your attention and start talking to you and stuff and yeah whatever you want lol

S.Coups- interactive performance- takes requests from the crowd to “make them part of the performance too”- does anything from juggling, to 50 push-ups, to song covers and pretty much any doable suggestion- every day, you pass by the same district to see the same handsome boy doing the most random things- you didn’t pay attention at first but one day, you were like “i’ll go check it out, why not”- you manage to find a spot up front, and almost instantly….. you have eye contact with the boy- and almost instantly, he gets this grin on his face- he starts getting requests from the crowd, and sometimes it feels like he’s looking in your direction but you always think no….. it can’t be- you come by often to watch him perform, and you’re pretty sure everyone around you has requested something at least once, while you never did- one day, after his performance, he walks up to you and he laughs “hey!! no requests from you yet??”- you say “me??? oh no i can’t think of any for now”- and he says “how about we switch things around then? if i requested something from you?”- you ask “what do you have in mind?”- he grins “can i have your name? and maybe get a coffee with you later?”

Jeonghan- singing covers- you’re going around the city taking pictures with your new camera to test it out- your pictures are mostly of the sky and the busy streets, but you soon lose interest because you need more excitement, right??- you walk further into the city while looking through the pictures you took when you hear beautiful singing…..- you follow the singing to see this boy—no. this MODEL, this ANGEL singing into a microphone- he’s so beautiful….. you hold your camera up and take a picture of him- but then your camera flashes…. and you want to sink into the ground and DIE when everyone turns to you because HOW COULD YOU FORGET TO TURN FLASH OFF- when his performance ends, the boy gets a round of applause and you try to sneak off because the embarrassment still haunts you- but the boy blocks your path and says “so…. you’re the one who took my picture, aren’t you?” and you try to act dumb and say “me?? no what are you saying aaaaahahah”- he chuckles and says “next time…. don’t forget to turn flash off.”- you get super flustered and while he’s walking away, you say “hey!! you….!”- he turns to you and grins “it’s jeonghan. try to take a picture from over there next time—that’s my best angle.”

Joshua- acoustic covers- you’re walking around downtown lost because you went out the wrong exit, but while trying to find your way….. you suddenly hear this beautiful voice- you follow the voice to see a boy singing an acoustic version of a pop song while playing the guitar and you find yourself just standing there listening to him sing- a bunch of people pass by without looking in his direction, or some stay for a few seconds before leaving, but you stay there the entire time- when he finishes his song, you clap for him and he looks up to smile at you- you approach him and say “wow you sing so well, and you play the guitar so well too!!!”- while packing up his guitar, he says “thanks!! i’m glad you stopped by to listen. so….. which way are you going??”- you smile sheepishly and say “i…. don’t really know. i’m trying to find the train station but….”- he says “oh i’m headed there too!! we can walk there together….. if that’s okay with you??”- you say “i’m good with that. i’m (name), by the way”- he says “joshua. nice to meet you!!”- while walking in the direction of the station, you say “so that song you were singing…. you listen to them too?”

Jun- magician- you’re sitting on the bench, on your phone searching up the directions to get to your location to meet up with your friend when you hear a crowd of people clapping- you look up and in the distance, you see a little crowd all huddled together watching what looks like a street performance and cheering for “jun”- you walk over to see a handsome boy doing a bunch of magic tricks- they’re small things like card tricks and disappearing objects, but you can’t help but clap and grin after each trick- plus the magician’s really handsome too….- near the end of his performance, he walks over to you with a hat, and pulls a bouquet of flowers out of it and hands it to you- you look at him in confusion and he just grins “pretty flowers for a pretty person”- you’re like how cheesy LOL but you accept the flowers with a laugh- you hug the bouquet tightly in your arms for the rest of the afternoon, and when your friend asks about them, you say “let’s just say i met an interesting person”- the next day, you come back to see jun in the same place….. and he makes sure he puts on a great performance that day

Hoshi- comedy skits- you’re having a pretty bad day and you honestly just want to go home and die in your room- while walking towards your house, you suddenly hear a bunch of people laughing loudly near where you are- you turn to see a group of people watching a boy doing a bunch of body gags and you’re like what’s happening???- you decide to stop by for a quick second to see what’s going on, and…. that’s when you find yourself DYING of laughter because this boy’s so FUNNY (and he’s cute too!!)- he re-enacts a bunch of scenes that happened in his childhood or even events that happened days earlier- you find yourself forgetting all about your bad day, and whenever you’re feeling down, you come by to watch the boy’s performances- he eventually notices, and one day, after his skit, he walks up to you and says “hey!! did you enjoy the show??”- you nod “i always do!! you make me smile on my saddest days”- he then says “i’ve seen you frown sometimes you know….. you shouldn’t. you’re really cute when you smile.”- you feel your cheeks heat up, and the boy just says “i’ll see you around. keep smiling!!” and for the rest of your shift…… you just can’t wipe the smile off your face

Wonwoo- chalk art- everyone knows about the chalk artist named wonwoo who draws beautiful things on the streets- his art is so beautiful, so genuine…… they really capture things happening in people’s daily lives- you love his art, you always feel happy whenever you see them on your way to work- that same day, your shift ends later than usual and you’re so tired and to make things worse it’s raining and you didn’t bring your umbrella- so you take your hoodie off and hold it over your head while walking back home…… when you see wonwoo packing up his art supplies- his beautiful masterpiece from earlier is completely washed away by the rain…..- wonwoo’s getting drenched by the rain and when he sneezes, you walk up to him and hold your hoodie over both of your heads- when he looks up, you say “hey! uhh i hope i’m not being too weird or anything but it’s raining and….. you’re going to get sick”- wonwoo smiles upon hearing your words and he says “thank you…. that’s thoughtful of you”- he gets up on his feet after packing up all his supplies and he TOWERS over you, and that’s when he says “i’ll hold the hoodie you if you hold my chalk?? they’re not heavy at all, don’t worry”- you agree to it, and you walk him to the bus stop with your now soaking wet hoodie- he says “thank you for all this…..” and you say “it’s no problem!! you work hard to draw for people…. you don’t deserve to get sick you know….”- you say good night to each other and you think it’s sad because he might forget about all this by tomorrow- but when you pass by wonwoo’s usual spot….. you smile when you see a drawing of two people shielding themselves from the rain with a hoodie, surrounded by puddles of rainbow

Woozi- instrumental covers- there’s this boy who always plays instrumental covers of songs in the shopping district- he’s able to play so many instruments….. sometimes he plays the piano, other days the guitar, drums, clarinet, etc- he’s so talented and you really love his song arrangements because they always sound so lovely and calming- a piano’s been placed on the street one day, and you see the boy walk up to it- you decide to stop for a while to listen to what song he’s going to play next and when his fingers come in contact with the piano….. you fall in love- you’ve never heard of the song before but it’s so beautiful??? and you’re not the only one who thinks so, since a crowd quickly forms- when the boy finishes his song, everyone claps but you’re just left standing in absolute awe- you approach the boy when the crowd leaves, and you ask “hi!! i just wanted to know what song you were playing?? i don’t think i’ve heard it before, but i love it”- he looks at you in surprise before looking away and saying “….i made it.”- you say “what??? you made that song????” and he says “yes….”- you exclaim “that’s amazing, you’re so talented!! i’m really looking forward to your next song”- he thanks you and unknown to you….. you really helped him with his confidence and he wonders…… if he’ll be able to write a new piece on pretty you….

DK- stand-up comedy- it’s dark and cloudy outside…. and you can’t help but think it matches with how you’re feeling- you didn’t exactly have the most pleasant day at work….. and you just need something to cheer you up- you tried calling your friends, but they were all busy so you’re like ok i’m just going to have to make myself happy again- while walking down the street, this guy bumps into you and accidentally makes you fall over- you’re like great can this day get any worse….. but then you look up to see this boy looking down at you with a worried expression on his face- he accidentally screams “AH ARE YOU OKAY?? ARE YOU HURT?? I’M SO SORRY I DIDN’T SEE YOU” and you get embarrassed by the attention and also accidentally scream “I’M FINE!!! DON’T WORRY”- he helps you get back up on your feet, but then he says “i’m kind of in a hurry!! sorry!!” and he runs off without another second to lose- ….but literally ten seconds later, he comes back and says “you know what?? come along with me!!” and you say “UM NO?? what makes you think i’d trust a stranger—”- he says “i’m not a creep i promise!! you can leave if it gets too weird for you!!” and you sigh like ok fine why not- you end up following him and it’s at the park that’s right around the corner- you ask “what’s this??” and he grins “you’ll see”- and when a crowd forms around you two…. you find out that he does stand-up comedy???- he introduces himself as dk to the crowd and he must be popular because you soon find yourself next to almost forty people- dk’s so funny….. you laugh the whole time and you even feel sad at the end of his performance- when you go up to him, you say “you’re so funny omg i’m so glad i decided to follow you”- and he says “yeah? i’m glad i was able to make you smile”

Mingyu- costumes- you know when you’re walking around the city and there’s a group of people going around wearing costumes so that people can take pictures with them??- well this particular mascot is reaaally popular and you have no idea why, so you decide why not figure this out while i’m here- his name is apparently mingyu (he accidentally said his real name instead of the character he was dressed as which is bong bong)- so you’re out to hunt him down and figure out why he’s so loved by everyone in comparison to the other mascots like hello guys um kakao talk friends are super cute what are you doing- you finally see the familiar mascot in the distance and while marching over to him, he suddenly takes his mask off and you…. stop walking because holy. crap.- he’s GORGEOUS now you understand why he’s always surrounded by people- you kind of just….. stare at him….. and his eyes suddenly land on you and you get so flustered because you just got caught staring GOOD JOB- you walk away and pretend you didn’t see anything….. but while walking around the area, you get stopped by bong bong who asks “would you like a picture??”- and you think “HE’S TEASING ME NOW” but you reply “oh no it’s fine!!”- he then takes off his mask and grins “you sure?? i’m pretty sure i caught you staring earlier….” and you’re like AAAAHH WHO ARE YOU STOP- in the end, you do end up with a picture with him…… and maybe you got his number too…..

The8- b-boy- you’re walking around the city late in the evening with a couple of friends, when one of them notices a breakdance battle going on in the distance- they drag you over to go take a look, and you see two people standing in the middle with the crowd forming a circle around them- the person in front of you leaves, letting you move forward to have a better view of the battle- immediately….. you notice the tall and thin boy watching his opponent dance- you think no way…. that boy looks too soft and cute to be doing breakdancing????- but does he surprise you because he starts off STRONG- the whole crowd is chanting “the8” while you just watch in silent awe- the8 suddenly starts doing a bunch of acrobatics like backflips, but he goes a little too far and almost kicks you- he quickly turns to you and asks “AH are you all right?? i’m so sorry!! did you get hurt??”- you laugh and shake your head “no no no i’m fine!! don’t worry about me, just focus on winning!!”- he shoots you a cute smile before heading back into the battle and KILLING IT- the8 clearly wins in the end and you find yourself cheering along with the crowd when he’s announced the winner- he walks up to you when it’s all over and your friends are like hehehe oooohhhh- he says “hey, i just wanted to make sure you’re all right???” and you laugh “i’m fine, really. you did great by the way, you dance so well”- the boy BLUSHES and says “thanks!! so…. will you be around here tomorrow again?? there’s another dance battle….. you know…..”- you turn to your friends and their eyes scream OHHH MY GOSH HE THINKS YOU’RE CUTE WE’RE COMING BACK TOMORROW OK- you turn to him again and say “i’ll be here. i’ll be looking forward to seeing you dance again”- he grins “i’ll be looking forward to seeing you again….!” his smile disappears after realizing what he said and he kind of speed walks away in embarrassment- but you just laugh because….. how could someone be so cute??

Seungkwan- variety- your shift luckily ends early that day, so you grab a quick meal at a nearby store- but on your way home, you see a huge crowd of people cheering “BOO SEUNGKWAN” over and over- you walk over to see a boy smiling and shyly covering his flustered face, thanking the crowd over and over for their support- you get interested so you stay for a while to see what he does and this boy…. is a variety STAR- he did comedy by making a skit about people reacting to tsunamis in movies, he danced to popular girl group songs, and between breaks, he even tells everyone to get take a break and get something to eat so they don’t get too hungry while watching- as a final act, seungkwan decides to sing a song….. and you were NOT expecting such a beautiful voice- you look around as everyone sways from side to side, and at the end of his performance, he bows while everyone cheers loudly while chanting his name over and over- when the crowd disappears, you’re about to start walking back home, when you hear someone’s stomach growling….. and you think you know whose it is- you turn around to see seungkwan looking around with an embarrassed look on his face- you look down at the food in the plastic bag you’re holding and you walk up to him with a friendly smile on your face- you say “hi, i um… i watched your performance just now…. you really are meant to perform variety, you know?”- seungkwan grins “you think so?? that’s so nice to hear—”- his stomach suddenly growls again and he covers his face, muttering “sorry!! that was embarrassing…..”- you hold out the food you have in your hand and say “you tell everyone to eat well and take care of themselves, but you’re not following your own words. you must be hungry…. i hope you like what i bought….”- he accepts the food and thanks you nonstop, wondering if there’s any way he can repay you- you say “it’s fine!! just be well, okay?” and you leave for home- the next day, you come back to see seungkwan….. and his face lights up when he spots you in the crowd

Vernon- freestyle rap- when you’re walking around the city and see a bunch of street performers, most of them are singers, dancers, musicians and the usual- you’ve never heard of a freestyle rapper….. until you see him- he calls himself vernon, and you know this because he always mentions it somewhere in his raps- he sets up his stereo and plays an instrumental version of a song…. and then he freestyles to the melody and he’s so amazing at it???- you’re sitting on the bench closest to where he is and you listen to his rap while pretending to play on your phone- his raps are so calming to you…… it’s weird to say because it’s not like it’s soft singing or a piano playing….. but his voice is so nice to listen to- no one really claps for him during his performances which makes ZERO sense to you because??? HELLO this boy just made the most perfect rap ever with the backtrack of like a ballad how in the frICK do you ignore this??- when you see his defeated face at the end of his song because no one cared to clap, you get up on your feet and clap as loud as you can- vernon turns to you and his eyes sparkle as he says “thank you” to you- you walk up to him and say “hey!! don’t get discouraged!! your raps are beyond amazing”- and he says “o-oh, thank you for thinking so! you’re….. really helping me feel more confident”- you say “BE confident!! you have a gift.” and vernon just smiles at you because you’re so…. kind….- and he thinks if it would be too cheesy to write a rap about you??? LOL

Dino- freestyle dancing- you’re on your lunch break from work and you see a crowd of people clapping to the beat of a song and you’re like what’s going on there??- you go on your tippy-toes and take a peek and you see….. this cute boy dancing around with a group of kids and you’re like…… my heart- he makes sure that none of the kids feel left out, and you can tell he’s truly so excited to be playing around with them- while dancing, he looks up and locks eyes with you and he gets this huge grin on his face- he pushes past the crowd, grabs your hands and says “dance with me!!”- you say “i can’t dance???” but he drags you into the circle anyway and spins around with you as you laugh- when his performance is done, the boy says “and that’s all for today!! my name is dino, or lee chan if you prefer, please don’t forget me!!”- and when slipping your extra dollar into his hat….. you make sure to drop a piece of paper with your number in there too- later that day, after your shift, you check your phone to see a text message that says “hey, it’s chan! um, will you be free again tomorrow around the same time?”

thank you for your request!!

[lindsay36ho]

David Klavins Exploring the Limits of Piano Construction

Many a pianist have heard about David Klavins, the German-Latvian piano maker. Back in 1987, he introduced the world’s largest upright piano; Model 370, which is two floors high. German musician Nils Frahm recorded an album on it, and the proceeds helped finance Klavins’ next project which was building an even bigger piano. The collaboration with Nils Frahm has since then continued and recently a completely different piano, the UNA CORDA model was created in an interaction between Frahm’s musical and sonic ideas and Klavins’ vast experiences as an instrument builder.

World’s largest piano unveiled this week!

The mighty Klavins Vertical Concert Grand brings out new sound possibilities by means of the piano in a magnified context and introduces a new dimension of dynamics and timbre to the world of pianos. It is therefor not impossible to call it an instrument entirely without compromise.

In May 2019 the latest Klavins Vertical Concert Grand, the M470i, was installed at its destination, the brand-new concert hall in the city of Ventspils, Latvia. The 470i Vertical Concert Grand piano, has strings that are 4.7 meters long. On display to the public for the first time on Friday August 2, the instrument has already created a buzz among piano enthusiasts.

On the other hand, he UNA CORDA faithfully captures the special sound signature of a custom-made contemporary piano, but with just one string per key. The instrument allows you to craft melodies for film or simply introducing fresh elements into electronic, pop, or jazz, promising a tone unlike anything audiences have ever heard before, bringing on a celestial all-over sound character.

Moreover, the UNA CORDA has an open body design, double-lowered and rib-less soundboard, a tone modulator and a stainless steel frame. It is also built without any chemicals or materials that endanger the environment.

Interview with David Klavins

Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell was very happy to have the chance to talk with David Klavins about his latest innovations.

Piano Street: You are an instrument builder and there are many brands on the market. Which philosophy have you nurtured during your years a caftsman?

David Klavins: My philosophy in piano building has been formed by the understanding that today’s pianos are essentially built by principles that were established more than 100 years ago and remain unchanged even today. The general idea of pianos are constrained by the possibilities and best understanding of those times. My approach from the onset was to rethink the piano design, to find out whether totally different solutions may be at hand that were not existing in the 19th century. Quite early in my professional career I came to the understanding that the shape of the grand piano, namely of its soundboard (which is a consequence of the grand pianos’ design) has acoustic disadvantages, as well as I reached the conclusion that the concert grand piano is too small in general, to live up to the typical sizes of concert halls of today. So I decided that I want to build pianos of my own design, strictly driven by the principle of “form follows function”.

PS: You started a collaboration with Nils Frahm already back when you built the world’s largest upright piano and it continued when you planned the creation of a Una Corda piano. Can you tell us from what base you formed your ideas together and how they developed during the process?

DK: Meeting Nils Frahm marked a significant turning point in my work. Because of his deep interest in original, new sounds, especially that of pianos, we found common ground quickly. While discussing the aspects of acoustic pianos that might be improved upon, one of these being its horrendous weight, I recalled an idea of mine that I had developed 20 years ago, to design an Una Corda piano. Nils instantly understood, as his own ideas resonated with this concept, and after we had thoroughly discussed the basic elements of the Una Corda, he commissioned me to build one. During the design- and building process we discussed step by step all kind of factors, including the visual design, and mainly thanks to his input it turned out being a piano that represents a minimalist ideal. Based on the success of the Una Corda piano, our cooperation intensified, and we took on a bigger project – building the M450 Vertical Concert Grand, which is now hosted at his studio at the Funkhaus Berlin.

PS: Can you explain how the interspersed tone modulator works in action?

DK: The tone modulator is designed the way that different type of materials can be attached to an aluminum rail by Velcro, which allows to easily switch from one material to another, or even equip the rail with a multitude of different materials for different tones / registers. In effect, these materials are placed between the piano hammers and the strings, which generates different colors of sound, depending on the characteristics of the modulation materials attached.

PS: In times of eco orientation and sustainability, the UNA CORDA is built with this in mind. Which manufacturing processes do you have to engage in in order to stay eco friendly?

DK: We had in mind to stay free of lacquer, chemical glues, and chemical paints, which was one major factor leading to the use of a stainless steel frame as the sole element to pick up the string tension and serve as the instrument’s body. Abandoning the idea of a piano case (furniture) in part also serves the eco-friendliness of the Una Corda piano, although the main reason for the “naked” design is not to suffocate the sound by putting it inside a wooden box. The soundboard of traditional pianos is typically coated by lacquer, which we substitute by natural beeswax, for protecting the soundboard wood against excessive humidity. In effect all materials used at the Una Corda piano, and during the building process, are purely organic.

PS: Some people have said that the joy and curse of the piano is the fact that we always want it to sound as other instruments. Modern instrument critics also think that the modern instrument is too homogenized and doesn’t reflect the ideas of classical and romantic composers. What will happen to instrument making in the future?

DK: My hope is to inspire other piano builders to follow suit and think of new variations of the acoustic piano, in particular regarding sound design. The fact that the Una Corda piano is received so well and highly appreciated especially by composers, is a strong indicator that users are increasingly asking for new sound characteristics of the piano. While most of the large piano manufacturing companies are, and most likely will remain, stuck to their traditional ways of piano building, I see a good chance that new, smaller companies arise, in light of the vast options that the modern technologies and materials of today are offering.

PS: We know that Mr. Frahm and his work is constantly looking for innovations. Do you have further project ideas coming up in the future?

DK: Yes, we indeed are working on developing further ideas of altering the piano sound, by design, by the materials used, and also by adding digital and electronic components to the analog acoustic concept of the piano, to offer a wider range of sound effects, for creative pianists and composers who appreciate innovation.

Read more: laughingsquid.com/tallest-concert-grand-piano native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/una-corda klavins-pianos.com

from Piano Street’s Classical Piano News https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/piano-news/david-klavins-exploring-the-limits-of-piano-construction-9961/

[iyarpage]

6 Ways Innovative Navigation Enhances UX

There are two aspects to designing navigation: How will the content be structured, and how will that structure be presented to the user. Obviously these are not separate, and structure (usually) informs presentation.

Navigation involves curation—even though the content that needs to be included may be already decided—how that content is grouped, how the groupings relate to each other, and how the user moves between them, is what makes up the navigation.

The menu, whatever form it takes, provides the signposting for the navigation. It tells the user where they are in the site and how to get to somewhere else.

John Gall

John Gall is probably best known for his book cover designs, and his site plays on this. Instead of a standard menu, we get a grid of ‘paperbacks’, each of which is a clickable thumbnail that opens information on the selected project. The thumbnail with his initials opens information on him.

If you want to use an approach like this, make sure the work being presented is of the highest quality

It is a very simple, basic design both visually and in behaviour. It has little text content beyond the very briefest information about each piece of work featured, and external and social media links. This site is all about the work; if you want opinions and explanations there are other places that have those.

And yet it does not feel cold, overly formal, or lacking in personality. The navigation, such as it is, does not feel difficult or obscure. The content is the navigation, and this gives it a nice hands-on, immersive, feel.

Sadly, it’s a little disappointing on mobile as the desktop behaviour is abandoned in favour of previous, next and index buttons at the top of the screen. Doubly disappointing, as the desktop behaviour would work perfectly well on mobile.

This stripped back style is difficult to pull off well as it is entirely dependent on the caliber of the work. If you want to use an approach like this, make sure the work being presented is of the highest quality.

Jordan Sowers

Jordan Sowers’ portfolio site is another good take on thumbnails of work as navigation. Here, the images are layered on top of each other and the user scrolls to move through the stack. Clicking on any item opens a modal with more images and some details. Scrolling through to the bottom of the pile reveals the briefest of career and contact information.

The behaviour on mobile is identical, at least as far as the user is aware, which is good to see.

As each modal also contains links to all other content modals, as well as a close button, all content feels instantly available from anywhere. The navigation is simple and clear, easy to use but different from the usual, making the site memorable. It evokes a sense of user involvement beyond simply clicking a button, by mimicking the action of flicking through a stack of physical portfolio prints.

In fact, the cleverness of the site’s design, and its polished execution, impress as much as any of the work it is showcasing.

Open Continents

Open Continents is a collection of short films from around the world, and a slowly spinning globe forms the basis of the navigation. An icon in the top left switches views between the globe navigation and a simple horizontal list of links.

The list offers the user a simpler process, but it seems lacking in confidence. Accessibility is a good reason to provide a simplified option, but there is very little difference between the two here as far as accessibility is concerned. The instruction below the globe also betrays a lack of confidence in the navigation design, or perhaps it’s a lack of confidence in the user’s intelligence.

Navigation should never be so obscure that the user cannot work it out for themselves

This is disappointing. Navigation should never be so obscure that the user cannot work it out for themselves, and in this case it isn’t; the help isn’t necessary. The animated globe looks like it’s meant to be interacted with. In the absence of a traditional menu, the user will explore the screen.

The mobile version does not use the spinning globe, just the—this time vertical—list of stories to be scrolled through and selected.

On one level, the use of a globe here might seem rather obvious, but it works well and it’s nicely done. ‘Exploring’ the globe creates a sense of connection; the lights visible on the land, and the cloud layer above the earth are lovely details that pull the user in. The effect is to feel as though you are travelling to the countries the stories are from.

Glamuzina Architects

Glamuzina Architects use the whole home page as a menu with the three main section links spread out over the screen. The projects main page lists featured projects, as text links and as large thumbnails.

Because the whole page is the menu, there is no need to resort to a hamburger menu on mobile. While there are some necessary differences in layout, the mobile experience is visually consistent with the desktop.

Overall, the experience here is good, and the menu is interesting, integrating nicely with the overall look and feel of the site. However, there are a couple of issues that detract slightly.

There is a disorganised feel to the navigation in places, and browsing through the different projects it’s easy to lose your bearings. This isn’t really a problem though, as each page has links to its parent section page, and the home page.

More problematic is that external links and some (non menu) internal links open in the current window, with no means of returning except the browser back button. At best this interrupts the flow of content, causing a disjointed experience, and at worst takes the user away from the site.

The user could tell the browser to open the link in a new tab or window, but really they shouldn’t have to.

Despite this, it’s still a good site. The use of the dot paper background and monospace type creates a stripped back, skeletal feel, allowing the work to really stand out. The navigation and menu are bold and feel modern with an open, rather than linear, narrative.

Navigating Responsibly

So far the sites featured have been for the presentation of creative work, which naturally allows, or even demands, a more creative approach. What about more corporate-style sites?

Navigating Responsibly has been created for Danish Shipping to outline what its members are doing to lessen the impact of the shipping industry on the environment. As such it involves a lot of facts and figures, which while important, can make for pretty dry content.

The site content is organised into a single page split into sections, with links to read more, or case studies. Each section can be scrolled to or accessed with the menu.

the design achieves the often elusive effect of being corporate and human at the same time

The menu takes its visual cue from Danish Shipping’s logo, which represents the morse code for DK (the ISO 2 letter code for Denmark). The opening loading animation becomes the menu, indicating that the site is now ready to be explored. By turning to text on hover, and changing color in the down state, the menu dashes are both functionally clear and visually minimal.

On mobile, a hamburger menu icon is used, but in this case it actually fits in with the overall visual style. 

This site does a really nice job of organising and presenting its content in an appealing way, with added interest from animation. Because the animation is used primarily to enhance the navigation—defining section headings and giving movement to the menu—it is purposeful, not just decorative.

The architecture has been carefully worked out and the overall feel is well organised, businesslike and clear. The menu adds a playful element, with movement reminiscent of fish swimming, while the section heading animations resemble waves. As a result, the design achieves the often elusive effect of being corporate and human at the same time.

Sagmeister & Walsh

This last is not an example of innovative navigation, but it is oddly compelling nevertheless. For the most part this site employs a fairly bog standard horizontal menu in a sticky header, with a second level menu sliding down under it on those pages where it’s required. So far so ordinary, especially as it changes to hamburger-icon-opens-to-list on mobile.

The fun/slightly weird and uncomfortable bit is on the homepage. There is a view of part of the Sagmeister & Walsh offices with what look, and work, like menu buttons added over the top. 

At least this is what it looks like if you first see this page at, say, 9:30am GMT. Look at it again at 11:30am EST and you will realise that those “buttons” are lit signs, and you are seeing real people working, live (almost). Clicking to the right changes the view to show another part of the office, with the menu painted on the front of the desks.

It’s a gimmick, it doesn’t enhance the navigation at all, but it is memorable. Sitting at your desk in front of a computer watching somebody somewhere else sitting in front of a computer sounds just weird, but I guarantee you will do it, even just for 5 minutes. The previous sites all introduce a level of user involvement, but this is on a different level entirely. You are literally watching them work.

Conclusion

Good navigation is inconspicuous, great navigation creates a memorable user experience

Navigation is integral to the UX of a site, because the curation of the navigation creates the framework for the user’s experience. Navigation should guide the user through the content in a way that is either logical or narrative, depending on the site’s purpose.

The sites examined here have all gone beyond simply ‘click here for x’, and have attempted to create an enjoyable, memorable, experience for the user. Good navigation is inconspicuous, great navigation creates a memorable user experience.

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Source p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;} .alignleft {float:left;} p.showcase {clear:both;} body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;} 6 Ways Innovative Navigation Enhances UX published first on http://ift.tt/2fA8nUr

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6 Ways Innovative Navigation Enhances UX

There are two aspects to designing navigation: How will the content be structured, and how will that structure be presented to the user. Obviously these are not separate, and structure (usually) informs presentation.

Navigation involves curation—even though the content that needs to be included may be already decided—how that content is grouped, how the groupings relate to each other, and how the user moves between them, is what makes up the navigation.

The menu, whatever form it takes, provides the signposting for the navigation. It tells the user where they are in the site and how to get to somewhere else.

John Gall

John Gall is probably best known for his book cover designs, and his site plays on this. Instead of a standard menu, we get a grid of ‘paperbacks’, each of which is a clickable thumbnail that opens information on the selected project. The thumbnail with his initials opens information on him.

If you want to use an approach like this, make sure the work being presented is of the highest quality

It is a very simple, basic design both visually and in behaviour. It has little text content beyond the very briefest information about each piece of work featured, and external and social media links. This site is all about the work; if you want opinions and explanations there are other places that have those.

And yet it does not feel cold, overly formal, or lacking in personality. The navigation, such as it is, does not feel difficult or obscure. The content is the navigation, and this gives it a nice hands-on, immersive, feel.

Sadly, it’s a little disappointing on mobile as the desktop behaviour is abandoned in favour of previous, next and index buttons at the top of the screen. Doubly disappointing, as the desktop behaviour would work perfectly well on mobile.

This stripped back style is difficult to pull off well as it is entirely dependent on the caliber of the work. If you want to use an approach like this, make sure the work being presented is of the highest quality.

Jordan Sowers

Jordan Sowers’ portfolio site is another good take on thumbnails of work as navigation. Here, the images are layered on top of each other and the user scrolls to move through the stack. Clicking on any item opens a modal with more images and some details. Scrolling through to the bottom of the pile reveals the briefest of career and contact information.

The behaviour on mobile is identical, at least as far as the user is aware, which is good to see.

As each modal also contains links to all other content modals, as well as a close button, all content feels instantly available from anywhere. The navigation is simple and clear, easy to use but different from the usual, making the site memorable. It evokes a sense of user involvement beyond simply clicking a button, by mimicking the action of flicking through a stack of physical portfolio prints.

In fact, the cleverness of the site’s design, and its polished execution, impress as much as any of the work it is showcasing.

Open Continents

Open Continents is a collection of short films from around the world, and a slowly spinning globe forms the basis of the navigation. An icon in the top left switches views between the globe navigation and a simple horizontal list of links.

The list offers the user a simpler process, but it seems lacking in confidence. Accessibility is a good reason to provide a simplified option, but there is very little difference between the two here as far as accessibility is concerned. The instruction below the globe also betrays a lack of confidence in the navigation design, or perhaps it’s a lack of confidence in the user’s intelligence.

Navigation should never be so obscure that the user cannot work it out for themselves

This is disappointing. Navigation should never be so obscure that the user cannot work it out for themselves, and in this case it isn’t; the help isn’t necessary. The animated globe looks like it’s meant to be interacted with. In the absence of a traditional menu, the user will explore the screen.

The mobile version does not use the spinning globe, just the—this time vertical—list of stories to be scrolled through and selected.

On one level, the use of a globe here might seem rather obvious, but it works well and it’s nicely done. ‘Exploring’ the globe creates a sense of connection; the lights visible on the land, and the cloud layer above the earth are lovely details that pull the user in. The effect is to feel as though you are travelling to the countries the stories are from.

Glamuzina Architects

Glamuzina Architects use the whole home page as a menu with the three main section links spread out over the screen. The projects main page lists featured projects, as text links and as large thumbnails.

Because the whole page is the menu, there is no need to resort to a hamburger menu on mobile. While there are some necessary differences in layout, the mobile experience is visually consistent with the desktop.

Overall, the experience here is good, and the menu is interesting, integrating nicely with the overall look and feel of the site. However, there are a couple of issues that detract slightly.

There is a disorganised feel to the navigation in places, and browsing through the different projects it’s easy to lose your bearings. This isn’t really a problem though, as each page has links to its parent section page, and the home page.

More problematic is that external links and some (non menu) internal links open in the current window, with no means of returning except the browser back button. At best this interrupts the flow of content, causing a disjointed experience, and at worst takes the user away from the site.

The user could tell the browser to open the link in a new tab or window, but really they shouldn’t have to.

Despite this, it’s still a good site. The use of the dot paper background and monospace type creates a stripped back, skeletal feel, allowing the work to really stand out. The navigation and menu are bold and feel modern with an open, rather than linear, narrative.

Navigating Responsibly

So far the sites featured have been for the presentation of creative work, which naturally allows, or even demands, a more creative approach. What about more corporate-style sites?

Navigating Responsibly has been created for Danish Shipping to outline what its members are doing to lessen the impact of the shipping industry on the environment. As such it involves a lot of facts and figures, which while important, can make for pretty dry content.

The site content is organised into a single page split into sections, with links to read more, or case studies. Each section can be scrolled to or accessed with the menu.

the design achieves the often elusive effect of being corporate and human at the same time

The menu takes its visual cue from Danish Shipping’s logo, which represents the morse code for DK (the ISO 2 letter code for Denmark). The opening loading animation becomes the menu, indicating that the site is now ready to be explored. By turning to text on hover, and changing color in the down state, the menu dashes are both functionally clear and visually minimal.

On mobile, a hamburger menu icon is used, but in this case it actually fits in with the overall visual style. 

This site does a really nice job of organising and presenting its content in an appealing way, with added interest from animation. Because the animation is used primarily to enhance the navigation—defining section headings and giving movement to the menu—it is purposeful, not just decorative.

The architecture has been carefully worked out and the overall feel is well organised, businesslike and clear. The menu adds a playful element, with movement reminiscent of fish swimming, while the section heading animations resemble waves. As a result, the design achieves the often elusive effect of being corporate and human at the same time.

Sagmeister & Walsh

This last is not an example of innovative navigation, but it is oddly compelling nevertheless. For the most part this site employs a fairly bog standard horizontal menu in a sticky header, with a second level menu sliding down under it on those pages where it’s required. So far so ordinary, especially as it changes to hamburger-icon-opens-to-list on mobile.

The fun/slightly weird and uncomfortable bit is on the homepage. There is a view of part of the Sagmeister & Walsh offices with what look, and work, like menu buttons added over the top. 

At least this is what it looks like if you first see this page at, say, 9:30am GMT. Look at it again at 11:30am EST and you will realise that those “buttons” are lit signs, and you are seeing real people working, live (almost). Clicking to the right changes the view to show another part of the office, with the menu painted on the front of the desks.

It’s a gimmick, it doesn’t enhance the navigation at all, but it is memorable. Sitting at your desk in front of a computer watching somebody somewhere else sitting in front of a computer sounds just weird, but I guarantee you will do it, even just for 5 minutes. The previous sites all introduce a level of user involvement, but this is on a different level entirely. You are literally watching them work.

Conclusion

Good navigation is inconspicuous, great navigation creates a memorable user experience

Navigation is integral to the UX of a site, because the curation of the navigation creates the framework for the user’s experience. Navigation should guide the user through the content in a way that is either logical or narrative, depending on the site’s purpose.

The sites examined here have all gone beyond simply ‘click here for x’, and have attempted to create an enjoyable, memorable, experience for the user. Good navigation is inconspicuous, great navigation creates a memorable user experience.

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How to Define and Create Quality Content: Tips From 35+ Experts

We’re calling it: The debate over quantity vs. quality is over.

Quality wins. But what does quality content really mean? How do marketers guarantee that they are creating something that is high quality?

We asked the experts presenting at Content Marketing World 2017 how they define and achieve quality content.

I appreciate the simplicity of the response (and the intended grammatical mistake) from Doug Kessler, co-founder of Velocity: “Quality content resonates with its audience. If it doesn’t do that, it may be smart or beautiful or funny, but it ain’t quality.”

Read on for 35 more explanations and tips to help you create quality content for your brand from experts from Google, Microsoft, REI, Monster, as well as agencies, government, and more.

Go to Google

Check the one-box answers on Google. How do you stack up when Google gives only one answer to the question? How do your competitors? Another way is to ask your customers to rank content in real life. Show them three or four pieces of content (without branding) and ask them to stack the content in terms of ability to solve their problem. Wil Reynolds, founder/CEO, Seer Interactive

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: What Are Your Customers Thinking? Search Secrets Hiding in Plain Sight

Answer 3 questions

Anything that adds value to the reader is quality content. It’s industry-focused, not trite and trivial. It increases a reader’s understanding of a topic in a way they may not have been aware of. To “guarantee” high quality content, put yourself in your reader’s place and ask these questions: Is it relevant? Is it educational? Does it add value? Chuck Hester, managing partner, T&T Creative

Know your ‘competition’

Your real competition is buyer inertia, apathy, and indifference. Quality content leverages urgent buyer concerns to break the ice of customer indifference and encourage deeper engagement – with you. Jonathan Kranz, principal, Kranz Communications

Entertain, inform, forego vanity

Quality content attracts the marketer’s target audience by being entertaining or useful. You can know if your content is up to snuff by measuring it against KPIs that demonstrate actual business value (sales, brand lift, marketing efficiency, increased leads, shorter time to conversion, etc.). But beware vanity metrics! Mere traffic or engagement in the form of likes and shares is nice but not good enough. Rebecca Lieb, author, analyst and adviser

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 101+ KPI Options – Why You Need to Pick the Best Ones

Be transparent

Quality content is honest, clear, and serves no hidden agendas. The audience is smart and will see right through content that pretends to be one thing but is actually a veiled attempt at generating transactions. Scott Berinato, senior editor, Harvard Business Review

Quality #content is honest, clear, and serves no hidden agendas, says @scottberinato. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Strike a balance

It’s about finding the right balance of providing quality content through the various mediums and touch points with prospects and customers in the right amount. Since the content should always be of high quality and relevance to the user, it’s more about finding the right moment to become successful. Yuval Dvir, head of online partnerships, Google Cloud

Get out of your own way

What my audience really cares about is what they care about, not what I care about. We have to get out of our own way and help our audience by giving them what they want. “High quality” is the information that’s most relevant to them from what they want to know and what we want to tell them. Skyler Moss, director of digital marketing, HCSS

Segment your content

If content isn’t created with a specific target audience in mind, it’s just a spray-and-pray strategy. Improve the quality of the content by segmenting the audience. Think about when and how a piece of content can be useful to a specific target group. But there is a flip side to segmented work – it takes much more time. Joakim Ditlev, content marketing specialist, Content Marketing DK

If #content isn’t created w/ a target audience in mind, it’s just a spray-and-pray strategy. @jditlev #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Be unique and easy

Quality content is useful, based on actual statistics or experience, and unique — not available anywhere else. If people need something and you make it easy for them to find it, they’ll come. Josh Bernoff, author, Groundswell and Writing Without Bullshit

Vary formats

I try always to consider not only the substance of content, but the structure of it, too. How does an audience likely want to consume content? Does an audience want to read long narratives to glean what happened at a conference? We doubted it, so our team endeavored to take a more “sound bite” approach, covering individual sessions with quotations from speakers, research highlights, practical tips, and more, rather than straight articles. In covering a tour of a revitalized neighborhood, I used precise times to move our coverage along so it would pique curiosity for our readers – what I call time-stamped reporting. Quality content employs alternative formats – bullet point format, time-stamped reporting, list format, and more – so the audience can consume content in interesting ways. Michelle Park Lazette, writer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Must-Have Checklist to Creating Valuable Content

Incorporate cultural context

Good content is relevant to your target audience. Great content also offers a level of cultural relevance. Why? Culture contains the ideas, convictions, beliefs, and implicit theories of the world we live in. Culture is what ultimately drives us and our decision-making process. Thus, letting your content speak through a filter of cultural relevance will make it a lot more likely to resonate and build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with your target audience. Frank Thomas, director of content strategy and content marketing, adidas

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Identity Matters: How Content Strategists Build Trust and Loyalty

Think short- and long-term

Quality content delivers value today as well as serves its readers for many years to come. In my experience, the content must offer utility and be able to be implemented instantly. The best way to guarantee quality is to revamp and improve existing content that is performing well. Take a winner and make it better and keep it evergreen. Adam Franklin, marketing manager, Bluewire Media

Engage your audience

Another way of saying “quality content” is “engaging content.” If content is engaging to an audience, then it has a level of quality. For example, some people don’t look at tip lists as quality, but in reality, some media like BuzzFeed and Mashable have had a lot of success with these lists because they are extremely amusing, which is quality for their readers. I use the acronym IDEA to guarantee quality. If it’s industry-leading, data-driven, educational, and amusing, it’s typically a win with an audience. John Hall, CEO, Influence & Co.

If #content is industry-leading, data-driven, educational, & amusing, it’s a win w/ an audience. @johnhall Click To Tweet

Be the only place to get it

Quality content is content your audience needs and can’t get anywhere else. It’s not “me-too” content – it’s content you’ve created in response to having a thorough understanding of the challenges your community faces each day. Ask yourself what special areas of expertise or data do you have internally to use for the benefit of our audience? That’s the type of content you should pursue, rather than clickbait “10 Things Marketers Can Learn From the Latest Social Media Meme” content. Erika Heald, consultant, Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

Position your uniqueness

Create something that isn’t an also-ran of someone else’s work. Want to cover a topic that’s already received a lot of coverage? Ask, “What can I add to this that will be relevant and interesting to my readership?” or “What outstanding questions can I offer my company’s expertise to answer?” Jeff Renoe, content strategist, Dickson

Dream bigger

I prefer to use the term “value.” You need to provide something of value to your audience and the more value you provide the better. Research what your competitors are providing and provide content more valuable. For example, imagine there were hundreds of articles related to building a persona for content marketing. Instead of creating another article, create a software program to help build personas automatically. This is what HubSpot did. Ian Cleary, founder, Razor Social

Test it

Your target audience can tell you if your content quality is crap. You need to test content with a small segment of your target audience and get their reaction first. Too many marketers are guessing instead of using secondary and first-hand research to see what will succeed. Research reduces risk. Melissa Eggleston, UX specialist and content strategist, Melissa Eggleston Multimedia

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Stop Wasting Time on the Wrong Content

Don’t stop talking

I think it starts with your audience. Talk to them – not once, but often. How are their needs changing month to month and year to year? We all think we know our audiences, but no persona is as good as actually listening to their needs. Data can show you trends, but people’s needs are often irrational and unpredictable. Ryan Knott, public relations specialist, TechSmith Corporation

Blend art and science

On the science side, the content meets the intent of a consumer, and that’s indicated and measured by engagement with the content. On the art side, the content has an aesthetic and style that meets the taste of a consumer. This is harder to measure but as important. Paolo Mottola, managing editor, REI Co-op

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Do the work for your audience

It isn’t enough to say, “this happened” or “this is going on.” High quality content synthesizes ideas and draws a conclusion, curates and brings together resources, or surprises and delights the audience. Zontee Hou, senior strategist, Convince & Convert

Create buyer personas based on real people

Metrics such as downloads or page views tell us that buyers are searching for answers, but we still don’t know if the content we delivered was thorough and compelling. Begin with clarity about the questions buyers and customers are asking throughout their journey. Personas need to be based on in-depth interviews with real people who have navigated an actual buying decision, revealing deep insight into the buyers’ struggle to understand their options and make an informed choice. Making stuff up is always going to be a hit-or-miss proposition. Adele Revella, CEO, Buyer Persona Institute

Get in your reader’s mind

Anyone crafting content must put him or herself in the reader’s shoes at all times. If you don’t know enough to get inside the reader’s head, do as much research as necessary until you are confident you understand their professional challenges, buying habits, wants, needs, and pain points. Ensure that writers and other content producers are capable of (and are) putting the audience first. Lisa Murton Beets, research director, Content Marketing Institute

Anyone crafting #content must put him or herself in the reader’s shoes at all times, says @lisabeets. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Make it 10 times better

Ideation is the key to quality content. The process involves searching for content that exists on your topic, and evaluating what’s been said, where it’s been said, how it’s been presented, and who said it. It also involves ensuring that your topic is what your audience is searching for.

We’ve been implementing long-form, high-quality content, which Moz’s Rand Fishkin calls “10x content.” It uses ideation to identify the top post on a given topic and then creating content that’s 10 times better – going deeper on a topic and enhancing it with videos, images, and graphics. We’ve been doing this on our own blog for over a year now, and have seen organic traffic to our blog increase almost 50%. Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Create Content People Actually Search For

Look at the data

Quality is really determined by our audience – prospects, customers, and agents. If they find it useful – which we can tell from the data and feedback – it may likely be quality. We aim to build on an insight and create content that is highly usable and/or inspiring to our audiences. That’s quality. John Bell, vice president enterprise digital marketing, Travelers

Make it tight

Quality content is original, maybe even counterintuitive. Quality content is detailed and covers the topic from many angles. But it’s tight. Not a word is wasted. And it’s often highly visual and easy to consume. There is no guarantee, but if you go beyond what your audience expects, you’re on the right track. Look for clues in your data. Andy Crestodina, founder, Orbit Media

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Simple Tips for Sleuthing Your Site Performance Using Google Analytics

Prove it

Attribution from reliable sources, quantifiable evidence, unique perspectives, and exclusive/unique points of view are the characteristics of quality content. Dan Curran, president, PowerPost

Get readers to act

Quality content converts. It gets more people to subscribe to your blog, generates more downloads, and creates more leads for your business. Track the results of your content – stack pieces next to each other against your metrics. You’ll see patterns emerge of the assets that lead to the most conversions, and then you can make more content like it. Heather Hurst, director of corporate marketing, Workfront

Quality #content converts, says @heatherhurst. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Be more critical

Marketers need to get stingier about what qualifies as an insight versus what’s just plain old information. An insight will register as unexpected. It will destabilize a prospect’s understanding of their world, making them rethink how they’re doing things today. Information, on the other hand, simply confirms already established or already inferable truths – what I call “true but useless” information. Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and research officer, Corporate Visions

Fulfill at least 3 parameters

I consider five parameters and aim to get at least three of them to fit. Is the content (1) original, (2) relevant (to the platform and the audience), (3) timely (in terms of current issues, topics, or events), (4) optimized (not just for the platform and audience itself but includes a call to action), and (5) snackable. Donna Moritz, visual content strategist and founder, Socially Sorted

Let readers make conclusion

Quality content is when others recognize you have something to say that relates back to something you believe in. Once this is unlocked, a whole new landscape takes shape. This is the ability to build an audience and create better customers. In the words of author Neil Gaiman, “The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.” Mark Masters, managing director, The ID Group

Meet at the intersection

Valuable content – content that drives revenue at the end of the day – is only found at the intersection of three things: relevance to your audience, consistently delivered on the same channel, and a higher quality than anyone else is creating in the marketplace today. Andrew Davis, author and CEO, Monumental Shift

Go for the heart

Quality means hitting that sweet spot in the consumer’s heart. You know the one – where someone has a flutter of “the feels” after watching or reading a piece of content and it resonates in some manner. Ben H. Rome, marketing manager, American Industrial Hygiene Association

Give them what they want

After consuming your content, readers or viewers walk away with advice, steps, or insight they can apply to a job they need to get done. Additionally, they can get through the content in a reasonable amount of time and are engaged enough to keep reading or viewing all the way through. Sherri Powers, director of marketing, TechSmith

Gut check with 2 questions

Quality can be boiled down to the answer to two questions: (1) Is your content addressing your customers’ needs? and (2) Are your customers walking away satisfied with how you’re addressing their needs? Margaret Magnarelli, managing editor for content, and senior director of marketing, Monster

Address 4 things

Quality content connects with:

Your audience – It informs, entertains, and changes a way of thinking. It connects with the brain, connects with the heart, and connects with their desires.

Your business objectives – It drives your audience through the customer journey by helping create awareness and interest, and developing quality leads that convert to sales and nurtures customers after the sale.

Your organization – It helps the sales team nurture leads. PR can tell great stories to enhance the brand. HR can use it to recruit quality employees. Customer service can use it to minimize call times and develop satisfied customers. Bring it all together by making your content strategy a cornerstone to your customer experience strategy.

Your community – It highlights the partners within your supply chain. Pull in influencers and thought leaders who resonate with your audience. Collaborate with complimentary suppliers within your industry to elevate the bigger story. Leverage internal expertise with employee advocacy. Encourage user-generated content to drive customer advocacy.

Scott Lum, senior content marketer, Microsoft

Conclusion

Jay Acunzo, creator and host of Unthinkable podcast, offers some great advice that can work with any of the tips on how to create quality content: “Try. Try really freaking hard. Try until you feel like you can’t try any harder, then go see your family or watch the game or take a walk. “Then come back to your work tomorrow, and try really freaking hard again.”

He continues, “Zoom in from the abstract ideal here and realize: If each thing you work on was slightly better than the last, others are more likely to love your content. If we just made the point constant improvement, rather than a nonexistent, final state of quality, the rest takes care of itself. There’s no clear line, no simple secret, and no guarantees. There is only hard work done with the right intent. In other words? Try.”

You can meet and learn from these experts as they present at Content Marketing World 2017 Sept. 5-8 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today and use the code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Define and Create Quality Content: Tips From 35+ Experts appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

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How to Define and Create Quality Content: Tips From 35+ Experts

We’re calling it: The debate over quantity vs. quality is over.

Quality wins. But what does quality content really mean? How do marketers guarantee that they are creating something that is high quality?

We asked the experts presenting at Content Marketing World 2017 how they define and achieve quality content.

I appreciate the simplicity of the response (and the intended grammatical mistake) from Doug Kessler, co-founder of Velocity: “Quality content resonates with its audience. If it doesn’t do that, it may be smart or beautiful or funny, but it ain’t quality.”

Read on for 35 more explanations and tips to help you create quality content for your brand from experts from Google, Microsoft, REI, Monster, as well as agencies, government, and more.

Go to Google

Check the one-box answers on Google. How do you stack up when Google gives only one answer to the question? How do your competitors? Another way is to ask your customers to rank content in real life. Show them three or four pieces of content (without branding) and ask them to stack the content in terms of ability to solve their problem. Wil Reynolds, founder/CEO, Seer Interactive

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Answer 3 questions

Anything that adds value to the reader is quality content. It’s industry-focused, not trite and trivial. It increases a reader’s understanding of a topic in a way they may not have been aware of. To “guarantee” high quality content, put yourself in your reader’s place and ask these questions: Is it relevant? Is it educational? Does it add value? Chuck Hester, managing partner, T&T Creative

Know your ‘competition’

Your real competition is buyer inertia, apathy, and indifference. Quality content leverages urgent buyer concerns to break the ice of customer indifference and encourage deeper engagement – with you. Jonathan Kranz, principal, Kranz Communications

Entertain, inform, forego vanity

Quality content attracts the marketer’s target audience by being entertaining or useful. You can know if your content is up to snuff by measuring it against KPIs that demonstrate actual business value (sales, brand lift, marketing efficiency, increased leads, shorter time to conversion, etc.). But beware vanity metrics! Mere traffic or engagement in the form of likes and shares is nice but not good enough. Rebecca Lieb, author, analyst and adviser

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Be transparent

Quality content is honest, clear, and serves no hidden agendas. The audience is smart and will see right through content that pretends to be one thing but is actually a veiled attempt at generating transactions. Scott Berinato, senior editor, Harvard Business Review

Quality #content is honest, clear, and serves no hidden agendas, says @scottberinato. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Strike a balance

It’s about finding the right balance of providing quality content through the various mediums and touch points with prospects and customers in the right amount. Since the content should always be of high quality and relevance to the user, it’s more about finding the right moment to become successful. Yuval Dvir, head of online partnerships, Google Cloud

Get out of your own way

What my audience really cares about is what they care about, not what I care about. We have to get out of our own way and help our audience by giving them what they want. “High quality” is the information that’s most relevant to them from what they want to know and what we want to tell them. Skyler Moss, director of digital marketing, HCSS

Segment your content

If content isn’t created with a specific target audience in mind, it’s just a spray-and-pray strategy. Improve the quality of the content by segmenting the audience. Think about when and how a piece of content can be useful to a specific target group. But there is a flip side to segmented work – it takes much more time. Joakim Ditlev, content marketing specialist, Content Marketing DK

If #content isn’t created w/ a target audience in mind, it’s just a spray-and-pray strategy. @jditlev #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Be unique and easy

Quality content is useful, based on actual statistics or experience, and unique — not available anywhere else. If people need something and you make it easy for them to find it, they’ll come. Josh Bernoff, author, Groundswell and Writing Without Bullshit

Vary formats

I try always to consider not only the substance of content, but the structure of it, too. How does an audience likely want to consume content? Does an audience want to read long narratives to glean what happened at a conference? We doubted it, so our team endeavored to take a more “sound bite” approach, covering individual sessions with quotations from speakers, research highlights, practical tips, and more, rather than straight articles. In covering a tour of a revitalized neighborhood, I used precise times to move our coverage along so it would pique curiosity for our readers – what I call time-stamped reporting. Quality content employs alternative formats – bullet point format, time-stamped reporting, list format, and more – so the audience can consume content in interesting ways. Michelle Park Lazette, writer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

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Incorporate cultural context

Good content is relevant to your target audience. Great content also offers a level of cultural relevance. Why? Culture contains the ideas, convictions, beliefs, and implicit theories of the world we live in. Culture is what ultimately drives us and our decision-making process. Thus, letting your content speak through a filter of cultural relevance will make it a lot more likely to resonate and build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with your target audience. Frank Thomas, director of content strategy and content marketing, adidas

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Think short- and long-term

Quality content delivers value today as well as serves its readers for many years to come. In my experience, the content must offer utility and be able to be implemented instantly. The best way to guarantee quality is to revamp and improve existing content that is performing well. Take a winner and make it better and keep it evergreen. Adam Franklin, marketing manager, Bluewire Media

Engage your audience

Another way of saying “quality content” is “engaging content.” If content is engaging to an audience, then it has a level of quality. For example, some people don’t look at tip lists as quality, but in reality, some media like BuzzFeed and Mashable have had a lot of success with these lists because they are extremely amusing, which is quality for their readers. I use the acronym IDEA to guarantee quality. If it’s industry-leading, data-driven, educational, and amusing, it’s typically a win with an audience. John Hall, CEO, Influence & Co.

If #content is industry-leading, data-driven, educational, & amusing, it’s a win w/ an audience. @johnhall Click To Tweet

Be the only place to get it

Quality content is content your audience needs and can’t get anywhere else. It’s not “me-too” content – it’s content you’ve created in response to having a thorough understanding of the challenges your community faces each day. Ask yourself what special areas of expertise or data do you have internally to use for the benefit of our audience? That’s the type of content you should pursue, rather than clickbait “10 Things Marketers Can Learn From the Latest Social Media Meme” content. Erika Heald, consultant, Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

Position your uniqueness

Create something that isn’t an also-ran of someone else’s work. Want to cover a topic that’s already received a lot of coverage? Ask, “What can I add to this that will be relevant and interesting to my readership?” or “What outstanding questions can I offer my company’s expertise to answer?” Jeff Renoe, content strategist, Dickson

Dream bigger

I prefer to use the term “value.” You need to provide something of value to your audience and the more value you provide the better. Research what your competitors are providing and provide content more valuable. For example, imagine there were hundreds of articles related to building a persona for content marketing. Instead of creating another article, create a software program to help build personas automatically. This is what HubSpot did. Ian Cleary, founder, Razor Social

Test it

Your target audience can tell you if your content quality is crap. You need to test content with a small segment of your target audience and get their reaction first. Too many marketers are guessing instead of using secondary and first-hand research to see what will succeed. Research reduces risk. Melissa Eggleston, UX specialist and content strategist, Melissa Eggleston Multimedia

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Don’t stop talking

I think it starts with your audience. Talk to them – not once, but often. How are their needs changing month to month and year to year? We all think we know our audiences, but no persona is as good as actually listening to their needs. Data can show you trends, but people’s needs are often irrational and unpredictable. Ryan Knott, public relations specialist, TechSmith Corporation

Blend art and science

On the science side, the content meets the intent of a consumer, and that’s indicated and measured by engagement with the content. On the art side, the content has an aesthetic and style that meets the taste of a consumer. This is harder to measure but as important. Paolo Mottola, managing editor, REI Co-op

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Do the work for your audience

It isn’t enough to say, “this happened” or “this is going on.” High quality content synthesizes ideas and draws a conclusion, curates and brings together resources, or surprises and delights the audience. Zontee Hou, senior strategist, Convince & Convert

Create buyer personas based on real people

Metrics such as downloads or page views tell us that buyers are searching for answers, but we still don’t know if the content we delivered was thorough and compelling. Begin with clarity about the questions buyers and customers are asking throughout their journey. Personas need to be based on in-depth interviews with real people who have navigated an actual buying decision, revealing deep insight into the buyers’ struggle to understand their options and make an informed choice. Making stuff up is always going to be a hit-or-miss proposition. Adele Revella, CEO, Buyer Persona Institute

Get in your reader’s mind

Anyone crafting content must put him or herself in the reader’s shoes at all times. If you don’t know enough to get inside the reader’s head, do as much research as necessary until you are confident you understand their professional challenges, buying habits, wants, needs, and pain points. Ensure that writers and other content producers are capable of (and are) putting the audience first. Lisa Murton Beets, research director, Content Marketing Institute

Anyone crafting #content must put him or herself in the reader’s shoes at all times, says @lisabeets. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Make it 10 times better

Ideation is the key to quality content. The process involves searching for content that exists on your topic, and evaluating what’s been said, where it’s been said, how it’s been presented, and who said it. It also involves ensuring that your topic is what your audience is searching for.

We’ve been implementing long-form, high-quality content, which Moz’s Rand Fishkin calls “10x content.” It uses ideation to identify the top post on a given topic and then creating content that’s 10 times better – going deeper on a topic and enhancing it with videos, images, and graphics. We’ve been doing this on our own blog for over a year now, and have seen organic traffic to our blog increase almost 50%. Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures

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Look at the data

Quality is really determined by our audience – prospects, customers, and agents. If they find it useful – which we can tell from the data and feedback – it may likely be quality. We aim to build on an insight and create content that is highly usable and/or inspiring to our audiences. That’s quality. John Bell, vice president enterprise digital marketing, Travelers

Make it tight

Quality content is original, maybe even counterintuitive. Quality content is detailed and covers the topic from many angles. But it’s tight. Not a word is wasted. And it’s often highly visual and easy to consume. There is no guarantee, but if you go beyond what your audience expects, you’re on the right track. Look for clues in your data. Andy Crestodina, founder, Orbit Media

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Prove it

Attribution from reliable sources, quantifiable evidence, unique perspectives, and exclusive/unique points of view are the characteristics of quality content. Dan Curran, president, PowerPost

Get readers to act

Quality content converts. It gets more people to subscribe to your blog, generates more downloads, and creates more leads for your business. Track the results of your content – stack pieces next to each other against your metrics. You’ll see patterns emerge of the assets that lead to the most conversions, and then you can make more content like it. Heather Hurst, director of corporate marketing, Workfront

Quality #content converts, says @heatherhurst. #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Be more critical

Marketers need to get stingier about what qualifies as an insight versus what’s just plain old information. An insight will register as unexpected. It will destabilize a prospect’s understanding of their world, making them rethink how they’re doing things today. Information, on the other hand, simply confirms already established or already inferable truths – what I call “true but useless” information. Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and research officer, Corporate Visions

Fulfill at least 3 parameters

I consider five parameters and aim to get at least three of them to fit. Is the content (1) original, (2) relevant (to the platform and the audience), (3) timely (in terms of current issues, topics, or events), (4) optimized (not just for the platform and audience itself but includes a call to action), and (5) snackable. Donna Moritz, visual content strategist and founder, Socially Sorted

Let readers make conclusion

Quality content is when others recognize you have something to say that relates back to something you believe in. Once this is unlocked, a whole new landscape takes shape. This is the ability to build an audience and create better customers. In the words of author Neil Gaiman, “The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.” Mark Masters, managing director, The ID Group

Meet at the intersection

Valuable content – content that drives revenue at the end of the day – is only found at the intersection of three things: relevance to your audience, consistently delivered on the same channel, and a higher quality than anyone else is creating in the marketplace today. Andrew Davis, author and CEO, Monumental Shift

Go for the heart

Quality means hitting that sweet spot in the consumer’s heart. You know the one – where someone has a flutter of “the feels” after watching or reading a piece of content and it resonates in some manner. Ben H. Rome, marketing manager, American Industrial Hygiene Association

Give them what they want

After consuming your content, readers or viewers walk away with advice, steps, or insight they can apply to a job they need to get done. Additionally, they can get through the content in a reasonable amount of time and are engaged enough to keep reading or viewing all the way through. Sherri Powers, director of marketing, TechSmith

Gut check with 2 questions

Quality can be boiled down to the answer to two questions: (1) Is your content addressing your customers’ needs? and (2) Are your customers walking away satisfied with how you’re addressing their needs? Margaret Magnarelli, managing editor for content, and senior director of marketing, Monster

Address 4 things

Quality content connects with:

Your audience – It informs, entertains, and changes a way of thinking. It connects with the brain, connects with the heart, and connects with their desires.

Your business objectives – It drives your audience through the customer journey by helping create awareness and interest, and developing quality leads that convert to sales and nurtures customers after the sale.

Your organization – It helps the sales team nurture leads. PR can tell great stories to enhance the brand. HR can use it to recruit quality employees. Customer service can use it to minimize call times and develop satisfied customers. Bring it all together by making your content strategy a cornerstone to your customer experience strategy.

Your community – It highlights the partners within your supply chain. Pull in influencers and thought leaders who resonate with your audience. Collaborate with complimentary suppliers within your industry to elevate the bigger story. Leverage internal expertise with employee advocacy. Encourage user-generated content to drive customer advocacy.

Scott Lum, senior content marketer, Microsoft

Conclusion

Jay Acunzo, creator and host of Unthinkable podcast, offers some great advice that can work with any of the tips on how to create quality content: “Try. Try really freaking hard. Try until you feel like you can’t try any harder, then go see your family or watch the game or take a walk. “Then come back to your work tomorrow, and try really freaking hard again.”

He continues, “Zoom in from the abstract ideal here and realize: If each thing you work on was slightly better than the last, others are more likely to love your content. If we just made the point constant improvement, rather than a nonexistent, final state of quality, the rest takes care of itself. There’s no clear line, no simple secret, and no guarantees. There is only hard work done with the right intent. In other words? Try.”

You can meet and learn from these experts as they present at Content Marketing World 2017 Sept. 5-8 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today and use the code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Define and Create Quality Content: Tips From 35+ Experts appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How to Define and Create Quality Content: Tips From 35+ Experts syndicated from http://ift.tt/2maPRjm

[veryotl]

sorry for the kind of dumb question (there isn't much about it on the interweb and i'm not sure if you've answered it before) but do you think there's any underrated ships in svt or just members who are still awkward around each other? i mean i would totally buy the fact that they're all very close but idk groups that are genuinely close on screen and off screen are largely what ends up making me stan them. thank you!

Seventeen are really pretty close, which always surprises me, but most people don’t count for the sheer amount of ships. Most people don’t realize that there are a dozen ships that don’t work well. There’s like… Excuse my sad math skills… Something like 78 possible ships of two people in Seventeen. Some match together naturally, such as same age pairs like SoonHoon or Jihan, or friends like Meanie couple. But do you ever hear anything about… I don’t know… Seungkwan and The8? For simplicity sake, I’ll go over a few ships that do interact a fair bit but I still find a little awkward. After that I’ll do one or two unappreciated ships. 

DK + S.Coups (I am told this is SeokCheol) - Seungcheol literally gets along with everyone. He’s a fantastic leader. But DK has the type of personality that can be a little difficult without a balancing piece such as Hoshi. His playfulness can be a little over the top and his jokes can be a little hard to understand, but I think Seungcheol ultimately tries really hard to have a good relationship with him. This couple is best when they’re playing, but Seungcheol is still doing most of the directing, like in One Fine Day when they were playing Real Man. 

Jeonghan + Wonwoo (Wonhan… I think) - This one is actually based less on my opinion and more on what they say. Very often, Jeonghan points out Wonwoo as the member he’s most awkward with and vice versa, however they’re actually a really cute ship if you look at it. They both have the tendency to be clingy and love the concept of both getting and receiving attention, although Jeonghan will go out of his way to try and get it and he’s very open in giving it and Wonwoo mostly only likes attention when it comes from someone he’s close to and only gives it away when he really enjoys the person as well. It’s possible the similarities cause a slight disconnect between the two, making Wonwoo seem closed off to Jeonghan and Jeonghan too open and frivolous to Wonwoo, but at the end of the day they both speak a similar language so it’s easy for them to agree on things if they take the time to listen to the other, making them a cute back and forth ship to follow.

Joshua - Honestly, I couldn’t really find one for Joshua… He’s a little shy, but less in the way that he’s quiet and introverted and more in the way that he has a set group of people he generally interacts with. He’ll interact a lot with Jeonghan and Scoups and Vernon and a little with Jun and Hoshi, but for the most part. he doesn’t interact with people outside his usual circle enough to consider it a really strong ship? Well, there’s one, but i’m saving that for the unappreciated ships section.

Jun + Hoshi (Soon…Hui. Soonhui?) - The other end of the spectrum from Soonhoon, who get along well naturally because they’re a similar age and are able to speak freely, are Jun and Hoshi. They get along well and work together well, however unlike most of Hoshi’s close friendships, Jun doesn’t really play off of Hoshi’s gags. They’re still a ship in their own right and they work well together, but Jun’s quiet but freespirited personality who prefers more personal teasing such as the way he plays with The8 conflicts sometimes with Hoshi’s general playfulness and occasional seriousness about work and responsibility. This ship I think are very much like brothers or coworkers who aren’t best friends but will still up for a drink whenever. 

Jeonghan + Woozi (Ji…Jeong… Ah… HoonHan?) - One of the things that makes Jeonghan’s ships interesting is either because he enjoys to give and take attention (as in Jihan) or he’s very caring and treats each member like his little child (Jeonghan and Dino). However, with Woozi, he really doesn’t have much of either. As his unit leader, Woozi is in a position higher than him, but still younger. This can cause a little conflict, but in general Jeonghan is a very laid back personality and doesn’t make it an issue. Some things Jeonghan does can annoy Woozi too, but in general the two have a very amicable and sometimes even close relationship. It can sometimes be awkward though.

Mingyu + Wonwoo (Meanie) - Whaaaat? Meanie couple are still awkward with each other? Well, one of the first things I wrote up a long time ago was why Jicheol was awkward with each other, and that was because of their adjustment to debut and the new roles they played. I think Meanie went through and is still a little in the process of something similar. They’re very close and a very great ship, but instead of offscreen being awkward with each other I think they’re more awkward on screen, adjusting to the amount of attention and interest their friendship garners. Joshua and Jeonghan naturally acclimated very easily to the Jihan craze, but for Mingyu and Wonwoo it’s not so easy. Their friendship is very natural to them, and when it’s strained, Mingyu might put too much pressure on himself and Wonwoo might pull away completely. However, they’re working through the awkwardness well, and starting to become closer because of it.

The8 - Like Joshua, I really can’t find a ship for him that is very awkward? He doesn’t move outside of his friend group much (Mingyu, Jun, Vernon) but when he does most of his interactions (like Seungkwan) are very friendly and nice. Everyone in the group adores him. Yes, he’s a savage. But an adorable, lovable savage. Plus, the language gap makes it a little hard to discern understanding vs awkwardness as well.

Seungkwan + DK (Seokkwan is all I’m finding. Otherwise main vocal line) - This is another ship that’s kind of big but I still find awkward. Seungkwan and Hoshi get along well, and Hoshi and DK of course make Soonseok, but when you remove Hoshi from the equation, you’re left with DK and Seungkwan alone. While they play together well, I think there’s an amount of awkwardness that comes naturally from the positions of both being main vocals, as well as the fact that Seungkwan and DK are both of similar interests and personalities but Seungkwan is appreciated as talented and charismatic while DK is very often awkward and unappreciated. However, I also find that a lot of this awkwardness is relieved by the fact that they’re also similar in their heart - kind and considerate, and Seungkwan worries about wether compliments to himself will hurt DK, but DK still works to say that he’s the one who needs to improve and won’t take it out on Seungkwan. While they can both be awkward and a little dangerous to get along, they work through it by just being there for one another and being considerate.

Vernon + Wonwoo (I’m told Wonsol. I like Wonnon much better, it makes me giggle) - This one is a bit interesting to explore, especially since I love the family dynamic of Hip Hop unit. While I really do find Hip Hop unit to be close, I think Vernon and Wonwoo are probably the most awkward pair in the unit, like an older brother who appreciates and supports his little brother but doesn’t exactly know how to interact with him to become closer. Vernon’s and Wonwoo’s senses of humor are both offbeat, but slightly out of step with one another, so it’s not easy for them to find a situation where they click naturally, and while Wonwoo admires Vernon and finds him an interesting person, I think Wonwoo might have a hard time approaching Vernon so he just mostly supports from the background. It’s very cute though. 

Dino + S.Coups (Chancheol?) - Interestingly enough, this ship isn’t terribly popular. Much like Vernon and Wonwoo, Dino and S. Coups should have this brotherly sort of dynamic, but instead it’s a reverse dynamic that makes it interesting, where Dino ends up being the serious one and Seungcheol ends up playful and wanting attention as if he’s the younger brother. Because of Dino’s manner and respect, he’s always very serious to Seungcheol and respectful, but Seungcheol wants to get on his level and so tries to be fun and playful. The dynamic is adorable, if a little awkward some times.

AND NOW, A SHORT JOURNEY INTO UNAPPRECIATED SHIPS

Jun/Wonwoo (Wonhui) - I wrote a little about it here but I was injured so its a little short and not very deep

Woozi/Joshua (Someone called this JiJi once?) - I LOVE THE DYNAMIC oF THESE TWO. They’re also a little awkward but I think they’re more under-appreciated. I think Joshua looks up to Woozi for his talent and Woozi thinks Joshua is cool and interesting to be with. They’re both very cute and I love the idea of the two of them asking each other’s advice on songs.

Hoshi/Jeonghan (Soonhan, I think?) - I don’t have much to say about this ship except it’s absolutely adorable and lighthearted and fun. 

Wonwoo/Hoshi (SOONWOO) - SOONWOO FREAKIN RISE MAN SOONWOO IS THE HIP NEW SHIP 

Mingyu/Seungkwan (Seunggyu? Like the infinite guy?) - Another adorable older brother/baby brother dynamic to me. Actually, I’ve made up my mind. more on that in a moment…

Mingyu/Seungcheol (Seung…gyu… wait) - Also known as the “PLEASE DATE ME” couple for real. Mr capables. There were so many moments on One Fine Day for this couple. Back to the last one, I’ve made up my mind that Seungcheol should be the oldest brother, Mingyu should be the middle kid, and Seungkwan should be the little brother they baby and absolutely adore. Yes. This is a cute little family. Perfect. 

There we go! I hope this was what you were looking for! I tried not to leave anyone out. Props to The8 and Joshua for apparently getting along with everyone? Hey, maybe they should be stuck together for the awkward couple title.