#i had been thinking about my bb Michael a lot and decided to finally talk about hin

[mayhasopinions]

Michael in the Bathroom analysis

So i've been getting obsessed with Be More Chill lately, as you do 

I listened to a few of the songs on and off throughout the years, mainly Guy that i'd kinda be into and Michael in the Bathroom, and MITB is my FAVORITE song in any musical so i'm just gonna infodump about why that is here bc this is Tumblr and why tf not :DD (tw: suicide mention, depictions of panic attacks)

So before this song, Michael is presented as a guy that doesn't give a shit. He's not popular, he only has Jeremy as his only real friend, but it's shown that he doesn't care about other people's opinions of him, he LIKES who he is. He's a catalyst for Jeremy's character, who always cares about what others think and wants to be liked, and is insecure about his character, and hates himself, which is why he took the SQUIP in the first place. 

Now, Michael, in my opinion is an autistic-coded character. He stims and has tics as we see in MITB, he has special interests in videogames and comics, and he doesn't pick up social cues all the time, like in 'Two Player Game' when he doesn't realise Jeremy is going through stuff. It's shown there that Michael has a neat and straightforward idea for his future as a cool kid in college with Jeremy. But when he has that fight with Jeremy just before MITB, Michael's whole future, life and 12-year friendship with Jeremy comes crumbling down, after Jeremy called him a 'loser', a label that he used to take pride in. It's a drastic change that happens so quickly, which prompts him to have a panic attack.

With his psyce being utterly shattered, we don't see Michael in his usual positive, upbeat self, we see him as a vunerable, broken guy who had just lost his other half. As the song starts, Michael is initially angry at Jeremy, speaking roughly but managing to hold in his growing pain, as we see him have tics, push back tears ruthlessly, and cope through the door being knocked on which leads to overstimulation. But then he "looks in the mirror" and the mess he's in, and chokes on his tears. It finally comes pouring out. You can practically hear his anguish and despair. And after that, he speaks softly, but after the line "I wish i stayed at home in bed etc", he speaks roughly again, and talks about himself, not Jeremy. 

Before this, throughout the song Michael sings it as if it’s Jeremy’s fault that he no longer wants to be friends with Michael, with the lines “through no fault of mine”, “ignoring all our history” etc. But now, he turns to himself, and sings the lines “Michael who’s a loner”, “god he’s such a  loser” etc, basically turning the blame onto HIMSELF and saying ‘of course it’s your fault. Of course he would want to leave you.’ And the fact that he calls himself a loser, something that he took pride within himself, and says “I wish I’d off myself”, shows that under Michael’s upbeat and positive attitude lies a deeply troubled and insecure kid underneath, who in reality DOES care about what other people think and how he is portrayed.

That’s why Michael in the Bathroom is a masterpiece. It peels back the layers of an already established character and strips that character to their rawest and most vulnerable point, and George Salazar delivers all of those emotions masterfully.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #467

Top Ten Romantic Couples in Superhero Movies (& TV)

It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend. Woo, I guess? I dunno. I’m not generally cynical about holidays but Valentine’s Day does seem to be entirely focused on selling cards without any of the associated pleasantries of, say, Christmas or Halloween. I’d rather just try to be nice to my wife all year round. At least because of the apocalypse all the restaurants are closed so we can’t be tempted to pay through the nose for a set menu. Anyway, it gives me a strained excuse to tie this week’s Top Ten to something vaguely romantic.

Superheroes are often horny. This seems to be a defining characteristic of the artform. Whether it’s their descent from ancient myths, or their creators’ origins in writing romance books, or just a function of genre storytelling in the mid-twentieth century, there’s quite a lot of romantic angst in superhero stories. Pretty much every superhero has a significant other; Lois Lane even got her own comic that was actually called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. It’s hard to conceive of many heroes without their primary squeeze, and often – as we get multiple media adaptations of characters – we can add diversity or a twist to the proceedings by picking a lesser-known love interest, or one from earlier in the character’s fictional history; for instance, Smallville beginning with Cark Kent’s teenage crush Lana Lang, or The Amazing Spider-Man swapping out Mary Jane Watson for Gwen Stacey.

Anyway, I’m talking this week about my favourite superhero couples. I’ve decided to focus on superhero adaptations – that is, the characters from movies and films based on superhero comics or characters. I find this a little bit easier as I don’t have a phenomenal knowledge of sixty years of Avengers comics, but I have seen all the movies a bunch. As many comics as I’ve read, and as much as I love various ink-and-paper pairings, I can arguably talk more authoritatively about the fillums than the funny books. And let’s be real here, kids: my favourite comic book romantic couple is Chromedome and Rewind in Transformers. Also if I split them in two I can talk about comic couples next year. Woohoo!

It really is hard thinking of these things nearly nine years in, folks.

So! Here, then, are my favourite movie-TV Couples in Capes. Obviously there’s a fair bit of MCU in here. And I’ve been pretty specific about “superhero” romances: so no Hellboy and Liz Sherman, sadly (and I do really like them in the movies, of which they really need to make a third). Some are civvies-and-supes; some are capes-and-capes. You’ll work it out.

Superman & Lois Lane (Christopher Reeve & Margot Kidder, Superman, 1978): who else? The most famous romance in all of comics, a combo so strong it remains the focus of pretty much every interpretation of the character, but arguably never better than here; so good are Reeve and Kidder that their fast-talking banter and inherent goodness set the template for a huge swathe of other comic adaptations to follow. She���s sarky and streetwise; he’s gormless and good-hearted. She leaps in where angels fear to tread, he’s an invulnerable alien in disguise. They have buckets of chemistry and an utterly believable (tentative) romance. They’re perfect performances and the scenes of Clark in Metropolis for the first time (including Superman’s balcony interview with Lois) are the best bits of an already excellent film.

Raven & Beast Boy (Tara Strong & Greg Cipes, Teen Titans Go!, 2014): on a totally different register, we have the comedy stylings of the Teen Titans. Raven and Beast Boy had a flirtatious relationship on the original Titans series, but on this longer-running and much more demented comedy follow-up, they were allowed to make the romance more official (I nearly said “explicit” but, y’know… it’s not that). The jokes and banter – BB the love-struck, jealous suitor, Raven the too-cool partner who feigns nonchalance – build and build, but every now and again they’re allowed a moment of genuine heartfelt romance, and it hits all the more strongly amidst the ultra-violence and outrageous comedy.

Captain America & Agent Carter (Chris Evans & Hayley Atwell, Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011): the premier couple of the MCU, Steve and Peggy spend a whole movie flirting (she sees the goodness of him even before he gets all hench) before finally arranging a date that, we all know, is very much postponed. Peggy casts a shadow over the rejuvenated Cap and the MCU as a whole, founding SHIELD, inspiring dozens of heroes, and counselling Steve to her dying days. She remains Steven’s true north (like Supes with Lois, Peggy’s an ordinary human who is the actual hero of an actual super-powered hero), guiding him through the chaos and tragedy of Endgame, until they both get to live happily ever after. Even though he snogged her niece.

Batman & Catwoman (Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): Pfeiffer delivers a barnstorming performance as Selina Kyle, all barely-supressed mania and seductive feline charm. The chemistry between her and Keaton is electric, and propels the film forward even when the Penguin-runs-for-mayor stuff gets a bit daft and icky. There are beautiful moments of romantic comedy when they’re both trying to cover up injuries they gave each other, and of course there’s “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it” – a line that runs a close second to “dance with the devil” when it comes to Burton-Batman quotations (just ahead of “never rub another man’s rhubarb”). Burton, generally favouring the macabre villains over the straighter edges of the heroic Batman, nevertheless makes great play of the duality of the character, and how this is something he and Catwoman can share – both “split right down the centre” – but also how this means a happy ending for either of them is impossible.

Spider-Man & Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire & Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2002): whilst a lot of this is really down to the sexiness of them kissing upside-down in the rain, there’s a nice duality to Peter and MJ seeing through each other too: he sees the wounded humane soul beneath her it-girl persona; she sees the kind, caring man underneath his geek baggage. This arc plays out beautifully across the first two films (ending in that wonderfully accepting “Go get ‘em, tiger”) before sadly getting all murky and unsatisfying in the murky and unsatisfying third film. Still: that kiss.

Wonder Woman & Steve Trevor (Gal Gadot & Chris Pine, Wonder Woman, 2017): probably the film that hews closest to the Clark-Lois dynamic of the original Superman, to the point where it includes an homage to the alleyway-mugging scene as Diana deflects a bullet. Steve is Diana’s window into man’s world, showing her the horror of the First World War but managing to also be a sympathetic ally and never talking down or mansplaining anything. He’s a hero in his own right – very similar to another wartime Steve on this list – and very much an ideal match to the demigod he’s showing round Europe. And, of course, Gadot’s Diana is incredible, both niaive and vulnerable whilst also an absolute badass. There is an enduring warm chemistry to the pair, with a relationship which we actually see consummated – relatively rare for superheroes! The inevitability of his heroic sacrifice does nothing to lessen the tragedy, and no I’ve not seen Wonder Woman 1984 yet.

Hawkeye & Laura Barton (Jeremy Renner & Linda Cardellini, Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015): I love these guys! I love that Hawkeye has a relatively normal, stable family life. He has a big old farmhouse that he wants to remodel, he’s got two kids and a third on the way… he’s got something to live for, something to lose. It humanises him amidst the literal and figurative gods of the Avengers. And they’re cute together, bickering and bantering, and of course she is supportive of his Avenging. I hope we get to see more of Laura and the kids in the Hawkeye series, and I hope nothing bad happens to them now they’ve all been brought back to life.

Wanda Maximoff & Vision (Elizabeth Olsen & Paul Bettany, Avengers: Infinity War, 2018): theirs is a difficult relationship to parse, because they’re together so briefly. They cook paprikash together in Civil War before having a bit of a bust-up, and by Infinity War they’re an official couple, albeit on the run (and on different sides). That movie does a great job in establishing their feelings for each other in very little screentime, with their heroic characteristics on full display, before the shockingly awful tragedy of Wanda killing Vision to save the galaxy, before Thanos rewinds time, brings him back to life, and kills him again, and then wins. Their relationship going forward, in WandaVision, is even trickier, because we don’t know what’s up yet, and at times they’re clearly not acting as “themselves”, defaulting to sitcom tropes and one-liners. Will Vision survive, and if he does, will their relationship? Who can say, but at least they’ll always have Edinburgh, deep-fried kebabs and all.

Batman & Andrea Beaumont (Kevin Conroy & Dana Delany, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993): woah, Batman’s back but it’s a different Batman, say whaaaat. Animated Batman has had a few romances, from the great (Talia al-Ghul) to the disturbingly icky (Batgirl, ewwww), but his relationship with Andrea Beaumont is the best. Tweaking the Year One formula to give young Bruce a love interest that complicates his quest is a golden idea, and making her a part of the criminality and corruptiuon that he’s fighting is a suitably tragic part of the Batman origin story. Conroy and Delany give great performances, him wringing pathos out of Bruce, torn between heart and duty (“It just doesn’t hurt so bad anymore,” he wails to his parents’ grave, “I didn’t count on being happy”), her channelling golden age Hollywood glamour. The tragedy of them rekindling their relationship years later, only to wind up on different sides again, is – again – so very Batman. It’s a beautiful, earnest, very Batman relationship, a great titanic tragedy of human emotions and larger-than-life ideals. And they both look good in black.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy (Kaley Cuoco & Lake Bell, Harley Quinn, 2020): this one’s a little bit of a cheat, as I’ve only seen the first season of the show, where Harley and Ivy don’t even get together. But in the wider, non-canonical sense of these being characters who are part of the pop-cultural ether, Harley and Ivy will always be a couple, I feel; and there’s definitely enough in there already to see the affection between them, not yet consummated. They adore each other, are always there for each other, and as the season follows Harley getting out of her own way and acknowledging the abuse of her relationship with Joker – and finally getting over it in the healthiest way possible for a bleached-white manic pixie in roller derby gear. And all through this, holding her hand, is Ivy. They’re utterly made for each other, and I’m glad that they do get together in season two. I hope that Margot Robbie’s rendition of the character can likewise find happiness with a flesh-and-blood Ivy. Hell, just cast Lake Bell again. She’s great.

Just bubbling under – and I’m really gutted I couldn’t fit them in – was Spider-Man & M.J. from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Like Batman, I’m comfortable including multiple continuities here, and those cuties offer a different spin on a classic relationship.

[samdukewieland]

Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 2

New week. New movies I had never seen before. Only one was on the DVR so now it’s just like a glorified streaming guide and for that I apologize. There were three movies this week that I had seen before, but I’ve decided, because rules are important, that I won’t re-watch a movie until I watch a new one. Does this matter? No. But it has made me realize that I might be exposing my ass in the upcoming weeks, because we all lie about saying we’ve seen some movies when we actually haven’t. Not the case for this week, but it’s impending.

Sunday, March 29

Warrior, O’Conner 2011 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

As a person who doesn’t really care about MMA or UFC or boxing or bum fights or bare knuckle brawls I went in under the impression that there’d probably be some kind of barrier in my way of enjoying it, despite knowing its esteemed reputation for being man-weep canon. Any movie that opens and closes with a song by The National is fairly transparent about the type of movie its going to be, despite having an extremely yolked Tom Hardy as one of the main characters. My first cry came at a very unexpected moment, especially because Frank Grillo had a significant role in making that happen (though I will say, I had no idea Frank Grillo was in this movie and about midway through I thought “man, that guy kinda looks like Grillo, but he’s kinda small and has a fashion mullet”). However, I’m a cryer, so I don’t want to set the expectation of you will cry at this you piece of shit! but you might and it’ll come out of a good place, because this movie doesn’t trick you into crying by manipulating you into it (okay, it does at one point, but it involves Moby Dick, so again, it’s kinda unexpected). It opens with “Start A War” and ends with “About Today,” a top 5 sad boy song by The National and I’ll be damned if I didn’t listen to it once a day all last week.

Better Call Saul 

“Sunk Costs”, “Sabrosito”, “Chicanery”, “Off Brand”, “Expanses”

John Getz hive, assemble.

Monday, March 30

Working Girl, Nichols 1988 [as of now this is available on HBO]

Sometime in college, I think in a detective fiction class I took, we talked about knowing a reference to something before knowing what it’s either paying homage to or directly referencing. For example: the first time I read The Long Halloween (which is a Batman comic by Jeph Loeb) I had no idea that basically everything involving Falcone is just ripped from The Godfather, because I had never seen The Godfather at that time in my life; literally the first page of the book is “I believe in Gotham City.” Or in Django Unchained when they go to Mississippi and the title card moves across the screen just like it does in Gone With The Wind (Tarantino movies are generally just long homages and references to other things, so if you need another example, just look to really anything he’s ever worked on). There’s probably a German word for this feeling of recognition and I just don’t have the energy to look to see what it would be, but I felt it while watching Working Girl in two regards. 

The first was that I didn’t realize that School Of Rock is essentially just Working Girl and when you have a realization like this, you feel kinda dumb, because you just assume everyone figured this out before you did. The second was that Joe Swanberg has tried to model his movies after Mike Nichols ones like his life depended on it and he just can’t or rather hasn’t. Also I’m not a person who was alive in the 80s and I’m sure there’s some modern day equivalent (potentially her daughter) who I defend out of some weird sense of contrarian obligation, but what’s uh, what’s going on with Melanie Griffith and her as actor?

Better Call Saul 

“Slip”, “Fall”, “Lantern” [Season 3 finale]

BCS season 3 really stepped up to the heights of Breaking Bad and I think I might like it just a little bit better than it? I haven’t watched Breaking Bad in long time, I find it pretty difficult to re-watch (it’s very fire works factory for me) so I’m sure there are some BB highs that I just don’t remember fully, but that BCS can juggle being three different shows all at the same time and do it excellently really has me taken aback. It’s like watching the Coen Brothers jump from genre to genre and not be worried about the end result.

Tuesday, March 31

Say Anything..., Crowe 1989 [as of now this is available on Hulu]

I’m unabashedly in the can for Cameron Crowe, which is a semi-embarrassing thing to admit, but whatever. I saw Aloha in theatres and watched We Bought A Zoo when it was on FX once (in real time too, so that means with commercials-this was also the only time I’ve seen We Bought A Zoo, but I think I’d do it again); you can’t hurt me. I think I kept my distance from Say Anything... for so long, because it was one of those things that I’d be annoyed at because it’d resonate with me too much, because feeling that is kinda hacky and embarrassing, but if there’s one thing that Cameron Crowe movies put an emphasis on of importance on, it’s being sincere. And I sincerely loved it (hot, HOT take). Thanks to Russillo for recommending it on Simmons’ podcast last week.

Better Call Saul

“Smoke” [Season 4 premiere]

Wednesday, April 1

The Graduate, Nichols 1967 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

Sucks that this movie has been used by a certain type of dude who use it as a blueprint for their life and how they view relationships. Other than that, good job everyone. [I definitely thought it would be clever to watch this after watching Say Anything... because I just assumed Ben Braddock walked so Lloyd Dobbler could run-I was kinda right, whatever]

Hot Rod, Schaffer 2007

While April Fools Day means nothing to me I do try to watch a comedy on the day, because...eh, why not. Hot Rod is maybe a perfect comedy and I think I could spend hours talking about it. I don’t know how there hasn’t been some kind of programming that’s been done around The Lonely Island and their catalog, because it seems very obvious. 

Hot Rod with Digital Shorts played before and after and then Wayne’s World

MacGruber and you play MacGruber shorts before and after and then whatever grotesque 80′s action movie you’d want, maybe Commando

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with Lonely Island music videos before and after and then This Is Spinal Tap

The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience sing-a-long followed by The Lonely Island pilot and  either a collection or the entirety of I Think You Should Leave

maybe this is all a lead-up to Palm Springs, a movie I have’t seen and know very little about other than they produced it and Samberg is in it

Thursday, April 2

The In-Laws, Hiller 1979

I wrote it as my letterboxd. “review” , but this thing’s 1979 funny until they go to South America and then it is actually funny. Falk is just gangbusters.

Better Call Saul 

“Breathe”, “Something Beautiful”

Friday, April 3

You Can Count On Me, Lonergan 2000 [as of now this is available on Amazon Prime]

I say this as a very big fan of his, but! Timothée Chalamet, consider yerself on notice for borrowing heavily from the Mark Ruffalo school of acting. Also, I get it now with Laura Linney, who I’ve liked before, but thought she might kind of be overrated by some people. Also, Matthew Broderick made this after Election (and also Inspector Gadget), so quite the infidelity streak for Brody, probably not a double feature.

Better Call Saul

“Talk”, “Quite A Ride”, “Piñata”

Saturday, April 4

De Palma, Baumbach & Paltrow, 2015 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

The definitive documentaries for the directors of this friend group are basically perfect in their own ways. That this is just De Palma talking about himself and his career and movies, sometimes being incredibly critical of his own work and others. He seems pretty self-aware, probably the most of that group of directors, while still coming across as incredibly cocky. De Palma is perfect for Brian De Palma. However, if anyone wanted to make a 10 hour documentary on Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, De Palma and Lucas in this style or it’s just the 5 of them interviewing each other moderated by like Fincher or someone, man....I could really go for that. (I mean if Michael Jordan can get one, why not these guys?)

The Other Director Documentaries

Spielberg, 2017 (HBO) [Interviews and retrospectives about Spielberg’s career, with personal highlights. It’s essentially Spielberg in a nutshell: big, flashy with a lot of time on particular moments that are more important to him than they are to you]

Empire Of Dreams, 2004 (Disney+) [Ostensively this is about Star Wars, and it’s made by a company-man, it says so much about Lucas, a man who hated how institutions told him what he could do so he unintentionally created one that has copied what he hates]

Heart Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, 1991 [A truly wild ride, tells you everything you need to know about Coppola]

Italianamerican, 1974 [While a new documentary about Scorsese is probably what I covet most, he’s a pretty open book about his controversies and he’d probably enjoy talking about other people’s work more than his own-catholicism’s a helluva thing]

The Godfather Pt. I & The Godfather Pt. II, Coppola 1972 & 1974

I don’t know if I necessarily endorse watching both of these back-to-back; I guess I’m glad I did it, even if the motivation was mainly to just see if I could. Obviously these movies are important and good and are about so much more than just gangsters and thugs, but a lot of the time it just feels like eating vegetables for me. I did not grow up in a household that emphasized the importance of The Godfather so maybe that’s part of it, but I’m definitely not as dismissive of these as I used to be (though part of that could be the mental Stockholm Syndrome Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey have given me). Once I finished Pt. I, I felt like I could re-watch it; once I finished Pt. II I felt like my eyes were melting out of my head and onto my hands (this could be because I had just watched 377 minutes of a story). I will probably never do it again, unless it’s the weekend after Christmas and AMC is just going for it-at least then I’ll have intermissions every 20 or so minutes telling me to go shop at Target.

[youtubeimaginationstation]

BB Guns and Katanas and Crushes, OH MY!

Pairing: Jeremy/Reader Rating: G Word Count: 1352 Read on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11355093

It got real with the BB Gun.

It was an honest mistake really. The fans had been stocking up the office with all kinds of weaponry and you couldn’t help but be a little concerned. Being an editor meant you wouldn’t traditionally spend a lot of time in the main office, but no one really adhered to that idea. If you got your work done you were free to hang out with the Achievement Hunters as you pleased which was always fun. Well, fun until Ryan shot Gavin in the face, and the reality of how dangerous even the innocent gifts could be became real. Gavin had been furious, demanding all the BBs get removed from the office immediately. Ryan swore up and down that he would do that, and it seemed like everyone might be a little more realistic about these legitimate weapons that were piling up in every corner of the office. That lesson really didn’t stick with the guys of course, as the next day the guns still had BBs and people were still throwing spare knives at cardboard boxes. It was all entertaining, but you were starting to get antsy watching Michael and Jeremy swing katanas at each other like they were foam swords.

While you were worried for all of them the source of your anxiety was for Jeremy. He was the reason you got the job in the first place, you two had gotten close back when he was just a starry eyed community member with big dreams of being an Achievement Hunter one day. Your dreams had been smaller, albeit you still wanted to work for the crazy gaming group just doing more behind the scenes things. You two had skype called a hundred times back then, starting with just rambling about Rooster Teeth, but it had quickly turned from that to just sharing every detail of your life with him. He was definitely your best friend and had put in a good word when an editing position had opened up.

When you learn everything about someone it can lead to feelings, and you had definitely caught a serious case of the Jeremy feels. You weren’t really sure how to deal with them, so you buried them in fleeting touches and belly laughs so deep they hurt and convinced yourself that just being friends was fine too. Watching him almost get maimed repeatedly was starting to get to you though. The combination of those buried feelings with almost getting hurt was sitting like wet clay in the pit of your stomach, and you flinched as the katana got a little to close to his face when Michael swung.

Gavin was hopping around the office, camera in tow, cackling and cooing as they battled it out and carelessly knocked things off desks. When the brit would swing the camera away you would move the breakables from their path, trying to do damage control the best you could.

“Y/N! What the hell are you doing?” Jack asked from his spot on the couch and you shrugged.

“Trying to save some shit! We don’t need to break another Elite controller because these idiots care more about slicing each other open than their own shit.” You responded with a shaky grin and Gavin chuckled. Once you’d rescued the controllers you settled onto the couch as well, knees pulled up to your chest. Everything was going to be fine, or at least that’s what you kept trying to tell yourself. You were able to get your breathing under control and finally relaxed, but that was when the universe decided to fuck things up.

A rogue swipe of the sword sliced Jeremy’s arm and he jumped back, dropping his sword with a clatter. You were instantly on your feet, pushing Michael back who was apologizing profusely already, and grabbing Jeremy’s arm gently.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck dude! That stings like a motherfucker!” Jeremy groaned while you examined the cut. It wasn’t deep but it was long across his forearm and already blood was beading along the line.

“Little J, I am so sorry, lemme go get the first aid kit.” Michael said and disappeared to retrieve the kit. Jack and Gavin were hovering behind you, the camera still rolling although aimed at the ground. When Michael returned you grabbed the box and pulled Jeremy from the room to the kitchen area where there was a sink.

“Hey, you don’t have to take care of me y’know. I can take care of myself.” Jeremy mumbled as you turned the taps on and adjusted them to a lukewarm. You raised an eyebrow at him and he looked down. Without responding you thrust his arm under the stream of water and he hissed.

“This is what you get for playing with those fucking weapons. They aren’t just toys.” You muttered and pulled his arm from the water and handing him a paper towel. “Use this to pat your arm dry. I’m hoping there’s peroxide or something in here.” You were digging through the box, and Jeremy just stood there arm dripping and the paper towel just hanging in his finger tips. You fished out the peroxide with a triumphant grin only to notice that he hadn’t moved.

“Having some trouble there?” You teased and he just titled his head in response. The intensity of his stare made you a tad uncomfortable, you were just helping a friend out, nothing else to it.

“Why are you doing this?” He asked, and you took a deep breath in.

“What? A friend can’t help a friend out?” You asked, trying to ease the tension in between the two of you. Jeremy still didn’t respond so to break whatever was happening there you snatched the paper towels from him and started dabbing gently at his arm.

“Y/N.” He said softly, softer than you had ever heard him speak, but you continued your ministrations on the cut, refusing to make eye contact.

“Y/N.” Jeremy repeated, using his free hand to capture your chin and tilt your gaze towards him. Your breath caught in your throat and you gulped.

“Jeremy… Listen I just.. I care about you. A lot. You’re my… well you’re my best friend and I was already starting to get worried about the number of weapons in the office. And then when Gavin got hurt it was just so clear to me that it could easily happen again. I want you to be safe. I mean, well, I want everyone to be safe of course…” Now that you had started you couldn’t seem to stop the flow of worries tumbling from your mouth. “…but I always want you to be safe and when I saw that you got hurt I just panicked because what if it hadn’t been your arm. It could have hit an artery or your face or your neck or yo-“ Jeremy had placed the pad of his thumb over your lips to stop you, his face full of concern and something else you couldn’t quite place. You went to start talking again and he shushed you.

“I get it now. I understand. Let’s go back to the office.” He said quietly, and you felt all the energy leave your body. He understood. Of course he did, you had said to much and he didn’t feel the same. As he turned to walk back a shudder ran down your back and you let go of a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Jeremy did something unexpected though and slipped his hand into yours and squeezed it tight. Your heart jumped and you glanced over to see him smiling right at you. Before you could even ask he leaned over and pecked you on the cheek before leading you back towards the neon green office, the first aid kit abandoned on the counter. You weren’t entirely sure what had just happened, but Gavin’s whoop of excitement when he spotted your linked hands was enough for you to think that everything was going to be okay… now you just had to get rid of the katanas.

[daesungindistress]

@cupcakemintylash replied to your post: “Sorry but all I can think about is gd’s comment...”

What was it? What was he alluding to?

His dick. He was referring to the tip of Daesung’s dick. This is likely based on the idea that the color of a man’s lips matches the skin on the head of his penis. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not, so probably not the most accurate thing to say, but if the goal is to get you thinking about a guy’s dick I’d say it does the trick.

That said, I want to use this as an opportunity to share some other, hmm, related info I picked up in a quick Google search last night. Something I’ve been curious about for awhile now and finally remembered to look into: circumcision in South Korea.

For those who wish to scroll past, I’ll put it behind a cut-- I mean, a Read More. ;)

So, the big question for a clueless American like myself... The guys of BB. Cut or uncut? (Quick note: why have I been thinking about this? Because art and fic! For the sake of accuracy, just in case I ever get around to drawing these guys with a bit o’ full frontal nudity. This is where my curiosity takes me at 3 AM on a weekday...)

The answer? To my surprise, signs (studies, statistics) point to yes. Evidently, South Korea is an anomaly among other Asian nations, in that circumcision is widely-practiced there, due entirely to the presence of American troops during the Korean War. In the 1950′s Koreans began circumcising their children, and themselves. One source indicated that nearly 90% of males born in South Korea in the 1980′s are circumcised. Another source said that 75% - 85% of men in the about 30-45 age range (14-29 year olds in 2002) have gotten the snip. Other more anecdotal sources seemed to support these claims.

Right, so that answered my ~burning~ question. Done, right? Not quite. Here’s where things get really interesting.

Unlike in the US, the procedure is rarely performed on infants or newborns. Instead, boys often have it done in their adolescent (teen/preteen) years. A “rite of passage” of sorts. A mark of their impending adulthood. I read that they’ll often have the surgery during summer or winter break so as not to miss much school, if any. That’s... Wow. Definitely not something I expected to learn when I started out on this journey...

(Editing to add: apparently this practice is prevalent in the Philippines too, for similar reasons-- i.e., a boy’s first step into manhood.)

Of course, somewhere amid my wanderings I ended up at Reddit and found this comment:

In case it’s too small, it says: “my only problem with getting the snip as a teenager is that 2 tone color that results. ive seen lots of korean dicks and let me tell you its not like the washington monument 2 tone, im talking like michael jackson in the 1970s vs michael jackson in the 2000s.”

Like a little light bulb had just gone off over my head, suddenly GD’s comment made sense. In the post that started this whole thing, if I’m remembering it right, GD teased Daesung by saying “his light-colored body part is pink just like his lips.” Light-colored? Maybe I’m slow, or maybe it’s a Korean euphemism I wouldn’t know, or maybe this is just my inexperience showing (probably, yeah), but "light-colored” as a descriptor didn’t seem quite right to me.

And yet, this might explain it. When circumcision is carried out at a later age, the newly exposed skin of the glans (the head of the penis) will tend to be lighter in color than the shaft. Conversely, guys who are cut early in life will often have a head down there that is the same color as the rest, if not slightly darker.

Edit: found it!

So there you go. I only hope my quick bit of research isn’t grossly incorrect, but that’s what I’ve come away with for now. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about BB and the possible appearances of their peckers. ;)

(BTW, this is actually something I’ve given a little thought to when writing Carnivores. Taking into account the guys’ lifestyle, and the lifestyles of werewolves in general, I don’t see that kind of body modification taking place at any point in their lives... so, realistically, like the vast majority of the world’s male population, I imagine they’d all be intact. I briefly entertained the idea of writing it into one of the later installments like Bright Like the Sun. Carnivores!Seunghyun is so handsy, and the thought of him fiddling with Daesung’s foreskin until Daesung whines and swats his hands away is so enticing... But in the end I’ve decided to just leave it be, forego that level of description. Let the readers imagine what they prefer, are comfortable with, have experience with, etc.)