#instead of actually promoting their own artists lmao
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It's Alan Wake 2's first anniversary damn....
I played the first game back in like 2018 or 2019 for a school assignment and am familiar with Remedy through PoTF instead of the other way around (many people who got to know the band through Max Payne 2 ofc)
Honestly, I didn't expect AW 2 to become such a hyperfixation but here I still am. My creativity regarding the game has decreased significantly and so have my posts but I still think about the Koskelas almost daily lmao.
(More of a vent and lament beneath the cut lol)
But to end a positive note, AW2 did incite my creativity again. So much, that in less than a year, I've written almost as much AW fics as potf fics which spans multiple years lmao
Plus, it made me fill over 10 sketchbooks, maybe another record in my fandom eras. LIke many others in the fandom, did AW2 lift my artist's block. For that, and some friends I made along the way I'm definitely grateful.
Hopefully, there's a day my pc or my console can run AW2 properly so I can actually experience the game itself.
I briefly browsed the Alan Wake tag as AW2 was about to come out and found there wasn't much of a fandom presence as there is now.
I think I came into the (awaking lol) fandom somewhat naive? Legit thought Ilmo would be more popular and thirsted after but boy was I fucking wrong.
Sadly I cannot fully share the sentiment of other fans and their sense of a family. I've ranted and vented about it multiple times before but I felt that majorly becos of my focus on unpopular characters, I kinda fell out of the fandom boat. Besides, my art style not being interesting/pleasing or whatever it was that kept and keeps notes low. I don't create just for notes, but I wish that my Koskela love could've reached more people and there could've been more interactions with other fans but often bumped into dead ends :P And in a way it just sucks that your works specifically don't get interacted with (versus others' similar works)
Also, I couldn't help but notice Remedy's own favouritism and how they don't promote some characters, even Saga who is a dual protagonist but oh well.
After the first months of hyperfixation and overdrive in drawing art and writing fics wore off, did I start to notice that clique vibe.
In that regard, I'm trying to just focus on the handful of contacts I have with some people and cherishing those friendships instead of trying to 'break into the circle' or get noticed 😂
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Writeblr Interview
On the Tumblr Writing Community
How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?
been on tumblr in some way since like 2013. been on writeblr specifically since like 2020-2021... ish?
What led you to create it?
ended up leaving twitter (back when it was still twitter) around the time the pandemic happened. i wanted to get back into tumblr because i'd been focusing mostly on twitter for awhile and the yeehan community/my old friends kinda weren't doing shit for me so i wanted to focus more on my original stuff. so i ended up making a writeblr when i heard that was a thing.
What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?
how we really do just be on here talking about our blorbos and having a good time. its nice to have a place to escape with people who also get the importance of not being connected to reality at all times.
Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?
i feel like ask games have kind of died down compared to how they were a few years ago so it'd be nice to make a resurgance of that.
What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?
honestly just post what makes you happy and actually interact with other people. just trying to promote your own stuff doesn't really work (unless you're an artist tbh) but interacting with other people and making posts talking about what you're making with enthusiasm instead of the "woe is me idk how to talk about my wips but i hope someone will talk with me... :((" like bro idk just talk about it. have a good time. you don't have to follow for follow or follow someone just bc they're a writeblr either i kinda hate that shit. like only follow me if you're actually interested in my shit and vice versa. but that's just a pet peeve. tumblr isn't twitter we are about having a good time here not about promo.
WIP it Good
Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?
that's a funny way to put this. rn its mostly been tcol just because i've been on a worldbuilding history kick because i've been cramming my brain full of a fucking alternate history youtube channel that my brain is mildly hyperfixated on. but my brain kinda flip flops around to any of my main wips when its convenient.
How long have you been working on them?
tcol's a wip i've had since i was 12 so like. pff 14 years at this point? jesus it sounds so old when i put it like that. paramour just had its 3 year anniversary on 6/19. vdtrt i've also had since 12. btaf is a couple of months old. like. maybe 2 months old lmao.
Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?
tcol -> the video game etrian odyssey, lotr, history (in general) paramour -> there's so many influences frfr. but the original start was crimson peak and wanting to make something like that but also beauty and the beast and goth lit or whatever vdtrt -> percy jackson btaf -> twilight, but specifically the bella pregnancy arc
How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?
literally all day every day in some capacity
When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?
"fantasy" i don't really talk to people about my writing at all in general irl anymore tho. just sets up for annoyance and disappointment.
What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?
"fantasy" like. i really don't like people knowing about my wips esp if i don't think they have the bandwidth to appreciate them. not to sound uppity but like ik the people who i'm around and the shit that intrigues them is just worlds away from what i'm writing whether it be because its fantasy, because it's horror, or because it's queer.
Let’s Rotate Blorbos
Name any characters you created.
so as of counting (and not counting the plethora of flesh blood recently added to tcol) i've got 419 characters and counting. this also doesn't include any of the ocs i have with my partner which is a decent amount. i'll just stick with the mcs of the main wips. so those would be:
hyacinthus, amon, darren, sjaak, biscella, azelie, piper, forte, deux, san, clear
Who’s the most unhinged?
least to most hinged of this list:
SJAAK -> amon -> san -> piper -> hya -> clear -> deux -> biscella -> azelie -> darren -> forte
Who comes the most naturally for you to write?
hya and amon are the easiest to write because i've written them the most. darren is a close second but not first because his whole thing about not using adverbs really trips me up.
Do you ever cringe at them?
nah. i don't cringe at them. i disdain at them. but not really cringe. i get really bad secondhand embarrassment so i don't tend to make characters that make me have that actually cringe reaction.
How much control do you feel you have over your characters?
kinda a weird question for me but tbh i feel like its sort of a 50-50 situation. i tend to make characters firstly out of some utility (aka i need a character to fulfill this role in the plot) and then as i develop them its like the two of us become collaborators on writing the story together. sometimes characters can be a bit stubborn about what they do or don't tell me about their backstories (hya is notorious for this) but for the most part they can't really "hide" things from me or wholly not do what i want them to do. a lot of times i'm going to put them in a situation anyway, they just need to tell me how they'll react to it. if any of that makes sense.
Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?
of course :) i sound kind of dead in this questionaire because i'm at work ready to kms. but, sending me asks or talking to me on discord/tumblr messages about any of my idiots is always loved
On Writeblr Engagement
What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?
i look at the vibes of the account, who they are, if they have an intro and what kind of wips they're writing. i mostly only follow people if i see that their wips interest me. some exceptions can be made, ie: if they interact with a lot of my stuff first and we become friendly and i'm not following them i'll follow after the fact and then get invested in whatever they're doing. but on initial contact i like to see who you are and if your wips are interesting to me.
What makes you decide against following?
wips don't interest me or have things in their wips/in their sphere of focus that i just don't care about or aren't really my cup of tea. like let's say someone puts in their wip/personal intro that they hate fantasy. i write fantasy all the time. so like. probably not gonna follow you. that kind of thing.
Do you interact with non-mutuals often?
not often? i wouldn't mind it bc i actually don't follow that many people (always under 100) but this is bc i can't keep up with people that much and i want to make sure i properly give attention to others if i'm going to be invested in them. but like. i enjoy talking to people about my shit so like. /shrug. i have way more followers than i follow which is why i mentioned i hate when people follow me just bc i'm another writeblr lol. i'd much rather you follow me because you have interest in Me but like, i can't control people frfr.
Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?
yeah! that's why i try to keep who i follow kind of in lower ranges. i have bad memory and it takes me awhile to warm up to people, but when i follow someone its because i want to be friendly and get invested in what they do. so like, i try to do that. i'm not the best but i do try.
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i just got done watching the first episode of the unit and im p disappointed that they literally cut so much out? they straight up compiled laboum, dalshabet, hyeyeon, and brave girls together lmao brave girls didnt even get to talk and they straight up did not show any bit of hyeyeon’s perf. i was also p sad they didn’t show yoonjo either? they showed her introduce herself but that was it but im p sure she made it since i think i saw her in the shine perf.
anyways, they cut so many great acts and spent so much time on the two non idols who went right after big star.
now let’s talk about this placement specifically.
automatically i knew everyone was going to love feeldog because he’s simply amazing and we all know this. aside from his solo dance and a snip it of sunghak dancing, the only other solo we really got to see was raehwan’s singing. he literally made both hyunas cry. and he also cried expressing that he thought about giving up, but where was he going to go? all he wants to do is sing. he’s so desperate to sing and find success in it, there isn’t anything else he wants but that. can you imagine? he’s thought about giving up on the one thing he wants most, but he didn’t because-- surprise, surprise, it’s the one thing he wants most. i literally teared up because yeah, this dude is obviously very sincere and that’s what the unit is all about, right? rebooting idols who didn’t get to find huge success or show their true potential. raehwan and big star are exactly what this show is supposed to be aimed at. as so many others are too, like the girls i mentioned earlier.
however those girls got their performances and screen time cut in favor of showing off an actor and 13yr old trainee who both went right after the tearful speech that raehwan just gave.
what the hell is there to reboot for them?
the actor, lee jungha, straight up admitted that he ran away from being an idol when it got too hard during his training, because he “lacked the talent” for it. now, this is completely different from raehwan who admitted over and over that singing was all that he wanted, so much that when times got rough, he stuck it out. already from the goddamn start it’s been revealed that jungha does not even have the resolve for this. the unit is literally his easy access to fame. he’s charming, so i’m sure he’ll win over lots of people and unfairly rise in rank despite being a horrible dancer and singer, seriously this kid was bad. but he passed and the worst part is that yeah, it was his charm that won over all the mentors but two. disappointingly enough was that rain was one of the people who voted for him, when the intro to the show is literally rain saying he wants to fairly evaluate the idols who could not reach success and reboot them.
the 13yr old trainee was actually v impressive, i liked her a lot, but again, what is there to reboot with her? tbh they should have sent her to be on pd101 instead of lee younseo. she was both a really good dancer and singer, but the problem lies with her being an extremely young trainee that hasn’t debuted or become desperate for the chance of rebooting.
i’m really pressed that they cut a lot of actual idols who are the EXACT type of people for this show in favor of new faces or the more controversial ones.
a lot of people kept saying “don’t be upset that your faves are going on the show, it’s going to save them just like pd101 did with nu’est”
no, the first episode is already an entire mess. it’s already just focusing on who it wants to and not actually displaying the idols who are struggling and need this. i have higher hopes for the following episodes though, i pray the unit does what it’s supposed to and tbh i’m still extremely nervous because so far i have literally only seen donghyun out of all the boyfriend members and im so : )
side note, i was also p upset former ukiss member aj didn’t make the cut : / he’s very talented in my opinion, but he does not...make...good...choices...
#long rant about the unit#also my take on how crappy this show is#i also heard mixnine is shit too so#¯\_(ツ)_/¯#knk didnt make the cut so what do i care#ynb is a fucking mess they literally sent both their groups on horrendous audition shows#instead of actually promoting their own artists lmao#also i think i saw mint but im gonna lose it if coco didnt make it
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remake of this (2020)! with updated information now! u wu
(height chart)
Though Josh is hard to understand as we really don’t get that much solid information about him. As much as we’d like to understand him, he obfuscates his actual personality in TWEWY and makes it difficult to know what’s actually genuine, so people will have highly varied takes on him. His “facade” may or may not incorporate his old personality when he was just human at that age, and may or may not actually be a part of him. So, this is just my interpretation.
As for what’s canon, we now have Neku’s OG height and NTWEWY height charts. Nomura has also confirmed in the NTWEWY guidebook that at the conclusion of OG TWEWY, Joshua’s Composer form was that of an adult:
Since he's a transcendent being, I didn't change much from his previous design and just made his face and body more mature. I had a hard time figuring out whether to go with his adult form from the conclusion to the original game, but I decided to have him match with Neku instead.
The guidebook’s ages for those in the UG, such as Angels and Reapers, are all apparent ages, meaning Josh only looks 18 now. Neku is also 18 as well now.
Notes:
Even though NTWEWY is a sequel to the anime/original game and according to interviews, these may not intended to be separate timelines as we originally interpreted, however I personally prefer them to be separate timelines. I prefer classic TWEWY timeline with my ideal succession of events to be Neku finishing high school and Josh not contacting him for years bc of the Higher Plane until Neku chooses to be in the UG of his own accord after maturing, as I find that Neku being fridged for 3 years just to feature new characters a huge disservice to his character and a huge tragedy as he misses out on important years of his life, and while I love soft Neku, it does not make sense for his character to develop so drastically when he was isolated. As such, I consider these two sheets different dynamics in different timelines.
post NTWEWY, Joshua big spoons more often uwu
Either Neku manages their purchases in-store when shopping for gear, or they both choose. Post-long games, Joshua really likes shopping with Neku likes to splurge on him and is no longer shy about dressing for his apparent age’s price range lol. So he’ll wear more Pegaso or Dragon Couture, and things that look austere and majestic but actually have high prices, because he’s a snob. :D JotM is not his style, but if Neku has plainer hoodies in his drawers when he stays at Neku’s, he’ll wear them and wander around in the kitchen. At Josh’s place, the bugger has a walk-in closet lmao. He’ll grab whatever to go catch coffee with Shiki and then show up in a new expensive Dragon Couture coat lol.
nobody really drives in Tokyo lol, but before, I did the gauge as a hypothetical, if they did drive.
Neku’s parents aren’t around much, as they both work, so he’s used to taking care of himself like many JP teens. OG timeline, Neku finishes high school and rather than going to uni, he is guided by CAT, and CAT promotes Neku’s work with his own influence. He lives with his family until he finally manages to convince the Angels to let him see Josh. He then becomes Shibuya’s Conductor, much like in Signal to Noise... He lives with his parents until he makes his name and earning as an artist like CAT. And Neku will usually cook when Josh visits. Whereas when visiting Josh, Josh will usually take him out to dinner. When Neku eventually moves in with Josh, Neku will usually cook.
NTWEWY timeline, Joshua cooks more often for Neku however, as he missed Neku and also wanted to make more things up to him.
PDA is frowned upon in Japan, but Neku would probably be more comfortable with it the more their relationship grows.
Josh is protective in his own way, but according to his whim at the time. He also likes to downplay it to himself so he can pretend he doesn’t genuinely care as much as he actually does. So that it hurts less if/when Neku moves on without him. :’) It is not certain whether "I don’t need him anymore” means that he is no longer willing to use Neku as just a pawn, or he is not willing to risk Kubo getting ahold of Neku, or both, or...
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Walk You Home - l.jn
Pairing - Idol!Jeno x Idol!Reader
Genre - Fluff, friends to lovers, kinda crack-ish
Warnings - None (please feel free to let me know if I should add any though)
Summary - You met Jeno when you were a trainee and he had lent you his shoulder to cry on. He became one of your closest friends and one of your best supporters, eventually merging the two and becoming your best friend. Your friendship with Jeno was something you wouldn’t trade for anything, maybe aside for an actual relationship with him.
Word Count - 8.3k
A/N - this is inspired by a dream i had two months ago so it’s not really the best storyline lmao but let me know what you guys think. character inspo drawn from @t-aeycng as Soojin because she is truly a wonderful person and you should definitely check out her work as well
You ran up the stairs, stepping onto the stage overlooking the sea of fans, the largest audience you’ve ever performed in front of. You looked away from the crowd and your eyes instead settled on Jeno’s face, wanting nothing more than his comforting frame against yours but that was something you didn’t think you would ever tell him.
Three years ago, when you first joined SM Entertainment, you had left your home country in hopes of pursuing your passion of getting to perform in front of thousands of people. It was spring when you first arrived, you thought it was quite fitting as you were beginning a new chapter of your life just as the Earth was too. When you first came to Korea, you had little knowledge of the language and culture and were immediately labeled as an outcast among the other female trainees. They didn’t exactly mistreat you in any way, they just didn’t include you in activities because they didn’t know you or have any way to communicate with you.
You spent your days holed up in practice rooms and even on the days where you had training sessions with the other girls, most of them barely made any effort to talk to you, excluding one person. Her name is Soojin. From the time you first saw her, you knew she was going to be popular. She was beautiful no matter what angle you looked at her from and she had a personality to match.
After a particularly difficult dance class, all the others had left for the cafeterias, talking about how the teacher was so harsh this time around. The only ones left behind were you, packing up your things, and Soojin who was still practicing what you were taught that day. Right as you were about to leave, she called out your name.
“Do you want to eat together?” She asked, speaking slowly and carefully enunciating her words so you could understand. You were frozen in shock and all you could do was nod your head and shyly say yes.
From that day on, Soojin was essentially your guardian angel. She made sure to introduce you to everyone and include you when they went out together, she helped you develop your language skills and taught you how to get through the weekly tests the trainees were put through. You clung to Soojin the way a baby cub does to its mother.
During the holidays, she told you she wouldn’t be staying at the company and instead, going home to her family. She graciously invited you over, to which you declined, not wanting to embarrass yourself and your elementary speaking skills. You were unsure how you’d function without her, but you’d soon become grateful for that week because that was when you met Jeno.
It was already 9pm yet you were still in a practice room, not quite able to perfect a run in a song you were preparing for the weekly exams. You were tired and lonely, feeling more homesick than ever now that you were left on your own without Soojin to comfort you. You sat down, deciding to let yourself rest for a few minutes as you scrolled through social media and saw your friends and family posting pictures of their festivities together, causing tears to escape from your eyes and you let yourself fully break down, feelings of loneliness and yearning tearing at your heart.
You didn’t know how you missed the sound of the door opening, but suddenly there was a warm hand on your shoulder and a simple “hey” spoken from someone with a warm and rich voice. You looked up and immediately froze on the spot. You had seen other senior artists around the company before but they had never talked to you before, as you were only a trainee and they probably didn’t even know your name, yet here was Jeno, squatting down in front of you, his eyes searching yours to find the reason why you were crying all alone in a practice room.
“Are you okay?” That was all Jeno asked, his hand leaving your shoulder as he sat down in front of you. He waited for a bit as you tried to calm yourself down and dry your tears. “I’m Jeno, but I suppose you already knew that. Your name is?”
“Y/n,” you said, your breath almost catching in your throat as you involuntarily hiccuped, “I’m a trainee and I’ve been in Korea for six months” you told him, just as Soojin had taught you.
You saw Jeno’s features soften as he started to piece together why you were crying. “Your Korean is pretty good for coming only six months ago,” he said before continuing on, “but you shouldn’t be crying alone in a practice room.”
You looked up at him, telling him that usually, you’d be with Soojin but she went home and you’re not really close to any of the other trainees. He nodded his head, seeming to understand your message through your basic Korean. “I really would like to stay and comfort you, but my members are coming soon because we have to practice for one of the end-of-year festivals.”
You pushed yourself off from the ground to unplug your phone from the stereo and pack up, understanding where he was going with this but he followed you, not yet done talking. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like to give you my number so you can contact me whenever Soojin’s not around.” You turned to face him, shock evident on your face. “You won’t be bothering me, I promise,” Jeno said, trying his best to reassure you, “aside from practicing and performing I really don’t do much so you’d be welcome to text me anytime you want someone to talk to. I’d hate for you to go through this alone.”
He fished his phone out from his pocket, opening up a new chat and handing it to you, “here, you can even send the first message so you know that it’s me.” You accepted his offer and typed in your own number along with a short message to let you know it’s Jeno and hit send before handing him back his phone, feeling your own buzz in your hand, and light up showing the message you had just sent.
Unknown Number > y/n 9:15pm: Hello, this is Jeno
Jeno helped you gather your belongings and walked you to the door, even holding it open for you. You gave him a shy ‘thank you’ before stepping out into the hallway and he smiled at you saying that he’ll text you once his own practice is over not even a second before sound of his members coming down the hallway can be heard from their obnoxious yelling and giggling.
Jeno kept his word and as you were getting ready for bed that night in the empty dorm, you received another message from him.
Jeno > y/n 10:31pm: Y/n I just ended my practice and I’m heading to my dorm now. What are you doing?
Y/n > Jeno 10:32pm: Thinking about my next exam. They’re difficult.
Jeno > y/n 10:32pm: Ah, I remember those 10:33pm: I didn’t like them either but it feels good when you look back and see your progress
You maintained the conversation until he told you he arrived at his dorm building, to which he told you he’d text you after he washed up and ate dinner. He indeed texted you, but you were already fast asleep, the crying from earlier finally catching up with you. From then on, not a single week went by where Jeno didn’t text you.
Jeno always made sure to check up on you after an exam, asking how you did, encouraging you when you didn’t do so well, and praising you when you did do well. He even treated you to dinner a few times to congratulate you whenever you earned a B or better. He was pretty much your stand-in Soojin for whenever she was gone or got too busy with other things. He was just as patient as she was when it came to teaching you Korean and explaining things to you, his signature eye-smile showing whenever you repeated a new word back to him.
Soojin was surprised when you told her about your new friend when she came back to the dorms, almost kicking your door down in her excitement to see you, but she later held your hands in excitement saying “I can’t believe my y/n made her first friend on her own! And it’s Jeno! THE Lee Jeno from THE NCT Dream of all people! Maybe I should leave you more often” she joked before flopping down on your bed next to you to hear more about your relationship with Jeno.
Within another year and a half, you had debuted in SM’s newest six-member girl group, with Soojin as your leader, and Jeno wasn’t shy about showing his support for your group. When you coincidentally promoted alongside NCT Dream, he always made sure to wish you good luck before you went on stage and gave you tips after monitoring your performance. On one of the music shows, Jeno and the boys had won first place and they all insisted on keeping you and your group on stage with them.
Jeno’s face lit up when you danced the chorus of the song with him and he burst out in laughter when you imitated his own rapping part. There was something about you, the way you smiled as you clowned him, the way your eyes shone when he complimented your dancing. Jeno was beginning to fall for you.
Fans of both of your groups had noticed your close relationship, and though dating rumors were inevitable, most of them found the two of you to be quite cute together. You had seen a few of the compilation videos they had made for you and him though you only watched a handful of them and never dared to show them to Jeno, not wanting him to get the wrong idea because unbeknownst to him, you were falling for him too.
When the next SMTown concert was announced to be in your home country, you were overjoyed at the thought of being able to go home after two whole years away. You immediately texted Jeno to express your excitement and he matched it, jokingly telling you that he couldn’t wait to meet your friends and family.
A few days later, Jeno texts you asking if you’re free to hang out.
Jeno > y/n 4:38pm: are you free on Wednesday night? 4:38pm: Jaemin wanted to go grocery shopping after practice 4:38pm: Soojin said you guys are running low on toiletries so you can come too if you want
y/n > Jeno 4:47pm: yeah I’m free but I have practice on Wednesday night too
Jeno > y/n 4:50pm: really? What time?
y/n > Jeno 4:51pm: I think Soojin said 7
Jeno > y/n 4:51pm: wait really? That’s when I’m supposed to have practice I think 4:52pm: Renjun and Jisung both said 7 as well 4:52pm: did they tell you which room you’re in?
y/n > Jeno 4:54pm: I think it’s the basement one 4:54pm: don’t know why they have us in that huge one though
Jeno > y/n 4:55pm: no way! We’re supposed to be in the basement too! 4:56pm: do you think they mixed up our schedules on accident?
y/n > Jeno 5:00pm: I just asked my manager, he said that’s the one we’re supposed to be in
Jeno > y/n 5:01pm: that’s what mine just said too! 5:02pm: y/n, do you think...maybe...just maybe���
y/n > Jeno 5:02pm: what, Jen? just say it lol
Jeno > y/n 5:02pm: we’re working together for a performance?!
When you arrived at the basement practice room, the largest one in the building, sure enough, Jeno was in there waiting for you along with the other members of Dream. You ran to him and hugged him out of the sheer excitement coming from the idea that you’d be getting to perform together.
You and Jeno were so overly happy that it made Haechan gag while Jisung plugged his ears with his fingers and made a pained face at Chenle. However, your hug had the opposite effect on Jeno. He felt a burst of butterflies rise from the bottom of his stomach and he excused it as simply being excited to perform with you after having seen your hard work through your trainee days.
The dance your groups would be doing has a little bit of a darker sexy vibe which was something your group had never tried before. While it was something completely new to you, the boys had already done it before so they had fun showing you guys the right expressions and laughing as you and your members tried to copy them.
The type of dance was a little more provocative too and it wasn’t exactly your forte but you tried your best. You caught Jeno looking your way a couple of time but you figure he’s just trying to make sure you’re doing okay. Eventually, you give up trying on your own and you turn to go ask him for help during a break, slightly surprised to see that his eyes were already on you.
“Jeno, I don’t get that one move, the one that goes like this” you say and show it to him, his eyes glued to your figure as he tries to analyze what you’re doing.
You saw his tongue peek out from between his lips, a common habit of his when he’s really thinking, which doesn’t happen very often. “I think you’re being a little too loose with your movements, try tense up your arms and do it sharper” he explained, showing you through his own example.
You tried it again but you could tell you still weren’t doing it right from the way he sighed and moved to stand behind you. You felt the warmth from his chest seeping through both of your shirts and you had to fight the urge to just lean back against his strong shoulders but luckily you’re snapped out of your short daydream by Jeno’s hands wrapping around your wrists to guide your movements.
He ran through it a couple of times and you quickly caught on thanks to his teaching. Just as you turned your head to thank him, Jeno wrapped his arms around your body, embracing you in a hug and bringing his head to rest on your shoulder. Shocked by the close proximity of your faces, you both jump away from each other and start apologizing as your cheeks start to heat up. Fortunately, you were saved from your embarrassment when you hear Soojin calling everyone back from their break and you scampered away to stand with your members.
The head choreographer began pairing people up and you almost let out a squeal when she said you and Jeno would be together. There were no intimate portions of the choreography except for one short moment when you had to stare him down as you circle around each other as if you were ‘two lions about to fight’ as Haechan had explained it.
You and Jeno couldn’t help but giggle and make faces at each other every time that part comes up until both of you got yelled at and caused everyone to have to do push-ups as a punishment, angry glares being cast your way from your members.
The next time that part came up, you’re just slightly startled when Jeno completely switches to his performance mode and looks at you with a sultry glint in his eyes. You’ve seen this look thousands of times before while he’s up on stage whether it be from the sidelines or through a screen, but there was something different when you see it up close and you know his eyes are on you.
You took it as an opportunity to learn from him and try to give him the same gaze back during the following run through and when his eyes meet yours, you see them instantly shift away to somewhere behind you and you let out a slight smirk, finding it amusing how Jeno could still be so shy when you’re merely copying his own actions.
During the final run of the day, his gaze locked with yours and doesn’t wander away for even a second, almost as if he’s challenging you to look away first. You had to remind yourself that it’s just an act that he’s putting on for the sake of the performance, he’s not actually challenging you, though you almost wish he was. As soon as it ends, you’re broken out of the trance that is Lee Jeno himself while he went straight to his members, not even bothering to talk to you and give you feedback like he usually did.
You didn’t know what just happened, but you could feel there was now some sort of tension separating you and Jeno.
As all of you were monitoring the run on the large TV, Renjun laughed while saying “Jeno and Y/n look like they’re about to fight.” Your members giggled at his joke and one of them even calls it a ‘lover’s quarrel’. You didn’t dare look over at Jeno but you could feel his now-familiar gaze locked on you.
As your groups continued practicing together and the concert drew closer and closer, the tension between you and Jeno only grew worse, neither of you interacting with each other aside for during the dance itself. You found yourself itching to talk to him and tell him about the cute hat you saw in a store the other day, or how Soojin almost burnt the kitchen down while cooking dinner the week before. You didn’t have the guts to talk to Jeno, not when his jaw was squared shut and he wouldn’t even look at you unless it was during the dance.
During a break in one of the last rehearsals in Korea, you were playing around with your members and trying to do different tricks like backbends, roundhouses, aerials, and such. You knew these were Jeno’s specialty and you were taken aback when he didn’t come over to show off his skills and instead Jaemin did, though he was nowhere close to being as good as Jeno as he clumsily fell over from the handstand he was doing, causing you to have a fit of laughter.
Jeno doesn’t know why he feels so upset to see you laughing because of his groupmate and he especially doesn’t understand why he feels angry when Jaemin tries to spot you as you do a handstand and end up falling and dragging Jaemin down with you, both of you almost scream-laughing as your bodies lay tangled with each other.
It only gets worse when later that week, as Jeno is eating dinner with the other members, he sees Renjun’s phone light up showing a message from you telling him to enjoy his meal. Jeno didn’t even know the two of you had exchanged numbers and it was starting to drive him insane when your name kept popping up on Renjun’s phone throughout the night and not once on his own.
Renjun catches him staring, to which he leered, “what, lover boy? Are you mad that you can’t keep y/n all to yourself? Just relax, I’m only texting her to learn some phrases before the concert.” Jeno didn’t respond, not wanting to expose the fact that he didn’t even have you anymore, best friend or not.
He finished eating and excused himself from the table, leaving to go wallow in his own self-pity because he had unintentionally broken your friendship. He had realized his own feelings for you during that one dance practice but proceeded to distance himself from you out of fear that acting on his feelings would ruin your relationship, leading to the exact opposite to ruin it. Jeno cried himself to sleep that night hoping that the phrase ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’ would hold true on your end, that you were missing him just as much as he was missing you.
The next time you saw Jeno was at the airport when all the company was getting ready to leave for your home country. He was wearing a simple outfit consisting of a plain black t-shirt with his black joggers along with a black snapback and his glasses to complete his plain yet oh so attractive full black outfit.
You were sitting in the lounge area with your members and one of them pointed him out and commented on how good he looks. You glanced over just in time to see him momentarily take his hat off and run a hand through his soft, light brown hair before placing his hat back on his head.
You felt a slight shiver go up through your spine as you watched him do such a simple action yet you were unnerved to hear that one of your members found him attractive even if you did too and you knew thousands of his fans did as well. Maybe distance made your heart grow fonder of him, given all the time the two of you spent away from each other and just wanting your best friend back. A few minutes later, after zoning out for a while, you were brought back to reality by your phone vibrating, showing three messages from Jaemin whose number you had gotten through Renjun.
Jaemin > y/n 8:16am: what rows do you guys have? 8:17am: we have 13 and 14. I’ll be sitting with Jisung 8:17am: he overpacked his snacks so now I have some of them. You’re more than welcome to come over and help yourself to them
Y/n > Jaemin 8:18am: we’re 16 and 17 8:18am: i’m not that hungry right now but I just stop by during the flight
You indeed took Jaemin up on his offer about halfway through the flight when your members were complaining about not liking the food being served. You mentioned how Jaemin had snacks he didn’t mind sharing and they immediately begged you to get them from him. You had forgotten to wear a hoodie so you were snuggled into the airline blanket for warmth, not wanting to leave your spot, but you ultimately lost a game of rock paper scissors so you had no other choice but to shake off the blanket and brace yourself for the cold.
As you trudged your way up a few rows, you easily find Jisung due to his large frame, though he was asleep while Jaemin was nowhere to be found, presumably having gone to the bathroom. You didn’t even bother looking around you to see where the other members were, your only goal in mind being the snacks in Jaemin’s bag because the quicker you found them, the quicker you could go back to your warm seat.
You opened up the overhead compartment and spotted Jaemin’s bag, though it was almost out of your reach. You raised yourself onto your tip-toes as you struggled to reach it when suddenly there was a warm hand on your waist and someone against your back. You froze, watching as the stranger easily grabbed the backpack and brought it down safely, handing it to you.
You turned around only to find Jeno looking down at you. It felt like a whole minute passed as you both just stared at each other, neither of you wanted to speak first, when really only a few seconds went by before Jaemin came walking down the aisle.
“Ah, y/n, you came!” He exclaimed, taking his backpack from your hold and unzipping it, “Sorry, I was in the bathroom, but I’m glad you were able to find my bag” he said, opening it up and showing you all the snacks he had. “Did you want some too, Jeno?” he asked, noticing Jeno’s presence behind you.
“No, I just came by to ask Jisung something,” he stated, “but I’ll come by later since he’s asleep” he said, already turning to walk back to his seat.
Once he was out of earshot, Jaemin sighed before telling you, “he’s been acting really weird lately. Even in the dorms, he’s all quiet and moody and none of us know why.”
“Maybe he’s on his man-period” you quipped while you took a few snacks from the bag while Jaemin rolled his eyes at your immature joke. You thanked him for the snacks and made your way back to your group members who were overjoyed when you handed them the bags of chips and dried fruit, all the bags opened within mere seconds. You only ate a bit, preferring to wait until you got to the hotel where you could eat room service food instead.
About an hour later, Soojin, who was sitting next to you, got up and told you she was going to the bathroom. You hum in response to let her know you heard. Not even a whole minute passes by before she sits back down next to you. You looked up from the game on your phone, asking her “did you even wash your hands-”, but you stopped midsentence when you realized you were looking at the face of Jeno, not Soojin.
Before you could say anything else, Jeno already blurted out the words, “I’m sorry.” You were still in shock, continuing to look at him with wide eyes like a deer caught in headlights. Jeno continued on anyways, “look I know I’ve been really cold and distant towards you for the past few weeks but that’s because...because-,” you noticed him fidgeting with his hands and you shifted in your seat to face him and look him in the eyes, “because I have feelings for you” he said, his words coming out almost too fast for you to process.
“Y/n, I didn’t want my feelings to ruin our relationship because I truly do treasure what we had, or had, as best friends, yet I allowed myself to break us apart somehow and I really do feel like shit because of it-”
“Jeno, it’s okay-” you began, cutting him off.
“No, y/n, it’s not okay,” he interjected, resuming his previous thought, “especially since you are finally returning home after two years away, I want you to be happy during this time,” his hands now shifting to play with a loose thread hanging from his shirt, “and I want to be able to be with you and share that happiness because I still remember the broken-hearted girl who was crying by herself in the practice room from homesickness.”
“Jeno, I...wow, I don’t know what to say” you mumbled, letting yourself fall into your seat, your thoughts running wild in your head.
“I know this is extremely sudden, but I just want our old relationship back. I want to stand by your side and watch you smile. I won’t even bother asking you to be my girlfriend because I know you’re going to reject me so don’t worry about that” he stated, dejection obvious in his voice.
Your head snapped up to face him, “what if I told you that I wouldn’t reject you?” Now it was Jeno’s turn to be stunned speechless. “I need some time to think this, to think us over” you confessed, motioning between the two of you to get your point across. “I need time, but I’m willing to be friends first before anything else” you conclude.
Jeno was wringing out his hands and picking his nails while smiling as he whispered “thank you” before he froze when you pulled him into a hug.
“I missed you” you murmured into his ear.
Jeno allowed himself to sink into your embrace before telling you “I missed you too.”
Both of you stayed there, enjoying the feeling of finally holding each other after being apart for so long until you pulled away to grab your phone just as it was about to slide off your lap. The display lit up and you realized you’ve been talking to Jeno for well over ten minutes, which made you worry about Soojin as she still hasn’t returned from the bathroom yet.
“I think I’m gonna go check on Soojin” you said, taking the blanket off of you as you stood up from your seat.
Jeno grabbed your hand before you could step out into the aisle. “She’s in my seat with Chenle,” he reassured, “I ran into her when she was leaving the bathroom and I asked her if she’d be okay with staying with Chenle for a bit while I talk to you.” You peered over the rows in front of you, and you found Chenle’s blonde head indeed next to your leader just as she playfully shoved him, no doubt playing that kart rider game everyone was obsessed with recently.
As you sat back down, relieved at knowing Soojin was okay, you shivered due to the few seconds you were exposed to the cold air hitting your skin as you searched for her. You do your best to steel yourself and not show Jeno that you were cold, knowing that he’d scold you, but he already knew you’d be cold when he saw you in the airport only in a t-shirt and leggings.
“You’re cold, aren’t you?” he says, more of a rhetorical and sarcastic than anything, answering his own question muttering “of course you are” as he leans back to take off his hoodie, unintentionally flashing you his abs in the process causing both of you to shy away from each other as he hands you your saving grace of the flight. You gratefully took the hoodie from him, letting out a sigh of relief when you pull it down over your body and feel its warmth made from Jeno’s body heat.
Jeno stayed with you for the rest of the flight and only leaves to go back to his seat when the flight attendant announces that the plane will be landing shortly. Luckily, your members were asleep and hadn’t witnessed your exchange with Jeno but they knew something was up when they saw you in the hoodie you certainly did not have on earlier.
Soojin smiled at you as she returned to her seat, buckling herself in while telling you “I’m glad you and Jeno are talking again. Not gonna lie, it was pretty awkward during rehearsals.” She only chuckled when you shrunk into the hoodie, pulling the strings of the hood closed over your face to hide your embarrassment.
By the time you arrived at the hotel, you were dead tired. You just wanted to shower and go to sleep which is exactly what you do once you reach your shared hotel room with Soojin.
You crawled into your bed, freshly showered and already half-asleep, ready to succumb to your exhaustion. Right as you were about to doze off, you heard your phone go off, pulling you out of your near-sleeping state. You reached around for it and turned it on silent once you got your hands on it, reading the notification that had rudely awakened you.
Jeno > y/n 12:13am: You looked really tired earlier so I’m pretty sure you’re already sleeping, but I hope you rest well. Only one more rehearsal tomorrow (today? Because it’s already midnight??) and we’ll be performing in front of your friends and family the day after! Let’s do well :)
y/n > Jeno 12:16am: I was almost about to fall asleep but I’m not mad only because it’s you 12:17am: Let’s show them the most powerful best friend duo in the world
You saw that Jeno had immediately read your message but you didn’t bother waiting for his response, already drifting off to sleep once again, though you wouldn’t have gotten a response anyways because Jeno thought you just friend-zoned him.
From the start of your day, you were already swamped with activities, shooting tons of videos in your native language to thank your fans and prompt your group while also being an in-house translator for your other members as they shot their own individual videos. It wasn’t until after the full rehearsal started that you were finally allowed some time to slow down and rest. Your group had already finished the first performance in the show and now you were in the on-deck area waiting for NCT Dream to meet you guys for your short joint rehearsal before going on stage.
You heard them coming before you even see them, the infamous “hi everyone! This is Haechan cam with 37.5% viewer ratings” greeting ringing out from the hallway. You and your members didn’t know he’d be filming so you hadn’t done anything to take care of your appearances like hair and makeup but all of you respectfully stood up to greet him and the other Dream members.
Your members grumbled amongst themselves as Haechan left the camera filming during your on-stage rehearsal, saying how they hoped this section wouldn’t get aired because none of you looked good without your hair and makeup done as you all fell into formation. You hadn’t noticed Jeno’s presence behind you, “I think you look nice, don’t let the girls tell you otherwise”, his short affirmation startling you, barely having time to shoot him a quick smile before the music started playing.
You didn’t bother doing facial expressions since it was only a rehearsal and you already felt so drained. When it came time for the dreaded eye contact portion with Jeno, you were expecting the normal fierce look but instead, you were met with his eyes smile as he made faces at you, almost making you laugh. Jeno’s heart fluttered when he saw the grin you were holding back, happy that he was able to brighten your day, even if it was only for a few seconds. If this was all he could do to lift your mood, then that was what he would do.
The previous night, Jeno had convinced himself that no matter what happens between the two of you, friend zone or not, he was going to make sure you were happy and fully enjoyed this short trip because you deserved it. You were home, and home was the whole reason why he had met you crying in the practice room on that fateful night. He told himself that he’d deal with his own unrequited feelings later but for you, he’d temporarily push them aside so he could watch you flourish in the place you loved so dearly.
Bringing you back to the current moment, as you walk out across the stage alongside your members to meet the boys of Dream in the middle. You look into the ocean of people, admiring the colors of the lightsticks and their almost hypnotizing effect paired with the screams from the audience.
You are beyond nervous, Jeno could tell that much from the way you struggle to find his face, even more so to meet his eyes. During the performance, when you again gazed over at him, ready for his predatory look, you saw another batch of his funny expressions, though this time you didn’t try to hide the smile that crept onto your face as he ruined his image.
To Jeno, he doesn’t care about all the bad pictures he’d see of himself or the whooping he’d get from the performance directors later. He was willing to endure it all if it was for you.
By the end of the concert, you were spent, all your energy thrown out of your body from dancing and rapidly switching between languages to translate all too frequently. When you joined all the senior artists for the final stage, you let your body go on autopilot as you wandered around, trailing behind your group as you tried to read all the signs and banners the fans were holding up.
You were lost in your own world until you felt two very strong and familiar arms wrap around your waist, almost scaring you enough to jump off the edge of the stage. You hear Jeno’s laugh from behind you and you whip around ready to beat him up for nearly shoving you off the stage but you stop in your tracks when he extends his arms out to show you a large banner of your country’ flag with the words “We Love You Y/N” stitched onto it.
You felt your heart swell with pride as you immediately took the item from Jeno and turned to face the audience, doing your best to hold it up, though your arms alone weren’t enough. Jeno grabbed the end of the flag that was almost touching the ground as he laughed at you while helping you to fully show the flag and thank the fans.
After you let them take a few pictures, you wrapped it around your shoulders and happily skipped off to rejoin your group, Jeno hot on your tracks as all the artists go into a line to do the final bow all together. As you ran past your members, Jeno snatched onto you, pulling you into the line right where your two groups met, lacing his fingers with yours as you both raised your arms up to bow to the audience. If only both of you could feel what the other was feeling, you’d know that the tingle of excitement you both felt was not one-sided.
When everyone came together for the group picture, you ended up getting smashed between the countless members of NCT alongside Soojin whose hand you had grabbed onto during the bow. As the cameraman started to count down, you were suddenly lifted into the air, feeling hands on both sides of your hips. You looked down to see Jeno on one side and Soojin on the other as they held you up, causing your smile to grow wider just in time as the camera flashed.
After they put you down, you turned around and caught Soojin leaning it to whisper something into Jeno’s ear, a simple “I will” was all he said in response. Once Soojin had already walked away, you were about to ask Jeno what she said, but he acted faster, almost aggressively pulling you into a back-hug with on arm around your waist, the other being used to wave at fans and point out the signs with your name and pictures on them.
You don’t know if it’s the close proximity of your bodies or simply the excitement from being able to pick out your own fans and thank them, but you felt a rush of adrenaline as you walked with Jeno. You looked up at him, admiring his side profile, finally understanding why his fans always called him a prince as you felt your palms grow sweaty and your heart skip a beat. Maybe you had just realized your own feelings for Jeno.
Once the two-day concert was over, you stop by at your manager’s hotel room to ask if you were allowed to go out for the day, the urge to visit your hometown feeling stronger than ever. He graciously said yes, telling you to let him know if you needed any help and to be sure to take someone else along for safety measures. You thanked him and ran off towards the elevator, hitting the number of the floor you knew Jeno was on rather than heading back to your own.
You excitedly jogged down the hallway to his room and knocked on his door after double-checking his text message to make sure you had the right room. Jaemin opened the door, greeting you with his loud “ohoho!”
“Jaemin shut up, oh my gosh,’ you gasped, not wanting someone to file a noise complaint, “I’m here to ask Jeno about something.”
Jaemin pulled you into the room while yelling “yah, Jeno Lee, your girlfriend is here!” much to your embarrassment. Just as you were about to whine at him and deny Jaemin’s statement, you saw Jeno shoot up from where he was lying on his bed, grabbing the blanket in a failed effort to cover his naked torso and he flung himself off the bed, looking for a shirt to put on. You swear you could see a faint tinge of pink on his cheeks as he rummaged through his suitcase but you don’t know if it’s from the lighting of the room or if he’s actually blushing. You choose to believe the first option, not wanting to give yourself false hope.
You sat down on Jeno’s bed as you asked, “do you wanna go out with me?” to which Jeno froze in place as he tried to process your words. “I mean, would you like to go and spend the day with me because I want to go home and show you where I grew up” you blurted, quickly rephrasing your words as your own cheeks began to heat up.
Jeno only grunted a response, letting you know that he did want to go with you as he threw a shirt over his head. Jaemin let out a laugh of excitement while clapping his hands and squealing “eeheehee my babies are going on their first date together! Make sure to bring Nana some delicious snacks!”
“Yeah, we’ll get you the strawberry ones you love so much” Jeno said, causing Jaemin to pout as he flopped onto his bed. Before Jaemin could pester either of you any further, Jeno was already grabbing his things and pulling you out the door.
On the elevator ride down to the lobby, Jeno asked “so where exactly are we going today?” You pulled your phone out of your pocket and showed him pictures of your favorite restaurant from you old neighborhood as you searched up the directions on google maps. You started telling him about all the memories you had there and how good the food was, and though Jeno was listening to you, he was really only paying attention to your face. He loved the way the edges of your crinkled when you smiled, the was your eyes shone when you talked with so much excitement.
Once both of you were in one of the company vans and you had already given the directions to the staff member who’d be driving, you decided to take a nap in your seat, already dozing off before you had even left the hotel parking lot. Jeno took a moment to admire your sleeping form next to him, finding you just as beautiful as when you’re awake. He took a few pictures of you, not wanting to let this moment go to waste before he too allowed himself to drift off into sleep.
You woke up to Jeno gently shaking you and telling you that you’re outside the restaurant, your half-asleep state barely even remembering which country you were in. You took a few seconds as your brain started functioning again and you wasted no time in yanking the door open and thanking the staff member as you jumped out of the van, Jeno following your actions as you nearly ran into the restaurant.
The second you set foot through the entrance, the sounds and the smells brought back so many memories and you almost teared up though you quickly brushed it off as you switched into your native language and asked the hostess for a table for two. As you followed her through to all so familiar restaurant, Jeno looked around, admiring the artwork scattered across the walls as he said the phrase ‘so beautiful’ in your language.
You whipped around when you recognized the words he just whispered, “how do you even know how to say that?”
“Oh, I uh, learned it for you,” he stuttered sheepishly, his hand going to scratch the back of his head, “I wanted to be able to talk to you and the fans better so I’ve been learning it on the side” he explained, a slightly awkward silence falling upon both of you as you sat down at the table, thanking the hostess as she handed you the menus.
The silence was quickly broken when Jeno started asking you about the different dishes, his mind overloaded with the foreign language, and all the different options. You tried your best to explain them to him, though he ultimately ended up just letting you choose his food for him, trusting your judgment more than his at this point.
Lunch with Jeno consisted of him being amazed by the food and cutely repeating phrases you were teaching him and you taking pictures and videos of him, wanting to save this moment into your memories.
Once both of your stomachs were full and you had fought with Jeno over who’d be paying the bill, Jeno won, of course, you took a breath of fresh air as you walked out of the restaurant, reaching your arms up over your head while yawning as you felt the beginning of a food coma start to take form.
You made Jeno call the staff member to pick you up and take you to another location you thought Jeno would like as you skipped down the road to one of your favorite parks. He ended the call after he sent the address of the park and ran to catch up with you. You heard him coming so you kept skipping along until he got closer and suddenly stopped, essentially brake checking him and cracking up as he slammed into you, nearly knocking both of you to the floor.
As you grab onto him to stop him from actually falling face-first into the floor, you interlocked your fingers with his and pulled him over to the playground you used to hang out at with your friends all throughout elementary and middle school. It stopped before high school though because this was also where you had your first heartbreak the summer before your freshman year.
One humid summer night, you were here with your crush and you had finally worked up the guts to ask them out thanks to the confidence of starting a new chapter of your life. You were undeniably broken when they rejected you and walked away without even bothering to tell you why. You sat on the swing set, allowing your tears to fall in silence.
You tell this story to Jeno as you sit at that same swing set, his strong arms gently pushing you forward every so often. “How about I make this place a happier memory for you?” he suggests, moving to stand in front of you, his hands grabbing the chains of the swing to stop your momentum.
You let confusion overtake your face as your feet settle on the dirt beneath the swings, fully stopping your movement and looking up at Jeno. “Y/n, I just want you to know how utterly thankful I am to have met you,” he began, making sure to hold eye contact with you, “you’ve brought so much joy and happiness to me without even knowing it and i’m glad to be your best friend. I would’ve never thought that we’d become so close due to our backgrounds but that’s what makes our friendship so special.” He pauses, trying to carefully piece together his next sentence. “I know I told you that I have feelings for you, but even if I can only stay by your side as a friend, I’m more than happy to do just that as long as you are happy-”
You abruptly stand up, cutting him off midsentence as you let your hands go to his which were frozen in place from where he was previously anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt. “Jeno, I’d like to give us a chance.” His eyes widened as he looked at you, not believing what he was hearing. “I’d like to give us a chance if it’s okay with you” you confess as Jeno smiles at you before pulling you into his embrace.
You hug him back, letting yourself get lost in his scent, your head resting on his shoulder. “Does this mean I’m your girlfriend now?” you ask, giggling into his chest.
You lean back slightly to see him nod as he said “Y/n, the girlfriend to the one and only Lee Jeno”, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. He still held onto you, not even bothering to pull away when he pulls his phone out of his pocket to answer a call from the staff member who’d be picking you up.
Once he ends the call, he kept his phone out to check the time and you felt all giddy when you see that his wallpaper is a picture from the concert of him and Soojin holding you up as if you were Simba, your laughter caught and preserved in time. “You know, Jeno, one day I’m gonna be able to hold you up like that” you muse.
“Mmm, I wouldn’t set your hopes too high” he teases. You were about to hit him but he took off running towards the company van.
You chase after him yelling “Lee Jeno, this isn’t how you treat your girlfriend!”
He only laughs as he shouts back, “best friend first, girlfriend second” causing you to roll your eyes as you continue to run after him.
A/N - this is inspired by a dream i had two months ago so it’s not really the best storyline lmao but let me know what you guys think. character inspo drawn from @t-aeycng as Soojin because she is truly a wonderful person and you should definitely check out her work as well
@nct-writers
#NCT WRITERS#neohours#neowriters#nct#NCT dream#jeno#NCT imagines#NCT scenarios#NCT fanfic#NCT fluff#Jeno imagines#Jeno scenarios#Jeno fanfic#Jeno fluff#NCT dream imagines#NCT dream scenarios#NCT dream fanfic#NCT dream fluff#lee jeno#NCT jeno#NCT lee jeno#NCT dream jeno#NCT dream lee jeno#kpop imagines#kpop scenarios#kpop fanfic#kpop fluff#walk you home
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Bkdk Fic Rec
I’ve been inspired to write a fic rec! This one goes out to you @lonely-rabbit
At like, the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 I stayed up until 4am every night reading fics, and because I’m such a loser, I made a word doc to keep track of all of them so I wouldn’t forget them.... I tried organizing it by length but it got messy cause I’m ridiculous and cluttered, so sorry! (I’ll save my own for the end alskdjflsdkfj gotta self promote you know). This is going to get...really long, so I’ll put it under a read more! Also, just a heads up, these are all on ao3, in case that’s important to anyone!
Disclaimer: Any fics with mature or explicit content I will add a bolded warning for, even if it’s only a little bit. Normally most fics will be tagged as such, but some fics that are rated as teen I’ve found to be more suggestive than some of those rated as mature, so I will try to point it out where it feels necessary, for anyone who wishes to avoid it.
Fics under 1k:
Illuminate by TheQueen (269 words)
Summary: Bakugou watches the first firework launch and fights to keep his face neutral
Very short, plot is about a case of amnesia, also very cute and well written for that length! Not angsty at all imo
sweaty hands holding secrets - shounentwink (563 words)
Summary: Someone said Midoriya holds secrets in his hair.
It’s not true: He holds it tightly in his hands. Bakugou’s seen it.
I really like this writer! You’ll see quite a bit of them in this post alkdsjfalskdjf
Fics 1k - 10k:
Many sunflowers later - Jeka (2395 words)
Summary: Scholar Midoriya Izuku comes back to the person he left behind after his journey through the kingdom, the mighty dragon clan leader Bakugou Katsuki.
Day 1 of Twin Stars Week 2020: Fantasy AU.
First of all, fantasy au!!! Second of all, jeka!!! (I need to read more of your stuff!!) Anyways, so cute, such lovely, pretty writing, wonderful story telling, and they’re so in love TT_TT
Boom Badoom Boom - warschach (3429 words)
Summary: Izuku's working the kissing booth at the school fair, it just so happens Katsuki has been crushing on him since the first grade.
“Did you—“ Izuku parted his mouth with no sound leaving it, “Did you pay?”
“Yea.”
“For a kiss?”
This one’s a little silly but I love it still. It’s got a “kids in the 80′s over summer vacation” vibe, I think. I love warschach! I should read more of their writing... They have SUCH good bakudeku content! *It’s rated teen but there’s some suggestive content, just a heads up!
Hopeless Ramen-tic - lalazee (7155 words)
Summary: Midoriya is a cute guy who works at a ramen stall and Bakugou is thirsty as hell, but has to hide it by being an asshat. Another love story.
Ah, so good TT_TT so much sass, such good plot development and story telling for a simple concept *It’s rated as teen but again, it can be suggestive at times!
I’ll share this with you, so leave it behind - yabakuboi (3508 words)
Suammry: For the sake of the story, All Might is never in need of a successor, and, when Izuku saves Katsuki from the sludge monster, encourages young Midoriya down a different path. Thus, Katsuki and Izuku part ways after junior high, as Katsuki enters U.A. and the Midoriyas move overseas. It’s later that Katsuki realizes that there’s something missing, that he drove that something away.
Years after, Katsuki finds him in the last place he looks, in the cereal aisle at the local grocery store of their childhood neighborhood.
So soft, so sweet, so good if you just want to curl up in a comfy blanket and drink hot cocoa and feel warm and cozy and a little in love
The Secret Deku Box - yabakuboi (2241 words)
Summary: “Y’know, Bakugou never, ever talks about girls,” Kaminari says, his voice thoughtful.
“And I wonder why that is.” Ashido rolls her eyes.
“I’m just curious!” Kaminari whines. Kirishima drags the box out, unlabeled and unassuming, the lid not even fully clasped over the edges. “The guy has to— Whoa, what’s that?”
Kirishima realizes a little belatedly that this is a serious breach of privacy, and Bakugou will actually murder all of them. “Nothing!” he cries, attempting to shove it back under the bed, but Ashido snatches it away.
“Please be his porn stash!” Kaminari whispers as she whips the lid off.
Cute, funny, in canon, in character, and a must read I would say!
daisy bunches and heather branches - halcyonwhispers (5862 words)
Summary: izuku falls in love with the foul-mouthed tattoo artist next door.
Not another flower/tattoo shop au.... aldskjflaskdjfd Okay but punk!Bakugou is ALWAYS a smart move imo
the best part of me (is the worst I can give) - halcyonwhispers (5668)
Summary: Whole sentences usually make up people’s Words, but Katsuki got stuck with a name instead.
Izuku’s name.
I am such a sucker for soulmate aus when it comes to these boys TT_TT *There is some mature content, just a heads up!
Hard to Say - halcyonwhispers (8390 words)
Summary: Izuku is a Halfling, born after his faerie father spirited away his mom and then left her behind. Never quite fitting in with the humans or any of the supernatural beings in his small town, Izuku hoped that going to a diverse college in the big city will help him finally make friends.
Katsuki’s family has been powerful witches for generations, and he’s no different. Talented and a proclaimed genius to boot, he knew he shouldn’t waste his time on this dumbass (disgustingly cute) half-blood.
Or,
two idiots fall in love and don’t get that the other’s awkward cues are just a result of romantic tension.
I am ALSO a sucker for fantasy/mythical creatures au and I LOVED this one - Bakugou absolutely unable to handle how cute Midoriya is? Perfection - but it’s unfinished, and I don’t think it ever will be continued, unfortunately TT_TT
lots to unpack (throw away the whole suitcase) - shounentwink (4315 words)
Summary: “How’d you know?” Midoriya asks.
There’s a hunch to his shoulders that wasn’t there three hours ago. Freckled shoulders are kissed sunburnt and red: he looks like someone ran him over and left him like roadkill in the sunlight. Bakugou’s working with insurance today, but he could see the sparks of green lightning even from his elevated position in their shared agency. Midoriya’s holding his thumb, cracking it over and over — it looks like he’s rubbed it raw.
“Dunno,” Bakugou says. “Maybe you’re just easy to read, nerd.”
I love this one so much, it was one of the first ones I read, it’s so good, and it’s another that really affected how I view their relationship! Idk this one just hit for me
hang the moon from us (it’s a no from me) - shounentwink (1200 words)
Summary: Midoriya’s gonna get sick of Bakugou one of these days, and then the whole ruse will be over, and the balance of power will tilt beyond salvation, but that day isn’t today and it looks like Bakugou knows it.
What an asshole.
Once again, I’m a sucker for the fantasy au... But even more, the diction, the details, the imagery...it’s absolutely all stunning here. I wish I could write this pretty
In Which Bakugou Finds His One Tru Luv - Erina (5862 words) This is the first one of a series called The Misadventures of Explodo-kill Agency!
Summary: Welcome to the Explodo-kill agency! We can destroy your buildings, crash your cars, and help you solve one of the seven mysteries in life: who is Bakugou Katsuki's mysterious boyfriend?!
I’ll admit I’ve only read the first three but by god they are the funniest fics I’ve ever read in my life. I see that Erina has added more since the last time I checked it out! Tbh I was only interested in reading the purely bakudeku ones... (My favorite was the second one!! SO funny and cute!)
i still do - raeryn (9646 words)
Summary: He’s losing him to pieces, but Izuku still tries to make them count. In which a battle leaves Bakugou Katsuki with amnesia, and Izuku finds himself picking up the pieces.
So, this one makes me cry. TT_TT
One Thing Straight - winningshot (9899 words)
Summary: They totally aren't.
Hints of their relationship is found in all of their friends’ social media accounts, but majority of their fans still think that Katsuki and Izuku are in relationships with anybody but each other.
It was amusing up until it became sad.
Lmao it’s a little salty but I guess I can be too. This is a social media fic! There’s multiple ships in this one, too
A Demolition Boy & his Cryptid BF - kewltie (8472 words)
Summary: Bakugou of the Demolition Squad is famous for running one of the most popular Youtube channels on the web that regularly blow shit up and jumped off a perfectly good building for shit and giggles. He's also famous for his Cryptid BF™, never appearing on camera except for a few bodyshots and all information on him is kept locked up tighter than Fort Knox, therefore drawing all sort of attention and curiosity toward his mysterious boyfriend.
Deku from Deku Explains is a hopeless chatterbox who is known for uploading 20-30 minutes video that talked about his favorite shows and comics and have one of the most devoted following on Youtube. He also can't seem to shut up about his boyfriend Kacchan, who regularly make his presence on the channel as a disembodied voice.
They should theoretically have nothing in common except a shared platform to host their content and an army of fans with an endless curiosity and devotion to their Youtubers. Vidcon is where we lay our scene and the internet is about to get a rude wake up call.
Okay kewltie is SO GOOD and very creative! The formatting is phenomenal, it’s like you’re actually experiencing a social media melt down in real time lol
be my good luck charm - writedeku (6785 words)
Summary: See, the thing is, Midoriya Izuku had been born with a curse. It’s not a curse that’s particularly visible. He doesn’t have horns, or a tortured face, and it’s not the kind of silly curse like a friend of his had way down south in Diagnor, wherein the girl had been born without the ability to say the word duck. Midoriya Izuku is just extremely unlucky.
(Or the AU in which Izuku's the world's unluckiest travelling merchant, and Katsuki is someone who may be able to help him. For a price, that is.)
Oh I adore this one! It’s so cute and such a good narrative! Nice and warm, and Bakugou trying his damnedest to be suave, and it somehow working because Midoriya is just as flustered. *Another one rated as teen but some suggestive content.
Smells Like Victory - majjale (2377 words)
Summary: Bakugou takes two steps into the room and stops, clapping a hand over his nose. “Ugh, what stinks like Deku in here?”
"Good afternoon, Bakugou. That would be the amortentia."
I must admit, not a fan of HP, but majjale...TT_TT majjale writes these two boys so well. This one is really, really good!
Cherish Me - Justaperson1718 (2376 words)
Summary: “What?”
Izuku looked back down at his menu and flipped the page, a small smile on his face. “Nothing.”
Katsuki glared at Izuku from across the table. “If it was nothing then you wouldn’t be staring at me.”
“It’s just a little funny watching you try to look your best for our date when you always look great anyway,” Izuku explained. He wouldn’t look up from his menu while he spoke, but his words remained ingrained with confidence nevertheless. He considered what he was saying to be fact, and nothing else. “Even when you’re not trying in front of the cameras, it’s still hard to take my eyes off of you.”
This is a sequel to a fic that’ll be in the next section, because it’s longer, called Manage Me. Please read that one first before this one! (Not part of a series, but they’re the same story line)
Fascinating - Justaperson1718 (1556 words)
Summary: “I’m not staring at you,” Izuku replied, his eyes focused intently on Katsuki. He’s still wearing his pajamas, sitting on his knees in their shared bed. He was awake moments before Katsuki, and waited eagerly for the other to awake.
Katsuki glanced over his shoulder after his shirt was on and glared. “You’re fucking staring at me right now.”
Izuku shook his head, humming his disapproval quietly. “I’m watching you.”
“That’s the same damn thing,” Katsuki said while searching for a pair of pants in the dresser. “Your eyes are fixated on me like I’m your life’s fucking goal or some shit.”
“I just like watching you get dressed.” Izuku tilted his head to the side and smiled softly at Katsuki’s confused stare. “I know, it’s weird. But I like it.”
*There is a little bit of implied mature content, but overall, it’s just so sweet and intimate, and I just simply adore this one.
in a place once filled with gold - dorenamryn (9226 words)
Summary: It felt strange to remember such details, for they were things a friend should know, and as far as Katsuki was concerned, he and Deku hadn’t been friends in a very, very long time. He could admit, with reluctance, that they were on the path there, now, even though they would never make it. Katsuki would die before they could get the chance.
or: There is a garden growing in Katsuki’s lungs, and he is helpless to stop it.
“Hanahaki disease” okay, I can explain myself. Okay, I can’t. In any case, you got angst with a happy ending if that’s what you’re into!
Kaleidoscope - DPRenFTW (5141 words)
Summary: Izuku is a witch. He just needs to find his familiar. Enter a boy that is a wolf, and a wolf that is a boy - with wild red eyes and sharp smiles.
And Izuku thinks:
"Oh, it's him."
Just as beautiful and fascinating as the name implies! I seriously recommend for the beautiful writing, the gorgeous world, the mythical creatures au, and the lovely bakudeku romance!
Learning Curve - sensiblysilly (4222 words)
Summary: Deku and Katsuki’s first kiss goes rather differently than planned.
And Katsuki’s quickly learning that relationships can be unpredictable - especially when taking into account the variable that is Midoriya Izuku.
This really is just a careful handling of a teenage romance where perhaps one of them may have shit they’re still working through. It’s really sweet, and a careful study at boundaries and the building of a relationship. I actually stumbled across this while looking for another with the same name and ended up pleasantly surprised. Kacchan can has a little validation, as a treat.
4/20 is a national holiday - Ereri_Garbage (
Summary: Izuku is a drug dealer that doesn't really accept the fact he's a drug dealer, Katsuki is hot as hell as shouldn't be allowed a facebook.
Happy (Late) birthday Katsuki and happy (late) 4/20. I actually half assed an edit on this one so it took longer to post than I thought it would.
Uummmm lmao yes I have a sense of humor. ;ALDSKJFLSKDJF Okay, I say that, but this is not a crack fic, it’s a good story that I enjoy with good writing, and *it has mature, content, obviously for multiple reasons here. It’s rated as mature but there are borderline explicit moments imo. It’s a fun fic and funny, too! And, ngl, it really does remind me of college... But forget about me, the bakudeku is wonderful too of course :)
Drinking Watermelon - warschach (8906 words)
Summary: For whatever reason, maybe divine fate, Izuku turned and looked over his shoulder and waved to them.
Katsuki’s heart full on stopped right then, and his fingers forgot their duty on the rails, and his body neglected its job to keep Katsuki balanced.
Izuku’s summer sweet smile fell into concern as Katsuki went airborne and cracked his skull on the porch.
or Katsuki works as a camp counselor, and Izuku is a boy made of summer heat and sunlight.
Love it when people have Bakugou as absolutely enamored with Midoriya; it’s so good and true. Anyways this one makes me like summer camp story lines. It’s funny and also cute and great writing! *It’s got explicit content, just a heads up. Warschach stories just have this youthful 80′s vibe, I don’t know how else to explain it.
there are listed buildings - semiautomatichearts (3309)
Summary: Katsuki first sees colors bloom when he is only three years old. It is timid Izuku, hiding behind the cover of his mother's leg who looks upon him with wide eyes, and Katsuki's world explodes in shades of greens and pinks and blues, and he is so startled, he begins to cry.
His life is then on defined in color, in shades his peers can't see, by the forlorn, timid stare in Izuku's eyes that always lets off more than he is willing to tell. There is a schism driven between himself and his fated other, and Katsuki strives to be better than fate, better than what is defined for him. He is more than the written pages of a book, to be cracked open and read by the gods.
He wonders if it is possible for colors to bloom for someone who will never love you back.
Ah...soulmates :) So interesting how bakudeku fits into soulmate aus like this one when they’ve known each other as kids! And when they’ve had this complex push and pull thing going on all their lives! The writing is beautiful, and so is the story!
Promise Ring - bkdkwritingsdump (3579)
Summary: The midwest in the 1950′s is no place for boys who like kissing boys: something Izuku and Katsuki know all too well growing up there. However, the undeniable bond between the nervous science geek and the aloof delinquent will still find a way to blossom in such a desert.
Cute, sweet, makes my gay heart ache. Longing not just for the one you love, but just to feel right loving them. Very pretty story line, lovely story telling!
Fics 10k - 30k:
Fishy - warschach (19417 words)
Summary: Izuku’s convinced his hot co-worker/neighbor, Katsuki, is a mermaid-or merman- you gotta consider genders even with mythical creatures- and plans to prove it.
(or this is kinda like the show ‘Monster Quest’, except Izuku actually finds said monster, falls in love, and have sexy times.)
Another warschach! I love this one, I love how they write bakudeku, particularly as college students, their stories (at least, the ones that I’ve read) always feel so warm, like a summer’s day, but not a lazy one, one that’s playful? If that makes sense? *This one is explicit, another heads up!
Manage Me - Justaperson1718 (10756 words)
Summary: Izuku caught himself moving forward, his head tilted somewhat to the side, and his eyes shot wide open. His gaze met Katsuki’s half-lidded eyes now that he was no longer in a dreamlike state, and seeing the way Katsuki was looking at him—waiting for him—made him realize Katsuki would’ve let him do it. He might have even wanted him to do it.
“You’re both doing fabulous!” the photographer called out to them, packing his camera into his bag and getting ready to leave. “I just got word that what we have now should be good, so we’ll stop there. Thank you for your time! Lock the door on your way out after you change.”
The pair stayed frozen in place, with Izuku’s arms around Katsuki’s neck and Katsuki’s hands resting on Izuku’s waist, while the photographer and his supervisor left.
“Kacchan,” Izuku cooed once they were gone. “Did you want to…?”
Love the story, love the bakudeku! Very, very good bakudeku TT_TT very sweet *There is some mature content in here as well
point to a map (we’ve been there) - cosmicfuss (10589 words)
Summary: Serendipity / sĕr″ən-dĭp′ĭ-tē Serendipity is the occurrence of an unplanned fortunate discovery. Two men find themselves on a subway, hot coffee on one while the other is in the middle of a screaming match. After that they can't seem to stop finding each other, no matter how far they go.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; this fic owns my entire soul. I love the story, the ease of their relationship, just how lovely they are together. It’s another kind of nice, fluffy fic you’d read on a bad day where you come home and curl up in a blanket and listen to a ten hour video of thunderstorm white noise. *Again, some more mature content in here
Partners - tsukithewolf (13619 words) Another series! Two parts to this one this time
Summary: It is said that in Musutafu there is a charm that one can buy at a temple that will lead you to your destined partner. They say that if the charm works, you would be able to follow the red string of fate to the person you were meant to be with. And if the person returns your feelings, they would be able to see the string as well, proving that both were meant to be.
Three-year-old Katsuki and Izuku misunderstand what the word "partner" means and discover the charm and the rumor behind it is not only true, but more than expected.
Gets a little heavy, depression, bullying, suicidal thoughts, etc. But it must get worse before it gets better, that kind of thing. I also just adore the second part (called Bond) - maybe because it’s much fluffier, what about it?
Learning Curve - iknewaman (10304 words)
Summary: “Izuku.” Uraraka repeats as she motions at the person stood next to her. Green curls, average height, and, well. Up close, not such a bad smile. Uraraka points a thumb at Bakugou and enunciates slowly, “This is Bakugou. He can speak sign language too.”
Wait. Sign language?
The stranger— well, Izuku— looks at him with a raised brow. Their free hand lifts up as they make a slight motion of the hand.‘
Really?’
*
Bored out of his mind at a house party one night Bakugou is introduced to Izuku, a deaf student who offers to help teach Bakugou sign language in exchange for a favour-- or well, is prompted into asking for a favour.
Ah, I really want to explain this one a little bit? I’d never been into fanfiction ever, only really getting into it with these boys. This was the second one I read, I remember, and it caught me off guard, and it intrigued me. It really surprised me as to what fanfiction could be. Ngl I had biased perceptions of fanfics - I used to be one of those people who thought fanfiction could never be good writing - and this one slapped me in the face with it’s subtle beauty and creative story and heart melting capabilities, and very, very real relationship and growth. Anyways it’s so cute how happy Deku is to teach Kacchan sign language TT_TT Make sure to read the tags!
The Keeper and the Sun God’s Heir - SurelyHeavenWaits (12746 words)
Summary: The Titans' have stolen something important from Izuku, heir of the Sun God, and he wants it back.
This one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one this one- Oh my god this one. Okay so what, I was a Percy Jackson kid, what about it? I love the mythical aus, particularly the god ones. But beyond that, the writing is so beautiful, just like the world, and the imagery. The bakudeku...absolutely stunning. The story itself? Incredible. Cannot recommend more. *There is explicit content in this, though I will say, it’s all in the last chapter, and all of the story is in the first two chapters. There’s also a second part as it’s a series and it’s short but it’s cute and sweet TT_TT
seven days - aaAAAaaahhhhHHHHH (10094 words)
Summary: There’s something about the green haired boy, an aura that just drew Katsuki in before he even knew his name.
[Sometimes your mind forgets, but your heart remembers]
Heed my warning: DON’T read this in front of other people. I bawl every time I read this one TT_TT I know I said I don’t like angst but AJLSKDFJALSKDFJ it has a hopeful ending! I mean yeah you’re gonna cry but...hope? :’) (that username really says it all tbh)
Fics 30k+
Notice me, nerd - useless_donut (40000 words)
Summary: Bakugou is in love with Midoriya. He doesn’t hide it, in fact it’s so painfully obvious that the entire class of 3-A has him figured out in a matter of months (days, in some cases). Too bad Midoriya is the most oblivious motherfucker out there, and Bakugou is too damn stubborn to actually ask him out.
Will the class of 3-A survive the sexual tension? Who will snap first? Someone put Bakugou out of his misery, please, before everyone else dies of second-hand embarrassment.
(a love story as witnessed by the class of 3-A)
Love the idea of Bakugou being brazen and brash, cause yeah, he is. So fucking funny though how that translates to him flirting. Gotta say, thought I was gonna cringe, but his “I’m gay af” outfit really ended up being A Look. Love the mutual pining, it really is strong in this one. *Okay, mature content in this one lads.
While You Were Sleeping - Belkacaramelka (71197 words)
Summary: The one where quirkless fanboy Midoriya Izuku rescues Pro Hero Todoroki Shouto, gets mistaken as his fiancé while he is in a coma, and gets caught up in the most unlikely fake engagement... until his childhood enemy and Todoroki's classmate Bakugou Katsuki tries to catch him out, and they both end up discovering a lot more about each other than they'd expected.
Quirkless AU based on the film; endgame BakuDeku. -- Katsuki didn’t know when the change had happened: how he had gone from asking why Todoroki chose Deku of all people, to wondering why it was Todoroki that Deku chose. Troublesome Deku, who cooed like an idiot at cats, tripped at a random catcall and sang badly. Who, despite everything, proved that it wasn’t the quirk that defined a person. Deku, who was too much, not his, and undeniably off limits to begin with.
Update: Epilogue added
*This one has mature content. If you can, please, for the love of god, read this fic. It’s like, tied with my favorite bkdk fic perhaps ever. It’s based on the movie of the same title, a nineties romcom with Sandra Bullock, but Belkacaramelka has so effortlessly made it into it’s own story, fit it so perfectly inside of the bnha world. I definitely stayed up until 6:30am reading this one. It’s got such good badass Midoriya, who is also sweet, and really really good reconciliation between bakudeku.
All Gifted - fitzefitcher (39129 words)
Summary: The thing about gifts is that they're meant to be given, they're meant to be shared; so Izuku will take his gifts, so freely given to him, and share them with all he holds dear.
Izuku is born without any gifts, as his kind often are, to a witch mother and salamander father, on one sweltering night in July.
This one is unfinished...and I highly doubt it will ever be. But what has been written is incredible. Once again, I’m a sucker for the magic/mythical creatures aus. But the relationship is great! The characterization is great! The found family trope that was building up is great!
under a hollow sun - umbrage (40572 words)
Summary: Midoriya is cursed with emptiness.
Misfortune leads him to a man of ancient magic and endless rage.
To stop an unfathomable evil, their mismatched halves must become whole.
Uuuggghhhh this was so good! I don’t think it’s going to be finished either :( Once again, fantasy au, more amazing writing, on point characterization, incredible pacing, makes you hungry for more story.
all the savage soul requires - majjale (58032 words)
Summary: Bakugou seems to have exhausted his patience for words and no longer acknowledges that Midoriya exists, so Midoriya crosses his legs, stares down at his hands limned in firelight, and makes a list of things he knows.
One. His name is Midoriya Izuku.
Two. He is a Godmarked, future god of life, heir to the divine throne.
Three. The gods have been fighting Death for eons, and now he's coming for recompense with everything he’s got.
This is majjale, so of course, the writing is more than beautiful; it’s absolutely breathtaking. This may be my favorite fic ever - unfortunately I don’t think it will ever be finished either TT_TT There’s the gods/fantasy au, which you know by now I love. But the characterization of our two boys is absolutely perfect, and I mean that as literally as possible. And the story being crafted between the two, the memory loss, the obvious history muddled by it all, it was so dense, and the PINING, so incredibly written, flowing so naturally. It wasn’t even close to being done, but it was wonderful, still is wonderful.
My Writing: (You can skip this if you hate shameless self promotion)
You’re too damn flicking cute (1815 words)
Summary: Bakugou is certain his shitty boyfriend is instigating kisses. Maybe it doesn't help that he keeps giving them away like it's a damn going out of business sale, but the stupid nerd is too fucking cute. Either way, like everything else, this is a competition, and he's going to win it.
Please don’t read this unless you’re going to the dentist afterwards! I’ve been told it’s so sweet it’ll give you instant cavities >_>;;;;
Bakugou Katsuki, you smooth motherfucker (10118 words)
Summary: Everyone around him knows that Bakugou Katsuki has a very special way with words. To the untrained ear he is loud and crass; to those that speak Kacchan, he is caring and inspiring. Yet there are rare moments, moments so fleeting you blink and you miss them, where Bakugou’s words pierce straight through Midoriya’s chest, and surprise everyone around him.
Goddammit, if only he would say them to Midoriya’s face.
Or, the five times Bakugou said something nice about Midoriya, and the one time he said something kind to him (but that was too long of a title).
I think most would consider this my best published fic; it’s one of those snapshot fics, “the five times where x did this, and the one time where they didn’t.” The recurring comment I get on this one is both of them being super in character, so I think that’s it’s defining characteristic! Bakugou and Midoriya have never known a life without the other, and in a perfect world, they never will.
Here, let me fix that (11247 words)
Summary: Bakugou honestly never thought he’d see Deku ever again. And now that they were together in this tiny compartment, alone for the next two and a half minutes, he had no clue what to say. He’d just apologized, right? So perhaps he could leave it at that and carry on with the original plan to never see the green-haired man that reminded him of dense forests, late night adventures, and tear-stained faces, ever again.
Ha! Who is he kidding? These bitches are soulmates.
I’ve gotten some critiques on this one, so sorry in advance if it’s not to your liking! Basically, what if Midoriya never got his quirk? Obviously, life would find a way to put them together because, as previously stated, these bitches are soulmates.
Plenty of Time (16654 words)
Summary: Bakugou found what little sleep he got restless and filled with nightmares that he forgot the second he opened his eyes. Tonight was the first time in a long time where he just had a normal dream - and it happened to be about Deku.
How fucking typical.
In other words, two dorks realize they have feelings for each other but don't know what to do about said feelings.
Ah, my first fic. Very simple, boys being boys, kinda like a slow burn? Idk how to explain this one, just boys figuring out their feelings and trying to figure out what to do about them. Been told these two are a little stupid but I think that’s valid.
We’re all time bombs waiting to explode (39223 words)
Summary: We have now entered the slipstream of time, into an alternate dimension where it neither is, nor isn’t, the 80’s. Two teenagers, burdened with the weight of adolescence in the modern world, find themselves struggling side by side, in part because of each other.
Bakugou, the most popular boy in school, has everything he could possibly want; status, power, and an unbreakable will. Having been dragged along behind him all the way to the top, Midoriya can’t help but wonder how (and why) he ended up standing beside his childhood friend-turned bully-turned friend again, weighed down by their complicated past and present. As the tension between them grows every day, and the arrival of a new, pretty face causes it to peak, it won’t be long before something - or someone - snaps.
I am...very bad at titles, and summaries apparently. This was my Heathers au, but it very quickly diverges from the original (I don’t do sad endings....) *This one has mature content, including implied sexual activity, drug use, and underage drinking, along with other heavy topics; please read the tags! Though tbh Midoriya is 17 for a couple weeks before it hits his birthday halfway through, so keep that in mind I guess? I kind of went heavy with this one, but I think the pay off was immense. This is the one with the most amount of comments stating it’s their favorite bkdk fic ever (and I cry). It’s a rough start, with a rough journey, but so is bakudeku! There’s a lot of petty drama, and then all of a sudden it’s Not That Petty and very much Far Too Real. Many have cried reading the ending, I cried writing it. My sister says it’s her favorite of mine. Now, I did kind of push this out without polishing it so much because I was losing my willpower, so if it feels lacking, that’s one hundred percent my fault.
Okay that was a lot! It took me a couple days...I hope I wasn’t too annoying with all my opinions! Please have a nice day. and enjoy some good reads, even if they aren’t the ones in this post!
#bakudeku#katsudeku#boku no hero academia#my hero academia#mha#bnha#bkdk#fics#my writing#god i really hope i didn't fuck up any of this#i spent a long time on it alksdjflaskjdflkasdjf#this is 39 fics without my own#and 44 including mine#i can tell i've forgotten some but#idk it's hard TT_TT#anyways it's 2:30am#if i go to bed at 4am one more time i'm gonna throw myself down a flight of stairs#i hope this is good enough as is!#most of this was written very late so I hope it doesn't sound...crazed
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Hey! So I’ve just recently actually gotten into the 1D fandom. I liked their music back then but wasn’t a “directioner” until like 3 weeks ago lmao. i’m very susceptible and I’ve got a lot of shit going on and you seem pretty level-headed so I thought I’d talk to you.
Why do you think it’s so easy to get dragged into the Larrie fandom? And why is the desire for it to be true is so strong? I was at first, and honestly seeing the relationships between all the boys is what got me into the fandom. but then I found multiple posts debunking basically everything and someone going off on a tangent about stickers on a bear and I realized that was crazy so I quickly got out of that. And yet, even though when I say it out loud and I can hear how crazy it is and I know logically I don’t actually believe it, it still festers even though I only believed it or even thought it for like a week.
Then just yesterday I found the conspiracy I guess you could call it about Louis and him being promoted in the media and the things regarding Harry specifically by sea… I can’t remember their full @ And honestly some of the things they said I thought about even before I read it, not to that same extent obviously, but… but I can’t seem to find anyone debunking it or giving me something else to see because i’m all about facts and so when something is presented as fact, as they did, I tend to believe it
I wanted to hear from you especially when you pointed out the antisemitism because i realized i could trust you. I’m Jewish and yet lived in a bubble without really being exposed to antisemitism. so I see and understand the hidden antisemitism in believing that Harry’s managers are a “big bad” behind every corporation controlling everything who are responsible for every artist but it wasn’t until you pointed it out that I even noticed it. Now I feel like a bad Jew for not being able to see it. I just wanted someone to vent to about all this I guess?
sorry for staying anonymous i’m pretty ashamed…
Hi! There's no need to be ashamed; conspiracy theories are designed to intrigue and pull you in. The alarm bells seemed to go off for you very quickly.
I think it's very easy to get sucked in to Larry because it's so seductive - on the surface it's bright and pretty, with seemingly endless archives of 1D content; pretty pictures and gifs; a young, engaged, super-passionate fanbase desperate to tell you all about it and bring you into their world... It has romance! It has angst! It has two pretty English teenage boys at the centre! It has villains and allies, and endless scope to indulge persecution complexes and saviour complexes...What more could you need apart from it being real?
With Sea, so much of what she writes is so very, very stupid that nobody bothers 'debunking' it. Her blog is a joke. It's debunked by common sense. But it's a good example of what happens when conspiracy theorists turn sour and, instead of stepping away from the conspiracy, they twist it in a new, intensely negative direction.
Sea is a Larrie. She believes all the basic Larrie crap like the closeted romance, the teddy bears' secret messages, the fake baby, the hired girlfriends, the show houses etc. She doesn't want to be called a Larrie because that's intensely embarrassing, but she can't let go. She cannot separate Louis from Harry, and vice versa. She sees everything they do through the prism of their non-existent former romantic relationship. She thinks their albums are full of songs written about that relationship. She mocks Larries relentlessly as if it's somehow less delusional and ridiculous to believe in her version of Larrie than theirs.
Just because Sea says she's presenting facts it doesn't mean she actually is. Larries do this all the time. "I'm sorry, but I can't unsee what I've seen with my own eyes" they say, referring to slowed down gifs of a gesture or a look shared 10 years ago. "It's impossible to let go, knowing what I know", they say, referring to their belief that Harry and Louis were sending them secret messages about their relationship via two teddy bears. "I've seen the facts and where I see injustice, I must speak out", says Sea, referring to her belief that Harry Styles has spent the last five years of his life trying to destroy his former lover/bandmate's career in a quest for fame and glory.
First of all, her facts are not always facts. You'll notice that she self-references all the time - hyperlinking to her own posts which in turn hyperlink to her older posts etc etc, getting further and further away from the actual fact at the core of it. After enough time, she doesn't even need to hyperlink anymore, she just uses a buzzword and her clueless followers do the rest. For example, "Euphoria" is one of her buzzwords. Sea and her followers have perpetuated the belief that Harry deliberately had an explicit Larrie fanfiction scene inserted into an episode of Euphoria without Louis' consent. This started with the fact that Jeremy O Harris, whom Harry had recently got to know at the time Euphoria was broadcast, had been a consultant on the first season of Euphoria (not a writer, not a producer), and tweeted about the episode tagging Harry. It's got to the point where I saw a tinhat post recently that said in the tags that Harry had "literally" written the script for Euphoria! Sea reblogged it.
She and other tinhats like her will also wildly exaggerate to emphasise Louis' "persecution". Using the Euphoria example again, they claim that the episode unleashed a new wave of mostly negative press about Louis that implies he is homophobic...
...Google "Louis Tomlinson Euphoria" and make up your own mind.
It's important to remember that you can tag a lot of facts together and draw whatever outrageous conclusions you want - it doesn't make your conclusion real. You just have to look at how Larries took one fact ("there is a picture book called Louis The Fish") and another fact ("Adore You features a fish") and concluded that Harry was sending messages about his love for Louis in his video (or that HSHQ wanted Larries to believe Harry was sending messages about his love for Louis in his video). Neither of those conclusions are true.
Good luck!
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WIP ROUNDUP!!
i was tagged by @trashpocket (hey bae ;)) and since im lonely here on tumblr and have no one but the void to yell at, i won’t be tagging anyone :((
okay let’s start off with my published WIPS lol i have quite a collection and boy do i regret posting most of these, but anyway that’s here’s my hot girl shit
"i’ll figure it out with a little more time” - (if u knew me at my thai BL phase no u didn’t :)) anyways this was a supposed to be a pretty short fic that features an oblivious Sarawat not knowing how to navigate his feelings towards Tine and Tine being an equally giant dumbass. their school is hosting a school dance and Sarawat’s emotionally constipated ass doesn’t know how to SPEAK and just ASK Tine to go w/ him. i swear i might be the author of this story but i also get mad at these fuckers
“we’re boyfriends?” - ah yes another Thai BL fic, i will admit. i have NO idea where to take this story lmao. i still wanna finish it tho cuz i hate disappointing ppl. the fic starts with Ae and Pond making a dumb bet so Pond will stop jerking off in their shared room and promises that he won’t do that as long Ae dates someone random and based off of Pond’s choosing. sweet bby Pete wanders into their campus accidentally and gets picked. Ae does the deed and tells Pete they’re dating. Ae thinks that Pete and Pond are scheming to make his life a living hell but lo and behold Pete has actually fallen in love with him (heheheh)
“i wanna ruin our friendship” - hello lgbtq+ community :). we all know where this fuckin title is from don’t be sneaky. so here’s my KilluGon college fic. I initially wrote this like two years ago and uploaded it on wattpad lmaooo then i edited it and posted on ao3 and once again i have no idea where to take this (ive forgotten what my original idea for this was lol) so basically Killua and Gon are really close friends and Gon is sortof a player in this AU idk why khdkadha but anywayz all of Gon’s exes have left him bc they’re jealous of Killua but Gon would never pick his current S/O over him so HAAA. it all goes to shit tho when Retz decides to trick Gon to taking her back for the school dance and idk what path to go for T_T
AIGHT now for my UNPUBLISHED WIPS buckle up yall this is a LOT. all the titles are WIPS so that’s why theyre iffy lol
“pussy talented”- (don’t mind the title lmao i just wanted a cat pun in there somewhere) basically, Bokuto is a firefighter and Akaashi an editor. They work near each other and Bokuto often visits Kuroo, who works with Akaashi. Ofc Akaashi falls in love at first sight but then he overhears that he has a "Kenma" waiting for him at home. Akaashi assumes that he's probably Bo's boyfriend and then leaves him alone, making Bo confused as hell. Little that he knows that Kenma is actually a grumpy calico cat.
“killugon flower shop AU” - Wing owns a flower shop and Killua helps out with Zushi along with Alluka out of boredom and one day Alluka asks Killua to help out with her client then he meets Gon and is immediately smitten until Gon says that he's looking for something that he can give to a girlfriend (it was actually Ging's request lol), lots of misunderstanding, Killua being too shy to ask the handsome stranger out and Alluka and Zushi being done with his shit
“rice isn’t the only thing getting crushed here” - Osamu falls in love with one of his most loyal costumers—Akaashi and he thinks he might just have a shot at it until one day while Akaashi is ordering a bunch of riceballs, Bokuto Koutaro of Japan's National Volleyball team enters the restaurant and sweeps Akaashi of his feet, unexpected angst and a generous helping of unrequited pining :)) dw this fic can go two ways: Bokuto is just Akaashi's best friend who he hasn't seen in months or b. Bokuto is actually Akaashi's fiance maybe i’ll write both endings heehee
“killua is sad and gets lovebombed” - while staying in Whale Island, Killua thinks he that he doesn't deserve Gon and tries to leave him while he's asleep but his plan is stopped when Gon wakes up and they both end up revealing their true feelings for each other
“excuse to write charles getting fucked by two delicious men” - Erik and Charles have been in a relationship for years now and basically fell out of love so when Erik gets promoted and has to move, Charles agrees and so they break up. Charles turns to Logan (who harbors a giant crush on Charles) for companionship and sleep together once. Logan says it was an accident but Charles wants more and they establish a FWB situation of sorts since Charles isn't ready yet. But then Charles gets into an accident and can't remember what happened the past year and a half so he still thinks he's with Erik. Meanwhile, Erik is living a luxurious yet empty life and when he gets the call from Raven about Charles' situation, he immediately goes back running.
“killua in whale island” - KilluGon are like 20-ish and Killua visits Whale Island and Ging just happens to be there as well. Killua thinks about how even though Gon and Ging are near identical, Gon just looks so much more handsome. (probs just a oneshot)
“another horny cherik fic” - Charles is a demon who was accidentally summoned when Raven, Hank and Ororo uses Erik's blood to perform a demon summoning ritual (as a joke) they didn't know it would actually work so now Charles is stuck with Erik because the human absolutely refuses to sell his soul
“IwaOi overboard AU” - Oikawa is a rich pretty boy and Iwa a college dropout who works at his uncle's repair shop with his younger brother Tobio and cousin Kyoutani ( both 5 yrs old). One day he gets called over to fix one of Oikawa's cars and after a failed and disastrous encounter with a drunk Oikawa, Iwa leaves the mansion fuming. Later in the day, it's discovered that Oikawa got in a car crash that took away his memories and since Oikawa apparently lives alone, he has no one to get him. not until Iwa comes ofc and with a malicious and vengeful intent, he tells Oikawa that they're dating and live together in his crappy apartment
“dancer Akaashi” - Akaashi is a dancer, Osamu is a bartender at the bar he works at and has also been in love with Akaashi for the past two years. He doesn't confess since he knows Akaashi doesn't like romance but then enters a bright eyed cheery Bokuto who sweeps the unreachable Midnight Moon off of his feet, bokuaka but im leaning towards bokuosaaka since akaashi deserves two boyfriends
“watch me be poetically horny for Akaashi Keiji” - Akaashi is a vampire and Osamu, a skilled artist. Akaashi posing nude and delighted at how beautifully Osamu portrays him. Osamu says otherwise.
Cherik College AU - drift by great gable.... late teens cherik... Erik being a misanthropic horny bastard and Charles a snarky piece of shit.... they get paired up for 7 minutes in heaven... turns out Charles has been ogling him for a while now.. hmmmm,,,.,. ( i wrote this when i was drunk and my og draft is too long so take this instead lolz)
“ BokuAka (NSFW) ” - Bokuto pushing off a guy who tried to hit on Akaashi while they're at a club. Akaashi gets so turned on he immediately drags Bokuto to the bathroom where he gets his facefucked in one of the bathroom stalls or Akaashi getting his face fucked in a dirty alley at the back of a bar after Bokuto gets into a fistfight.
“KuroKen (NSFW) ” -Kenma does top during sex but but he's just really lazy to put in the effort
aight that’s it oh damn i just now realize how much i have T-T bruhhhhhhh and this isn’t even all of them damnnn
#wips#fanfic#fanfic wips#cherik#charles xavier#erik lensherr#xmen#haikyuu!!#hq!!#bokuaka#kuroken#osaaka#bokuosaaka#bokuto koutaro#akaashi keiji#miya osamu#hxh#hunter x hunter#killugon#killua zoldyck#gon freecs#thai bl#2gether the series#sarawat#tine#sarawatine#love by chance#aepete#iwaoi#Iwaizumi Hajime
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FEH - "The outside world...! So vast!" (+10 WIP Sophia mini-showcase and appreciation)
So, with the [Feh Pass] subscription, I've been auto battling as much as I could while doing whatever else and gather [Hero Feathers] to get all the [HM] I had yet to get, and it was absolutely worth it, although I've already spent like 300 out of my 900+ something [Stamina Bottles] in the [Forging Bonds] lmao, I have around 660 now.
But with the obtained [Hero Feathers] I merged up Tailtiu to +6 and...
Poggers
I'm happy to have finished merging Sophia at long last which makes of her my eleventh fully merged project soon after New Year Eir, her build is pretty much done but I'd be delighted to give her more premium stuff she can use in the future and make more builds, as well as giving her the remaining [Dragonflowers (I)] but I'm so close to fully boost Sonya and then I have to boost OG and Legendary Julia because of the post-[CYL 2021] update. 🥴
But her current build does wonders already, true, she's not impervious to nearly everything as it is, but I can give her some team support and the like, she's still great on her own.
Now, onto appreciation talk which includes describing her a little and explaining why I like her. I did this in one of my previous posts but it's time to review the info we have about her and expand on it. As always, feel free to read on (long read ahead)...
About Sophia
She's a half-dragon, half-human girl with the power of foresight, she's a priestess residing in Arcadia, a village that houses manaketes that survived one of the most vicious wars from past lore (The Scouring) located in the southwestern desertic region (Nabata) in Elibe, the continent on which the sixth and seventh Fire Emblem games take place in, she's a playable [Shaman] in the former and makes a minor appearance as a NPC near the end of the latter. Her class makes of her one of the two playable dark magic users in Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals (the other is the guy you're most likely to get while pulling on red stones in FEH, a.k.a. Raigh), and she gains access to basic staves after promoting to [Druid].
In her support convo with Niime, it's revealed that Sophia's father was human, meaning that her mother was a dragon, but neither's identity is ever known to the player. But despite this, she never transforms into a dragon, most likely because she never had her own stone to contain those powers. Being half-dragon also allows her to live much longer, but not as purebred manaketes/dragons.
She's fully self-aware of her heritage and doesn't let that bother her, she accepts both halves of herself which make of her a whole person.
She's somewhat important around the half of the game's duration as she helps a gravely injured Cecilia to at least tend to her wounds while waiting for Roy's army to rescue them as they were both thrown into a prison under Bern's control (the kingdom invading the other countries during the events of the game).
Sophia displays a shy and gentle personality, showing clear astonishmnet yet in a calm way when witnessing what the outside world is like and what it has to offer (beyond the village she's been living for around a century), this is most evidenced in her support dialogues with Igrene. She even feels similarly when wearing a new set of clothes, such as those of Embla in the World of Zenith, anytime after she joins the Order of Heroes.
«As long as I am with you... I can go anywhere...even a new country...»
― Sophia
She also mentions she was raised to avoid outsiders, and in the same aforementioned support convo, it's mentioned why.
«I understand what he's saying... The Dragons' powers could easily destroy entire countries. If the outsiders found out, they would surely fight over it. I've seen many conflicts like that in my life...»
― Igrene
And it's understandable why she feels that way after being raised by the elder of the village to do as told for decades. But in the end, she wants to work towards a world of peace where both dragons and humans live together without a war ever spreading out, and befriend other people, she's appreciative of other's kindness.
So... why do I like her?
Because she's purple-haired and most of her design has purple and I love purple soooooo much, that's all you need to know. :)
...Kidding kidding, that's not actually it, but it's in part true that I find her aesthetic pleasing, partially due to my passion for this color:
(Official artwork from FE6)
Her design is rather simple but so charming, clearly evidencing her shyness (see the way she holds her book and her facial expression), and feeling clean without going overboard on details.
Also, I find long, purple hair a rather rare yet dazzling sight, I always look at it in her artwork and remins me why I love her design.
True, her neck in Zaza's take on Sophia in Fire Emblem Heroes bothered me a little, mostly because her neck is a little long as seen above, but not as slim as long as Zaza has drawn her (it's still a decent artwork and the artist has made some really nice pieces later, look at Emmeryn), the style also felt a little off to me. But her Resplendent upgrade made Sophia look more cute and still being the one we know, doning a brand new attire.
(❶ Original by Zaza. | ❷ Resplendent by Miwabe Sakura)
But for me, it's pointless to be pretty if there's not a likeable personality behind the character in question, and Sophia has been proven to be really interesting, often a mysterious but shy girl, she's capable of kindness and finding comfort with outsiders like Kiran or Roy, when I see her, I always feel that she's so nice, never feeling bitterness towards any of her allies, just being shy due to how she's grown, but with a desire for friendship and peace pushing her forward, even slowly but surely, she's so lovely. 🥰
What's more, some of her quotes show she has a protective side, determined to stand up to help her allies but specially those she's close with, this eventually includes Kiran themselves.
Her voice in Fire Emblem Heroes is also really soothing, Wendee Lee has made such a delightful work giving new life to Sophia through her voice acting, there sure are differences between her work back in 2017 (Sophia is a launch unit, meaning she's been around ever since the game was live) and the work on the Resplendent in 2020, yet both are pretty consistent and equally pleasant to hear. But if I have to vouch for one or another, I give a point to the Resplendent voice acting, her voice can be heard with a little more depth and calmness to it than the original, which feels more natural.
And she's a dark magic practitioner but that doesn't make her evil at all, she's really pure actually. But I actually find dark magic most appealing out of any kind of weapon I have ever seen, the whole concept is cool, being always creepy and nefarious in nature, often portrayed in hues of black and dark purple.
And like, c'mon, this thing is amazing:
I wish that [Apocalypse] was her PRF weapon in Fire Emblem Heroes but neither Raigh nor Bramimond who's its OG owner got it and just got random PRFs instead.
Anyway, in short, I adore Sophia and it always makes me happy to turn a seemingly weak unit into a tough to crack cookie, love for favorites sure can take them far.
"And... as a unit?"
I've been trying her mainly against the foes she has advantage with, but I've been also trying her against red/blue units and sometimes she does a nice job holding them at bay, she has low speed even after all this investment but with buffing it's somewhat usable.
Yet I prefer to focus on her strengths, not weaknesses, and she stands as a fairly good magic tank, with the few extras she enjoys as a launch unit and full demote plus Resplendent skin since around the first weeks of the [Feh Pass].
I actually tried her here some time after posting this because I didn't notice the [Limited Hero Battle] for today requires you use FE6 units, so I went with my faves in the game and it was rather easy. 🙂 But it still took a little thinking.
"Who's the next +10 you have in mind?"
Hmm... actually gonna (at least try to) work on Lilina, another one of my Elibian favorites. I also have her Resplendent upgrade and could revamp her kit. 🤔
But she's currently +3 so her turn might take longer or someone's else may come before, Idk.
And then, hopefully someone I like out of the next potential Resplendent Heroes...!
#feh#fe heroes#fire emblem heroes#fire emblem#fire emblem sword of seals#fire emblem the binding blade#fe sophia#af1899-updates
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42: top 3s
1: Top 3 ice cream flavors - classic vanilla, birthday cake/birthday batter, bubblegum
2: Top 3 Disney Movies - Mulan, Onward, Soul (but this changes frequently lol)
3: Top 3 vacation destinations - I've never been outside of my home country so I'll say my top 3 DREAM destinations: NYC, Hawaii, a random countryside in either France or the UK
4: Top 3 places to shop - Dynamite, Sephora, Winners/Homesense
5: Top 3 subjects of study/classes to take - English/anything creative writing related, Interior Decorating/Design, Communications?
6: Top 3 make up products - YSL Touche Eclat Foundation, literally any Mac Lipstick but it has to be matte, & Fenty Beauty contour stick
7: Top 3 music artists - Taylor Swift - Of Monsters and Men - The Lumineers
8: Top 3 spices/herbs - Cinnamon - Nutmeg (literally tastes like autumn) - Paprika
9: Top 3 drinks - Diet Coke - Hot Chocolate - Vanilla Bean Frappe
10: Top 3 apps to use - Instagram - Pinterest -iBooks
11: Top 3 months of the year - May, October, December
12: Top 3 clothing items - My black/white turtle neck, high waisted jeans, plaid blazer
13: Top 3 binge perfect tv shows - Bones, Supernatural, Brooklyn Nine Nine
14: Top 3 romantic dates - (I've never been on a date but if I had, it would be this) Evening walk, late night drive, late night coffee date (tbh anything at night feels romantic)
15: Top 3 kinds of flower - Water lilies, cherry blossoms, roses
16: Top 3 christmas movies - A Christmas Carol (2009), Home Alone, The Polar Express
17: Top 3 OTPs - Nesta and Cassian from ACOTAR series by SJM, Manon and Dorian from Throne of Glass series by SJM, Casteel and Poppy from From Blood and Ash series by JLM.
18: Top 3 quotes to describe your life - "I write not to find, but to leave" by Scherezade Siobhan - "I want to be myself again. I want to be six. I want to stop knowing everything I know" by Catherynne M. Valente - "The truth is, I pretend to be a cynic, but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get" by Joanna Hoffman.
19: Top 3 characteristics you love about yourself - my kindness bc it's not surface level kindness, but actually something deeply rooted within me - my resilience even tho sometimes it doesn't feel like resilience - my loyalty bc it is a hard as steel kind of loyalty
20: Top 3 kinds of candy - Maltesers, Kit kats, smarties
21: Top 3 ways to exercise/ be active - Walking, dancing, mowing the lawn/shoveling the sidewalk
22: Top 3 spirit animals - wolf, hummingbird, tiger (i googled it bc i didn't know and i was scared it was a joke but)
23: Top 3 petnames - I like 'lovebug', 'love', 'sweetheart'
24: Top 3 books read outside of school - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas but viewers discretion is advised, Crush by Richard Siken
25: Top 3 most used websites - Youtube, Tumblr, Pinterest
26: Top 3 people you last texted - my mom, my bestie megan, and my sister bc they're the only people i text...
27: Top 3 hashtags you use - the only time i use hashtags is if i'm trying to promote some of my writing so I'll usually use writingcommunity, writersonig, poetryonig lol
28: Top 3 instagram accounts you follow - Trista Mateer, Griefmother, obviously taylor swift
29: Top 3 guilty pleasures - buzzfeed quizzes, early 2000s music, romance novels
30: Top 3 summer activities - Going to the zoo, long evening walks, campfires and s'mores
31: Top 3 things to draw/doodle - hearts, flowers, random swirls bc it's the only thing i can doodle...
32: Top 3 aesthetics - cityscape aesthetic, autumn aesthetic, rustic aesthetic
33: Top 3 things you'd buy if you gained three million dollars - a new car, a condo, another cat
34: Top 3 ways to treat yourself - facial, a large bag of maltesers, buying the makeup i really want but have been putting off
35: Top 3 celebrity crushes - Evan Peters, Matthew Daddario, henry cavill
36: Top 3 books from your childhood - Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl, and Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmens
37: Top 3 accents to hear - Australian, super poshy british accent, new zealand accent
38: Top 3 scents - Fresh rain, vanilla, sweet cinnamon pumpkin from bath and body works
39: Top 3 "Friends" quotes - "WE WERE ON A BREAK" -Ross, "Guess things were just going too well for me" -also ross, and "it's so exhausting waiting for death" - phoebe
40: Top 3 cupcake flavors - tbh I haven't tried that many cupcakes so your typical vanilla, chocolate, and Pink Lady Cupcake from Babycakes Cupcakery
41: Top 3 fruits - Pomegranates, Strawberries, Raspberries
42: Top 3 places you've had amazing pizza from - Pizzahut, Dominos, Pizza73
43: Top 3 sports teams to watch - i don't
44: Top 3 crayola colors - uh, i guess red, purple, and pink??
45: Top 3 things you hope to accomplish in college - Certificates/Degrees in Copyediting and Creative Writing, and I think simply just deeper critical thinking skills when it comes to writing and books
46: Top 3 fanfictions you've read - I read more books than fanfics, I've read a couple on tumblr but don't remember the names sorry :/
47: Top 3 people you miss right now - my dad, my best friend bc she's in vancouver, taylor swift bc she's not on tumblr anymore rip
48: Top 3 fears - Failure, Loss, not achieving anything in life/not reaching my full potential
49: Top 3 favorite literary devices - Foreshadowing is always god tier, cliffhangers although evil i love those too, symbolism
50: Top 3 pet peeves - People dragging their shoes on the floor when they walk, when you tell someone your fav hobby/music artist/interest and they immediately go 'oh I hate X!', and people who go 'you're so quiet!!!' but in a way that draws in more attention and/or makes me feel more uncomfortable like i would literally rather die
51: Top 3 physical things you find attractive - Hands, nice hair, defined jawlines
52: Top 3 bad habits - Nailbiting, picking at my blemishes oops, lip biting
53: Top 3 pets you've had/wish to have - Cats bc they complete me, I've always wanted a Samoyed, and I've always wanted a turtle
54: Top 3 types of foreign food - Chicken Chow Mein, deep fried shrimp, japanese chicken wings
55: Top 3 things you want to say to someone in your lifetime - 'I quit', 'I love you', 'you changed my life'
56: Top 3 dog breeds - Samoyed, german shepherds, collies
57: Top 3 cheesy romance movies - You've Got Mail, How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days, 10 Things I Hate About You
58: Top 3 languages you speak/wish to speak - French, Sign, and maybe Japanese?
59: Top 3 series (book, movie, television) - The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (but literally only for Cassian and Nesta), From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout
60: Top 3 pizza toppings - Mushrooms, alfredo sauce, pineapple
61: Top 3 youtubers you're subscribed to - Game Grumps, Charlotte Dobre, Megan Batoon
62: Top 3 tattoo / piercing ideas - I want to get a tattoo on my wrist of the last thing my dad ever wrote me, a hummingbird tattoo right next to it, and then a cross on my index finger
63: Top 3 awards you want to win - National Book Awards, Nobel Prize, and maybe even Goodreads Choice Awards lol
64: Top 3 emojis - Laugh/Crying emoji, the please sir emoji that kinda gives off those puss n boots eyes, and the stars emoji
65: Top 3 cars you dream of owning - 1970s Chev Impala, tbh a cute little Hyundai Venue, and maaaaybe the 1964 ferarri 250 gt luso (idk if that name was totally right but i had to do tons of googling to find it. i don't know a lot about cars and i don't really have a top 3 lol)
66: Top 3 authors - Right now I'm really into Sarah J Maas, Sally Thorne, and Holly Black maybe?
67: Top 3 historical figures - Jesus, Anne Frank, Vincent Van Gogh
68: Top 3 baby names - Ryder, Leila, Gracie
69: Top 3 DIYs - Candles, refurnishing old furniture (i.e. my mom and i painted our wooden garbage can), and really just any type of autumn diy
70: Top 3 smoothie combos/flavors - Strawberry/Banana, Mango, Strawberry-Mango
71: Top 3 songs of this month - Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish, Biblical by Calum Scott, and Visiting Hours by Ed Sheeran
72: Top 3 questions of this post you want to be asked - I did them all bc I made it a survey instead of an ask meme ;)
73: Top 3 villains - Regina/The Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time, Cruella De Vil, and Moriarty from Sherlock
74: Top 3 Cities you want to see - Montreal, NYC, Vancouver (honorable mention: LA)
75: Top 3 recipes you want to try - different kind of salad and/or burger bowls, Stuffed bell peppers, and homemade lemon loaf
76: Top 3 dream jobs - Bestselling author, the person who runs a companies social media accounts, youtuber/blogger
77: Top 3 lucky items - tbh don't have one
78: Top 3 traditions you have - Christmas Eve Service and if I don't go to that at least incorporating reading the christmas story on christmas day or eve, idk if this counts as tradition but going to the corn maze every fall, and whenever it's easter/christmas/thanksgiving we always have a big meal w/ family
79: Top 3 things you miss about being a kid - reckless abandon, dreaming about growing up with hopefulness and no dashed hopes, experiencing holidays like halloween and christmas as a kid
80: Top 3 harry potter characters - I've never read or watched Harry Potter rip (ok well i saw the first and second (and maybe third?) movie in the sixth grade I think) but I think I really liked Hermoine, Harry obviously and Dobby
81: Top 3 lies you were told - i don't have 3, but this one has a story but basically when my sister and i were in elementary school my sister got hit by a car and so the insurance thing was that she would recieve 10k when she was 18 and as a child i thought that was unfair so my dad told me that my sister had to split it with me when we were 18 lmao obviously that didn't happen (i think i realized that wasn't true in middle school)
82: Top 3 pictures in your camera roll right now - Pictures of my cat, one of my sister in a hilarious filter, and a picture of my rocking my TS merch
83: Top 3 turn ons - Kindness, defined jawline, easy going
84: Top 3 turn offs - arrogance, unkempt, super loud and obnoxious
85: Top 3 magazines/news papers/ journals to read - I don't read much of those so I'll tell you some sites I love for writing purpose's: there's Wellstoried, justwriterlythings, springhole.net (which is filled with generators if you're stuck and also tons of infomation and advice)
86: Top 3 things you wish you had known earlier - that toad in Mario Party was wearing a mushroom hat and that it is actually not his head, that immaculate means 'clean' before i misused that word like several times over the years, and that the one turn i always take on my way to work where i thought everyone didn't know how to drive was actually bc i didn't have the right of way rip me
87: Top 3 spongebob episodes - the one episode where spongebob and patrick find a ghost ship, that one episode where they form a bikini bottom band and perform it at a football game in a little fish tank, and the one episode where squidward has his first snowball fight
88: Top 3 places to be in the world - I'd love to be in NYC, Montreal, or Hawaii
89: Top 3 things you'd do differently - I would not have applied for RDC, similarly I should have just paid the 500 dollars to the one certificate program I wanted to do instead of overthinking it, and I wish I wouldn't have ended a friendship the way I did
90: Top 3 TV shows from your childhood - Spongebob Squarepants, That's So Raven, and Hannah Montana
91: Top 3 meals you love - Turkey Burgers, Chilli, and Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
92: Top 3 kinds of tea - i don't drink tea
93: Top 3 embarrassing moments - one time in sixth grade I tripped and fell right on my face in front of my crush, this other time like a couple years ago i opened the door to my car and only realized much too late while i was staring at this random family that it was not my car, and when i went to the gas station to get gas and couldn't get my gas lid on my car opened and this guy had to help me which was already embarrassing enough but then the gas pump wouldn't work so i had to go inside to pay just to realize i forgot my wallet and had to shamefully walk back to my car and then run back inside the convenience store and then pay and then walk back to my car and finally fill my tank.
94: Top 3 holidays to celebrate - Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving
95: Top 3 things to do in the rain - have an existential crisis, pretend you're in a music video, walk through puddles like you're six again
96: Top 3 things to do in the snow - Sledding, Build a snowman, shovel it even tho you don't want to
97: Top 3 items you can't leave the house w/o - phone, keys, wallet
98: Top 3 movies you'd like to see - Jurassic World 3, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania bc i'm a child, and the animation of the addams family
99: Top 3 art mediums - Writing fiction/poetry, painting, music
100: Top 3 museums you've been to - Royal Tyrell Museum, Canadian History one in edmonton lol, and heritage park in calgary
101: Top 3 school memories - Middle school dances when the popular kids would grind to the song "Low" which was always an interesting experience, in the twelfth grade at winter formal when we all shouted "SHUT UP AND DANCE!" at the same time when they played Shut Up and Dance, and the day i left
102: Top 3 things you don't/Won't miss - School, my sisters ex, 2016 bc she was a rough year yikes
103: Top 3 pick up lines - "My name is Will. God's Will.", "I'd like to take you to the movies but they don't like you bring your own snacks", "are you from tennessee bc you're the only 10 i see"
104: Top 3 sports to watch - none of them
105: Top 3 taylor swift songs - all too well - exile - coney island
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Just Another Rant
Okay, so why do NCTzens have a hate boner for Taeyong??? It's so f*cking weird, it doesn't make sense.
Taeyong has been under NCTzens' microscope since his debut. Everything he does is dissected and twisted into something its not. No other member of NCT or any group (except maybe Jennie from Blackpink) is treated this way by the group's fans. NCTzens want Taeyong to be the villain so bad, that they're willing to stoop as low as dehumanizing, body shaming and wishing d3ath on him. NCTzens dislike him, some even hate him and they're not very subtle about it.
Now, I'm not saying all NCTzens are TY antis. I have moots on Twitter who dont stan him, but are incredibly respectful towards him and acknowledge his talents and hardwork. If you're one of them, then this rant is not about you. But i will say this, if it isnt all NCTzens who anti Taeyong, it's most of them.
It started with Lines and Screentime distribution for NCT songs and mvs. Now, i agree that Taeyong used to get a little more lines and screentime than the others at first. But instead of calling out SM, most of you targeted Taeyong saying he deliberately stole the said lines and screentime from his members so that he'd get to shine more..... Really???
Next, when he was announced as a member of SuperM, NCTzens were clearly upset it wasn't Johhny or Jaehyun. Do you wanna know why??? No, they didnt talk about talent. Instead, they wanted Jaehyun/Johhny instead of Taeyong because SuperM is a group targeted at the western audience and Jn & Jh knew to speak English better than TY..... Okay.
And it keeps getting worse.
-NCTzens saying that TY goes into the recording studio to record his solo songs, by LOCKING OUT the rest of NCT, so that they wont get to record their solo stuff.
-That TY is SM's Golden Boy cuz he 'gETs a LoT of SoLO pRoMos anD cENter TiMe', completely refusing to understand what 'SOLO PROMO' means or see how overworked and mistreated he is by his own company.
-When TyongFs praise TY about anything, NCTzens always, ALWAYS insert their faves in the post. Like, go make your own post maybe???
/Trigger Content
-NCTzens saying that TY dances like he has a sq*irrel in his pants, raps like d*g, looks like a skeleton etc etc. And these are just mild stuff i mentioned here. NCTzens are so much worse when it comes to body shaming and dehumanizing him. And when we call them out for it, thay have the audacity to say that its a JOKE and we're STUPID for not having 'A Sense of Humor'....
/End of Trigger Content
-NCTzens saying that TY's main dancer/main rapper/main visual/leader/center positions should go to their faves cuz their fave 'iS So mUcH beTTeR aT TheSe pOsiTIOns'. Yeah.... sure..... NCTzens rarely talk about the positions other members have , but are really obsessed with Taeyong's.
-NCTzens still denying that Taeyong is NCT's leader and that he's really good at it. Just yesterday, a Wayzennie (also a TY anti) started spewing sh*t about Taeyong's leadership. And their arguement??? That they have 'lEAdeRsHiP eXpEriEncE iN UnI, WoRk aND ouTsIDe wOrK' and that makes them an expert about leading a 23 member global kpop group, who had a rough start what with their controversial 'unlimited' concept and experimental songs. Sure, Jan.
(Also, the thing where some Wayzennies are still not accepting that TY is the leader of whole of NCT, cuz Kun is WayV's leader..... Seriously, though its not that hard to understand. Kun IS and WILL remain the leader of WayV, a 7 member group. That's a fact. But when the subunits (127, Dream and WayV) come together for projects (ex: NCT 2018 and NCT 2020), Taeyong becomes the overall leader. But since these Wayzennies are still on their WayV not being part of NCT agenda, they're simply ignore this. Go figure.)
- Oh, but when some other member in NCT messes up, it suddenly becomes Taeyong's responsibility cuz 'HE'S THE LEADER'. Funny, how NCTzens change narratives quickly. Also, weird how, according to NCTzens, NCT members suddenly can't think for themselves even though they're grown adults and need Taeyong to take the blame for them. Haha.....
-Also, NCTzens guilt tripping TyongFs from canceling NCT Beyond Live tickets when they got to know that he was injured and wont be participating in the concert a little too late, cuz "Taeyong, as a leader, would be sooo upseeet that his group wont be getting TyongFs' money and he'd feel sooo guiltyyy that y'all are getting refunds of your OWN money that YOU CHOSE to spent and its not my business at all. But damn, y'all are sooo selfish!!!!"
-NCTzens posting about how overjoyed they are that TY is injured cuz that means their faves get to shine..... "Look how MY FAVE killed TY's part" "MY FAVE ate Taeyong up" "Should've put MY FAVE in the OG line up instead of Taeyong" "MY FAVE made TY's part as his own" "Thank god, MY FAVE got to show off his talents, now that Taeyong isnt here". God, if i were one of the Neos whose fans say sh*t like this, it would've felt like a slap to my face. Honestly, tell me, do y'all really think so low of your faves? Do you really think they cant shine even with TY being on stage? They absolutely can, but you're focus is not on them, is it? Way to embarrass yourself.
-NCTzens blaming Taeyong for NCT's slow rise to fame because of the false rumors/allegations pinned on him by nasty people. They say Taeyong was the sole reason for NCT not being liked by many, not because of their confusing/complicated concept or the music. Yeah, you heard me. NCTzens are not above victim blaming and pointing fingers, cuz they are not ready to accept the fact that Taeyong was the one who carried the group on his back all the way.
-And how they can't stand the fact that TY gets praised by proffesionals or non-fans or locals. A dance analyzer analyzed 127's Kick It and at the end stated that Taeyong was the best dancer in 127. And what did NCTzens do. They bullied the analyzer to the point that they deleted the video, just cuz their fave was not named the best. A reactor reacts to Taeyong's Long Flight and the comments on the videos are along the lines of 'Hey, MY FAVE'S also has a solo song too. You should definitely react to that' or when they're tryna be subtle (but not really), they go 'Taeyong is soo good but you should also check out MY FAVE'S blah blah blah'
Hell, even when TyongFs say 'Taeyong is very so creative, by coming up with BDLI Jungle Gym concept and the MAW chandelier thing. He's literally an Idea Bank', and NCTzens go 'All the Neos are idea banks' in the same post.
When TyongFs say 'Taeyong is the really so handsome. NCT's main visual', they go 'All the Neos are main visuals'
Lmao, just 3 days ago, someone commented 'Taeyong is cute' under a tiktok video and an NCTzen just couldn't help but fume about it and went 'All Neos are cute'🙄
Like seriously, this is sooo annoying. Make your own goddamn post about the rest of NCT, ffs! Why do you to insert anyone else in a Taeyong tweet? Literally, can't let Taeyong have a moment for himself.
-Recently, Taeyong released 2 solo demo tracks on SoundCloud- Dark Clouds and Dark Clouds Remix (check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/eh_ovo_taeyong). And NCTzens being NCTzens started those who never even promoted Kun's SoundCloud before started promoting it under every TY tweet on the same day. Now, i don't have a problem with them promoting Kun's SC. But they could've done it any other day or made their own tweet about it. But doing it under every TY promo tweet and on the very same day? Really??? And some of them had the audacity to say that TY was getting free clout from Kun cuz Kun followed him on SC.....😑😑😑
-NCTzens have this weird belief that TY is getting solo promos and is being pushed by SM. What on earth are they talking about? Taeyong being center, main rapper and main dancer of the group is not solo promo. Him being in SuperM is not solo promo. Him opening Instagram and SoundCloud is not solo promo, but self promo- which means HE'S promoting himself, not SM. Solo promo is usually provided to the artist by the company in the form of photoshoots, accepting brand deals, releasing the artist's solo music etc and SM isnt doing sh*t for Taeyong. All they're doing is overworking him and milking him for money. That's it. And i want NCTzens to understand that.
And the list goes on and on and on. This weird hate boner NCTzens have for Taeyong is so bizarre to me. All Taeyong does is sing, rap, dance, talk cutely, take care of his fishes and play games with Baekhyun. And this somehow gets NCTzens mad. They constantly discredit him, try to make him seem less than what he actually is, insert everyone else when someone is talking just about him, make him seem like a villain by twisting his words or actions and making it into a big deal.... *sigh* Its so unbelievable how low NCTzens can stoop. And it gets tiring real quick.
N E Ways, this is everything i wanted to rant about and damn, this turned out to be too lengthy. Now, if you havent followed Taeyong on his Instagram, please do @eh_evo_nct. Stream Long Flight, his one and only solo station. And please look forward to BaekhyunxTaeyong collab on Taeyong's SoundCloud.
Ciao!
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restructuring update prompts
a prologue to officially re-introducing ash kwon // aka i decided to re-do this because i changed some parts of ash’s backstory and established career claims after i did this the first time and half of this wasn’t really true anymore rip
also there’s nowhere for me to put this in the answers anymore so i’ll put it here: circles is ash’s best song
content warning: mentions of alcohol abuse and drug use / abuse, but none of it is in-depth
assuming your muse has changed in some way, be it internally or as a result of a change of the external factors around them, how is your muse different?
for the most part, ash’s general personality and character has stayed the same. he’s the same angsty, creative, romantic dude at heart, but he’s a little more jaded in some ways.
ash moved around before he became a trainee now. he lived in san francisco, sydney, and seattle. when he lived in sydney, it was just him and his mom and he grew really close to her during that time. he doesn’t really feel like he has a home at all since seoul is the longest he’s ever lived somewhere, but he’s less happy so that’s not home either.
ash is a better technical singer now ig, being a main vocal. he focused more on singing as a trainee now instead of dancing. his ankle injury in 2018 was a little more serious now, which is why he doesn’t dance much in his solo music anymore. it’s also why he’s less interested in dance, but, at the same time, i think it leaves more potential for him to re-develop some love for it again.
he’s also now the maknae, although it’s a common joke in the fandom that he doesn’t act like it. he debuted a year and three months younger than before and he feels a lot more beholden to the industry now. has even less of an idea of what he’d be outside of it at this point, even though he got closer to actually leaving it than previous ash ever did.
he’s still had a couple of minor attitude controversies in titan’s early days caused by cultural differences. he was in public relationships in 2016 and 2019. neither were received well for their own reasons. his clubbing habit has gotten him into some controversy, though bc has never issued a statement on it beyond that one time they had to confirm the woman in a picture of him clubbing was his girlfriend because people were trying to accuse him of cheating. he has a passionate anti gallery and obsessive sasaengs that make his life a living hell.
since renewing his contract, ash has also had a few hiatuses of varying lengths due to his physical or mental health. this was true before with how he naturally developed, but it’s more tied together now as a result of generally poor physical and mental health he’s been experiencing for a few years now after his dating scandals and his ankle injury in 2018.
his image is more streamlined now too! he never really had the era of being pushed as a cleancut boyfriend that old ash had around 2018. he’s been marketed as a musical genius / sexy bad boy rockstar / artist with a tortured soul for as long as he’s been majorly pushed individually. this means he’s still very sexualized, but he hates his image a little less because he can be a little more himself as far as personal style and self-expression through tattoos and piercings goes.
what does your muse think of their company and their group?
this hasn’t really changed. ash has no real love for bc entertainment and wouldn’t really care if titan disbanded tomorrow. some of their music is good and some isn’t (though he considers less of it terrible without wolf and gorilla in the mix lmao), but he feels he’s mostly outgrown it as an artist. not that it’s below him, but it’s not what he connects with creatively, which is far more important to him now than it had been when he’d first debuted. he doesn’t hold ill will toward his groupmates unless he feels they’ve given him an individual reason to, and actually feels more guilty toward them for getting involved in scandals and taking hiatuses more than anything, but they’re also not his best friends. he views titan as a purely work endeavor and he doesn’t feel bad about the fact he got about as close as possible to leaving them without actually doing so that he could back during contract renewals. after all, they’d be fine without him. he’s a main vocal, but they’ve got two others. he’s a dancer, but they’ve got two others. he can write music, but titan has never been his main priority there and others are more than capable of doing it. he wants out of both the group and the company but is starkly aware of the fact that he did this to himself when he re-signed out of what he now perceives to have been impulse and greed.
since titan is the seniormost active group under bc, ash tries to be a good senior to his company juniors in general, but there are certainly more welcoming alternatives than him. he worries about them from a distance more than anything else.
is your muse on their first contract or their second? if they’ve renewed, what were their feelings around that at the time and what were their hopes for their second contract?
he’s on his second contract and he definitely regrets renewing. he hadn’t planned to renew for the longest time the lack of privacy and the public criticism and the hate he’d received were just too much, and he had plans that would require him to stop being an active idol, namely marrying his girlfriend of two and a half years at the time. their relationship wasn’t stable enough at the time for that to be a good idea and that was proven when they broke up shortly before final negotiations for contract renewals, but ash wanted an excuse to escape and the idea of a happy, normal life more than he wanted to be rational.
spite after the (very brief lmao) break up was part of his decision to renew, but bc entertainment also offered to support him as a songwriter and producer in addition to allowing him to regularly release solo music. he still really loved music and his first taste of promoting as a solo artist had been right before renewals as a proposal to sway him into re-signing, so he was swayed to sign on for seven more years. they followed through on their promises, but he struggles to weigh the recognition he’s earned as a solo artist and songwriter-producer against signing his life away again and doing a number on his physicla and mental health. most of his health issues and his hiatuses have happened during his second contract, as well as several behind-the-scenes situations that could have become scandals if they’d had any less luck, mostly stemming from ash drinking too much and his occasional recreational drug use, so he’s not sure bc even really feels the contract renewal was entirely worth it.
what are your muse’s goals and motivations?
if you asked ash this, he wouldn’t know what to answer. he doesn’t feel very motivated these days and pretty much feels like he only does anything because he’s contractually obligated to. making music as a form of expression has long been his main drive, and beyond that, the desire to make a mark on the world he can be remembered by through his music, but he often oscillates now between feeling like there’s not much more he can realistically achieve and the sense of hopelessness that he can try as hard as he wants, but his music’s never going to be what he’s defined by when he’s a public figure with an image.
he also feels a duty to make his parents proud. though i could argue that might be less now than it was in the previous iteration of ash, it’s still very much there. they let him come to seoul when he’d just turned thirteen to follow a dream that many never get to follow all the way through to the end and they believed in him fully. they express how proud they are of him when they do talk, but he doesn’t know that he believes them. he doesn’t feel that anything he’s done has been deserving of paying them back for everything they’ve given to him.
right now, he wants to be able to feel excited about his life and what he’s making again. he’s trying to better himself internally in regards to the way he views himself and his mental health, although he’s more prone to still taking steps backwards there than he was at this point previously. a lot of the ways ash has found to feel that excitement and creativity he wants (such as recreational drugs and excessive alcohol consumption and fleeting, sometimes toxic, relationships) do damage to his mental wellbeing, so it’s a balancing act at the moment.
what is one conflict, internal or external, that your muse is currently dealing with, has recently dealt with, or will need to deal with in the future?
i covered this partially with the last one, but one major conflict remains his internal conflict about his passion for music. this was very much where ash was before as well, but now that i’m really pushing songwriting and producing as his main career path, it presents a more equal professional and personal challenge for him.
more than having truly lost joy in making music, he’s burnt out. his latest album lovesick was emotionally exhausting because it was a partially rushed, deeply personal and vulnerable album exclusively based on an unhealthy relationship that had stretched its hold on him out over for almost six years, and then he went into making music that he couldn’t relate to at all and didn’t really fit his image all because bc thought it would sell well.
the burn out in his personal life has affected the burn out in his professional life he would be feeling anyway and made it ten times worse. it feels more hopeless because he doesn’t have much else going for him. in the past few months, his relationship with alcohol and drugs also reverted back to unhealthy after he was doing better with it for a while, not helped by a really bad stint with his mental health. all of this was at its worse in june before he went on hiatus, and in this universe, his behavior was more of a factor in his hiatus than him practically begging to leave the group because ash is more resigned to the fact that he chose to sign back on with bc and that that’s on him. instead, there was more of a push by his manager, who knew that ash was on the road to a major scandal if action wasn’t taken.
almost all of his conflicts are internal right now. he’s become successful enough that external factors other than the large umbrella of having to remain in titan can be negotiated, but he’s too tired to do so because of everything going on inside of him. there’s a lot of negative feelings going on inside of him, and he’s trying to deal with them one by one, but it’s hard to see the weight of them easing that way.
if your muse has established career claims, what are their thoughts on their career so far? if they do not, how do they feel about not having individual activities yet? what would they like to do in the future, if anything? if they don’t have ambitions for individual activities, explain why.
ash has been able to establish himself a little more as a songwriter and producer outside of his solo music. he wrote “universe” for titan in 2017, and after that, as promised, bc hooking him up with the right opportunities and connections to establish himself more. since then, in addition to his heavy involvement in his solo music (his 2020 album lovesick was entirely written/composed/produced by him alone), he’s worked on calypso’s “rollin’” in 2018, polaris’s “fake love” (a korean music awards song of the year!) and “the truth untold” in 2019, and lily’s “i’m so sick” this year. i’m planning on more being added there with these extra ecp and maybe some refunded since i think i’m going to drop some of his points claims to streamline his career better.
his canon discography creative claims reflect his progression as a songwriter, from very earnest and romantic to more sensual to very uhhh angsty and personal to developing a more polished and professional sound as he grew in experience as a songwriter and producer.
ash is praised for having several representative works as a songwriter that all speak to his individual style, and ash is happy with what he’s gotten to do since he does genuinely enjoy working as a songwriter and producer.
he’s planning to continue branching out in this direction, so look for quite a lot of ash dabbling in canon discographies in the future. before, i’d say ash’s primary push was solo music, but my plan for him is for songwriting and producing to be his main career path from now on with solo music as a close secondary.
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𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
ITZY: IT’z ME
TITLE SONG: WANNABE
it is really really catchy!! i immediately liked it after my first listen. it reminded me a lot of “dalla dalla”, like it has the same arrangement as “dalla dalla”. i really like the beginning of the song where it has the turning sound.
my favorite part is ryujin+chaeryeong rap part and lia’s “it’s none of your business, i do my own business”
MUSIC VIDEO
it’s probably my favorite mv they have produced so far. the scenes were all very pleasing to watch and love the solo scenes of the girls. my favorite scene would be lia’s and ryujin’s scenes. like, w o w
CHOREOGRAPHY
the choreography is amazing!!! ryujin has the entire world at her feet because of the shoulder move, which by the way I still cannot understand how it works
the point choreography of it is also really nice, the one there they circle their face with their hand and where they slide their hand across their chest when they sing “i wanna be me me me”
i absolutely love the dance break! it is definitely my favorite part of the dance
STAGE PRESENCE / STAGE OUTFITS
bro ryujin is literally killing this era. p e r i o d
also I can see that the girls have improved so much! especially lia! she’s gaining more and more confidence and it looks amazing on her. as usual, yeji’s stage presence is a m a z i n g. yuna has definitely improved as well. and so has chaeryeong!
my favorite outfits of them is the mv solo scenes outfits. i just think it really suits them. and i love love love how they’re trying new hairstyles this era, unlike “dalla dalla” and “icy”s era when everyone had almost the same hairstyle for every stage.
i love how they actually let yeji perform with her hair down instead of the usual ponytail and that they gave it to yuna lmao. seriously, the hairstyles for this era is really diverse. and of course ryujin’s iconic blue hair. and I really like chaeryeong’s hair this era idk why but I do
also I love the fact that their outfits are mostly pants, they look so much more comfortable performing in them + yeji with a jacket is pretty dangerous
also, has anyone noticed that Lia has gained some weight?? which is a good thing! halfway through “icy” era, lia lost a lot of weight and I’m really glad she had gained some weight this era!
ALBUM SONGS
i know ITZY’s concept is about self confidence and the songs are more upbeat but personally I’m not a fan of it all
the album itself is catchy and nice but for me, the songs aren’t the type of songs that I’ll play on repeat
out of all of the songs, i don’t really like “ting ting ting”. i just can’t seem to like, vibe(?) with it
but my favorites of the album is “nobody like you” and “you make me”
+ lia’s iconic “you make me... speechless!”
OVERALL
overall, i felt that this comeback was definitely an improvement for itzy in dance and vocal wise. I’ve watched a few of their mr removed ( by the channel “lyma” bc it’s the only one I trust ) and their all quite stable, I’m surprised how stable ryujin can be she does the shoulder move. like I said before, lia has improved a lot in this comeback, she’s like jihyo where their voices doesn’t fit their groups initial concept, but with time, lia can improve like how jihyo did. yeji is really stable and i can understand why she gets most lines. yuna has improved and chaeryeong has been quite stable since debut, so i think she could get more lines. my only complain is that I wished that chaeryeong was the center during the dance break, considering the fact that she’s the main dancer
NCT 127: NCT #127 NEO ZONE
TITLE SONG: 英雄;Kick It
fun fact! the Chinese word “英雄” in the title means “hero” which i think is quite fitting for this comeback’s concept.
i immediately for hooked on after the first listen, yes it's that catchy
lemme introduce you to some new thangs
as someone who learns taekwando, this is the song that u can work out to lmao. it's the fuel to ur flame and makes u wanna fight someone
also jungwoo baby!! he's back!! and bitch did he gREW I THINK HE'S ALMOST JOHNNY'S HEIGHT
the highlights: taeil's high note!!! yuta+haechan "baby we go wild, 127 squad"
also johnny!!! with lines!!
MUSIC VIDEO
I just really love the entire music video okay
it's martial arts!!! it's like my hobby!!
and bruce lee!! who doesn't love bruce lee?? i absolutely love this concept in general and the music video does justice
like all the martial arts reference and bruce lee reference!!
my favorite part is when they were all dancing in the rain lol and when like behind the doors u can see silhouettes of someone fighting
CHOREOGRAPHY
hnnnnnnnngggggggg
i cannot stress e n o u g h how much I love this choreography, especially the dance break!!! it's so satisfying to watch!!!
and mark's "fight" scene in it!! bro!!
this has definitely became one of my favourite nct dances along with "black on black" and "cherry bomb"
also the part where taeyong does his "enter the dragon", the kick he does is called a side kick and lemme tell u how much I hate doing that shit so props to taeyong for doing not only, but two of it in the dance
++ center!! haechan!! the way he just smoothly slides into the center lmao
STAGE PRESENCE / STAGE OUTFITS
despite taeyong, yuta and johnny's really rude outfits from the mv, those are one of my favourites actually. they look like fighter outfits that came out from a bruce lee movie
and the bomber jackets outfits!! please I want one so badly!!! bc I'm a sucker for bomber jackets lol
bro yuta's hair colour + belly piercing
that's *chef's kiss*
and haechan's mullet!! it looks good on him!! he better start growing an actual mullet or so help me-
stage presence *inhales* were so so so so amazing
nct just has amazing stage presence in general tbh
also, johnny lowkey looks scary in this comeback besides the fact that he's also a giANT
ALBUM SONGS
you know despite the scary album cover, 70% of the songs are soft af
and yes I like it
my favourites are "sit down!" and "boom"
johnny's "don't get up, don't stand up, please don't put your hand up, and don't make me tell you again. sit down!"
bro the difference between nct dream's "boom" and nct 127's "boom" tho
johnny's rap in "dreams come true" tho
and jaehyun's high note in "day dream"
OVERALL
overall, I'm really happy to stan nct and be enjoy the comeback lmao
but yeah I really like this comeback as u can tell lol
i wonder if they're gonna release a "kick it" english version
but to be honest, this era would've fit winwin so well like, winwin himself can do flips and shit and it would've fit him so well
ELRIS: JACKPOT
TITLE SONG: JACKPOT
okay I know that their comeback was in february but it was during late february and they promoted in march
and I finally know all of their names so u can write a proper review on them now lmao
so from what I understand, elris basically went m.i.a and came back with 2 new members
the song is definitely catchy and like I said, this is really solid group. they have a really good rap line and vocal line, plus they could all be main dancers and there's no visual hole
ej and chaejeong is a great addition to the group
plus hyeseong and sohee's vocals are!! really good!!
and bella's basically a triple threat y'all
MUSIC VIDEO
the music video is really aesthetic
i like it a lot lol
the gambling concept they have on is really nice to see
CHOREOGRAPHY
ah yes the choreography
the choreography is really fun tbh
i like the chorus part the best and yukyung's bow and arrow move in between the chorus
STAGE PRESENCE / STAGE OUTFITS
ej and bella has really strong stage presence and I've watched bella on mixnine a few times
and chaejeong's purple hair stood out as well.
the one who caught my eyes is yukyung
and for the vocals, I'm quite surprised to see that karin is only 17 years old, I thought she would've been older
i really like their outfits despite coming from a smaller company, it's all bling bling and classy
ALBUM SONGS
i just wanna say chaejeong has a good set of lungs lmao, her vocals in the b-sides is really good especially in "this is me"
the entire album gave me a bit of a video game vibe like cherry bullet's "Q&A"
maybe it's because the soundtrack is like, upbeat and strong at the same time
my favourite is "this is me" and "like I do"
"this is me" reminds me of blackpink's "forever young" bc they almost have the same arrangement
both of the songs are like upbeat girl crush kind of song with a strong beat drop for the dancebreak
OVERALL
overall, elris is definitely underrated but I have a feeling they will rise to fame like everglow, if only they debuted this year, they could've been like monster rookies.
AleXa: Do Or Die
TITLE SONG: Do Or Die
okay so i feel like a lot of the english lyrics felt a bit out of place,,, idk maybe it’s just me. i think the song is quite nice, like for a sci-fi concept, i thought it’d have more heavier edm/beat drop but it actually feels light and nice to listen to it. i really like the chorus of the song and when she said “I’m a one girl army”
MUSIC VIDEO
okay ngl, I zoned out from the song bc I was so immersed into the mv. like, it reminded me a lot of the movie “alita: the battle angel”.
also the cgi?? that’s some rlly good cgi lemme tell u that, the villain of the mv was rlly scary lmao
also I really like her fight scenes with the the bad guy
CHOREOGRAPHY
the choreography looks rlly complicated, and personally I feel like it doesn’t suit alexa?? like, I know she’s talented but she almost looked out of breath during her performance stages. the choreography looks like it suited a group song better cause alexa was constantly moving. she’s a solo artist and I feel like solo artists shouldn’t do such complicated choreography unless they have a really good control over their breathing and vocals
STAGE PRESENCE / STAGE OUTFITS
I really like her outfits, it suits her a lot, though I want to see alexa perform with her hair down
my favorite outfit of hers is the white outfit that she wore in the beginning of the mv
as for stage presence, she has good stage presence but I can see that there’s room for improvement. alexa is still quite new to the solo artist game, in time she can definitely improve on everything
OVERALL
overall, i feel like this is quite a powerful comeback. like I said, alexa needs to get a better control of her breathing. but other than that, i can see that she will be quite popular in the future.
SEJEONG: Plant
TITLE SONG: Plant
the song itself is so calming?? like, it’s the perfect song to listen if you want relieve stress or something. and her vocals are so beautiful and emotional. these type of songs fit her voice so much!!
MUSIC VIDEO
the mv is literally the definition of “plant aesthetic”
literally
it’s such a pleasing sight to watch and the mv itself is truly aesthetic
CHOREOGRAPHY
okay I know “plant” doesn’t have a choreography as expected but “swim away” does so
the choreography is so simple and it honestly fits the song. i also think that with the lack of an intense choreography, sejeong’s voice can be more clearly heard since “swim away” requires her to use falsetto a lot
so with a simple choreography, she can sing in falsetto without trouble
STAGE PRESENCE / STAGE OUTFITS
sejeong literally radiates emotions when she sings, when she performs “swim away”, there’s a playful and mischievous aura around her
when she sings “plant”, you can literally feel her raw emotion through her vocals
sejeong has the potential to be a really successful solo artist!! her voice basically suits almost any style, ranging from “semina” to “not that type”
her outfits for this is so cute, i love the white dresses she wears when she performs “plant” and her outfits for “swim away” is so so so so c u t e
ALBUM SONGS
feel stress? listen to the album
need to calm down? listen to the album
the entire album itself is calming and soft, like i have a playlist for soft/emotional songs and the entire album is in there
my favorite song of the album is “hopes for tomorrow”
if y’all have seen my post about songs where the music momentarily stops and just plays the idol’s vocals, yeah that song is exactly like that
it sent shivers down my spine when I first listened to it, seriously listen to it when you have the time cause it’ll be worth it
OVERALL
overall, this is a really nice comeback and one of my favorites for this month. sejeong really has potential to be a solo artist as big as chungha. and tbh, she should’ve went solo in the first place. she really reminds me taeyeon bc both artist produce very emotional songs. i don’t know gugudan is currently doing besides the fact that mina is still an mc, but sejeong really could blow up as a solo artist.
𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
KANG DANIEL: 2U
this song is so playful and mischievous lmao. the entire mv gave me a scooby-doo kinda vibe idk why, maybe it’s bc the guard was chasing them. the song itself is really catchy, like, the entire album is catchy. also I’m really glad that daniel can now perform his songs bc apparently he was almost banned from doing so(?)
ONG SEUNG WU: Gravity
bro I feel like ex produce members are making a comeback SKSKSK
this song is like, a parallel of sejeong’s song. it gave me the same vibe okay. it’s really sad okay, I like sad songs
the mv reminded me of that BTS webtoon, you guys should go read it btw, basically in the webtoon jin has to save all the members in a day to change the future but whenever a member dies, the day resets itself. in the mv, it looks like ong was trying to save the girl from drowning and whenever he failed, the day resets itself, which I found rlly cool btw
STRAY KIDS: Mixtape: On Track
my dudes, my only theory is that jeongin has a crush on hyunjin okay
bro changbin has a nice set of vocals, I stg the rap line is out to put the vocal line out of business lmao. the song gave me the same vibe as their ost from “extraordinary you”, both written by changbin, so basically, changbin is a romantic guy-
MCND: ICE AGE
okay ngl, I have mistakenly read the group’s name as McDonald’s way too many times
but nonetheless, I like the song
a lot
my favorite part is when the rap mentions the group members names, like yo that’s so cool wtf
also the group members are really young??? Win, the blue hair dude, is LITERALLY the same age as me wtf
FAVORITE: 또 LIE
( I can’t find a proper gif sksks )
these girls dropped “loca” and went missing since then lmao
“loca” is a bop tho
“lie” kinda has the same arrangement as “loca” and the same vibe with it
+ gaeul(?) the blonde, she’s really a full package, she can rap, sing, dance AND she’s the leader??? damn
also I love go ahra
WINNER: HOLD
hHHHHHH IM GONNA MISS JINWOO
I love love love love the song and the mv, their so funny wtf sksks literal crackheads. I’m also really happy that AKMU’s Suhyun was in the mv, it makes me feel happy knowing we get YG Artists interactions okay
jinu’s voice is usually really soft and stuff but his voice in this song made me went like: tHAT’S JINU???
anyways stan winner y’all
ONEUS: A Song Written Easily
tbh, I stanned ONEWE bc “regulus” is a fucking bop and now I might need to stand ONEUS. all I know is that I really like Hwanwoong’s voice and Leedo’s voice. and the rappers can sing too??? like nice that’s some Han Jisung kinda shit there. I really like the chorus of the song and someone said if “starry night” had a little brother, it would be “a song written easily”. which I 100% agree, and it’s also really suitable considering the fact oneus and mamamoo are from the same company. It also reminds me of a song that I can’t put my finger on???
SUHO: Let’s Love
I feel when your ascend to heaven, Suho’s voice is what you hear at the gates. My dude has been underrated for too long. Remember when I said I have an entire playlist for emotional/soft songs? Yeah Suho’s album is in there. My favorites are “O2” and “Starry Night”.
#march comebacks review#comeback#kpop review#kpop#itzy#stray kids#suho#exo#mcnd#nct 127#ong seung wu#kang daniel#sejeong#favorite#winner#alexa#elris#meg.reviews
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Agree so much with your post about the teams and fan engagement ! And love the way you articulated all of that. Although now I definitely am interested in knowing what your notes about the specificity of each team/artist cause I feel like they'd be fascinating to read. Hope you'll post them some day, and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us ! 😊
Awwww, that’s very kind! It’s definitely head canon city, I litcherally have ZERO clue what goes on behind the scenes (and I can’t stress this enough, none of us do), so this’ll look hilariously dated when we find out that blah woof was true all along, lmao (me @ myself, thinking of some random Grimshaw interviews from last fall, oh, bless). Let’s dig in!!
For those of you who just stumbled upon this post, it’s related to the one I made last night about how I think the management teams of all these men (mid-20s means = you’re a man, not a boy) are not, in fact, sabotaging them. They negotiate a lot of tricky interconnected arrangements that none of us are privy, to, plus they’re at least trying to achieve the goals their clients are going for. And they’re doing it—the trick is these goals are highly individual and not 100% sensical (at least given our own view from the afternoon, Arctic Monkeys ref, holllllllah!!!).
In addition, these goals constantly shift, as does the music industry itself—I drive my own self loony when I lurk on blogs that are seemingly broadcasting from 2012, confused by why xx’s team is so “terrible” because they aren’t throwing good money after bad to get on a radio playlist, or why they haven’t announced yy “properly,” as if they’re being paid to worry about this level of shit (which fires me up on about five levels, deep breaths in, deep breaths out). I’m much nosier about the signals we’re getting when we hear them talk in their beautifully media-trained way about their musical interests, when we get some of that sweet, sweet fan service with a Gallagher or a Capaldi, when we get that heads up about who’s attending what concert, stuff like that. These signals don’t necessarily indicate future collaborations, but they DO indicate what kind of image these guys want to have, the kind of music they want the public to associate them with.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself…their personalities and goals at the moment are all so vastly different, and I truly do love seeing how their teams are workin’ it accordingly. Again, please @ god, don’t @ me…opinions, massively unpopular opinions, dead ahead!
* Zayn. My read on Zayn is that he enjoys the creative process, loves writing and singing, digs collabing with people, but he doesn’t seem to give two shits about the biz side (and why should he? that’s called living the dream at this particular point in his career). His website recently added “tour,” which EYEBALL EYEBALL, but he doesn’t seem to be all that interested in putting himself back out on stage or into radio/print/etc. anytime soon, and again, why should he? His numbers are HUGE without pushing himself through the anxiety-provoking churn he endured for four years, so there’s no real drive for him to do any promo if he doesn’t want to (see: the netflix-like binge dump of Icarus Falls, which could be “sabotage,” or it could just be, “fineeeeeeee, here’s some stuff for you, enjoy”). What other artist gifts his fans with gorgeous covers of such a wide variety of songs that indicate he’s more interested in sharing them than selling them. Accordingly, his fan interactions seem fairly pure and not all that promo-y: he has a keen interest in fanart, he’s done some fan pop-ups/listening parties that are pretty low-key and *seemingly* fan-focused, and recently (with zero anything to really promote), he’s been posing for cute pics and chatting with randos on the streets of NYC. I recently read that his mgmt team is no longer with him, but that sort of folds into my feeling that he’s not pursuing anything biz-wise, hence no need to jump through those particular hoops (I think he’s also struggled with a lot of demons, so yeah, why add one more). Could he be adrift? Maybe, but the next guy is the posterman for lack of focus….
* Liam. Honestly, I worry about Liam most of all. His post-1D career seems very much adrift, and I like to joke that he’s giving me that tell-all about the D one sentence at a time, but goddamn, are people listening? The struggles with alcohol, the lack of focus on every level, the reliance on his dad’s career advice (which more clearly reflects his dad’s financial class, background, and history than it does Liam’s), and the overall confusion about look, sound, and direction also flow back directly into his team. I get the feeling that they aren’t sure what to do because LIAM isn’t sure what to do or what he wants, so they follow in his wake. He’s agreeable to a fault, so seeing him at a meet-and-greet at an HMV in Birmingham last week felt like a step back into 2010 for no real reason, just like hearing that he was more or less coerced into full nude photoshoots for an underwear ad (the decisions to say yes to both of those—who’s steering this ship? If it’s Liam, he needs to tell the team his overall goal, so they can plot a course he and his fans can follow; if it’s the team, ditto). Like Niall, Liam’s actually pretty good at the SM game: lots of selfies, snapchat filters, outfits, gym service, twitter interactions. But generally speaking, his promo is confusing, and that’s probably because there isn’t much *to* promote at this point, other than a mix of collabs, clothing endorsements, spon con, horse farms, and an album that’s always on the horizon. This might be tied to the general post-1D jolt they all went through, like a plane coming off autopilot and into the hands of someone who’s just learning how to fly it. Zayn debuted at number one, so his bump wasn’t as harsh, but the others are slowly, steadily finding their footing after taking some time to find themselves and their sound, releasing songs/albums, performing (or in Louis’s case, going through unspeakable tragedy). Liam’s still adrift…and somewhat admittedly, which is kind of telling in its own way. Just know that my nervousness on his behalf ratchets up every time he feels the urge to assure us all that he’s happy.
* Niall. Truly the one following the original 1D template, right down to working with most of the same people but with more of the overall control in his hands instead of a faceless management squad. Of any of them, he seems the most ambitious, the most scientific about the sound he’s after and how he’s gonna get there. His promo is a mix of new and traditional—radio shows, talk shows, podcasts, special events, twitter interactions with fans, twitter interactions with entertaining celebrities—and it’s all hustle hustle hustle, build build build, as if he were a new ingenue instead of coming up hard on solo album number two. He’s explicit in his goals, which is refreshing, but it means he walks a weird line with fans: on one hand, he’s done with their bullshit, get ready to get rekt if you start commenting on his boring food seasoning or home décor. But on the other hand, he fully recognizes how much he needs them, which is why we get so many peeks into his “normal” life (yet zero percent of his actual personal life). It’s also probably why the blatant tweets of the last two days seem so jarring to me (I might be alone on this one, but I’m not a fan of directives in general, and asking me to call radio stations on behalf of a rich white man to become even richer just rubs me the wrong way, same with asking me to stream stuff to get you to number one…you’ve been there, buddy, how about you calm down and build some character at number 51). And speaking of calming down, it does fascinate me that both Niall and Louis namecheck Taylor Swift as someone who gets the whole fandom push/pull thing right, so watching them try to reverse-engineer her secrets is fun. Louis nails it (that hotspot treasure hunt: chef’s kiss), but Niall’s heavy-handed easter egg dump in NTMY, she would never!! I think Niall’s team needs to watch “Calm Down” about five more times before they try that again.
* Louis. I think Louis honestly has an AMAZING team in place, and they’re all clearly on his side, which makes for a refreshing change. Like Niall, he has publicly praised Taylor Swift for how she engages with her fans, but I think he’s missing a key point: she doesn’t let her fans dictate strategy, and I HOPE that’s the case for Louis, too. His old team *was* shit, so yeah, encouraging people to do fan projects to get the word out was a good idea, but turning that spigot off to let a good (paid) team step in and take over has been, uh, challenging. He’s dealt with more than his fair share of personal tragedy, but every time he gets some momentum going, it feels like something bts pushes him back off track, and he tends to keep it private, which only makes his hardest-core fans scream “sabotage.” Rightly so, he’s focusing on his personal life, and rightly so, his team is giving him the space to do that, even when it costs cash money and throws a lot of shit seriously for a loop. It makes my heart soar to see the potential of what his team can do/is doing, how much space he’s being allowed to process what he needs to process. Weirdly, that’s an unpopular opinion, and a lot of people want to indulge in an angst wank fest where Louis’s the victim of a terrible team that won’t DO anything (nevermind the fact that he’s probably ASKED them not to do anything), so they undertake a tremendous amount of performative unpaid labor that ends up being counterproductive on just about every front. Even worse, most of them can’t seem to process the fact that losing your mum is a blow, losing your SISTER is a blow, juggling other siblings or close friends handling some serious demons of their own in the aftermath of all of *that* is a blow, let alone handling your own personal coping mechanisms, nope, they want Louis to release release release, perform perform perform, c’mon, what’s holding him back, he *said* he wanted to release an album this year, there’s “no reason” for a delay, gotta be his shitty team, free him. It drives me ‘round the bend because it’s the same talk from late last year, you know, when we later found out that at least one family member was losing a fight with drug addiction. Louis’s fan engagement/promo is therefore hella fraught: he has to balance LouisTM on twitter (Mr. Donny, he’s hard, mate), his werk IG posts, and his constant edging because nobody can remember or trust that he’s got this, that multiple things are in play. But he also knows his fanbase, knows that it’s resistant to any kind of change, so I hope he pushes through and stays true to what he wants to do. I was really encouraged with his last promo round because he seems to have narrowed in on a something solid, he’s got a plan, and it’s not, “hey mr dj, put my record on,” it’s getting his fans to trust that he and his team know what the fuck they’re doing, and spoiler alert, it ain’t radio, but go ahead and keep pissing off djs by sending angry tweets their way. (Related: why is it so bad to avoid the radio when all of us admit that radio music is garbage? Is it because it’s more about you than him? Much to think about.)
* Harry. My very favorite head canon is that Harry is Jeff’s nightmare client: what was perfection at first because the Azoffs are old-school promo all the way (no SM, baby, gimme that sweet, sweet paper), and that dovetailed nicely with post-1D Harry, but it quickly veered into mulish teeth pulling. Low profile can quickly spin into no profile, and that really doesn’t work too well when you’re trying to sell sell sell, even if your brand is Harry StylesTM. HS1 and Dunkirk in their own separate ways worked VERY hard to push past the still-persistent way the general public views Harry as boybander Harry Styles, or more accurately, former boybander Harry Styles who dated Taylor Swift (if you venture out and ask someone who’s not a fan), but what I love about Harry is that much like Zayn, he doesn’t seem to be too bothered by all that. Sure, he’s ambitious, he wants to challenge himself and do things, but he’s no Niall Horan. He’s put in his time! If he gets a number one, then cool, but he’s not gonna chase it. And this is where Harry’s team really reflects his goals and energy: sure, they want him to do some promo (that “Do” tweet, the entire bit about the fan in Australia and Harry Lambert’s follow, goddddd, I loved it, petty Harry, resigned Jeff), but they clearly aren’t forcing him. He drops a song that makes a HUGE splash, and the follow-up is…liking some tweets and going to a John Mayer concert (not a John Mayer fan, so that wouldn’t be my first choice, but I respond to the zero fucks given about the whole thing). The music industry has changed a LOT in just two years, so it’s kind of cool to see team Harry pivoting a bit, seeing more SM interaction, the kindness generator, etc., but that said, the team takes their cues from him, and he clearly doesn’t want to do a whole promo circuit beyond persons a, b, and c, and magazine R, F, and A. Does it make sense to have Rob Sheffield write a profile about Stevie Nicks-blessed shroom-eater Harry Styles when his new song sounds like the Zarry combo of my dreams? NOPE, but that’s okay, Harry wanted to talk to Rob, so that’s what happened. The new song is more streaming friendly, and thank CHRIST, a lot less crusty white dude stuck in the ‘70s, so I can only hope that the rest of the album is thus, but we shall see! We’ll also see if Harry’s fan engagement shifts any further into the active zone…so far, it’s been “I’m gonna follow some larries, like these fun generator posts, check out a few dads” and staged photo ops with the same familiar faces, but I think he’s dealing with his own major bts issues as well (album delayed at least twice; that entire stalking situation). I still contend the album’s coming in the next few weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see if/how any additional promo rolls out in this new world order post-gryles landscape, how many interviews he’ll do, but I like that there’s a strategy that seems less stodgy…kudos to the new SM team, at least!!
Oh man, that got really long! Hope you enjoyed, and YES, opinions opinions opinions, and they’ll be stupid in about three weeks’ time, thanks for coming to my already dated buzzfeed article
#so many long-winded opinions#one direction#yeah#and shout out to kim for always checking my work!!!
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Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 - The Beauty and Wackiness of Wall Market (Ch 8-11)
Btw, I forgot to mention it in the previous post but danggg, Aerith’s house is as beautiful as I imagined it to be. I always loved how it was a nice house surrounded by flowers and water, and I think the remake really nailed the atmosphere and beauty of it. It felt so tranquil and soothing. Lmao at Aerith trying to get Cloud to high five with her when they successfully work together to go through the shortcut to Sector 7. It’s hilarious how Cloud feels bad about not doing it since she looks so disappointed hahaha. HAHAHA, I love how Cloud decided to high five her but she didn’t realise until he awkwardly let his hands down hahahaha, Cloud is so adorable! Lmao at Aerith apologising for not getting it at the right timing and Cloud pretending to be dumb🥺🤣 I love how Aerith got him to high five her at the end of the walk. And lollll at those three robber “brothers”(?), yes, I realised that I could kick them around when they pretended to be dead after getting defeated by Cloud and Aerith, so yes, I did spend some time kicking them HAHAHA. It was stupid but funny okay?! I love how they added that bit because I always hated the random battle appearance of thieves in the original, they kept stealing my good items and money! But now it’s more of a fun yet ridiculous experience at the same time haha.
It’s kinda interesting how Aerith tells Cloud about Zack but Cloud isn’t able to hear his name properly. But it was really cute how she scooted closer to him when they sat down on the slide at the park. Omggg lmao at actually being able to play in the park, I never knew I needed to see Cloud going on a slide because that was so awesome! Yes, I’ll admit I went on it more times than I should have because I just found it hilarious that the stoic Cloud was on a slide like a big child hahahhaa. I always wished that I could play with it in the original, so that was super cool! They really put effort into the most useless things lmao. Outrageous that we don’t get to play on the swing though, that would have been so cool and fun!! Kinda sad now T_T It was so sweet when Cloud and Aerith were awkwardly saying goodbye to each other, I found it so endearing how Cloud was so ready to take her home if she told him she needed him to walk her back. Despite how tiring it may be to follow Aerith’s pace, he definitely finds her company enjoyable. I find it rather random that Cloud actually gets to talk to Tifa when she’s on the carriage to go to Don Corneo, but I guess it’s nice to see Aerith tell him that if Tifa’s important to him, he should really chase after her and protect her (since Corneo is dodgy), I guess despite my gripes with some things, it is nice that Aerith still plays the role of motivating Cloud to be more open with his feelings and doing what he wants rather than what he thinks he should do.
Wall Market is so wacky and lawless, I love it. It looks so good and everything nostalgic about it is there, it’s so awesome. It’s crazy how stuff like the pharmacy, the materia store, the bar, the clothing shop and the squats place is pretty much exactly like the original! It’s so awesome! HAHAHA, I love how when the promoters try to get Cloud to spend the night at the inn with Aerith, you can ask “how much?” and Aerith calls you out for it lolll. I mean, I had to try, right? LOL at Fat Chocobo, it’s so huge, that moogle was ugly btw. Lmao at Cloud enjoying the hand massage more than he thought he would hahaha. It was so cute seeing him flex it in such a dazed state hahaha. Madam M is pretty cute and hilarious though, loved it when she was so mad that Corneo intervened and made Cloud and Aerith fight an extra round in the Corneo Cup loll. Btw, if you’re curious, yes, I admit that I spent some time kicking the thief brothers around the stadium again LOL. Don’t judge me. I also spent some time admiring the flowers and signs Cloud and Aerith increasingly got after winning each round. The underground battle Coliseum was more fun than I thought though, not too hard and I think the announcers and audience really make the experience so great, I was so hyped even though I was the one fighting haha. The cartoon mini Corneo is hilariously cute. Lmao that the house monster became a boss though! Like, c’mon, now he’s not cute anymore! He’s still annoying though LOL. I had no idea how I was supposed to be killing him so it took me a while to realise what I needed to do after finally using Assess loll. A flying house with a shield is notttt fun! The idea was hilarious though.
As for the squatting game lolll, that was relatively easy, took me a few tries to get used to it though hahaha. Leslie (the guy at the door blocking you from going to Corneo) is so nice, he legit tells Cloud and Aerith to not go for the audition because he knows how terrible of an experience it is for these women. I’m surprised. Awww, we don’t actually go to get the materials for Cloud’s dress?? That’s no fun! I wanted the clothing shop owner to find meaning in his life again by making dresses for men like Cloud lolll! And the aggressive customer that goes all quiet and just says “...you’re weird” when he sees Cloud dressed up as a girl was such a highlight! The wacky banter between the clothing shop owner and his son talking about this new business line in the original was so funny tooo! Honeybee Inn is fancier than I thought though, like wow, all that extravagance. I guess it’s good that Andrea liked Cloud and recommended him to Corneo haha. But omg, Aerith is absolutely stunning, definitely better than Tifa’s dress imo. Her hair is so beautiful too! Madam M did a good job! I loved how even Cloud was surprised how beautiful she was, also gotta love how Johnny rolled the red carpet for her lmao. AND I will proudly admit, I tried to peek when Madam M said she was going to dress Aerith up hahahaha. Anyway, by not making the dress for Cloud, you kinda miss out on how much Aerith enjoyed dressing up Cloud in the original and how much she teased him, so that’s kinda sad, but I guess Cloud’s cute so it’s okay lmao. Also kinda miss how confident and playful she was to pick her own dress and show it off like the boss she was though.
LOL at that dancing game, it was so weirdly ridiculous since when you do the practice, Cloud literally moves with his sword hahaha. I really wanted to enjoy the dance instead of focusing on hitting buttons though! Especially since some were so hard to see, like seriouslyyyyy! It was really nice to see how much Aerith was enjoying herself watching Cloud and them dance, she’s such a party lover. The dance was pretty awesome in itself though, and Andrea really made Cloud look great, that tiara man! It was so funny when you get to annoy female Cloud with Aerith and keep calling his name but he ignores you hahahaha. LOL at the random passerby guy saying his girlfriend can be the most beautiful in the world, but Cloud is the most beautiful in the universe hahahaha.
Loll at the Don Corneo jukebox thing in his mansion hahahah. As usual, it’s so cute to see Cloud embarrassed and trying to ignore the fact that he’s dressed up like a girl in front of Tifa hahaha. Awww, the original was so much more funny when it came to Don Corneo picking one of them, it was hilarious in the original when Don Corneo would try to look at Cloud’s face properly but Cloud would turn his face the other way lmao. I guess it’s nice to see Tifa and Aerith kick some ass though? Hahaha, so cute how they’re both like, we need to save Cloud! Lol. The “reject room” was more funny in the original though, the guys used to follow you around like zombies before you beat them up haha. I guess we should be impressed that Leslie was able to hold the Buster sword with one hand to give it back to Aerith and them? Ahahah. Honestly though, I think that Wall Market felt the most nostalgic to me, I mean, seeing the noodle place where Cloud could eat, the depressed clothing store owner, the guy that’s stuck in the toilet at the bar, the shooting machine gun that’s supposed to give you something good later on and everything, it just felt so heartwarming. Even the squats were a welcome sight haha. So, even though I feel like they could have added more interactions here, the Coliseum and stuff were enjoyable in their own ways I guess haha, I’m happy enough to just see everything in the background tbh.
Okay, so I realised that PS4 screenshots don’t work like the Nintendo Switch, you actually have to hold the button or press triangle to save it, omg!! And yes, I was mad and sad, so I did a speed run through the first 9 chapters just to get them again lmao. Yes, I was dedicated, and stubborn lol. But omg, I ended up discovering new things! Which is not good! Lol. I realised (unfortunately) that there are different dresses for Cloud, Aerith and Tifa!! OMG. Incoming the shock of my life when I saw Aerith in a peasant dress!! I was like wow, Madam M was such a con artist, she literally took 990,000 of that 1 million gil prize from the Corneo Cup to give my girl Aerith the cheapest dress she could find. I guess I should have known when I did different quests and realised that there is that quest that makes you run around helping the clothing shop owner get back on his feet, and you kinda do the same thing as the original where you help out the sick guy in the bar etc, but I had hope… I really wanted better screenshots of Aerith’s extravagant dress!!😫😫 On that note though, I’m pretty disappointed in the change in the clothing shop owner’s motivations, I can’t believe they changed it to him wanting to go to the Honeybee Inn for inspiration omg!!! I’m so sad and mad. I honestly really loved the original because I found it understandable yet hilarious that what made the clothing shop owner stand up on his feet again was finding inspiration with dressing up Cloud in a dress. I also loved how much more Aerith interacted with Cloud here in Wall Market and teased him and helped him with everything. Now it just feels kinda…cheap.
Sigh, anyway, somehow I got Cloud’s other dress (the purple one with black bows and his braids, so what the original FFVII dress would look the most like in high quality I guess) as well, like what did I do different?! Anyway, I kinda googled it, and apparently you had to do all those Aerith side quests to get the best dress, sigh, this is what happens when you speed run I guess. And lolll Tifa’s one doesn’t change even if you don’t do her side quests, it’s only when you do them that you get the option to choose the other (uglier imo) dresses. And Cloud’s one…I have no idea, apparently it depends on whether you do the Chocobo Sam or Madam M side quests thing, but I’m not sure how I ended up getting it. All I remember for the tiara dress is that I chose “no deal” for the coin toss with Sam, said no to Johnny at Honeybee Inn and I did the standard course for the massage. Whereas for the braids look, I chose “heads” for the coin toss, did the luxurious hand massage and just completely ignored the side quest to follow Johnny. So yeah…whatever I guess lol, just bear with my dodgy screenshots then hahaha. Or maybe I’ll just get my bro to do them for me when he plays haha! (My bro didn’t end up playing it, the traitorrr, so yes, dodgy screenshots it is~)
I’m glad the sewers weren’t as tedious than the original haha, but the water pump thing was so confusing! I legit didn’t get it lmao, took me a while to realise what I needed to do, sigh, maybe I’m just stupid LOL, I was like, what is Aerith’s role in this?! The needle moved so fast I didn’t realise I was supposed to stop it inside the red part hahahha. I also very much enjoyed turning into a frog with Cloud, I mean, having a frog with a mini Buster Sword jump around blowing bubbles or whatever was hilarious to the max LOL. I guess it’s kinda cute how Aerith and Tifa are bonding through this journey together, and it’s sweet how Aerith is trying to encourage and comfort Tifa by getting her to think about what they can do after they save Sector 7 from Shinra. It’s saddening though, that because of Avalanche, Shinra is planning to kill all these people to make a sort of representation that this is what happens when you go against them whilst falsely showing to the world that these eco-terrorists are willing to destroy a whole plate to achieve their purposes. Even Reno who doesn’t feel like he has the right to feel that way anymore considering the work he does feels a bit uncomfortable with it. On the other hand, the train graveyard was as tedious as usual, not as dangerous as the original though.The place is so creepy btw! Lol. In the original, it had a more solemn atmosphere where I felt like it showed the remains of a past gone, but here, it just feels scary with the ghosts etc lol. Although I guess with how Aerith reacts to it all, it is saddening that these ghosts seem to have just been really lonely and wanted to play hide and seek with Cloud and them after finally getting to see people come here. Honestly though, that vending machine here playing music!! It scared me with the loud music LOL. Small Aerith is probably the cutest tbh! It was so cute when young her was sad and lonely about not being found by other people(ghost showing her sad memories), and then Cloud and Tifa find her and save her in reality, it’s kinda corny, but it’s cute and rather sweet haha.
Okay, I was going to talk about CH 12-14 here as well but somehow the post got too long so I’ll leave it for the next part lolll. I guess me gushing over the beauty of Aerith whilst complaining about my clothing shop owner being demoted into a sleazy guy took up a lot of the post huh? Seriously though, regardless of the changes, I still really enjoyed it because I think the changes made it flow nicely in its own way, and really, I love the whole idea of the Corneo Cup and expanding the role of the Honeybee Inn in the story so I don’t mind the reinterpretation that it went through. I mean, some details were lost and it’s saddening, but at the same time, it was still rather fun and refreshing in its own way. I’d say my biggest gripe is that Corneo is more creepy than funny and that kinda kills the whole mood, but then again, the remake has been more “serious” so it’s understandable. I still got to see Aerith bond with Cloud on the slide (one of my favourite moments), and I got to see how breathtaking Aerith was in her dress, so it’s a win! I think I could spend all day marvelling at how detailed and beautiful Wall Market is tbh. I spent a lot of time looking for the restaurant to see if I could order food and other nostalgic things, and the remake really fit it all in rather nicely! So really, I complain a lot but I still loved it :P
P.S Ms Folia (orphanage teacher?) being a Honeybee girl because her dream is to become a dancer was SO RANDOM and silly lmaoo. Also no idea why I’m hearing a rendition of Farm Boy in Wall Market, it’s so random! And yes, I got lost in Wall Market a lot lolll. I also found it hilarious to see Johnny’s father around everywhere, whether it be in the inn wandering where he can find Johnny, or be it him playing around in the Honeybee Inn even though he’s supposed to be finding his son LOL. Now we know why Johnny is the way he is~
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Instead of doing replies, here’s this massive hc post that nobody needed or wanted lmao ayyy
Seoul Hanoi'd
Genre: The Wikipedia page describes them as an indie rock alt-rock group, with the genres listed under the main box being indie rock, alternative rock, and some forrays into indietronica.
The group is described as genre-bending, as they will stick mainly with an indie rock vibe/folk punk (think violent femmes with that term), but they’ll pull elements from a wide range of genres. Seoul Hanoi’d is made up of singers and musicians whose wheelhouses include jazz, country/bluegrass/Americana, folk rock, indie rock, glam rock, garage rock revival, pop rock, classical, traditional Eastern, and R&B, so it isn’t unusual for a song to feature a cleverly placed jazzy bass throughout (like Ladies’ Code, Galaxy) or a mandolin.
Background: Seoul Hanoi’d was founded in 2010 when a “joke in a conversation” between American-Cambodian singer, song-writer, and musician Franny Sor Robinson and Scottish drummer Max Jin-ho Cho came to life. The group currently consists of ethnic Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong, Malaysian, Indonesian, Mongolian, Kazakh, Chinese, Nepalese, and Thai diaspora who rotate out for live shows as their schedules permit. All members of Seoul Hanoi’d have either their own solo music careers, or are primarily involved in acting, or have a primary band they are active in. There are four founding members and eight other members, totaling twelve. In addition to the twelve official members of Seoul Hanoi’d, other guest musicians have played with them when none of the twelve in the official lineup could fill a role.
The "core” members are almost all at every performance. Of the core members, Franny is absent the most because of her wildly busy schedule. She has a hand in composing almost every original song, arranging most of the covers, writing a huge chunk of their lyrics, and is the common thread between most of the other musicians, so she is considered the leader of the group.
The band has won Grammy Awards, and since many of the band members are British they’ve won awards in Britain too, and because of the two Canadian members they’ve been nominated for awards in Canada. The band is labeled British-American-Canadian on the Wikipedia page. Though, one member is from Australia, and one from New Zealand. They joke that since Canada, the US, and UK all have at least two members, they get to be on the Wikipedia page.They have been given numerous honors from various Asian cultural organizations in The United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Canada.
Because of Seoul Hanoi’d’s unique structure, any touring is done in small legs and there’s usually a live lineup switcheroo from leg to leg. The band has a massive online following -- even when they don’t do live shows for a while they pump out content on their YouTube channel including covers, performances of their original content, charity livestreams, Learn [Language] with [Member], and occasional vlogs where the members teach you about their culture(s) by showing the viewer around a cultural festival or a traditional wedding or something.
Founding members: Franny Sor Robinson (Cambodian-American), Vanessa Pham (Vietnamese-American folk indie singer-songwriter and guitarist), Max Jin-ho Cho (Korean-Scottish singer-songwriter, drummer, and pianist), Mary Xiong (Hmong-American indie rock singer and musician)
Other members: Pangfoua Zangkai (Hmong-Canadian actress, singer, and guitarist), Lawrence Hardjono (Indonesian-Australian bassist, lyricist, singer), Roslan Ali (Malaysian-New Zealand glam/indie rock singer, director, musician, song-writer, and author), Souksakhone “Holly” Rasavong (Laotian-Canadian pianist/keyboardist, composer, producer, drummer), Aisulu Niyazova-Li (Kazakh-Chinese-English actress, singer, and musician), Jodie Batbayar (Mongolian-English musician, singer, violinist, activist, and producer), Andrew “Andy” Chaiyaporn (Thai-American drummer, guitarist, singer, and violinist), Hannah Sadutsang (Nepalese-Bhutanese-English musician, lyricist)
Main singer on album recordings: Franny Sor Robinson, songs v personal to the other singers are sometimes recorded by them, the main male vocalist is Roslan Ali
Main singer live: Generally Franny Robinson for Europe shows, but of the core members she’s absent most and in her absence Aisulu Niyazova-Li, Vanessa Pham, or Mary Xiong typically will take lead
Core live members: Franny Robinson (singer, main lyricist), Max Cho (drummer),Vanessa Pham (backing vocals, lead guitar), Pangfoua Zangkai (rhythm guitar, harmony lines), Roslan Ali (main male vocalist, lyricist, assorted instruments, directs most music videos), Lawrence Hardjono (bassist), Holly Rasavong (piano, keyboard), Andy Chaiyaporn (violinist, stringed instrument god)
Most common live substitutes:
Franny Robinson (singer) may be replaced with Aisulu Niyazova-Li, Vanessa Pham, or Mary Xiong
Max Cho (drummer) may be replaced with Andy Chaiyaporn who is usually in charge of string instruments or Holly Rasavong
Andy Chaiyaporn (string god) can be replaced with Jodie Batbayar
Vanessa Pham (lead guitar, backing vocals) can be replaced with Mary Xiong, Aisulu Niyazova-Li, or Jodie Batbayar
Pangfoua Zangkai (rhythm guitar, some harmonies) can be replaced with Hannah Sadutsang or Mary Xiong
Roslan Ali (male singer, various instruments) can be replaced with Andy Chaiyaporn, or Lawrence Hardjono will sing and play bass
Lawrence Hardjono (bassist) can be replaced with Mary Xiong, Aisulu Niyazova-Li, Jodie Batbayar, or Hannah Sadutsang
Holly Rasavong (piano, keyboard) can be replaced by Hannah Sadutsang, Jodie Batbayar, or Aisulu Niyazova-Li
Connections:
Franny was friends with all of the members individually before most of them knew each other, Franny is the common thread.
Vanessa Pham is an American solo artist that Franny went to NYU with
Max Jin-ho Cho is a Scottish drummer, pianist, and singer that Franny met during a song-writing session with a mutual friend who is in Max’s main band, a Scottish rock band called Glasgow Gravedigger Society
Mary Xiong is the frontwoman of an American glam rock band called Borrowing Sally’s Mascara that Franny met when they performed at the same music festival that Daniel Maitland’s main band was (an alternative female-fronted rock band called Venus and The Flytraps; he’s the other half of the bluegrass/indie country/americana duo Dara & Danny that Franny does) and Franny was there to support him, and a mutual friend introduced them to Mary
Pangfoua Zangkai is a Canadian actress that Franny met in 2008 when they were actually co-starring in an indie comedy movie directed by a mutual friend. The film was about two first-generation American women nearing the end of their final year of university, and deals with the pressure children of immigrant parents often deal with regarding their families hopes and dreams, and the feelings of not feeling American “enough” and not feeling Hmong or Cambodian “enough” through a comedic lens. The film won several awards from different organizations in the West meant to promote Asian/Southeast Asian culture and art, and has become pretty important to many people in Southeast Asian diaspora groups. Pangfoua is primarily an actress, but can sing and play guitar.
Lawrence Hardjono is an Australian singer and musician who is mostly known for his solo career primarily across Australia, New Zealand, and in his parents’ native Indonesia. Franny met him when they were both speakers at a Southeast Asian cultural event in Australia
Roslan Ali is a New Zealand rock singer, musician, and author that had been friends with Lawrence Hardjono for a while. He fronts an all Asian-New Zealander and Maori band called Kiwaisa Pacific
Holly Rasavong is a Canadian musician and producer that has produced several of Venus and The Flytraps’ albums, so she’s someone else that Franny met through her connection to Daniel Maitland.
Aisulu Niyazova-Li is one of the youngest members of Seoul Hanoi’d, at twenty-nine. She is an English actress, singer, and musician that Franny met when Aisulu reached out to Franny via her publicist about coming to speak at her (Aisulu’s) university. Aisulu was the president of the Asian Student Union at the time. Franny thought Aisulu was pretty damn great and kept in touch with her, even hooking her up with an audition for a record label. She has a solo R&B singing career under the name Niya Li.
Jodie Batbayar is an English singer, violinist, and activist most known for her violin skill. She can play classical style and fiddle style. She met Franny when the two of them were speaking at an event about Asian women’s empowerment
Andrew “Andy” Chaiyaporn is an American drummer, guitarist, singer, and violinist. He typically plays violin in an American indie folk band called Maggie Creek, named after a stream in his native Nevada. He met Franny through a Facebook group for Southeast Asian-American creatives.
Hannah Sadutsang is English musician and lyricist most famous for writing the lyrics for many popular songs in the UK. Hannah is actually the youngest and most recent official member of Seoul Hanoi’d. She’s a former student of Franny Robinson’s at Pride University.
Inspiration playlist: Link
Seoul Hanoi’d experiments with both live instruments and some elements of electronic music, but it’s always meant to accompany live instrumentation.
They have an entire album that’s explicitly political, aptly named The Political One, and a couple other songs subtly so.
Awards, iconic performances, etc:
Seoul Hanoi’d has won Grammys
Main songwriter, Franny Sor Robinson, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019 at the age of thirty-nine
Their Glastonbury 2016 performance, fronted by Franny Sor Robinson, has been heralded as one of the best live shows of the Festival in the last decade
Seoul Hanoi’d has performed at SXSW almost every year since 2013
They have been invited to perform in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Mongolia, Bhutan, Korea, Nepal, Malaysia, and Indonesia by important figures either in entertainment or government to thank them for promoting and educating about their various cultures abroad
#&&...hc#// up next imma do a post for dara & danny and for franny's work in jazz and songwriting for other singers
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