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mangodelorean · 3 years ago

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Bad and Crazy - Episode 05 recap/musings

[Oh, come on, tvN, just release the theme music already. You've already done it with two of the songs!]

[Note: If you'd rather skip the recap, there's a list of stray observations in bullet-point form at the very end of this post]

Inside the overturned prison transport vehicle, Hui Gyeom's in bad shape. She looks on in horror as the half-blinded man fatally stabs her junior and then taunts her upon his exit.

Now in the interrogation room, Su Yeol asks Hui Gyeom why she thinks only she survived. She says she doesn't know, but he pushes, pointing out that she insisted on the transport and personally contacted the judge.

Hui Gyeom starts to counter that it was urgent to secure the Assemblyman's cooperation (and safety), but Su Yeol changes tack, bringing up her family's recent debt and her payments towards it – something nobody else knew about it. He makes his point, but his lingering on it feels cruel; he's both throwing it in her face and suggesting it as a motive for her going on the take.

Hui Gyeom's had enough, and asks to be questioned by HQ, but Su Yeol tells her to stay focussed and trust him. On her way back to her desk, she's greeted with awkward silences from the rest of her team, which then erupts into an argument among the men. Gye Sik suggests she go home, but she won't budge, to which he offers a kindly shoulder punch.

Elsewhere, at a dock, hundreds of shipping containers are being loaded with boxes of something called "Eyes Candy" and we get to see it being made: rainbow boiled sweets pestled and mortared, heated into moulds, chopped with candy hammers, blended, powdered, put into tiny little zip baggies hang on no wait these aren't for children...

A hand grabs one of the bags and holds it up to inspect it – it's Boss Yong [I'm just going to go with how the subtitles spell it], who swags into a small room where Andrei is beating up a guy for losing some of their stock. His excuse? "The stuff was already gone when I woke up after getting shot". Yong literally steps over him to her desk and orders Andrei to pull their products and lay low, thinking that this theft might be linked to the Assemblyman's death.

In the briefing room, Jae Seon wonders out loud to Su Yeol how the transport truck info got leaked. K, in the corner, calls Jae Seon useless and Su Yeol snaps back. Jae Seon is, of course, confused by this, but Su Yeol just sighs at him not to worry and instead just eat his product placement sandwich. Su Yeol suspects someone in Narcotics – Heo Jong Gu – might be in on this because of his past history with bribes, and asks Jae Seon to monitor him.

Jae Seon's impressed by Su Yeol's nascent passion to help clear Hui Gyeom's name, and coos over the "power of love". A cutaway gag/flashback shows Su Yeol's "passion" as him throwing up a lacklustre hand in the briefing room and telling Bom Pil he'll handle the case. Lmao.

Hui Gyeom, exhausted, sits in her living room across from Mount Bouquet.

Back at the briefing room, Su Yeol and Jae Seon lament the quality of the only photo they have of their only witness: the young man who ran out in front of the transport. His entire forearm is covering his face. Jae Seon: "At least we can see his jawline." Pfft. K snaps a photo of the photo (how boomer) and then leaves while Jae Seon quickly fills Hui Gyeom in over the phone.

K's taken Su Yeol to a crowded area because he recognised the bracelet [no, not of teeth] the witness was wearing - it's from a local nightclub...

...Specifically, the nightclub belonging to Detective Lim, the ex-cop Su Yeol/K pissed off in the last episode. Oops!

Lim: We meet again, Su Yeol. Isn't it your first time here after you ruined my business?

Snort. Su Yeol snaps on the most desperate of grovelling smiles, but it quickly crumbles when he spots K marvelling at the club's interior design and how much he wants to smash it up. Ankle-nipping, corgi puppy energy. Su Yeol shows Lim the photo of the bracelet and tries to make nice with him:

Su Yeol: [smiles; pats Lim's shoulder] Anyway, you got the ledger, right? I sent it back to you via courier.

Lim: I got it. But you didn't pay the courier fee. An 80-year-old man bought it over via subway. Three of my precious ledgers.

Su Yeol: [squirms] They are good at their job... A lot of people hire senior citizens nowadays.

[pause]

Su Yeol: I won't take much of your time. Can you just give me the payment statement from that night?

Lim: In your dreams. Why would I give that to you?

Su Yeol: [getting agitated] Cops died! I'm sure you've seen the news. This is a serious case, you know.

Lim: I'll never give it to you! [laughs]

K's patience is waning; he grabs a shiny magnum of champagne and holds it to Lim's head, asking Su Yeol if he should swing. Su Yeol asks Lim if there's anything he can do to change his mind, to which Lim replies that he should get to punch Su Yeol, just once, with all his strength. K, meanwhile, is still practice-swinging that bottle inches away from Lim's head:

Su Yeol: [to Lim] Why don't you just hand it over?

Lim: Just one punch. But I'll use my full power. OK?

K: [still swinging the bottle towards Lim] So tell me. Should I do it or not?

Su Yeol: [to K] Fine. Do it.

Naturally, Lim takes this as the go-ahead to hit Su Yeol so hard he does a half-spin to the floor with a split lip. Lmao. Lim, satisfied, laughs and fucks off to get the ledger.

Back outside, Su Yeol rebukes K for not bottling Lim, but K says Lim was "much faster". Pfft. Their bickering is interrupted by Hui Gyeom, who's there along the same lines as they are. A very shy K adorably hides behind Su Yeol like an introverted little turtle as Hui Gyeom tells Su Yeol how she tracked the bracelet here, and Su Yeol accuses her by turns of being stressed, just wanting to go clubbing, and/or showing up here to "silence the witness". K interrupts this by smacking the back of his head [thank you], and tells him to "show her some respect".

Hui Gyeom looks over Lim's statement in Su Yeol's car, and he awkwardly dumbasses over her familiarity with clubs (Hui Gyeom: "I'm in the Narcotics Unit"). K calls him an idiot. Hui Gyeom thanks Su Yeol and exits with the statement to run background checks (seeing as it's also her case), leaving K to stare wistfully from the back seat and Su Yeol one step away from taking up stress-crocheting.

The next day, K/Su Yeol try to ID a potential match for the witness by... getting the guy to hold up his arm over his face like in the photo. Hui Gyeom has second-hand embarrassment, but this one-pronged plan continues well into the night.

Refuelling at a restaurant, Super Genius burns his mouth on his food and looks up to see K, who rushes to the water fountain to refill Hui Gyeom's empty glass. Su Yeol spills much of it on the way back, eagerly grinning. Hui Gyeom isn't buying this nice-guy act, and asks him if he's:

a) got a split personality (Su Yeol: what?)

b) dying

c) if he still likes her.

He scoffs at this last one, but can't seem to look her in the eye, while K declares his love with finger-hearts. Su Yeol tells her he's only working hard because it's a high-stakes case, but Hui Gyeom tells him to stop being a weirdo and to just stay consistent. Su Yeol glares at a still-fawning K before burning his mouth. Again.

At a coffee shop the next day, they finally meet/track down the witness, a student who claims that he didn't see anything. Su Yeol pushes, but Hui Gyeom tries to be more sympathetic, noting that people died, including her junior who was of college age, too, and implores him to help. But the witness nervously reiterates that he saw nothing but heard the ambulance. K grabs the witness by the collar and accuses him of apathy, and Hui Gyeom snaps Su Yeol out of it, but not before the witness bolts.

Our long-suffering dodgy doctor is about to leave his office for the night when up pops Su Yeol, insisting on starting treatment straightaway. But, through some impressive left-to-right, Wimbledon-class head-darting from the doc, both K and Su Yeol have asked how to get rid of the other. Doc to his friend on the phone: "I can't make it today." Ha!

K and Su Yeol argue over K's outburst with the witness, and it almost comes to blows before Doc steps in, saying that K needs to leave of his own accord – that they can't force it. The three sit and Doc asks K for a run-down of his childhood, but Su Yeol says there isn't time for that. Doc pushes back that they have to go through the steps this way, but K gets serious and refuses to comply. There's a beat, after which Su Yeol asks the doc to resume, but K shouts at him and storms off. Doc hypnotises Su Yeol, telling him to think of his childhood, and we get another dream sequence:

Su Yeol is in an endless hallway. Several doors on either side of the hallway run at equidistant points to each other, but the ceiling and its flickering, overhead lights are wobbly, askew. The doors and main walls are drab brown/green colours but there's a bright red geometric print that saturates more of the walls' surface area the further down he walks. The doors have room numbers, but in no discernibly obvious sequence: 205, 1004, 1201, 812, etc. He opens one – it's not clear which number – to find a house by a riverbank that's overgrown with weeds. He doesn't look like he recognises it. Behind 629 – and here the geometric pattern appears to turn orange (but it may just be lighting) – he sees two young men talking calmly outside under either a sunrise or a sunset; the sky is clear and there's birdsong. In the hallway, he looks distressed. He stops at 1002, but he clutches his head as he experiences the dream we saw previously - birds screeching, running, the tents, the bicycle, more running - all shown in a split mirror image – the same as before ---

Su Yeol wakes up again. Doc, who isn't asleep this time, gravely asks Su Yeol if he ever suffered amnesia as a child.

On his drive back to work, Su Yeol gets a call from Jae Seon, who's spotted Heo Jong Gu heading into Cinnamon Bun Rookie's funeral. He tells Su Yeol that Jong Gu is a gambling womaniser but that he doesn't seem connected to the case. In what I think enough time has passed so that Jong Gu didn't hear this, he's suddenly tapping at Jae Seon's car window in greeting.

Inside, the Narcotics team joins Cinnamon Bun Rookie's family in mourning. Jong Gu tells Gye Sik that he thinks he's being monitored, to which Gye Sik tells him to lay low and just comply. Hui Gyeom passes out food and spots Jae Seon.

Next morning, a desk-dozing Su Yeol is woken up by a hello and a salute from - Gyeong Tae! He's just transferred to the team. Su Yeol: "Am I dreaming now or what? I see O Gyeong Tae." Ha. Much worse dreams to have. He makes to send himself off back to noddyland when he realises that its not a dream and the vision that stands before him is indeed Gyeong Tae and his weapons-grade enthusiasm. He finally wakes up upon realising that the team Gyeong Tae said he'd transferred to is, in fact, Su Yeol's (BIG BRAIN), and that Su Yeol is the team captain of said team (MAHOOSIVE BREN), and that why didn't he know about it. Jae Seon submitted a report, you curtain-banged oaf.

Su Yeol glances over to find K lifting weights and mirin' Gyeong Tae, who tells Jae Seon he has something on his face ("What? My handsomeness?" "No, toothpaste." Snort). Su Yeol does another little whine and takes a call from Hui Gyeom, who's making a pitstop home to wash up in between the funeral and work. But there's no time for chat, because her taxi pulls up to a police presence and a throng of curious neighbours outside of her home.

She runs inside to find cops combing the place. Su Yeol rushes in a short while later, and a detective tells him they were responding to a theft case - but then found a briefcase full of cash and bags of Eyes Candy. He glances sidelong at a near-defeated-looking Hui Gyeom, who is trying to hold it together. She insists she's being framed. Su Yeol tries to offer sympathy but says that they still have to make the arrest, and cuffs her.

Back in the interrogation room, Jae Seon uncuffs Hui Gyeom and offers food (just like he did with Gyeong Tae; aww). She wonders out loud if she was the scapegoat for all this from the beginning. Su Yeol posits that she's the more likely target vs Cinnamon Bun Rookie as the rookie was, well, just a rookie. Jae Seon asks if there's anyone she suspects, but Hui Gyeom says she still has faith in her team, her captain. that even they might be being framed, too. Su Yeol balks at this and says that Gye Sik, her captain, hasn't lifted a finger so far.

Speaking of which, Gye Sik shows up at a car junkyard and punches Jong Gu, yelling that he told him to do nothing. And, through a series of flashbacks, here are our multiple kicks in the teeth:

Jong Gu arranged for Assemblyman Do's stabbing.

In hospital, Do told Gye Sik to get him out in exchange for complete intel on the drug ring.

Gye Sik countered: first the info, then the move.

Then, Gye Sik moved in for a sweep (presumably with said intel).

Back to the present, and Jong Gu defends his actions: He needed a plan to protect himself if he got busted. But Gye Sik basically tells him that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy: In trying to stop himself from getting screwed, Jong Gu got everyone screwed - and that's why they're all being tailed. It's a mess. Jong Gu and Gye Sik argue over Hui Gyeom - the former says the latter was going to get her fired anyway, so her job loss is an irrelevant casualty, especially seeing as she's at least still alive. This hits a nerve with Gye Sik.

Pan over to show Chan Gi, the other young cop on their team, confirming his part in the plan to frame Hui Gyeom. So now we know that the whole Narcotics team is a pack of berks. Another flashback to the night of Do's attempted transport shows Chan Gi suggesting they kill everyone, and being the driver of the white truck that plowed into them.

In walks In Su, the half-blind man, who asks what's for dinner, but Gye Sik ominously warns him to offload the drug stash.

Back at the station, Su Yeol runs into Gye Sik, who asks after Hui Gyeom. Su Yeol says that it's a little too neat and tidy that all the evidence keeps pointing at her, and that wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that someone close to her was framing her, hmm. Gye Sik tells Su Yeol that he trusts his team and that he'll handle any problems himself, but Su Yeol asserts that, nope, his team will. This would make an excellent episode of Cake Wars.

Elsewhere, Student Witness Kid gets jump-scared by Chan Gi, and a flashback confirms what we already know - he saw the transport flip over. The kid rushes off but is stopped by Su Yeol, who immediately pegs that, because the kid looks so scared, someone is definitely threatening him. K manifests in his finest '90s sweatshirt and gives chase, only to save the kid from being hit by a car. The kid states again that he doesn't know anything. Gyeong Tae calls Su Yeol to describe the footage he found of ambulances rushing to the scene of the transport crash - and that the first one was fake. Su Yeol gets the kid to admit he only heard a siren - he didn't see the actual ambulance - and tries to appeal to him:

Su Yeol: If you don't want to think about other people, care about yourself.

[beat]

Su Yeol: How much longer will you put up with the fear? If you want to live, we must catch the culprit. And I'm the only one who can help you right now!

The kid recalls the scene: the half-blind man, Il Su, lurching out of the overturned transport and cornering him.

Il Su: Now... you and I know each other's faces.

The kid tells Su Yeol that Il Su was the one in the fake ambulance. Su Yeol gives the kid a shoulder boop for comfort and tells Gyeong Tae to trace the vehicle.

Next morning, Il Su gives a briefcase to an old fishing dude, who turns out to be Andrei, who calls Il Su a rat and half-drowns him, intending to cut his throat before Gye Sik stops him at gunpoint.

Gye Sik talks with Boss Yong in her office, where he's legit trying to sell her own (seized) drugs back to her, as Andrei looks on. Gye Sik says he's too old to keep selling seized goods, to which Yong says he should just die. Ha. Gye Sik tries to cut one last deal: He'll clear the market, through legal means, so she can have a drug monopoly – though he adds "despite your legal status". Oof. She asks for a demonstration of trust. He's listening.

At the junkyard, Jae Seon, Su Yeol and a more comfortably clothed Gyeong Tae find the shambulance. The junkyard owner says he found it dumped in a spot with no CCTV, but Gyeong Tae suggests they check the dashcam footage of the other nearby cars just in case. Su Yeol is impressed and tells Gyeong Tae that he was born to be an investigator. Jae Seon looks a tad green-eyed.

In the briefing room, footage confirms that Il Su dumped the shambulance. They run through steps to trace him, but there's nothing. That's until Gyeong Tae suggests that, owing to the short timeline of the transport, only someone with auto industry connections could have got hold of something as specific as a fake ambulance – and he's already identified one company with a personal connection to Il Su.

Su Yeol is floored by Gyeong Tae's initiative/ingenuity, and cradles the rookie's face in his hands as he calls him his lucky charm, to which Gyeong Tae smiles bashfully. Jae Seon's face is now as green as his shirt.

Su Yeol darts out of the station only to find his car blocked in by two different squad cars. Ha! Luckily for him, up rides K, with whom he fights over his helmet (safety first) and the two settle in for a cozy ride as night falls:

K: Su Yeol, do you like me?

Su Yeol: [glances] Let's just ride quietly, OK?

[pause]

K: I have to say, you're not so bad yourself!

Su Yeol: [disgruntedly flips helmet visor shut]

The pair pull up to the junkyard, where K scales the fence in an impressive Nicholas Angel moment, leaving Su Yeol pawing to be let in. Inside, they find bags of Eye Candy, but are caught by Il Su and his crew.

Su Yeol and K try to formulate a plan. Il Su: "Why is that moron talking to himself?" Ha! Il Su sics his boys on Su Yeol but K makes short work of them with the help of some useful misdirection, some strategic darkness from flashing lights, and actually useful teamwork with Su Yeol.

But it's cut short when someone sinks a syringe into Su Yeol's neck [Sadly, it's not Bo-Ah]. It's Il Su, who's dosed him with Eye Candy, and is on the phone to Gye Sik. Oh, hell. Su Yeol struggles to hold out as the drug takes effect, and he crumples to the floor in a horrible haze, as does K, who reaches out to him. Il Su kicks Su Yeol until he passes out.

Later, Su Yeol awakens duct-taped to a chair, his mouth also taped over. He watches Gye Sik, Jong Gu and Chan Gi arrive and greet Il Su (who is clearly out of it on Eye Candy), who pleads for his life as Jong Gu aims his gun – but then Gye Sik shoots Jong Gu. A flashback reveals that Boss Yong asked for the head of the "rat that sneaked into my warehouse" aka Jong Gu.

Gye Sik tells Il Su to kill Jong Gu, but he hesitates, so Gye Sik threatens to shoot Il Su himself. Jong Gu calls Il Su a coward, and the latter fatally shoots the former. Chan Gi looks on in stunned silence, but Gye Sik assures him he'll explain later.

Gye Sik mock-admonishes Il Su for killing a cop. Il Su begs for mercy and says he'll do anything. Su Yeol quietly tries to wrangle his phone out of his picket but it drops, and the sound alerts Gye Sik, who kicks Su Yeol on his back and jams the gun to his head. A terrified Su Yeol begs for his life, asking to be heard out, and tells him, with honourifics, that he can help perfect his plan ("You know what I can do. Nice and clean, right?"). He begs again, saying that he'd fail a drug test so he couldn't screw them on this, and Gye Sik gets Chan Gi to untie him.

Gye Sik orders Su Yeol, still at gunpoint, to leave his prints on a syringe – which he does. Gye Sik says he sent Dong Yeol some money as "gratitude" – an hour ago. Meaning he was never going to kill him. That's a monumental level of fucked-up villainy.

Gye Sik: Who do you think people will believe? Everyone at work knows that you love collecting kickbacks. So what will happen? Will people believe you, a corrupt cop who only cares about money? Or me, who risked his life to catch drug dealers?

Il Su laughs. Gye Sik shoots him, claiming that it's to save face for Il Su "killing" Jong Gu. Su Yeol nervously nods in agreement.

As dawn breaks, cop cars swarm the scene, and Su Yeol recounts the "events" via v/o from the briefing room: Jong Gu was about to kill his accomplice, Il Su, but Gye Sik shot him in the shoulder. But then, Il Su grabbed Jong Gu's gun and shot him, the end.

After wrapping up, Bong Pil congratulates him: "You never let me down, Su Yeol". Oof. As the room empties, Su Yeol hangs his head a little.

On the way out, K manifests and demands an explanation. Su Yeol says he can't arrest Gye Sik because the case is closed. K berates Su Yeol and shouts that whoever's behind this is still on the loose. The two start to fight, with shoves, but it's not against light-hearted music this time: Su Yeol yells at K for not showing up in the junkyard to save him, and K calls Su Yeol a jerk without remorse. The pair trade increasingly violent blows, with Su Yeol bloodying K's face.

"I'm just trying to survive, OK? I'm doing everything I can to survive!" Su Yeol screams at K, and he means it. K can't say or do anything - he's beaten, literally, and watches Su Yeol walk away.

Separated by glass (again), Su Yeol visits a weary Hui Gyeom in prison and fills her in on Jong Gu's fate (and its implications on her possible release). But Hui Gyeom tells him that Il Su is insisting that she was in on everything, so it might not be likely. But she muses that Il Su isn't the mastermind type, and couldn't possibly be behind everything surrounding Do's death. Su Yeol tells her to just focus on proving her innocence. Hui Gyeom says not to worry - but to stop coming here, that it makes her uncomfortable, and that she still has faith in her team that they'll get her out. Before he goes, he apologies.

Hui Gyeom: For what?

Su Yeol: Just... everything. I'm sorry for everything.

Hui Gyeom ponders Jong Gu's case out loud, wondering if it's related to Min Su. Someone switches the light on in Su Yeol's brain.

At the station, Su Yeol flips through Min Su's death scene photos and, for once, uses his big detective brain to spot something that pokes a hole in Gye Sik's story: Sim Sang Ho, the ex-addict thought to have murdered Min Su, was found dead under a banner at the site of the murder. But Min Su's body was on top of that banner, so there's no way the deaths occurred in the order that Gye Sik claimed.

Su Yeol visualises this possibility: Sim Sang Ho was shot first and fell. Min Su rushed over to the body, saw Gye Sik, and gave chase to the top of the balcony, where Gye Sik pushed him to his death. Cue the rainfall (mentioned in the first episode), which washed away any possible DNA evidence. Finally, Gye Sik stabs himself for credibility. "Something like this?" Gye Sik's spectre taunts.

At the scene in present day, Su Yeol reflects:

Su Yeol: "Perhaps... the things I had said to get Kim Gye Sik roped into it... were all true."

So he accidentally cracked it. I would make a jab about a broken clock being right twice a day but Su Yeol was never incompetent (except with food temperatures and the concepts of "up" and "down"), just an indolent, amoral bastard.

K manifests, and jokingly asks what Su Yeol's going to do now - write a novel? Ha. Su Yeol insists he's going to see this through, to which K laughs:

Su Yeol: I'm going to dig into this case again. There's definitely something. I may be able to take down Kim Gye Sik.

K: [scoffs] By yourself? Do you actually think that's possible?

[beat]

Su Yeol: No. With you.

K: Me?

Su Yeol: Kim Gye Sik is a total psycho. It'd be too dangerous to get Jae Seon and Gyeong Tae involved. Only you and I will go. Just the two of us.

[pause]

K: Just the two of us?

Su Yeol: This moment on, we can only trust each other.

K smiles in childlike glee as he offers his hand to shake, which Su Yeol does in that fist-bump/handshake thing from the Predator meme and, finally, a partnership is formed. Phew.

--------

A little under halfway down, but things are still chugging along! We were noticeably lighter on humour this episode and it felt like some of the scenes were just flashback exposition dumps running in circles, but I guess in a crime/corruption/mystery show, maybe that's a more efficient way to play your plot cards.

The mystery of K's persona continues to unravel. As far as traits go, he seems to have some level of self-preservation that's not entirely around Su Yeol. He actively rejects the therapy (Why? Because he knows that'll erase him?), and the POV shot after the rooftop fight seems odd if he doesn't have any true agency. But, still, nobody else can see him. We know he's entirely in Su Yeol's head and it's going to stay that way.

Speaking of Su Yeol, that rooftop scene gave more of an insight along with the murky fragments of his corridor nightmare. He says he's just trying to survive - does he equate being good with being punished, with being abandoned/left behind? So far, the events befalling Hui Gyeom and Gyeong Tae haven't done much to soften that stance.

Boss Yong continues to fascinate, but we may only continue to get her character piecemeal in the remaining episodes we have.

I'm not expecting big character strides for anyone else at this point (other than Su Yeol/K).

Also: Well, don't I feel like a fucking idiot for rooting for Gye Sik and Hui Gyeom's sunbae/hoobae dynamic. I tip my hat to you, show.

Stray thoughts:

Those echoing stabs in the opening scene were just ghastly to hear.

Su Yeol's poker face as he broaches the subject of Hui Gyeom's father's bankruptcy. Is he ruminating on an even playing field or surprised/sad that she kept this from him and Jae Seon? But he said they broke up two years ago, and her father's bankruptcy only happened one year ago. And, since they're not dating and don't work or socialise together, there's no plausible reason why Hui Gyeom would have disclosed this to Su Yeol or Jae Seon.

Hui Gyeom doesn't seem the type to have leveraged or bragged about her family's wealth, but the way Su Yeol seems to twist the knife in about their rags-to-riches downfall reiterates (from the sauna scene) just how much of a bitter spot their class differences were. Is that part of why they broke up? Other than Su Yeol being a dickhead, of course.

Hui Gyeom is Gyeong Tae after 5 or so years of working with complete arseholes. But I don't think her optimism's totally gone yet. Given what she's probably seen in Narcotics, that's impressive.

My "K wears red" observations didn't hold up - his shirt in the briefing room is yellow. At least I didn't posit that he was a diet cereal.

I dread to think how many bugs have set up shop in that avalanche of flowers in Hui Gyeom's home.

Headcanon: Su Yeol doesn't know how to take screenshots so takes a picture of his laptop screen with his phone.

K pretending to look at air while Su Yeol accuses him of deliberately letting Lim hit him.

They got them bigger Galaxy fold phones.

Every time we see Doc he's either telling his friends to bring cash or that he's going to bring a lot of cash. Is this some kind of iffy gambling thing or are they just hitting up night markets?

It's not quite the same print, but the dizzying geometric/square pattern of the walls is very The Shining.

Two boys behind door 629 – is this K? The real K or kid that K is based on? Or is this when K first manifested in Su Yeol's life as some kind of imaginary friend/coping mechanism?

Doc asking Su Yeol about possible amnesia – if he did have it, this would explain why he seems to have no recollection of his original birthday, considering he was old enough to have known it otherwise when Mama Ryu adopted him.

Su Yeol taking a break from work just to go get therapy

If I'm going to drag Su Yeol for burning his mouth on food, I guess I've got to do the same with Jae Seon and his coffee.

It's not a fun episode for her, but Hui Gyeom is rocking that black suit.

Hui Gyeom holding Su Yeol's hand for comfort; him pulling away and patting her arm; him holding her hand again; him noticing another cops noticing.

For someone who claims he's on top of things, Gye Sik really can't seem to control his own team right now.

Jae Seon (and everyone else) looks visibly shattered from exhaustion in the interrogation scene.

Some odd/disjointed editing/photography in Il Su and Andrei's lake-waterboarding scene.

The row of matroyshka dolls (nesting Russian dolls) in Yong's office

The dreamcatcher on the wall, though? Hmm. Are nightmares going to be more of a theme in this show? The walls seem otherwise bare (there's literally nothing else on them) so something this big as decor seems like a conscious/symbolic choice, no?

Jae Seon calling Gyeong Tae "Mr Born to Be" in the junkyard. Pfft.

The briefing room pizza being from Yeol Yeol. Heh.

Even though we know K is him, we see more of Su Yeol actually participating in a fight (at the junkyard) this time.

I'm considering the syringe-in-neck bit a Tale of the Nine-Tailed reference.

Il Su begging Gye Sik for mercy parallels Su Yeol begging Assemblyman Do in the club

Props to LDW for his acting in the chair scene. Su Yeol was up against it and he sold the absolute barefaced terror of every part of that predicament.

I guess it was nice of Chan Gi to get Su Yeol a chair.

Gye Sik with his power plays against Su Yeol (the money, the syringe prints, the drug, the gun) is a callback to – and reversal of – the power dynamic in his first meeting with Su Yeol in the first episode.

I'll have to double-check but it seems like K watching Su Yeol walk away on the rooftop was the first time seeing anything exclusively from K's perspective.

Hui Gyeom continuously reiterating those boundaries for Su Yeol...

Gye Sik to Min Su in the ending flashback/Su Yeol's theory: "Even in this situation, you're worried about someone else" is something Su Yeol keeps telling other people.

If Su Yeol does end up writing a novel, maybe he should look up Jong Woo.

#bad and crazy #bad and crazy recap #lee dong wook #wi ha jun #wi ha joon #cha hakyeon #cha hak yeon #han ji eun #kdramas

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lacklustrerecords · 8 years ago

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Super excited to have Marlon Bando and Passing playing with Loma Prieta. The event, hosted through Facebook, has more details here.

#loma prieta #marlon bando #passing #lacklustre records #lacklustre hq #canberra #diy #punk #live music

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darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts · 6 years ago

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Devil’s Temptation pt14

Warning: Mob styling warlords

Masterlist

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Chapter 14 – Visiting Hours

The thick leather glove felt a little cold on his skin. Over the years of use, it had become soft and supple, yet it was still thick enough for his pet not to puncture it with her lethal talons. Haguro hopped happily from her perch in the small aviary space he had designed for her in his private garden to his gloved hand. Her wings flapped a little as she settled flashing glimpses of her barred body. With dexterous fingers, Nobunaga laced the ankle jesses of the bird around his hand to keep her securely in place.

As Japanese sparrow hawks went Haguro was darker then most he had seen. She was no less beautiful for her uniqueness, in fact, it was something that drew him to her in the first place. She represented the spirit of what he wished for, freedom. She could cast out her wings and fly high over the world below. It must have been a wonderful feeling to know that you could travel so far and not have a care in the world.

Her ability to take down other birds in flight reminded him of the nature of things but it was her eyes. Those yellow orbs staring at him that reminded him he could just as easily be that prey. Maybe not by her claws, but he was always reminded of balance and the fact that someone might come along that was a bigger bird in his cerulean sky. I cannot let that happen.

Nobunaga took out a chicken portion from a bowl of fresh meat he brought with him for the hawk. She sunk her beak into it, yanking it from his fingers and placed it in one of her taloned feet so she could begin tearing parts from it to eat.

“Good girl Haguro.” Nobunaga cooed softly at his pet. The sound of the doors opening into the garden was followed by the heavy footfalls on gravel of someone entering.

“Sir?”

“What is it Hideyoshi?” Nobunaga called out as loudly as he dared without scaring the hawk. It didn’t take long for the other man to join him by the bird enclosure.

“I’m sorry Sir but I thought you would like to know that [Name] has left her room.” Hideyoshi announced sounding relieved. It was no secret that he tended to treat everyone around him like family. He was always more than ready to step in and be that big brother figure someone needed. When it came to [Name] it was no exception. There was no denying that she had been liked by all of his men for one reason or another, Nobunaga knew he was also no exception to that rule. She is certainly an interesting one.

“Fascinating. However, she was not a captive here so she is free to do as she wishes.” Nobunaga replied lazily without taking his eyes from his pet, handing it another piece of raw meat.

“Of course, sir. But that was not why I came.”

“Oh?”

“Mitsuhide has left and taken her with him.” Hideyoshi’s concerned voice gave Nobunaga pause.

“Has he now? What an entertaining girl she is.” Nobunaga smiled as he witnessed Haguro devour the last of her meal. It was true he had visited [Name] and told her something of Mitsuhide’s past but he didn’t expect such fast results. That would only happen if she still felt a connection strong enough to run to his side. Ignore her own pain enough to show empathy for someone who had done her wrong. What a soft-hearted… No, it’s not just her it's him as well. Could a brief encounter really result in such an unbreakable bond?

“You don’t seem surprised by it.” Hideyoshi had been studying Nobunaga in an effort to try to work out what was happening. It was something he prided himself on, reading between the lines and getting what was wanted for his boss. But since his return, it had been harder to read past the text and the margin for error seemed to cast foreboding shadows everywhere around them.

“At this point Hideyoshi I would say I have larger concerns than Mitsuhide and his pet. There is a decided lack of action being taken.” Nobunaga bent down with Haguro and released her jesses from his gloved hand. She happily hoped back to her low perch on the ground and began preening.

“We are doing all we…” Hideyoshi defensively began to protest but was cut off quickly by Nobunaga.

“Not action on our part Hideyoshi. On theirs. We have not received any kind of real movement against us and I have to wonder why. Apart from that press announcement, there has been nothing.” Nobunaga explained with mild frustration as he left the aviary and slid the catch back into place on its door.

“I did notice that myself. What do you think they are doing?”

“If I knew I could counter it but as I don’t, I can only play the different possibilities over and over in my head.” Nobunaga was irritated. It was one thing to be patient it was another thing entirely to sit and wait without knowing if anything was going to happen at all. And the one man who would be able to tell him definitively if something was headed their way was now AWOL. Mitsunari might know at least where his left hand had disappeared to in such a rush. I could ask if he knows where the girl might be. Then if anything is said I was only looking for her, not Mitsuhide.

“Do you think Mitsuhide took the girl to try to get information?” Hideyoshi’s question almost made Nobunaga wonder if Mitsuhide’s mind reading abilities had rubbed off somehow. No, it’s far more likely he came to that idea himself. He has always been focused on keeping an eye on the resident trickster. Personally, I would just like it if Mitsuhide was settled enough to be useful again. It really interferes with business when one of the tools isn’t working properly.

“For all, I know he could have taken her and eloped.” Nobunaga shrugged as he turned to walk away. The light-hearted joke of his caused Hideyoshi to audibly gasp and that reaction caused a little rush of pleasure to rise up in Nobunaga.

“Eloped!? You think they still? But she hates…”

“The older you get Hideyoshi, the more you realise love and hate are two sides of the same coin.”

---

Takahiro moved with all the grace and agility of an agitated cat. He wasn’t exactly jumpy but he was on edge. Time was ticking and he knew it was moving closer and closer to the time where he had to answer for his latest actions. If he couldn’t find her before the time came, his time was up in every possible way.

He pushed open the private room’s door quietly and stepped in. The smell of disinfectant assaulted his nose worse than it had when he came into the hospital, small confined spaces just seemed to help intensify the lingering smell of things even with ample ventilation.

“The doctor just left. They say he’s stable enough to start bringing him out of that coma.” Shin’s words did nothing to alleviate his worried thoughts. Takahiro had hoped that with the other medical condition the man had that it would complicate things enough to give him the bonus of more time. Damn you and your ability to somehow be strong enough to fight back old man.

“I suppose you already cast out the bait?” Takahiro stared at Shin as he asked. We don’t have time now… I don’t have time.

“Of course, I did. I just don’t know how long it will take to attract attention or if it will get the right attention. We still don’t know who or if someone has her.” Shin put a reassuring hand on Takahiro’s shoulder as he tried to comfort him without smothering. It would have been easier to do in the privacy of their own home but in public it was a lot more difficult. Besides Takahiro had never reacted well to people attempting to comfort him.

“Someone has her. If they didn’t, she would have been found by now.”

“There would be logic in that.” Shin nodded in agreement. He had been sitting there silently observing the man in the bed thinking about just that. If she had simply run, they would have found her fast. The fact it had been so long now meant she was hiding somewhere. Either that somewhere was with someone she trusted or it was someone who had taken her.

“As long as it brings her here, I don’t care. I do not lose what is mine.”

---

For the city that never sleeps there was also a hospital caring for its inhabitants. The main city hospital was as busy as ever when Mitsuhide swung his car into the parking lot. It was the largest medical facility in the city and also served as a training centre for medical students hoping to gain a future in medicine.

The ride hadn’t been as uncomfortable as he thought it would. She remained silent for the majority of the journey but it wasn’t unpleasant. She had surprised him. Why had she come to me like that? Attempted to talk to me and smooth things over a little? Was it her naivety and innocence that did that or was it something else? I can’t deny I still fell a strong pull in her direction. Did she feel the same? Could she? I have hurt her. Maybe that would be too much to hope for. The pain in her eyes crushed his heart in his chest when she stormed off. He couldn’t blame her.

Mitsuhide didn’t care for hospitals much. He liked the cleanliness and could appreciate the sense of order they had. But he always thought they were rather boring. All these interesting and fun little toys and all they are used for is to heal… something seems wasteful about that. It was no surprise that when they got hurt on the job, they were usually treated at HQ by Ieyasu. They couldn’t avoid having to go to the hospital at times when things were more than even he could handle. When that happened it usually involved paying a high price to keep it from the authorities.

After going through a side door on the building they went straight to a desk that seemed like it was little more than a hole in the wall.

“Name?” A rather bored looking desk clerk asked in a lacklustre fashion. They had obviously caught them somewhere between the end of a night shift and hand over for whoever was their replacement for the morning shift. Can’t say I blame you for looking less than energetic given the hole they have you working in.

“Professor Saito, I’m with the University. This is my secretary. I received a call from someone here requesting I see a patient who was asking for me.” The shift in Mitsuhide was impressive, his tone and way he adjusted his gestures it was like he had morphed into a totally different person.

“I see. And does this patient have a name?” The clerk clicked around on what looked like a fairly out of date computer system in front of them on the desk.

“Well, I would assume so.” Mitsuhide’s little joke earned him a rather impressive unamused glare from the clerk which caused him to chuckle slightly. “My apologies, you see the patient I believe is suffering temporary selective amnesia and whilst they can remember some aspects of their life, they have very limited capacity on personal details. It was thought that if they knew who I was I might be able to help with identification.” [Name] stood frozen in awe at the performance. He made it all seem so natural and totally believable.

“Ah. Ok well, that makes sense. Your ID Professor?”

“Certainly.” Mitsuhide took out a card wallet that had several rather official looking laminated ID cards in it. Selecting one he handed it over easily. The clerk took it and clicked around on his computer for a few minutes, pausing to compare the image on the card with the man before them.

“Well, it all looks to be in order. Did you know where you are going?” The clerk inquired as they handed back the card.

“I think so… where was it, Miss Arai?” Mitsuhide’s natural performance had her so enraptured she nearly forgot she was involved in this too. Secretary… right I’m meant to be the secretary.

“I’m sorry Sir. I failed to make a note of that. The patient was recently brought here and…”

“You just can’t get the help these days it would seem.” Mitsuhide interrupted her before she could go so far as to blow her own cover in her panic. He gave a small eye roll with a tiny click of his tongue before turning to the clerk once more. “I’m sorry I do believe I might require a room number after all. A recent patient, one that is marked as a John Doe.”

“Of course, no problem” The clerk gave [Name] a sympathetic look as they searched for the required information. It was a look of a fellow office drone who was all too aware of what it was like to have a boss demanding so much you are bound to forget something minor at some point in the sea of requests.

After leaving the desk they made their way through the passages that were used by the hospital staff to shift patients between wards and treatment rooms without disturbing the rest of the hospital corridors. They weren’t as brightly lit as the rest of the hospital and they were cold. Heating the area was seen as pretty pointless as it wasn’t a place for people to congregate it was just a transition space, all the same, it was like someone had left the door to a large freezer open.

“You could have warned me you were going to pull that.” [Name] pouted as she walked next to him. He hadn’t expected her to seek him out back at HQ he certainly didn’t expect her to insist on coming along. In all honesty, even he didn’t know how he was going to get her in with him. It was her insistence of joining him that meant he had to formulate a viable plan as he drove to their destination.

“And miss you giving such an admirably flustered performance my dear? I wouldn’t dream of it.” Mitsuhide flashed her a playful smile and was pleased to see her cheeks turning pink. She was such an unusual creature she easily captured his attention. You are anything but boring my dear.

“Hey, those ID things.” [Name] spoke up full of curiosity.

“It is probably best if you don’t ask too many questions about tools of the trade my dear. All you need to know is I have need to enter and exit buildings sometimes and these allow me to do that without drawing attention to it.” Mitsuhide deflected her easily. The less she knew of the details the better it would be for her later. She didn’t need to know things like that.

“But if they check and call the university?”

“They will indeed find a Professor Saito on the faculty list. I do not teach classes I am a consultant and liaison between the university and its benefactors. After a long and distinguished career, I was given the honour of such a position.” Mitsuhide answered her as if he was talking about something as normal as the weather.

“Long and distinguished? How long exactly?” [Name] stopped walking.

“As long as it took me to gain access to their system and input some data, my dear.” Mitsuhide who had been checking markers and signs as they walked reached out and pulled open a connecting door to the private wards. “After you my dear.”

“You are terrible.” [Name] shook her head as she passed by him.

“Flattery will get you nearly everything in life my dear however at present we have work to do. I believe this is the room.” Mitsuhide compared the number to the print out he was given and after checking there was no one around and that the only person in the room was the patient he opened the door and went inside.

It was a few moments before he realised, she was not next to him.

“[Name]?” She was frozen in place looking into the room at the bed. Has she never seen someone ill like this before? “Something wrong little mouse?”

“It’s… that’s…” She looked as pale as the white sheets on the bed. What is it? Mitsuhide was acutely aware that this was not a normal reaction. Did she know this guy? If it is someone from Esshu then she might have seen him when she was with the CEO. Concerned Mitsuhide began moving back to her side. The sound of someone approaching reached his ears.

“So nice of you to join the party.”

---

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dorms-fic-archive · 6 years ago

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EreAni 30 Day OTP Challenge - NOT SFW REBOOT [1/30, a quiet moment]

Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin, because I hadn't seen anyone else attempt this with the pairing. [Ao3 | FFNet.]

a/n: Hello! This story is not dead, though I've made an executive decision and will be taking a more canon-centric approach to the majority of the chapters, as I'm not super confident on my AU abilities just yet. That's not to say that I won't write ANY AUs; there are certainly a couple ideas floating about that will necessitate a different setting, but the ordinary world of AoT will take primary focus for now. If it's an AU piece, I'll make sure to note it before the story proper.

Thanks for all the support. :) Oh, and on tumblr, I’m gonna be calling this the not sfw reboot to distinguish from the original 20-chapter fic. Also to (hopefully) avoid the bots.

.01 – Cuddles (naked)

Rating – PG

In the aftermath, it's quiet. The air is heated, not quite stuffy.

The window is open; light filters in through the dainty curtains like gold, illuminating particles of dust disturbed. Remaining still, Annie lets herself adjust to the hustle-and-bustle of city life drifting in. It's a far cry from the almost-silence of the Military Academy; surrounded by night-life and the whisper of shabby sheets over many pairs of legs, the sound of hushed conversations about trivial matters in the dark.

Here, both bed and sheets are finer. She'd almost felt sorry for Eren the first time he laid eyes upon her quarters; likewise, when he'd confessed that the Regiment saw fit to keep him in some abandoned castle she wasn't surprised, but nevertheless felt something vaguely akin to sympathy.

("It's nothing I can't handle," he'd added quickly, as though assuming the worst from her expression; though Annie had kept her answer impassive:

"I suppose that's true.")

Annie doesn't mind the sweat cooling on her skin as much as she ought to, though there is part of her that wants a shower. Another part, closer to her fluttering heart, wants to hold him close.

She masters that impulse. Her eyes dart to his face as he stirs.

"You're still awake?" he mumbles. His voice is low. Gruff, but reassuring.

Annie's mouth curls. "Can't sleep."

"Oh," says Eren softly. His eyes wander over her, uncharacteristically meticulous, like he will never be able to look at her enough. Annie shivers, averts her gaze elsewhere, at a loss for how to rationalise this intimacy, how the simple, inexorable weight of his body next to hers brings such peace.

His hand slides up her naked side to bring her closer. Annie wonders if it's possible to miss someone when they haven't left you.

"D'you feel better?" he asks.

Annie nods. He seems content, then, tucking his face into her clavicle. Idly, she cards her fingers through his hair.

It's startlingly easy, sometimes, to put the Mission out of her mind for a little while and pretend that things can be different. It should be sickening, how quickly she's able to fall into place with this boy. But Jaeger is not a simple boy, not anymore. Enlistment into the Scouts has altered him; he's a shade closer to a man with the weariness apparent in his eyes and his scowl more pronounced.

She remains the same as she was when they parted ways; cold and cynical, seemingly unaffected by the horrors of war.

("You'd hate it here," she'd told him once, in a previous situation similar to the one at present. Eren had looked pensive, then, smoothing back her hair.

"Yeah. But I'm where I want to be. And as long as you're happy, Ann — that's all that matters, isn't it?"

She'd wanted to laugh, or scoff, or perhaps cry; none of it came naturally.)

"Ann," he mumbles after a pause.

"Mm?"

"I have to go."

"The officer won't care."

It's mostly true. The security in Stohess's own Military Police HQ is lacklustre at best; and that's in spite of Marlowe's officious nature. All of the superior officers hate him.

Eren scowls. "That's your people. Mine'll kill me if I'm late again."

Annie smirks. "You think they won't know what you've been up to?"

He flushes, jaw set, and growls: "That's not the point."

"Then what is?" Her tone is casual.

Eren regards her in silence, his agitation giving way to awkwardness.

"…I don't want to get you in trouble."

Annie snorts. Loudly, and without effort to hide the noise. "You're kidding."

But he isn't, she realises. He still looks uncertain as she leans back into the mattress, totally at-ease. Annie says: "A lot of stuff works differently, here." The back of her hand brushes his cheek in simple reassurance.

Eren huffs, head inclined to meet the gesture, his mouth chapped against her knuckles. "So? Doesn't change the fact that they'll probably feed me to the horses or somethin'."

Annie sighs and says: "Horses don't eat meat."

"Whatever," Eren mutters. "You know what I meant."

A kiss laid to her brow and he departs; she does not reach for him. Keeping her body slack, unhindered, her head tilting just so, one eye trained on him, watching him redress, studying for mannerisms. She observes the process of his hands on his shirt and belt. Feels something coil hot and sedate in her belly, like sense memory; leftover desire.

Annie makes a funny little noise in the back of her throat, like she's caught off guard.

Eren glances at her, ever perceptive.

Her thighs shift in a way that is not quite unnoticeable. He falters. Then tears his eyes away, face somewhat pinker.

Smirking, Annie leans over, retrieving her shirt from the floor. Slips it on, legs crossed much more sensibly.

"Will I be —?" seeing you soon, Annie starts to say, biting her tongue before she can get the words out, because when has she ever tipped her hand that far?

"I'll be back," Eren says, facing the door. "I dunno when, but…." He turns, offering a hopeful glance, a grin.

"All right," says Annie, watching him go. When the door closes, she falls back with a wistful sigh, looking up at the ceiling.

She can wait.

#attack on titan #eren jaeger #annie leonhardt #unsafe-workplace #rating: general #ereani #ereannie #archive of our own #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfiction.net #romance #drama #ratings will vary #;)#multi chapter #30 day challenge #orange

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irvinenewshq · 2 years ago

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LG Shows Q3 loss is bigger than anticipated on falling demand By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Folks go to the LG show on the worldwide client expertise honest IFA in Berlin, Germany September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean flat-screen maker LG Show (NYSE:) Co Ltd posted on Wednesday its second consecutive quarterly loss, as hovering inflation and a dark financial outlook dealt an extra blow to lacklustre demand for TVs and smartphones. The Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) provider posted an working lack of 759 billion gained ($532.13 million) for the quarter from July to September, in contrast with a revenue of 529 billion gained within the year-earlier interval. It missed a median forecast of a lack of 474 billion gained from 12 analysts polled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate. ($1=1,426.3300 gained) Originally published at Irvine News HQ

#Irvine News HQ

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corporatemagicshow · 6 years ago

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I think it’s delightful that someone who has bought a few gcbrv tees off me + someone whos house at the time had me do an unsuccessful embroidery show ins’ band are coming to CBR from QLD this Friday to play final performances at lacklustre hq. good east coast vibes baby but we’re not on the coast so idk

#real vibe imo #looking forward to it all

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architectnews · 3 years ago

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"RIBA upgrading Portland Place is an expensive solution to the wrong problem"

Rather than spending £20 million to refurbish its headquarters, RIBA should make its spaces freely available for others to host engaging architectural programmes, says Phineas Harper.

Barely a week goes by without hearing an architect complaining about the RIBA. Griping over the 184-year-old Royal Institute of British Architects has become the background noise of life in the profession – the inevitable exasperated segway of every pub debate and predictable punchline of all industry jokes.

The frustrations of its detractors are understandable. RIBA enjoys an income of £21 million, employs over 300 staff, and owns combined assets worth north of a quarter of a billion quid.

RIBA should be an irrepressible force for positive change

It is in a completely different league to every other architecture charity in the country, able to deploy resources and take risks most organisations can only dream of. With these considerable advantages, many feel RIBA should be an irrepressible force for positive change, and it's the gap between that vast potential and the sometimes lacklustre reality which seeds rancour among its members.

However, in a recent speech at 66 Portland Place marking 100 days of his tenure as the new RIBA president, Simon Allford, kingpin of AHMM for three decades and among the best-connected designers in London, outlined a plan to mend the rift between architects and their institute.

Declaring it "must change", Allford called for the RIBA to "become a generous host" – a shrewd manifesto which, if taken to heart by the institute's top brass, could remake the organisation's ethos and reputation.

Cultural production in architecture has been starved of cash for over a decade by government austerity and is poorly understood by the big British arts funders. Generosity should, as Allford insists, therefore be at the core of the well-heeled RIBA's strategy. A new spirit of generous hosting would quickly pay dividends in the tidal wave of warmth and appreciation that would follow such a shift.

Britain is bustling with independent organisations creating memorable and impactful events

Pivoting from producing their own cultural programmes, to becoming "generous hosts" of others' could transform the reach and efficacy of RIBA. Britain is bustling with independent organisations creating memorable and impactful events celebrating and interrogating architecture in adventurous ways often on miniscule budgets.

Rather than using its resources to compete with this community of buccaneering culture creators, what if the RIBA instead supported them with grants, space and promotion?

Why not make architecture.com, RIBA's enviable flagship URL, a home for championing all events engaging audiences with architecture rather than just those run by RIBA staff?

Read:

"No-one retains a building that is not loved"

Why not direct RIBA's 350,000 Twitter and Instagram followers to the daily array of architectural exhibitions, talks and festivals staged by others, rather than only RIBA's own?

Why not make the vast collection of photography and drawings in the institute's archives freely available for non-profit publishing rather than charging hefty licence fees? By foregrounding and enabling the work of others, and generously opening up access to its assets, RIBA could contribute so much more to the world than by guardedly acting in isolation.

Imagine what all the small charities working on connecting ordinary people with big conversations about the urban landscape could achieve if, instead of burning half their energy hustling for scraps of funding from the Arts Council and sponsors, they could draw on core support from the RIBA coffers.

RIBA HQ isn't perfect but its weakness is not its architecture

Yet instead of investing outwards, the RIBA is instead poised to pump £20 million into a "comprehensive refurbishment" of its own 1934 central London headquarters. The upgrade will certainly give 66 Portland Place shiny new facilities, but to what end? The George Grey Wornum-designed HQ isn't perfect but its weakness is not its architecture, but rather who is (and who isn't) able to use it.

The single biggest barrier to anyone instigating cultural programmes in Britain, especially London, is the cost of access to space. Attempt to book a theatre, gallery or crumbling warehouse for a simple talk, and you'll likely be looking at a bill for thousands of pounds.

The RIBA itself currently charges around £10,000 including a minimum bar and canapes spend to host a 200 person lecture in its Florence Hall (and that's with a charity discount!). This high cost of access stifles innovation, driving ticket prices up and creative culture makers far away from Marylebone.

66 Portland Place should be the village hall of the profession – a space for everyone with something to say about architecture to speak freely. Instead, posh wedding parties and corporate conference organisers are the only clients with pockets deep enough to get past the lobby.

RIBA should simply open the doors and let people in

If a more generous RIBA were to make decent spaces freely available to anyone working on architectural public programmes, they could catalyse a rapid renaissance in the vivacity and impact of the sector's cultural life. Instead of investing £20 million in itself, building bigger, better, more competitive facilities to draw audiences away from programmes elsewhere, RIBA should simply open the doors and let people in.

Hosting the programmes of others needn't mean RIBA producing less itself. Some of the institute's most valuable work is its least visible – template policies and contracts, the stages of work, a pension scheme. These are the unsexy professional tools that help architects navigate the terrain of their trade every day.

Read:

RIBA looking for architect for "comprehensive refurbishment" of own headquarters

Allford's call for expanded generosity could include RIBA launching useful new services such as insurance. British practises currently endure exorbitant professional indemnity premiums from an insurance sector that doesn't understand the industry and has no incentive to rein in prices.

Russell Curtis, a director at RCKa says insurance bills for many small practises are spiralling to as much as £100,000 a year meaning many firms are struggling to make ends meet.

Marco Goldschmied, a former RIBA president, has called on the institute to act by launching its own insurance scheme. Using its clout and contacts, RIBA could run an underwriting arm dedicated to supporting architects with better cover than the bad deals high street insurers offer.

Discount the premiums in line with annual RIBA fees and no one would question the value of chartered membership ever again. Alternatively, RIBA could, as Goldschmied argues, simply lead the process of signing up the 300 or so practises required to launch an architects' mutual – using its unique position to instigate genuinely useful change without carrying the risk.

For me, the endless RIBA-bashing is cathartic pub banter but will ultimately not lead to real change. Allford is right to centre his presidency on making the institute more generous, but RIBA spending £20 million to upgrade Portland Place – an already remarkable building – feels like an expensive solution to the wrong problem.

The real solution to transforming RIBA's cultural impact and winning over the hearts of sceptics is not owning an amazing space, but entrusting others with meaningful ownership of space.

Phineas Harper is director of Open City and formerly deputy director of the Architecture Foundation. He is author of the Architecture Sketchbook (2015) and People's History of Woodcraft Folk (2016).

The post "RIBA upgrading Portland Place is an expensive solution to the wrong problem" appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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threesquaresuns-blog · 7 years ago

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Fan Activism - Political or Not?

What is “Fan Activism”? Well, it could depend on which definition we choose to go by.

Earl & Kimport (2009) defines it as

“Not about the mix between political concerns and culture, but rather action that looks like political activism, but is used towards non-political ends.”

This means that while fans are utilising forms of political protest (campaigns, rallies, and so on), they do not have any significant political, civil or social impact, and are not meant to, as the purpose is related purely to the text or content they’re fans of.

This can be held true in many cases. One is the “Save Chuck” case.

Chuck (IMDB.com, 2018) is about this ordinary guy - Chuck - who gets government secrets downloaded into his brain, and the ensuing chaos. Although never an avid fan, I liked the premise and the few episodes (earlier ones) that I watched, well enough, and had expected the show to do well. However, due to lacklustre ratings performances following its first season, it was at risk of being cancelled. Concerned, fans launched the “Save Chuck” campaign. Christina Savage (2014) in studying this case, notes that the campaign was run by savvy fans mainly online, though websites, Twitter, and forums, the latter being where the “Finale and a Footlong” movement was birthed. It involved fans buying footlongs from Subway chains (the franchise had featured on the show and was one of the major sponsors), and thus speak directly to sponsors in their language - money. It garnered media attention, and received support from critics too (Chuck Wiki, n.d.), and Chuck was eventually renewed for a 3rd season. All this fittingly happened in 2009 too.

However, Henry Jenkins (Jenkins & Shreshtova, 2012) views Fan Activism differently. He defines it as,

“Forms of Civic Engagement and Political Participation that emerge from within fan culture itself, often in response to the shared interest of fans, often conducted through the existing fan practices and relationships, and often framed through metaphors drawn from popular and participatory culture.”

keywords being “civic engagement” and “political participation”. Here lies the discrepancy between the two definitions - where one states that it is completely separate from politics, another states the complete opposite.

I think that back in 2009, the internet was not as advanced as in 2012, and the level of knowledge, data, culture available on the internet, as well as the possible level of social engagement and connectivity, was not as detailed as it became within the next few years. As digital technology advances, so does the spreading of data and culture, and the possibilities afforded to users. I am more inclined to agree with Jenkins, based on the facts in recent years.

Case #1 - Transformation of Culture Within the K-pop Fandom

From what I’ve seen in the years of reading about K-pop, K-pop fans used to always organise gifts for and addressed to their preferred idols, especially for big events. However, while the gifting of material goods is still being done, there has been a gradual shift in recent years, from material goods to charitable actions done in the name of their idols. Examples of this include rice wreaths instead of flower wreaths (Lindsay, 2013), with the rice being donated after an event, the planting of forests (The Straits Times, 2017) , building of libraries (Kim, 2017), and donations (SBS PopAsia HQ, 2018), among others. This change in their culture of gifting, reflects a change in the fans, as K-pop fans, now made up of people from countries all over the world (more than they were in the past), are becoming more socially and politically aware. I think this can definitely be put down to the advancements of digital technology.

Case #2 - Fan-Art

Rather than traditional, striaghtforward fan-art, fans are now re-making original character designs or recognisable elements, into points they can use to advocate for a cause or issue they want to talk about - such as stereotyping (Ro, 2018), racial representation (Penn, 2018) and white-washing (Kim, 2016) - and then posting them up online. And even when not explicitly stated, just the posting of the art online is, in and of itself, a political action, because the art brings a message that others can, and will, receive. The purpose is not only to show love for the text, but to give voice to a social or political issue, through the common fan practice of producing fan-art.

Case #3 - Even When Not Political, It Can Become Political

I am referring to cases like Chuck’s, where fan’s actions are not in that current moment, political in any way. However, through cases like this, just participating in the campaigns and such, they learn and gain skills that they can utilise for issues in the future. For instance, they could learn how to negotiate with a studio and make it understand what they want as fans, and they could use this knowledge later when encountering a problem they want to advocate for, such as concerning proper racial representation in movie adaptation castings.

To conclude, given how a huge part of fan activism now clearly is political, I am more inclined to accept Jenkins’ definition. And I believe we will continue to see fan culture and fan activism grow in this direction, as digital technology continues to advance.

#mda20009 #FandomAndFanActivism

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carboncarbband · 7 years ago

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thanks Melbourne! we’re in Canberra tonight at lacklustre hq! 📸 by @thomthom84

#carb on carb #carboncarb #band

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jordanleekspin · 7 years ago

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Mermaidens, Kane Strang & Oranges: September 30.

#mermaidens #kane strang #oranges #canberra #diy #design #lacklustre records #lacklustre hq

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fairies-hideout · 8 years ago

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MCL Hogwarts Tag

Rules: This is for your Candy. Fill with what your Candy could answer. If you have more than one candy or a genderbend, you can do this for them too.

tagged by @zurysalvatore thank you lovee !!!

And since number seven has magic properties in the wizarding world, tag at least 7 other blogs: @mikamycandylove, @mcl-danielle @moonlightmcl, @mclyumi, @loonylein, @fairywale, @foresthuntermajrach

Say “Hi!”: Heyaa, Aleks here ready to mess things up :>c

What house did you get sorted into: Slytherin

Are you a muggleborn, an half-blood or a pureblood: pureblood

Of which elements your wand is made: Maple wood with a Unicorn hair core 14 ½" and Slightly Yielding flexibility

mapple: those chosen by maple wands are by nature travelers and explorers; they are not stay-at-home wands, and prefer ambition in their witch or wizard, otherwise their magic grows heavy and lacklustre. Fresh challenges and regular changes of scene cause this wand to literally shine, burnishing itself as it grows, with its partner, in ability and status. This is a beautiful and desirable wood, and wand quality maple has been among the most costly for centuries. Possession of a maple wand has long been a mark of status, because of its reputation as the wand of high achievers.

unicorn: Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may 'die' and need replacing.

What pet do you have (owl, cat, toad): a Horned Owl im a hq nerd

What is your favourite class: Potions, Herbology,

What is your patronous: Piebald Stallion

You are in any extra curricular activites (quidditch, dueling club, herbology club, potions club, gobstones club, chess club, Lumaclub…): dueling

You are or will be a prefect/headgirl/captain of the quidditch team/ecc: prefect sounds like a lot of work so i’d prefer to be a captain

Do you have any special ability (parseltongue, divination ability…): occlumency

You are a troublemaker, the first of your class, both, the one who blows things: will definitely blow things up for fun but will still study to get good grades

Do you often get detention: depends...

What do you want to do after Hogwarts: travel and learn more about magical creatures and beasts

Would you participate in the Triwizard Tournament (without Voldemort and Harry Potter of course): yes !

Your favourite teacher(s): Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall

Your favourite fantastic beast: DRAGONS !!!!!

Your favourite spell: Anteoculatia, Cantis Jinx, Colour Change Charm

What would Amortentia smell for you: lemon balm, home cooked food, summer rain

Create an outfit with the color of your house:

#mcl hogwarts au #tag meme #mcl aleksandra

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lacklustrerecords · 8 years ago

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Unreal to be hosting Loma Prieta at the HQ on their next visit to Australia. More details on Facebook, here.

Listen to their music, here.

#loma prieta #canberra #live music #diy #screamo #lacklustre hq #lacklustre records

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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 8 years ago

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Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows V2 #4 Thoughts

Click here to see my older thoughts

Story:

The Parkers flee the Mole Man and the Moloids who are firing the Regent’s big green laser device at them. So focuses are they upon avoiding the blasts they inadvertently (because they don’t have Spider Senses apparently) find themselves plummeting over a pit of lava.

Whilst Peter and MJ are able to right themselves Annie isn’t so lucky, prompting her parents to dive down to the rescue. Unfortunately between MJ getting sprayed in the face by Peter’s webbing and the pair colliding mid-swing Annie is left to rescue herself.

Meanwhile above ground news reporters are covering the recent events at the Regent��s HQ. Among them is Betty Brant who informs Jonah over at the Bugle about Spider-Man’s involvement along with a new mysterious spider woman (no mention of Annie though). Whilst demanding an inventory of the site (and all information on Annie), young Normie Osborn spots the damaged remnants of Peter’s camera drone amidst the rubble.

Back in the Mole Man’s domain, Peter and MJ bicker over getting in one another’s way, though they soon make up. Their moment is interrupted when Annie asks about a codename for herself, prompting Peter and MJ to argue over her role as a hero. As they continue to ‘talk’ Annie takes note of a hole in the cave wall where the Mole Man’s voice seems to be emanating from. She tries to inform her parents about the hole and how she should use it to sneak up on Mole Man (given how it’s too small for her parents). When they fail to listen she crawls into the hole, infuriating Peter and MJ (though they confess they are sort of proud of her).

As Annie sneaks up on Mole Man he rants about making his enemies pay and how the device converts ‘life energy into weapon energy’, leading him to begin killing his own forces. Soon though the Parker’s ambush him and his forces, making short work of them.

Later the family observes Normie Osborn fume over the feds impounding the Regent’s device, with Annie commenting on how she finds him cute (*coughjustlikeMaydaycough*). On Mj’s prodding Peter reluctantly accepts Annie as a hero, dubbing her Spiderling.

Review:

Pros

· The arc is over. Whilst enjoyable we’re done with the set up and can now hopefully move onto more of the meat that fans wanted out of the series. Also we don’t need to see more of this annoying interpretation of Mole man

· Whilst there was not enough action for a climax to an arc, the action scenes we got were energetic and well rendered by Stegman who, as I have said before, is exceptional on this book. Of particular note is his opening double page splash and the sequence where Annie climbs down the hole.

· Annie is cute and smart in this issue and does that thing kids do wherein they do something they know they aren’t supposed to do after telling their parents whom they know is not listening just then. It was funny (especially when presenting the conversation from her point of view) and fairly true to life. Okay yeah it was maybe on the cliché side of things but in fairness we’ve never seen such a cliché employed in Spider-Man before.

· The conversation/argument scene itself was also...well it was sort of neat to see again because it’s another down to Earth domestic thing that happens in real life. It was also nice to see the scene balancing out Peter and MJ’s relationship. They were presented as loving, but also far from the perfect couple and like most couples prone to arguing. And fittingly, like many couples such arguments centred upon their kid. So at least conceptually having the scene in there was great though there were problems with it which I will discuss in the cons.

Their earlier disagreement though about working together was in contrast better handled and similarly worked in balancing their problems with their love for each other. The scene leading into it where they got in one another’s way was also amusing and (as the issue itself mentioned) highlighted some of MJ’s more fiery personality traits.

· Peter is not however left out as appropriately he demonstrates a real resistance to his daughter being a hero but simultaneously has pride in her when she shows her skills. A great balancing of the mixed emotions our hero would be feeling in the situation.

· Normie Osborn continues to be intriguing.

· Betty’s reintroduction is a fun bit of nostalgia especially if she sticks around. In the min universe we’ve seen little of her and whether you enjoy her as a reporter character and/or for her...eccentric antics shall we say, it’s nice to see her all the same. She’s just part and parcel of the classic status quo and cast we know and love.

· There is some funny/endearing dialogue towards the climax of the issue where Peter and MJ talk about punishing Annie. There is another nice exchange when MJ brings up an old proverb about families fighting together which Peter is sure isn’t really a proverb.

· Finally we have a nice little nod to Mayday at the very end of the issue which also undermines her recent stupid name change into Spider Woman.

Cons

· Whilst I’m glad the arc is over and we can move onto to more low key plots with Spider-Man elements (as opposed to Fantastic Four elements), the issue kind of felt like it went by too fast. It wasn’t liking rushed exactly but it was more like...It just felt like too quick of a read for a wrap up issue.

· Part of that is tied to the Mole Man’s goal being underwhelming, along with his defeat. Essentially it amounts to running away, sneaking up on him, dodging some blasts then a one punch knock out. As much the Mole Man was annoying I feel like it was a lacklustre way to wrap things up and wasn’t worth the price of admission. I mean this whole arc was fought over like...a laser basically...that’s it...

Then again this arc is for setting up the characters and the Mole Man is supposed to just be somebody for the family to fight. At which point though there was really little point making Mole Man the villain instead of a Spider-Man centric character. Well, little point except to thematically poise this series as partially a Fantastic Four substitute.

· Going back to that conversation I mentioned in the pros there are some real problems with it which go right back to the underlying problem with the concept of the series. Look...the series is supposed to be about the Spider Family. The essential problem being that what parent allows an 8 year old to go into dangerous situations like this? I’ve said this many times before. It was part and parcel of the problem of Renew Your Vows volume 1 when Annie was drafted into the battle. At least there it sort of made sense on the grounds that with so few active super heroes the characters needed all the help they could get. Here though with heroes existing in the world what justification is there for allowing Annie to be an active hero?

In this issue Peter’s natural opposition to this role for Annie is brought up and prompts the conversation/argument between him and MJ. And the thing is that it’s partially consistent and partially inconsistent.

On the one hand its consistent because in Renew Your Vows volume 1 MJ was towards the end of the story onboard for allowing Annie to help out whilst Peter throughout the story was protective of her (going so far as to retire for 8 years and remain in hiding). So in this issue Peter being opposed to Annie’s life as a superhero whilst MJ defending it makes sense with what we’ve seen before for this universe’s versions of the character.

However it’s inconsistent because in issues #2-3 MJ grounded Annie for coming to the Regent’s HQ and Peter has clearly already consented to Annie being a hero earlier in the series, hence her costume. Similarly in issue #1 the implication was that he’d discussed and accepted that she was going to fight crime with them.

How the question on consistency pales next to the fact that again...why is Mary Jane defending and even encouraging an 8 year old to fight crime? For the sake of argument lets presume her and Peter’s histories are more or less the same as their 616 counterparts. If that’s true then she knows all too well the dangers her husband has endured in that line of work. It’s one thing to ask for Annie to be trained in her powers that she might defend herself in the advent of an enemy attacking her. This is different though.

And the problem really for this book is that it really needs to either come up with a convincing explanation or just not mention this issue and make the concept enjoyable enough that readers just accept that this is just the point of the series. In this issue though they bring up the incredibly valid criticisms of Annie being a hero but the best defence presented is that Peter is too stuck in his ways and won’t let anyone else help him, which is a weak argument against his point. The problems are compounded when the conversation switches to Annie’s POV and we don’t hear anything else being said. It’s evocative of how Conway is at least struggling to legitimately justify this concept from a character point of view. But the solution to that is not to pay lip service to the fact that Annie’s parents would argue about it without finding a genuine justification.

Making matter worse at the end of the issue Peter’s problems with his daughter’s dangerous new direction in life are essentially handwaved and he just welcomes her to the team.

· Similarly Conway is again seemingly trying to make the point that having MJ stay at home whilst Peter went off to be Spider-Man was a bad status quo back in the day. The thing is that...it really wasn’t. I mean sure MJ just waiting by a window all the time was bad, but the idea that MJ not being actively involved in Peter’s crime fighting life somehow was undermining of her isn’t true at all. She had her own subplots to deal with, one of which involved her cousin Kristy which you know...Conway wrote.

· Another dilemma in this series is its relationship to the first Volume of Renew Your Vows. Conflicting answers have been given as to whether or not Volume 2 takes place in the same universe or a different one or if it’s the same universe albeit it altered. This issue continues to present confusion as it has a caption referencing Volume 1 as though the events o it happened exactly as we saw. Which clearly isn’t the case as other heroes are alive in this universe and it seems unlikely that Peter wasn’t Spider-Man for 8 years.

· Moving onto some smaller quick fire points, Peter and MJ getting in one another’s way was fun but if we are to presume Peter’s history is mostly the same as his 616 counterparts then surely he must’ve worked with other people before in the past. Whilst never an Avenger in this universe did he really never work with Black Cat, Daredevil, Captain America or other such characters? Surely someone as experienced as him would be able to avoid getting in someone’s way or letting someone get in his? If nothing else wouldn’t their respective Spider Senses have allowed them to avoid one another?

· The cave hole was a little too convenient.

· The codename Spiderling is pretty lame if we’re being real here.

· If Normie Osborn is only 10 years old why is he in charge of his family business and acting like he’s an adult? Also whilst creepy to most people why were Peter and MJ so distant and even a little mean to their friends’ son/their godson?

· The way the Regent’s device worked was poorly explained. It converts life energy to weapon energy? What does that mean exactly. It acted as just a big laser but then Mole Man behaved as though by sacrificing his Moloids by shooting them with the laser it somehow powered it up?

· Normie finds Peter’s drone that he used to take pictures of himself. Read my thoughts on issue #1 to hear me elaborate on the drone, but this issue fulfils some of my points about it. It’s large size and colourful design make it a big target and could possibly compromise the Parkers’ secrets.

· Finally...how did the family get free in between last issue and literally the first page of this issue?

Ultimately my problems with this series roll right back to the inherent conceptual ones I’ve had since day 1. Beyond those though the only real sins of this issue are being a bit too fast and anti-climactic. Still it was fun enough for what it was though.

B-

#RENEW YOUR VOWS #Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #RYV Thoughts #Spinneret #Annie May Parker #Annie Parker #Mole Man #Normie Osborn #Gerry Conway #Ryan Stegman #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #marvel #marvel comics

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