#one member has been MIA and pops in every now and then to act like they know shit as they're the self appointed “leader”

[clown-heretic]

I damn you and the boat on which you sailed Truly a band of fools now adrift And I am left to mend where you've failed A Sisyphean task, given as a gift

[ultimatedemonsimp]

I've had all of this on my mind for too long and I refuse to apologize for what I'm about to do, but I understand that I'm prolly trash.

Bakers Family Tickle Headcanons

Jack Baker

Pre-infection:

This semi-sweet old man is a switch

Mainly goes after Zoe and Lucas, but does get into tickle fights with Marguerite pretty regularly (most of which he loses, btw)

Absolutely does the whole tickle monster spiel, don't even argue with me, I'm also pretty confident that he teases with compliments

Somewhat rough, but not too much

Raspberries are his favorite fruits. Just look at that man's gd beard-

Doesn't push anyone past their limits

Mostly likes to suprise his lee (leaning over the back of the couch, jumping at them or from behind corners, ect.)

Basically, even before Eveline and her "gift", you still couldn't walk around that house without feeling like you were about to be attacked by him

Old man is also very ticklish

Mostly tickled by Marguerite, but, every once in a while, Lucas has the nuts to get his father back

Ribs, stomach, sides and hips are his worst spots, mostly belly laughs

Likes to receive raspberry as much as he likes to give them

6/10 for ticklishness

Post-infection:

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST-

LER

With ever cell in his mold body, ler

Still tickles his family, but it's become more directed at Eveline and Lucas

That being said, he's very gentle with Eveline, the hivemind making sure he knows exactly what she wants and when

He still has tickle fights with Marguerite, but they've have become more savage and only slightly less loving

Zoe no longer interacts with the family enough to really do any of that anymore

But Lucas... poor Lucas gets his shit wrecked regularly.

A few long gone "family members" have been subjected to this sadistic old man's wrath, as well, but that's not to be dwelled on

As said above, Jack has become a sadistic fuck

Very rough, but not enough to leave bruises

Still uses the tickle monster act, but is much less affectionate than before, taking to scolding and/or insults instead of compliments when tickling someone other than Eveline

Still has his love of raspberries, giving and receiving

Limits? Don't know 'em

Is still as ticklish as before, same places, same reactions, if not a little more dramatic or erratic

Loves to chase his lees, taunting them the whole time (think of the shit he says while looking for Ethan in-game, but alter some of them a little)

Still 6/10, but he's a drama queen.

Marguerite Baker

Pre-infection

Mama of the year is a switch

Other than the tickle fights with Jack, she mainly goes after Lucas and sometimes Zoe

Very loving with her children, mostly does the "coochi-coo" kind of teases

A little bit mean to her husband tho-

She does the "now what are you doin' down there?" that I'm pretty sure all moms do

Really likes to back her lee up against a wall so they can slide down it and she gets to use that line

Stops far before her lee's limit

Southern mama is ticklish, but much less than her husband

Worst spots are the soles of her feet and underneath her toes, shrieks for days

Everywhere else is mostly giggles, whines, and the occasional squeal

Ticklishness is a 4/10

Post-infection

Another one that went from a pretty sweet switch to a mean ler

On rare occasions, she send her little bugs to crawl around on her lee

Not biting, not eating them alive, just walking and fluttering around

Still goes after Lucas, but not as much as Jack does

Is only a little rough with her little baby boy

Zoe doesn't stay around them long enough for tickles

Eveline, of course, is her main lee, who she is very gentle with

Tickle fights with Jack are more rough, though she sometimes tries to start and keep them light, which only really happens a few times every year, when the two of them are cuddled up together in the same bed like a proper husband and wife, tired enough to not want to full-on wrestle, but not enough to get them to sleep

Like her husband, she likes to chase her lee and search for them while they hide

Unlike her husband, she prefers to stay rather quiet, occasionally making comments on finding her lee

Only knows Lucas' and Eveline's limits, anyone else is fucked

Still ticklish, it was actually enhanced a little

Places other than her toes and soles produce more than giggles

Bumped up to a 5/10

Lucas Baker

Pre-infection

Boi is a lee-leaning switch that can't catch a break

Everyone in this house is trying to tickle him at every opportunity

Has tickled people back, but not often, other than Zoe

Him and Zoe have always had very rough and mean tickle fights

Whenever he tickled his father back, he tried to be mean, but it didn't work all that well

Actually just ended up just getting wrecked again afterwards-

Doesn't try to get his mama back though, doesn't mind it all that much from her

Gets Zoe at every chance, though

There's a 50/50 chance he'll respect limits

Ticklish everywhere, but especially his knees and waist

9/10, very ticklish boi

Post-infection

This mans lost all his fight-

Lee, mostly because his old man tuckers him out so much that he can't move for at least ten minutes

Not fully though, he still pops into the trailer to annoy his sister almost weekly

To make sure suspicion doesn't arise, tickles Eveline from time to time, still hates her

Jesus christ, he though he was ticklish enough-

Damn near screeches everywhere

Went from frantically trying to push your hand off his knee while laughing like a maniac to kicking you in the face while screaming like a banshee

He gives off major brat vibes, so that's what I'm going with

Chase him. You won't be disappointed.

It can be running through the giant house or hiding in the bayou, he loves it

Pull a Jack Baker and taunt him, he'll run faster, but also make more mistakes, like getting cornered

Those things are what makes him hate his dad so much because that's always what he does

11/10, went from very ticklish boi to *incoherent screeching*

Zoe Baker

Before Eveline

Was already a ler

Went after the whole family, too

Sneak up behind Lucas while he's doing an engineer and attack with claws to the waist

Daddy's working on the car? Well, he'd better pull down the hem of his shirt or his tickle monster of a daughter is gonna attack

Mama can't cook without checking if her daughter's around every few seconds or she'll be interrupted by a familiar set of fingers kneading her sides

Doesn't tease her parents, but Lucas, of course, gets all of it

Playfully makes fun of him for not fighting it all too much

Got her ler from her father and her lee from her mother

Not very ticklish, but more than her ma'

Hips and stomach are the worst

5/10

After Eveline, the only tickle related things that happened or changed was that she didn't interact with anyone but Lucas.

THEY'RE HERE! FINALLY!

I may or may not make one specifically for Eveline and/or Mia.

[bluesylveon2]

My My, I Could Never Let You Go

Summary: Sasha Zoe just wants her dad to walk her down the aisle. There is only one problem: she doesn’t know who her dad is! Sasha invites 3 men in hopes of finding out which one is her father. What could possibly go wrong?

Pairings: Levi x Hange, Sasha x Niccolo, and other background relationships

Disclaimer: This is a Levihan Mamma Mia au. This fanfic is inspired by Mamma Mia which is directed by Phyllida Loyd, written by Catherine Johnson, and uses music from the pop group ABBA. Attack on Titan is a manga/anime series written by Hajime Isayama and published by Kondasha

A/N: Sorry for the wait! Next chapter might take a while. I have finals starting next week and then I’ll be done soon! 😁 Now back to our regularly schedules programming...

***** - listen to Super Trooper here (go to 0;07) to get an idea of the scene. 

Need to catch up? Catch up here!

Ch 9: Super Trooper

Sasha dances on top of the table to her heart's content. She dances along to the song Moblit plays while her friends, now in party clothes, were hyping her up below. 

As the song ends (ironically, it was the same song the guys sang to her earlier. She is a big ABBA fan), Sasha lets herself go and falls back so her friends can catch her. She laughs with glee as her friends cheer for her performance. 

Sasha's bachelorette party was held in the hotel's courtyard. There was some space for dancing and a bar to get drinks. Of course, no boys were allowed except for Moblit. Hange had approved for Moblit to be the DJ for the night. He only agreed to it just as long as Sasha's friends did not force him to become a male stripper. 

Hange and her band were preparing behind the stained glasses French doors for their big performance. This performance was a callback to their old days when she and her girls used to perform together. They had even dressed the part!

Sasha's friends set her back down on the ground safely as Moblit taps his mic to get everyone's attention.

"Ladies and no gentlemen! Except for me, of course." Moblit gestures to himself before continuing.

"Presenting for one night and one night only-" he gestures to the French doors, so the girls can take their attention off of him.

"Because that's all we got breath for!" Nanaba yells from behind the door. Everyone laughs. 

"The world's first girl power band," Rico yells out from behind the door with excitement to hype the crowd. Some smoke starts to appear behind the doors. 

Sasha screams with excitement and shakes Mikasa, who was the closest to her.

"Hange and the Survey Corps!"

Moblit plays the piano as Hange, Rico, and Nanaba enter in their 70's-inspired outfits. It looks just like the ones they used to wear from the old pictures Sasha saw of her mom's room. Meanwhile, the bachelorette party squeal with excitement as Hange's band takes position. Hange was front and center, Nanaba was to her left, and Rico was to her right.

Hange taps the beat with one of her block-heeled boots on the stage. All three members of the Survey Corps raise their left arm to point up to the sky, look up at the night sky, and begin to sing the first line.

Super Trouper lights are gonna find me.

But I won't feel blue.

Sasha and her friends laugh at how ridiculous her mom and her aunts sounded without the accompaniment.

Like I always do

'Cause somewhere in the crowd, there's you

Hange looks away to glance at Sasha and gave her a quick wink. 

Sasha looks at her mother expectantly and with amusement. There was an awkward silence as no music played, and Hange's band was still in position.

Hange, noticing the silence, looks away to look at Moblit. She motions for him to play the song.

Moblit, realizing his mistake, presses the button on the speaker to start the performance. The melody to Super Trooper begins to play. Sasha and her friend cheer as Hange get back to position, so the band can go to their signature pose. 

*****

She raises her hand up and looks up at the sky. Rico turns around, so her back faced Hange. She leans back a bit and raises her microphone up to her lips to pretend she was singing. Nanaba copies Rico's position, except she faces the opposite direction; her back was facing Hange. 

Hange brings her arm down as she sings. Rico and Nanaba face the crowd and move to stand next to Hange. All three of them begin to sway and move their arms to the beat.  

Sasha and her friends laugh and clap along to the performance. Occasionally, Rico and Nanab would sing along to add harmony and more vocals. 

The trio then raises their right arm to the sky and brings it back down to briefly touch their heads. Rico and Nanaba move to face Hange as they sing along. Hange would also turn to face her best friends one at a time to make it look as though she was singing to them. Eventually, the trio stands in front of one another, leans back slightly, and moves their left arm back while holding out the note before literally jumping into the refrain. 

---

"Are you sure this is where Gelgar said Sasha's bachelorette party is going to be?" Erwin asks with a hint of uncertainty.

Mike laughs a bit, but it could have been drowned out by the music and the cheering nearby. Who knows if the guys would be able to hear each other the closer they got.

"Of course. Sasha is pretty famous on the island, so word gets around easily. Plus, she practically invited the whole island."

"Yeah. Sasha practically invited all the girls on the island." Levi adds with a hint of annoyance. He can hear the singing nearby and can recognize her voice anywhere. It reminded him of the times she used to sing to him. Hange's voice would help him fall asleep.

"Relax, Levi," Mike says reassuringly as they climb up the steps to the plaza. "Sasha would be happy to see her dads at her bachelorette party!"

They stop at the very top step and watch Hange's performance.

"Hey, look at them go! It seems her friends never lost their talent either, especially Nanaba!"

Levi looks at Mike and raises an eyebrow. "You know them?"

Mike laughs. "Of course I do. I met all three of them together," he says with amazement as he watches the performance. 

"It seems as if Hange never lost her singing talent after all."

Levi glares at Erwin, who stood behind him. Erwin, noticing Levi's glare, chuckles now that his uncertainness is fading away. It was as if he could read Levi's mind.

It seems that Hange's singing has started to calm him down enough to laugh at how silly Levi looked.

"Sometimes Hange would sing while I played the guitar. This song is actually our song." Erwin says without breaking his gaze from Hange singing and smiles. 

"It does bring me back." He adds with sincerity.  

Levi's heart skips a beat as he heard Hange sing. It was a lot different from earlier when he heard it from a distance. It was in person this time. Levi can even see the big smile and the bright eyes Hange had as she sang. It reminded him of the times he would fall asleep on her lap as she sang to him and played with his hair. 

Call him a lovestruck fool, but Levi always slept better every time Hange sang to him. 

Heck, Levi could even say with 100% certainty that he was falling for her all over again.

---

Hange continues singing and dancing with her friends. She has not had this much fun in a long time, and she can tell from Sasha's face that she was enjoying it too. In fact, Hange was having too much fun to notice Levi, Erwin, and Mike approach the plaza. 

She dances to the song's beat while adding some arm movements and stomped her boots to create an effect. Sasha and her friends cheer from below.

Like I always do. 

Hange places her hand on her forehead and scans the crowd.

Cause somewhere in the crowd, there's you. 

It was only for a brief second, but her light brown eyes met with Levi's steel gray ones.

Hange's eyes widen with shock and a little bit of hurt. He was not alone! Erwin and Mike were with him too!

Nevertheless, Hange steps forward to sing her solo while trying her best to look normal. She did not want to freak out on stage and have Sasha meet her dads. She glances over at Levi, praying it was a dream.

It was not. Levi was still there.

This time he was smiling.

Great. Just great.

Hange ends her solo with a silly dance to bring up her excitement and keep Sashas's attention solely on her. The crowd loved it! She steps back to join her band. 

The Survey Corps sing the refrain while pointing towards the sky in front of them, bringing their arms down and repeating the process all over again. They stop in the middle of the refrain, and Hange glances over at Levi again.

They were still there!

She scoots close to Rico and subtle grabs her arm before doing the same with Nanaba and brought them close to her. 

"Look, look, look, look," she says while pointing her head towards the men off to the side. She then spins around so Rico and Nanaba could see who she was looking at. The song continued to play in the background.

Oh no! Nanaba looks at the men in shock.

Why are they here at the party? Rico questions.

Rico briefly places her microphone away from her mouth. "Stay calm," she whispers loudly enough to get Hange to hear.

Nanaba imitates Rico after Rico goes back to performing. "Act normal," she whispers as well.

Both of them tried their best not to speak loud enough for both of their mics to pick up.

Meanwhile, Erwin was smiling at the performance, Mike was dancing a bit to the song, and Levi even was dancing a bit too. Just not as much as Mike.

Hange glances over at Moblit before getting back into position with the girls. Moblit, noticing the distressed look on Hange's face the entire time, turns to where she has been looking at this whole time. It did not take long for him to figure out who the three men dancing in the corner were. He had heard enough stories and helped comfort Hange when she was sobbing alone in her room to know who was who. It was a secret between the two, and Moblit was ready to take Hange's secret to his grave.

They stick their hand out to make a one and move their head in the 1 position on a clock before repeating the refrain. They move in a circle on the stage, stop to look at each other briefly, and place their hands in the center before moving it up together. 

Hange made sure to step up in the front and give Sasha all of her attention as she sings the song's last note. Rico and Nanaba sang the rest in the background before giving their final pose.

Everyone in the audience cheers for the performance, even the guys who everyone could hear cheering loudly from the back.

"Excuse me!" Moblit's voice comes on from his spot next to the stage. Hange and her friends head back inside to get changed. "This is a bachelorette party except for me. Moblit. Thank you!" he finishes before changing the song.

"That's the asshole," Levi whispers to himself without thinking about it and glares at Moblit. 

Erwin and Mike laugh at Levi. They can hear the jealousy in his voice. Levi wants what Moblit has: a life with Hange where he can watch Sasha grow up. No responsibilities or worries. Just peace.

Moblit, although he cannot hear him, feels a shiver go down his spine. He turns around to find a short, bored-looking guy glaring at him.

That must be Levi; he sweatdrops before returning to the music and praying that Levi stops glaring at him. 

Levi tsks in annoyance and starts heading out. Mike and Erwin steer in a different direction towards the bar.

Sasha follows Levi out to wherever he went. Meanwhile, all the girls in Sasha's bridal party watch as Mike and Erwin head towards the bar area. They huddle up and put their heads together to create a plan.

"We need to do something before Mike and Erwin leave," Hanami panics.

"We need to think of something now," Mina adds.

Historia thinks long and hard for a solution. What is something crazy they could do without raising suspicion? Suddenly, an idea pops up in her head as she listens to the current song Moblit was playing. It was bound to work 100%.

She silently thanks Sasha's love of ABBA songs and for hosting many karaoke nights at the hotel. The girls could sing ABBA songs with their eyes closed.

She smirks and clears her voice. Everyone stops discussing to turn their full attention to Historia.

"Ladies. I have a perfect idea,"

---

"Why are they here?! Do they want to ruin Sasha's wedding?!" Hange yells out in frustration.

"I thought you were keen about this wedding," Nanaba asks in a calm tone.

Hange takes a deep breath to calm herself down. "I just don't want them to spoil it." she sighs.

"They have no right to show up like this. What have they done for Sasha? Huh?"

"Hange. They didn't know she existed." Nanaba reasons with her. They continue making their way back to Hange's room. 

"Well, they didn't need to know. I did so well with Sasha all by myself, and I refuse to be muscled out by an ejaculation!"

---

Erwin and Mike were getting some drinks at the bar since Levi had mysteriously disappeared from them. They decided to stay for a bit until Levi comes back, but far away from the party. They could still hear the music, though.

Except the music was progressively getting louder, and it was not from the speakers. They can hear female voices heading in their direction. 

Both men turn around to find all of Sasha's bridal party walking towards them while singing the song. The girls start running towards them the moment Erwin and Mike turn around. Different girls grab both men and start pulling them into the dance floor.

Mike was excited to be surrounded by so many girls. This was life for him. On the other hand, the feelings were not mutual for Erwin. He just wanted to get a drink! Now he is getting dragged onto the dancefloor! What a rollercoaster of a day.

Except the girls did not drag them onto the dancefloor. The girls push Erwin and Mike against a pole and surround them. They tie up the men's hands behind the pole and begin their second operation. The first operation was to locate the men and tie them up. They proceed with the second part, although Levi was absent. This part was a bit more intimate. 

It was all a blur for Erein and Mike. They could not tell who exactly was feeling them up, running their hands across their chests, or even tell who was pushing up their clothes. Mike enjoyed all the attention he was receiving; Erwin was flustered and heating up.

This was definitely a strange day for everyone.

---

Sasha stops running when she finds Levi leaning against the wall, looking out at sea.

"Hi."

Levi notices Sasha's voice, leans back, and faces her. "Hey."

He clears his throat. "I think I should explain to Hange that I come in peace." he starts walking up to where Sahsa just entered from.

"Oh no." Sasha stops Levi by placing her hands out in front of him. "You should wait until she has a few drinks first, really." 

Levi nods in agreement. "Good idea."

He looks around the place and thinks back on their interaction in the boat. The fact that he never came back or how Sasha was a prodigy with weapons. He chose to speak about the latter. The first topic can come up another time. 

"That story about you being a natural at archery…." He trails off and looks at her dead in the eyes. Her eyes were obviously a different shade of brown, but it reminded him of Hange.

"Why don't you pursue it? You could even participate in events such as the Olympics?"

Sasha looks away nervously and raises her hands up before dropping down on her sides. She sighs.

"I have enough to do here." 

"Is that really your dream? Running the villa with Hange?" Levi asks. He could recall when she first met Hange. She was a woman with huge dreams. All of it was driven by her curiosity and intelligence. Yet, it was not evident for Sasha's case. 

Sasha shakes her hands out in front of her with frustration. Why wasn't Levi getting it? It was so obvious why she wanted to stay. 

"She just can't do it by herself."

"But she has Moblit." Levi counters.

"She just can't. Please understand that." 

Levi sighs. He was not getting through to her at all. Yet, Levi still thought back to Sasha's memory from earlier. He chuckles a bit.

"What's so funny?" Sasha asks with some curiosity. Ah, there it is. The Zoe curiosity lives on.

"You know, my uncle once taught me how to use a knife. Apparently, he worked in one of the intelligence agencies in Germany when he was young. He thought it was a necessary skill for me to have. Of course, I managed to excel in it, but my mom had a heart attack when she noticed me practicing it with my uncle. I always made sure to keep a pocket one if any situation goes south." 

He walks to stand where he was initially. He turns around to face Sasha. "I even taught it to Hange before. I mean, she trusted a stranger pretty easily, but you never know if things ever go south. You have to be prepared." 

He looks up at the sky and smiles at all the fond memories he had of Kalokairi.

"I always wanted to come back here…."

"What kept you from coming back?" Sasha interrupts him. 

Levi looks at Sasha and gives her a sad smile. Her eyes soften up after seeing Levi becoming vulnerable in front of her. 

"What has your mother said about me?"

"She never mentioned you," Sasha confesses. She watches for Levi's reaction but finds nothing.

Finally, he sighs. a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Sasha?"

"Why am I here?" He asks. He began to doubt his purpose here now that Hange wants nothing to do with him.

Sasha was ready to speak when the door from her mother's room opens suddenly, startling the two down below. 

"I need some air!" they both hear Hange's voice cry out.

She immediately ran off and out of sight as if she was never there.

Levi looks up at Hange's room. His eyes linger at Hange's disappearing shadow. He felt a strange but somewhat familiar feeling in his chest. 

He knew what he had to do, and he can't leave just yet.

---

Hange, Rico, and Nanaba all flop on Hange's bed in exhaustion. Nanaba was lying next to her, while Rico's boots were next to Hange's head. 

"Somebody out there is out to get me. I bet it's my mother." Hange says while glaring at the roof as if it decided to bring Sasha's dads back into her life.

"Wasn't she a ray of sunshine?" Rico adds sarcastically. 

Hange feels a sudden burst of determination. She needs to get them out now. She begins by attempting to untangle herself from her friends. 

"Oh no, you don't!" Nanaba exclaims and pins Hange down.

"If you go in there guns loaded, there's gonna be questions," Rico says as she attempts to get up but fails. It's all because of the dang boots!

"Help me out of these boots!" she complains while lying on the bed. Hange and Nanaba make a move towards the end of the bed to help. 

"All of your yoga made your feet bigger." Nanaba comments, and Rico groans in annoyance.

Suddenly, Nanaba gets serious and pulls on one of Rico's boots. "Listen up. The plan is to get all the guys drunk tonight-"

"Uh-huh," Hange says and pulls on the other boot with the same force as Nanaba.

"-and then tomorrow, Rico and I will keep them distracted."  

Rico shoots up from the bed and raises her hand. "Dibs on Erwin!"

Nanaba rolls her eyes. "Of course, you would say that," she mumbles. 

---

Erwin luckily manages to escape the crowd of girls by crawling under the table to escape. Sasha's bridal party had finally untied him and Mike from the poles and brought them somewhere else to dance. Erwin last saw Mike dancing on top of the table with some of the girls. He was having the time of his life.

Sasha ran back to the party just in time to see Erwin escaping from her friends.

"Hi," she sighs in relief.

"Hello," He greets back. He was still traumatized from earlier.

Sasha grabs Erwin's arm and seats Erwin at the barstool. 

"You ok?" she asks as she sits down as well. Erwin's hair was a bit disheveled, his shirt was unbuttoned and untucked to reveal his chest, and he looked a bit flustered. 

Erwin sighs instead. He reaches over to a nearby pitcher and pours himself a drink.

"I'm surprised Hange has a grown-up daughter." He confesses and briefly glances over at Sasha.

She leans one elbow against the bar and faces Erwin. "Do you have any children, Erwin?" 

Erwin chuckles. "Well, I only have my dogs, Hiroshi and Romi. They are staying at a friend's house right now." 

"I'd love to have a daughter. I'd spoil her rotten," he adds with a smile and takes a sip of his drink. 

That caught Sasha off guard. She didn't expect Erwin to say that. She opens her mouth to speak but closes it instead. She imagined what life would be like if Erwin was her father. How he would spoil her, shower her with much love and attention.

Erwin notices Sasha's silence. He briefly turns around to look at the crowd before turning back to Sasha.

"Is your father here?"

"I don't know." She admits. Erwin looks at her with confusion. Surely her own father should be here for his own daughter's wedding, right?

"I don't know who my father is." she clarifies.

Erwin's eyes widen with shock. He opens his mouth to ask more questions, but one of Sasha's friends grabs her and brings her back to the dance floor. He could only watch as Sasha's figure disappears into the crowd.

---

Erwin sat with his hands covering his face. A few minutes had passed since Sasha left, and everything was beginning to come together. What if he was Sasha's father? He was too conflicted to notice the footsteps heading his way.

"Give me two tequila shots. One for me and one for this guy." he hears a female voice say. His head shoots up, ready to decline the offer but stops. Sitting down where Sasha last sat was a woman with long brown hair and blue eyes. Her hair was half up, half down, she wore a simple blouse and some shorts, and she also wore sandals on her feet.

She notices Erwin's stare and turns to him with a smile. Erwin looks away and blushes from embarrassment. 

The woman laughs instead. She extends her hand out for him to shake.

"My name is Marie Fournier, and you are?"

Erwin extends his hand out to shake Marie's. "Erwin Smith."

The bartender comes back with the shots. Marie grabs her and holds it out in front of Erwin for a toast.

"Cheers." she smiles.

"Cheers," he says with a small smile. Erwin tries to hide his earlier conflict from Marie.

"So how do you know the Zoe's?" Erwin asks after the both of them drank the shot and set their glasses down on the bar."

"Well, we went to the same college and for the same major. I was more of an acquaintance with her, but we still kept in touch after I moved to Canada. I consider myself lucky that she invited me here since we weren't that close."  

She looks at Erwin with a smile. Erwin was taken aback by it. There was a dormant but familiar feeling growing in his chest after seeing Marie smile at him.

"She is a nice person, though. I came here once before for vacation. She showed me around the island and even brought Sasha along too."

Erwin felt another feeling in his chest, and he slightly flinches in his seat. The shock and realization of what if Sasha was his daughter. It seems Marie does not notice any difference in Erwin.

"So how do you know Hange?"

Should he tell her the truth? Maybe a short and sweet version?

His eyes briefly glance over at the bartender walking by. He is going to need some more drinks first.

---

Hitch drags Sasha from the bar and pushes her to dance onto a table to dance with Mike.

"Hey!" Mike cheers once Sasha joins him on the fun. Both of them start dancing together.

"This is fantastic! How did your mom get money to buy this place?"

"She was left some money by an old lady she looked after before I was born," Sasha yells back with all the music and the dancing happening at the same time.

 "Alexandra, that I'm named after."

He looks at her suspiciously. "My grandma Alexandra?"

"I guess?"

"I always heard she left her money to her family…" his voice trails off.

Suddenly, everything hit Mike like a tone of bricks. His grandmother, the hotel, Sasha…

He looks at Sasha, who was still dancing and smiling at him.

"How old are you?" he needed to know.

"I'm 20."

That was the final piece of the puzzle Mike was missing. He stops dancing and looks at her with shock and panic.

"Will you excuse me for a minute?" He looks around his surrounding with confusion, shock, and a bit of disappointment. It's not that he is disappointed at Sasha, but himself. What kind of dad (if he actually was) was he for missing out on 20 years of his daughter's life?

"I'm sorry," he says and leaves Sasha, who stands there with sadness flashing in her face. She was determined to get to Mike again. She runs off to chase after him.

---

"Mike!" Sasha calls after Mike, but he continues walking down the steps and towards the shore. 

"Mike, wait! Why did your grandmother leave my mother money?" She asks as some tears began to fall down her face. Mike was running down the steps, and it was hard for Sasha to catch up.

"I don't know. What do you want from me?" He replies hastily without turning back and quickens his pace. Mike was too confused with everything that he decided to run away instead of confronting Sasha. Sasha can feel her heartbreaking even more now.

"Mike, please!" Mike stops moving. "All my life, there's been this huge unanswered question., and I don't want any more secrecy!" she cries out, and her voice begins to crack. She can feel tears now that began to blur her vision and some snot running down her nose. 

Mike turns around to face Sasha ultimately after hearing her voice crack and the sadness in her voice. Although the only light source was moonlight, Mike could see the tears staining Sasha's face and her body shaking a bit. He felt guilty for making Sasha cry.

Sasha was ready to ask the age-old question. "Are you my father?"

"Yes. I think so." Mike says immediately. He has all the pieces to the puzzle, except he sounded unsure. He looks at Sasha's face. The same face that has Hange it in and him. He is not running away from his problems. He looks at her with determination and smiles.

"Yes," she says softly that it was almost hard to hear it.

Sasha smiles and laughs with pure joy. More tears were running down her face, but it was tears of joy and not sadness. She felt relief rush into her body because she has now found her father—the man standing in front of her, Mike Zacharias.

She smiles brightly at Mike. The smile Hange always had. "You know what comes next?"

"Oh, you're not telling me you have a twin sister, are you?" Mike asks lightheartedly.

Sasha shakes her head and laughs lightly. She steps closer to Mike.

"Will you give me away tomorrow?"

"Give you away?" Mike asks with a bit of perplex.

"No! Our secret until the wedding." 

Mike laughs. He has been on many adventures all of his life, and now life presented him with a new one. He may have missed the first 20 years of Sasha's life, but he was not going to lose more. Especially with something as big as his daughter's own wedding.

Mike smiles and opens his arms out for a hug. Sasha immediately runs in and gives him the biggest hug she's ever given.

"Of course. I will do it for you." He whispers and plants a small kiss on the crown of her head. After all, giving Sasha away tomorrow is the least he could do for her. 

Sasha smiles as she rests her head against Mike's chest (or more like her dad's chest). She felt a rush of emotions today from happiness, sadness, and fear. It did not matter to her now that Sasha found her dad and was not letting him go. She felt whole as the new father-daughter relationship began to form between the two. She finally has everything she could ever dream of.

Sasha was now experiencing another form of happiness. A form she was missing for 20 years.   

©: This is where I insert all rights reserved stuff. This story belongs to me. Do not modify or republish

Big father reveal!!!!! 🥳

Yeah I know Moblit is the only guy at the bacholrette party, but I needed him to do something lol

Marie is now here!

Erwin’s dogs names are the names of Levi and Hange’s Japanese VA’s

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Medal of Honor.”

Ok that second to last part was hard to write, damn. Anyway read to the end to get an idea of where the next arc is going :)

A gentle breeze cut over the open field outside UNSC headquarters. Blue UN flags whipped lightly in the wind, and the sun shone down, though its rays beat against a crowd of somber figures all dressed sharply for the morning, men and women alike.

Camera crews had set up just off to the side of the stage, where Admiral Kelly stood in her dress greys along with white gloves and cords at the shoulder, her hands resting against the lectern as if searching for support somewhere.

“And it is with great regret that I must report Commander Vir of the UNSC Missing in Action.” 

This was not news to the assembled crowd, so there was no gasping, no cries of alarm, only solemn silence.

“Commander Vir was…. a … a true representative of what it means to be human, and what it means to be a member of the UNSC. He was brave, loyal, diligent, and, from personal experience, I can vouch for his character as one of the best men I have ever known. He was a man who…. Wasn’t afraid to be himself, kind, trusting, and fun-loving. There were at times were members of the UNSC wondered if he was ready to command a ship. There were times when we questioned whether he was even capable of leading, but it is more than safe to say that Commander Adam Allen Vir has proved himself without a doubt. Two nights ago, the U.N.S.S Harbinger was set upon by  a burg surprise attack. Commander vir took charge of the fleet admirably, though sources and footage report a linking of 40 kree satellites that created some sort of…” She paused here, “We aren't entirely sure, a black hole, or wormhole, or warp, tunnel. Commander Vir’s ship was caught in the pull.”

Kelly straightened up, “And in an act of great honor and selflessness, commander Vir initiated the shatter protocol. Because of his efforts, the rest of the harbinger crew made it out alive with only three casualties, and one life pod still missing in action. The ship itself will undergo reassembly at the Europa station. “ More flags flapped, and behind her on the stage, five other Admirals, the secretary of intergalactic affairs, the GA representative, and the UN President sat heads bowed slightly.

“Commander Vir, remained in command until his signal was lost. Efforts are currently being made to determine what the device did, so we can definitely determine what happened to Earths favorite hero.” 

She turned stepping back a little as the UN president stood and walked forward clearing his throat two assistants walking behind him off to the side of the stage a man was brought up. He wore a well worn-but finely tailored suit, though is eyes were red. The UN president straightened his back and turned to look at the man as cameras flashed , “After deliberation with the UN council and members of the GA, we have determined that Commander Vir’s actions in battle are of the highest degree, and would thus award him the UNSC Medal of Honor.” The two assistants Flipped open the two identical cases as pictures snapped, and the boxes were eventually handed over to Jim Vir who took them in shaking hands.

“The UNSC and the GA thank your son for his service, and we will do everything in our power to get him home…. No matter what.”

The man’s face remained stoically flat, though in the bright light of the sun golden tears rolled down his cheeks, and dripped onto the velvet interior of the case. He was led from stage as admiral Kelly returned to her feet, “The burg have harassed and harried the GA and the UNSC almost since inception. Their actions over the Kree home world are reprehensible, and as of now the GA has declared open war on the Burg, a decision that the UNSC unanimously supports. We will not bow before tyrants, and it is now that we ask young men and women of earth, of Mars and of the colonies, tot take up arms like commander Vir in defense of earth, and in defense of the galaxy.  Let us not, allow his sacrifice to go meaningless.”

***

“No, he’s not dead!” “Mrs Vir.

“He's not dead! I would know if he's dead, and I know he’s not dead!”

Maverick stood in the center of the Vir family living room her hands clasped before her. This was her least favorite duty as ship chaplain, but she hadn’t wanted anyone else to do it.

Martha Vir walked in a tight circle ringing her hands.

“Ma’am.”

“Don’t you ma’am me! We should be out there looking for him! He could be sick or hurt or or…

“Ma’am, the UNSC is doing everything in their power. As of now he is only considered Missing in action, not dead.” She reached out a hand to rest on the woman’s shoulder but took it back at the last moment, “Things are not without hope.”

Across the room Jim Vir stood staring out the window back hunched head bowed. His hard calloused hands were balled into fists at his sides.

Jeremy sat on the couch looking dumbstruck shaking his head, “no…. No i’m sure hes alright, that bastard could survive anything he…. Hes like that, our little brother.”

Across from him David stood with his partner Jordan. David’s cheek twitched hard eyes filling up with moisture that he tried to hold back as he looked up at the ceiling. David wrapped his arms around him, and as soon as that happened David broke dropping his head into one hand body shaking silently.

Maya sat shell shocked in her father’s favorite chair .

There was silence for a long moment and then, “This is bullshit!” Everyone turned to where Thomas had stood knocking over a chair in the process. His scruffy hair was in disarray, “This is some fucking bullshit!”

“Thomas!” 

“No! Don’t THOMAS me, this if bull- shit! You should be out there looking for him! Because he's fucking alive, so fuck you and, and all of your stupid….” His voice cut off, and he stood there mouth opening and closing for a moment before he turned and raced out the door slamming it behind him as he went.

Everyone was silent.

“I’m sorry about Th-” “It's ok…. I get it, and I feel the same way.”

Outside Thomas paced around the front yard before sitting on the front step head in his hands.

Sobbing quietly.

***

Cannon had to pry open the door from the outside. The frame had been warped and bent at some point, and that made it difficult to get inside. His heart was pounding as the other marines worked to help him. Jamming his spear into the crack, and with all four of them resting their body weight on it, they were just able to pop the seal.

There was a sharp hiss as the interior of the compartment pressurized to the air around it. Cannon rammed his shoulder into the door once twice, and then finally it popped inward the warped damage to the inside fixed enough for the door to slide open.

Deep blue light filtered in from the docking bay of captain Koslov’s ship and into the interior compartment falling on a figure kneeling at it’s center.

Cannon went to rush forward hands outstretched to the figure but paused in horror. The room was covered in blood, orange like the rising sun over Anin. A broken steel spear shaft lay on the ground snapped in half like a stick over a child’s knee. At the center of this carnage, She knelt blue carapace marred with blood hands twisted into claws torn and bleeding The metal about the room had been dented beyond repair, long scratches marred the metal.

“Sunny,” He whispered softly 

When no answer came, he stepped forward into the room and walked over, slowly kneeling down before her.

Both sets of her hands rested on her legs, and her head was bowed eyes closed.

He reached out resting a hand over hers, “Sunny?”

Slowly her eyes opened, and she tilted her head up to look at him. Little droplets of blood speckled her face though the expression was completely dead, dead mostly but for the burning rage behind her golden eyes. He sat back in shock.

He had only ever seen that look on one other person in his life.

On the face of General Cosma after the death of their father.

“I’m going to kill them all.” 

***

KIA

Olivia Wild - Engineering 

Chris Hallis - Marine 

Trevor Lane - Pilot

MIA

Adam Vir

Dr. Krill 

***

Waffles waited on the tarmac at Fort Harmony airbase, and waited, and waited. She stood, walked around for a bit, then sat down. 

She waited resting her head on her paws and staring up at the sky.

She waited as the sun grew high into noon and then sunk downwards towards the distant ocean. She could smell it on the air, a salty tang.

She waited as the sun dipped towards the horizon.

Waffles stood picking up the dusty white captain’s cap in her mouth and walking over to a patch of grass where she sat and continued to wait. The smell on the hat was still strong. Off in the distance engines roared, and she perked her ears up, standing on the tarmac and watching as an F-90 darkfire rolled down onto the field. Her tail began to wag and she broke into a trot towards the taxiing plane. Her body wiggled and her nose twitched with excited sniffling.

The canopy opened, and waffle’s tail dropped sagging towards the hot tarmac that burned her paws a little. She let the dusty cap drop from her mouth and onto the hot surface flopping down beside it, her nose resting where, with every breath, she could smell the familiar scent.

She whined quietly, looking up as a figure walked forward over the tarmac.

It was a distantly familiar smell but not the one she wanted. Chief Palmer stopped next to her and knelt down, running a gentle hand over her ears. His voice was soft, “Still waiting, huh girl?”

She beat her tail half-heartedly against the ground.

He stood, “Come on girl, lets go inside.” She didn’t move

He whistled, and her ears twitched, but she didn’t come. He sighed and walked over sitting next to her, “Well, maybe we can wait together for a little bit. It grew dark as they waited, and he stroked a gentle hand down her back.

After a bit, he reached over gently pulling the cap from under her snout. She lifted her head, “Promise I’ll give it back.” he said taking a moment to dust the dirt from the white top before handing it back.

‘“I have to go ok.” He said standing, “But I understand you have to wait.”

She whimpered softly. He bit his lip and turned away wiping at his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

The sun sunk lower, lights flicked on over the tarmac. Men in orange vests passed by patting her on the head and whispering soft things to her as they did. One man came by with a blanket, draped over her form the cold.

A figure in white billowed behind her its strange human voice inside her head waiting with her. 

The night got colder, and Waffles looked up at the sky whimpering softly at the stars, waiting, still waiting.

***

The inky blue sky was alight with fire as debris rained down from above. Animals raced over the sandy dunes across an inland sea in fear and shock as great pieces of metal crashed to the ground with fiery explosions. 

A small metal ball with the lines. LIFE POD 37 on the outside crashed towards the sea.

Overhead the night sky was dominated by the glowing rings formed about the planet, and the glowing orbit of Seven moons, some barely pinpricks against the night. 

[strange-occurrences-library]

Transgender Day of Remembrance - 2020

As of November- 2020 is the deadliest year on record for transgender people with 37 people murdered in America so far, and 350 worldwide.

We have been murdered, suffocated, decapitated, and burned alive.

Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.

Dustin Parker - 25 - he was a father, "his presence brightened all of our lives."

Neulisa Luciano Ruiz ("Alexa")

Yampi Méndez Arocho - he was only 19

Monika Diamond - 34

Lexi - 33 - “Lexi had a beautiful heart, she was very gifted.”

Johanna Metzger - self-taught musician

Penélope Díaz Ramírez - 31 - "did not deserve to die,"

Serena Angelique Velázquez Ramos - 32 - "was just beginning to explore the world,”

Nina Pop - 28 - "she was always happy"

Helle Jae O’Regan - 20 - she was proud of her trans identity “I was looking at the pictures I used to take before I transitioned versus now and it made me realize I’m way happier than I used to be. I love myself now."

Tony McDade - 38 - was killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida (two days after George Floyd)

Jayne Thompson - 33 - it took the media over a month to use her correct name and pronouns

Selena Reyes-Hernandez - 37 - "We must fight and fight hard to keep our Trans community protected and demand their attackers are brought to justice."

Dominique “Rem'mie” Fells - "a unique and beautiful soul who I am lucky to have known personally,"

Riah Milton - 25 - “She just wanted to be accepted for who she was.”

Brian “Egypt’ Powers - 43

Brayla Stone - she was only 17 - “A child, just beginning to live her life. A child of trans experience. A Black girl. A person who had hopes and dreams, plans and community.”

Merci Mack - 22 - funny, generous, and a beloved auntie

Shaki Peters - 32 - “The saddest part of this is that we have a protocol for when our people die. Most people can mourn the dead once they’ve lost someone, but we actually have to fight for our humanity.”

Bree Black - 27

Summer Taylor - 24 - “A burst of creativity, wit, and charm, with a heart of empathy.”

Marilyn Cazares - 22 - “charismatic, brave, and outspoken”

Tiffany Harris - 32

Queasha D. Hardy - 22 - “loyal,” “always smiling,” and “one of a kind.”

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears - 34 - "Her life is gone," - "There's a life gone that's never coming back. It's so unfair and we just want to see justice done. We want an arrest made and those people held accountable for what they have done."

Kee Sam - 24 - “We must all support and protect our trans friends and family. We must also ensure that hate crime laws and judicial systems hold those who hurt us accountable.”

Aerrion Burnett - died two days before her 38th birthday. “Aerrion was a Barbie,” - “She was a goddess. Can you hear me? Fun! When I say goddess, she was everything. If you wanted to have a good day, you need to smile, Aerrion was the person you wanted by your side.”

Tracy “Mia” Green - 29 - “This latest act of violence against a member of our community is a somber reminder of the epidemic of violence against trans individuals. It is a crisis that cannot be allowed to persist any further. The countless painful losses experienced during this year alone—especially within our transgender communities of color— remind us that there is much work to be done in the pursuit of full equality, respect, and justice for us all.”

Michelle Michellyn Ramos Vargas - 33 - “Trans Puerto Ricans are being hunted. Enough of so much hate. Trans people are as human as everyone else and deserve to live in peace, equality, and freedom.”

Felycya Harris - 33 - "Everybody's going to remember Felycya. That laugh. The smile—the smiles. The talks. The arguments. The attitudes. Everybody is going to remember who Felycya Harris is. Nobody would ever forget who that is.”

Brooklyn Deshauna Smith - 20 - “Every life has value, and we must utilize this moment to not only remember Brooklyn and each and every one of the people killed this year, but take action and work to dismantle this culture of violence and stigma that the transgender and gender-nonconforming community faces. Our community’s lives are on the line, and we must commit with every breath to fight for the change we need.”

Sara Blackwood - 39 - She left behind a partner of eight years who was “inconsolable” over the loss.

Angel Unique - 25 - “Everybody that knew Angel knew that she was very funny. Very nice to everybody she met.”

[blacknovelist]

sup ok here’s the promised details on uhhhhhh All for One in @guardianlioness​‘s and I’s Ageswap Mess, formed by collaborative headcanon jamming on discord and then roughly paraphrased via a run thru the unfortunate Quadruple Lengthening Filter that’s built into my brain bc I’m incapable of being brief.

(something of an expansion on this post and this ask. Nooooot spoiler free, actually pretty spoilers, idk, will pop it under a readmore bc who knows how long I’m gonna go on also)

ALSO!! I can’t at u but @randommly-passing-mia u asked forever ago about Toshinori and AfO’s relationship in this AU and i answered what I could then but I’m pleased to announce this goes more into that bc I knew Very Little back then. :)

So, All for One! Now, I feel it appropriate to note that the previous post I made regarding the history of OfA in Ageswap, as well as just about everything I’ve posted abt AfO and OfA for Ageswap (except for the linked ask above, obv) was made before the arc with the League of Villains and Shigaraki’s backstory all came out. Now that we’ve got some of those contexts, we can go a little further in fleshing everything else out, which we did, a little, today.

Pls keep in mind that Ageswap’s goal is not and never has been to make a direct 1:1 translation of adults to kids and vice versa -- good lord we’d have a lot of empty spaces if we were doing that. So, uh. Anyway. it’s time for “we make a mess of the characters and also the timeline and the plot because it’s Our City Now”

Student AfO is a different creature to small Toshinori of our au. For the purposes of this post we’ll call him AfO, because while I’d love to just jump into referring to him as Shigaraki there’s a lot of confusions that lie down that road. Also, again, we’re calling mr heckhands mcmike Tomura, because Shigaraki is a name with Weight.

Because canon parallels, Ageswap AfO has a little brother who we’re making Kyudai Garaki/the Good Doctor and also quirkless for our purposes (whether he’s AfO’s biological brother is up in the air, we haven’t settled yet). Garaki has something of an intense obsession with quirks, constantly studying and doing research, not unlike Izuku, and the age gap between him and AfO is... about six years. Now, because AfO had already manifested a quirk of his own and that quirk had fearsome potential, One for All was originally going to be passed on to his brother, because before Ageswap Izuku, OfA had strictly been handed down to trained members of the family.

Tomura was a member of the group that had, through the generations, been working to fight against the users of One for All. To hit them where it hurt, he attacked Izuku’s mentor’s (we’ll call them the Mentor) home with a group of League fighters. When he found out there was a quirkless boy, and a second one who was all but quirkless for all that he’d been told to avoid using his own powers, he quickly took them in under the League’s wing -- both in an act of cruelty against OfA and out of some misguided sympathy for the boys.

The fearsome thing is the toxicity of the relationships Tomura formed with the League, and eventually with the boys. He meant well, when he took them in, but whatever this version of him went through... well, just about all his relationships are some level of manipulative and unhealthy by default. See: his tendency for physical closeness and being tactile, as mentioned in the ask.

He’s firmly of an opinion along the lines of “if you’ve got the power, and you know you have the power, and you’re not using it to do whatever you can or want, then why do you even have it?” and, for all of AfO’s childhood, Tomura tried his hardest to share this with AfO and sway the kid to his side. With the Mentor having dropped off the grid and abandoned the Shigaraki name in grief, AfO and his brother had nowhere else to go, but AfO was a smart and cautious kid: he couldn’t just listen without a fight, or a reason.

(AfO didn’t know Tomura meant to kill them, that he attacked their home on purpose. When he eventually finds out, he firmly believes Tomura meant to save them)

But Tomura’s persistent, and he doesn’t stop, and eventually he points out: if All for One is a quirk that allows him to take and give quirks, does that not mean he can seek out the perfect quirk for his little brother? All the reasons he’s suffered, AfO has the power to fix that.

That’s the thing that sways AfO to their side, that convinces him to stay with the League and learn under Tomura. Because if it’s for family, isn’t it worth it?

(AfO sees Tomura as a teacher, as a friend, as someone beloved and important. Shigaraki was AfO’s name, but it can be Tomura’s too, if Tomura wants. Then everyone knows they’re family. And Tomura accepts it -- another spit in the face of an enemy, a welcomed token from a beloved student. Shigaraki is a good name for the rest of the world to use, but Tomura, Tomura is a name for the League and the League alone.)

AfO tries, at first, to find other quirks for his brother while he trains, while his brother studies (while Tomura tries to sway Garaki to their side also, because look at what you know, what you could do with that knowledge, combined with your brother’s quirk, you’re so young and so so smart-). OfA is gone beyond the League��s sight, in the hands of the Symbol of Peace, so there’s no point on dwelling on it, really, surely another quirk would work better?

But then One for All comes back around, in the hands of this blond... nobody. His brother’s quirk, running around in a stranger. AfO continues to hunt potential quirks down for his brother and his brother’s studies, but he has a new goal: to try and claim OfA back and give it to who it really belongs to.

the problem of course being that he can’t take it by force like every other quirk, and killing Toshinori would merely render it lost forever.

Essentially, AfO’s primary grudge against Toshinori is the fact that he’s the current bearer of a quirk that, in AfO’s eyes, should belong to Garaki. And Toshinori’s quirklessness, or past quirklessness... is easy to know when you know the secret of One for All.

Some good stuff gets said abt AfO vs Toshinori in this answer here I think, and I’m drawing on it: Toshinori’s more instinct and heart to AfO’s logic and strategy. That’s not to say, obv, that neither of them draw on the other quality, but it’s what stands out most to me about the two of them and just, kind of their general dynamic (or at least, that’s how it seems).

USJ was a subtle message laid beneath a louder declaration. Two-for-one, if you will. “Wouldn't it be so nice to have a quirk that fit better in your hands? that didn't fritz or go funky whenever you so much as turned your head? A quirk you might not even have to coax and strain and train and change your body for?”

But AfO does not confront Toshinori until much later, until after the sports festival. See, the mall incident in this AU is a scene on bargaining.

He confronts Toshinori at the mall -- his face is not known, and it’s a simple matter to pull him off to the side. But there won’t be fighting here today. No, he only came to talk.

Questions, first. About Toshinori, his experience with One for All, what he thinks of other people’s quirks. About what it was like for him, growing up quirkless, left abandoned by so many people for it. Eventually, his conversation circles back around. I have a little brother. He’s quirkless, just like you. You know what he went through, what he suffered.

All for One even did his research, is even willing to play by rules closer to Toshinori’s own: tucked under his arm is a folder, with lists upon lists of people. Villains with sentences for life, villains under the death sentence, people who would have no life of returning to the world ever again. People who don’t have a reason to use their quirks any longer. People for whom it wouldn’t matter if he took their quirks anyway. “Take your pick,” he offers Toshinori. “I’ll give you whatever quirk you’ve ever wanted. I’ll even take it from a villain so none of your precious civilians have to suffer the loss — but that one belongs to my little brother.”

And, well. We all know he says no.

Why would Toshinori hang onto a quirk that isn’t even his? All the people out there, bearing the quirks that his brother and even his greatest enemy were robbed of at birth, and AfO has the power to grant both Toshinori and Garaki the power that they’d dreamed of, that belongs to them. He knows what it means to suffer without a quirk. Why won’t Toshinori let him fix that?

and idk specifically what Toshi would say, but I think it’s something along the lines of “no one asks for what they're born with or given, but we make the most of it anyway. That's how we're supposed to live.“

Anyway Toshinori and All for One hate each other SO fucking much but. Unfortunately, also just kind of Get Each Other on some level. Like, they despise one another but also, if there’s one thing they can believe in, it’s that the other will always Be The Way They Are. Friendly Enemyship, if you will.

There’s some level of pity that AfO also holds on the percieved coldness of Toshinori’s relationship to his mentor, Izuku. Izuku is... really awkward, in his relationship with Toshi, and while Izuku loves his student very much he has a hard time showing it -- and Toshinori thinks so poorly of himself, it’s hard to grasp how close they are from the outside sometimes. AfO totally tries to recruit Toshinori to their side, even after he figures they’re Tight and also even though he knows Toshinori won’t ever say yes. Like, he hates the guy, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be a kickass ally.

Tomura would like Toshinori and AfO says as much to his face. “You’re more like him than I am, anyway. You can act without overthinking. And he wouldn’t care if you were quirkless. He doesn’t with my brother.”

(Toshinori hates that. He isn’t, he isn’t he isn’t like him at all.)

Tomura has also more or less promised AfO that, at the end of his lifespan, his student should take on Decay. AfO, of course, doesn’t want that and is on the hunt for a good longevity quirk to give to his mentor

In the end, the way All for One is kind of being played in this AU is something not so far off from Anakin Skywalker.

In Lioness’ words:

Noble in his desire to keep his family alive

But horribly misdirected

[thattimdrakeguy]

Sad thing is, because of Yost, Tim at least has it better than the rest of the OG team. Bart, Kon and Cassie haven't been consistently well-written since the OG Young Justice, Cissie and Anita only ever popped back up for a mediocre Cassie mini, Ray only got to be in a mediocre JLA book and, save for cameos and group shots, Slobo and Greta have just been MIA (At least Greta's story was resolved though)

I think about stuff like this sometimes.

Tim has been the one DC treated best, and they STILL treated Tim like garbage.

Think about that for a moment. Tim’s treated best, and he’s still treated awfully. Imagine what that means for the other Young Justice members.

Like even with Yost they made him a character that was so very different from who he was, but honestly I blame that more on FabNic. Yost wrote a mentally vulnerable, depressed, miserable, has nothing quite to live for kid who felt everyone thrown him out during his mental breakdown. He reacted in a way that was in-character for Tim (beyond striking Damian, which was out of character for Tim, who only fought Damian when he thought he was hurting Alfred before).

Tim at least shown himself to not handle emotionally difficult situations well, rather in immature ways, or turning moody.

If the next writer (FabNic) allowed Tim to return to normal. I’d be a lot fonder of that first arc.

FabNic just acted like that’s how he was and wrote him almost opposite by having him do stuff Tim has made obvious he would literaly never do. So FabNic just sucked monkey nuts.

Bart though got shot in the freaking knee, his identity taken away, and his personality taken away, within two issues. How freaking grim is that? He probably got treated the worst out of all the core four. He also got freaking killed later on.

You could argue Conner gets treated better in a way, because it’s obvious Geoff Johns liked him, and he gets put in a lot more stuff then the rest. Even being the only one in the core four to get a solo in the New 52.

Yet he still got his personality taken away almost every time he gets put into something. So even that isn’t all that good, even if he’s given a bit of special treatment from Geoff, but he also got killed cuz of Didio.

Cassie is written in-character now, but for years she was just the generic girlfriend half the time.

The rest of Young Justice? They’re straight up nonexistent beyond cameos occasionally. That’s straight up miserable.

They were such a great team. That was written so well, and loved so much, but they got thrown out. Even with them bringing the team name back, they still aren’t treated that well. They promised something and gave us a below average series that lacks what made the original so good, and is already taking away a few of the things that made people excited to begin with.

It’s cool Cissie’s coming back, but Young Justice was more than just 4 or 5 people. It was a specific series that worked for specific reasons. The characters, the relationships, the personalities, the dynamics, the atmosphere, how cute it could be, how it could still handle serious and scary. It was just something really good.

Worst part of Young Justice to me was how they tended to make Tim act a bit too serious, and occasionally Gary Stu-ish. Given they explained Tim was just in an act later on, and the Gary Stu moments weren’t that constant. That’s honestly not much.

Young Justice used to be great.

[haledamage]

Bless Me With Your OTP

Rules: answer as many of the following questions as you want, and add art/screenshots to show off your OTP!

Tagged by @queen-scribbles​ :D tagging… @allisondraste​ @risualto​ @serenbach86​ @shimmer-like-agirl​ @ariela-of-aedyr​

I’m gonna do Vesiya/Jorgan because that’s who I’m writing right now :)

I feel like I’ve already answered most of these, in some variation, with Kai and both her boys as well as Cait/Nate, and this way I don’t have to choose a Bravo Boy for Kira :P

Do they fight often? If so, what is their dynamic like?

They butt heads a lot when they first met. They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, but it wasn’t so much fighting as it was posturing.

Now that they’ve settled down around each other, they don’t fight, but they do have Disagreements that mostly involve them both using their Commanding Officer voice and referring to each other entirely by their rank rather than by name. It doesn’t happen often, they agree with each other most of the time, and when it does happen it’s almost always about work things not about personal things. Ves will only pull rank to stop an argument if they’re in public, and she hates doing it.

They will, however, fight anyone and everyone on each others’ behalf. They will pick a fight with the Supreme Chancellor himself if they think he’s insulting their spouse. That part started all the way back at Ord Mantell, long before they’d even considered a romantic relationship - really, even before they were friends. Ves almost lost command of Havoc as soon as she got it because she argued so strongly against Jorgan’s demotion.

Who is the most skeptical of the two?

Definitely Jorgan, which I’m sure surprises no one. The man’s never believed a single word that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and only half that come out of Republic Command. And don’t even get him started on what he thinks of the SIS. While Ves is certainly not a push-over by any means, she’s a lot more likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt than he is.

Who would be most likely to suggest a night of dancing?

Ves. She loves dancing and is very good at it, though her experience with it is mostly either by herself at a cantina or out with a group of friends. Jorgan surprises her when she asks him to dance by saying yes, and surprises her again by being skilled at it. She even lets him lead… for a little while. I’m actually in the middle of writing this scene as we speak

What would they do if the other was injured in battle?

If Jorgan is injured, Ves’s first priority is getting him away from the fighting and out of harm’s way. As long as he’s conscious, Jorgan’s going to keep fighting, and she can’t help him if he’s still fighting. She’s not above ordering him to stand down. Her second priority is healing him. She’s a trained medic, though not as skilled as Elara she’s definitely good enough to deal with an injury in the field until they can get to a medcenter to take care of it properly. Even at the medcenter, she prefers to treat his wounds herself if she can, rather than let Elara or the medical droid do it; if it’s not something she has the power to treat, she hovers, needing to be useful or have something to do to help.

If Hallis is injured, I feel really sorry for whoever hurt her. The first thing Aric does is make sure it’s not life threatening, and if it is, to patch it up enough to stabilize her. He’s no medic, but he’s been in the field for a long time and knows how to patch a wound enough that it won’t kill you anymore, even if he can’t do much more than that. The second thing he does is kill whatever is responsible for hurting Ves and anyone that might be working with them. Then he gets her to Elara or a medcenter as fast as he can. He refuses to leave the room while she’s being treated, and won’t leave her side until she’s recovered.

How do their fighting styles complement each other?

If Ves had had any say in who the first member of Havoc Squad could have been, she’d have still picked Aric. She’s an assault cannon specialist, he’s a sniper, so generally she goes in loud to draw the enemy out and he takes them out as soon as they pop their heads out of cover. Quick, clean, surgical, with barely a word spoken between them. Honestly, by the time she’s promoted to Captain, the two of them can clear an entire battleship without a word, they understand each other on such a fundamental level that they don’t need to call out corners or targets anymore. There’s a reason Havoc ends up with the reputation it does, and it sure as hell ain’t because of Tavus and his squad.

Do they want children? Does it frighten them? How many do they want?

Vesiya would love to have kids. Her brother’s kids are the light of her life and she’d love to have some of her own someday. Jorgan I don’t think had ever really considered it before, he’s a career man through and through, but things change after he meets Ves. And after she was missing for those five years… when he gets her back, I think family is a much higher priority to him then than his career ever was.

I don’t think Cathar and Mirialan are reproductively compatible, but adoption is an option, and one I think they’d both be happy with. I could see them with a whole litter of kids from various races.

As parents, they’d both be a little on the strict side, but fair. Ves is great with kids, and very patient, and Jorgan would be a fantastic dad once he warmed up to it. Can you imagine, a little army of younglings following him around?

What happened when they took them home to their families? If their families aren’t in the picture anymore, how do they feel about it?

I maaaaaay already have some fic ideas floating around for this. 

I don’t know if Jorgan has any family? I can’t remember if he mentions it, he hasn’t so far in my playthrough, and the last one was years ago, so I’m gonna skip that. If he does, I’ll edit this and come back to it :) 

But Ves’s family adores Aric. She comes from a very Republic-centered family - her mother is a senator, her father a retired admiral, her twin brother and his wife are both SIS, and she has a younger brother who’s a Jedi (though she hasn’t seen him in like 15 years since he first showed Force sensitivity because Jedi can’t have attachments and all that) - so chances are good that he’d met some of them before he met her, or that they’d already heard of him at least. He makes a better first impression with them than he did with Ves XD

Vitrin, her twin, is probably the slowest to come around, but only because he’s very protective of his sister, and Vit’s wife Lena is the fastest to accept him because she’s got really good instincts about people. Ves’s nieces, Scout and Zan (Scout is a nickname, her name is actually Kesiya (after her aunt, sort of), but no one calls her that anymore), are already calling him Uncle Aric before they’ve finished that first dinner.

After Ves is declared MIA, Jorgan still keeps in touch with her family - though at first, mostly at their insistence. Vit and Lena have a 3rd kid while Ves is “missing” and they name him Aric, and if that doesn’t tell you how much they love him, I don’t know what will.

How does each person show affection towards the other?

Both of their main love language is Acts of Service, so the biggest way they show affection is by doing things for each other. Jorgan does weapon checks and makes sure Ves’s armor is in good working order, that she’s as safe as he can make her. Hallis makes sure he isn’t hurt, checking for injuries after every combat situation even when he claims he’s fine (he is not always fine. He doesn’t like to worry her about the small stuff. She worries anyway); she does most of the talking, especially to politicians, so he doesn’t have to. Whichever of them wakes up first makes sure the other has a cup of caf waiting for them. They watch each other’s backs.

Besides that, Aric likes to give gifts. Not big ones, necessarily, though he does some of those, too, but a lot of little things. Like a beer at a cantina after the end of a long mission, or an upgrade for her cannon that he knows she had her eye on. Little things that say “I was thinking about you” or prove how well he knows her and what she likes.

Ves likes physical affection. A hand on Jorgan’s shoulder or his arm, a quick kiss before a mission, she’s especially fond of the forehead lean. She won’t do much more than that in public, they’re both very professional, but it’s still her way to silently say “I’m here with you, I love you”. In private, there will never be such a thing as too many hugs. She could wrap herself around him and just stay there all day and be happy.

Who cries the most? Who is better at comforting?

Oh boy, neither of them are big criers. I won’t say they’re repressed, because they aren’t, they both are fairly good at expressing emotion, especially for career soldiers, but any strong enough negative emotion that would elicit tears mostly just turns to anger for both of them. There are a few major exceptions, but they all revolve around that pesky time Ves was pronounced dead for a few years. That was obviously a very hard time for Aric, and when Ves got free she had to make peace with the idea that she’d missed five years. She definitely had at least one very large breakdown.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Ves cries more, if only just and only very rarely. And only in absolute privacy where no one can see it at all.

Ves is probably better at comforting, by merit of having a lot of family, especially young children. Or rather, she’s very good at verbal comfort, but Jorgan is probably better at physical comfort. Just look at him. Clearly the man gives good hugs, just look at those arms. Plus, don’t Cathar purr? :)

Who is the bigger flirt?

Jorgan, believe it or not. He’s the one that initiates, most of the time, and Hallis just plays off of what he says. Neither of them are very good at blatantly stating their feelings for each other for a really long time, but admitting attraction is easier. They’re very playful flirts, much more playful than they are in absolutely any other aspect of their lives. It’s a dance, a push and pull, a subtle competition between them. They flirt for a long time before they ever make a step toward an actual relationship.

They very, very rarely ever flirt in public, and when they do it’s always just a quiet aside, not meant to be heard by anyone else, and it’s never anything incriminating. Poor Elara, though, for having to put up with these two. Patience of a saint, that woman. Anyone else would have thrown them out the airlock ages ago.

Of course, it takes them months to get to the point where they’re comfortable enough with each other to start flirting. And outside of each other, they don’t flirt. Like, at all. Ves didn’t even flirt with Balkar.

[bakagamieru]

hi! ive been out of the fandom for a year so i dont know whats happening, can you help me? what the boys were up to recently? what about louis' album? larry? any updates on niall's projects and life and stuff? did the boys have any contact recently with each other?

I’ll do the best I can, but I may miss a few things:

Niall:

He was supposedly in a relationship with Hailee Steinfeld from sometime around March until December.  He had his first kissing pap walk and other than that, it was never actually confirmed except by unnamed “sources” in the papers.  More than likely this was a benevolent PR deal for mutual promo.

Work-wise, Niall finished his first solo tour, released the single “Finally Free” because someone working on the movie Smallfoot has a massive crush on him and would have preferred the whole soundtrack to be Niall if he’d had the time to write it.  He also recently released the orchestra version of 9 (I think?) of his Flicker songs.  He’s currently working on writing his 2nd album, so he’ll probably be pretty scarce for awhile.

Harry:

Harry also finished up his first solo tour and has been seen in and out of Japan quite a bit.  People assume he’s working on writing his 2nd album there, although it’s not confirmed.

I’m honestly not too sure what else to say about him.  He’s popped in and out of the fandom’s awareness on social media, but I think he’s mostly remained under the radar since his tour ended.

Liam:

Liam has continued putting out singles here and there (still mostly collabs) and we did get his EP “First Time” in August, although we still don’t have his actual album that should have been done a long time ago.  Most think that the album will be out this year, although it’s hard to say for sure.  Supposedly Liam hasn’t had any tour dates yet because they “can’t find the right venues”, but that seems like a really weak excuse and some people have noted that he only seems to perform at festivals and other events that maybe he doesn’t get paid for like a regular concert?

Liam has come out and said he’s interested in acting in the near future, but there’s been no announcement of any roles.

The Liam-Cheryl relationship finally ended in July, thankfully.  Again, fake relationship and not nearly as benevolent as the Niall-Hailee one.  No big movements on babygate 2.0 though.

Louis:

Louis put absolutely no music out this last year.  As far as we can tell, he was ready to and wanted to and then got drafted into being a judge on The X-Factor UK instead.  He did the best he could to be a good mentor and one of his acts did, in fact, win.  Surprisingly, Louis came out of The X-Factor looking a whole lot better than anybody assumed Simon was going to let him.  He also made his primary purpose on that show to wear coded clothing pretty much every chance he got.  

Liam showed up on Louis’ judge’s house episode and also came on to perform.  Niall showed up in the audience during the finale episode (or maybe the one right before?).  Unfortunately, we didn’t get almost any public interactions when Liam performed and none at all when Niall was in the audience.  Louis and Liam did end up doing another Gogglebox-based charity video together after the judge’s house episode though.

Despite Louis’ music being delayed, fans are hopeful that Louis will have a single out this month and an album out this year, preferably with tour dates to follow.  Both Louis and Liam’s music releases have been so delayed at this point that no one wants to get too excited until it actually happens.

I think Eleanor has been showing up periodically with Louis, but generally she’s in the background.  Louis hasn’t mentioned Freddie at all this year and some interesting things have been going on with Briana’s family and friends deleting social media posts or starting entirely different social media accounts recently.  People are wondering if this is leading up to the end of babygate or if it might just be cleaning house in preparation for promo for Louis’ album.  We’ll see in time.

Zayn:

Zayn finally released his 2nd album after several years and a tweet a few months prior accusing his label of blocking the release of his music.  The first part of the album is mushy af and is commonly assumed to be an ode to his love for Liam.  The second part of the album is darker and seems to be about Zayn’s struggles in the industry/life, as befits the concept of “Icarus Falls”.  Unfortunately, this album is getting little to no proper promo.  I don’t think there’s been one interview since it came out in any medium.

Zayn and Gigi have recently been reported as having split (again) and hopefully it sticks this time.  Again, fake relationship, not benevolent.  The break up stories are blaming the break up on Gigi not being able to fix Zayn’s mental health issues.

After hinting heavily he wanted to tour in 2018, his team claimed he wasn’t touring because of his anxieties, but now he’s hinting heavily about touring soon again.

I want to be respectful of mental health issues, but I do find it very suspicious that Zayn’s so-called issues are only ever brought up in order to explain away why he gets no promo or why his management “dropped” him or why his “girlfriend” can’t stay with him.  In other words, his team is sabotaging him and is either making up mental health issues to use to blame Zayn or is using pre-existing mental health issues to blame Zayn even though it’s still not his fault.

As far as Zayn and 1D goes, we’ve reverted back to a more negative narrative yet again.  It makes no sense at all, but this isn’t the first time we’ve yo-yo’ed between a more positive and more negative narrative with no particular event or reason driving it.  Zayn and Louis officially reconciled over a year ago and no other members of 1D were ever actually fighting in the first place, and yet here we are with this ridiculous fighting narrative still.

Larry and Ziam:

Both are still going strong.  

We haven’t had as many hints from the Ziam side (except for Zayn’s love declarations in “Icarus”) since Zayn is so often MIA, but Louis being on The X-Factor provided plenty of fodder.  In particular, Louis wore green and blue stripes and has been wearing a lot of clothing from Japanese lines (when Harry has coincidentally been seen in Japan a lot recently).

You can try checking my tags for “larry stylinson” and “ziam mayne” for more details although some of the posts might not be about recent events.

[famedexclusivearchive]

Exclusive interview with Mia on her album “Stopwatch”

WISH has been everywhere since they debuted. They can be seen on advertisements all over Seoul and their songs can be heard playing on every street. They’ve been dubbed the Nation’s Girl Group, and with that comes little rest for a member like Mia, who also has a rising acting career and has branched out into music of her own. Over the past year, she’s promoted the collab “Ma Boy”, released the BC Portal song “Rain”, featured on the albums of groupmate Vivienne and Decipher’s Duri, and also starred in Girls’ Generation 1979 and the webdrama Short. Now she’s taken on the project of a solo album of her own, titled Stopwatch which was released at the end of March. Here at Exclusive, we got to have the first interview with Mia about the release of her solo album. Read what she had to say below!

You’re the third WISH member to release a solo album. How do you feel your album is different from Vivienne’s and Wren’s?

All of our solo releases are unique to ourselves, and it’s hard to really pit them against each other when they’re all full of such amazing music. I think how Stopwatch separates itself from other albums or anything that I’ve released before is how the music has two stories. I was able to explore a lot of different concepts and songs while developing the album, but I think what makes it special is how the songs all tie into each other as whole. They were all produced individually, but with a bigger picture in mind or so to speak. The songs separately all tell a different story, a different concept- but when put together they paint a whole different picture, and I’m really proud of being able to call that painting something of my own.

You had a hand in some songwriting and producing on the album, and you also contributed to the choreography. What was that like?

The barest way to put it would be incredible. This is the first time I’ve been able to work so closely with the music I release, and it feels amazing to see the end product altogether. A little secret I’ll share here is that some of these songs were created before we were even planning on releasing a solo album. Cosmic Dust in particular was actually a song that I first drafted as a trainee. It’s really satisfying to see this all come full circle. Helping choreography Why Don’t You Know, especially with Dax-sunbaenim, was probably the cherry on top. For as long as I could remember I’ve been wanting to release a song with choreography that I created myself and being able to actually do it, and for it to be for such an amazing song like Why Don’t You Know- it’s magical.

What was it like working with other idols on components of your album like RIZO, Vivienne, Taeyong, Duri, Taeho, Dax, Silver, and Tokki?

It was more than I could have ever asked for, honestly. Thanks to them, and all of the staff behind the scenes, they’re the real reason why this album even exists honestly. Both literally and metaphorically, considering some of the songs were produced by them. I owe my thanks to all of them, really. For the amazing lyrics to the wonderful production of music to choreography and just being there for input and to mentor me through this. I think that’s another reason why the album ended up so great. It’s not just influenced by me, but by other idols and people as well. Art isn’t about what’s on the surface level. It’s the little things, like maybe how there’s a bit more percussion in one section of the song compared to the rest to accentuate that part of the song, or how a sentence is phrased to convey a differently different meaning. And we were able to bring that altogether through everyone’s efforts, and I can’t begin to think of how to express my gratitude in words.

Do you feel “Roller Coaster”’s concept or “Why Don’t You Know”’s concept fits you better as a performer?

I don’t think one or the other match myself more or less than the other does. They just bring out different sides of me. Roller Coaster lets me show off a more mature side of myself while still staying young, almost to represent my age this year. It shows off playfulness of my youth while showing that I’ve begun to grow up now, and how I’m transitioning as I begin my twenties. It’s funny because I think the message that Why Don’t You Know contradicts the one portrayed with Roller Coaster does. It’s a lot more playful and carefree in my opinion- about having fun and expressing yourself in a different way. It’s more similar to concepts that WISH have produced compared to Roller Coaster, but it has a more mature touch to it that I haven’t done before as well. Both concepts criss-cross in that sense, but they bring two different end results over all, so it’s hard to identify which one I’m similar to more.

Other than the title tracks, which one song do you recommend everyone listens to?

What Do I Do is one of my personal favourites off the album. It was produced by Taeyong-sunbaenim, and I’m really thankful that he created this track. It’s a pop-dance song that matches title tracks Roller Coaster and Why Don’t You Know well. I was tempted to make it one of the titles when I first heard the demo, honestly. It makes you really energized and motivated while listening to it. Although if you’d like a more relaxing song (even if the question just asked for one song- I can’t decide!) I’d recommend taking a look at Cosmic Dust and Remind Of You. I participated in the production and writing of both songs and wrote them intentionally as a pair of sorts, almost like a story between the two songs. I really like those two as well.

Did you have any major inspirations for this album and your performances?

I….watch a lot of dramas in my spare time, and I don’t really have much relationship experience, so it would be a lie to say that some inspiration for lyrics didn’t come from that. Asides from fiction, of course, a lot of inspiration came from WISH, my friends- my family, in that sense. They inspire me to be better and work harder, because they’re always here supporting me and encouraging me to do my best. I’m really grateful for that. And our fans! They always have such amazing ideas to offer us and I definitely looked towards them to help them guide this album. Our Wishing Wells are the best!

What do you hope people take away from listening to this album?

A lot of things, really. I’m the type of person to find it a hard time expressing myself through words, so I really worked to express myself with music in this album. I took this as a chance to communicate with my fans and myself better. I was a little bit afraid, honestly, when I released the album. Will people understand the message? Will people be okay with it? But the reception so far has been overwhelmingly encouraging and it makes me really happy to know that people enjoyed my music.

Do you have any other comments you’d like to make to your fans?

Everything from the songs to the choreography to the amazing reception- it’s all thanks to them. This album wouldn’t have been half as well done had I not been able to receive support from our fans during production. So thank you- well, this entire interview has been a thank you of sorts- but really, thank you. I love you all!

[popliar]

K-Con Australia, 20170922-23

The first Australian K-Con was held over the last two nights in Sydney, and @proteinscollide​ and I were there. I'm very behind on everything else as a result! I need to watch Knowing Bros! ANYWAY, short version: IT WAS SUPER FUN. Lots of rambling under the cut as usual.

22 September: SF9, Pentagon, Victon, Girl's Day, Exo

23 September: SF9 (again!), Up10tion, Cosmic Girls/WJSN, Wanna One, Monsta X

Overall this was an extremely well produced show and a really fun show - I had such a good time! Okay, the "convention" part not so much (I'll talk about this a bit at the end of the post) but at both evening shows, the concert ran like a slick machine, stage following stage with no pause, good sound and no technical hitches. Visually the show looked great, with massive screens giving good views of every performer as well as fantastically atmospheric backdrops.

It didn't sell out on either night, and again I'll talk about possible reasons for that more later, but as a vehicle for hallyu and for promoting Korean culture this is potentially such a powerful instrument. One of the most striking K-Con images for me is the footage of K-Con Paris from 2016 - the pan from the section of the crowd for the French dignitaries and delegates, all politely seated and clapping, to the massive auditorium of French youth going absolutely wild for these pop groups from the other side of the world. This show didn't have that element of official endorsement, it was much more a straight-up pop show, but hey you never know, that might come…

Soft power has its limits, for sure, but within those boundaries Korea is working so very hard at being the very best it can be. I admire the gumption, and more importantly to Korea I am happily consuming the product! Give me more product! I'm here for this!

As far as line-up goes, this K-Con wasn't the best. Exo are absolute stars of course and there were other notable groups like Monsta X and Girl's Day; on balance however this was a really rookie-heavy sausage-fest. The prevalence of rookies is probably partly bad timing - the show coincided with the DMC Music Festival (which was eventually cancelled anyway due to labour disputes, argh, we could've had it all!).

But the boy-heavy line-up? Frustrating. Apparently WJSN and Girl's Day are the first girl groups to perform here since 4 Minute some three-four years ago. WHY? Perhaps there's a perception that since Western fans are mostly girls then they'll only turn out for boybands - I know in Korea the audience for girlgroups is skewed towards boys. However, here in the West, pop as a whole is coded so heavily female that I'm sure wouldn't be a problem. I've been to many Western female pop star concerts and trust me, the girls SHOWED UP. Hell, at this very same arena, Little Mix are performing later this year. Besides, this argument falls flat if you look at other K-Con line-ups which, although boy-heavy, still manage more than a measly 2 girl groups. Gosh I'd have been so happy with the addition of any ONE of Red Velvet, Mamamoo, Blackpink, Pristin, Gfriend, Twice, etc…

...that was a long intro. Let's talk the show.

Chanyeol (EXO)

Night 1

The first night of K-Con began with a pre-show of kpop dance cover groups (they were all good but some were REALLY GOOD) and Kevin from U-KISS as MC (did u know he looks like Lee Pace around the eyes?), doing his cheesy best to hype up the crowd and also promote the con's primary sponsor.

Then the show got started with a VCR, featuring Monsta X's Minhyuk in a sort of spaceship-themed narrative? I don't know what I saw but apparently K-Con's first Oceanic showing needed heroes or defenders or something, i.e. kpop groups? Whatever cool. I do know it involved Minhyuk looking at a picture of a kangaroo so we're all good.

Also apparently Sydney is the city of "arts and culture" and also "romance"? I'm flattered on behalf of my home, and I can assure you we have plenty of all three, but really?? Those are not, like, the first words I associate with Sydney. But ok, you do you K-Con!

Exo's Suho and Sehun then came on as the night's special MCs to deliver a brief introduction and be cute together and make the crowd scream. Naturally, there were Exo jerseys and banners and lightsticks all over the place; earlier in the day I got handed a cute banner to celebrate Chen's birthday, which I then promptly used to test proteinscollide's knowledge of Exo band names. (She improved greatly through the evening!)

First group up were rookie boyband SF9 - I've enjoyed their songs and MVs without knowing much about them. This rapidfire 3 song performance made me more of a fan! They just hit all their beats really well, both in terms of performance and in their brief introduction ment, advantaged by one member who was a fluent English speaker. Their line distribution is kind of weird - there's maybe three members who dominate the vocals and the dancing, especially Taeyang who I kept thinking of as "that one guy who looks like Shinee's Jonghyun" - but not enough to detract overall. I have no favourite but maybe my favourite is the rapper with currently red hair who reminds me of SVT Jeonghan and Pentagon's E'Dawn.

Something like K-Con is the perfect platform for a rookie group to get this kind of exposure. My own first exposure to kpop (aka the reason for my eternal downfall) was winning free tickets to a Boyfriend & JJCC show - I knew nothing about them, knew next to nothing about kpop, and JJCC were a hot mess sorry - but seeing the groups in person and live was enough to make me want to know so much more. I feel like this SF9 set functioned in much the same way. It was SO much more impactful than just an MV or a youtube clip or a gifset. This is how fans are made! (That said… I'll get to it, but SF9 got two bites at the cherry. Why?)

Next up were Pentagon and their brief set was great. Their songs are such bangers - I SAID BANGERS, DON'T AT ME - and they were really polished and powerful. Kino's opening dance solo was super charismatic, and E'Dawn (aka the only one I can consistently recognise) was working that jawline of his so well, lol. He does the bad boy thing very well! I admire it! For their ment, they played the "Pinata" game as seen at other K-Cons this year, i.e. a random game was selected. (Would the game be 'Propose'? It was not propose, but one member did get down on one knee to E'Dawn anyway, good job good fanservice.) In this case it was a random dance play, and it was very amusing and silly.

Probably my favourite thing about Pengaton is how far and fast proteinscollide has fallen for them. Can you believe at this time last year she didn't even know all the MX member names? Now the student has exceeded the master! Post your Pentagon post bro!

Sehun and Suho came back to introduce a special stage: Exo's Chanyeol in duet with WJSN's Seola, for his OST track Stay with Me. This was a nice, pretty interlude and a bit of a breather after the fast pacing of the first two sets.

Seola (WJSN)

Third rookie group Victon bopped cutely to a very Australian-themed video backdrop and they were very entertaining, without necessarily making me want to seek them out further. I think that's more to do with their concept being more cute than Pentagon and SF9's, so less appealing to me on those grounds. But they have their charms and most importantly one had a mullet! I'm HERE for the mullets, don't even think I'm joking.

Next up were Girl's Day. They're down to 4 members now but their experience and their casual confidence made them so enjoyable to watch. They played their hits including Something, Expectation and Ring My Bell with such a sense of fun and sexiness, dominating the stage and playing to the crowd with the relaxed ease of vets who have nothing to prove. There was a hunger to the rookies that gave them more edge but sometimes you just wanna watch really talented ppl relaxedly doing their very talented thing.

With everyone acutely aware there was only one act left to take the stage, a couple of SF9s came out to MC a special stage. They did the usual "how are you guys enjoying the show" and "we love Australia" and all that jazz, and then made the fatal mistake of asking an open-ended question:

SF9 MCs: so who is Australia's favourite boy group? Crowd: BTS!!! MCs: Yes, Exo!!! #awkward

I lol'd! I am sorry! Bless you Exo but c'mon!

This was followed by a brief VCR of Australian fans naming their favourite boybands, and then a really fun special stage of boyband covers:  Pentagon covered GOT7's Hard Carry;  SF9 covered Exo's Monster; and Victon did BTS's Fire.

At last it was time for EXO - MUCH CHEERING FROM CROWD!  Exo-Ls were out in force. There were also tons of lightsticks in the crowd and everyone was hyyyyped.

Now some context for my reaction: I can name all the Exo's and I like some of their songs, but I don't quite click with their aesthetic/dynamic in the way that I do with BTS, etc. They were also at something of a disadvantage, with D.O absent from the line-up (I had to count them twice to make sure sob) and Lay MIA from this entire comeback (though I guess that's no longer surprising).

So let that be the background for me saying that I was totally entertained and impressed by their set. Starting with Power and ending with Ko Ko Bop, they came out and gave a great show. They are after all professionally charming and who was I to resist?

For me again it's that idea of a live show being so much more powerful than a video, even for something as preplanned and artificially constructed as pop. A concert is such a powerful reminder that it's more than the performer, and it's more than the audience too - it's about the relationship between the two, that alchemy of atmosphere and act that you only get in that specific environment.

Yes, Kai was deadly with his fucking winks and seductive looks (how dare you sir), but the way the audience reacted to his performance is what made the show go off. Xiumin aka Cat Pirate was also a scene stealer for me, and it was very darling when Chanyeol threw confetti at his head at the end awwww.

(I just wish, like, SM were less SM-y. I got a message from proteinscollide after the show - "Girl walking thru car park: shout out to SM who never give reasons for why members aren't there and if they're ok". Um, yep. I had to check on twitter to find out that D.O was off filming a movie.)

Ending stage was as usual with everyone coming out as tons of confetti rained down. I think a SF9 hugged a Victon? AWWW FRIENDS. A good night.

Night 2

We started again with dance cover groups - colour me EXTREMELY impressed by IME Dance Studio - and Kevin from U-KISS giving away a prize to whoever in the crowd did their best impression of their favourite thing to do in a hotel room. This led to a really hilarious scenario as the cameras zoomed in on 2 girls "dancing" together. "Yes, they're dancing!" Kevin said, "of course they're dancing!" Everyone just cracked the fuck up, Kevin included. They got the prize, bless them, which was - ofc - a free hotel stay!

The show started with the same VCR as the day before and then I was EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED by Monsta X's Jooheon and Shownu taking the stage together to drop an absolutely fire performance. Jooheon's duality is amazing - cuddly scaredy-cat off stage, fucking monster on stage - he was SO GOOD. Shownu's dance break was great as expected and I cried tears in my heart bc I love them.

SF9 returned for the second evening - again, they were slick and impressive, and they namedropped kangaroos and meat pies in their intro ment, good work on ticking off those keywords lol. But I really don't know why they got sets on both days? Did FNC decide they really wanted to build that fanbase and made the necessary commercial arrangement with the promotors? Like I said, stages like this can be real turning points in making a fan. So that's fascinating. If anyone knows, lemme know?

Daehwi (Wanna One)

Three Wanna Ones then took the stage to briefly MC. It was definitely Kang Daniel and uh, two other Wanna Ones! *hastily googles* It was Daehwi, who was the most fluent in English and was super cute & cheesy, and Minhyun, who was also cute but I don't remember much? Sorry team. The only Broduce bro I can 100% identify is Daniel, and sometimes Jaewhan. But! I think I'll remember Daehwi from now on - he was pretty memorable and did the most heavy lifting in the ments. Anyway they delivered some potted intros and then on to the next one.

WJSN then performed a special stage, covering two Kylie Minogue songs as two subunits - Locomotion (which I note came out in 1988, older than every single K-Con performer except for Sojin of Girl's Day) and I Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2001 - there are rookies debuting born in 2001! And younger! God i'm so old). Firstly much love for preparing a special stage with local appeal that didn't feel pandering and really spoke to the long history of amazing women in pop, and secondly THEY WERE SO GOOD. Fun, bright, poppy - I love them.

They were followed by Up10tion who did a high energy set and I remember why I liked them! They're good! I don't quite click with all their songs, especially their more recent ones which I feel are a bit hit and miss, but just like every other group in this K-Con they delivered their set with professionalism and skill and charm.

There was then a brief interlude with MX's Kihyun and I.M, MY TWO LOVES, MCing an audience dance game. We got to see Kihyun doing the Twice TT dance and my world was made. Gosh I love them.

WJSN

WJSN then came back for their set and I just really like them so much. They have that sleekness that I've come to associate with Starship because of them and MX, with both groups always having good choreo and catchy hooks. I like their concept a lot too - they're cute sassy cheerleaders, yes, but I also feel like there's this very cool edge to them, they could easily cut you! I love that! As they acknowledged in their ment, 2 members couldn't make it due to filming schedules (I think it was Cheng Xiao, the dancey/gymnastic one? And Mei Qi, possibly? I'm sorry, I don't remember) but they were still very good and I enjoyed their set a lot. And their main rapper - god, I'm sorry, I don't know if it was Bona or another member - she was SO GOOD? She had so much stage presence. Gosh. I need to find out her name.

Next up were Wanna One. Now, ofc, Produce 101 never officially aired in Australia. We had to watch it on the internet like a bunch of animals. And yet out of all the groups on both days, their fans were definitely the most intense and the most scream-y - yes, more intense than the Exo-Ls and the Monbebes!

I only ever saw snippets of P101 and as I said I can only ID Daniel with certainty, but I was, hmm, not surprised I guess that they turned out to be endearing? CAN U IMAGINE, a group of young men voted for according to their charms turns out to be extremely charming?! The shock!  (From a purely commercial standpoint, what a brilliant exercise this has turned out to be. I think the limited timeframe for Wanna One to make bank lends an edge of urgency to their fandom and means their machine is also geared to maximum efficiency. Make! Bank! Now!) And because they're young and new, there was a certain edge of rawness and spontaneity to them which is naturally part of their appeal too. I still don't quite know what I feel about Kang Daniel - like I know he's very fond of cats and therefore a good person, and he has this easy, cocky stage charisma which makes his appeal seem very straightforward. But I think I found him most endearing when he missed a step at the end of his dance solo and there was just the cutest expression on his face, like "my bad."

For their Pinata game, they did photo time with hyung line posing "cutely" and maknae line posing "sexily" followed by some kind of free for all - A HOT MESS, lol.

Daehwi also went off script - or at least, he said he went off script, but can you ever really know? We need to go deeper! - and wished happy birthday to Kuanlin, getting the whole audience to sing along too, awww. As I said: what a group of charming young men; the self-awareness that they were constructed to charm ultimately means nothing.

FINALLY MONSTA X. They're, like, my second favourite group after BTS so I think I would've been just fine if they'd shown up and waved at us and sang like a song or two. But they didn't! They were really, really good. As headliners they had a signficant chunk of time and I think I was smiling from start to end, non stop.

They've turned into such good performers - with something similar to that same easy confidence that Girl's Day and Exo had - and I felt like they really did the most, on the second night, with connecting to the audience. Their performances were all on point, and everyone of them looked and sounded great but Jooheon especially killed me with swag and Wonho's collar & cleavage can fuck right off, ISTG. It just made me so happy to see them doing these songs and choreo I love so much - Shine Forever and Beautiful and Fighter - and they ended with Hero, my very first MX song, which was amazing. (I am a little sad they skipped All In but ok I can live with it.)

For their ment, they played the proposal game, with three members doing their very best fanservice lol. A very happy woman in the standing area got to be audience surrogate as I.M laid on cheesy lines (something about angels and heaven, IDK, why is he like this and why do I love him so much), Kihyun sang a ballad to her (next to me proteinscollide died a death), and Wonho came down to the barrier to to give her a heart, selfie & cheek kiss. It was so! Cheesy! And Wonderful! #the selfawareness does nothing

Everyone then came out for the goodbye, though MX were the only ones who felt relaxed enough it seems to actually get silly with the confetti and do some more spontaneous bows & waves to the crowd. By comparison to every other group on the 2nd night, they must be the old hands at K-Con by now - they've done SO many. Gosh I hope they come back to Australia for a full show. I love them so much.

Fuck, I'm now at 3300 words so let's wrap this up quick:

Unlike other K-Cons which seem to have a proper programming and convention stream, the "convention" part of this was really a disappointment. Minimal programming, minimal stalls (less than 10 vendors), all in one room. It was free entry which is fine I guess except that people were queuing up forever to get inside due to the limited capacity and it was H O T (over 30 C each day) out there. In the end I queued for an hour, and spent about 15 minutes inside. It was really not worth it. Luckily proteinscollide & I had options and just went away for a few hours to pass the time before the show, but I imagine there were a lot of kids left hanging around Olympic Park all day with nothing to do.

The shows didn't sell out. What does this mean? Possible thoughts:

-It was really expensive and the audience skews young. Like, the premium tickets were REALLY REALLY expensive and good tix were expensive. I could afford decent tix, but if I were in my teens? No way. I'd have had to ask my parents for it.

-Sydney has had a run of shows including an Australian-exclusive BTS show. If you're interstate and you already spent $$$ going to BTS, or for that matter $$$ to go G-Dragon in your own state, how much money do you have left over for concerts in this year? There is a limited capacity for this audience to keep spending. Promoters should be careful not to spread us too thin. Put more shows on in Melbourne! (Though I don't know - are there more Koreans and east Asians in Sydney? I suspect there are. The audience, again, skews heavily to those of us who are Asian-Australian.)

-Exo, MX, and Wanna One are very popular but don't have the same mainstream reach in Australia as BTS. BTS also had the advantage again of being earlier in the year, only the 2nd major kpop tour in the year I believe. Since then there's been other kpop and khip-hop shows for people to spend their money on. I really thought Exo would give BTS a run tho, given how well their latest album performed on Australian iTunes charts.

...that was not a quick wrap-up.

TO CONCLUDE: I HAD A GOOD TIME, THANK U FOR READING.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: The Big Empty (13x04)

This season is kicking serious ass. I love it so much I cannot even tell you. Let's just dive right in!

Cons:

My complaints are really minor. There's a moment at the end when Jack steps in and saves the day, but the special effects looked pretty goofy. They did this sort of subwoofer sound effect and slow-mo and his eyes glowed gold and it was just kind of hokey.

Pros:

That's literally my only complaint. I sat there for a second trying to come up with something else I disliked, and I couldn't.

The main story involves Sam, Dean, and Jack hunting down a shifter who is disguising himself as lost loved ones before killing his victims. They think they've found the culprit, a therapist named Mia, but she proves her innocence. She is a shifter, but she uses her powers to give her patients a chance for closure. Turns out, it's her terrible, abusive ex-boyfriend, Buddy, who is also a shifter and who is trying to take away her happiness. The shifter gets the best of Mia, Dean, and Jack while Sam is away following up on a lead. It looks like Sam is going to get shot when he walks in the door, as Buddy has the whole situation rigged, but Jack manages to access his powers in time to save the day.

First of all, I like that the plot was simple and straightforward. We didn't need five different twists, we didn't need too many detours. Dead people are killing living folks. Ghost? No. That's ruled out. Shifter? Yes. The first shifter they find? No. I was almost waiting for yet another double cross, and was pleasantly surprised when it never arrived.

And speaking of, I really liked Mia! The moment when Sam realizes she's a shifter, and comes bursting into the room with a gun, was the perfect subversion of expectations. Sam and Dean both hold a gun on her, but she explains her innocence and the boys actually let her explain herself. They've certainly come a long way from shooting monsters on sight! And I loved the parallels that this created with Jack. Mia has learned to believe that being a "monster" isn't everything. It's not what you are - it's what you do with that. I was really pleased that while the disgusting, abusive Buddy got the ax, Mia lives to fight another day.

Jack is... just adorable and precious in all ways and I want to adopt him? I love that Sam and Dean are taking on pseudo-parenting roles with him, albeit very unwillingly in Dean's case. Sam accuses him of being like their father was, and Dean shoots back defensively, wondering if there's a problem with that. Both Sam and Mia point out to Dean that Jack is clearly scared of him, and just wants his approval. There's such a sad echo of Dean's own desperate seeking of approval with his father. It seems pretty clear that Dean can't look at Jack without being reminded of what he's lost, but by the end of the episode he throws the kid some praise, telling him he did a good job when saving Sam and Dean's life. This is such an utterly fascinating dynamic and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

One of the highlights of the episode is Jack and Mia's private moment, where Mia shifts into the shape of Kelly, to give Jack the chance to talk to her and hold her and feel as if he's with his mother for the first time. This was just so emotional in every way shape and form, and the acting was spot-on.

Then you've got the Sam and Dean dynamic going on. The two of them, along with Jack posing as their little brother, go to therapy with Mia to try and figure out what's going on with the deaths in town. It's meant to be just for show, but Dean lets his resentment out into the session when he accuses Sam of being delusional for not admitting that Mary is dead. Sam lets out with one of the key reasons behind his grief - Dean was the one who had the relationship with Mary. Dean's the one who remembers her from when they were little, and Dean's the one she connected with upon her return. How is Sam supposed to accept that he's lost the chance to have a real relationship with his mother? He storms out of the room.

Now, in any other episode of Supernatural, Sam and Dean might have a fix-it conversation at the end and things would get a little better, but in this one, the outburst literally happens in front of a therapist, who calls Dean out in no uncertain terms: "you just made your brother so upset that he had to leave the room." In the end, we do get that fix-it conversation, and it's even more heartbreaking that you'd imagine. Dean apologizes for being a dick, and then Sam reveals an awful fear - what if Dean is right, and Mary really is dead, and he's just been in denial? Dean says he doesn't want to hear that - "I need you to keep the faith for both of us, because right now I don't believe in a damn thing." Dean admitting that he's hit rock bottom and he's willing to accept help from Sam is just such a critical turning point for their character arcs this season. I'm all about it.

This episode's title is "The Big Empty," which of course refers to the subplot with Cas that I'll be talking about next... but it also refers to the theme of grief that's prevalent through the episode. It's notable that nobody in the main plot ever mentions Cas' name. On the surface, the grief in this particular story is centered on the loss of mothers - Jack grieves for Kelly and Sam and Dean grieve for Mary. Jack learns that Sam wants him to help save Mary, and he's all on board for the plan, while of course Dean doesn't believe it's possible. We get all of these conversations and moments to talk about grief and the emptiness and lack of faith that comes with it, and meanwhile the specter (not literally in this case) of Castiel is hovering over the entire episode. We know he's not really gone, but on earth he's just left an emptiness.

Okay. Misha Collins. You're amazing, dude. This week, he gets to pull out yet another character, playing The Empty as a manifestation of the nothingness that came before the creation of everything. It's just a black nothingness, infinite and older than time itself. I love the idea of a place where eternal sleep is really a thing. It's not Heaven, but it's not Hell. You're just... done. And the manifestation of the Empty is eternally asleep as well, that is until Cas wakes up (thanks to Jack's powers) and starts disturbing his beauty rest. Cue a series of scenes where the Empty tries to get Cas to just give up and go back to sleep, and Cas stubbornly refuses to do so. In the end, we see Cas wake up, apparently back on Earth.

The Empty had this weird accent and this sort of jittery sense about him that reminded me a little bit of Crazy God Cas or Casifer, but not enough that it was just a copy of either of those things. Misha did a great job of creating a properly sinister yet still undeniably charming entity in the brief time we had with the Empty. The character creation was also good from a writing standpoint. It makes sense why this guy wouldn't be a mover and a shaker in inter-dimensional politics or power struggles. He's made of nothing and he'd just like to be nothing for the rest of time. Cas being awake is messing with that for him.

You've also got the fact that Cas' first guess when asked why he's awake is that the Winchesters must have made a deal to save him. He's not sure what's up, but the minute he has awareness of himself, all he wants is to go back, because Sam and Dean need him. The Empty tries to get through to him with self-loathing, telling him he's a worthless burden, that there's nothing waiting for him back on Earth... he says some stuff about knowing Cas' inner soul, and mentions knowing "who you love," which my shipper heart reacted to quite violently. Jury's still out on that one, though - it's possible the Empty was talking about Kelly. Or, I don't know, "humanity" or some crap like that. Regardless, the most incredible thing about all of this is that it doesn't work. Cas does not waiver in his desire to escape from the Empty, because he knows that his family wants him to come back. This is such a big step for Cas, who just a few seasons ago was allowing Lucifer to possess him because he didn't think he was worthy of helping out in his own right.

I've seen some rumblings in the interweb worrying that the figure we saw at the episode's end was the Empty, and not Castiel. I definitely see the worry, but I'm really hoping, for the sake of selfish desires and narrative building, that this is Cas, truly back from the dead. They created such a cool concept for the Empty, a creature of nothingness that just wants to sleep. It would be weird if that creature popped into the mortal realm for no good reason. And also, we've got the scene transition, where Dean tells Sam that he doesn't believe in a damn thing, and then literally the next shot is Cas appearing back in our world, pretty much ordained with the sole purpose of restoring Dean Winchester's faith. I am just all about that.

So... there you have it. This was an excellent episode. I'm enormously pleased that Jack seems to be sticking around as a more permanent figure in the season instead of jumping in and out of the story like so many cast members have in the past. I can't wait for Cas' return and all the epic reunions!

9.5/10

[smileyanie]

Reading this make me cry😢😢😢😢😢😢...so damn proud of my girls!!!!!

[TRANS] http://bit.ly/2uQ024a [SNSD 10TH ANNIVERSARY ①] All 8…Why Did Only ‘Soshi’ Survive,credit ch0sshi

“The road SNSD walked will become history for K-POP girl groups.”

SNSD will be celebrating their 10th anniversary on August 5th, the nation’s longest-running, active girl group. SNSD is living up to their name as the nation’s top girl group by being listed as the number 1 group in Billboard’s top 10 list of 'K-Pop Girl Groups of the Past Decade (Critic’s Picks)’.

2nd generation groups that debuted in 2007 divided into three parts with Wonder Girls and KARA alongside SNSD, but only SNSD survived.

SNSD was ambitiously put forth by SM Entertainment, the company who discovered the representative group for first generation idols, H.O.T. The history of idols in Korea goes back over 20 years following H.O.T’s debut in 1996, and SNSD occupies half of that.

Professionals agree that SNSD is an unprecedented group, as girl groups do not last a long time, and that is considered matter of fact.

Pop music critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “SNSD is a rare group in K-POP, where girl groups are considered to having a short lifespan. Contracts between the company and artist lasts for a maximum of 7 years. Maintaining this for 10 years has meaning and is symbolic.”

Editor-in-chief for idol webzine 'Idology’ and pop music critic Moon Yong Min also stated, “There are almost no girl groups that celebrate their 10th anniversary. Being able to carry on the 'girl’ title until their late-20s in itself has a deep meaning.”

-Why did only SNSD survive

Regarding SNSD, SM confidently said, “This is the nation’s first completed girl group, brought together by all of SM’s planning from casting-training-producing-management.

In order to bring each member’s singing, dancing, acting, and language all together, members received various training, at the longest, 7 years, and for an average of 5 years. We put our heart and soul into this from the stages of forming the members.”

Professionals also agreed with these things. Critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “Korea’s biggest entertainment company, SM, also plays a part in SNSD’s 10th anniversary. The quality control was done well.”

SM’s producing also stands out. SNSD’s debut single 'Into the New World’, released on August 5, 2007, was assessed as having maximized the image the general public has for girl groups in terms of music, performance, and visuals.

Their self-titled official album, 'Girls’ Generation’, released the same year in November, was also the same. Remaking Lee Seung Chul’s big hit from 1989, which also has the same name as their group name, 'Girls’ Generation’, was brilliant.

Critic Moon Yong Min said, “The fact that girl group idols who put forth the 'girl [image/title]’ reached their 10th anniversary hold a deep meaning. Each and everything that SNSD promotes from now on will become history for K-POP girl groups.”

One thing that’s different between 2nd generation girl groups, like SNSD, and 1st generation girl groups, like S.E.S and Fin.K.L, is the former took on the role of Hallyu advancement.

SNSD gained lots of popularity in Japan with their 'alpha girl’ image from, not only their visuals and musical capabilities, but also from their confidence and enthusiasm.

Critic Moon Yong Min chose the title song from SNSD’s 4th mini album, 'Mr. Mr.’, released in February of 2014, as one that had that image compressed into it the most. The narrator is a girl in love, but it’s a song that has the active demeanor of leading a guy.

Critic Moon stated, “If you compare SNSD with girl groups who debuted around the same time, they have a strong image of an ambitious, confident female college student who grew up comfortably. 'Mr. Mr.’ seems to praise and flatter the guy, but it’s actually about telling the guy to become someone who suits the girl.”

They don’t just put forth their visuals and performance, but their music also plays a role. 'I Got A Boy’ from their 4th official album, released in January of 2013, had a really complicated structure and was judged as an innovative song at the time.

Pop music critic Lee Dae Hwa stated, “It’s amazing that they’ve been able to keep their place on top for 10 years with dance music, when those trends change quickly. They weren’t the best every time, but the music itself was good and they put out a good concept along with it. There was a girl group craze starting at the end of 2000, that contributed to the flow going on for a long time.”

Of course, there was also a crisis. In 2014 Jessica left the group and they had to reorganize as from 9 members to 8. However, because “the members had strong desires to uphold the group” (critic Moon Yong Min), they were able to tie things up well.

In her interview with W magazine, which SNSD decorated the August cover for, Sunny said, “Everyone had their own slumps like when they went through puberty, and and we experienced group difficulties together. I think the thing that helped at times like that was each other.”

-The 8 members’ growth

SNSD was able to become a long-running girl group because of the group as well as how each of the members have developed. Each were able to take advantage of their own personalities and positive traits, each of the 8 members were able to gain big recognition.

With her superior singing skills, main vocal Taeyeon had her solo album and took part in various drama OSTs, making a place for herself as a strong artist. Sunny has been showing her talents on variety shows with her cheerful charms.

Tiffany, whose eye smiles is one of her charms, is active with her language skills and global music sense. Hyoyeon has her great dance skills and hearty personality. Yuri’s innocent and cheerfulness appeals to both men and women.

Sooyoung has good sense and is thought of as a new fashionista. Yoona, who is beautiful to the point of being called the standard of girl group centers, is active as an acting-[i]dol in her drama 'The King Loves’. The youngest, Seohyun, received acknowledgement for her singing and acting through the musicals 'Gone With the Wind’ and 'Mamma Mia!’.

SNSD also attempted quite a few things with things like the TTS unit group with their vocals, Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun, doing music with a different color from SNSD’s.

SM said, “When the members are doing their group and individual activities, their personalities are clear, and SNSD appealed in various areas. That played a role in SNSD being able to go on for a long time.”

SM said they carefully watched over them during their singing, dancing, acting, and language training before they debuted.

“We picked up on what each member was particularly good at during that process. The vocal member focused SNSD-TaeTiSeo unit promoted successfully. When the members released their solo albums, we took each of their vocal styles, performance skills, and visuals into consideration.

For members who had a talent in acting, we let them build up their acting experiences through lessons from their early debut days. We’re going to continue showing good appearances of the members individual advantages through musicals, variety shows, and other things.”

Critic Kim Yoon Ha said, “Each of the members characters are unique and their abilities were expressed well. This was refined individually and as a group the past 10 years.”

[reggieandveronica]

Some choice Reggie/Ronnie takes from 3x09/3x10 online reviews

[...] Which brings us back to the fact that, sad as it is for Varchie fans, this breakup is almost certainly for the best—not only for the characters but for Riverdale as a whole.

Of all Riverdale’s characters, Veronica has become one of the muddiest. Her conflicted relationship with Hiram, whom she still calls “Daddy” despite her various plots to undo all of his extremely evil plans, has gotten inconsistent to the point of being frustrating. Her relationship with Archie only confuses matters further and ties her to a character who for a long time has been dead weight. Also, stable, unbreakable relationships are boring! Hopefully, this shake-up is not like the short-lived Bughead break we saw last season; hopefully, this one actually sticks. Camila Mendes is one of the strongest members of the Riverdale cast, but she’s been sentenced to working with mediocre material for too long. Bring on a new ’ship!

Also, it’s worth noting: Reggie is a catch! Gone are the days of the Red Circle, when he was a terrifying member of Archie’s fascist gang who took things even further than Archie did. This season has given Reggie some stellar character rehabilitation by pairing him with Veronica running her basement lounge, La Bonne Nuit. They make a good team, and Reggie also looks good in formalwear—a prerequisite for any worthy Lodge suitor. Plus, at the end of Wednesday’s wild ride of an episode, he showed up at the hospital to comfort Veronica—with a bouquet and a balloon. Is he the smartest guy in the world? No. But then again, neither was Archie. We all have a type, and if Ronnie’s into ripped dummies, put us down as Team Reggie all the way.

- Vanity Fair

Veronica and Reggie Kiss

We saw this coming a mile away, and it’s not because Reggie looks so dapper in that tartan suit. Veronica is killing it in the speakeasy game now that she serves actual liquor. Reggie has become her boy Friday, and even runs the booze through the backwoods and across the border, Prohibition-style.

The two cut quite the figure, and it seems like their lifestyles are really lining up. I don’t think Archie’s Patagonia and flannel would go with her diamonds and couture. So… they kiss, and it’s a pretty big sign that Archie is in Ronnie’s rearview … except maybe not once he comes back from the dead.

- Culturess

Back in Eldercare, excuse me, Eldirvare, the quarantine has been lifted and school is back in session. La Bonne Nuit is thriving, thanks in large part to star attraction Josie, performing selections from Cabaret in Josephine Baker flapper glam. And yet Reggie’s beer runs across the border are interrupted by beatings at the hands of Gargoyle gang members. These ambushes are courtesy of Hiram Lodge, who’s demanded 10 percent of his daughter’s profits in exchange for so-called protection. Veronica agrees, but supplies him with a “well-cooked” version of the club’s books. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a badass?” Reggie asks Veronica, not unlike someone who would like very much to smooch her, sooner rather than later.

Veronica, too, is taking on new job responsibilities, Sally Bowles–ing “Maybe This Time” to entertain the La Bonne Nuit crowd in Josie’s absence. She makes eyes at Reggie from the stage, and he gives her what I am pretty sure is supposed to be a sensual thumbs-up in response. Soon enough, once the club has emptied, he tucks her hair behind an ear and, at long last, they make out. Varchie is in the past, my children. Veggie is our future.

- Vulture

The taste of her hunky bartender’s mouth still on her lips, Veronica could hardly be more shocked when Archie shows up unannounced at La Bonne Nuit. She’s happy! But she’s mad! Then they’re kissing! Back at school, Reggie flirtatiously approaches Veronica at her locker, going in for the canoodle, when whoops, no thank you. She can’t tell Archie what’s happened between them, she explains — it would hurt him. Reggie understands.

Archie dyes his hair back to red in time for a surprise welcome-home party at La Bonne Nuit, where Veronica serenades him in Spanish, which is sweet, and publicly addresses him as “lover,” which is upsetting. But it’s no use: Tortured with dark visions of Hiram, Archie storms out mid-song. Soon after, Archie comes to Reggie to ask him about “cheating,” but his sort-of girlfriend’s sort-of boyfriend woefully misinterprets his meaning. “She told you?” Reggie says. “You know it’s over, right?” Ruh-roh: Archie was talking about SATs.

Reggie, clutching flowers and an adorably idiotic baby-blue “It’s a Boy!” balloon, shows up at Hiram’s hotel room and wraps Veronica up in a big hug. That’s what 2019 should be all about, for all of us: trading your sad, hot dummy for a fun, hot dummy.

- Vulture

3) Veronica and Reggie is on.

Hell yes! Poor Reggie is almost beaten up by “the Gargoyle Gang” on two separate occasions while running shipments for Veronica, so he’s earned a little TLC—and honestly, the sexual tension between these two has been off the charts for weeks. After Veronica performs a killer rendition of "Maybe This Time" at the speakeasy, she and Reggie finally kiss, as Archie lies maybe-dying in a cabin hundreds of miles away. Sorry, Archie, but also not sorry because you abandoned Veronica and then made out with an evil farm girl in the very next episode, and also Reggie and Veronica make a pretty phenomenal power couple. My only qualm: Are we calling them Veggie?

- Harper's Bazaar

2) Veggie is dead, long live Veggie.

I was astonished, and not in a good way, when Veronica welcomed Archie right back with open arms. Reggie deserves better than this nonsense! And Reggie aside, Archie straight-up abandoned her with no warning and didn’t give her any say in what was happening, and the fact that he did it to escape her possibly murderous father is no excuse.

Anyway, Reggie is very calm and accepting when Veronica is like, “Sorry bro, Archie’s back so we’re done," and is more concerned about Archie’s wellbeing because he is too pure for this world. But once Archie starts acting strangely like the black-haired stranger he now is, Reggie’s sass comes out: “What if he’s not your Archiekins any more?” And as it turns out, he sure isn’t!

- Harper's Bazaar

*Veronica sings for some reason*

Uhm, ok? The song goes on as we see the buildup of Veronica and Reggie’s relationship now culminating in a kiss. For how snarky I am about Riverdale, they did a nice job of building the Veronica and Reggie couple. Their relationship has grown steadily through every episode of season 3. In a show that struggles with subtlety, the Veronica and Reggie relationship is a breath of fresh air because it has organically sprouted from fun side conversations and looks of pure joy for each other’s successes.

- The Nerd Stash

Veronica & Reggie Kiss

This relationship is a long time coming. Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Reggie Mantle (real-life Mendes boyfriend Charles Melton) have been acting as partners in all but romance since Riverdale season 3 began. With Varchie done and Reggie walking around the Bonne Nuit shirtless, a hookup couldn’t be far behind.

Veggie’s kiss comes towards the end of “No Exit,” when the pair has successfully bested Hiram for now. As we learn throughout the episode, it’s five weeks after the events of “Outbreak.” The quarantine was lifted, but Riverdale continues to lack its pep. That’s why Hiram and his hilariously-named Gargoyle Gang are still gouging small businesses like Ronnie’s Bonne Nuit.

Some jockeying between the two Lodges transpires, but Veronica realizes she doesn’t need to pay “protection” to her dad and his goons — she should pay the Serpent's for actual protection at a reasonable cost. Crisis averted. With business booming and Hiram foiled, Veronica and Reggie are feeling sexier than ever. The moment the Nuit clears out, these two crazy kids can’t keep their hands off of each other.

- Refinery29

The Varchie-Veggie Rivalry Begins (And Ends?)

Last week, Veggie certainly seemed like the future. Then, Archie returns to Riverdale in “The Stranger” and is knocking boots with Ronnie before the Riverdale title card even pops up.

After Archie and Ronnie’s speedy makeup session, Veronica tells Reggie (Charles Melton) whatever they had is over now that her Archiekins is back home. A key part of Ronnie’s strategy is making sure Archie doesn’t learn his girlfriend and his close friend had sex while he was dying in the forests of Canada. Reggie messes this strategy up within seconds, and accidentally spills the beans to Archie. Still, Varchie drags on when Archie forgives a tear-stricken and apologetic Veronica. They recognize their relationship is broken, but decide to have sex for what might be the last time. These two.

The next day, Varchie crumbles forever in the wake of Hiram’s shooting. Archie — who returned to Riverdale in the throws of PTSD and general rage — runs out of the SATs and promptly disappears. During that questionably MIA period, Hiram was shot. Veronica is forced to ask Archie if he committed the crime, proving once and for all these are two people who fundamentally can’t trust each other anymore. Archie storms out after “asking,” but really announcing, “It’s over.”

In between all of this Varchie drama, Reggie continues to check in on Veronica, even though he knows she picked Archie. That’s why the last time we see Veronica, she’s embracing Reggie, who shows up to the hospital with flowers and a very cute balloon. Veggie rises.

- Refinery29

So, back to Archie. Just as everyone figured after the obvious fake cliffhanger, Archie is not dead. Well, according to Jughead’s narration, the Archie we knew is. The dark-haired boy that returns to Riverdale in this episode is a completely different person, we’re told. He goes to see Veronica at her speakeasy and she’s so happy to see him, she starts taking his clothes off right there at the bar. Hope Reggie doesn’t walk in. Speaking of, he’s acting all boyfriendy towards Veronica the next day, and she tells him they have to stop. Archie’s back in town, after all. Reggie says it’s fine in the way that makes clear it is very much not fine. This is going to get messy!

Archie struggles to get back into his normal life at Riverdale. Despite having the protection of the serpents, and his dad threatening to kill Hiram if one hair on Archie’s head is harmed, Archie still has some serious PTSD from everything that’s happened this season. He can’t even properly enjoy Veronica’s welcome home party. As soon as she starts singing “Eres Tu,” he starts having flashbacks to his confrontations with Hiram and his dream of killing his old self. He abruptly leaves the speakeasy, which Reggie immediately notices. He tries to parlay it into getting back together with Veronica. “What if he’s not your Archie-kins anymore?” Real classy, dude. She can’t tell him what he wants to hear, leading Reggie to briefly confront Archie in the locker room. It doesn’t lead to anything, but the camera got the chance to linger on buff shirtless boys.

Archie does eventually find out what happened between Reggie and Veronica. He tries to ask Reggie about cheating on the SATs, as he’s very behind. Reggie immediately breaks at the mention of the word “cheating.” Real thick skin this guy has. Even with that, it looks for a moment like things will remain OK between them. They stay together that night, but all Archie’s problems are still there the next day. He has another flashback during the SATs and storms out of the room. Shortly after that, Hiram Lodge is shot. Veronica suspects Archie, and though he denies it, he’s hurt that she suspected him at all. He realizes she doesn’t trust him anymore, and that it’s truly over between them. Sad as I am to see this ship go, the show did need to change some things up as far as its main couples went. By the end of the episode, Reggie visits Veronica’s dad in the hospital and they end up together. I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to see if the drama continues at all.

- Geek.com

As for Veronica, she returns the egg to her father … in pieces. And it’s accompanied by a note that says: “New deal. No deal.” She then sings her heart out at her speakeasy until Reggie returns AND THEY KISS!! I, for one, am super into this couple. Sorry, Arch!

- EW

One relationship that’s not over? Reggie shows up to the hospital with flowers and Veronica hugs him. And I, for one, am so happy they didn’t just blow off Reggie and Veronica. THE CHEMISTRY IS REAL.

- EW

[daleisgreat]

Fast Five

I am having slightly better turnaround times at getting to my latest installment covering the Fast and Furious franchise with today’s film being 2011’s Fast Five (trailer). The rousing success of the fifth film served as the blueprint for all the films following it until this day. I went in with no fears that it would still hold up well nearly a decade later. As mentioned in my entry for Fast & Furious, the films were starting to evolve from the core trilogy that were primarily about late night car tuner culture and street races and shift more towards implementing these rides in elaborate heists. Fast Five goes all in on this concept and minus a few subtle callbacks throughout the film, ditches the street race focus of the first three films entirely. Now the heists are at the forefront and became larger than life where director Justin Lin went on to state in the commentary he learned to ‘embrace the ridulous-ness’ and go all out with fantastical stunts that I recall leading to many popped eyes in my initial viewing in the theater.

Fast Five sees Dom (Vin Diesel), Bryan (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) reunite in Brazil after freeing Dom from custody at the end of the previous film. They meet up with their old pal, Vince (Matt Schulze) who we have not seen since the original film. The four of them group up for a job involving a train that has some spectacular stunts to kick things off. During the job they discover there is more than meets the eye and they encounter the antagonist of the film by the name of Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). The four decide to assemble a team to take down Reyes and claim his millions of dollars stashed away in a vault. And thus we now have the new framework for the series where ‘Team FF’ are the ultimate pros at big jobs and work together in the name of ‘FAMILY’ to take down evil-doer crime lords. The team they assemble is a all-star roll call of supporting players from previous films including Roman (Tyrese Gibson) & Tej (Ludacris) from 2Fast 2Furious, Han (Sung Kang) from Tokyo Drift, and Gisele (Gal Gadot), Leo (Tego Calderon) & Santos (Don Omar) from Fast & Furious. To cover their bases of a gang having the prerequisite computer wiz, Tej stepped up and added pro-hacker to his resume aside from fun-party-rides guy from the second film we knew him as. They receive some unexpected assists from federal agents Hobbes (The Rock) and Elena (Elsa Pataky). They are the surviving two members of a squad of federal agents (who the Giant Bomb commentary track consistently refers to as ‘Team Wildlands’) sent from the USA to track down Dom, Bryan & Mia and haul them back to America until their squad mates met their demise from an ambush sent out from Reyes. Now with a common enemy and mutual respect between the two after an adrenaline-pumping, full-on red meat, wall-pouncing, show-stealing duel, the two alphas align in a fist-bumping moment for the ages when Hobbes & Elena help out Team FF.

Somehow, director Justin Lin managed to make this ensemble cast gel together all at once. Nearly every team member has a few pivotal scenes throughout where the spotlight is on them. I was fully invested when the team is formed by the second half and is going through the stages of setting up the ultimate end-scene safe heist. Watching them all flawlessly work together and overcome every obstacle Reyes threw at them was a ride I was thrilled to tag along in. It reminded me why I loved (some) of the Ocean films and enjoying the journey of planning everything out and trying to piece together all the little things that pay off when the heist plays out. When it comes time for Team FF to swipe Reyes’ safe from his seemingly impenetrable fortress, Fast Five did not disappoint. I recall seeing this in the theater for the first time and simultaneously thinking this is the most unrealistic way to steal a safe but also loved how brazen Lin was to simply go for it and own this scene and take you on the ultimate thrill ride unlike any other heist film before it. It was like Lin stated earlier, just roll with the balls-out nature of the film and good times will be guaranteed. As with the previous films I have been re-watching, I watched this with the commentary track from the Giant Bomb crew. Aside from them cracking me up with their ‘Team Wildlands’ nickname, their commentary has lots of fun watch-a-long insight such as regretting bringing Coronas to the viewing party after realizing Fast Five is the first film in the series not to feature them, ironic love for Paul Walker’s acting prowess and being in constant disbelief at Ludacris’s newfound tech skills. Vinny never saw the film before so hearing his reactions to the bigger stunts was a riot. I also listened to Justin Lin’s solo commentary on the BluRay and he is a pro at mastering solo commentaries with nonstop facts about the cast, crew and filming process. Some highlights include hearing the love he got from doing overseas press tours on the fourth film was what brought him back for the fifth, pointing out the tiny additions to the extended cut and being careful on where to film in Brazil.

Aside from the commentary, there are 12 bonus features totaling 75 minutes on the BluRay. About half of them are must-see. Usually most bonuses breaking down stunt scenes I am accustomed to in a lot of action films and I get kind of tone-deaf to them, but with Fast Five’s ambitious stunts I got a lot out of the bonuses detailing how they filmed the opening train heist and closing safe heist. Hearing how they got a mini-truck inside to drive the safe around was something else. There is also a recommended extra, On Set with Justin Lin, where Lin is shown behind-the-scenes hustling for the ultimate shots of what seems like a inconsequential scene from an earlier part of the film, but to see how Lin got it all come together to get the very best out of everyone was simply awesome. I got to see some of that too in the extra Dom vs. Hobbes where they dissect that fight scene and hearing how Lin halted production for two hours to hear Vin Diesel make his case for the inclusion of ONE MOVE in that entire fight goes to show the passion the cast and crew has for the brand. Overall it is a tremendous smattering of extra features to dive into! Fast Five is the reason why the franchise has been a mainstay in pop culture since that one hit theaters. If you have managed to elude the mega-popular brand all these years but have been pondering on giving one of them a chance, then make sure it is Fast Five. The later films are still good, over-the-top awesome heist films, but Fast Five is easily my runaway favorite of the series. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Man of Steel Man on the Moon Marine 3-6 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past

[micaramel]

As someone prone to being clumsy, I jumped at the opportunity to attend Beaumont Etiquette's "The Duchess Effect" course, taught by the company's founder Myka Meier.

The course, held at The Plaza Hotel's Palm Court, covered formal dining, waving like a duchess, getting out of cars politely, and more.

Naturally, Meier referred to Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's etiquette throughout the class. 

I struggled with some of the tasks, like sipping wine from the same place on the glass so as not to make a mess with lipstick marks, but overall I walked away with some helpful advice.

While a two-hour class does not a duchess make, I learned some valuable tips that made me feel more sophisticated and put-together.

It's a running joke in my family that I have the grace of an elephant.

When I was Princess Charlotte's age — and living not far from Prince Charles' residence at Highgrove House in Tetbury, a small town in Gloucestershire, UK — I went to ballet classes in my rain boots and refused to take them off. I didn't care to point my toes and pirouette.

As an adult, I'm prone to being clumsy. I make a small mess eating lunch at my desk. I have little patience for games that require steady hand-eye coordination. I've thrown off the ratio of my dinnerware set, having broken a bowl and chipped more than one plate.

In short, I'm hardly duchess material.

So when presented with the opportunity to attend an etiquette class entitled "The Duchess Effect" — essentially, Kate Middleton 101 — I scoffed at the thought that a two-hour class could teach me to be as graceful as a royal. But as someone fascinated by the royal family, especially with the royal wedding coming up, I took the chance. And I learned far more than I expected.

Ahead of the class, which was held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City and had a "business casual" dress code, I made an effort to look the part.

I brushed off the one dress in my wardrobe that looked closest to something Meghan Markle might wear on a cheap day: an asymmetrical navy blue Topshop dress, paired with some heeled Marc Fisher sandals. Later, I learned that I'd made a mistake choosing open-toe shoes— A duchess wouldn't be caught dead in them unless it was a formal evening event. Of course, if I could afford a pair of suede Gianvito Rossi heels, I would have reached for them.

For makeup and nails, I went for simple: a subtle blush, light lipstick, and the queen's preferred polish shade, Essie's "Ballet Slippers." I wanted to look like a duchess but not like I was trying too hard:  the "dare to break royal protocol" vibe that Markle wears so well. So when it came to hair, I went with her famous casual bun.

Unfortunately, all of this preparation couldn't save me from the failings of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and I wound up sweating in my Meghan Markle dress on the subway platform while I waited for a train that wouldn't arrive. Reasoning that a princess doesn't do the subway anyway, I tried to get a cab but at rush hour it was impossible to get a New York City taxi driver to stop, even for a duchess-in-training.

I gave up, and jogged to another subway station, where my carriage (a train!) was finally waiting.

I slipped into the class in the Palm Court 15 minutes late — not the best start — and joined a group at a table facing a tall woman in a pink blazer dress speaking to the room.

The woman in pink, Beaumont Etiquette's founder Myka Meier, was in the midst of talking about how to set a knife and fork on a plate correctly. (It turns out, if you're at a formal dinner party and still eating, your knife and fork should be set down, fork with prongs down, in a four-thirty position.) Meier, a dual American-British citizen who is originally from Florida, was trained by a former member of the Queen's household staff while living in the UK; after her own formal training, Meier began teaching etiquette to others. "The Duchess Effect" course, focused on royal British etiquette, has become increasingly popular as the world waits to watch a gorgeous American actress marry a handsome British prince.

I imagined the class might be a little like the etiquette scene of "The Princess Diaries" where Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) learns how to ballroom dance and do a "royal wave" at the behest of her grandmother (Julie Andrews), the queen of Genovia. The Beaumont Etiquette class wasn't quite like that — there was no ballroom dancing, or Julie Andrews judging me — but I did learn how to do what's called a "Windsor wave" among the other basics of royal British etiquette.

The class covered six topics: first impressions, handshakes and curtsies, body language, posture and development, British and American dining, and style.

Occasionally, Meier referred to a slideshow presentation filled with photos of Markle and Middleton demonstrating excellent etiquette — including before-and-after photos that showed how far Markle has come in her training. 

In the dining portion of the class, I learned to hold a teacup with the saucer only when standing up, to stir tea from twelve to six (not clockwise or counterclockwise), and to sip a wine glass from the same point every time, so as to limit the transfer of lipstick to the glass. Meier challenged us to drink our wine from the same spot throughout the class, but the deeper I got into my pinot noir the more it slipped my mind. By the end my glass had accumulated an unsightly cluster of lipstick marks, but at least they were confined to a small area. I wonder if Markle, who enjoys red wine as much as I do, ever has the same problem.

I also learned about dinner conversation, which was helpful in preparation for the next time I find myself at a state dinner. Although it was fascinating to learn how people in high society behave at dinners, the conversation topics sound rather dull. It's best not to delve into religion, politics, or anything too personal — and even stay away from that staple of small talk, the weather, since it's cliché. Meier suggested reading the news ahead of an event so you have talking points instead. Still, I wondered, once you'd gotten through those topics (provided they aren't about religion or politics) what would be left to talk about.

After learning the ins and outs of dinner, I learned some of the royal poses and moves, like curtsying (depending on your style, you can lean into your kneel like Middleton or go for a more subtle knee dip, like Markle) and how to sit with a "duchess slant."

A duchess slant is a good way to describe the demure way that Middleton and now Markle sit, with both legs slanted to the side, and sometimes one ankle discreetly crossed behind the other. As someone who usually has horrible posture, the duchess slant isn't a pose I'll likely get used to, but I tried my best to sit this way throughout the class.

Here's my interpretation of the pose.

And now, let the professionals show you how it's done.

In addition to sitting, I've been getting out of cars the wrong way my entire life. While Will and Harry can simply place one foot out of a car followed by the other, Middleton and Markle maintain their composure by holding their skirt, pivoting in their seat, and springing out of the vehicle. (If you're in pants, though, you can exit a car like Will and Harry.) Meier christened this car move a "swivel and pop," inspired by Elle Woods' foolproof "bend and snap" in "Legally Blonde" — a maneuver that never fails to pick up men. 

Full disclosure, Meier said she made up this expression, as well as the duchess slant and Windsor wave, so they're easy to remember: Markle and Middleton likely don't use these expressions themselves. But , now that I've learned them, I can't stop noticing them in photos of the royals.

Another notable gesture is the Windsor wave. This, I found the easiest to master. You simply raise your hand, keep your elbow up, fingers together, and wave. A smile helps, too.

As you can see, Middleton had perfected the practice by her wedding day.

Markle has also learned to do the Windsor wave.

In less formal settings, though, she may go for a more relaxed wave.

While these gestures may seem small, they are just some of the many codes of polite conduct that Middleton and Markle must follow every day. 

The etiquette class taught me that acting like a duchess is a lot harder than these elegant, seemingly perfect women make it look. But the class also reminded me that practicing good etiquette is an act. That's not a bad thing, though.

For my job, I spend a lot of time editing stories about the royals, specifically about Middleton and Markle. I often think about the appeal these women have, the powerful yet quiet hold they have over the public. Their appeal extends far beyond their gorgeous looks. It's about the way they carry themselves. Their grace, and composure. Their impeccable manners.

These are women who smile under the glare of cameras and give a Windsor wave to crowds at times when they probably don't feel like it. Middleton had a baby, and then emerged from the hospital hours later in a crisp Jenny Packham dress to smile and wave at crowds while holding Prince Louis. Markle has had every facet of her life talked about in the lead-up to the wedding, and the ways she fits and does not fit into the royal family picked apart.

Except for those close to them, no one will get to know the real Middleton and Markle behind their shiny duchess veneer. But learning some of what they have learned has taught me something about them. It felt like a shared experience, one that Middleton has learned and passed with flying colors, and that Markle is still learning.

As Meier put it, etiquette is all about presenting yourself with respect. Those words stuck with me, and I left the class with a renewed respect for Middleton and Markle. 

While a two-hour class does not a duchess make, I learned some valuable tips that made me feel more sophisticated and put-together. I likely won't stop being clumsy or getting flustered when the subway is late, but I will remember to breathe for a moment and think, "What would a duchess do?" The answer would probably be something polite.

Find out more about Beaumont Etiquette's course offerings on its website.

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SEE ALSO: 5 etiquette rules Meghan Markle has to follow as an American joining the royal family

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