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hearts4werka · 2 months ago

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NNN day 13 | You Can’t Save Me

“I thought I could do it without dragging you deeper. Shit, I was wrong.”

summary: Matt was a gang member and you knew the life as one or alongside one was a constant gamble for your life, never knowing what you’ll roll nor what consequences you will have to face. Today you didn’t know you would be facing one of them out of Matthew’s not informing you that they owed money to the violent rival gang, not thinking as an outcome I’ll have to face the barrier between life or death, will you somehow survive or face the consequences and give into the dark feeling of death?

warnings: ANGST, painful death, hospital setting, gang membership, heavy language, arguing, between life or death, swearing, mentions of B&E as well as fighting, sensitive topics that could trigger some readers & viewers advisory is supervised! English isn’t my first language so these can suck ass

authors note: lately I haven’t rlly been feeling the best and have got into some issues but I still found the courage to write something for yall for NNN and the intro post is gonna be out later tonight and I just gotta finish up some stuff and I’ll post it, luv y’all sm and hope y’all enjoy this one.

no nut november | masterlist | guestlist

The fluorescent lights above flickered inconsistently, a cruel reminder of the life I was currently losing the grasp over. The sterile scent of disinfection filled the air, mixing with the lingering smell of regret. I lay sprawled on the hospital bed, tubes snaking from my body and monitoring the slow and steady decline of my life. The beeping machines around me marked time I had left and even that was slowly slipping away from my grasp of control, each note a reminder of the moments fading away. My heart was still pounding, but I could feel its rhythm weakening.

Matt stood at the foot of the bed, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his leather jacket with his shoulders hunched as if he were carrying the weight of the whole fucking world. His usually cocky demeanor was stripped bare from him leaving only a vulnerable kid who never actually grew up. Tears streamed down his face while cutting tracks through the sweat that adores his skin like a cruel battle map. “Look, I’m really fucking sorry, okay?” His voice cracked like a twig as he took a step closer, desperate to build a bridge between the gap in between us. “I never thought they’d come for you! I swear, I thought I could handle it!”

My mouth felt dry, each breath a labored struggle to grasp any control over my life. “Handle what, Matt?” I bite back, an involuntary bitterness flowing through the veins within my body. “You think you can just barge into my life, drag me into whatever shit you’re tangled in and then act surprised when it bites us in the ass You’re a goddamn idiot!” “I know!” he shouted, fists clenching and unclenching as if trying to beat the regret from his body. “I know, and I’d give anything to take it back. But I was too fucking proud, too stupid to admit we owed those bastards money! I didn’t think they’d get violent, you know? I thought they’d just scare us or shake us down but then they—”

“They busted through the door like a goddamn SWAT team!” I stated, choking on anger and pain I was feeling all at the same time. “You didn’t think they’d want blood? You dragged me into a fucking war, Matt, and now I’m stuck here.” “I didn’t mean for this to happen!” His voice broke like an old doll and he stepped closer to my slowly dying body. “I thought… I thought I could keep you safe. I thought—” His words faded into a heavy silence instead filled with the beeps of machines surrounding us and the muffled sounds of hospital life outside. I could see the regret washing over him in waves, each one crashing harder than the last. I wanted to hate him, to blame him for this whole mess but I knew that life in the gang was a constant gamble for your life and I had rolled the dice alongside him. Now regretting my choice more and more as my life slipped away from my fingertips.

“Why didn’t you call?” I asked finally, my voice barely above a whisper as it couldn’t go any louder without hurting my throat. “You could’ve just called for help instead of trying to take it all on by yourself. We were supposed to be in this together.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair, the weight of his decisions evident in the deep wrinkles now shadowing his forehead. “I was just trying to protect you,” he murmured under his breath, his words barely making it past the knot in his throat. “I thought I could do it without dragging you deeper. Shit, I was wrong.”

Tears continued to stream down his face as he moved closer to my bed, taking my hand in his shaky one. In that moment, his grip felt both comforting and suffocating. All I could think was how this was it, this was the end of my life and I was stuck with the boy who had pulled me irreversibly into the chaos now I’m loosing my life over. “I can’t lose you,” he whispered, desperation dripping from his voice. “Not like this. Please don’t leave me.” The warmth of his palm felt like fire against my cool skin, dragging my attention back into the moment. “Don’t you dare fuck up your life over this, Matt. You think you can just take all the blame?” I gasped, the effort of speaking exhausting me out of every last bit of energy left inside of me. “If I go, you better make sure to get the hell out of here. Get away from this life but especially get away from this… all of it. Just… live.”

“No,” he cried, shaking his head vehemently. “No, I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to! It doesn’t make sense. You’re my—” “Your what? Your fucking partner? Your—” A fit of coughing washed over me, sharp pangs radiating through my chest as I struggled against the pain. “This isn’t a damn movie, Matt.” I took a ragged breath and stared hard into his eyes. “You get to be free, get to choose a better fucking path. Don’t waste my death living the same life.” Matt fell silent then, the resolve in his eyes cracking intensely. I could see the fight draining out of him, and I realized that we had both lost long ago. “Promise me,” I said, the words barely a whisper.

He nodded slowly, his tears blending with the chaos that filled the space between us. “I promise,” he said. “I will. I’ll do it for you.” As my breath slowed becoming less and less consistent, I focused on him and felt the weight of my own defeat. “Goodbye, Matt,” I gasped, my words slurring and fading. “Please, stay with me!” he pleaded, his voice breaking into pieces like shattered glass. But deep down, I knew the battle has finally came to an end. The darkness was creeping in and as I drifted away into unconsciousness, the last thing I heard was the sound of his broken heart echoing in the sterile silence of the hospital room.

@hearts4werka | do not copy, repost nor plagiarize any of my work on here or different platforms. You can be ‚inspired’ by my work but pls credit me and ask for permission first!

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 6 months ago

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since i've talked a lot about how i dislike Catra, here are some of the other fictional characters that i dislike:

(warning: long post ahead, also spoilers for steven universe, the dragon prince, ocean waves, the legend of korra, and kipo and the age of wonderbeasts)

1. Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe)

i think this one is pretty obvious. there were a bunch of characters in SU who were let off the hook after doing terrible things, but Lapis is the one i disliked the most.

she started off as an interesting character, her trauma after getting caught in a war and stuck in a mirror for ages was sympathetic and pretty well-written but like Catra, i think the writers coddled Lapis too much.

this is evident with her relationship with Peridot, where she starts off blaming Peridot for something that wasn't her fault and destroying her prized possession when she tries to make amends. but Lapis expresses concern for Peridot ONCE and now they're besties.

and after that, Lapis becomes toxic and demanding, causing Peridot to constantly walk on eggshells around Lapis so as not to hurt her feelings. and finally, Lapis just takes the barn, Peridot's HOME, off into space because she couldn't agree with Peridot's decision to stay and fight the Diamonds?? i'm not mad that Lapis didn't want to fight the Diamonds, i fully understand her trauma, but did she have to take the barn with her? what part of that was necessary??

i think all of this would have been fine if Lapis was held accountable for her actions, but she wasn't. she doesn't even do the bare minimum and Peridot immediately forgives her. sigh. at least they didn't make Lapidot canon.

2. King Harrow (The Dragon Prince)

i don't hate this character as much as I hate some of the others on the list but i do think that he was kind of a shitty king. he literally decides to starve his own kingdom in order to help out another kingdom. and this is framed as the right thing to do?

it's a tough choice but Harrow's people were depending on him, and he decides that his own people should sacrifice their winter rations for another kingdom. scummy move, i do not like him. Viren may have been self-serving and manipulative, but he was right to try and stop Harrow from doing this.

3. Rikako Muto (Ocean Waves)

god, i fucking hate this bitch. worst ghibli movie ever honestly. the thing is, like Catra and many of the other characters here, Rikako would have been an interesting character if the writers just made her an antagonist.

but no, she's supposed to be the love interest while being a selfish and manipulative brat. she is rude to everyone unless she wants a favor from them. she uses people to her advantage and screams at them when they try to resist. Rikako is the most interesting character in this movie, which sucks because she is also the most insufferable character.

the singular most hilarious scene in this movie has to be when Taku is fondly reminiscing about the interactions he had with Rikako, and since she was nothing but a little bitch throughout the entire movie, we get a super emotional flashback, accompanied by a soft score, of all the times she was manipulating and verbally abusing him. would have been funnier if it was not unironic. i do not know what the creators were thinking.

there was no chemistry between these two characters, their relationship was unhealthy as fuck, but they still get together by the end because.. amatonormativity. and because Taku had too much chemistry with his male best friend and they didn't want the viewers to think that he might be queer.

4. Bolin (The Legend of Korra)

it's crazy how everyone and their mothers hate Mako for cheating on Korra and Asami, but absolutely adore Bolin who sexually harassed his coworker. Bolin forced a kiss on Ginger while she was tied down on set, after she had already rejected him multiple times and said that she was her doing her job.

i see so many people saying that Bolin was a green flag and a better choice than Mako, and i seriously wonder if we watched the same show. i don't condone cheating either obviously but how do you call out cheating but completely gloss over sexual harrasment? Bolin legit acts like a manchild who doesn't understand consent and because the show frames this as "comedy", the audience thinks it's cute and funny.

at least Mako faced the consequences of his actions. he got dumped by both Korra and Asami, some of the other characters called him out on his actions, and he actually turns into a much better person by the end of the series.

oh, don't forget that Bolin started working for the literal fascist in s4. and he acts all dumb about it and argues that Kuvira was like Korra which,, what the fuck? he literally sees Kuvira torturing people and it still takes him a long time to stop working for her. he was a bit like Entrapta in that case, the writers made him too oblivious and stupid in order to justify him aiding a fascist.

5. Kipo (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

okay, so Kipo is a little different from the other characters mentioned here because she's not problematic by any means. quite the opposite actually, her main personality trait seems to be that she's kind to everyone.

and that's fine, it's on par for most kids show protagonists, but Kipo is such a deeply unflawed character that she just becomes so boring. she has no character growth throughout the series, except for developing her fighting skills as her wildcat form. and even that comes easy to her, she masters it in one episode. her "flaws" are very surface level, like being clumsy or kinda awkward.

she is unbothered by almost everything, which is the most baffling in that episode where she discovers that she was the result of a science experiment done by her parents. you would expect some sort of mixed emotions there - confusion, hesitation, resentment even? nope. she's just excited and happy that her parents put her life at risk by experimenting on her.

and the show insists on reminding us every five seconds that "hey! Kipo is a GOOD person, she's the KINDEST human being ever and the ONLY person who doesn't love her is the EVIL VILLAIN". shit like this just turns me off so much. just SHOW me how nice Kipo is, instead of making every character gush about her niceness. SHOW, don't tell, for god's sake. besides, even if a person is kind and wholesome, it's unrealistic for EVERYONE to like them.

and the funny thing is that this show has other interesting characters! Wolf, for example, was a really complex and flawed character who is still fundamentally a good person. Hugo was a sympathetic villain who got a pretty decent redemption arc. so it's not like the writers didn't know how to write interesting characters, they just wanted to make their protagonist a Mary Sue.

#rant #steven universe #steven universe critical #the dragon prince #tdp critical #ocean waves #the legend of korra #tlok critical #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #kipo critical #long post #bad writing #tw sa mention

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lizzie-queenofmeigas · 8 months ago

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Fixing Ep. I of House of the Dragon.

Timeline

First we should establish a timeline, which is something the show hasn't really done. Given that they insist in having Rhaenyra and Alicent be friends there are ways to do that. Swap Daella's birth with Vaegon's and have Aemma born a year earlier. Have Rhaenyra be Aemma's first pregnancy instead of the third. That ages her up a bit, making her be born in the year 94 a.C

Have Alicent be a little older than Rhaenyra. Alicent could have been born in 92 a.C and their friendship would stay the same.

Aemma's death should be in 107 .C making Rhaenyra thirteen years old in the first episode and Alicent fifteen.

Laena could be the same age as Alicent and Laenor the same as Rhaenyra, keeping with their book's ages.

Establish the year of the episode. This being put the number at the beginning in the screen.

Scenes

During the Council of 101 the narrator could say "Tragedy claimed both his sons. The choice now was between Rhaenys, the only child of his eldest son and Viserys the eldest child of his second son". And the general audience would understand it perfectly.

During the ride in carriage back to the Keep they could have the smallfolk calling for Rhaenyra and her waving at them and smiling. That way we establish the "Realm's Delight".

Have Aemma mention Rhaenyra's age in their little scene. "You are three and ten, nearly a woman grown" it would fit perfectly.

The next scenes are just fine if the story is done right.

Daemon and Rhaenyra. In the throne room scene they should have more dialogue of the like of. "What have you brought me this time?" This way we establish that Rhaenyra is spoilt by Daemon and her parents.

Viserys and Aemma's scene are just fine if the rest of the show follows this logic. They could mention their relation, however. "Our grandmother had thirteen children, but I don't have her luck". This establishes that Aemma is part of House Targaryen by more than marriage .

Have Rhaenyra and Alicent talk about doing charity during their studying scene, establishing why the smallfolk likes them.

During the small council scene with Daemon Otto could ask him how he knows who was guilty and he could say he has a good relationship with the smallfolk. While I believe in "show, don't tell" this particular thing could show that he spends time with the smallfolk and that they like him.

The Mysaria and Daemon scene could have been pillowtalk. There was no need for a sex scene, but they could show us the after. Have Daemon show his resentment to his brother "I am the reason he wears a crown yet he still has me married to my Bronze Bitch". Doing this we don't only inform the viewers that Daemon is married, but we also establish that Mysaria is important for him and that he trusts her.

Nothing particularly wrong with the tournament scene, just should be less gory because it doesn't make much sense.

During the tournament we could have Rhaenys and Corlys talking like in the show but different. Saying something like "Viserys inheritated our grandparents years of peace and I hope our children do as well" that way we show she is a Targaryen and that she is married to Corlys and have children.

Cole and Daemon's scene is fine.

Aemma's death in itself is also not incoherent, but the show is so if the show wasn't it would be fine.

The funeral scene is fine.

In Alicent's and Otto's scene they could mention Otto's hate for Daemon and the fact that Alicent at fifteen is a woman of age to marry. Something like "You are five and ten, you can't stay a lady-in-waiting for the princess forever"

The "heir for a day" is fine.

During the Daemon and Viserys confrontation we could have again Daemon lashing out against him saying how he helped him. Something like "I am the reason you have that throne! Corlys was preparing his ships to fight for Rhaenys so I raised an army for you! And now you won't even give me an announcement for a marriage our grandmother forced me into!"

The rest of the scenes are fine

Other things

Rhaenys's hair should have been dark, with the quote I mentioned is enough to make the general audience realize she is a Targaryen.

Rhaenyra should have worn more jewellery and more lavender and violet colours.

See HBO? is not that hard!

#house of the dragon #hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #viserys targaryen #viserys i targaryen #alicent hightower #otto hightower #daemon targaryen #aemma arryn #rhaenys targaryen #rhaenys the queen who never was #corlys velaryon #mysaria #lady mysaria #anti hbo

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rippleberries · 3 months ago

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(Jeffrey teased this at Star Trek San Francisco)

Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Anna Lore, Nikki Hahn, and Anna Camp behind the scenes of HYSTERIA! (Photo courtesy Barbara Crampton)

[x]

HYSTERIA! Reunites RE-ANIMATOR Duo Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs

Surprise! The legendary genre pair turn up to add some ’80s cred to Peacock’s new Satanic Panic series.

PHIL NOBILE JR.

OCTOBER 18, 2024 6:00 AM

By now you’re aware of Peacock’s Hysteria!, and that it features Bruce Campbell, who’s been promoted heavily in the marketing of the new show (which dropped today). But turns out he’s not the only genre icon appearing on the series.

Early viewers of Hysteria! have been excited to spot among its ensemble cast none other than Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs, playing a bit against type as suburban parents. Speaking to FANGORIA, Crampton says that “showrunner/creator Matthew Scott Kane is a big Re-Animator fan, and it was his idea to reunite Jeff and myself for the first time since 1995!”

The duo have of course appeared in various unassailable horror classics over the years, beginning with Stuart Gordon’s aforementioned Re-Animator and its follow-up, From Beyond. Placing the pair in an ’80s-set, moral panic horror comedy made all the sense in the world to Kane.

“I'm a very devoted genre fan. All of Barbara and Jeff’s work with Stuart Gordon is so near and dear to my heart that, when these two roles came up, they were the first people that came to mind,” Kane says. “It was kind of a pipe dream. It was like, ‘Wouldn't it be nice if?’ I never thought they would pick up the phone.” To his surprise, the pair agreed, and their devotion to their relatively brief appearance surprised the showrunner.

“We all got dinner with each other, and Barbara and Jeffrey were asking me, ‘What's my motivation here?’ and ‘Here's what I'm thinking for this guy.’ Keep in mind, they’re in one scene — a pivotal scene, one which sets up the entire series — but they're really drilling it into me in ways that no other member of our cast did,” Kane shares. “The night before we were shooting the scene, I got a text from Barbara that could have easily filled a column in your magazine,” he laughs. “It was enormous, and it was brilliant. She was bringing so much — not just to the character, but she was so intelligent in terms of checking out the entire script, understanding what the themes of the show are, and understanding how she could fit into that.”

The series focuses on a struggling teen band called Dethkrunch who, in the wake of their high school quarterback’s disappearance, rebrand themselves as “Satanic” to ride the wave of moral panic sweeping their town. It works until it doesn’t, and they soon find themselves the target of a literal witch hunt. The project, which also boasts Julie Bowen, Anna Camp, Garret Dillahunt, Emjay Anthony and Milly Shapiro among its cast, was instantly alluring to Crampton. “I read the first three scripts of Hysteria! when I was cast and they were all fantastic,” Crampton says. “Fun, spooky, dark and thrilling.” For Crampton, the gig offered other pleasures. “We were giddy with excitement for our parts… and costumes!” (Anyone who’s seen the sartorial choices in Jakob’s Wife or The Last Stop in Yuma County knows Crampton loves a bold wardrobe choice.)

Her co-star Combs was also easily sold, calling the project “a lovely experience… short but sweet.” Like Crampton, Combs was drawn to the quality of the material. “Matthew is a very gifted writer,” he says. “I was thrilled to be part of this, and it would be a delight to work with him again.”

Though the pair both appeared in last year’s Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, Crampton and Combs shared no scenes together in that film, making this their first onscreen appearance together since 1995’s Castle Freak (where they also played a married couple). “It was an absolute joy to work on screen with Jeffrey again,” Crampton exclaims. “We play the parents to an important character on this show (you’ll have to watch to see which one!) and this lady is amazing. I just adore her!”

Casting the iconic performers, even for just one episode, meant a lot to Kane. “We wanted Barbara and Jeff there for a reason. We wanted them there because we're all huge fans, but also because we know they're great actors and that they can come in and deliver something awesome so that, if we get a second season, they can come into the fold and be more regular characters. If there's a reason to get us a season two, it's to get Jeff Combs and Barbara Crampton back on the screen together for more than just five minutes.”

As to what happens over the course of the series, Crampton is as excited to find out as we are. “I’ve viewed the first episode and it’s a blast,” she shares. “I’ll be watching and posting about all the episodes and enjoying the show along with you all!”

All episodes of Hysteria! are now streaming on Peacock.

#Jeffrey combs #Barbara Crampton #hysteria #hysteria!#Matt Scott Kane

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firesnap · 1 year ago

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I think that the thing to remember about c!Wilbur's ending is that it was set up from the start. The first stream of that last arc was called Bust. It was about a person on a losing streak who feasibly only had the options of either losing everything to the house or walking away from the table. We, as the viewer, have to go through the story not really sure of which path is Wilbur taking. Is he doing his last few hands with these apologies or just waving goodbye on his way out the door? We're left to question his motivations with each apology and whether it was another bust or him clawing back a little of what he had.

And we see it as a bit of both. He's salvaging what he can and bowing out from future games.

But that leads us back to that moment where he leaves Tommy on the beach and half the people watching screamed and swore and thought he'd ruined c!Crime by leaving. But like, what choice did he have but to go? Especially with hindsight of Tommy's finale, we know how it would have played out if he'd stayed. Everyone died.

Now, you could argue that Tommy wouldn't have spiraled if Wilbur had stayed but, we can't say that for sure. The biggest villain on the server said to Tommy that Tommy hadn't been on his radar in months -- that he wanted to go after Quackity and Wilbur. Be it Wilbur's mental health, or going up against a much more powerful opponent, or the literal end of the world -- Wilbur wouldn't have survived and where would Tommy have been there?

Plus you have that the whole point of Tommy and Wilbur is that they relied too much on each other to maintain their grip on things. Wilbur used Tommy as a sense of stability. Tommy used Wilbur as a sense of purpose and a sort of goal -- we saw that after Wilbur's first death and his spiral after Wilbur left.

So at what point are they not responsible for each other's mental wellness? Wilbur thinking that he holds Tommy back, that he knows he needs to leave because they aren't going to be good for each other right now, was true. Tommy needing Wilbur was also true, but what do you do in that case? Sometimes you have to save yourself and hope that's enough to help the other person too.

I just find it interesting that no one won in the end of Wilbur's story. Everyone left a little hurt, a little hopeful, a little confused and more lonely. Wilbur didn't break his losing streak, but he survived to walk away from the table and that's exactly the story he wanted to tell. Sometimes promising yourself that you'll try to survive is the best ending you can get.

And hey, that's an ending 99% of the server didn't get.

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misrepresentedmorallygrey · 1 year ago

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PROPAGANDA

Rose Quartz Propaganda

"We saw her character arc in reverse!! We first saw all the good she did and then learned of her terrible actions in the past. If her story was told the other way around, it would have been a great redemption arc. Yes, she did some terrible things, but she had no choice. She did everything she could to stop the colonization of earth peacefully buy nothing worked. Blue and yellow diamond just didn't listen to her and when they did, THEY were the ones who made the zoo and shit. Rose wanted to free them but couldn't get to them after the war! And with the corruption, there's no way she could have known that'd happen. There's so many things she wanted to do but just couldn't. And with spinel, yes it was shitty to leave her alone for so long, but again, between running her court, running the rebellion, dealing with earth, she likely wasn't a very high priority and like with the zoo, there was no way to get to her after the war since the galaxy warp was destroyed. And don't forget, she was practically a child around this time. You're saying you didn't do any stupid, selfish, or harmful things as a kid? She learned from her experiences and grew, we just saw that growth in reverse, leaving us as viewers with a poor perception of her."

"Rose Quartz is Steven Universe’s dead mom. Initially, she’s set up as sort of an ethereal perfect figure who everyone misses and compares him to. Later we get to see more of her backstory and discover that she’s actually like, a person, with flaws, who has done some bad things, but she did those bad things largely in the course of trying to escape an abusive home life and save the people and planet that she fell in love with. It’s very clear that despite her flaws she was trying to do the right thing and that she deeply cared about others. Unfortunately, a woman who was not a Perfect Martyr was way too much for the Steven Universe fandom to handle. She pretty much set off the wave of SU crit blogs because these people were furious either that she had taken violent measures to solve her problems, that she hadn’t taken violent enough measures to solve her problems, or both somehow. Lots of “Why didn’t she just murder her abusive parental figures?” Lots of “She was evil for having a baby even though she knew she’d die in childbirth!” Lots of “She should’ve been able to protect everyone from a magic nuclear weapon with the power of love somehow.” Lots of “She shouldn’t have rebelled (even though not rebelling would’ve meant the destruction of Earth) because her abusers retaliated and that’s her fault.” LOTS of people drawing her as stick thin even though she was fat in the show. People treated her like she was on the same level or even worse than her abusive parental figures who were also the main villains of the show. It was unbearable to witness."

Mahiru Propaganda

"They got unfairly voted guilty in the first round and keeps getting blamed She never meant to hurt anyone and the only reason she did was cause she couldn’t read social ques"

"Mahiru Shiina is the most traditionally feminine character in Milgram, and she’s very in love with the idea of love. That makes her an easy fandom target. In Milgram, we are introduced to ten murderers. It quickly becomes apparent that not all of these murders are conventional. By the time we are introduced to Mahiru, we already know most of these unconventional murderers. Mahiru’s first music video depicts her going on various dates with her boyfriend, even though he is not shown in the frame. At the end of the video, Mahiru wakes up, turns to the camera, and has a horrified expression. Whatever happened, she didn’t want it to happen. And then a lot of the fandom accused her of being a stalker. Was that what got her a 55% guilty/unforgiven vote? I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But she heard what the fandom said. She heard these voices saying she couldn’t be forgiven. Saying that she was a stalker or that she didn’t really love her boyfriend, even though that wasn’t true. She was beaten to near-death by Kotoko, a vigilante who was forgiven by 67%. Fuuta, who also sustained serious injuries from Kotoko, calls out the audience surrogate, saying what we did with our verdicts would have made us the same as him if Mahiru had died. And yet Mahiru doesn’t blame either us or Kotoko. Mahiru’s second music video shows that she was indeed in a proper relationship with her boyfriend. She smothered him with her love. The video slowly revealed the toxicity in their relationship. She asked why she can’t do anything right. The fandom perception was better in that she was safely voted innocent/forgiven. Still, there are issues. Some infantilize her or say that she’s delusional. Yes, she had a sheltered upbringing and has difficulties reading social cues, but that doesn’t take away her agency. On the flip side, some have theorized that she kidnapped her boyfriend and wasn’t in a proper relationship with him. (Not sure what to say about that, but this is a series about sympathetic murderers.)"

#semi finals #females fucked over tournament #steven universe #milgram #rose quartz #mahiru shiina

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helshollowhalls · 1 year ago

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I have some thoughts. On Mysta's graduation. And the current state of Nijisanji in general.

At the end of the day, I am not surprised. I expected someone else to graduate first, hell I even expected Niji to keep more of an iron grip on their money makers aka Luxiem in order to milk them for more cash, but I digress.

Mysta is graduating and it only goes to show that their 'money first, talent... third? last?' approach comes back to bite them in the arse. This might be the potential wakeup call for everyone who has yet to realize that the entire English branch of Nijisanji is crumbling away in record time because of the absolutely abysmal talent management and treatment of the livers.

I refrained from speculating who would be the next ones to graduate after Nina - simply because I will leave that job to the anonymous leakers on the site/platform that shall not be named here. Apparently Shu and Vox were brought up as the potential next people to graduate (this is according to a recent Depressed Nousagi stream but he didn't show any screenshots so take that with a massive bucket of salt.) Mysta was allegedly also mentioned down the line, but he seemingly wasn't the first choice.

Honestly, if you think about it the entirety of Luxiem must be so done mentally. They didn't know what to expect when they signed up to become Nijisanji's first male English-speaking Vtuber group. They waltz onto the scene, explode in popularity all over the world out of nowhere basically and suddenly they're Niji EN's favorite child. The company is milking them for all they have because OH BOI do they rake in the cash - not to mention from a target audience that was completely ignored before in the EN corporate sphere - female viewers.

In a lot of things the boys weren't given any choice. Jazz On The Clock? The first ever second unit song in Niji EN ever and it was released even before their anniversary. With Luxiem being the fourth EN wave in total it felt a little counterintuitive - Wouldn't they start another potential wave of unit songs with LazuLight, their first wave? Well, now that Light Me Up is out and Pomu talked about the entire fiasco of LazuLight basically fighting management tooth and nail to be allowed a second unit song, I think most of us can guess how things are going at Anycolor. And in case you're not entirely convinced, just look at the amount of Luxiem merch Niji has put out compared to any other EN wave.

It's not just JotC, but their anniversary/irl Japan meetup stream as well. That stream was something that personally really rubbed me the wrong way because it felt very inauthentic. It felt like the five of them were just shoved into a room at the Niji HQ to play Smash and do some batsus while the executives and managers proceeded to lock the doors and breath down their necks for the entirety of the stream. The stream had a very different feel to it - Comparing it to other Luxiem collab streams or even other anniversary streams. Management didn't consider it necessary to order Obsydia or Ethyria to Japan and record their anniversary streams at the Niji HQ - Well, that would be because none of them make the company as much sweet sweet cash as Luxiem - Closest would maybe be Selen. And even she has been public about the management fuck-ups - I am talking about her outfit design contest here, of course.

But back to Luxiem. I don't follow them as closely as I used to in the beginning, infact I am only subscribed to Shu out of the five, so let's start from here.

The entire wave collectively tweeted very salty and sarcastic remarks about the official announcement of the EN 3D Live Concert being "postponed due to COVID" earlier this year. But out of all of them, it seemingly hit Shu the hardest. I noticed that he was streaming less and less, infact he still isn't streaming as much as he used to.

Ike... oh boi, where do I even begin. Judging from his spontaneous irl hangout with Vox recently and the amount of projects he has been involved in as a vocal mixer, not to mention his two recent songs of which one is an original, this man seems to be working 30 hours a day and is stressed to the max.

Mysta made his personal situation and his ongoing burnout/lack of goals to work towards very clear in his graduation announcement stream, so I won't go into detail.

Vox has also been streaming less frequently. During the course of his employment at Nijisanji he got diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD (I believe), started therapy and medication, had a panic attack during an ASMR stream, started new projects and also some personal issues in his private life to deal with.

I have to be honest about Luca - I don't really know anything about what is going on with him apart from the fact that he planned to move again and got a puppy.

In conclusion, I could see reasons for anyone of them graduating anytime soon. Management isn't treating them well - Management isn't treating anyone in EN well, it seems - and at some point that fact doesn't warrant staying with the company anymore. Plus, money isn't really an issue for any of them at this point I assume - Especially Vox and Mysta. Both of them have enough money to fulfill their potential aspirations as indies or under another agency or manager.

Infact, apart from a couple of livers I can see anyone graduating next because of how Nijisanji handles things.

Some may argue that it all started going downhill when they kicked Yugo or when Zaion got terminated - Regardless of what you think, at the end of the day, the entire branch is seemingly falling apart right in front of us and Nijisanji's reputation is tanking, especially with the English-speaking fanbase, while Hololive idly sits by and watches the drama unfold.

The consequences of Mysta leaving and the message it sends about Nijisanji and how they treat their livers can't be understated.

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the-disaster-in-waiting · 1 year ago

Text

The Seamstress & The Baker

(Peeta Mellark X Reader)

Peeta stood still as the woman circled him measuring, writing and looking over him gauging size predictions.

“I’m Peeta” He broke the silence, scared and alone from the only other person he’d known. Peeta tried to make nice with those Effie had called his ‘Style Team’ Portia had left him in what she’d called capable hands of (Y/N) to take the measurements and prepare him for Cinna and her grand entrance they’d planned.

“I know I saw the show Katniss put on. Seems like you will have to catch up” (Y/N) swaggered around the room filled with items used to create all the most incredible outfits for the tributes.

“Wha… What do you mean?”

“Katniss, she’s the caring heart that volunteered for her sister. What pray tell is your thing?” She’d sat in a chair at that point comfortably crossing one leg over another, writing more notes in her small notebook. As Peeta realized he was now free to step down from the podium and sit beside her in the accompanying chair he continued.

“I’m a baker”

“I do not think a cake will be enough to sway the watchers” She leant over, placing the notebook onto a coffee table leaning back and digging her back further into the chair comforting herself.

“What do you think then?” Peeta was leant over watching (Y/N) arms braced on his legs as his only support. (Y/N) sighed as she turned to the screen featuring Peeta and Katniss’ tribute selection in district 12.

“You are very sweet and the way you look at Katniss. Use that, use your love, don't hide it. Be the boy who loves a girl you will be fated to kill or be killed by”.

“I don’t know what you mean. I don't have a crush on Katniss. I just don’t wanna die”

“You are a very sweet boy Peeta. I wish I could be like you but unlike you living in the capitol shows you how bad this all is I mean look around-’ (Y/N) spread her arms pointing to the whole room ‘-this all just for some stupid blood hungry game, I was picked young because so many of the seamstress’ had to leave overwhelmed seeing so many die this isn't easy Peeta you need to make a choice do you play the game or let the game play you?”

Peeta gazed over all the viewers as Katniss and he were pulled by horse through a long lane waving to all he looked to Katniss her face stone, scared or maybe meek he couldn’t tell quite yet as he passed a row he could see (Y/N) she looked over Peeta clasping her hands together signaling something to him it took a minute to catch on.

“And then

What is that in the background?” The commentators reviewing the tributes' entrances stopped at a pair from district 12.

“Come on. They'll love it.” Peeta whispered to Katniss, grabbing her hand once again, hoisting them high above their heads for all to see as (Y/N) clapped her hands at Peeta’s gesture.

“Now see that! I love that.

Two young people, holding their hands up!

Saying; ‘I'm proud, I'm from District 12.

We will not be overlooked!’

I love that.

People are sure to be paying attention to them right now.”

“You did good Peeta” (Y/N) could tell when Peeta entered the room he carried himself lower than a capital citizen and not many of the other tributes walked around the seamstress quarters their stylists normally handled. (Y/N) wondered if some even knew where it was knowing that some of the higher districts would demand their measurements taken in their apartments not bothering to meander about a place they didn’t want to be.

“Thanks for the suggestion” He stood around awkwardly waiting for (Y/N) to turn and face him, her back all he could see as she bent over a sewing machine the sound of which had stopped the minute the door opened.

“What do you need, do any of the clothes not fit?” She turned to face him looking over his attire, a piece she’d made from Portia's suggestion designed to look as if lava had fallen onto him.

“No I’m all good” He moved to a chair near (Y/N) making himself comfortable before facing her again.

“The interviews are coming soon”

“Yes, do you know what you are saying yet? I’m sure Effie and Haymitch have prepared you?” She pulled up the suit she was making from Katniss’ measurements designed by the game stylists out of the sewing machine letting it fall in front of her giving a cursory check before putting it aside and putting all her focus on Peeta.

“No Haymitch said to just keep doing the loverboy act and Effie’s just happy I smile unlike Katniss.” (Y/N) giggled at Peeta’s comment.

“Katniss can be hard to read but like you she is scared and just coping with this how she can”

“So what do you think?” Peeta looked to (Y/N) as her head tilted.

“What do you mean?” She shook her head and started to read from her notebook on Peeta’s measurements and needs for his game suit. Peeta grabbed the book from her hands, putting it behind him where (Y/N) couldn't reach it.

“I mean the interviews the hand hold worked I thought maybe you’d have some more ideas” He held (Y/N) back from trying to grab her notebook from him. Exasperated by her failed attempts she slumped in the chair and sighed at Peetas annoying antics.

“Why should I help you if you will just steal my things?” She smirked at the game, a welcome distraction from the work she’d been put through by the other seamstress’ all had goals to complete their work even if it meant fighting each other to leave early.

“Because you care? Hopefully, you've helped so far?”

“Fine you are lucky I like you” She instead turned to clean her station making her mind up to come in early tomorrow instead of continuing now that the tribute was annoying her so.

“Drop the bomb”

“What bomb” noticing her cleaning her gave back the notebook. (Y/N) carefully packed it away in her bag as she shifted it onto her back.

“Tell them just who you are fighting in the arena, let them know the love story they can expect” She turned to stand and leave as Peeta followed her.

“Where are you going?” She turned to look at Peeta. He looked tired, scared but alone mostly. She could understand the feeling of displacement he must’ve felt she’d felt it so many times before.

“I have some things to finish for school. They cannot be left waiting but do not worry, I will be waiting for you after your interview”.

#peeta mellark x reader #peeta mellark #katniss everdeen #the hunger games

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markantonys · 1 year ago

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You know, considering the show only fans' reaction to the Seanchean, if they do put Mat and Tuon together, they're gonna have to give her and them a LOT and I mean A LOT of character development. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Tuon shows up already with thoughts and doubts about slavery. Cause there's simply no way people are gonna be okay with it.

yeah i really do not envy them having to figure out what to do here, because EVERYTHING about mat/tuon and about tuon as a character is a giant landmine. (even just with casting, because the Head Slaver being a black woman is 🥴 especially if we then get scenes of her having to be told by a white man that slavery is bad. but if you DON'T cast a black actor as tuon then you've whitewashed a book-canonically black character. tuon's character design is the kinda thing where rj was trying to go for a ~boundary-breaking role reversal~ but it just really isn't a good look, and i don't envy the show having to deal with his choices there.)

anyway, i'm really hoping for tuon to be introduced at least a season or two before she meets mat so that she can have some development before they even cross paths, let alone begin having romance. (similar to how elayne, aviendha, and min were all developed through non-rand characters this season, which was a great choice.) one idea i'm quite fond of* is tuon showing up in nynaeve and elayne's storyline in s3 in an egeanin-esque role (tho not exactly equivalent ofc given tuon's and egeanin's differences in status/life situation/etc), so then she unknowingly befriends and comes to respect 2 ~marath'damane~, thus she has to start rethinking some things about seanchan culture when she finds out her new buddies can channel. and in s4 maybe she can have some kind of invented plotline to keep her development moving along, and s5 might be the time for her to first meet mat, and they can spend seasons 6 AND 7 together with the romance being a very slow burn. if the show just has tuon show up in ebou dar straightaway with the initial invasion rather than in a second wave after mat's storyline's been left out of an entire book, then she can meet mat sooner and they can leave sooner and have more time to spend together.

rj could have pulled off mat/tuon if he'd introduced her way sooner and had left enough time for their relationship to develop naturally and for HER to develop naturally, rather than breaking mat's characterization to cram him into a rushed relationship it makes no sense for him to want to be part of at this point in time. in WH it really does feel like rj was planning a whole meaty character development arc for tuon, but then realized between books that he wasn't gonna have enough time for it in the main series and came up with the idea of the outriggers spinoff, and in COT suddenly we have tuon being a completely static character and mat replaced by a pod person who's obsessed with her and has completely changed his views on slavery.

but the show has the benefit of knowing the endpoint already, so hopefully they're already planning for how to make the mat/tuon romance feel more believable. i think the only 2 options are a) introduce tuon way earlier and give her a proper redemption arc, or b) make it a political marriage which mat is putting up with for the greater good but has 0 romantic interest in tuon. because yeah, mat falling in love with an unrepentant slaver would make him absolutely vile in the eyes of all viewers, especially after how hard the show went on showing the vileness of the seanchan in s2. show viewers will not have forgotten the torture egwene suffered by the time mat meets tuon as easily as so many book readers apparently did.

*i'm also very fond of the idea of tuon being introduced in seanchan proper because i spent the whole series expecting us to see seanchan proper and the court of the 9 moons etc and felt SO robbed that we never did, so i'd loooooove if the show took us there and had tuon leading a plotline there before she leaves for the westlands. but purely in terms of getting her to start rethinking the damane system early on, this scenario wouldn't be as useful as the one of her meeting nynaeve and elayne in the westlands.

and finally, it's very interesting that they killed off every single notable seanchan character from s2. this could mean that they didn't want to leave any loose ends because the seanchan will be entirely absent for the next season or two, ooooooooooooor it could mean that they wanted to clear the stage for tuon to step up as our major seanchan character in the next season or two.

#anonymous #answered #wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers

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dalekofchaos · 11 months ago

Text

Context for each choices

Choice 1 context. Basically Owlman, but instead of Bruce dying with Thomas and Martha, this is a Thomas who lived in a boarding school and upon hearing of the death of his parents, Thomas begins to plot his revenge. When he gets his hands on Joe Chill, he realizes there is no point because Chill is a product of his environment. He embraces crime and the insanity of Arkham. He sees his brother as a threat. The way he wastes his family's fortune to fix something that cannot be fixed. So he begins the plan to slowly dismantle everything Bruce has built. Bankrupting Wayne Enterprises, flooding Gotham with a crime wave that the city has never witnessed and when Bruce sees his city in ruins, all his progress and his Batfamily in ruins, then Thomas will kill his brother and take his place as the king of Gotham

Choice 2 Context. Damian is the Arkham Knight. Talia talked about Bruce and Talia’s night in Metropolis. So you could have a tease for Damian there. But Ra’s raised Damian and indoctrinated him. This is a Damian without Bruce’s influence and was raised to believe that Bruce is responsible for his mother’s death and together Ra’s and Damian will fulfill the LOA’s destiny. Everything leading up to learning his identity is the same(though Arkham Knight uses a sword and throwing stars instead of guns) When the mask comes off, Batman is confused due to how much he looks like him. Damian explains that he is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. Damian blames him for the death of his mother and Ra’s Al Ghul. But if Ra’s is alive via the season of Infamy DLC. Work it into the story. Say Damian is working with Ra’s similar to how Hugo Strange was working with Ra’s. Damian names himself after the place his family died and now he wants his father dead. There’d be more emotional impact and would have made more sense than trying to convince viewers that Jason was Robin in this continuity.

Choice 3 context The Arkham Knight should have just been a symbolic title and ya know, ACTUALLY focus on the villains teaming up. The Gotham Rogues teaming up is the main threat. The reveal of the Arkham Knight being a re-skin of the Red Hood has been talked about to death. What hasn’t been talked about as much is the missed opportunity of having a game where Batman has to deal with the ramifications of the Joker’s death. Arkham Knight opens with Commissioner Gordon talking about how Gotham braced itself for the inevitable power struggle that never came. But what if it had? Instead of pushing some of Batman’s greatest villains into a few side-quests (that all played basically the same), the game’s story could have focused on the Bat Family as it fights to save Gotham. Players could have swapped between the best of Batman’s team as they tackle missions all over Gotham, the Asylum, and Arkham City. Areas visible in the game but not accessible. This would have allowed the story of the Arkham games to come full circle as players would have traveled back to locations previously seen and explored them with the changes made as the story for the games went on. Plus it would finally give all the members of the Bat Family a chance to spread their wings. We needed to see Scarecrow, Harley, Ivy, Penguin, Hush, Riddler and Two-Face work together as major threats and we needed to see Bruce and his family(Dick, Tim, Kate, Cassandra and Stephanie) work together to stop them and honestly that would’ve been so much better.

Choice 4 context.

Arkham Knight is Protocol 12. Hugo Strange works for Ra’s, but however, Let’s pay attention to this. From Quincy Sharp, he says “Strange came to me back at the asylum. He told me he had friends; powerful friends. The sort of people who could make things happen. All I had to do was turn a blind eye to his experiments, and work on my campaign. He said his friends would ensure that I won" In Strange’s confrontation with Batman. “ I have powerful friends, Batman. This is just the beginning.“ Now if you’ve watched Justice League Unlimited, you will know that Hugo Strange is a Departmental head of Project CADMUS. So What if In the Arkhamverse, Strange is still apart of Project CADMUS. While Ra’’s was the mastermind, the Arkham City project was planned by CADMUS as a start to take down Batman and Gotham, but a start to bring down the Justice League. The Arkham Knight would be Strange’s and CADMUS’ last fail safe to bring an end to Batman. The identity is not important. All we need to know is it is a CADMUS experiment and Strange’s last trump card against Batman. The Arkham Knight should have been it’s own character and not a copout to make him Jason Todd and there was so much lost potential.

Choice 5 context.

Jeremiah Arkham is the Arkham Knight. In Arkham Asylum, Quincy Sharp believed himself to be the Spirit of Amadeus Arkham. This could simply be Sharp being the zealous warden that he was but it could have set up something else. What if Jeremiah Arkham was the REAL reincarnation of Amadeus Arkham? He shares a similar story already, treating mentally unwell patients until it drove him insane. Instead of becoming the next Black Mask, he could have become the purifier of evil that Quincy Sharp tried to be: the Arkham Knight.

Choice 6 context

In Arkham City it is heavily teased that Joker and Harley had a baby. Before anyone comments about Harley’s revenge, that was actually unpopular with the fandom, so it could’ve been retconned. From a comment I found on the Arkham reddit. “The game begins the traditional way where you lead a character around but can’t perform any actions. You control Harley who’s in shock after Joker’s death and hasn’t spoken a work since. You control her as she’s being escorted into Blackgate staying true to the prison opening setting of all the games. Joker’s death sends shockwaves across Gotham. Soon enough, her thugs break her out and they arrive at an abandoned warehouse where Harley walks in alone, she opens a shipping container and a kidnapped nurse from Arkham City walks out and pleads with her to let her go, telling her she’s done all they’ve asked. Harley agrees that she has but says that no one can know about their child yet, she shoots the nurse and the shot wakes a baby inside the container, Harley then picks it up and sings it the lullaby we hear in the Arkham City end credits. Cut to black.

But what if it isn't just one kid? What if it's twins? Lucy Quinn and Jack Quinn.

15 years later. Harley Quinn and the Arkham Knight gathers the rogues gallery. Scarecrow, Hush, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Penguin all working together to take down the Bat and make Gotham theirs. The difference is the rogues would not be used in side missions exclusively. They would work in the story mandatory similar to how Spider-Man PS4′s villains worked in the main story and we take them down one by one.

Jack will be the Arkham Knight, while Lucy infiltrates Wayne Enterprises as Lucy White and gains the trust of Bruce Wayne and allows herself to be taken hostage because Harley knows Bruce cannot allow an "innocent" be harmed and in the climax, Lucy will show her true colors and knock out Batman. Like in the climax of Arkham Knight, Bruce is taken to Arkham Asylum where this all started. But it's Harley, Jack and Lucy. They reveal the truth. Joker and Harley's children are here to avenge their father. Tim and Cassandra come to the rescue and defeat Jack and Lucy, while Bruce knocks Harley out. Arkham Knight ends with Bruce retiring and becoming Mayor of Gotham, while Tim, Dick and Cassandra would watch over Gotham

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lgihtspeed · 6 months ago

Text

TRANSMISSION ⌗OO1 : PROLOGUE.

IN WHICH Lightspeed has to succeed. FEATURING Lightspeed ensemble, Choi Hayoung, Logan Miura WORD COUNT 6.7k NOTES Takes place from the end of their survival show to the day before their debut. I was supposed to finish it before their debut but whatever.

When he stands on IGNITE!’s final podium, surrounded by the people who will be his future group members, TYLER knows they have to succeed. They have no choice but to succeed. He knows C Entertainment’s track record. They—Lightspeed—are set not only to be the company’s third artist, but their third round of survival show survivors. Obviously, it’s a pattern. C Entertainment’s other pattern is dropping artists and actors who aren’t successful. It’s evident in the quick turnover of their talent: actors and actresses who are pushed as the next big thing through one or two dramas before they disappear off the face of the planet, and in their failed management of TFTS, a duo of former Girls Planet 999 contestants, who released the greatest single of 2023 only to disband in five months.

He pulls himself out of his thoughts and grips Ash’s hand tighter, because who would have thought that the two of them would make it this far, together? They’re no Haobin, he knows, but meeting one of his college acquaintances on a kpop survival show was something Tyler never would have put on a bingo card, ever. If he was told six months ago that he and Ash would go as far as to choose each other at every single opportunity, and then win the whole show, he would have laughed and bet against himself. Six months ago, they were nothing more than acquaintances. Tyler would have dapped him up and moved on with his life.

“How much longer do you think we have to stand here?” Ash asks through gritted, smiling teeth.

Tyler gives him an almost imperceptible shrug. He hasn't seen a cue from the production team in a few minutes. He wonders if it's possible they've forgotten.

He watches Mia, the winner of the girls’ half of the show, jump lightly down from the podium, tuck her hair behind her ear, and bend down at the edge of the stage to high-five the closest viewers.

As IGNITE!’s other first place winner, Tyler wonders if he should follow her. He stays rooted in place. Maybe they can spin that somehow: Mia is the personable idol you can meet and Tyler is the cold, aloof, senior you're too scared to talk to.

His mind wanders. Other than Ash, he doesn't know too much about his fellow winners. The third guy is Ev. Tyler doesn't know much about him except for the fact that he's British. He has the type of soft accent that rounds his words just the right amount to be extremely attractive to teenage girls on Twitter. Tyler knows this because he's seen the tweets. The two of them have performed together only once. EV didn't make too much of an impression. A decent enough singer, and not much else. Certainly not a stand-out performer the way Tyler is. Or the way Ash is. They auditioned for the same position—dance, and then played up their pseudo-rivalry as classmates and now competitors.

The lights return to full brightness. Tyler starts slightly, squinting against the sudden light. Mia jumps nimbly back on the stage, waving at the audience again and eliciting another round of cheers. Tyler isn’t built like that. He’d rather die.

Ash knocks his shoulder against Tyler’s. “Earth to Tyler. Dude, you’re out of it.”

Tyler jostles him back. “Is that so weird? Center is a big responsibility.”

Ash windmills his arms playfully, acting like he's going to trip and fall. “Don't act like you're surprised.”

He has a point there. Tyler isn’t surprised. From the show’s very beginning, he’s always ranked highly. It might be presumptuous to say, but he’s always known he was going to win. It was only a matter of his specific rank. First place is, of course, extremely gratifying. It’s a testament to how far he’s come from the American Midwest.

One of the production assistants signals their turn to head off stage. The six losers of the finale are already gone, spirited backstage at some point when Tyler wasn’t looking. They head off in pairs in reverse rank order, leaving Tyler and Mia as the last two standing.

“Congratulations,” she whispers to him, and then links her arm in his as they walk out into the wings. The cheer that erupts behind them is the loudest one he’s heard all night.

“Same to you,” he says, stomach turning somersaults. He blames it on the adrenaline and not the scent of strawberry shampoo emanating faintly from Mia’s pink hair.

In the dressing room backstage, Ash is already dressed in his usual sweatshirt and sweatpants combo. He throws Tyler’s normal clothes at him. “Get dressed. We’re going out. Ev’s in the bathroom and I can close my eyes.”

“We?” Tyler asks, picking apart his uniform’s red and white tie. He doesn’t understand the fascination with the school uniforms. Something about his appearance made the stylists force him into a tie every single time. Ash got the delinquent treatment: rumpled blazer, top two shirt buttons open, deliberately messy hair. Tyler spent the past four months envying him.

Ash twirls his pointer finger through the air. “All of us. The winners.”

That sounds like a recipe for disaster, or maybe their very first scandal. Fuck it. Tyler doesn’t care. He’s caused enough of a scandal on his own, being himself. What’s one more? Their new agency has the money to make any sort of problems evaporate the instant they appear. The proof is in Sejun’s still-flourishing career. He’ll never forgive them for their treatment of TFTS.

“Where are we going?” he asks, pulling his t-shirt on. There’s a very large, very obvious circular wrinkle in the middle where Ash balled it up. Tyler tries to smooth it out.

“Wherever the night takes us,” Ash says cheesily.

Tyler nearly cracks a smile at his delivery. He can’t encourage Ash that much, so he busies himself with lacing up his Converse instead. Lightspeed will succeed, and Tyler’s going to have fun while it happens.

The first thing CONSTANCE does is call home. IGNITE!’s live finale lasted longer than any of them or the production team had anticipated, and by the time she’s reunited with her phone, it’s almost one in the morning. She manages to finally pick up one of her mother’s calls. She puts her family on speaker and scrolls through her notifications.

“Con! You won! We always knew you could do it!” Her mother’s voice crackles through the speakers, enthusiasm infectious.

Constance grins, despite knowing they can’t see her. The rush from IGNITE!’s finale—from winning IGNITE!’s finale—returns, leaving her giddy. “It was so much fun.” She flops down on her bed, hair still stiff with all the hairspray and mousse and creams the stylists used to coax it into shape. She runs a hand through it and it comes out sticky. She wipes her hand on her shirt.

From a little farther away over the phone, she hears her mom say, “Ken! Hurry up and congratulate your sister.”

“I already texted her,” Ken complains from just as far away.

In between typing out thank you messages and crying emojis to her friends, she sees her brother’s text. It’s a screenshot of an ending screen from one of the Super Smash Bros games, Jigglypuff on the beach with the word “Congratulations!” spelled out—exclamation point and everything—underneath.

“That doesn’t count,” she complains back. “It’s not even your screenshot. You found that online.”

Ken comes so close to the phone speaker she can hear him breathe. “Congrats or whatever. When are you gonna pay me back for covering all of Dad’s birthday dinner?”

“That was last year!”

“You still owe me seventy dollars. Plus interest.”

“Remind me to never again borrow money from the Kenneth Im Bank.”

“Don’t want to.” Her brother’s immaturity is sometimes so shocking that Constance forgets he’s three years older than her.

Her dad is up next, from presumably all the way across their house. “Good job,” he says, or at least that's what Constance thinks he’s saying.

“Dad, you have to be closer to the phone,” she says patiently, raising her phone’s volume.

“He says good job,” Ken yells, and Constance winces, lowering her volume again. “He also says you should pay me back because you’ll make more money than me.”

It’s a good thing her roommate, Mia, isn’t here. Constance doubts this conversation could be any quieter. “I don’t know if that’s true.” Ken is a data scientist. She remembers when he got his first job offer, straight out of grad school, bragging about base pay and a signing bonus and stocks and unlimited PTO.

“He didn’t say that,” her mother says. “We’re all so proud of you.”

Constance can hear the smile in her voice. Ken sends her another text and almost ruins her night—a rather unflattering, extremely low quality picture of her, clearly a screenshot taken from IGNITE!’s recently concluded finale. She types back a quick wtf before going back to the spoken conversation.

“I wish you were here.” The production company had only been willing to cover the travel costs and tickets for two guests per contestant, and given that there were three members of her immediate family, none of them wanted to be the one left behind. Constance had invited two long-time friends instead, both of whom are probably enjoying the five-star hotel they’re staying in. Privately, she thinks that if the production team had opted for a slightly cheaper hotel, they could have footed another plane ticket instead. Beyond that, Constance hadn’t thought she would win. She’d placed in the top three only once before, and after the announcement that the winning group would be coed, she didn’t think she could do that again. Somehow, she did it anyway.

“Don’t worry about us.” Her mother’s voice is still bright. “We hosted our own watch party.”

“Mom invited Rosenbaum,” Ken interrupts.

“My homeroom teacher? Mom, that’s weird,” Constance complains, even though she knows perfectly well that her mom and her senior year homeroom teacher are coworkers and good friends. It’s still weird. In high school, she spent more time in the robotics lab than in class, and she never stepped foot in the choir room.

“She’s proud of you too,” her mom says, completely glossing over Constance’s response.

Her throat tightens. She’s done a good job, she thinks, of not crying so far. She’s glad no one is in the room with her now. It’s not like idols don’t cry, but idols don’t cry as messily as Constance does. She’s extremely thankful Mia chose to go out with the rest of the group, and no one tried too hard to convince her to go along. Parties and clubs and bars were never Constance’s scene, and though it’s unlikely they’ll be punished for sneaking out after their win, she doesn’t want to risk it.

“Bran was there too,” Ken says, shaking Constance back to life. Her tears dry up immediately, replaced with the hammering of her heart and her sweating palms. She dries her hand on her shirt.

“Oh. Okay,” she says, trying to get her heart to stop racing and her palms to stop sweating. She’s pretty sure Ken doesn’t definitively know she had a crush on his best friend when they were younger. But then again, twelve-year-old Constance wasn’t exactly discrete. Twenty-three year old Constance should not have this reaction at the mere mention of her crush from half her lifetime ago. Now she has to live with the mortifying realization that Ken definitely showed him that unflattering picture of her.

She yawns, the adrenaline of the night finally wearing off. Somehow, that’s audible over the phone speakers.

“What time is it?” Her mother sounds alarmed. “Do you need to go to sleep? Have you been eating enough? What did you have for dinner?”

Constance dismisses her concerns. “I’m fine, Mom. I’ll call you back in the morning. Good night.” If she isn’t decisive, they’ll talk forever.

Her mother sounds slightly disappointed as she says, “Good night. I love you, Con.”

Her throat constricts again, and she barely manages to croak out, “Love you too, Mom” before she ends the call.

There are so many people supporting her—her family, her friends, everyone she knew back home. She can’t let them down. Lightspeed has to succeed. Constance doesn’t know what she’ll do otherwise.

MIA sits cross-legged on the floor of her brand new, half-furnished, extremely temporary, C Entertainment-subsidized studio apartment. She's already lived through IGNITE!’s finale once, but it's been ingrained in her to carefully pore over and analyze each of her public appearances. It’s why she’s seen every episode of Excellence (2017-2019), where she played a friend of main character Danielle “Elle” Walker, at least once. It’s also why she’s seen every episode of its spinoff, Lin & Kris (2019-2020), where she had her biggest starring role to date, multiple times over. Watching it all, over and over and over again, sometimes makes her feel less like Mia Kim and more like her fictional character, Linda Lee—a know-it-all, goody two-shoes overly concerned with grades and the rules.

IGNITE!, at least, let Mia be herself. The hard part is that after spending so many years acting, both for her job and to please her mother, she doesn’t quite know what parts are her, as her own individual person.

She reaches for the TV remote and presses play. The show was easily broadcast and archived on YouTube, which gives her no excuse to not watch it. During IGNITE!, the contestants had come together to watch and react to it. Mia had pointed out her own shortcomings with a speed and alacrity that she realized early on was not normal. After that, she kept it to herself instead, repeating over and over again in her head what she should have done better. She should have smiled more. She should haven’t said that offhand comment. She shouldn’t have laughed so much at that performance. She should have had a bigger reaction.

Now she sits on the hardwood floor with a notebook, the sixth of its kind, while the episode plays on the TV. She could skip through it, looking specifically for her parts. It’s over an hour long, and it’ll take her much longer than an hour to watch it. But she wants to see the people who she’s going to be in a group with. To be honest, Mia doesn’t know anyone else that well. She was in it to win it, not to make friends. She formed a few superficial relationships, the ones she knew would work well on TV. For that reason, she sort of knows Constance—smart, unassuming, funny when she wants to be, in a league of her own when it comes to singing. They’ve been roommates since the show’s halfway point, but Mia was always too conscious of all the cameras to speak more than she had to. That alone, she knew, could have made her look cold and unconcerned, too focused on the destination to enjoy the journey. So she made up for that in her actions—always slinging an arm around Constance’s shoulders, holding the other girl’s hand, picking her first for the final sports event currently playing on the TV.

Mia remembers doing her best to pick her team members in an even way—a balance between other people who were ranked highly, and then a few lower ranks. She can’t pick only from the top six. She’d be called a bitch and accused of favoritism. And yet somehow her team consisted of four Lightspeed members: herself, Constance, Ash, and Ev. She draws her knees up into her chest and suppresses the urge to scroll down into the comment section.

She watches herself explain her choices: Constance for her logical strategies, Ash for his infectious enthusiasm, Ev for his quick thinking. This was one of the first events they had all done together, Mia remembers. She hadn’t known the guys too well, but she knew she couldn’t pick a team of four girls either. She makes a note to find out what else Ev is good at, now that they’re going to be group members. Her performance has been fine so far. Maybe it’s because she’s spent the past four months in Korea with little access to her cell phone, and so her mom has no way of contacting her to provide her own feedback.

On screen, the sports progress. Mia's team did well, winning two of the five events and being crowned the overall winners. She watches her team accept the prize, a trial skincare kit from one of the show's sponsors. Her remarks are more pointless and shallow than they usually are, so she writes that down—Depth of winning comments. Need to show more sincerity. The four of them worked well together. She's optimistic for Lightspeed.

The episode drags on. It hadn't seemed that long during filming. The two songs for the finale are revealed again, like the producers forgot they showed them in the previous episode. Mia leans forward to watch herself pick first. She's standing in the middle of the room, two diverging paths labeled with the song title, microphone clutched in both hands.

The Mia sitting on the hardwood floor scratches another bullet point into the journal. Appear less desperate. No need to clutch anything.

Then the episode cuts to Tyler before she picks a song. She relaxes fractionally. It makes sense. The producers would want to draw out the suspense of her choice.

There usually isn't much to pay attention to when she isn't on screen. This time is a little different. She watches Constance stress about which of the two songs she should choose and Ash pretend to walk one way before he turns around and picks the other song.

She smiles and almost laughs when she hears him say, “It's like that meme, you know. The illusion of free choice. I'm the cow heading for the slaughterhouse.” There's a slight pause, and then he adds, “I hope I won't end up slaughtered.”

Lightspeed will have to succeed, she decides. Mia wants to spend as long as possible here, making her own choices and living her own life. At some point she'll have to retreat back into her mother's tutelage. Until then, she plans to savor every moment of her freedom.

She pauses the video. She's not quite halfway through and she's taken only a few notes. Fewer than any of the other episodes. Cautiously, she clicks her pen and closes the notebook. What's the harm in stopping here? Her mom won't have to know. Mia will report her honest thoughts so far, and then fudge a couple of lines. She's never done that before, and the mere thought of it is quietly thrilling. After her debut, she expects to be so busy she won't have time for this. It's a strange ritual anyway, now that she's seen her peers’ reactions to it.

Mia picks up her phone and sends a message to the other Lightspeed members—anyone up for dinner? i’ll pay.

Ev’s thumbs up emoji response is instantaneous—just the person she wanted to talk to. She leaves her notebook on the floor. It'll always be there. She might not be able to rid herself of her mother’s influence completely, but if she’s going to take advantage of her freedom, she has to start somewhere.

The day Lightspeed learns of their debut date, VIOLET buys a 2024 and 2025 wall calendar. She stands in the kitchen and shreds them to pieces, ripping the decorative pictures off each one until all that's left are the days themselves. Ev wanders into the kitchen in the midst of her work. They make silent eye contact. She watches him steal one of Mia’s Babybel cheeses out of the fridge.

“What’s this?” Ev asks, nodding at her work. He peels the plastic off the cheese with much more care than Violet and her calendar.

“Nothing,” Violet says. She doesn’t want to talk to him about it. She knows Ev is nice, and that he means well, but she also knows he’s going to try and talk her out of it. A year from now, Lightspeed will go their separate ways. She would do well to not forget that. The calendar is a physical reminder.

Ev wouldn’t understand that. Violet chalks it up to his age: too young to truly understand that nothing good can last forever.

“Have it your way,” he says with a shrug, dropping the wax wrapping into the trash.

The landscape pictures of Violet’s calendars follow soon after.

In the privacy of her bedroom, she tapes them to the wall in order, like some sort of interpretive wallpaper. She has to admit that it makes the room look a bit like a prison cell, and she’s counting down the days to her escape. Deep down, she thinks Lightspeed isn’t far off from that. IGNITE! was her last chance for a debut, and now Lightspeed will be her last group. Violet doesn’t see a future for herself as an idol after this. She was too old five years ago. She’s practically a dinosaur now. Her peers are fourteen years old. She feels ill just thinking about it.

A knock sounds at her door. Her first reaction is that someone wants her to turn her music down, though she's very conscious of thin walls. She turns it off before she answers the door.

Tyler stands there in the doorway, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. He could be anywhere else.

“Do you need something?” Violet asks, perhaps a little ruder than she should be.

“Your music is loud,” he says. Tyler is skittish around her, and Violet doesn't know why. She can't tell if he's the type of guy to be completely inept at talking to women. He seems fine whenever he interacts with Mia and Constance. Outside of his inflammatory Twitter account, she thinks he’s normal.

“My bad,” Violet responds, before quickly adding, “You can hear it?”

Tyler nods. “We share a wall.” He jerks his thumb over his right shoulder. “SES’s ‘Soul to Soul?’”

“Yeah,” she says, a little surprised. “I thought the song was older than you.”

He scoffs. “It isn’t. It’s a good song. You’re not that much older than me.”

She isn’t. That makes the two of them, then, kpop dinosaurs. Ash should probably be included in that, given that he’s between their ages.

Tyler peers past her into her room. She makes a move to stop him, but she’s seconds too late.

“What’s that?” he asks, pointing past her.

Violet knows exactly what he’s looking at: her newest wall decor. “Nothing,” she says, about something that is much more than nothing, leaning against the doorframe to keep him from seeing too much.

He drops his arm and stares over her other shoulder. “Are you, like, obsessed with schedules? Is it that important to you? There are people who will keep track of that for us.” His words are what she’d categorize as carefully neutral. She doesn’t doubt his ability to act—he survived IGNITE! after all.

“It’s nothing,” she repeats, and Tyler drops it, approaching with another topic instead.

“You were in Heart Lines, right?” he says with the confidence and casuality of someone who already knows the answer to their own question.

“I was.” That was eight years ago. It was her first group, and the one that lasted the longest, until Lightspeed. When the group was still around, she thought it might last forever. In hindsight, she was ridiculously naive.

“You had some good songs.”

“Is this a joke? Name one.” They didn’t have any good songs. They had ten songs total, and Violet was barely part of it. She had few lines and even less screen time in their two music videos.

“‘Heart Beat,’” Tyler says, sounding surprised as he names her first debut song. “It was on my Spotify Wrapped in 2016.”

Violet stares at him. “You have horrible taste in music.”

“Wow. Okay. Are you going to say that about Lightspeed?”

She shrugs. “Probably not.” It’s a well-known fact that C Entertainment has a lot of money. Surely their music will be good. And even if it isn’t, she won’t have anything bad to say. Ever since her online kpop journalist career kind of took off, she’s concentrated on being more positive, trying to focus only on the good and the constructive. Sometimes it’s hard.

“If Ash gets his way, it could be worse,” Tyler says grimly. “He's trying to be the next online hyperpop sensation, and his favorite group is NCT.”

That doesn’t bother Violet too much. As long as they can stand out, without sounding like ninety percent of the other groups, she doesn’t care too much. Heart Lines was just another girl group from a small company with a cute, schoolgirl concept. Tyler might not know this, but Lightspeed has to succeed. It’s her last chance to be an idol, and Violet doesn’t want it to end the same way her previous groups ended—nothing more than the briefest flash in the pan. She’d rather go out like a star—the light visible for years and years into the future.

“That’s a problem?”

“Right. I’m the one with poor taste,” he deadpans. He seems to have warmed up to her.

“If you say so.” Violet has to get back to her wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she watches one corner of February 2025 slip down, then another.

“What was that?” Tyler asks, as if he can hear the very whisper of paper against the wall. Maybe he can. Maybe she's the problem, overreacting to everything he's trying to be a good neighbor about.

She takes a step back into the room, letting the door shut about halfway before she stops it. “I'm taking care of it. See you around.”

She lets the door shut in Tyler's face, again, probably ruder than she should be. He might think she's a bitch, but that doesn't bother her. She's here to succeed for herself. She rips another piece of masking tape and affixes February 2025 back to its place on her wall.

Being called in to talk to your boss on the first day of your new job is like being called into the principal's office as a kid, but ten times worse. Unfortunately, that's exactly what's happening to ASH. The office of C Entertainment COO Choi Hayoung reminds him of a doctor's office. Or maybe a dentist's office. It even smells like antiseptic. A few pun-filled posters reminding patients to floss and exercise wouldn't look out of place.

The couch he sits on is, at least, much more comfortable than it looks. Ash sinks into it, spread out over all three seats.

“Congratulations on your victory and your upcoming debut,” Hayoung says with an almost motherly smile. Her English has no accent he can discern. Two framed diplomas, sit on the wall behind her desk, not unlike a doctor’s office. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from ASU of all places, and a master’s in international relations from Harvard. It surprises him, because Hayoung has much more of a West Coast California vibe. The Bay Area, specifically, if he was asked at gunpoint.

Ash decides this is better than the principal’s office.

“Thanks,” he answers, somehow sinking further into the couch.

Hayoung checks the time, her watch quite literally glittering in the light. He suspects it costs just as much as his college education.

“I don't have long,” she starts, “but I wanted to let you know that you've been chosen to be Lightspeed’s leader.”

Ash straightens up the best he can. “Me?” he asks, pointing at himself and feeling like he's recreating a meme.

Hayoung nods. “You.”

He could name better candidates for leader—five of them, in fact. He’s his own last choice. “Why not Violet? Or Tyler?” Violet developed a reputation on IGNITE! for her past experience and the leadership skills she somehow gained from it. Tyler is, well, Tyler—brash, confident, charismatic. Ash, on the other hand, is quite literally the clown of the group. It’s what he signed up for, because he has nothing to contribute except a witty comment or a well-timed pun.

“We’re confident you’ll do well,” Hayoung says without answering his question. It’s nice that she believes in him, but Ash is still far from believing in himself. “It suits you. It will be your job to act as the bridge between your group members and the company’s management team.”

“What about the music?” Ash asks next.

Hayoung looks confused. “What about it? The six of you will be responsible for your lyrics. As for the production, that's none of your concern.”

He wants it to be his concern. “I have some ideas, and I've already written a few—”

“It's taken care of. You should concentrate on your responsibilities as the leader.” This time, she cuts him off and checks her watch again. “If you'll excuse me, I have another meeting in five minutes.”

Ash can read the room. He knows when he's being dismissed. He puts on his best smile—he practiced that a lot on IGNITE!—and says, “I won't let you down.”

This time, Hayoung’s expression is warm and genuine. “I'm glad we can depend on you.”

Leaving her office gives him a bit of an ego boost. He might not want to be the leader, but he knows he can do it. His first step as leader will be to discover exactly what's going on with their debut album.

Ash retraces his steps from their tour of the C Entertainment building a few days ago. It screams corporate rather than entertainment—long empty halls, solid wooden doors, the feeling that any sound over fifty decibels will result in your death. It seems bigger than it has to be. He'd bet money that the majority of the rooms are empty or unfinished.

The music production wing is the only one with life. Quite literally, because Ash remembers the wall made of grass. It has a few shelves cut out in it, soft light haloing the releases of C’s other artists for a total of three albums. He envisions Lightspeed's alongside them. Their future is bright.

Light leaks out from under the door with “LIGHTSPEED” typed on a piece of paper and taped to it. Ash knocks and then enters, fully prepared to bow ninety degrees to their production team of two girls his age.

Only one of them is there—Haera, he thinks. She's slumped in an expensive ergonomic chair, cast in the blue hue of the four computer monitors spanning her desk. Posters of anime characters and Hatsune Miku decorate the wall behind her.

“Hello,” he says hesitantly, because he has the Korean vocabulary of a kpop stan combined with someone who watches exclusively violent gang movies.

She bolts to her feet, bowing a few times and saying something. Ash recognizes one word—sorry. The rest of the syllables wash over him, intimately familiar and completely incomprehensible.

“Okay,” he says, gesturing for her to sit back down. He wishes Violet or their manager, Logan, was here with him to help translate. He's here for one thing, so he gets to the point. “Music. Lyrics. Write.” He mimes writing in the air.

An expression of understanding dawns on Haera’s face as she takes a seat again. “Ah. Now? Only you?” she asks in English.

He hadn't planned on starting now, because he didn't plan farther than beating Hayoung to the punch. Ash nods anyway.

From somewhere on her desk, Haera produces a large stack of papers, a CD in a jewel case, and a flash drive.

“Four songs,” she says, holding up four fingers on one hand. She divides the stack of papers—now he sees that they're split into sections, held together with binder clips. She picks up the largest stack. “Title.”

He nods, assuming the other three are to be b-sides.

Haera points out the CD and flash drive next, miming headphones. “Listen. Okay?” She gives him two thumbs ups.

Ash smiles and mimics her gesture. “Okay.” He takes the papers and the CD and the flash drive and secludes himself in the far corner of the room.

A few days ago, he thought it was much too extravagant to be provided with not only a recording studio but also whatever this is—a recreation room? An office? A computer lab? A mini concert hall? Now he appreciates that he can hide behind too many screens the same way Haera is. At home, he used lock himself in his closet, pad it with noise cancelling foam, balance his laptop on his knees while holding his microphone, and then record. This setup knocks that one out of the park.

He starts to skim through the papers, finally feeling like he's back in his element. He still doesn't appreciate Hayoung assigning him to be the leader without even asking. Whatever. It's part of his responsibility now, as the leader, to help ensure Lightspeed’s success.

The notes, which are in English, thankfully, are clear and easy to follow. Some of the pages are just pictures—NASA photographs and science fiction film screenshots and Pinterest mood boards. Whoever designed had a clear vision in mind, and Ash can't help but begin to think of some famous last words. It can't be that hard. Right?

EV spends his last day as a normal, non-celebrity in the most normal way he can think of. He supposes he might already be considered a celebrity after his appearance on IGNITE! Already, he can't go outside without an escort—for now, it’s Lightspeed’s manager, Logan. For the past few weeks, Ev has privately wondered how a Japanese American from the Phoenix suburbs becomes the manager of a not-quite-kpop group. He still doesn’t quite know where Phoenix is. Mia asked once and got an answer about Arizona and California and deserts. Ev’s sketchy knowledge of American geography places California on one coast and New York on the other. He figures there’s space for a desert somewhere in there.

As far as initial impressions go, he likes Logan. He might be almost a full decade older than Ev, but he’s kind and polite, if slightly aloof. Not to mention he's onboard with Ev’s current goal of visiting every coffee shop within a fifteen kilometer radius of Lightspeed's house. It turns out there are a lot of coffee shops, especially once he started counting the ones that are conjoined with other businesses, the ones that are pop-up kiosks in shopping centers, and the ones that are known for selling other foods, but still serve coffee.

He might have drawn his circle too large, but it's given him an excuse to visit another bookstore. It doesn't matter that Ev doesn't understand Korean—it’s more about the vibe. That, and Logan is fluent.

“What about this one?” Ev asks, picking up another slim paperback from the bestseller’s section. The top half of the cover is white, with a title that he could sound out if he was given long enough. The bottom half looks like a stock image of space, a crescent moon and a few stars set over a dark blue backdrop. He’s been eyeing the depths of the store for the past ten minutes, too afraid to take the plunge into somewhere completely unfamiliar. Out here, at least, he’s already recognized Han Kang’s Human Acts and Sohn Won-pyung’s Almond.

Logan takes a closer look. “Hwang Sok-yong’s Gaebapbaragibyeol. It's a poetic way to describe the planet Venus. I'm not sure about this one, but some of the author's other works have been translated into English.”

That explains the cover. Ev nods politely and reshelves it.

He ends up walking out empty-handed, because he might as well be illiterate, but Logan buys a Korean edition of Anna Karenina.

“For all the late nights at Music Bank,” he says before Ev can even ask.

Five minutes later, after a short walk across the bookstore to their conjoined coffee shop, Ev is eleven thousand won broker. The oat milk substitution in his iced latte was nearly a third of the price of the drink itself. Sitting down near the window, he asks Logan the question that’s been on his mind the entire time they spent looking at books.

“How did you have answers to everything I asked in there?”

Logan’s response is short and factual. “I came to Korea to study literature, and you were in the bestsellers section. I got my PhD a couple of years ago.”

Ev almost spits his drink out before he realizes there might be some truth to the first part of that statement. Put him in Waterstones and he’d recognize all the bestsellers too. “You have a PhD? Should I be calling you Dr. Miura?”

Logan—Dr. Miura?—shakes his head, stirring his double shot vanilla mocha. Ev can’t understand why he opted for a hot coffee in the middle of a summer day. “My first name is fine. It’s not like I’m a professor.”

“Was that your plan? To be a professor?” Ev asks, now overly curious. It’s like his own pre-IGNITE! idea to study English lit into grad school and beyond is materializing right in front of him. After that, he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with his life. Now, all those plans have gone out the window.

“At first, I wanted to be a translator. Professor or teacher would have been fine in a pinch.”

And now he’s managing an idol group, though Ev doesn’t think he has much more to do than ensure their schedules never overlap. They’re all adults. They can take care of themselves.

Ev prompts him again. “How did you end up here?” He gestures vaguely to himself, as if to say, how did you end up babysitting me?

“It’s a long story.”

His ice cubes are watering down his drink—which wasn’t very good in the first place—but he doesn’t mind. He says so out loud, and Logan’s mouth twists into what might have been a grimace.

“I moved to Seoul in 2017, a year after I got my bachelor’s. It was between here and Hong Kong. Some of my college professors recommended a few programs to me after I expressed an interest in learning another language. After I picked Korea, I met Hayoung.”

Ev bites his tongue gently, working hard to not interrupt him. He has questions on top of questions to ask. Why not Hong Kong? What was his degree in? Hayoung, their boss?

“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have made it through the program. My advisor hated me. He used to host department events and invite everyone down to the Korean undergrads but never the international students. I graduated in 2022, and Hayoung offered me a job during C’s founding. I was supposed to manage Sejun at first. No one knew he was bringing along his former group’s manager until he did. Then it was TFTS for a few months—have you heard of them?” He pauses here.

“A little,” Ev says. He doesn’t admit that he only found out about them after he won IGNITE!

“I thought so. That venture didn’t last long. IGNITE! was in the beginning stages of production then, and it was a given I’d stay on to work with the winners. And now I’m here.” Logan takes a long drink and then gestures across the table. “Your turn.”

For some reason, Ev hesitates. He knows it’s hypocritical after he’s asked Logan to tell his life story. But Ev’s never enjoyed talking about himself, and he can already tell he’s like the British, less qualified version of his manager. “Can we stick a pin in that?”

Logan gives him a long look before he acquiesces. “Alright. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. We should head back.“ He stands up to dispose of his cup.

Ev shakes the remaining ice shards in his drink. He’s barely given his debut a thought in the past few hours. There isn’t much to think about. Lightspeed will succeed, and his name will be written in kpop history forever.

#AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT — TRANSMISSION.#AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT — DEVELOPMENT.#fictional idol community #idol oc #kpop oc #kpop au #kpop addition

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