#i guess i wait for the second team and see how they translate such things

[faceless-dude]

Original: "troublesome guy(s)" - unless there are context-defining markers people knowing the lang (unlike me, lol) would see, it can be translated either way.

Eng: referring to Heavenly losers

Rus: referring to Sonic 🤭

[umf1]

george russell is interviewed during the press conference on media day, miami - may 1, 2025 (transcript under the cut)

Interviewer: "Welcome back to Miami, everybody. Part two of our drivers press conference. Closest to me, Nico Hulkenberg, then George Russell and Lewis Hamilton." [time jump] Interviewer: "George, let's bring you in now. Three podiums from the opening five races. Is that a tally that matches with your pre-season expectation?" George: "No, I think it's probably better than our pre-season expectations, to be honest. The pace has fallen out where we thought; that step behind McLaren, and then a close fight with Red Bull and Ferrari. And we've been doing really well to get those podiums and we're nicely P2 in the teams championship, but I don't think it necessarily means we are the second fastest team. I think sort of on average we've been the third fastest team. We saw obviously Charles had a great race last week, and obviously Max also the last couple of races, but we've just been nicely consistent and picking up points." Interviewer: "Consistent, yes, but it looked like Saudi was the most difficult-" George: "Yep." Interviewer: "-of the races so far. Having had a chance to debrief with the team, what conclusions have you reached?" George: "I mean, tires were too hot, really, so that was a big problem, and I think just pushing a bit too hard to try and keep up with the front two. And Charles put in a really strong race and I was probably driving too quick for what the tires and the car was capable of, and then we dropped off a cliff. So not too sure how this weekend's going to pan out, because I think in terms of temperatures and the tires, it'll be relatively similar to Jeddah. So we'll have to wait and see, and see if any of the learnings we've taken from last week we can translate into a bit of performance. But I'm confident the quali pace will sort of be there or thereabouts, but it's the race pace, there's a bit more of a question mark." Interviewer: "Alright, George, thank you for that."

[QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR:] Journalist: "Yeah. Craig Slater, Sky Sports. Question for Georgee, actually, with your GPDA hat on: President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has said that after constructive feedback with drivers, he's looking at making improvements to the rules that govern driver conduct issues and so on. Just wanted to know, do you think that's a very positive step, George." George: "Yeah, I mean, conceptually, yes. But obviously we want to see these things put into action, rather than saying 'we're considering things.' We all consider a lot of things. We're clear we want changes, and once they are implemented, then we'll comment on it. But for the time being, it's being considered, so the words don't mean anything until the change has been made." [NOT SHOWN:]

Journalist: "Tom Cary, The Telegraph. One for Lewis and George. Just to put to you the question about fatherhood – I know you’re not dads, but do you feel it could change Max as a person and as a driver? Do you have any hope that it might distract him?" George: "Yeah, I think we’re all professionals, but this is a personal part of your life. I guess for anyone who's had a kid, it’s a pretty special moment. So yeah, all the best to him. As Nico says, I think for many people it probably brings things to your life. I know what it's like when I see my nieces and nephews – they're not my kids, but they bring me so much joy when I spend time with them. And you've seen drivers in the past win championships and races who’ve got kids, so I don't see it changing anything on his professional level."

Journalist: "Molly Hudson, The Times. A question for George: Just following up on Craig's question from earlier. The President’s Instagram post mentioned constructive dialogue. Have you actually had any dialogue with the President? Because I think after the open letter you said there hadn’t been a response. So did it come as new news to you reading it on Instagram?" George: "I mean, in short, yes. I mean, collectively we've not spoken any further since the open letter that was sent out. So whether that is the response – I'm not too sure. As I said, it’ll be great if changes were made and the drivers were at least heard. I think it's just in the best interest for the sport and ensuring that some common sense is applied to these situations. As I said, I think all of us, we can comment on it when we see the action being taken rather than just the consideration."

Journalist: "Jon Noble, The Race. George, another one. You’re one of the few drivers who've raced with the cooling vest this year. But some drivers want to race with it but can't because it adds too much weight onto their car. If it’s not declared from the GPDA’s perspective, does something need to be done to ensure everyone’s operating on the same playing field on this? Because obviously not all cars weigh the same without ballast." George: "Yeah. I mean, I feel fortunate that I’ve had the chance to run with the cooling vest. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s definitely an improvement, I feel. Every car is also different – I think every cockpit runs at different temperatures. I know we've seen our cockpit getting up to 60 degrees before, and I think the heat hazard is at 31 degrees, I believe, or 30. But when you compound that with the sunlight and the temperature of the cockpit, it is like a sauna in the race car. So yeah, I don’t know. We've not collectively spoken about it, and not everybody's in favour to run it – which is also fine. Somebody made the point recently – like football players on a cold day, some people are wearing gloves, some people have got short sleeve shirts on – and that should be the driver’s choice. Maybe the heat hazard should be reduced slightly because we've not yet gone over it. Saudi was hot, Bahrain was hot, here – maybe it could be adjusted by a few degrees."

Journalist: "Jenna Fryer, Associated Press. Some of the drivers have talked about some of the turns." George: "Yeah. I mean, I enjoy coming to Miami. It’s a crazy race. The circuit is quirky. That tight section – we don’t love it, but it's different. You know, the same like in Baku – we don’t love the castle section, it’s so tight and very challenging, but you don’t want every circuit to be the same either. It’s an amazing race. It's improving every year. Things are looking better as well – driving to the paddock, it looks pretty cool. And where all of the team garages are set up inside the stadium – they’re the experts, we just drive the cars. It should stay like that."

Journalist: "Graham Harris, Motorsport Monday. Question for all three of you – but George mainly. The GPDA is a formal body of the drivers, but you don’t seem to have a formal relationship with the FIA, with structured meetings where you can actually sit down and come out and say, "we talked about this face to face." You're resorting to open letters and that type of thing. Do you think that position should change?" George: "I mean, it’s… I feel it's like unprecedented times we’ve been in over the last 18 months with what’s been changed and what’s happening. I think when the GPDA was founded years ago, it wasn’t really to talk about politics – it was to talk about safety, improvements of the sport, improvements of the racing. Especially myself – I find myself talking about topics that I didn’t really have any intention of talking about. But we find ourselves in a time where we're not focused on the things why we’re all here. We're here to go racing, we’re here to create the best show for the fans, to have the fastest cars, the safest cars, the best technology, the best engineering – and yet we talk about fines and punishments and swearing. So yeah, maybe something should change. We're open to it, but we just ultimately want the best for the sport."

[youkaigakkou-tl]

The TRUTH behind the soul pieces

Preamble: I started writing this expecting nothing, but I actually found something??? not clickbait???? gone right???

Warning: the expected reaction of reading this is “damn. I’ve never seen someone grasp harder at straws” and “I dunno about this one chief”

So. "The soul pieces aren't exactly what we're told they are" is an idea I've had for a while now. (I wouldn’t even call it a theory, it’s just a passing thought.) Not that "they're manifestations of Haruaki's traits" is wrong, but I think there's more to them than immediately obvious. I just haven't talked about this much because even I don't fully buy into it and it kinda verges on horoscope-type confirmation bias territory. It’s kind of a, I THINK there’s more to it but I don’t know what exactly is more.

A brief recap

First one shown is his "worldly desires", animal trio vs Seiryuu.

Second is his "freak athleticism", that Kurahashi's team and Ebisu just ran into.

With just these two he runs off to find Sano

Third is his "cowardice", found by Sano's team and Byakko, which gets away and hides in Sano's pocket.

Fourth is his "memory", originally found by Hijita's team and Genbu, which gets picked up by Genbu and then the whole Heian flashback happens.

And last is his "intelligence", which for some reason is also the one that can use his exorcism power.

So immediately a couple details stood out to me.

Why is "memory" here?? I wouldn't call that a trait exactly??

Also, when it first broke apart and flew off in five directions, it's specifically pointed out that it's "like a five pointed star" (even though it's not really if you look at the actual locations on a map lol)

And the sticking point, if it was as clean and simple a split as “Haruaki’s traits”, why do the traits bleed into each other? “Athleticism” is into sailor uniforms too, and “Cowardice” and “Intelligence” are pretty quick by themselves. Also, even without his “Memory” at the time, he remembered that conversation with Seimei in ch87.

The five pointed star detail, considering everything in the arc heavily relates to the Four Gods and Seimei's star, which relates to Wuxing, almost begs to be referencing that too.

What is Wuxing?

Wuxing, five elements, five phases, gogyo, whatever other name for it: I’ve talked about it briefly in my Kyoto arc analysis

(Wait. Is this actually all I mentioned regarding Wuxing in that analysis???? This tells you nothing!!)

(Tbh I think I had a longer explanation about it but I cut it because I thought it was irrelevant)

Wuxing 五行, roughly translated as five elements or phases, is a concept that comes from Taoism. The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and describes the interactions between them. Here’s the wikipedia page if you really want to get into the details.

The “xing” means movements/moving, and the entire concept of Wuxing comes from the five classical planets’ (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) movements affecting… things? In general? (It’s horoscopes)

In fact, the names of those five planets in Chinese and Japanese are tied with the Wuxing:

Mercury = 水星 water star

Venus = 金星 metal/gold star

Mars = 火星 fire star

Jupiter = 木星 wood star

Saturn = 土星 earth star

You’re taught these as a kid but not the reasoning behind it (because it’s hella irrelevant lmao) but I guess it kinda makes instinctual sense? (Venus = yellow, Mars = red, Jupiter = stripes, like tree rings?? Saturn = brown. Mercury = it looks like there’s rivers? idk how much detail they were seeing in the BC times)

And just to sate curiosity, the planets that were discovered after telescopes were invented are just based off the English names

Uranus = 天王星 sky god star

Neptune = 海王星 sea god star

Pluto = 冥王星 underworld god star

By the way, this is also why the days of the week are named after elements in Japanese; it’s not actually the elements, rather it’s referring to the celestial bodies: those 5 planets + the moon and the sun. It’s the classical Chinese system that Japan adopted around the 5th century AD, and they haven’t changed it since then. (Chinese uses stuff like “weekday 1” for monday now.) And China itself adopted the Greco-Roman system of the 7 day week, days named after celestial bodies around the 4th century AD, which is also why the planets and days line up if you look at the English and Japanese names now.

Would be crazy if they independently decided to have 7 days in a week and name days after celestial bodies and assigned the same planets to the days huh.

(Also, TIL from looking at this chart that the sun (taiyang) is indeed called that because it’s the “great yang star”, and the moon is called the “great yin star”, you know, like yin-yang)

I’m remembering why it’s so hard to research and write about this stuff now. Everything is so inextricably connected to everything else its hard to talk about one thing in isolation. Thanks for indulging my astronomy tangent I love astronomy.

(I always got saturn on da mind when I think about Seimei cus of this art…)

The only useful part of this essay

So. Wuxing. Here’s a pretty standard diagram of it so it’s easier to visualise

There are five types of processes Wuxing describes:

Generating: Wood feeds fire

The reverse side of generating: Fire burns wood

Regulating: Wood grasps earth

Excessive regulating (destruction): Wood depletes earth

The reverse side of regulation (exhaustion): Earth rots wood

And here’s a full list of it, from wikipedia

With this in mind, you’ll notice that it pops up all over the place in Kyoto arc!

If we take lightning as aligned with metal (because Byakko = metal = lightning user), this is the regulating interaction of metal -> wood

Metal cuts wood, but wood also dulls metal

Water… nourishing wood….???

Water destabilizes earth

(“This is just pokemon lol” WRONG!! Pokemon types and every other element system in videogames came from Wuxing!! (Or Godai))

Back to the soul pieces

So you see, it’s incredibly tempting to connect the five soul pieces with the five elements of Wuxing. It’s basically begging for it. The Wuxing has been associated with lots of things that come in sets of five, including things like senses, tastes, smells, emotions, mental qualities, periods of one’s life, body parts. It has applications in divination and traditional chinese medicine after all. If there was a clear, 1-to-1 match between the soul pieces and the elements, you bet I would have talked about it more by now. But the connections are tenuous at best, and even I don’t really believe it. They might, probably, just be the traits we’re told they are. So this really is just to humor myself, and maybe someone can glean something more from this.

Let’s lay out the things surrounding the soul pieces:

“Desires” was at Arashiyama (a bamboo forest) and Seiryuu was present, both associated with Wood

“Athleticism” was at Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion), none of the four gods were present, no obvious element associations here.

“Cowardice” was at Mount Kurama (mountain = earth?), Byakko was present (metal?)

“Memory” was at Kiyomizu-dera (clear water temple), and Genbu was present, water association

“Intelligence” was at Kinkaku-ji (gold pavilion), and none of the four gods were present initially. (gold = metal?)

The other thing I’ve yet to mention is all the soul pieces seem to be of different points in Haruaki’s life. (Well. Four of them at least.)

“Desires” and “Athletics” seem to look and act younger (as much as you can tell with chibis…), both wearing simple t-shirts, and “Athletics” t-shirt and shorts look like what Haruaki wore as a kid in the Miki arc flashback. Adding on to that, we’re constantly told how into sailor uniforms Haruaki was as a little kid (literally whenever his childhood gets brought up: Mamaaki talking about it in ch8, him saying his first cry as a newborn was “sailor uniform” in ch43, the ch51.5 extra) (ok to be fair. his sailor uniform fetish gets brought up at every opportunity. but i feel like it’s Pretty emphasized here) Also I feel like “Desires” especially talks like a kid.

Meanwhile “Cowardice” and “Memory” are dressed the way he currently does, and “Cowardice” seems to parallel the way Haruaki was at the start of the series. It’s Sano’s team that runs into him, he acts like how Haruaki did early on just amped way up, and he ends up hiding on Sano.

IQ-kun… still don’t know what to make of him and how he fits into this lol

Put like this, doesn’t it almost seem like, in the order they appear, they represent points in Haruaki’s life too?

Or, this could all be nothing, because they’re all wearing the same thing in the jacket for Volume 14.

So anyway, from this angle, it seems like Desires and Athletics line up fairly cleanly with Wood and Fire respectively, but Cowardice, Memory and Intelligence are a little murkier. Cowardice only somewhat lines up with Earth, and both Memory and Intelligence could align with Water, while Memory could also be Metal. (I dropped the quotation marks bc they were getting distracting)

Here’s a diagram to illustrate.

(See it’s kinda, pick-and-choosey, horoscope-type shit)

Immediately a couple problems arise. First and most majorly is the horoscopey-ness of it all. And then there’s the matter that, if the four gods represent four out of five of the elements and earth is the outlier, wouldn’t it also make sense if IQ-kun as the outlier would be assigned that?

There’s also the possibility that the first four are a set, and IQ-kun makes up the “yin” to the rest of Haruaki’s “yang” (But then what would the first four correspond to individually? idk….)

We’re getting nowhere with this analogy, so let’s look at some adjacent philosophies in sets of five, just for fun, and see if they line up any better.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

This one is the most related to Wuxing, there are five main “organs” in TCM that have associated Wuxing elements. They might be called the same names as the anatomical organs, but they’re actually more like concepts only roughly correlated with locations on the body. This is stuff codified thousands of years ago before modern knowledge of the human body, mind you.

Heart (fire): stores the “aggregate soul” (the mind)

Spleen (earth): governs transportation of qi and blood, and governs muscles and limbs

Lung (metal): stores the “po 魄” (physical soul)

Kidney (water): responsible for willpower or fear

Liver (wood): governs free flow of qi, blood and emotions. Stores blood, which stores the “hun 魂” (ethereal soul)

(The wikipedia page I linked has more in depth descriptions)

And if we sorta line up the attributes…

Desires = Liver/wood

Athleticism = Spleen/earth

Cowardice = Kidney/water

Memory = Lung/metal

Intelligence = Heart/fire

Something like this? It doesn’t line up particularly nicely either, and certainly doesn’t line up with the first theory…

But reading up on this actually brought something useful to my attention: the concept of “hun” and “po”

See, there’s this Chinese compound word “hun po 魂魄” that generally just means “soul”, but if you get really semantic they’re two different types of souls?

The “hun” is the yang-aligned “ethereal soul” typically understood as the wits/mind of a person, whatever constitutes the personality, and is the part of the soul that leaves the body on death.

The “po” is the yin-aligned “physical soul”, sometimes described as the “baser animal spirit” of a person, and is attached to the body.

This could explain why Haruaki’s soul is also Seimei’s soul, but also Seimei is in the underworld?

This scene I got real hung up about in my Kyoto arc post?

It lining up and being a reasonable explanation is one thing, but whether sensei is deliberately referencing a property of Chinese linguistics that doesn’t have an equivalent in Japanese kanji is another thing. And honestly, I could see Tanaka “I’ll have to read up on Chinese history, but off the top of my head Byakko and Seiryuu are from 4000BC and Suzaku and Genbu are younger” Mai could and would do it. (Good god, what I wouldn’t give to see sensei’s notes. Yohaji fanbook explaining every cultural reference PLEASEEEE IM BEGGINGGG)

Godai

Godai (“the five great (elements)”), while also a thing with five elements that features prominently in Japanese culture, differs from Wuxing in that it originates from the concept of Mahābhūta in Indian Buddhism, and features Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Void. It’s a more inert definition and describes the elements as building blocks, contrasting with Wuxing which is more concerned with the balancing and interaction between the elements and the changes they cause in each other.

Godai also isn’t ever depicted as a star (and Wuxing is only depicted as a star as a byproduct of all the arrows denoting the interactions, sometimes the 5 elements are arranged like the 5 side of a dice with lines connecting everything) and is typically depicted as a Gorinto, a stone structure.

In order from top to bottom, it goes Void, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and represents the structure of the universe in Buddhism.

So. Attributes and if they line up any better.

Earth: unmoving, stability

Water: fluidity, adaptability, motion

Fire: passion, power, energy

Wind: growth, freedom

Void: the spirit? thought? there’s not really a clear description of this one. To begin with, originally in Buddhism, it’s just said that “from void emerged air, from air emerged fire, (etc)”

I could see wind = Memory and void = Intelligence, but the rest… I dunno man

The five aggregates in Buddhism

And now, following the thread back from Godai, to the Buddhist concept of Skandhas, or the “five aggregates of clinging”, described as the five factors that make up a sentient being’s personality. (Hey, this sounds like it could be onto something here!)

The five aggregates are:

Form or matter: the material form of a person

Sensation or feeling: the five senses + intellectual sensation, and the feelings that occur whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

Perception: cognition and recognizing what has been previously noted

Mental formations: dispositions, or something that motivates a person to take action (or sometimes described as the influences of a previous life?!)

Consciousness: cognizance, or the base that supports experience, sometimes translated as mind, intelligence or life force

Wait… This kinda… lines up…? No way…?

Form = Athleticism

Sensation = Cowardice

Perception = Memory

Mental formations = Desires

Consciousness = Intelligence

This… kinda works? They all basically line up and it’s not too tenuous, and there’s enough matching details in the descriptions of the five aggregates that it’s kinda scary…?

I’ll be real, prior to writing this section I hadn’t actually read the descriptions of each of them too carefully (I had the tab open and roughly noted the descriptions kinda worked) and I entirely expected to end this essay with a “in conclusion: no conclusion i learned nothing lol” but there’s actually something here????

And Tanaka Mai is known to reference Buddhism a lot, so this could entirely be intentional…??? I’m kinda shaken rn tbh

I mean, I guess I should have looked to Buddhism first considering sensei’s track record, what with how the arc opened with Haruaki getting put under a waterfall to get rid of his worldly desires, and how 3 out of 5 locations were Buddhist temples, but Buddhism concepts usually use their Sanskrit names and I don’t know how to google for that… (making excuses. classic)

Um. Hope you enjoyed reading this and that you learned something? Here’s all the relevant wikipedia pages if you want to go down your own rabbit hole:

Wuxing (Chinese five elements)

Godai (Japanese Buddhism five elements)

Mahābhūta (Indian Buddhism five elements)

Hun and po (two concepts of souls)

Skandha (five aggregates that make up a person)

Twelve Nidanas (didn’t mention this one, but it’s related to skandhas)

If you read all this you should read all my other long rambly things too if you haven’t, they’re all under the #rambles tag 👍

[greenerteacups]

Hey GT, glad to see you're back! I'm still halfway thru Lionheart (just read the world cup chapter, what a delight) and your notes got me wondering.

I'm sure you've probably answered this before but how do you manage to make the world feel so rich? I'm not that into the fandom so I don't know If there are some things fanon agreed upon or if it is your own musings about the magic world. Like Draco explaining to Hermione about portkeys or how many languages Krum speaks.

How do you decide what's important enough to get a mention? Where do you go when you need answers and Canon is not enough to provide it?

Thanks for the kind words, and for the question! It's a matter of personal taste, like anything. Some writers prefer an athletic, streamlined plot, with only as much worldbuilding as you absolutely need (how does Panem run a command economy of 4.5 million people primarily on fossil fuels when its coal district has a population of less than 10,000? fuck off! who cares! they're Y/A dystopias about a TV show where teens beat each other to death!). Some writers, on the other hand, won't bother to start the story until they know the pH of the soil in every region of the world they're writing about. I'm somewhere on the second half of the scale, in that I'll give details that aren't strictly necessary to the plot, just because I like to feel like I'm writing about a world where real, extraneous things can happen. Some details are foreshadowing; some details are Special Mouseketools that will Help Us Later; and sometimes, you just get to know a cool fact about portkeys.

I guess part of the fun of building out a world is getting to think about Everything, which is what my brain normally does. I have a pretty broad body of literature as a starting gate, so there's plenty of room to play. E.g., when I started writing Krum, I thought about how he's not super fluent in English in canon, and that naturally made me ask why, because he clearly has taken English, so either he only started lessons recently or it hasn't been a priority for him; and then I went "wait, what's his first language? Bulgarian, right? But Durmstrang isn't — hang on—" and then I pulled up an actual map of Europe, which led me to realize that he wouldn't likely be speaking his first language at Durmstrang, which means he already had to become bilingual just to start his wizarding education, and that explains part of why he doesn't have a ton of time/effort to spare for a third language, plus he'd probably have a translator available whenever he traveled with a team because he's a B.F.D. — etc., etc. And then you keep thinking about that until you remember that you're supposed to be writing a fic, and you scramble to get back to doing that. Only now, you have worldbuilding! Congrats.

To try for an even halfway useful answer to your question: worldbuilding becomes most important when it creates limitations, because limitations define your characters and give them chances to develop/reveal themselves. So the details of portkeys become important because they explain the limitations of magical travel, which is a big nebulous ??? in the original series, since the introduction of teleportation via Apparating means that all other forms of transportation become inefficient by comparison. It also means the limitations introduced by travel — that is, not all characters can be in all places at once — also go away, because anyone can be anywhere immediately. From a narrative perspective, this sucks massive horse ass. Hence: I dumped a shit ton of limitations on Apparation (i.e., (1) it requires a ton of energy, (2) it's really fucking hard, (3) it's really fucking dangerous, (4) it's more of both the farther away you're going, (5) it's more of both the more people you take with you, (6) you can't Apparate without a clear destination in mind which means (7) you need to have been there already, and so (8) some people prefer not to do it). Hence, I also put limitations on portkeys (i.e., they have to be set up well in advance, you need to identify out both destinations precisely beforehand, and the calculations are difficult to do). Those limitations, and the Watsonian explanations you create for them, are your worldbuilding. They're what make the world feel real, because they give it grit and character. They give you a more complete sense of what you can and cannot do.

The rest of it is taste and preference, really; it's what interests you, and what parts of the world you want to explore. That's going to be unique to every author, and that's the beauty of worldbuilding — it reflects the parts of the world that you like to think about.

[narrans]

Stellar Allies | Part Five

GT July | Stellar Allies | Part Five

Words: Overbearing, Out of Reach, Distortion

The question lingered in the back of Cliff’s mind for a few moments as the situation settled over him. It made perfect sense that Ol’oih, their newfound alien companion, would probably have crew members with him. If that thing that was in the sky was their ship, the pieces that broke off were probably also escape pods and not just meteorite debris as he and Jax originally thought.

With that being said, Cliff’s mind drew a complete blank. When they realized how close Ol’oih’s escape pod, what they thought was a meteorite, had landed, they’d abandoned all observation on the other chunks that broke from the main body. If he thought about the trajectory of where the main body was going, it was possible for them to maybe find out what happened to one of the pieces.

On the other hand, it was equally as possible th-.

“What did he ask?” Jax’s voice made Cliff jump. He’d been so focused trying to solve the question and the issues it presented that he completely forgot about keeping his friend in the loop. He looked down into the crate and saw Ol’oih’s hopeful features gazing back at him while Jax’s face held minor annoyance that he had to wait for Cliff to translate since he was the only one with a direct line of communication to the alien.

“I… sorry. He wanted to know if we knew what happened to the rest of the crew. I’m guessing the thing we saw falling from the sky last night was the main ship, and he wants to know if we know anything about the others,” stated Cliff. He looked down at Ol’oih and swallowed the dryness forming in his throat. “How many others were a part of your crew?”

“There are seven of us total,” Ol’oih pathed, not hesitating when being asked. He felt like he could trust these two, at least at the moment, and he needed to know anything and everything he could before planning his next move. “There is Captain Immott Imai, second-in-command Adda Noz’ex, medical officer Scix’en Trok, our two technical specialists Arcal Kor and Valaih Du’uhl, and then cultural specialist Q’crul Kaelis. Also, as stated before, I am the linguistic specialist. I was meant to be a translator and dialogue analyzer on our information gathering mission.”

The names came so quickly from their six-inch-tall alien companion that Cliff had no hope of trying to memorize or pronounce any of the names correctly. He doubted he could even list one of the names at the moment and instead continuing to listen as Ol’oih continued “pathing” to him.

“We were in orbit and descending in our ship to harness clearer readings when something happened aboard our ship. I do not know if it was an electrical issue or if we were struck, but whatever the case we began entering the atmosphere and had to abandon ship,” Ol’oih pathed as he felt a wave of sadness sweep over him.

I don’t even know if they’re alive. Best case scenario, they managed to rendezvous with the observation team here on the ground and are trying to track either my pod or my suit. Worst case scenario… they’ve been found.

Ol’oih remembered hearing stories and reading books written about the human race, and much of the literature read like a horror story. Capture. Torture. Containment. Uncooperativeness. Destruction. Granted, in those stories the alien race was often the aggressor, but Ol’oih’s people were different.

We’re Stren, not some warring race like the Off’el. We wouldn’t hurt them. It’s why we’re here – to gather information to see if they’re ready for true first contact. Are humans more like us? Or like the Off’el?

“Um… Ol’oih?” He looked up and could read it in the boys’ faces. Though nonverbal communication was limited from their various intercepted transmissions, the miniscule alien could tell that the information they boys had was going to be minimal and disappointing.

Amazing how much I can read just in their faces. It’s like my ciferi. Interesting.

“Yes?” Ol’oih pathed, making sure to speak with intention rather than let his internal thoughts mingle with what he wanted Clifford and Jaxson to hear.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t know what happened to your crewmates,” stated Cliff with a disappointed shake of his head. “We saw the big piece go by and probably crash north of us, but not any of the other fragments. That’s all we know. If anyone else was watching the sky last night, they’d probably be all over the area by now looking for meteorite fragments and maybe finding pieces of your ship.”

“And that’s if a hobbyist got to the pieces first. You know how close we are to Area 51? We’d be lucky if a hobbyist found what was left of your ship. If the government or other organization got to it first, there’s no way we’d find out wha-” Jax was cut off by a stern glare from Cliff, which Ol’oih immediately picked up.

“Wait. What was that? Please! Do not be dishonest with me now. Why did you cut Jaxson off? What is Area 51? And your… government? That is your elected republic officials, yes? Do they… know about us? About life beyond your orbit? Please! Clifford! Jaxson!” Ol’oih pathed. He could hear the desperation in his tone and hoped Cliff would understand how distraught he was.

And Cliff did.

He didn’t mean to shut down his best friend, but he was hoping to give the information a little at a time to not scare the alien. The last thing Cliff wanted was for the little guy to go rogue or hostile, especially while he was physically attached to the alien’s tail-like appendage. The fluctuating gradation of colors rippling over Ol’oih’s skin told Cliff that the alien was feeling distress and uncertainty, and rightfully so.

“Clifford? If you know something, I urge you to share it. Please! If my crew – my friends – are in danger, I need to try and help them. C-can you ask Jaxson to… to… explain? O-or you could! Please!” Ol’oih pathed again, boldly taking a step toward the boy’s hand and laying his palms against the base of the boy’s index finger.

Cliff hated he and his friend had contributed to it, but there was no changing it now. Cliff sighed and exchanged a look with Jax, who had obviously picked up on the fact that he’d shared a bit too much too fast based on the sheepishly guilty look on his face.

“He… wants you to explain.” Cliff gave a nod to his friend and, understanding his meaning, Jax jumped into the conversation. This time, however, Jax was obviously being a bit more precise with his words. He had just began talking as if it were just him and Cliff. It hadn’t occurred to him in that exact moment that the alien wouldn’t know about the conspiracies and rumors about what Jax was referring to.

“I… sorry. I didn’t want to scare you or anything,” apologized Jax. “It’s just… there’s a lot of weird stuff that happens. Um… do you know what a conspiracy is?”

“Conspiracy? No. Define, please,” pathed Ol’oih. He continued to take long, deep breaths to keep his body from thrumming nervously to the point where he might panic or shut down entirely.

“He doesn’t know what it means,” translated Cliff.

“Oh, um… well… a conspiracy is technically defined as a ‘secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful;’ however, people… that is, us humans, sometimes use the word conspiracy when referring to something that may or may not be true because we don’t have enough evidence to back it up. There is supposed ‘evidence,’ but sometimes it comes from an unreliable source. Make sense?” asked Jax.

When Cliff shook his head, obviously translating for Ol’oih, Jax continued.

“Um… okay. Here’s an example. Some people don’t think that humans landed on the moon. Even though there are pictures and stories and all sorts of other pieces of ‘evidence,’ some people think it is a conspiracy – a lie – to cover up the truth that we never set foot on the moon. We say it’s a conspiracy because the people who are telling us that we landed on the moon are secretive and part of a larger organization that may or may not have an agenda.” Jax felt like he didn’t explain everything well, but Ol’oih seemed to be understanding because he looked back to Cliff and then back to him as Cliff translated once more.

“So, tell him about Area 51.”

“Right, so. Area 51 is a military base owned by the government. A lot of people, myself and Cliff included, think that Area 51 is a place where our government hides the existence of aliens from us. There have been countless stories and sightings of ships, in theory, but nothing has been confirmed officially. There are countless conspiracies that there’s UFO testing and alien research that goes on there, but no one really knows because everything there is classified as top secret and no one who works there will talk about what they actually do.

“Now, we actually live not too far away from Area 51, this top secret testing facility, which is what worries me because if we saw your ship, other people who work there might also have seen it and are investigating it right now. I was saying if we were lucky that others, like Cliff and I, might’ve gotten to the crash sites first and might be helping you and your crew; and that if we are unlucky, the people who work there might’ve gotten to the wreck sites first.

“Sorry… I… I’m sorry. I should’ve thought before blurting out stuff like that. I really hope your crew is okay,” said Jax as guilt constricted his chest. He was so used to talking openly with his friend about these kinds of things that it wasn’t even a second thought for him to think about what this information could mean to Ol’oih who, after hearing this, immediately felt faint.

Head swirling and body taking over, his legs buckled and he fell backwards completely limp. Thankfully, Cliff and Jax had both reached forward and caught him before he hit the hard ground. It only lasted a few seconds, but blackout was enough for Ol’oih to realize how dire his situation really was.

They’re not like us. How could we have missed this? Years of observation and we missed this? We knew about their wars and crimes against one another, and we’ve had our struggles too, but to know they’re more like Off’el?

Ol’oih had to know if his crewmates were okay. They had to be! Forcing control back over himself, Ol’oih pushed himself against the boys’ hands until he was upright and waited for the nausea to subside before daring to path back to Cliff again. There was one way he could tell if they were alright or not, but he couldn’t do it alone.

“Clifford, please. I need your help. I need to know if my crewmates are okay.” Images of his friends flashed before his eyes, and he intentionally allowed those images to path to the human boy. Simple things. Them eating meals together. Studying as a group. Leaning back in their pods as they started their expedition here to Earth.

“Woah… Did you just?” Cliff could have sworn that, as he blinked, some of Ol’oih’s memories flashed before his eyes like photo negatives from an old film camera. “Never mind. What can we do?”

“My escape pod. I need it. Please. It possesses equipment to locate their transponders. Also, a current map of our location, specifically that area Jaxson was referring to,” pathed Ol’oih. He knew he must sound overbearing at the moment, but that didn’t matter. What he needed was out of reach and this was the only way he could have peace of mind.

The alternative was far too distressing to consider so soon after he’d managed to find solace in these human allies who had found him.

“Y-yeah. Definitely. Um… Jax, would you grab Ol’oih’s escape pod? He says he’ll be able to find his crewmates with the tech he’s got on it,” said Cliff.

“Sure thing.” Jax carefully tilted his hand so Ol’oih was sitting entirely on Cliff’s fingers while he ran over and grabbed the pod from its hiding place.

“Ol’oih, it’s going to be okay,” Cliff reassured. “We’ll find them.”

I hope so, but what state will they be in when they’re found? Ol’oih wondered silently to himself.

Jax finally managed to pull out the escape pod and carefully set it down in the middle of Cliff’s bedroom. Both boys exchanged an awkward glance, knowing the pod wouldn’t fit inside of the crate comfortably. They knew they needed to bring Ol’oih to the pod, which meant picking him up. Feeling the urgency, Cliff decided to bite the bullet and addressed the issue head on.

“Um… Ol’oih? Is it okay if I… pick you up?” asked Cliff.

“Pick me up? What?” pathed Ol’oih.

“The pod won’t fit directly into this crate here, so we can either tilt the whole thing after pulling out the dishes and stuff, or I can just lift you out really quick and set you over there by your escape pod,” explained Cliff.

If he was being honest with himself, Ol’oih didn’t like the idea of being held. Some of the other beings his people interacted with on a daily basis were as large as humans and, as part of training, they had to simulate being held or carried in a plethora of positions.

Still, it made him uncomfortable.

His comfort, however, wasn’t the primary concern.

His entire body now almost completely consisting of yellow and gray hues, he pathed back, “That is fine, though I would prefer crouching to being encased.”

“Fair enough,” agreed Cliff. He gingerly slid his hand under Ol’oih’s feet while keeping his left hand nearby for stability and because Ol’oih’s tail, or “addon” as he called it, was still firmly imbedded into his flesh. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

Cliff inhaled a steadying breath as he lifted Ol’oih’s entire body up off of the ground. The little six inch tall alien was lighter than expected, and his balance was a bit unstable. Cliff guessed it was because his tail probably acted as a counterbalance when on unsteady surfaces, like that of a cat, and that he couldn’t use it at the moment and instead resorted to gripping onto Cliff’s fingers for dear life. It was fascinating to feel all four fingers on each hand grasp individually onto the ridges of his fingers, but Cliff would revel in the interaction later.

The moment the back of his hand was resting on the ground, Ol’oih rushed over to his ship and climbed inside, partially jerking Cliff forward since he hadn’t disconnected his tail.

In the pod, Ol’oih crouched and began typing as fast as possible any and all commands to ping the members of his crew. The lights flickered for a moment, making his heart sink, before glowing dimly. The image was a bit distorted, but the module was ready to receive instructions, and that’s exactly what he intended to do with it.

If they’re relatively close, I should be able to signal their transponders. It’ll let them know I’m pinging them.

The signal went out and Ol’oih held his breath as the screen dimmed and crackled. His thrumming body was making every part of him shake in anticipation. It was unnerving. Every element of training had prepared him for the worst case scenario, but living it was an entirely different matter.

Please… please Ove… let them be alive and unhar-…

Through the distortion on the yellowed, flickering screen, thirteen dots appeared. Ol’oih couldn’t believe his eyes. Not only were the dots clearly visible, but they were also clustered together and, if his readings were correct, not too far away.

The real question was whether or not they were in this infamous “Area 51.”

“Clifford. Do you have the map? And could you or Jaxson mark Area 51 on it?” Ol’oih pathed, looking eagerly up at the two boys.

“Got it,” said Jaxson, as if he already knew what the miniscule alien was asking for by a simple look. In his hands, he held the tablet down so that Ol’oih could better see the screen. His eyes flicked from the instruments in his pod and then back to the screen in Jaxson’s hands.

Both human boys held their breath as they waited for some kind of indication. Neither wanted to be the first to break the silence. The air around them was saturated in anxiety so tangible it could be cut with a knife.

Then, they saw it happen.

Ol’oih’s shoulders slumped and his head hung low.

No… are we… too late? Cliff wondered.

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Continue

Previous

Beginning

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

@gianttol #gtjuly #gtjuly2024

[the-himawari]

A3! Outing Event Translation - You're my first and last love. (9/11)

*Please read disclaimer on blog; default name set as Izumi

---

Azami: Alright, next! Misumi-san!

Misumi: Hereee! I’m ready for my makeup!

Sakuya: Have you finished your makeup, Hisoka-san?

Hisoka: …Yeah.

Sakuya: Let’s head to the waiting area then. I think it’s about time for the other team to head back.

Hisoka: Got it.

Sakyo: Sakuma, Mikage. Don’t snag your costumes, got it? There’s not much space over here.

Sakuya: Right!

Sakyo: It’s way more hectic than I expected.

Izumi: There’s no way around it. We decided that 4 teams would take turns performing the play after all.

Sakyo: That’s true. In any case, we were able to prepare all these costumes in such a short time.

Izumi: The students and members who guest star often put their feelers out everywhere. Thanks to them, we were able to borrow costumes from university clubs. Plus, other troupes gave us costumes that they were going to get rid of. That really saved our skins.

Sakyo: Makin’ the costumes from scratch would’ve been too much of a burden on Rurikawa. Remakin’ them was the best choice.

Izumi: Exactly. We didn’t waste any money either!

Sakyo: Ha, now you’re talkin’. The costumes aside, the scripts were also well done. The previous team had a great show.

Izumi: They really did. But Tsuzuru-kun mentioned that—.

Masumi: Tsuzuru and I came up with the ideas together. I also brought him topics from the other teams and asked him to write the scripts.

Izumi: Yep, that’s what I heard. That was also a load off Tsuzuru-kun’s shoulders.

Sakyo: I see.

Masumi: Hey, Director.

Izumi: ! W-What is it…?

Masumi: Do you have anyone you like right now?

Izumi: Huh!?

Masumi: …

Izumi: Umm… I like all our troupe members… I guess?

Masumi: (So in other words, Director doesn’t have a significant other…) …Thank goodness. …

Sakyo: You got somethin’ you wanna say?

Masumi: …Hmph.

Sakyo: Ah?

Izumi: You two…

Masumi: Keep your eyes on my acting. Don’t look away for a second.

Izumi: For sure. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got.

Azami: —‘Kay, next. It’s Masumi-san’s turn. We’re short on time, so hurry up!

Masumi: …

Sakyo: Masumi, that guy. He’s actin’ cocky.

Izumi: Fufu, I can’t wait. I’m sure Masumi-kun will put on a great show.

Sakyo: …

Izumi: Of course I’m going looking forward to Sakyo-san and the others’ acting too. I have faith in all of you.

Sakyo: …You might not be able to take your eyes off me either.

Izumi: That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.

Sakyo: Geez… now you’re actin’ all cocky too. I’m headin’ over.

Izumi: Great, take care!

-pause-

Izumi: (The stage is a certain mansion.) (A few long-serving butlers resigned from their roles, so three apprentice butlers have come to take their place…)

Alfie [Masumi]: “*Pant, pant*… sorry I’m late.”

Connor [Sakuya]: “Don’t tell me you got lost again?”

Alfie [Masumi]: “Yeah… I think I took a left when I was supposed to go right.”

Connor [Sakuya]: “That’s rough. This mansion sure is huge…”

Jude [Azami]: “Don’t go so easy on him. If he was late, then even we as students know what the head butler would say.”

Alfie [Masumi]: “! Right, where’s the head butler now…”

Eli [Misumi]: “No need to worry. There’s someone else who’s getting yelled at before you.”

Apprentice butlers: “Huh?”

Logan [Sakyo]: “How many times do I have to go over this, Elise? “I’ve told you countless times that the butlers who work here are prohibited from having relationships, haven’t I?” “Despite that, you… at this rate, we won’t be able to call any maids over to assist us.”

Elise [Hisoka]: “Say what you want. After all, they say that love isn’t something you choose, but something that you fall into.” “You can’t stop someone from loving someone. That’s why having that rule is pointless. Let me be free.”

Logan [Sakyo]: “I'm telling you to refrain from doing things that will bring disgrace to our master.”

Izumi: (Love is forbidden in this mansion. However, perhaps because of his easy-going nature, the senior butler Elise has always been embroiled in love rumours.)

Jude [Azami]: “…Huh? What’s going on?”

Eli [Misumi]: “Ah, is this your first time seeing it? That’s what always goes down at the Sanchez manor. It sounds like Elise made a move on another maid again.”

Alfie [Masumi]: “Huh…”

Jude [Azami]: “I’m surprised he didn’t get fired.”

Eli [Misumi]: “Despite how it looks, he’s great at his job.”

Connor [Sakuya]: “There’s no reason to get so angry then.”

Eli [Misumi]: “I feel you. Well, it’s fine since his partner is always a maid or work buddy. It’d be a problem if it was the young mistress.”

Alfie [Masumi]: “!”

Jude [Azami]: “That wouldn’t just be a problem. It’d be a huge problem. I won’t forgive anyone who makes a move on the young mistress, even if they’re a friend.”

Connor [Sakuya]: “Ahaha. I think even Elise-senpai understands that much. Right, Alfie?”

Alfie [Masumi]: “R-Right…”

Logan [Sakyo]: “I thought finally everyone was here. But you’re just gossiping, huh?”

Apprentice butlers: “!”

Logan [Sakyo]: “You’re already 5 minutes behind. Hurry to your positions.” “Alfie, you press the newspapers. Jude and Connor, you set the table for breakfast. Eli, you prepare the tea.”

Apprentice butlers: "Right away!"

Eli [Misumi]: “Roger that.”

Logan [Sakyo]: “Eli, don’t use that sort of language in front of the young mistress.”

Eli [Misumi]: “Got it, got it.”

Logan [Sakyo]: “Say ‘got it” once.”

Eli [Misumi]: “Gooot it.”

---

previous | next

[blackdigitalrose]

Wed - Smile Pretty Cure! - EP 13 -15

^^; I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately but some weeks it just can't be helped, will have to keep it brief.

EP 13

Just Reika casually checking out swords in the background, Precure certainly has its moment or more so Reika, I'm starting to have some questions....

After an impressive combo save, that really is some bad luck. That proceeds on to a second day and while a funny response, it isn't a bad idea. Miyuki crushing on Peter Pan makes a lot of sense though.

And it turns out the show agreed... and they purposefully but that image in there.

This ep got a chuckle, even the bad guy of the week was laughing at her misfortune. After the first few mishaps, I was concerned it'd be slaptick cheap laughs at Miyuki's expense but it all came together rather nicely in the end.

EP 14

Pork and soybean? Either that is translation error or that's one of the strangest soundings sweets I've ever heard. Yet, once again, how convenient that the tv has an ad that just so happens to be showcasing something in the exact same area as the Precure girls are going.

Talk about a wild goose chase of an ep, either this lot was suppose to be the bridge between two groups or there is a recurring joke that is completely lost on me? A bit iffy that they kept showing up everywhere they went though. Not the joke that the two who should be worried are having an easy time of it all and enjoying themselves while the other are missing out and exhausted. (Still, this is a 2012 series, you'd think they would have phones?)

Equally so, I've never understood this logic in shows, yes you get a higher view point but at the expense of them being able to see you, which would be much easier on the ground and even if you do spot them, by the time you get back to the bottom from the top, they could be anywhere. Even more so in this case, you know the destination is the Zoo, just go and wait at the entrance for them to appear >.< !?

There's got to be a catch to this aside an extra ep counter because this series is not 25 eps long and this is counting down the big bad? With very little resistance, something has got to give?

At least they ticked one thing off the bucket list but could apparently only afford one between the five of them? That Takoyaki must have carried quite the price tag. Yet no apologies for separating or being mad at them just a-ok instantly. Still a 2-parter is a quirk.

EP 15

I swear... this is beyond coincidence at this point, it is becoming a flat out pattern, is Smile just Yes take two? Just this time the mother related episode is for Mothers day but plays out the same... Still, Miyuki's mum's VA has a thing for parenting roles it seems, that's also Msaru's mum from Savers XD.

Surprising timeline connectivity, guess she went back to get some in the end.

Sheer chance I ended up watching them side by side but by doing so, it's just becoming rather awkward now. On the other hand, why are the other four even there? Shouldn't they be at home with their own Mum's doing stuff? They haven't even handed their gifts out yet.

This was a nice little segment (same message as before though, "it's the thought that counts" guess there's some messages they like to recycle, even if it isn't a bad one) and some quick thinking off Peace. Also, isn't this the first time they've tried throwing down with one of actually villains? It was a really good fight, lots of momentum and teamwork to it.

Hold up, so Nao is the only one who inherited the green hair off her mum? So all her siblings just so happen to look like their dad then? Those green genetics are in a serious losing battle.

See, this panned out exactly like the Nozomi ep, different theme but the gist is the same and just done slightly better and not being told by an external mother figure.

A decent trio of eps, the Smile team are actually coming together quite nicely, they even have some nice combo's forming. Nao and Akane look like they have the potential to be quite the tag team. If anything the villains are holding it back because something has got to give with that clock and those decors. I suppose we'll find out when we hit ep 20 ish.

[otomehoneyybearr]

Act 12

Episode 47: Dreaming of Home

Working w/ Maybelle Lace, jujumin-translates, Fea

Note: As you read, you will see that some sentences highlighted in a different color, this is what they indicate.

Pink: Flashback

Blue: Characters are acting

❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎

Izumi: (…Thanks to Marine and Murasaki buying time in the battle, Saku and the STARS team were able to escape from their pursuers.)

---------------------------------------------------

*RING RING*

Orion: I think this eastern gate uses an outdated iris authentication.

Del: We’ll get through that easily. The second gate might be a vein authentication.

Leo: What do you think? Can you decrypt it?

Orion: For now, it seems like we can reuse most of the key parts.

Del: It’s pretty much assembled. Just waiting for the doctor’s calculations.

Orion: Del, I wouldn’t say that we’ve assembled it.

Del: Why not? This much should be enough.

Orion: It’s still incomplete.

Del: Orion, you’re so cautious.

Trill: And how about you, doctor?

Aquila: The path is clear. Just need to convert the calculations into a formula.

Leo: Alright, the rest is up to us. Let’s go, Trill.

Trill: Ok!

Saku: Um, could you take me with you?

Trill: You wanna go?

Leo: If it’s information about A12 you’re after, we’ll find it for you.

Trill: Wouldn’t it be better to wait here? Since you’re being targeted, we can’t provide support.

Saku: If I become a hindrance, you can leave me behind. I want to see everything with my own eyes.

 Leo: …Alright.

Trill: Are you serious?

Leo: We wouldn’t have made it this far, if it wasn’t for Saku.

Saku: Thank you!

Trill: I guess it can’t be helped. If things get dangerous, just make a run for it.

Saku: Got it.

---------------------------------------

Kasumi: (In the beginning, Saku was initially just being carried along on a pirate ship, and now has decided to FORTF’s headquarters on his own accord…)

Kasumi: (Sakuya portrays his growth and change of heart so clearly. Perhaps it’s because Sakuya had the determination to set out on a journey in a similar way.)

----------------------------------------

Izumi: (That night, Saku has a dream about A12…)

FORTF member A: Our purpose is to protect and manage rare relic sites for future generations to come. Peacefully surrender all of your rights to it.

Gelb: This is ridiculous. Suddenly showing up and demanding everything.

Sumire: What should we do?

Tana: We have no choice but to drive them away.

Yasumi: If only we could resolve this through negotiation…

Gelb: These people barged in uninvited. Negotiation is impossible.

Suzu: I advise against violence. They’re accustomed to retaliation. It’ll just give them an excuse to attack.

Gelb: So? Do you want us to obediently follow their orders?

Suzu: I never said that.

Yasumi: Calm down, Gelb.

-----------------------------------

Yuzo: (The FORTF invasion… the intensity and tension are palpable. It’s all thanks to the lighting and sound design.)

------------------------------------

Yasumi: This is too much…

FORTF member B: Cease resistance immediately. Further loss of valuable relics is not what we desire.

Gelb: Relic protection? They’ve completely destroyed everything and yet they talk like that.

Sumire: Are we going to fight back?

Tana: We can’t forgive them for this!

Suzu: This planet is done for. We’ll escape using the ship.

Gelb: No, If I’m going to die, it’ll be beside the Mother Tree.

Tana: Me too. I have no intention of surviving by abandoning this planet.

Yasumi: But—

Suzu: They haven’t realized we’re still alive yet. They’ll just deem us as worthless and kill us without hesitation.

Gelb: Better than being experimental subjects.

---------------------------------------------------

Izumi: (It’s a tense conflict scene, but you can feel the love the have for each other. It really shows the Springs Troupe’s idea of family.)

Saku: Ugh…

Saku: Was that… a dream? But why… it felt so nostalgic, and my chest feels tight.

Link: Hey, wake up—Oh you’re already awake. We’re about to depart soon.

Saku: Oh, okay!

Orion: All the keys are inside this. But if you’re in trouble, use this one.

Del: You worry too much. Our keys are perfect.

Aquila: There’s no flaw in my formula. We should be able to eliminate any obstacles in our way.

Trill: If that’s what our doctor says, then we can rest easy.

Aquila: However, formulas and reality are different. Uncertainties are inevitable. If that time comes, rely on your intuition.

Leo: Got it.

Trill: Alright, let’s go.

Leo: Saku, are you ready?

Saku: I’m good to go!

Leo: Let’s go and get that treasure!

Trill: Roger!

❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎❄︎

Prev | Next

▼・ᴥ・▼

[lurkingteapot]

Last Twilight ภาพนายไม่เคยลืม Ep 9

This episode was a LOT. I found myself thinking "wait, if this is episode nine, what's going to happen in episode 11?!" but then I thought, well, if we compare the structure of Last Twilight to Bad Buddy (which I invariably do because those are the two 12-ep-shows of P'Aof's that I've watched), this is the … hit a snag, get past it, hit a LARGER snag part of the story arc, isn't it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Liveblog:

guys, can you not make a scene at someone else's wedding??

so Night, what, caused the accident?

did Day see something he shouldn't have?

okay this is … like. I see why Night would blame himself, and it's convenient for Day to blame Night, but. It's not Night's fault. It's like … sure, this might not have happened if Night hadn't had to throw up, but that doesn't mean it's Night's fault? When he got in that car, I honestly worried he might've drunkenly thought it'd be funny to hold Day's eyes closed or something, but this? Day, I know you were on a toll road or something, but even so I was yelling at my screen for you to pull over from the second Night made the first retchy noise. And for Day to resent him for getting out of it with his sight intact and with, y'know, character growth? that's … unfortunately realistic but also. Oh Day. Oh Night. Boys.

OH wow so Day has that much insight at least?

he said เด็กเดีย�� there, right?? gotta rewatch and check

wow Day WOW you've got some things to work through here

the "sorry" bit is food for a LOT of "ways in which siajai and sorry aren't identical" commentary and I once again salute GMM's translation team

OHHH good job apologising

oh so she didn't start out rich and famous? sorry for misjudging, P'Mon

love these not-so-subtle "travel to southern Thailand, we have great food" plugs here

oh not AGAIN with the product placement

the way Day looks, I bet this smells the same

a museum?

an ARTIST so that's why the hair?

Day, you're an ass, you realise right?

I mean it does sorta feel like he's just hanging on to all the resentment towards Night so he doesn't have to deal with the fact that it was random and could've happened in a million different ways?

ahaha see! Long hair = artist!

oh I love the angle they shot this from here

is Pla teaching Mawk to make southern food??

is Mawk gonna move on to actually being a chef, too? is there anything he can't do? (for real though I love that Mawk is getting to see that there's options for him)

are they both gonna move South in the end?

you can SEE him thinking about whether to ask if there'll be a next time

HAH

… so much for three months, huh

I love the touristy stuff in these few eps

the music is creepy af

OH

random white guy a named David

phuak-you GOD I love neopronouns

Cherry Guest, huh

adfasdfads the MANY FIRSTS convo, what a BBS ep 11 parallel (sobbing)

there we gooooo

you're so far apart, boys, c'mon

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT

(I have many thoughts on the way they set up this scene in regards to Day's agency, none of them coherent, and just. Good job folks.)

I LOVE them oh they're cute

Mawk already trying to start something again 😂

I love how they keep making a point in how there's no knowing the ending before it ends

kinda re: point a few minutes back, but it's wonderful how Mawk has … idk, Mawk has seen he has talents and OPTIONS (which is something I don't feel like he really ever felt he had) which allow him to risk his current job in order to take Day to see the last twilight on Mt Khuha

Mawk is so annoyed by the weather's non-cooperation, I love him so much

honestly I love the view as is, but I also get Mawk's disappointment/upset

oh I love this

it feels very final episode-y though which WORRIES me

is he gonna bring this back to not having seen Mawk's body-- yeah

"last picture" that's a theme song call back

oh Mawk, so touched, huh

ilu Jimmy but you're still not the best at pretending to cry, though I guess the smiling through tears is pretty close

annnd that's it, his sight has gone, huh

I know the blocking probably is done for ~reasons but I still wish they'd moved closer to each other here

oh no, the preview REALLY worries me

I'm so glad my hunch that Night didn't actually actively do anything to make Day resent him that much played out as correct. Now for shit to hit the fan next week when their mum gets involved.

[andydrysdalerogers]

Sliding Into Home ~ Oh Captain! My Captain! 

Pairing: MLB!Frank Adler x Abigail Hernandez (OFC)

Synopsis:

After a trade from Boston to Los Angeles, first baseman Frank Adler would seem to have it all. Money, women, an amazing niece, yes Frank should have it all. Except for one thing. One thing that left after a mistake five years ago. Los Angeles should be the chance to start over. Except she is supposed to be in Boston. Not his new medical director.

* A Frank Adler AU x Major League Baseball Story**

Warning: ANGST (i can't stress this enough), second chances, cheating, S~M~U~T!!, slow burn, drug use, abandonment issues, betrayal, domestic violence (i may have missed some), flashbacks

Dividers by me

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated

Previous: The One With The World Series

Sliding Into Home Master List Main Masterlist

The bus ride from Camden Yards to the hotel is a quiet one. Frank sat next to Johnny, who was almost deathly still. He never said a word as he walked off, the Boston players running onto the field. The locker room was quiet, showers and dressing done without a word to each other. They gathered their belongings, made sure the uniforms were placed in the bins for the support staff to clean and walked onto the bus.  

The Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, walked to the front after the team had pulled into the hotel. “Men, we’ll have a debrief in the morning. This is just how the game goes. I don’t blame anyone, and you shouldn’t either. They just had magic tonight.  Get some sleep. We’ll meet at 9 AM and the flight is at noon.”  

Dave patted each player as they exited.  Their families were waiting for them, lined in their gear, solemn and quiet.  Frank sees Abby and Katie standing together, Mary in Scott’s arms, Marco wrapped around Susie. Frank blocks Johnny’s exit, allowing the rest of the team to exit.  “You know it wasn’t your fault.”  

“I know.”  

“Do you? Torch, Turner is a beast at bat. There was a 50/50 chance he was going to connect. It could have been anyone.”  

“But it was me. I let the team down, the city down, fuck, even my girlfriend and family.”  

“Johnny, no one is going to see it that way.”  

Johnny leaned back against his seat. “I knew going for my heater was a bad idea. But he missed it the first time. “ 

“You can’t beat yourself up with what ifs. Let’s get you to your girl and she can give you sympathy sex. It's better than victory sex sometimes.” Frank got up and got off the bus.  

“Hey Frank,” he turned back to Johnny. “Thanks.”  

“It’s what best friends are for.” Frank climbed down and Mary immediately ran into his arms. He held her tight as he felt her cry a little bit. “You ok Nugget?” 

Mary leaned back. “Shouldn't I be asking you that?” 

Frank shrugged.  “Probably but I think he needs this hug more than me.” He looked back at Johnny who was just now getting off the bus.  Mary ran to him and jumped up for a hug. Johnny’s reaction time was quick as he dropped his bag in time to catch her.  Frank walked over to Abby and Katie.  

“Is he ok?” Katie’s lower lip trembled.  

“He’ll be ok. Just needs some time and a few hugs.” Frank kissed her cheek. “Take care of him.”  

She nodded and walked over to Johnny and Mary.  Frank turned back to his wife. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring the trophy home like i promised.”  

Abby shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to make it up to me another way.”  She reached up on her tiptoes. “I am so unbelievably proud of you Frank Adler. You played your best and that’s all that matters.” She kissed him softly as he wrapped his arms around her.  

“Can I take you to bed Cricket? Lose myself inside you?” 

She gave him a soft smile. “Always Frankie.”  

After greeting everyone else and heading up to the rooms, Frank watched his wife get ready for bed.  She carefully brushed out her hair and removed her jewelry before taking off the jersey with his name on the back. She stripped out of the leggings and was just in her bra and panties.  He could see that she was studying herself in the mirror when Frank saw it.  He got up and walked behind her.  “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Tell you what?” She looked back at him confused.  

“Oh sweetheart.”  He placed his warm hands around her middle. Framing the slight swell of her belly. “Here is our baby.”  

Abby stared at the mirror. The belly wasn’t there this morning. “It’s our baby.”  

“I don’t care that I lost. I won everything I ever wanted.” He moved her hair to the side so he could kiss her neck. He let his fingers skate over his sensitive skin as he kissed and licked the spot behind her ear. “You are the most beautiful woman. Strong and amazing, growing my baby.” He dipped his hand inside her panties, eliciting a moan from his wife. “Shh, Cricket. Hmm, so wet love.”  

“Frankie, please don’t tease,” Abby whimpered.  

He let his finger slip in and moved slowly back and forth, listening to his wife mewl at the sensations. “Do you still love me even if I didn’t win?” 

“Of course...shit... fuck,” Abby stuttered as Frank added another finger. She gripped his forearms to keep from falling.  He was wrecking her, a little at a time.  

“C’mon Cricket, use your words,” Frank gently taunted. “Be a good girl for me.”  

“I love you, Frankie,” she breathed out.  “So proud of you making it this far.”  

“Good girl,” he whispered in her ear as he pressed down on her sensitive clit. Abby almost doubled over but Frank held her to his chest.  

“Frankie, please,” she begged. He scooped her up and placed her on the bed.  He undid the bra and threw it across the room.  He pulled down her panties and held them to his nose, inhaling the scent.  Abby almost cummed at the motion and let out a whimper.  

“What should it be Cricket? Should I taste you first or should I just fuck you until you can’t walk anymore?” Frank slotted in between her legs, his erection straining in his boxer briefs.  

“I... I...” 

“Ok then,” Frank sighed. He stood up and removed his boxers, his cock bobbing up. “Dealer’s choice it is.” He climbs next to Abby and turned her to the side.  He lifted her leg to curl around his hip to open her. “I don’t want to hurt Peanut, but I also don’t want to take you hard Cricket,” he told her gently. He gripped his cock and teased between her legs, notching at her clit.  

“Frankie, I can’t... please.”  

“Anything for you Cricket.”  He slid slowly, stretching her open slowly.  From this angle, she could feel everything and her back bowed. He wrapped his arms around her to keep her close. “Talk to me Cricket.”  

“So deep Frankie, I can feel you everywhere.”  

“God, you feel so good Cricket. My beautiful girl.” He rocked his hips, sliding in and out.  He took his time, skating his fingers over her skin, gently pinching her nipples. Her breathing changed and he knew she was getting close.  “Ready to come for me Cricket?” She nodded against his chest. “Come baby, you know that my good girl always goes first.”  

Frank lowered a hand to her clit and rubbed gently.  The sensations were like lighting up her body. 

“Frankie,” she cried as her head tossed back onto his chest and the world imploded, blinding her in white light.  

‘Fuck Cricket, so tight, so good, fuck,’ as he followed her into space, losing himself in the stars he sees in his eyes. He slowed, and stopped, staying inside her.  He could feel water land on his arm. ‘Cricket?’ 

‘I’m sorry, Frankie. I just... I wish you had won and,’ she sucked in a breath, ‘and you were happy and then we did this and it feels so good and I don’t deserve you and...” 

“Whoa, baby, stop.” Frank gently slipped out and turned Abby to face him. “Cricket, its one World Series. Hopefully there will be others.” He wiped the tears falling. “My Cricket, the hormones getting to you?” She nodded and he chuckled. “Everything is going to be ok.  Sleep sweetheart.” He adjusted her so she slept on his chest.  He loved that she was so passionate about his career. But now is time for him to focus on her and Peanut.  

Six weeks later... 

Frank ran into the clinic, running late from an endorsement meeting.  “Hi, sorry, I’m looking for Abigail Adler?” 

“We just took her back. Follow me,” a nurse said, buzzing him through the door. Frank pulled off his coat, the beginning of December bringing a cold front in. The nurse knocked and waited for acknowledgement before opening the door. Sitting on the exam table was a very unhappy, pregnant Abby with her arms crossed.  

“Cricket, I am so sorry.” Frank went to her side. “The meeting ran long and then I got caught in the school traffic and I'm sorry.”  

“I told you I could have rescheduled to avoid this, Frankie." Abby huffed as she turned her head away from him.  

“I know Cricket. But you were so excited to see the baby and find out the gender and everything and I didn’t want you to miss it.” Frank uses his finger to make Abby look at him. “I’m sorry.”  

“Are you excited?” she asked in a small voice 

“Are you kidding?” Frank kissed her nose. “Steve said I was giving off excited vibrations today and it was driving him nuts.”  

“Hello, hello,” the doctor came in. “Mr. And Dr. Adler, nice to see you again.”  

“Hey Dr. Montgomery,” Frank said. “How’s it going?” 

“Busy, as always but I know we are excited today to see, what was it you called your baby again Frank?” 

“Look, that is not my best moment,” Frank said. “We call baby Peanut now.”  

Dr. Montgomery and Abby laughed as Frank blushed slightly. “Well, let’s take a look at Peanut.  Abby, shirt under your breast and pants slightly down.  This will be cold.”  She squirted some gel and grabbed the wand.  “Do we want to know the gender?” 

“We do. We have our last team dinner of the year tonight,” Frank said. Gonna do a gender reveal.” 

“Sounds fun.  Is someone planning the surprise for you?” 

“Yeah, Susie and Katie are waiting for us to hand it over,” Abby explained.  

“Alright so no pronouns.” Dr. Montgomery moved the wand around.  “Well, here is Peanut,” she said. “Just taking some measurements but they are looking perfect.  Right size and weight for 21 weeks.  Here is their head and it looks like they are sucking on a thumb.”  

Frank and Abby grinned at each other as Dr. Montgomery flipped on the audio.  Their baby’s heart beat was loud and rapid.  “Whoa,” Frank said. “I’m still not used to that. It's so fast.”  

“Yeah, in the womb, the baby's heart is pumping so fast because the blood circulates quickly,” Dr. Montgomery explains. “But everything looks good. Abby, your weight is good, and your levels are great. I’ll print some pictures for you and put the gender into an envelope.” She handed a towel to Abby.  “I want to see you in four weeks.” 

“Thanks Doc,” Frank said.  

“I was sorry to see you lose the World Series Frank, but I know, next year is our year.”  She patted his back.  “See you guys later.”  

Frank took Abby’s hand, and they picked up the envelope and pictures.  “Peanut is cute, just like their mama.”  

“Shut up Frankie,” she replied with a smile. “Ready for the dinner?” 

“Yeah, Phelps and Roberts said they have a couple of year end announcements and then just the dinner.”  

“Well, I have to head back to the office,” Abby said.  “I’ll see you at home?” 

“Yeah, Nugget and I are gonna work on the nursery. Scott said they delivered the crib and dresser.”  

“What color?” 

“What part of surprise did you not understand Cricket?” A couple of weeks after the season ended, Frank asked Abby if he could decorate and set up the nursery.  He had promised that it would be gender neutral.  

Abby pouted. “Fine. I love you.”  

“Love you too Cricket.”  

A couple of hours later, Frank was getting Mary ready to go when he called up the stairs. “Cricket! We’re gonna be late!” 

“Patience is a virtue,” she called back down.  

“Not right now, it isn’t.”  

“Alright, alright!”  She walked down the stairs and Frank stopped. You know that saying that women glow when they are pregnant? Frank understood that saying now. Abby glowed as she walked toward in a cream colored sweater dress and brown boots.  Her bump was on display, her hair was in her curls and just held back with a cream headband.  

“Wow,” Frank breathed. “Cricket, you look beautiful.” 

Abby blushed. “Thanks Frankie.” He helped her into her coat, and they headed to the restaurant.  

The dinner was fun, the last time the team would together until spring training.  Some may leave and some retire.  As desert was being prepared, Todd Phelps and Dave Roberts stood in the middle of the room. It falls silent as Todd raises his hand.  

“Alright team, it was a heartbreaking end to the season.  But it has been one of the best seasons the Dodgers have ever had.”  Applause breaks out around the room. “Not only did we have two Golden Glove winners in Storm and Betts, we also have our league MVP and golden Glove winner, Frank Adler.” More applause and cheers for Frank, who flushed from the attention.  

“We are so proud of this team,” Dave continued.  “We know that there may be some changes that could happen.  But there are a couple of things we are certain off, our captains for next year. We have four men that we are bestowing this honor to. Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Johnny Storm and Frank Adler.”  

Frank sat stunned as Mary jumped in his lap and Abby kissed his cheek. Johnny looked blankly as Katie cheered and hugged him.  

“Johnny,” Dave says, “I know you think the loss was your fault, but it wasn’t.  Management does not blame you, the team doesn’t blame you. You have been a professional, sitting through media, taking blame that wasn’t yours. That’s the kind of leadership we are looking for in our organization and the perfect example we want to set.”  

The team cheered and congratulated their new captains as Katie and Susie set up the gender reveal. Katie whistled to get everyone’s attention again.  “We have one more surprise to finish. Mr. And Mrs. Alder, Miss Mary, we need you up here.”  The family moved to the front. An elaborate box was set up with a string to open it.  “On the count of three, pull the string and we’ll find out if we a boy or a girl joining our Dodger family.  Ready?” 

The whole room joined the count down. 

“THREE!” 

“TWO!” 

“ONE!” 

Oh, you thought I wouldn't give one more cliffhanger?  See you for the finale! 

NEXT

Taglist

@patzammit

@texmexdarling

@slutforchrisjamalevans

@firephotogrl74

@before-we-get-started

@tinkerbelle67

@bunnyforhim

@peaceinourtime82

[cosmical-flowers]

Danganronpa: Violent Voices AU

Journal Entry 9 + 10

Taglist: @luvizna, @hypn0sssss, @mutsuowo, @yumetomiko, @dexterityz, @transgender-eichi (If you would like to be tagged, send an ask!)

A/N: just according to keikaku (translators note: keikaku means plan) [Refference] ANYWAYS DBA SHALL DROP SOON I PROMISE + SORRY FOR LONG WAIT SCHOOL HAS BEEN ROUGH

Journal Entry 9

XX - XX - XXXX

I decided to hang out with Tomoya today. He seems very nice from the interview I conducted with him. As he is the ultimate lucky student, he’s mentioned before that he has amazing luck when it comes to certain things. As an example, he told me a story on how he randomly won tickets for a baseball game from a machine and went to go see a game with his friend. I usually photograph events like that as well, so I asked him what game it was and he told me it was between 2 local teams. Ironically, I ended up photographing that event. Small world, isn’t it? We ended up looking outside while we chatted about how our lives. 

The outside looks odd. There’s a large cage surrounding us, with thick bulletproof glass. We can confirm that it’s that safe because Monoshoji popped up and informed us about it. It’s like un-fun trivia! Wow, another piece of info about how we’re gonna escape here or die trying! Theres a fountain snd some other buildings outside but they’re locked. The robot thing mentioned that they were hidden away temporarily for “special reasons”. What does that even mean!? Tomoya was confused as well, and we had nothing to do other than try to escape, so we tried lockpicing the lock to a building while Monoshoji wasn’t looking. He grabbed a hairpin from his pocket and bent it straight. I guess this is what he did to get his ultimate, because after like 5 seconds it unlocked. The auditorium was unlocked for only a few minutes as I took photos of what it looked like, because quickly Monoshoji locked us out again and instructed us not to do it again or else we’ll be punished. We both agreed, but honestly we didn’t take him too seriously. We even took a photo inside the auditorium before it was locked.

[Attached is a photo of Mao and Tomoya. Tomoya seems to be standing on the stage right in the center, an overhead light illuminating him. Mao is smiling as he stood next to him.]

It was fun just doing random things with Tomoya. Perhaps next time we can unlock the area to the pool. Or maybe the playground? We should 100% hang out again.

Journal Entry 10

XX - XX - XXXX

The game has recently started and everything seems to be working smoothly. Nobody has harmed my adorable machine so far, so no intervention was needed. Unfortunately, people have tried to unlock areas they shouldn’t have done already. Besides that, everything else is great. Despair has creeped up among the people there. They unfortunately dont know that someone among the organization is with them. Our lovely mastermind. Im pretty sure nobody will figure out so soon.

…

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn’t meant to happen. How did [REDACTED INFORMATION] sneak into the game? Wasn’t he meant to be part of the last one? Why is he here again? He was meant to be leaving for good, they really sent him back? We have to make sure he is gone. I’ll make sure of it.

[acourtofantumbra]

Thinking about Iphraxia

Yes, I inhaled the HOFAS prologue and chapter one Sarah posted to her new site yesterday... and a couple things have been itching my brain since (and making thinking about anything other than release day impossible).

Safe to say we're hitting the ground RUNNING. Poor bb Ruhn. But some through lines and well... associations made by both proximity and repetition that have me (tentatively) very excited about a BIG hope I've had. One I'm not alone in.

🚨 HOFAS PROLOGUE + CHAPTER 1 SPOILERS 🚨

I have also not read the book in its entirety yet. This is just me spewing nonsense. Please don't reply/comment with any spoilers if you have read all of HOFAS. I've waiting two years for this! Just feeding my spinning brain until Monday night.

WHAT A FIRST CHAPTER! I have so many thoughts spinning about the info dumps we get - and awesome confirmations like Daglan = Asteri + Cormac shadows = Azriel shadows. Good work team!

But I'll be honest, I'm looking for any and all crumbs for a TOG connection... and this one just wouldn't stop irking me.

So, I'll begin with Bryce's lies. She spells out for us that, honestly, she's never had too hard a time deceiving folks by playing into what they wanted to see from her: a ditzy party girl incapable of scheming. We've spent two books, and many years, peeling back Bryce's layers, only to discover she's even more capable, more selfless, more calculating than we ever could have guessed. Even where we're guided largely by her POV. Queen. Aelin would be proud.

That gift we've seen honed over time... lasts all of two seconds in the presence of Rhys, Amren, and Azriel. But specifically, it seems, Azriel.

Now I'll fearlessly reference the cursed Azriel bonus chapter from ACOSF...

"“I..." He watched her swallow. She clutched a small gift in her hands. "I was coming to leave this on your pile of presents. I forgot to give it to you earlier."   Lie. Well, the second part was a lie. He didn't need his shadows to read her tone, the slight tightening of her face. She'd waited until everyone was asleep before venturing back down, where she'd leave her gift amongst his other, opened presents, subtle and unnoticed." A Court of Silver Flames, Azriel Bonus Chapter

So we have Azriel referencing, perhaps, his shadows' abilities to detect lies. They can also hear the Cauldron sing in ACOWAR, so why not expand their extra sensory capabilities? Rhys and Cassian have even confessed to not really understanding the full scope of Azriel's powers... so naturally we're not entirely sure all that he's capable of either.

Azriel's also the Night Court's spy master and in this scene with Elain, he defaults to those skills he's mastered over time in lieu of his shadows' guidance. So, language barrier or not, Azriel might just be able to read Bryce, as she points out herself. We love a male fluent in body language, amirite?

But humor me for a sec, we've had two years since the crossover was announced to kind of side eye the fact that Azriel's blade is call Truth Teller - which is now front and center in the overarching plot and specifically this chapter. And for the TOG readers among us... we couldn't help but notice we've had an actual truth telling blade before: Damaris.

Azriel's sort of alluded to legend about his blade's abilities - mostly that it'll strike true. But we've never really confirmed if he's able to use it like a lie detector as Dorian does with Damaris in TOG.

And the specificity of couching the language barrier issue (pre-magic bean lol) alongside references to Truth Teller pretty consistently in this very first chapter has me 👀

In the scene above, Bryce is immediately curious about how Azriel could react to what she'd said if he couldn't understand her and the laugh/Rhys' surprise when Azriel clarifies leads me to believe he didn't need to know what she was saying to be informed it was BS.

Of course, again, pre-bean, Rhys is likely mind speaking translation for Azriel in the second instance in particular. But he's still relying on Azriel wholly to confirm truth or not prior to moving on. And Rhys doesn't question Azriel's response - at least no audibly.

And I'm just saying, we know Azriel is currently holding onto Truth Teller.

Azriel, being the primed warrior that he is, is sitting and lying in wait for some shit to go down the whole time. So when Bryce has a bad reaction to the magic bean (lol sorry I will never stop teasing), before she can get her bearings she's already slammed down by Azriel's shadows, dagger drawn.

The fact that we can assume he's been holding Truth Teller, ready to strike, makes the shock at the blade's reaction to Bryce sans Starsword all the more interesting. When Amren is like, "Dude why do you even have that thing with you and close to her?" Azriel kind of bashfully winnows it away. Amren's ellipses there is suspect as hell too, but that's for another time (or the rest of this book).

Anyway, if we pretend that Truth Teller is displaying some Damaris type traits, then the other details we're getting in close proximity to the blade's discussion are worth a second glance as well (in my humble opinion). Also, want to note that I'm aware that TT is a dagger and Damaris is a sword. I don't think they're necessarily the same or from the same ore. That's for SJM to explain lol.

Anyway, as Bryce is selectively explaining her/the universe's predicament, Truth Teller comes up again. But first I wanted to pause on the "only three planets that were able to kick [the Asteri] out." While I'm fully open to this being a little different than we have been theorizing - we've come to speculate that Hel is one planet and the Starborn Fae planet is where Prythian is located. This leaves the third successful planet: Iphraxia.

A quick reminder what we know about Iphraxia:

So the Iphraxia events happen 16,323 years prior to conquering of Midgard and many have speculated this planet could house Erilea and our beloved TOG crew.

I've always side eyed the use of the word "denizens" because it can either mean "an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place," or "a foreigner allowed certain rights in the adopted country." Rigelus alludes to the Asteri encouraging planets to come and conquer others, never realizing those who opened the doors were the true masters. In that case, Asteri referring to a group like the Valg as denizens would also make quite a bit of sense to me.

Maeve fights in Erilea's first wars - granted she manipulates the hell out of them - but she confirms at one point that she just wants to have her kingdom in peace (an evil kingdom) and that she's been running from Big Bads for a long time. She is of course Valg - not native to that world - and is not on Erawan's team to start. But it becomes very clear by KOA that we're all playing checkers and Maeve - a world walker - is playing chess. Then of course we have a group of stranded, vengeful gods who want to return to their family/world... but were left behind in a hasty evacuation perhaps? Of course when Aelin shuts the gates, they're presumably lost forever, but that chapter would have come long after Maeve originally fought back against Erwan who believes that planet was his to command... motivated by that world's larger forces perhaps.

^ This is why I shouldn't have procrastinated my TOD and KOA rereads... the details are not as sharp as they should be. But that is the general essence of things.

Anyway, returning to the reference to Iphraxia and the grounding connection Truth Teller is being set up to be has my TOG IS COMING alarms blaring.

Of course this chapter ends with the horn tattoo on Bryce's back being exposed and Amren confirming it's similarity to the Book of Breathings... a book we know landed in Midgard along with TOG's Walking dead in Jesiba's library... and written in markings we can pretty confidently say are wyrdmarks. And you know what crew of folks are crackerjack at reading wyrdmarks? :)

Anyway, I think TOG officially entering the crossover is imminent and with this line of thinking re: timeline... it might not actually separate the TOG timeline as far back as we've been predicting it might be (like in the very far past).

All I know is that I've had great fun over the years reading people's analysis of first lines and first chapters of books actually providing you with everything you actually need to know/can expect from the book. Sarah is actually pretty great at doing this so in our proper chapter one (not the prologue but sure why not) we're hitting a couple of beats pretty repetitively and I can't help but feel it's priming TOG's reentry for us.

That being said, can't wait to be proven wrong in just THREE FREAKING DAYS!!! Unless Walmart stops lying to me and actually delivers my book as early as it's claiming it will.

[omentranslates]

Owari no Seraph chapter 132 english fan translation

Good morning and welcome to vampires, I'll be your host: Tired. The official has been out for over a day over at here please make sure to read it if you haven't and thanks for your consideration!

Battling to break through to the first

Yuuichirou has set foot on enemy territory!!

Saitou: Well hey there, what an unusual caller. What have you come for?

Yuu: Hey!! Hi there!! Greetings all vampires!! Yeah, I just had something to talk with you about, so!

Lest: The fuck?

Ky: Urd-sama

Ky: He's buddies with Ferid, could he have come back too? But…

Ky: Where's his team? I can't sense any of them…

Yuu: WHOA WHOA WAIT HOLD UP A SEC! I DIDN'T COME TO FIGHT, I JUST WANNA TALK!

Mika: Y'know, if you put it all together, haven't we just been guinea pigs from the start?

Yuu: Huh?

Mika: What's our last name

Yuu: Hyakuya

Mika: Yeah as in the Hyakuya religion, since they owned our orphanage.

Yuu: Oh yeah.

Mika: And Saitou was constantly in and out of the orphanage. And he's a second progenitor and also that angel from inside our memories.

Yuu: little ah

Yuu: Yeah….

Yuu: It's always….always been something like that, hasn't it. We saw a lot of that even before we were taken by the vampires. Sure was a lot of stuff leading up to now, huh.

Mika: That was a lotta words to say nothing, did you remember even more again?

Yuu: Well it's just…like Saitou and them, I was always just like "and who the hell is this guy."

Mika: Same, Akane and I always just thought he was some nice guy. Scary to think about now.

Yuu: For real. Especially considering there was a time I met Mahiru whil I was with him.

Mika: Seriously? I can't even believe this anymore, you don't pay enough attention to your own life Yuuchan.

Yuu: Right back at you.

Yuu: Just what happens when you've got no will to live.

Mika: Well, we were kids after all.

Mika: Although, getting experimented on by the religion was probably because of Saitou or one of his guys, either him or the First. Don't know which.

Yuu: I mean probably.

Mika: One of them probably had to do with JIDA too, wouldn't know which for that one either, though.

Yuu: Seems like it. Better hope an even bigger fish doesn't show up, it'd get too much to handle.

Mika: No kidding. Plenty on my plate with just Ferid and Guren and Mahiru to worry about.

Yuu: Yeah. Although

Yuu: There was that angel that totally blasted the First.

Mika: Nope, nuh uh, we're not thinking about that. He's out of our scope, way out.

Yuu: Aren't we talking about the sun?

Mika: I'm finished with that thing, it's way too bright.

Yuu: Hahaha

Mika: But the First or Saitou, went out of their way to create us with those experiments.

Yuu: Yeah?

Mika: I'd guess they did it because they need us.*

Yuu: I got the feeling from those memories that maybe we're necessary to resurrect Mikaela?

Mika: Hmm…I could see that. But it doesn't seem like they've ever succeeded. After how many ten's of tens of thousands of years. Why do you think that is?

Yuu: They've still got us switched around, don't they?

Mika: That's what I'm thinking.

Mika: Which is why we don't have to worry about getting captured, right? Even if they get us, it won't end with them being able to resurrect Mikaela.

Yuu: Huh, really?

Mika: Yeah, isn't it?

Yuu: I mean…it makes sense. So then, it should be fine if we get as close as we want to the vampires?

Mika: We'd definitely be able to gather more information by doing it.

Mika: We might even be able to get help in the fight with Guren collecting those keys.

Yuu: Oh shit!!!

Mika: Just as long as they still think you're Yuu, they won't be able to kill you so easily as long as you've got information on Mikaela's resurrection. The game is making them think what we want.

Yuu: So in other words, we've gotta pretend like we're super psyched to play our role in this experiment to keep everyone from finding out that I'M Mikaela?

Mika: Yes exactly. Think you can do it?

Yuu: Well this IS my area of expertise, so y'know!

Mika: …if you get this wrong, we both die. Still ok?

Yuu: Ok well it's not like there's a choice in the matter.

Mika: You're not very reassuring.

Yuu: But c'mon, isn't this fun? It's OUR turn now!

Mika: Huh?

Yuu: From the orphanage and everything that's happened since, we've always been pieces on someone else's gameboard, but now WE'RE the ones doing the decieving! You're not feeling the thrill?

Mika: It's fun!

Yuu: Hey, just listen to me for a second! I'm-…

Ky: Silence, human. There isn't a normal human left alive in this world, I can't trust any of you.

Yuu: Uhhhhh, yeah well-…uh…I just thought I could be of some use to you here so I-

Ky: Lest Karr-sama

Lest: Don't worry, I will protect Urd-sama. You take the front.

Ky: Don't mind if I do. Sword-,

Yuu: HEY HANG ON!! JUST LISTEN!!

Ky: Drink my blood!!

Yuu: GOD DAMMIT!

Yuu: Wow he's strong…

Ky: You're so weak, let loose like you did before!

Yuu: Had you there didn't I

Yuu: Rip it apart, Mikaela.

Ky: Oh shit

Ky: Ohhh not bad! Better than before!

Ky: The hell, it's not healing? In that case-

Yuu: So can I win?

Mika: You don't need to, if we just cast spell of "you can't kill us."

Yuu: Alright, then I'll just say it from here.

Yuu: HEY, THE FIRST! SAITOU! LISTEN TUP! YOUR EXPERIMENT SUCCEEDED!!

Yuu: WE'RE-…!!

Ky: SILENCE, HUMAN!

Ky: WOW you're strong now. Can you really get to this point while still being human?

Yuu: Shit, and he's in 5th standing!? I'm gonna burn through my calories way too fast.

Mika: Wait a minute, Yuuchan! You're gonna get killed if you don't curse them now!

Yuu: I said I know, they're not exactly giving me space to speak here!

Yuu: I REGAINED MY MEMORIES!!

Yuu: WE HAVE THE SAME GOAL!! WE HAVE INFORMATION REGARDING MIKAELA'S RESURRECTION!! SO YOU CAN'T KILL US!

Japan Imperial Demon Army Main Residence 7th Floor Laboratory

Shikama: Yuu

Shikama: YUU.

Yuu: ACK WHAT THE FUCK?? There's a voice inside my head….

Shikama: I'm here, Yuu. Come to me.

Ky: What the hell, the First!!?

Shikama: We'll end this whole story here.

Saitou: DAMNIT! Was this seriously still all your plan!!?

Saitou: All hands to battle! Do NOT let Yuu get to the First!!!

Yuu: Oh, so that's how it is. The First and Saitou aren't getting along.

Mika: So what are you gonna do, Yuuchan?

Yuu: Does it matter? I'd say our curse hit its mark. They can't kill us, not when their plan is however many tens of tens of thousands of years old.

Mika: Yeah

Yuu: So we've gotta talk to both Saitou and the First. From now on, NOTHING is getting past us.

Saitou: Stay right here, Yuu-kun. Mika-kun. The First is far more fearsome than I, you'll be used by him.

Saitou: Good, very nice. We'll hear you two out now.

Yuu: Let's do this, Mika. Let your power go as wild as it can.

Mika: Sure

The curse of his determination circles throughout the body…!!

*the text here could be read as either "they need our power" or "they need our help"

also the chapter title is lowercase bc they didn't write the First like they usually do they wrote "progenitor." Which means the same thing definitionally but like also it's already a word in this series with a different more specific meaning so.

[catch-me-hello]

Boys Planet, Episode 6: Best. Light Sticks. EVER.

This episode starts interesting and then gets very weird very fast. We open on a small studio with lights and cameras and a title card reading, “This is the story of the ones who chase after their dreams.”

We see our surviving trainees in small groups of three or four, talking about their experiences doing this show so far. They can’t help but be obsessed with their rankings all the time. I remember the Wild Idol trainees saying the same thing. That obsession must make them a little unhinged, especially when you consider filming for these shows takes place over several weeks. That’s several weeks of obsessing over votes and rankings while being filmed 24/7 and basing their self worth on how they are coming across to the Star Creators.

They tell us that despite being competitors, a lot of them form friendships as strong as family bonds. I get it. I see these shows not only as a chance to debut, but also a kind of shared trauma. It makes sense that they tend to form bonds with the only other people who can understand what it’s like.

During one of these interviews, the boys are startled by a loud banging on the door. They look up and yell in fear at a face in the window, and then someone in an orange mask sneaks up on them.

What the hell? Did I accidentally switch to a different show?

Turns out Boys Planet is pulling stunts like this on all the trainees during these small group interviews. We started with interesting and thoughtful insights into the life of a trainee, and now suddenly we get a fraternity prank.

We then cut to one of the dorms, where the trainees find a handprint  on the wall just above one of the beds. They can’t wipe it off. They’re obsessed with it. They try to guess how it got there.

Back to our regularly scheduled K-pop show. Our trainees walk into an auditorium and line up on risers that are still painted in Group K and Group G colors. Please stop separating the trainees like this. They’re still wearing name tags with the “G” and “K” designation, so I guess it’s still a thing.

A new Star Master enters the room. His name is Lee Min Hyuk, current solo K-pop artist and former member of BtoB. The group has been around for almost twelve years, despite lineup and contract changes, so that’s impressive. Of course, the band name is an acronym. It stands for Born to Beat. As always, I’m just calling this guy Star Master.

Once again, Star Master stands all the way across the room from the trainees. He tells us about the second mission. It’s called the Dual Position Battle. The three categories are Vocal & Rap, Vocal & Dance, and Rap & Dance. I’m excited, because this means we’re going to get some more great live performances.

It’s difficult to understand the rules from the translation, but the gist is that the trainees will rearrange existing songs and choreography to come up with new performances. I really like this idea. In the first mission, they were sticking with the original choreo and vocals for each song. Here, their creativity will be challenged as they come up with a new approach for each song. I am so on board for this.

Ready for the bucket of ice water? Star Master tells us the battles will still be between Groups K and G. Oh, would they just stop that already? Based on their reactions, I think the trainees are getting a bit tired of it too.

Wait – it was a fake out! Would the Star Masters PLEASE stop doing that? After enjoying the looks of frustration from the trainees, Star Master says, “It actually won’t be! You’ll form teams regardless of the group and do battle among each position.” Ha ha ha ha you’re a real laugh riot, Star Master.

But honestly, Halle-freakin-lujah! Now the Koreans and the foreigners can finally start working together. The trainees are much happier now, cheering and giving each other high-fives.

Now to reveal the mission songs and see yet again how I need to get caught up on classic K-pop songs.

“Tomboy” by (G)I-DLE. I have no idea how to pronounce this group name. However, we do get clips of the music videos for these songs, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see this is a girl group song.

“Limousine” by BE’O. I don’t know this one either. I have a LOT of catching up to do on K-pop.

“Man in Love” by Infinite. I’m zero for three so far. I pulled up YouTube and watched the whole music video, and it’s a cute dance/pop love song with some good harmonies. I see why it’s a classic. Although maybe it isn’t, as several trainees appear to be unfamiliar with this song.

“Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms” by High4 & IU. Well, that is definitely a song title. Again, several trainees are puzzled. From the video clip, this appears to be a male and female duet. One trainee who does know the song says, “I want to avoid that one. I want something powerful.” Right there with you. The high-tempo energetic K-pop songs are my favorites as well.

Those were the four Vocal & Rap numbers. Now for Vocal & Dance.

“Butterfly” by BTS. Oh hell yes. I love this song. This is a great choice for choreo, as the dance looks deceptively easy. It moves slowly to go with the beautifully delicate song, but the movements demand control and discipline. It’s like ballet got inspired by hip hop. I can’t wait to see this show’s take on it. As with most BTS songs, these boys will have Jimin’s high vocal part to contend with.

“Feel Special” by TWICE. I’m going to be learning a lot of new songs on this show. This one is another girl group. One of the trainees is losing his mind because it’s his favorite song.

“Love Killa” by Monsta X. OH MY GOD. OH HELL YEAH. HELL TO THE YEAH.

“Home” by Seventeen. Looks like I’ll be learning another new song from this group. From the video, I can hear that it’s very high-pitched. Again, something these guys need to consider before they go out there and their voices start straining and cracking. The choreo looks difficult as well. A lot of spinning while singing.

Now for Rap & Dance.

“Law” by Yoon Mi Rae and BIBI. Wow. There are a LOT of K-pop songs I don’t know.

“Rush Hour” by Crush. Why do I know this song? Wait – Jay Chang and Na Kamden did this as their performance in the first episode. I don’t know the original, but I liked their version of it.

“Zoom” by Jessi. Another female artist. I’m glad they’re featuring more female artists on these shows, even if I have an issue with how women are portrayed in K-pop, which is why I focus on the boy groups.

“Gang” by H1GHR MUSIC. Right away, several trainees don’t want this one. Based on the video clip, it looks like really difficult choreo and rapid-fire rapping.

There we go. Twelve teams in total, a mix of K and G trainees. I’ll be learning a lot of new songs. I’m very excited about this, especially the “Love Killa” performance. I think Ricky would be great for that one.

The trainees get to pick their songs, starting with the lowest-ranked trainee, which is a nice change. Each song has the number of performers needed listed on it, and if more trainees want that song, the lower-ranked trainees can be pushed out and forced to choose another song. Ah. That’s why the lower-ranked trainees choose first.

As always, Star Creators will vote for their favorite performers. There’s still a point system, because Koreans love their math. The team member that gets the highest number of votes in each category will have extra benefit points and math math math etc. Also, there will be a chance to perform on M Countdown. And the top vote-getters will have their faces on promotional materials. There’s a lot at stake here.

Time to choose the songs. Right away, “Tomboy” fills up, and Krystian, who told us last episode that he is all peace, love, and happiness now, pulls rank and forces Wumuti off that team. Please let another trainee push him out in retaliation.

Cha Woong Gi must also be fed up and pushes Krystian out. Krystian goes to inflict himself on another team and chooses “Zoom,” the very team that also has Wumuti, the guy Krystian just pushed out of the “Tomboy” group. Wumuti does not look happy to see him again.

“Love Killa” fills up quickly, which doesn’t surprise me. I bet a lot of trainees will be forced off that team.

Right after I wrote that sentence, Hiroto comes along and does just that. The displaced trainee is bummed because “Love Killa” is one of his favorite songs. This is a mean game. They did this on Wild Idol as well. I’ll ask this again: South Korea, are you okay?

“Love Killa” is a VERY popular song, and trainees keep getting pushed off that team. Oddly, as we get halfway through the choosing process, no one has chosen the Seventeen song. I’m guessing everyone is intimidated by the spinning choreo and the high notes.

Now it’s Ricky’s turn to choose. He strides confidently across the floor to the “Love Killa” team, which is absolutely where he belongs. He pushes out Cha Woong Gi, but I don’t care because that’s the song Ricky is meant to do. If a biopic is ever done about Monsta X, Ricky should play Jooheon. (Yes, I know he goes by Joohoney now. I’m trying to keep the names consistent across these recaps.)

Now, if anyone pushes Ricky off this team, I will be ROYALLY pissed.

I just love how Cha Woong Gi vogues as he moves toward his next song choice. I’m pretty sure he also vogued in the dance battle last episode.

Now the Top 9 will choose their songs. Jay Chang steps up. He chooses the Seventeen song. That team is thrilled to have him, but I’m worried about those high notes. Maybe he wants the challenge. Whatever his reasoning, there are now some strong vocalists on that team.

Kim Ji Woong stands in front of the “Love Killa” team, and if he pushes Ricky off that team, I swear to God … HE PUSHES RICKY OFF THAT TEAM. This act is an affront to Monsta X and K-pop in general. It is musical blasphemy. Ricky moves to team “Rush Hour,” and I hope he wins ALL of the benefit points Star Master was babbling about earlier.

Finally, it’s down to Number One-ranked Sung Han Bin. He pushes another trainee off “Tomboy.” That must be one hell of a song.

Okay, we finally have our teams. Time for rehearsals, and we’re starting with the “Love Killa” team. I’m wondering how they’re going to rap I.M’s line, “I want you, eat me like a main dish” on a show aimed at teenagers. What is the rating on this show, anyway? Put a pin in this.

The “Love Killa” team has three Top 9 trainees on it. They get special jackets, which is nice for everyone except the one person on this team who isn’t in the Top 9. Still, I love that it doesn’t matter who’s in Group K or G because they’re not wearing those letters anymore.

One of these trainees is not in the Top 9.

This team has to focus on pronouncing the English parts of the song correctly. That’s no problem for Canadian Seok Matthew. He helps the Korean members pronounce Jooheon’s line, “Oh I’m sorry, did I make you anxious?” I’m getting goosebumps as I hear them practice that line. Very high standards come with this song.

We move around to the other groups. The “Feel Special” team has a problem with the high notes. They’re all struggling to sing it.

The Seventeen song group is excited because they’re all such strong singers. Yoon Jong Woo is still bummed about being pushed off the “Love Killa” team, but he’s trying to stay focused. The team needs to figure out how to do those spins in the choreography while keeping their voices steady.

On to the BTS “Butterfly” team. The youngest trainee, Lim Jun Seo, lacks confidence, and here’s where I’m thinking that we’re seeing all the segments that would normally be shown in the flashbacks before each performance. Maybe by getting all these storylines out of the way, we’ll be able to watch all the performances straight through without constantly getting yanked into flashbacks.

In the “Butterfly” team’s particular storyline, the other team members try to pep-talk Jun Seo into being brave enough to do this. How did Jun Seo get this far in the show without having confidence? As YouTube’s Ryan George would say, the show needs to you get all the way off its back about that.

Over on the “Gang” team, they’re depressed. The show helpfully illustrates this by putting animated rain over the shot.

Geum Joon Hyun is the most upset. A minute ago in a confessional, he was excited about being on the “Tomboy” team, and now he’s pushed over to this song. Dude, this happened to literally half the other trainees. Get over it. In fact, while listening to this group, it sounds like most of them didn’t want this song either. Also, no one in this group has experience writing choreography, so they’re off to a GREAT start.

Over on “Zoom,” Keita is the leader because he also led the Group G “Kill This Love” team, the one with the best costumes, and they were the only G Group to win that mission. That’s it. That’s their storyline.

The “Law” team has three members who participated in the dance battle, so they’re not worried about choreography. But they’ve never rapped or written lyrics before. It’s almost like this mean-spirited way of choosing teams may not have been the best idea. These teams have no balance of talent. But Na Kamden is on the “Law” team, so I’m hoping they can pull it together.

The “Rush Hour” team is moving along faster than the other teams. They’ve assigned the parts and are practicing choreo. Ricky is on this team, and so is sweet little Takuto. But all is not well. Takuto has trouble learning the choreo. He’s good at acrobatics, but not actual dance steps. He’s starting to look anxious. He’s in over his head.

The “Man in Love” team struggles a bit with the vocals. I’m not really invested in this team, so let’s move on.

On to the “Limousine” team. This team only has three members, including Krystian, which means Krystian got pushed off more than one team. He’s pouring compliments on the other two bandmates, which I firmly believe means he’s up to something.

On to the team doing “Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms.” What a long title for a pop song. This team also has three members. One is Park Do Ha, the Zero-Star trainee who butchered 2pm’s “My House.” The second one is Zero-Star trainee Lee Da Eul, the first trainee we met on the show, and he sings completely off-key. The third is the last-place survivor, Number 52 from the last episode, who still looks like someone just punched him in the stomach. Maybe that just his resting facial expression. They all just sit silently, not talking to each other. This team is going to crash and burn.

The “Tomboy” team is the envy of every other group. They’re made up of three Top 9 members and Gun Wook, who may as well be Top 9. Hui is on this team, and so are Zhang Hao and Sung Han Bin. Hui tells Gun Wook that after this performance, he’ll be in the Top 9 as well. That’s sweet. And we already know it will be true. However, with so many talented people in the group, they all want the Killing Part and have to deal with egos when determining all the parts. This group will either win all the benefit points or have an Axl Rose-style meltdown onstage. Either way, it will be fun to watch.

Night falls, but the lights stay on in the dorms. The boys are back bright and early in the practice rooms. For four straight days, they dance and sing and stress and argue and cry and maybe get a few minutes of sleep.

Suddenly, it’s D-Day. Are we going to see some performances already in this episode? I’m so excited! And oh my God, I love this stage.

I am in LED screen heaven.

And here come the FANS!

Did I mention I love the fans? I do. I love them so much.

These people give me life. It looks like we have way more of them here than we did in the first mission. It’s gonna get LOUD!

Except in the judges’ prison block. Okay, Boys Planet, what the actual hell? Do they not want to be at the show? Couldn’t you have put them in a more comfortable room? The dingy JYP boardrooms in Hot Blood looked better than this.

Where fun goes to die.

Well, they’re missing all the fun. The trainees walk from the back of the venue to the stage again so the fans can see them up close. The energy is sizzling, and I Iove it.

Our Star Master takes the stage. He announces the Dual Position Battle and tells them that after this mission, only 28 out of the 51 trainees will survive. Wait, 51 trainees? So one more trainee has left the show? It really is strange that the number just drops like this. It’s like the trainees keep mysteriously vanishing in the middle of the night, and the show wants to avoid liability by pretending they never existed.

Best. Voting device. EVER.

Star Master reminds the Star Creators (the audience) how to vote. These are the coolest voting devices yet. They’re LED concert light sticks with voting buttons on the handle. I wonder if the Star Creators get to keep them after the show. I want one.

Star Master calls out, “Time to shine!” The fans erupt in cheers and screams, and then THUD back to the boring, sterile judges’ room for their comments. This is killing the vibe. Please stop cutting back to them. That room is made of sad.

Back in the venue made of happy, Star Master announces the first song. It’s “Gang” by H1GHR MUSIC (that is a hard band name to type). This is the depressed team that kept complaining about none of them wanting to be on this team. Let’s hope they’ve gotten over it.

Unfortunately, we’re still doing flashbacks. We learn in this flashback that they’ve gotten over it and have learned to write choreography. It goes on for a while, but that’s really all we need to know. Great! Back to the show.

I just noticed we’re seeing a lot more guys in the audience. It’s still mostly women, but I don’t have to pause the screen and scan the crowd to find the guys.

The “Gang” group comes out with serious swagger. They are wild, dangerous, and perfectly in sync, and I did not expect this from them.

The audience is losing their minds. This will be a very tough act to follow. When it ends, the Star Creators have the difficult task of voting for the top performer in this group. They vote for Lee Seung Hwan. I’m happy for him, and I’m sure he’s in my pages of notes somewhere, but I can’t remember anything about him. I have to wonder if the viewing audience has the same problem. Some K-pop fans are probably devoted enough to keep a detailed spreadsheet of all the trainees. I have nothing but admiration for those fans and hope they are taking breaks to eat and sleep and maybe go to school every now and then.

Now for the song “Zoom” by Jessi. This is Keita’s group. We flash back to rehearsals. I don’t remember any drama when we first saw them in rehearsals, and other than needing to switch the parts around, there’s no major drama now. Showtime!

With one stomp on the floor, all the trainees spring to their feet to start the song. This is high energy and so expressive and charismatic. Not only are they whipping the audience into a frenzy, they keep finding the camera lens to connect directly to the viewing audience. Each time they look into the lens, I feel like they can see me. This goes on my list of favorite performances from these survival shows. I didn’t like the original version of this song when I looked it up, but I love this version.

The Star Creators vote, and unsurprisingly, Keita comes in first place. I’m going to assume he will also make it into ZeroBaseOne, along with Ricky. Keita cannot go wrong on this show.

Okay, now for the really difficult one. “Home” by Seventeen. This is the team with Jay Chang and four other strong singers, including Yoon Jong Woo, who was amazing in the first mission as part of the Stray Kids “Back Door” performance. These singers have to keep the high notes steady while doing spins. Let’s skip through the flashback and see if they can pull it off.

I love this stage design and the romantic glow it casts on the audience when the light sticks change to the same amber light.

This team has changed the choreography to be less demanding so they can focus on the vocals. I’m a little disappointed, but I get it. They need to play to their strengths. I do hear a voice crack on a high note. Oof. Why don’t they just bring these high-range songs down a note or two? Also, Jay looks nervous. The crowd seems to love it, though. Overall, it’s a lovely performance that could have used more adjustment on the vocals and a bit more practice to steady the nerves.

When the judges comment on the performance, we learn that the group actually did lower the notes on the song, and they were still struggling to hit them. Wow. No wonder they looked a bit tense up there.

The votes come in. First place on this team is Yoon Jong Woo. Well-deserved recognition for the leader of the team on this really difficult song.

The next song is … oh my God … “Love Killa” by Monsta X. This is the team with three Top 9 trainees, including Seok Matthew. Let’s gooooooooo!

Right, the flashback. I don’t care. Start the show.

Love the opening shot and the red color. Then the spoken opening line, “Got room for one more.” My heart is pounding. The fans are screaming.  Guys, you’d better make this good.

It’s good. It’s so fucking good.

Once the Star Creators are revived by paramedics, they cast their votes. I don’t know how they could possibly choose, but it’s Kim Gyu Vin. All the team members here deserved that spot, so I’m fine with whoever got it. Why am I suddenly craving a cigarette? I don’t even smoke.

(Quick side note: Let’s go back to that TV ratings pin. Backstage, one of the other trainees says, “I thought Boys Planet was PG-13. Seriously, can kids watch this?” I think this performance alone might cause Mnet to bump up the rating a bit.)

Honestly, I’m not sure I could handle another performance right now, but the show introduces the next group. It’s the Avenger team of Hui, Gun Wook, Zhang Hao, and Sung Han Bin. They’re doing “Tomboy.” And wow, Gun Wook has fans screaming his name.

Flashback. Don’t care. Showtime.

Except it isn’t. This episode is smart enough to end here. At least we got the flashback out of the way so we can hit the ground running with this performance.

Before we leave, we get an update on the overall rankings of all 51 trainees. (Wait – it’s now 50. No wait, our mistake. One trainee was just checking his makeup in the bathroom. He’s back.  So 51 trainees.) Here are the highlights.

Krystian is at 45. Safely away from the Top 9. Please, Star Creators, chop this guy. I’m begging you.

Na Kamden is at 22. Not bad. I have mixed feelings about whether I want him to make it to the final group, but let’s see how he does in this mission.

Dear, sweet Takuto is at 21. Ricky is at 14. I still think Ricky’s going to make the final group.

Gun Wook is at 11. He slipped one number. That’s okay. We know he wins in the end.

Hui is at 10. Slid out of the Top 9. Jay Chang is still at 9. Keita is at 8. Kim Gyu Vin is at 6. Kim Ji Woong is at 5.

Zhang Hao is at 4. Seok Matthew at 3. Han Yu Jin at 2.

As always, Sung Han Bin is at Number 1, keeping the Jooheon Pledge by protecting his Number One spot. Joohoney would be proud.

[mikadosekimura]

FUN! FUN! FALL!

event story translation

MooNs and KiLLER KiNG will have a fashion battle on a special program. Mikado Sekimura and Akane Fudo will represent the group and compete on the theme of 「Romantic Autumn Date」 There will be a penalty game for the group that loses the battle...?!

01 MOONS APARTMENT

Hikaru: Fuwa~......

Kazuna: Hikaru, you look sleepy, were you up playing games all night?

Hikaru: Nah, I was so cold I couldn't get to sleep. I couldn’t stand it in short sleeves and shorts……

Tatsuhiro: That’s obvious.I mean haven’t you got any long sleeves?

Hikaru: I think I can go another month without them.

Tatsuhiro: No. That's impossible.

Mikado: There’s still some time before A&R-san arrives for the meeting, Why don’t you go change your clothes now?

Hikaru: Ooh! Then, let’s split up now-!

Momotaro: Nobody said they would help you.

Hikaru: So mean!

……By the way, where did I put my winter clothes?

Mikado: Seriously Hikarun is……This is what happens when you neglect to keep things tidy on a daily basis.

Kazuna: It can’t be helped. Everyone, let’s help look for them.

Hikaru: Leader! Thanks!

Tatsuhiro: Ahh…… this is how it always ends up.

a while later...

Hikaru: ……Ah! It’s here!

Kazuna: I guess it was hidden deep in the closet. No wonder we couldn’t find it straight away.

Hikaru: Agh! It’s hard to even pull it out!

Kazuna: Wouldn’t it be easier to deal with if you take the things out from in front of it first?

Hikaru: It’s okay! It’s okay! I was able to grab one of the edges of the clothes, so if I just keep pulling it……

Uwah!!

Kazuna: Hikaru!?

Tatsuhiro: Oi, are you okay?

Momotaro: It made a loud noise……

Mikado: Oh my, this is a disaster.

Hikaru: That scared me! When I grabbed my clothes all the other clothes fell over too~ hahaha

Mikado: It’s no laughing matter. There’s clothes all over the floor now.

Hikaru: Th, It’s all okay! I’ll clean it up right away!

Momotaro: No, I don’t think we have time for that.

Hikaru: Eh?

Akane: Everyone! We’ll be heading off to the meeting soon!

Kazuna: Looks like Killer King has arrived, let’s go.

Hikaru: Eeehh!? W wait a second~~~!

02 MEETING ROOM

Hikaru: Ha⁓……

A&R: Sorry for making you come all this way out, you must be tired.

Hikaru: A! No, no that’s not it! I’m tired for a different reason!

A&R: Eh?

Mikado: A&R-san you don’t need to worry, It’s Hikarun’s own fault.

Tatsuhiro: So, a new job for MooNs and Kirakin?

A&R: Yes. You’ve been asked to appear on a 2 hour live broadcast. It’s a special program during the channel's reorganization period.. I’ll hand out the proposal now.

Kazuna: Thankyou

Momotaro: 「Fashionable Fall! Coordination Battle with MooNs and KiLLER KiNG」?

Haruhi: A coordination battle sounds fun!

Yuzuki: The theme of the showdown is… 「Romantic Autumn Date」it says…

Akane: Somehow that sounds kind of mature……

Miroku: The show decides who to coordinate... Out of us it’s Akane and from MooNs it’s Sekimura-san.

Mikado: If it’s a battle then there’s a winner and loser, right?

A&R: Yes. The winner will be decided by the audience and viewers votes, the winning group will receive a prize.

Hikaru: A reward!? What is it, I’m interested⁓! Food? Meal vouchers? 

Tatsuhiro: Isn’t it always food with you?

A&R: Fufu, well that was the surprise for today

Mikado: This is something we must be fully prepared for!

Momotasu, when you get back to our room, let’s read some fashion magazines and do some research!

Momotaro: Ahh. We should also gather some information online.

Akane: MooNs seems really motivated! We’ll have to work just as hard so we don’t lose!

Yuzuki: Coordination… I’m not very confident.

Miroku: If it’s a battle then I guess I should get serious

Akane: Well, I usually just wear what I like

Haruhi: I’ll be okay! It’s not like you're coordinating it by yourself, all four of us are a team!

We’ll make a quick choice and make the audience go crazy!

Akane: Oh, I see! Quickly shoot them down like bang bang!

Miroku: And a conversation I can’t understand has started.

Yuzuki: Yeah but my anxiety has left a little.

A&R: (Both teams seem to be motivated. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of outfits they’ll both come up with.)

03 CLOTHING STORE

A&R: (Today is the coordination battle. It’s the location for the shoot of KiLLER KiNG’s team……)

(I'd heard that the direction of the outfit hasn’t been decided, but is that okay?)

Akane: How should I decide?

Yuzuki: It might be better to think about it more based on the theme of the showdown.

Miroku: Yeah.. If it’s not on the theme then it’s pointless.

Haruhi: How about each of us chooses something based on the image of a 「Romantic Autumn Date」 in mind?

Akane: That sounds good! But please make sure to choose clothes that suit me properly?

Haruhi: Okiee⁓♪

a few moments later...

Akane: So then, everyone's outfits are complete…..

Haruhi: Tono, aren't your clothes a little too plain? It’s a date, a date!

Miroku: I went for something simple and cool, with the image of a sports date.

Akane: I like Miroku’s outfit choice, the combination of the black cap and sneakers is great!

Miroku: Right? I thought Akane would like it.

Haruhi: Hey, hey, what kind of outfit did Yuzuki pick?

Yuzuki: For me, this.

Miroku: A denim shirt, white sweater and black pants…

Akane: It looks a bit like Massu! What image did you have in mind when you chose it?

Yuzuki: It’s autumn, so it's a quiet place…… I imagined going to an art museum. 

Haruhi: It’s nice. I also want Yuzuki to coordinate my outfit too⁓⁓

Yuzuki: Yeah, next time.

Miroku: So as for Haruhi’s outfit……

Haruhi: Eh? Where’s the problem!?

Since I’m a romantic, I undecided to create a driving date outfit!

Yuzuki: It’s very adult-like.

Akane: Hmm, It’s not bad but does it suit me?

Miroku: See, there is a problem.

Akane and Haruhi’s were rejected so why don’t you choose between mine and Yuzuki’s?

Akane: I like Miroku’s outfit, but it’s not any different from usual and Harupyon’s is too difficult…..

I think it has to be Yucchii’s coordination.

Haruhi: Hahh, I was confident as well.

Miroku: ……No, is Akane going on a romantic date under the autumn sky in this outfit?

Akane: What’s up Miroku?

Miroku: If the theme is「Romantic Autumn Date」wouldn’t it be better to go for something more mature?

Yuzuki: Oh I see… in that case……Haru’s outfit then?

 Miroku: That’s right.

Haruhi: That’s why I said it!

Akane: Hey, wait a minute! Such grown up clothes don’t suit me!

Miroku: That’s not true right? You’re the oldest of KiraKin.

Haruhi: Yeah, yeah! It’s time to show your maturity as the oldest!

Yuzuki: Akane, have confidence.

Akane: Normally you guys don’t treat me like an elder anymore!

Ah, I’m not confident but I'll try my best.

A&R: (It seems like ultimately Haru’s outfit was chosen. I wonder what Akane’s outfit will look like.)

04 CLOTHING STORE

A&R: (This time it’s a location shoot for the MooNs team coordination battle.)

Kazuna: Since it’s a special occasion I think we should pick something different than usual.

Mikado: Tunk! That’s gap moe!

Momotaro: I don’t know if it’s a gap moe thing or not, but I’m sure the audience will surely be happy.

Tatsuhiro: Yeah, that’s right.

Hikaru: Hey, hey if you’re looking for a gap there’s a quick way to do it!

Mikado: What method is that, Hikarun!

Hikaru: Basically, take off your glasses!

Mikado: Rejected!

Hikaru: Denial isn’t allowed! Ehh⁓, Why not⁓!

Tatsuhiro: When I heard gap, that was also the first thing that came to my mind.

Mikado: Glasses are a part of the body, If I take them off, it won’t be me anymore.

Hikaru: I-Is that so?

Mikado: Of course it is!

Hikaru: Hmm, speaking of other gaps…… Let’s shave your head!

Mikado: An idol can’t have a hairstyle like that!

Hikaru: Ahaha, really?

Kazuna: Well maybe there’s no need to change mikado himself?

Tatsuhiro: What do you mean?

Kazuna: For example, what would everyone think if Mikado was wearing Tatsuhiro’s clothes?

Momotaro: That would be unusual… I see, so that’s the gap.

Hikaru: Leader, we’re getting warmer!

Kazuna: So, why not take inspiration in fashion sense from someone in MooNs?

Mikado: I agree!

Tatsuhiro: In that case, maybe it’s best if we choose someone who’s sense is furthest away from the atmosphere that Sekimura gives off.

Momotaro: It’s Hikaru then.

Hikaru: Right! I thought the same!

Mikado: Now, let’s choose Hikarun’s casual clothes as a reference point. Hikarun, if you will!

Hikaru: Yes! Stylist Hikaru Osari will do his best!

a couple of minutes later...

A&R: (It seems like the MooNs team completed their outfit with the feel of Hikaru’s outfits in mind……)

Mikado: This.. this is……

Hikaru: I think it looks good! What do you think?

Mikado: At first I was a little worried but……This is the best, Hikarun!

Kazuna: It suits you well, Mikado.

Tatsuhiro: I guess you can wear this kind of thing as well.

Momotaro: Ah, It’s not bad.

Mikado: I’ve gained confidence from MooNs’ words. The winner of the battle will surely be MooNs!

05 LIVE BROADCAST

Moderator: We watched the videos of MooNs team and the KiLLER KiNG team choosing their outfits.

Now, we have prepared mannequins dressed in the outfits from both teams so let’s take a look!

Haruhi: Woa, the MooNs outfit looks just like Hikari-kun’s!

Momotaro: Ahh, we were aiming for a contrast with his usual self.

Moderator: Now the audience and viewers will be asked to vote on which outfit they like best.

The winning team will receive a nice reward and the losing team will face a penalty.

Sekimura-kun, Fudo-kun, how confident are you both?

Mikado: Of course, very condfident.

It was my first time wearing this kind of fashion, but the members all said it looked good on me.

Akane: I believe in the members too!

Moderator: That’s great team love… Oh right there are some treats for the viewers as well right? 

Mikado: Yes. During the location shoot where we chose our outfits, Akarin and I both took reward videos.

Akane: We put on the clothes we picked out and went out with the idea of going on a date with a girlfriend.

Moderator: You will only be able to view the footage of the winning team so please vote carefully!

Now, press your button!

The results are in!

Although there is a small difference in votes……

The winner is team KiLLER KiNG!

KiLLER KiNG: YATTA!

Hikaru: Ehhh⁓⁓, Seriously!?

Mikado: Kuu, That can’t be……!

Moderator: So, the winning team KiLLER KiNG: Here is your reward! Come and receive your bracelet!

Thanks to the kindness of the clothing store that helped us out during the shoot there is the KiLLER KiNG logo on the plate! Please take good care of it.

Haruhi: That’s so freakin’ cool!

Yuzuki: Yeah…

Akane: Thankyou for such a lovely bracelet!

Miroku: We will treasure it.

Moderator: And the penalty for the losing MooNs team is…

A part-time job at a clothing store for one day! Please come and learn the basics of fashion from scratch! 

Tatsuhiro: A part-time job at a clothing store serving customers..

Mikado: It seems like it might be a struggle

Kazuna: I will do my best. Let’s do our best, everyone?

MooNs: Yes!

Moderator: The video of the punishment game can be found on the official website, It will be released at a later date so look forward to it!

Now let’s move onto the much-anticipated reward video! An exciting date with Fudo-kun begins!

Audience: Kyaaa-!

06 GANDHARA BUILDING 

A&R: Everyone, good work on the 2 hour live broadcast!

The outfit battle was really exciting. The final reward video was met with a thunderous cheer.

Akane: It was a little embarrassing though.

Haruhi: I guess it was the right choice to pick my outfit!

Akane: Yeah. But, I still can’t believe it.

A&R: There’s no reason not to, It looked great on you.

Akane: (Blushing) Thankyou, A&R-san

Mikado: Hahh… I can’t believe I lost……

A&R: The MooNs team outfit was unexpected and I thought it was great. It’s rare to see Mikado-san in casual clothes.

Mikado: If you say that, It makes me feel a little better……

What I regret the most is that A&R-san didn’t get to see my reward video! It was a masterpiece......!

A&R: But, I saw it during the recording

Mikado: Is that so……

As expected, it was a mistake to use Hikaru’s fashion as a reference.

Hikaru: Wait, wait Mikachi! What do you mean!?

Mikado: What that means is that women today are looking for a sexy type rather than the lively type.

Momotaro: Certainly, that may be true.

Hikaru: Pi-chan as well!?

Haruhi: Hey, hey A&R which outfit did you like better, Mikado-kun’s or Akane’s?

A&R: Umm, they both have different merits……

Haruhi: Ehh⁓ that’s cheating.

Ah! Then from now on, I’ll produce it myself and let A&R decide who’s the best!

A&R: Huh!?

Hikaru: Good idea! Haru, I’ll participate!

Mikado: All right! I’ll win this time!

A&R: U, Um, wait a minute……

Kazuna: Everyone, don’t bother A&R too much, okay?

Mikado: Even Leader is forced to participate!

Actually all of MooNs and KiLLER KiNG are participating! It’s a rematch! 

Kazuna: Eh!?

Tatsuhiro: ……This has become troublesome again.’

Yuzuki: What’s the reward?

Miroku: Oh, that’s what you’re worried about?

A&R: (It seems like it’s going to turn into a big deal, but I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of outfits everyone will come up with.)

[fff777]

Commentary on NCT 127 Nimdle

I've watched some clips in this before (without context) but this is the first time I'm actually sitting down to watch.

Mission NCTble

Jaehyun threading the needle - somehow he vibes like the kind of guy who would be good at household tasks (like Jaemin lol)

Winwin tying the balloon - No but this is ALWAYS the struggle I have when blowing balloons

Winwin and Yuta popping the balloon - Everyone noting how Yuta is way too happy ^^;; But also the balloon deflating lmao

Taeyong fixing Winwin's microphone as he's busy blowing the balloon for the second time

LMAO Yuta has to peel the tangerine which is inside a wrapped box, tin foil, and plastic wrap T_T I feel like he has a lot more to do than the others

To be honest, I'm not feeling this era where a lot of the members had bowl cuts

Winwin getting REAL up close and personal with blowing the stickies off of Johnny's face lol

Waiting Doyoung has to eat the entire tangerine omg I thought it was just a slice

Mission NCTble Behind the scenes

Wait I can't believe there's a behind the scenes for a 7 minute clip

Winwin getting translation help

Taeyong's so good at catching food in his mouth lol, 100% accuracy

Is Johnny really that much taller than Winwin? News to me lol.

Johnny put the post-its on Winwin's face, and then just turned around and put them on his own face X'D So he was just helping Winwin without needing or letting Winwin help him put his. Winwin really is baobao TAT

Mission NCTble Unseen Footage

Winwin and balloon woes

Mark trying to chest bump Winwin to exemplify popping the balloon without having to tie the opening and it did not work

Snack Delivery

Oh wow each box not only has a pizza but also several side orders?

Can't get over how young Mahae look

Haechan wants to be carried by Johnny and Yuta

Entire team fitting in the massive elevator

Pillow Quiz

Haechan got a boiled egg as reward food lmfao

Yuta gets sad when Winwin watches anime without him ^^;; clingy

Taeyong has a piece of paper over his chest to cover up the name brand lmao

What do you mean Taeyong likes febreze lmao. I'm guessing it's that artificial citrus smell?

Haechan's second reward food: vegetaable wrap XD

Doyoung knows Taeyong so well ^^;; (Taeyong wanted to see Taeil do the TT dance)

Doyoung cooking for Johnny :3

Mark went up to answer and Doyoung complained that there was a queue and Mark was very earnestly going to go line up but Doyoung and Taeyong were like no you silly little bab, just go answer XD

Mark touched da (Jaehyun's) butt pass it on

Oh wow Haechan joined SM before Doyoung. I think Doyoung joined when he was 17 or 18 ("older") compared to all the Dreamies who joined pretty young.

Haechan special handshake with Jaehyun

Doyoung likes huoguo? I know awsaz happened years later so but considering Renjun is the huoguo connoisseur, they'd have something to bond over lol. (But of course tastes change over time.)

Haechan has so many food prizes wow. He is good at games though.

Johnny and Mark both heard boksu as revenge instead of plural ^^;; Just diaspora things.

Both Winwin and Taeil have been pretty quiet for the game ^^;;

The guys are having such a hard time guessing Winwin's third question ("I think it's cute when ___ does ___") and it makes me think that maybe he's just quiet when he's enjoying something so people just don't know lol.

Mark complimenting Haechan's cooking :3

I feel like Winwin's just comfortable watching ^^;;

Oooh so apparently at this time Winwin was still relying more on translation so that's why he isn't as fast as the others. So Yuta was consoling him a bit, and Taeyong worried that Winwin didn't have any food prizes ;_;

Omg Taeyong said to let Winwin answer first ;_; He really did baby Winwin a lot then huh ;_;

Introducing food from Pillow Quiz

So apparently "hot dog" in Korea is more like a corndog

Taeil pinching Mark's ear for being cute :3

Some of the guys randomly got pizza. I'm not sure why.

Make Your Partner Laugh

I've seen the Dowin part of this ^^;; Guess I'll finally get the context

Nooo Taeyong so dejected lol

Winwin's little hop as he's preparing to make his members laugh ^^;;

Doyoung's already anticipating the cute

Taeil wants to be Winwin's lunch partner so bad

Aw the guys sharing their food with Taeil because he has to eat alone

Taeil and Haechan both stealing some instant noodles

Lunch Time

Yuta's mom said that getting something for free is the scariest thing in the world. I guess it's because you don't know what the price is for getting something for free.

Yuta gave his lunchbox to Taeil :3

Yuta sharing the steak with all the others :3

Taeyong's always asking Yuta about Japanese. I remember he would ask him how to say things in the NCT Life trip to Osaka.

Aw Mark already feeling bad for Taeil.

Civilized exchange of two fried shrimp for Haechan's chicken (?)

Mark and Jaehyun aren't the most conversational :P

Mark said "Sharing is Caring" and got told off by Yuta for speaking in English ToT

Honestly salad as dessert is not too bad.

Haechan and Johnny have so much food

Haechan is so social eh :3 First trading chicken for fried shrimp and then delivering pizza to Taeil.

Haechan being like I'm so full my stomach is sticking out and Johnny being like That's how stomachs usually are

Winwin gave part of the sandwich to Taeil and being like "Poor Taeil v.v"

Dowin's first time eating together :3c

Doyoung is the one going out and brokering food trades :P I think Winwin's happy with whatever

The captions called Doyoung the mother bird who kept bringing food back :3

Winwin learning Korean words with Doyoung ;_; Doyoung really has so much patience and care

Haechan taught Winwin how he can share noodles in the lid :3

Taeil's the only one trying to turn this mukbang into a show lol.

Taeil: I've suddenly become rich.

Kkanari Night

I feel like the guys have not been given enough time to practise the dances lol

Winwin got a dud ToT

LMAO Mark performing Bad Girl Good Girl so mechanically

When Doyoung was dancing, Haechan was at the side doing the dance like the cool mom from Mean Girls lol. I think he's helping them as a guide though since he's good at other groups' dances lol.

I think both Haechan and Jaehyun know their assigned dances very well lol.

Winwin just completely freestyling lol. I have a feeling he doesn't know this song at all ^^;;

All the guys learning Winwin's dance so they can help him ;_;

Lol Taeil the catman

Johnny is so embarrassed about the butt wiggle lol

Kkanari Night Behind the Scenes

Ah so Taeil likes playing with ears too (like Junmyeon and Mark). But Taeil was actually folding his ear all the way in like a squish toy ^^;;

Winwin trying to guess beforehand which ones will taste bad and Yuta trying to stop him

Jaehyun briefly doing the TT dance.

Winwin doing the Russian Roulette dance :3

Kkanari Night Unseen Footage

Winwin unsuccessful at pawning off his dance to the others. At that point all of the members would have spent time practising their own parts.

Omg...Doyoung calling for all of the guys to help Winwin. He was like Haechan we need you...please...help coach our Winwin.

Break Time

Winwin playing with the xylophone :3

Jaehyun asking Winwin to sing while he accompanies with xylophone ;_; But Winwin doesn't really want to sing and just goes back to playing with the xylophone.

Haechan comes over to join the party.

Bottle of water?????

Mark explaining Quebec to Taeil lmao. It's cute that Taeil is so curious and asking more about why they speak French.

Twister

Taeyong already in danger mode

Taeil and Winwin are holding it out. I think it's because they're kind of separated on the mat, so they aren't going to cross over each other.

Winwin was in charge of spinning and running the next round and Mark was like "let's do it together" :3 The guys help him out so much :3

Doyoung struggling from turn 1

Ooooh so this is where Jaehyun, Winwin, and Haechan got the pizzas from. I guess the playlist didn't have the games in order ^^;;

Rolling Paper

It doesn't surprise me that the Koreans would have messier handwriting. I think when it comes to the language you're most fluent in, you think faster than you speak so you just want to hurry up and finish writing to get the point across. Whereas especially for the foreigners like Winwin and Yuta who were starting from scratch, they might be taking formal lessons and writing homework.

LOL Jaehyun got frustrated with the guys not being able to read his writing and just said the rest of his message out loud.

After the end the guys were like "...uh so how do we end this" lol.

Johnny's board was mostly in English lmao. I think I saw one message in Korean.

Lol a lot of the guys have limited English so their messages ended up being similar.

Soulless message from Doyoung lol

Haechan's unexpectedly soft message to Doyoung <3

Doyoung knows his members so well, he's guessing all of the writers correctly

Taeyong the guy with a heart the size of a teaspoon ToT Dotae forever squabbling

Jaehyun read Johnny's message and then they had a hug about it and Johnny snuck in an "I love you" in English

Did Yuta really say "let's get married" to Jaehyun ToT

LMAO Haechan was so ready for an ass boop (or a spanking???)

I hen respect you X'D

It's nice that Yuta can write Chinese characters (because of kanji being a thing)

Haechan writing Mandarin but with Korean hangul X'D

Johnny's message to Winwin was really nice though uwu

Omg Johnny's message to Haechan...working hard so that Haechan will grow up to be strong ToT That's very sweet

WAIT did Winwin say he was open to more kissies from Haechan XD Opposite of Yuta who said no more kith

Rolling Paper Behind the scenes

Winwin writing his messages with the help of the interpreter

Taeyong: Our Mark is going through adolescence, there are a lot of things I want to say to him That is so mom of him

Bonus Track

Writing their questions down for the pillow quiz

Winwin determined to find the kkanari with his nose

Getting polaroid shots

Winwin playing with the camcorder

Johnny the weatherman

Omg Mr. Staff's heart skipping a beat after making eye contact with Taeyong X'D

JAEWIN BLUE RED CROSS!!!!! So it looks like after orange lemon cross they just kept the cross thing going on and that's why they still do it ;_;

Winwin so shocked when Yuta told him the camera was already looking for him. A boy who's still not used to idol variety I guess.

Taeil's hand is just stuck to Mark's ear.

After Winwin, Yuta, Jaehyun, and Haechan took a selfie, Winwin went around to Jaehyun to take another one with just the two of them ;_; Jaehyun is Winwin's favourite.