#without a kitkat

[crimeronan]

they should invent a kitkat that isn't tired.

[fuckfuckgoback]

daydreaming with existing characters is so embarrassing. yeah I have all these headcanons but only for like one specific "fanfic" I haven't written. no theyre not interesting. no you cannot hear about them. no I am not going to write that "fanfic"

[totallyseiso]

Come for the international court news.

Leave because of the kitkat thing.

[giulioswife]

ppl worrying that Jun pursuing a solo career abroad means him leaving Eden are so funny. Like technically Izumi is pursuing a modeling career abroad, Nazuna 'left' to study in uni, and Shu is also studying abroad, but they are all still participating in ALL of their unit events lmao its just flavor text, an extra thing for him to do, they are absolutely not gonna have one of the members of one of the most popular units /leave/ for good lmao

[void-kill]

bro im soo fucking glad that my friend told this dude who's an entire year or two older than me to fuck off from my direction forever

[kitkatsudon]

KitKat reads the TKEM Novel: Introduction & Prologue & Chapter 1

Hello all! Those that have seen my account over the past couple of days will know that I have recently come into possession of copies of both volumes of the TKEM novel. I always had the vague idea in my mind that these would contain information that we don’t see in the show, characters’ inner monologues and such like, so as someone seemingly on a quest to find out everything there is to know about this show (how did it end up like this? I’m not going to dwell on that before I start regretting all my life choices), I have taken it upon myself to read these books and share this knowledge with the rest of what’s left of this fandom.

These books, of course, are in Korean, which is a language I do not speak and don’t have any intention of learning in the near future. I definitely couldn’t learn Korean in a quick enough time frame to be able to read these books in a satisfyingly short amount of time, so instead I’m utilising the power of the internet and using two online translation services, and then sort of combining the two with my preexisting knowledge of the show to create a usable translation that feels mostly right. So here’s my disclaimer: some of this stuff could very easily be mistranslated, because I’m embarking on this journey with just the powers of the internet, homosexual audacity, and autism to help me along.

So! Here’s how this is going to work. For every chapter of the book I manage to translate, I’m going to make a new post where I summarise the events of the chapter, share my thoughts on it, and then share any specific new details that we’ve learnt. All of them will be tagged with ‘kitkat reads the tkem novel’ so if you want any of the information in this series for whatever reason, hopefully these posts will be easy to find. In this post I’ll cover the prologue and chapter 1 because the prologue is barely anything at all, but from here on out it’ll be one chapter per post… whenever I finish the next chapter.

Ok then. Shall we begin?

Prologue

The novel starts with a bit of preamble about the show’s lore, not much that anyone who had already seen the show wouldn’t know, but I suppose it makes sense to open like this if they were trying to appeal to people who hadn’t already seen the show? It’s an interesting choice, though, because some of this stuff is information we don’t find out until a little later in the show, for example how the two worlds split thanks to the life/death of Crown Prince Sohyeon. However, without the visual nature of the show to keep it appealing, having a little bit of backstory about the Kingdom of Corea would be nice to have so new readers aren’t totally confused about the setting of the novel when it begins.

The only semi-new thing we really learn from the prologue is that the palace (which I will call Haeungung Palace from here on out as part of my personal mission to spread this information) is located specifically on Dongbaekseom island in Busan. This is something I had pretty much figured out already by being a big nerd and looking at screenshots of the show and comparing those to maps of Busan, but it’s nice to have this for real confirmed by a canon source. Another thing to maybe mention is that the flower symbol of the royal Jeonju Lee family is a plum blossom, but this is also something that you could probably work out beforehand.

In conclusion, this is a good introduction… but a little useless to established fans of the show, who I think would make up most of the demographic of this book. Still, it’s best for them to cover their bases.

Chapter 1: Find the clock rabbit

The first thing to mention here is that “clock rabbit” refers to the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, which the English subs on Netflix call “the white rabbit with the clock” but I’m going to say “clock rabbit” because that seems to be the direct translation, and it makes all Yeong’s lines about “Is it a rabbit or a clock?” make a lot more sense in my mind. This chapter covers four scenes from episode 1 of the show: the scene where Gon is being dressed by his new attendant Park Gyubong and he catches the talismans that Lady Noh put in his room, the scene where Gon and Koo Seoryeong have their meeting after Gon goes riding, pretty much all of the rowing scene sequence from the race to Gon going to chase after the “clock rabbit,” and then Gon very briefly in his study alone, looking at his Alice in Wonderland book.

What stood out to me the most while reading, getting over the fact that they’ve changed the order of the scenes from the show (Cheonjongo in 1994 is happening next chapter), is how much extra dialogue they’ve cut out. Again… I guess it makes sense, if they’re trying to condense a sixteen episode drama into two volumes of a book then of course they’re going to want to get straight to the point, but this is disappointing for me personally because a lot of what they cut out are the fun, familiar conversations that Gon had with Yeong throughout episode 1. For example, Gon and Yeong never have their conversation after Gon finishes his ride where Yeong reveals that there are more talismans than Gon thought, and they also cut out the conversation between Gon and Yeong in his study after the race day, which means we don’t get “are you having fun, Captain Jo?” and we don’t get their following conversation about Gon wanting to find his saviour, and Yeong assuring him that he’s grown up well and he doesn’t need anyone to save him anymore. Which is… fine. It’s fine, but it’s still disappointing. Even without coming at this from a Gonjo angle, their friendship is still very important to me, and it’s disheartening to find out that where the show abandoned it very quickly, the book doesn’t seem to be developing it at all. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments, but it’s not as much as I would have liked.

The other big thing that stood out to me is… well… how do I put this? The book really wants you to know that Gon is perfect and amazing and handsome and the best man in all of Corea and no one else could ever compare and he’s just so incredible and wonderful and everybody loves him so much and every woman is in love with him because he’s just that good. Which is hilarious to me, as a loser (affectionate) Gon truther, because this man exists in my head as an adorable mess of mathematical equations, overthinking, and pretending to be fine, and it’s just… no matter how many times they tell me how perfect and shiny he is, I’m just not going to believe it. Let me give you an excerpt, so you can see the tone of this and know what I’m talking about.

Gon’s body, which he trained to protect himself against any danger, was perfect because his safety was the security of the kingdom. Gyubong was impressed anew by a glimpse of his hard and wide shoulders.

Gyubong glanced at the pride of the Kingdom of Corea before he could meet his indifferent eyes. His sharp nose, smooth lips, and sharp jawline stood out under his straight eyebrows. The third king of the Kingdom of Corea boasted an appearance that deserved the love of the kingdom’s people.

Like— it’s so unserious! They’re really trying so hard to ram it down your throat how utterly perfect Lee Gon is - and in this scene it reads like Gon’s eyebrows may be straight but Park Gyubong sure isn’t. They also mention Gon’s “long legs” when he’s running after his clock rabbit and… wow, does this answer that age old question? Is this what Yeong knows that Gon uses his long legs for - running away and giving Yeong a headache?

So, after all this, what have we learnt so far?

Park Gyubong is either very confident in his heterosexuality or he has a huge crush on King Lee Gon

“The royal courtiers often found the principled Captain of the Guard more difficult than the easy-going king” which… hurts me, a little, to imagine the palace staff bitching about Yeong behind his back. Does it make sense? …yes, to be fair yes, yes it does, it makes a lot of sense for Yeong to rule Haeungung palace with an iron fist as he tries desperately to take care of Gon’s safety, so I just hope that none of the other members of staff are being too mean about our beloved Yeongie :(

Yeong’s naval rank is confirmed to be a Soryeong/Lieutenant Commander! If you’ve seen my post about military ranks in TKEM then you’ll see that this is something that you can see in the show by looking at his epaulettes, but it’s nice to have it confirmed in writing here

Yeong was described as being “born and bred to serve the king.” This is something we knew already, but having it said explicitly here… it’s doing something to me, so it’s getting its own point.

Yeong specifically says to Park Gyubong that “His Majesty doesn’t like other people’s hands touching his body.” It’s not just any touch, he specifically mentions hands. Fanfic nation, do with this information what you will.

Mentioning the moment where little Yeong joined little Gon in crying after Lee Ho’s funeral is something that hurts Yeong’s pride. We can only assume that Gon knows this because he has brought it up in the past and Yeong has got very flustered about it.

On that topic, Gon thinks about that moment after his dad’s funeral after Yeong is like !!!!! when Park Gyubong mentions covering Gon’s scar.

Lady Noh has been noticeably anxious about finding Gon a partner ever since he turned thirty (Korean age). Gon isn’t sure if it was before that, but thirty is the age that he mentions. The Korean word for partner used is 짝, which Wordreference tells me means “pair, mate, buddy.” Interestingly, not necessarily wife, very gender neutral. This is in Gon’s internal monologue so again, fanfic nation, this one’s for you.

It’s also said that Lady Noh is more like a mother to Gon than his own mother was, which again is something we already knew but it’s very nice to have it written.

It’s crossed Lady Noh’s mind that Gon might have a secret mistress and that’s why he has never been interested in getting married, but she figured that this was illogical because Gon is always being watched while he’s in the palace. Thank you for your hard work, Jo Yeong!

The issue of marriage is apparently the only duty of Gon’s that he ever abandons, which… idk, there’s something there.

Gon feels like he’s free of all his worries when he goes riding, especially with Maximus, so riding is basically like Gon’s therapy :D

Maximus is his “favourite horse” which is something else that’s just nice to have in writing

It is mentioned several times in this chapter that Gon “is the favourite of every woman in the kingdom.” It’s giving… heteronormative, but that doesn’t surprise me. However, Koo Seoryeong doesn’t count herself as being one of these women because she can see up close how Gon is putting on as much of an act as she is.

Koo Seoryeong’s ex-husband was not only from a chaebol family but also a conglomerate leader. This is interesting to me because it’s mentioned in the show that he’s the second son so… what happened to the first son? Is he the leader of his own separate corporation? Was he just not as good as his younger brother?

Gon finds the way Koo Seoryeong is clear about expressing her desires uncomfortable because, as the king, he’s never been able to have his own desires or express his own desires freely

“Yeong’s nerves were on edge” while Gon was rowing in the competition, because it was an outdoor event. He finds these things stressful because Gon already came close to death once, and you never know if it’ll happen again

As soon as he hears a gunshot, Gon is immediately transported back to the night of the treason. Even if he doesn’t show it outwardly, it’s crossing his mind at the slightest trigger.

That time at the rowing competition is the first time that Gon has run away during an outdoor event. He runs away often and he knows he causes trouble for the Royal Guard, but this is the first time he’s done it at an event like that.

Gon can recognise Yeong just by his footsteps

Gon leaves his duties in the palace once or twice a year - either because he wants some personal time, or he’s in desperate need of it because he feels too overwhelmed by his regular life. I already assumed it was because of that, but to have it confirmed… fanfic nation, this is for you again

Gon was still thinking about the night of the treason when he got his Alice in Wonderland book out at the end of episode 1, and he could still vividly feel the sticky blood on the soles of his feet, and the feeling of something constricting around his neck. He felt like it could still happen again at any moment. Clearly, Lee Gon needs some better therapy than just going riding with Maximus.

Final thoughts: I’m very much enjoying seeing into the characters’ minds like this, especially Gon, since we’ve had a lot of him this chapter. I like how the book is able to show how often Gon is thinking about the night of the treason, making it and therefore his PTSD a much more present thing than in the show. It remains to be seen whether the currently hilarious Gon-worshipping is going to become annoying after a while, or whether or not seeing the characters’ inner thoughts is going to start annoying me when the main romance plot gets going. If it’s in the same tone as the Gon-worshipping… yeesh. That’ll be an experience.

My main thought so far? Not enough Yeong. There’s not as much Yeong as there was in the show, and there isn’t even much Yeong there. This book could be greatly improved with more Yeong. I suppose we’ll have to stick to fanfiction for that.

[captnhomo]

imagining s3 opening with them kind of recreating the kitkat advert of some kind

[crimeronan]

one of my fave phenomenons that i see semi-frequently in people newly diagnosed with ADHD is worries about Faking It, which happens with basically every physical and mental disorder, except with ADHD i'll see people specifically be like. "i took my first dose of adderall eight hours ago and i didn't really feel anything and i didn't do much at all and i'm not sure it works, maybe i actually DON'T have ADHD or executive dysfunction and made it all up to excuse my laziness??"

and i'm like. babe. dude. my guy babygirl broski pal please . please listen to me. if you did take adderall while not having ADHD. You Would Know About It Very Very Very Quickly .

[wulfhalls]

do you have any favourite creatures! :)

yeah this guy is great! top 3 creatures for sure

[thevalleyoftriumph]

one of my beloved mutualz deactivated itz literally so over

[notwiselybuttoowell]

West Papua’s Indigenous people have called for a boycott of KitKat, Smarties and Aero chocolate, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers, and the cosmetics brands Pantene and Herbal Essences, over alleged ecocide in their territory.

All are products that contain palm oil and are made, say the campaigners, by companies that source the ingredient directly from West Papua, which has been under Indonesian control since 1963 and where thousands of acres of rainforest are being cleared for agriculture.

More than 90 West Papuan tribes, political organisations and religious groups have endorsed the call for a boycott, which they say should continue until the people of West Papua are given the right to self-determination.

Raki Ap, a spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which is overseeing the call, said: “These products are linked to human rights violations, in the first place, because West Papuans are being forced, with violence, to get off the land where they’ve lived for thousands of years, which has now resulted in ecocide.

“This is a signal to the countries who are dealing with Indonesia, especially those in the Pacific region, to take notice of who they’re dealing with and how they are basically allowing Indonesia to continue the colonial project in West Papua, the human rights violations, and also ecocide.”

West Papuans say more than 500,000 of their people have been killed by the occupation in the past six decades, while millions of acres of their ancestral lands have been destroyed for corporate profit. Indonesia, already the world’s largest palm oil exporter, is now breaking ground in West Papua on the world’s biggest single palm oil plantation, as well as a sugar cane and biofuel plantation that will be the largest deforestation project ever launched.

“West Papuans’, especially the ULMWP, position is very clear: we are a modern-day colony,” said Ap, speaking from the Netherlands.

“Indonesia hijacked the right to self-determination in 1962 when the Netherlands and Indonesia signed an agreement without any consultation in West Papua … After that, in 1969, there was a so-called referendum, which wasn’t fair, which wasn’t under international law, one man, one vote: just 1,025 men were handpicked at gunpoint to vote for integration to Indonesia.

“So this is the foundation of the Indonesia’s colonial project. When we became part of Indonesia against our will, basically the genocide unfolded.”

[psychoticwillgraham]

get you a friend who'll go downstairs and eat several bowls of cereal with you at 3am while discussing the meaning of life bc yknow. enrichment.

[fazcinatingblog]

a doctor could easily dissect everything i eat and be like "well, it's definitely caused by all this chocolate" and i'll still die on the hill that my stomach cramps were due to the entire pack of hot dogs consumed this week (some of those were on BREAD which i also blame)

[markscherz]

It also means, every now and then, we should give ourselves a break. You are a primate wearing cloth. You were never meant to be here, because you were never meant to be anywhere. You are just as evolved as the sparrows in the trees and the mites on your face, and we are all just here because we're here because we're here.

I find it extremely helpful to remind myself sometimes that I am just a well-dressed ape.

No wonder computer screens have such an appeal—I am just a creature, and these lights are so nice and bright and they can give me feelings from the comfort of my chair.

No wonder it is hard to stay on task sometimes—I am just a creature, and there might be a nice bug under the next piece of bark.

No wonder it is hard to understand how other people think. I am trapped in here and they are trapped in there, and we have developed an incredibly complex means of conveying what's happening in our respective vessels, except that we evolved to do this face-to-face, and now are trying to make it work in this complex thing we developed called writing which does a fair but flawed job of conveying our actual thoughts, and has none of the subtlety, nor the efficiency, of language as we originally evolved it. And the times when it matters, where a great deal is at stake, are all new and crazy and awfully big for a society of well-dressed monkeys.

And because the world is big and we can only reach so far, we even developed different languages, which is all good and well, but then we went and made this thing called an internet where we are all together again, and a huge portion of the people using it aren't doing so in their first/best language, or at least, not all of the time. And that makes even more grounds for misunderstanding.

With all of this complexity, it is no wonder that we misunderstand each other; that we other the unfamiliar, and villainise those whose backgrounds, environments, and microcosms are different from our own, especially in beliefs we hold dear. But I find it brings compassion to keep it in mind, and reminds me to take it easy on myself, and not just others. Because, as a primate, I could also just…choose not to play by the constructions of the society we have created. Sometimes it is rewarding to indulge that feeling, but usually I think, actually, this thing called society that we have made is quite okay really. We are doing our best, and, globally, there has never been a better time to be alive than right now—at least, not for humans (I like to read We're Here to be reminded of this regularly). But we are still just animals, and we deserve a break.

The annoying thing about all that seemingly bullshit hippie nature connection shit is that it's absolutely true

there is no fundamental difference between you, me, a random person in a random country across the world, the fly that just landed on your house, the grass growing down the street, the fish you ate for dinner, and the bird that's sitting on my computer

everything on this planet is connected and everything influences everything else and we are all inheritors of this spherical-ish rock's collective 4.6 billion years of history

we are all the same, fundamentally, just with a few changes here and there over the course of countless millennia, and we all rely on each other. eating is just the flow of nutrients and energy through the biosphere. everything dies because the planet changes and before we figured out how to modify our behavior during our lifetimes genetic mutation was the only way to adapt to that change. everything evolves. everything feels. everything yearns.

there is no "us verus them" for anything - not man versus nature, not man versus man, not man versus deity

its just Us. Us and Us. There are some of us who insist there's a "them", and that's a problem. But ultimately, they are still part of the "Us"

so it sucks, but the minute you start seeing literally anything as "the enemy" instead of "someone who has been horrifyingly mislead, because the vast majority of beings on this planet just want to do what they think is the right thing" you've already lost the plot

there is no enemy

there is no evil

we made up evil to try and make sense of actions we couldn't understand

there is only our planet, and everything on it, and we are all connected, and we all have to work together

I know that goes against your deep primate instincts, because you have to have a little selfishness to survive and that's where that lives, and sometimes that selfishness requires hurting others or protecting yourself from hurt

but the burden of being the first species (probably) aware of all this means we have to try to ignore that monkey inside of our chests and remember that there is no enemy. there is no them.

there is only us.

[kitkatsudon]

What are your thoughts on their characters of the alternate universe also being neurodivergent?

Eg, Gon and Jihun both having autism. Or Yeong and Eunseob also both being neurodivergent.

First of all, what a great question! I’m very pleased you’ve got me talking about this in a public place, lol.

I think the best way to start is to think about the question in a general sense, rather than focusing on Eunseob and Jihun in particular. After all, the multiverse is vast, but the question here is… exactly how vast? It really depends on how you conceptualise it. In the TKEM canon, we’re shown different universes that contain variants of the characters we’re familiar with, and it’s implied that everyone exists with the same DNA in every universe, implying strict continuity within the universes… except that’s not quite right, is it? If that were the case, one would expect people to live and die at the same time in every universe, but we have proof that isn’t the case, even without Lee Lim’s meddling. Take Song Jeonghye, for example: she’s alive and kicking in the Republic, but in the Kingdom Queen Song died when Gon was very small (I think three years old in Korean age?), which was before Lee Lim started drastically altering the continuity between the universes. If people can die at different times in different universes, what happens if someone in one universe died as a baby, but in another universe in the infinite multiverse they went on to have children? These children wouldn’t exist in the first universe where they were dead, causing a big inconsistency between the universes.

That’s why I prefer to think of the multiverse using the mindset that, in the infinite multiverse, there’s a universe where every possible outcome of the universe has happened. This means that there are an infinite amount of universes where, for example, Lee Gon exists as he does in canon, where he exists as he does in our headcanons, and also an infinite amount of universes where he was never born at all. The implication of this is that, if you can think of something, it will exist somewhere in the infinite multiverse. (This also means that every fanfiction is canon, and hypothetically the canon characters could visit the universe of any fanfiction using the Manpasikjeok - I love having the concept of the multiverse in the show’s canon because it means that somewhere, somehow, you’re always right >:D)

With this in mind, my official, blanket answer for the question of whether or not Gonjo variants would be neurodivergent is both yes and no. There would be an infinite number of universes where they are, and an infinite number of universes where they aren’t.

However, you also asked me about these specific cases, so let’s talk about them!

Jihun… is a difficult one to call. What I can say at least is that if he is neurodivergent, he would probably need to be high masking to be able to reach a high position in the military. From his uniform, you can tell that he’s a pretty high ranking officer (I don’t have wifi right now and the signal isn’t good enough for video so I can’t check his exact rank at the moment), which means it would probably be difficult for him to serve if the military thought that potential neurodivergence would affect his ability to do his job. With that being said, it’s certainly not impossible. In my opinion, we haven’t really seen enough of Jihun to make an educated call either way, but from the way he was purposefully paralleled with Gon in the first episode, it’s not out of the question.

As for Eunseob, this is perhaps more likely. We’ve spoken about Gon and Yeong having an ND-to-ND connection, but I think it’s telling that when Gon first arrived in the Republic, Eunseob was the only one to really humour Gon and try and spend any time with him. I think, however, that a big point is how Yeong and Eunseob are presented as such polar opposites, with such extreme personalities. Neurodivergent traits are often characterised by extremes, and the way they’re characterised as extreme opposites in the show really lends itself to a neurodivergent reading for both of them. As for his exact diagnosis, I agree with you in our messages that he’s more likely to be ADHD, but admittedly I have’t really thought about this well enough to create a well thought-out argument as to why - it’s just kind of based on intuition and vibes, more than anything else. Something I want to note is that in @deesarrachi ‘s Polycule Cinematic Multiverse, Yeong has ADHD, and although last time I checked, the full fic isn’t ready yet, I can’t help but wonder if, in this universe, both Yeong and Eunseob have ADHD (and if you see this and would like to, deesarrachi you are more than welcome to expand on this in the comments or in a reblog)

Anyway, I think those are all my thoughts on the subject? Thank you once again for the question, you kept me very entertained while I’ve been sat on the train for a couple of hours :D

[sugurumybeloved]

⤷ Viewing your Instagram Post!

masterlist! | previous post!

❦ synopsis: your s/o sees your instagram post :))

chars: Satoru G., Suguru G., Kento N., Toji F. , Ryomen S., Choso K., Yuji I., Megumi F., Toge l., Takuma I., and Yuuta O.

pairings: jjk men x female reader

warnings: none 😼

rika is always gonna be featured in this 🤗

dt list: @1-800reki @ashlovelys @crowatemitsuri @psuedosugu @starykari @pinkbowwhitebow @kitkat-moon @ilovelinkk @istanstraykidss @zellons @misthashiragf @mjustag1rl @stantengenandhisflashywives :3

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(Reblogs and likes are greatly appreciated!)