claudeng80

[claudeng80]

Look I'm sorry to anyone who thought the Saja Boys were a real band, but it was obviously fake from the beginning.

Huntr/x has been doing this gimmick for years where they'll put on a performance and some actors dressed up like demons will "interrupt" it or get into some choreo fights on stage and stuff. If you're a fan you know, the demons usually symbolize things like industry corruption, Mira's struggle with her family, Rumi being in the closet, etc, and there's lots of hints and secret messages to the fans in what they're wearing or how they show up. Check out huntresx5evah on blsky they've got an extensive examination of the "demons" over the years and what the messages to the fans are.

In the concert before Golden was released, the demons were dressed like flight attendants. That was the indication that something new was about to take off. @/queenhuntrixdontmiss and I speculated that it was going to be a new single and low and behold, it was.

But then the live performance got cancelled. It's an open secret that Rumi was having vocal issues, so that was probably not planned. They needed to buy time for her to recover, so, enter the Saja Boys -- a fake band of guys really clearly pretending to be demons, they release ONE single, do a bunch of b-tier variety shows for a week, nearly all of their public appearances have Huntr/x right there, keeping the hype and energy up until Rumi can get her throat polyps removed and furthering the routine where Huntr/x are supposed to be secret demon hunters and the Saja Boys are supposed to be secret demons.

Then the whole thing culminates in the Golden live performance at the idol awards, the big act with Huntr/x fake "break up" and the subsequent theatrics to make it up to fans for failing the first Golden performance. Huntr/x takes their obligation to fans very seriously, I've no doubt that they all felt terrible about having to cancel, so a free show was the obvious recourse to try and make it up to people. And they pulled out all the stops!

But the Saja Boys were never real. I mean they got real guys to pretend to be a boy band and do the dancing and lip syncing obviously, but come on, most of them didn't even have names.

[claudeng80]

Go read an old fic.

There's such recency bias in fandom. As an author you post something, get a few reactions, and then it goes off into the bin. As a reader you check the tags, see what's new, and move on. But a lot of old stuff is really good. It's just sitting there, gathering dust, waiting for someone to take a peek.

So go on. Treat yourself.

Read an old fic.

[claudeng80]

dont retreat emotionally. people like you and want you around. they like to talk to you, and you genuinely matter. you have to trust this through the hard times so you can get to the better times without sabotaging yourself. you are worth loving

[claudeng80]

Obiyuki AU Bingo, July: Week 2 Round Up

Fanfiction

Merry & Bright, Chapter 12: Dreaming of a Place I Love by @sabraeal

Playlists

Sunlight Through the Garden Wall by @batgirlsay

[claudeng80]

the most powerful writing tool is actually Brainstorming With The Girls

[claudeng80]

I assure you: somebody, somewhere, is on the exact same wavelength as you are.

[claudeng80]

Go read an old fic.

There's such recency bias in fandom. As an author you post something, get a few reactions, and then it goes off into the bin. As a reader you check the tags, see what's new, and move on. But a lot of old stuff is really good. It's just sitting there, gathering dust, waiting for someone to take a peek.

So go on. Treat yourself.

Read an old fic.

[claudeng80]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[claudeng80]

After Midnight on AOL

Do you ever feel you become the worst version of yourself? Obi types, the glare of his laptop screen the only illumination in his midnight living room. Torou snorts once, back in the bedroom, before turning over and dropping back into the sleep of the unbothered. Obi is far too bothered to sleep, not tonight.

He wasn’t even supposed to be there; Izana’s name was the one on the invitation. Izana was supposed to go suck up to noted author Garrack Gazelt so that next time she came to the city she’d come hold workshops at Wisteria instead of some little hole in the wall pharmacy. Obi may be an accomplished suckup, as Zakura wastes no opportunity to remind him, but he clearly did not know the right buzzwords for Gazelt.

So the night was both a professional failure and a social one. Someone gets on your nerves and instead of backing down, you charge in with knives out and guns blazing. It doesn’t even have to be anything important, certainly not worth that kind of commitment, but your mouth just takes over and you zing them.

YuraShigure is going to judge him for this, Obi knows, and he’s going to deserve every bit of it. Torou abandoned him to go flirt with some blonde who reminded him unpleasantly of his boss, and over the snack table (raw vegetables only, of course) there was the cute little wellness lady from the aforementioned hole in the wall. To be fair, he did not make the best first impression, her hostility might have been earned, but but in less than thirty seconds she got under his skin and instead of being the bigger person, once again he let the monster out.

It’s really too bad. She does have such a friendly smile. He presses the send button, looking as always to his pen pal for some kind of absolution he doesn’t deserve.

***

“Zing them?” Shirayuki echoes the words out loud just to hear the shape of them, then quiets again to make sure she hasn’t disturbed Zen. There’s no sound in the apartment beyond the whir of her laptop fan and the faint tinkling of Zen’s white noise machine, set as always to the supposed sound of an untouched rainforest. The water noises make her have to get up and go to the bathroom twice a night, which more often than not turns into a quick check of her email as well, but he sleeps like the dead. I wish I did know, she types. I get just as annoyed as anyone else, but I just go blank and then spend the rest of the day trying to think of what I could have said. 

It’s why she’s still awake, really. She didn’t want to make this personal, Wisteria opening up a new location practically on top of the little shop that’s been everything to her since she graduated and decided life in a white coat behind a glass window was not for her. She didn’t want to think they were targeting her. It wasn’t about her at all. But she’s not the one who walked into their shop and asked questions about ingredients and sniffed scents with a smile, then made threats like some kind of health-industry mobster.

That guy is really just a terrible person. Terrible in her store and then terrible at Garrack’s book signing. Zen wasn’t even there to back her up - he’s not good at being mean either, but he does have a very effective glare - because he has very little interest in herbal medicine and got distracted and wandered off to network or something. She really just wants someone to tell her it’s going to be okay. 7-ki isn’t going to understand this, if he’s someone who can actually talk back, but it wears on her how profoundly useless she was. It’s very frustrating, she adds. I’m an intelligent, highly-educated professional and I just come off looking like a doormat.

***

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just give you all of my zingers? Then you could be mean to everyone you wanted to, and I wouldn’t be mean to anyone I didn’t want to, and we’d both be happy. Obi should go to bed. He’s going to need so much coffee in the morning, but he had to wait just a little longer to see if she would write back. She may only know 7-ki, the him he’d really rather be, but YuraShigure listens like nobody he knows. She sees him.

He’s only thinking like this because it’s so late at night, but he would never have this conversation with Torou. She would zing him twice as hard, slam the door on the way out to spin class, pretend she’d forgotten he’d ever said something she didn’t like, then pull it out again when he’s at his weakest just to twist the knife.

It’s only because it’s after midnight. His fingers move without thinking. Do you think we should meet?

***

“Meet?” In the distance Zen murmurs a complaint, but subsides into his rainforest without fully waking up.

How many times has she typed out those exact words before deleting them in an embarrassed rush? She’s shared fears with him that nobody else in her life knows about. Her employees deserve her confidence and Zen needs her support, not her worry. There’s nobody else but 7-ki, and she doesn’t know what she would do if she disappointed him too.

The crack of the laptop lid slamming down is sharp in the silence.

[claudeng80]

🥤🥤 soda pop 🥤🥤

trying to make this somewhat on beat was my living hell- HASBDHASBD but i love the bird

[claudeng80]

Obiyuki AU Bingo: July Community Board Update!

Here is our second community bingo board, now with its center square picked by June's PvP challenge winner, @sabraeal! We are now accepting fills for July's board starting now, July 1st through July 31st.

We are still accepting fills for June's board as well! Just make sure that you mark your posts as "june" so that we can appropriately count them!

Post Dates: Jul 1st - Jul 31st Tag: #obiyukibingo25 Medias: Fic, art, edits or playlists

[PLEASE READ ALL GUIDELINES BEFORE POSTING YOUR WORKS]

Guidelines:

All work must be your own (eg. no plagiarizing other sources, tracing, pose stealing, AI art/writing etc)

The main pairing is Obi x Shirayuki

Fics, art, edits, and playlists are all valid works for this challenge

(If you create other forms of works please contact the comm and we will be happy to work out eligibility)

Must follow the AU prompt

Must be tagged #obiyukibingo25 within the first five tags

With Tumblr’s tagging system on the fritz, please also @ the Obiyuki comm in your entry

No works entered through the submission box will be accepted for this challenge

Works must be posted to Tumblr to be eligible as fills! The post may redirect elsewhere (AO3, ffnet, deviant art, youtube, etc) but we need a Tumblr post to reblog our progress on the board!

Please label with your AU!

All NSFW content must be tagged and under a Read More!

You may post more than one entry per prompt, but it will only count for that square

If someone else fills a square, you are still welcome to submit a fill for that prompt– it won’t count towards a further bingo, but it will count toward your personal stats!

One entry, no matter how many AUs it is applicable for, may only count as one square

Fics must be over 500 words to count as a fill

Art does not have to be a full colored finished piece, but at least a finished sketch

Playlists must be over 8 songs.

Be nice

Play hard

Can I base my work off of other fanworks? (aka, make fanart of a fanfic, write fanfic based on fanart, make an edit of a fanfic or write a fanfic for a playlist, etc)

This is absolutely welcome! If your medium is the same (making a fanfic of a fanfic, or fanart inspired by fanart), please check with the creator of the original fanwork, but otherwise just credit the work that inspired you.

What works are considered valid entries?

Fic, art, edits & playlists. Please note, we are looking for transformative works; please do not simply palette swap characters from the AU source, or find & replace names in their plot. Reimagine what an AU would look like with AnS character in it!

[claudeng80]

Can I just say, uh, I’m pretty sure noticing you’re asexual is harder than noticing you’re gay, straight, pan or otherwise. Like, I just read someone’s desciption of hitting puberty and, like, there’s nothing like that. There’s no sudden ‘boob’ moment, no sudden ‘fuck, I’d fuck that’ moment, not sudden anything. You just, like, plod on through life as usual going ‘oooh, that’s pretty, I’d like that hair’ or ‘oooooh, they’re nice, I’d like to be close to them’ but there’s no like, ‘oh, someone would want to fuck that but I don’t’, you know? You just- you don’t notice, you don’t realise everyone else has ‘had a moment’ but you haven’t, you just- keep going as you always have.

And then, much much later, you start to wonder why people are getting so caught up in drama for romance or sex, like, why bother? It’s not worth it, they’re not worth it, why are you doing stupid things for something that’s so- and then you wonder if there’s something wrong with you, start mentally over compensating. Like ‘uh, okay, um, who should I date? Who can I stand to date? Who could I stand to fuck?’ like- it’s not, it’s not something you want, but you want to fit in, to be normal.

Sometimes you don’t even know that you’re doing it.

Sometimes you don’t even know asexual’s a thing.

I dunno, I guess, I just feel like, uh, people should understand more?

idk sorry thank you for listening to me

[claudeng80]

Obiyuki AU Bingo, June Round Up!

Fanfiction

piece of a small town in a big city by @breezy-beez Pins and Ribbons by @breezy-beez Red as Blood, White as Snow by @breezy-beez Where you want to go by @ccprovolomies False Start by @claudeng80 Last Resort by @claudeng80 Desert & Reward, Chapter 23 by @sabraeal Get Up Eight, Chapter 13 by @sabraeal flamme’s seduction technique, patent pending by @voidthescribe the mane of the red death by @voidthescribe save a horse, let obi carry you by @voidthescribe

Fan Art

Mermaid by @aerie-skysinger scruffy-looking nerf herder by @valoaktree abbey road by @valoaktree

[claudeng80]

Embrace your divine feminine energy by taking part in traditional women's hobbies & interests like experimenting with radioactive materials, developing mathematics, programming computers, piloting aircraft and practicing marksmanship.

[claudeng80]

pscentral event 09: comfort ⤷My Ultimate Comfort Movie: While You Were Sleeping (1995) - dir. Jon Turteltaub

[claudeng80]

False Start (High School Football AU)

The rhythms of the drumline echo off the distant buildings, overlapping with the growl of the crowd into a distant thunder. Shirayuki waves her paper ticket at the booth, but the student stationed there doesn’t even look up from her phone. Apparently if one were to desire to sneak into a Wistal High home football game, near the end of the first quarter is the time to do it. Shirayuki spends the last few steps to the stadium outlining an editorial about responsibility and vigilance, then discards the idea as she scurries through the opening in the stands into the glare of the field lights.

Football is not her sport, really. She could write reams about tennis, but this school doesn’t even have a tennis team. She gets volleyball, but covering volleyball is all Suzu asked for this year. She has a suspicion the draw may be primarily that of tall women in tight shorts, but he’s actually enthused and she couldn’t take that from him. Ryuu claimed swimming, because it’s indoors, and Yuzuri used to play soccer, and that leaves the editor with the assignment nobody else is willing to take. If that alone weren’t enough, Yuzuri took one look at her and the quarterback and decided it was meant to be and nobody would come between Shirayuki and football games.

It’s a really good thing that Ryuu does not take orders from Yuzuri. He waves at her from a few rows up, then dumps a notebook in her lap the moment she sits down. “Are we winning?” she asks, half a joke. She’s only missed twenty minutes. That’s, what, the coin flip and three plays?

Ryuu points to the scoreboard, where Wistal is scoreless to the visitor team’s nine points. That’s quite a start. She peers out onto the field, where Mitsuhide is the first player she can pick out at first. He’s tall and he stands up very straight, but something about the way he’s fidgeting tells her he’s concerned about something. She finds Zen next, with his quarterback’s sleeves. He looks more annoyed than concerned, with the way his hands are moving. The team spreads out into one of their incomprehensible arrangements - someday she really should get Zen to explain them again but her motivation is low - and she checks the far side for Obi’s usual spot, but he’s not there. It looks like one of the freshmen in his spot, maybe Kai. “Obi’s not on the field?”

“He took a hit in the last play,” Ryuu says. “I was watching the ball, so I didn’t see it, but they carried him off on a stretcher.”

Shirayuki stands up, craning to get a better look at the bench where the lack of helmets makes identifying the players much easier. She can find Kiki instantly, blonde ponytail swishing like a matador’s cape in front of the other team, but there’s no sign of Obi’s dark bristle. “Like right before I got here?”

Ryuu nods, and she shoves the notebook back at him. “Just a few more minutes,” she begs, and doesn’t wait for him to answer. 

***

The last time Shirayuki was in the medical room, Zen had hit her with a football. She shouldn’t have been on the field during practice, no matter how much she really wanted to get a quote from Kiki, but throwing things at her was not the way to deal with the problem. She retaliated a little out of proportion and they got escorted to the clinic by a very disappointed Mitsuhide, where they both got their bloody noses iced and walked out friends.

So she definitely knows where to find an injured player. Even if she hadn’t, the sound of voices would have given her a pretty good clue; the voices and laughter that follow whenever Obi’s the center of attention are spilling out into the hallway.

Obi lights up the moment she walks through the door, looking far too cheerful for the amount of ice and bracing on his leg. “You missed my big play!”

“You couldn’t have waited another five minutes? I was only a little late!” Her stomach flips a bit at the thought. Actually watching him get hurt would be just about the only thing worse than not seeing it. She tries to swallow it down and act normal. “Is it your knee?”

Be’s half buried under a veritable mountain of ice. There’s really not much else it could be. “I wonder,” he says anyway. She could shake him when he gets like this, but he just grins at her. “Does this mean I’m the headline of the game today?”

“The headline-” Of course, she’s supposed to be here for journalistic purposes. Poor Ryuu is out there taking notes on the game for her, while she’s here indulging herself in fretting.

He does owe her for the poison ivy incident, even if he won’t admit it. “Ryuu can cover the game. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

There’s a thump from the back room, and Obi raises his voice. “Our illustrious medical team would be so sad to hear that they don’t count.”

“Shut it, loser,” comes a voice from the back, fondness undercutting the insult.

Shirayuki takes the opportunity she’s given, scooping his unattended hand and clasping it in her own.

***

Kiki’s the first member of the team to find them. “I saw Ryuu in the stands,” she says. “Make sure he knows I expect to see a full description of my foul in tomorrow’s article.”

Shirayuki whirls to face her, squeezing Obi’s hand tighter as he tries to slip away. “Oh no, did you get hurt too?”

There’s no knowing what dentist the Seirans frequent, but Kiki’s teeth are bright and straight as she throws her head back and laughs. “You should have seen the other guy. I finally got that unnecessary roughness call I’ve been courting all year.”

Obi holds up his free hand, and she slaps it smugly. “How about you? What’s been going on here?” Her eyes track from the soggy pile of sweating ice packs to Shirayuki’s hand still entwined with his, then raises her eyebrow when she meets Obi’s eyes.

“They’re waiting to see how it looks after the game,” Obi says. His hand goes stiff, finally managing to wriggle out of Shirayuki’s grip. “Nothing else.” 

“Well, game’s over,” she says. “Zen’ll be here any minute; he missed you both.”

“Did we win?” It’s not like it’s going to make up for shirking her duty, but Shirayuki can at least get the basic facts. She refuses to feel more than a little guilty.

Kiki’s mouth curves faintly, like she’s got a secret. “We did, thank you very much. With our best receiver out of the game, we had to resort to field goals more than usual, but I made sure it worked out for us.” Shirayuki pulls her phone out of her pocket; she can still feel the warmth of Obi’s hand in hers, but if he’s not going to hold it any longer, she can take notes. “You’re looking at the owner of the new school record for field goals in a season.”

“And also the most penalty yards for a kicker,” Obi murmurs. Kiki doesn’t answer that, just radiates satisfaction even more intensely.

The door swings open, this time for Zen. There’s a grass stain down the left side of his uniform, but his hair still looks combed. “Kiki? The tv reporter is looking for you.” He takes in the rest of the room, eyes sliding right across Obi to stop at the sight of his girlfriend. “Shirayuki? You were here?”

“Taking pity on the poor invalid,” Obi says, a little too quickly. “A real angel of mercy.”

The smile on his face takes any sting from what could have been mocking, but still an odd tension follows. Zen watches Obi, sweat-stiff hair unsticking from his forehead as he frowns. Kiki looks thoughtful, but at Shirayuki instead.

“I should go apologize to Ryuu,” Shirayuki says, breaking the standoff. She doesn’t know what messages Zen and Obi and Kiki are all trying to communicate with each other through frowns, but if nobody’s going to include her in the discussion, she has some groveling to do. There should be enough teammates in the room now to keep Obi from doing anything ill-advised.

“I’ll go with you,” Zen chirps, bouncing to Shirayuki’s side with far too much energy for someone who’s just played an entire football game. He slips his arm through hers without pressing too close; it’s usually a comfortable position but something about it doesn’t sit right tonight. Before she knows it she’s halfway out the door, Kiki on her heels. She looks back over her shoulder, but Obi waves after them with a smile.

Only in the last second before the door swings shut does she see the smile drop, and her stomach drops with it.

[claudeng80]

tiny death roll