#He was so happy while performing this version for the 1st time

[justthinkingaboutlouis]

Happy Louis performing Back To You rock version - Faith in the future world tour - Uncasville,CT,USA - 26.05.2023

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

Review of the Music Tapes performance, Daily Hampshire Gazette, 29 July 1999

transcript:

KEN MAIURI Clubland

a Magical Musical tour with the Music Tapes

I wish I could write the way the Music Tapes play music: with joy, endless creativity, and utter abandon. The experimental pop quintet from Athens, Ga. played Flywheel in Easthampton Tuesday, and though I left the show feeling dreamy and elated, now it’s 1:30 a.m. and I’m bleary in front of a computer screen. Wrestling with my pitiful usage of adverbs and adjectives. Trying unsuccessfully to describe the genius beauty of the group’s performance.

Maybe I should start with a quick tour of the Music Tapes’ fantastic landscape (also known as their stage setup). That giant hand-painted wooden rocket you see in the back is the seven-foot-tall wind-up metronome. Over to the right is the big blue wooden box with clapping hands out of the top — just raise the handle on the side of the box and they’ll clap. And here by the main microphones are two small pallets covered in amplified chicken wire, called “Landing Pads” — people jump up and down on those to make drum-like noises: Finally, right up front is Static. He’s a television with a face. He’s also a singing, full-time member of the group, Now you know your way around.

You can call these handmade contraptions gimmicks, but they’re integral to the world of the Music Tapes (even when they’re a little annoying and unnecessary, like that bulky and often inaudible metronome). The band, led by Julian Koster, exists as a way to play with the lines between fantasy and reality. As he once said in an interview, “When you’re a kid, you have all these dreams and this innate understanding of the universe, but you don’t have the skills to create things. Now, if you decided, you want a 50-foot talking cloud in your backyard, you can create it, and all of a sudden that’s a part of other people’s reality.” Hence the Mechanized Organ-playing Helmet and Static the Performing Television.

The band’s wild creativity transformed the “normal” elements of the performance, too. For example, the group’s sound was mainly built around the banjo (no electric or acoustic guitar in sight), which Koster strummed with electric guitar force or scraped with a violin bow. The instrumentation also included pump organ, bass guitar, trumpet, tuba, musical saw, melodica, toy piano, a couple of Walkman radios and even a bouncy red dodgeball. All of these things were perfect for making a racket, but just as often the Music Tapes used them to create weirdly beautiful harmony, with combinations of textures and simple but unconventional melodies that would’ve had “Pet Sounds”-era Brian Wilson smiling.

As striking as the band’s music often was, the Music Tapes had me hooked thanks to the passion with which they performed it. Believe me, they’re not writing songs like “March of the Father Fists” to make a buck — they’ve got their hearts invested in this quirky, personal material. Koster in particular sang emotionally at the top of his lungs, and early in the show jumped so hard and high on the chicken wire pallets that the stuff ripped beneath his sneakers. At one point during the set there were two smiling, sweaty band members pouncing pell-mell on the Landing Pads while another guy whipped the crank around on the metronome and the fourth guy played a sample of a train chugging — it was happy visual and aural chaos (and, for some reason, it reminded me of something out of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”).

The band’s powerful, bizarre, and tuneful wave of sound was strongest on songs like “The Clapping Hands,” “Nomad Tell Us,” and “The Television Tells Us,” all of which can be found on the band’s debut CD, “1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad.” BUT WE WARNED: the “studio” versions are drastically different, low-fi and sludgy to the extreme, containing virtually none of the vivid, full arrangements that the band created at Flywheel. The CD — recorded in various places over the span of four years — is a concept album that works fine on its own, but it pales in comparison to what the Music Tapes can create live, in person.

Which reminds me, they’re available to play your house, backyard, barn or fields. That’s not a joke. (The band subtitles itself “The Orbiting Human Circus,” with the motto, “The Greatest Show IS Earth.”) Look in their album liner notes for details, but the Music Tapes invite you to invite them to bring their life-affirming Imaginary Symphony to your neighbourhood. They may even bring a 50-foot talking cloud.

[apimains]

Litespeed web server vs nginx

LITESPEED WEB SERVER VS NGINX HOW TO

LITESPEED WEB SERVER VS NGINX FULL

Time per request: 21. Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms) Time per request: 89.286 (mean, across all concurrent requests) our client is really happy, because now he can use cheaper server hardware without the speed affecting. No surprise why Varien moved Magento site and demo store to NginX. NginX performance is overhelming, even if the Litespeed server has much better hardware than NginX one. There was identical copies of the same store on both servers, store is based on Magento version 1.4.0.1. Nginx runs Ruby apps very well for example, while LiteSpeed has server-level caching + add on technologies like lscasche and lsphp which means apps like WordPress, MediaWiki, and Magento for example, run very well. We have checked how many pages each web-server generated within one minute, with 15 concurrent connections to the server. Comparing Nginx to Litespeed isn’t really fair or a great idea as while they are similar, they are both very specialized web server technologies. One of the clients has moved his Magento-based store from Litespeed server onto NginX one. LiteSpeed hosting is web hosting that uses LiteSpeed servers. Upgrading your web server to LiteSpeed Web Server will improve your. LSWS is the 4th most popular web server on the internet and the 1 commercial web server. LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a high-performance Apache drop-in replacement. It’s a much faster and better-performing alternative to servers like Apache and Nginx. Other interesting Web Server alternatives to nginx are Caddy, lighttpd, Mongoose and Abyss Webserver. It’s the fourth most popular web server used by an estimated 10 of websites worldwide in 2021. So you will get all the best stack.Well, we have long been interested in how fast will Magento work on NginX server, finally we've got a chance to test this. LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) is a web server that can handle multiple requests per second. Litespeed is good, if you want to see the performance improvement and coming from apache. But we offer complete litespeed hosting for customers, if you are interested check the shared hosting offers section for more details. I do not know, if some providers using litespeed for their own site and does not offer for customers, may be they are doing so. That is why performance web hosting providers like us, use LiteSpeed+CloudLinux+SSD for best possible performance. Benchmark scores reveal LSWS is five times faster than Apache and around 67 faster than Nginx. On the other hand litespeed is quite a good alternative to apache and gets the best of nignix and apache without compromising on CPanel /WHM. Great for static content LiteSpeed is the fastest web server in the world for static content. Yet there is something called īut most hosts does not use engintron.

LITESPEED WEB SERVER VS NGINX HOW TO

You either have to link nignix configuration with php5-fpm or you have to keep niginx in front end of apache.Īlso it should be noted that nginx cannot be directly implemented on control panels like CPanel / WHM. cloud is a bit like Cloudflare in the sense that it acts as a proxy server, and is slowly building up its features to be a real competitor The nginx-proxy version comes a close second due to its documentation of how to add global and per-site rules to the proxy using nginx configs However, up to March 1st 2020, QUIC is only used by 3. Nginx have some cons, like we cannot have rewrites enabled in easy manner.

LITESPEED WEB SERVER VS NGINX FULL

Nginx is a front end cache system, its not a full fledged web server like apache or litespeed.

[andreaxcb]

Harry Styles ft Rosalía it’s coming

Okay I’ve been thinking about this for a while but just now I toom the time to collect the clues in one place and i think it makes A LOT of sense

Rosalía it’s an Spanish singer, she’s the narrator voice in the Adore You extended version MV, telling us the story about the Peculiar Boy and The Fish. She’s signed under Columbia, just like H so a collab it’s possible in those terms already,

Now let’s dig in all the clues we have.

Harry was MIA the first 2 weeks of January, some people speculate about him doing quarantine because of getting covid in the James Corden’s NYE party, but guess who was in London the second week of January, yup, Rosalía. She was shooting something in the city and posted a photo dumpon her ig account on January 13th 

She was shooting at St Pancrass Renaissance Hotel in central London and there’s some peculiar stuff in her pictures... 

Is that a duvet in the back???

And what is this pink thing... its a blanket?? idk but it looks a lot like something bed related. Also the red Outfit looks like an excellente match to the outfit H was wearing in the Barbican the other day 

and now look at tha phone on the table... could it be ??? 

Now a bit more about Rosalía’s work. She’s rn promoting her new studio album Motomami that’s gonna be released this Friday, March 18th, World Sleep Day.

When we read about what’s this album about... well... I could really get why Harry would like to be involved in working with her, besides that she’s a really excellent artist 

The campaign for this album it’s been with a series of graffitis an ads al over the world with lyrics from the songs... ringing any bells??

WE have seen the casting call for H’s project under the alias of Duvet. So march 18th looks like a date that makes sense... (also this date keeps appearingin the YouAreHome investigation more about his here and here). And we saw him shooting in a giant bed all over London back in February, so it keep matching. 

This past Thursday Rosalía was at Jimmy Fallon show and she talked about H, telling a story about H reaching her to talk about her song Dolerme, songthat was released on March 24th 2021. Looks a lot like promo to me.

The this past Saturday she was the musical guest in SNL and a lot of interesting things started to happen

This is the promotional pictures of her appearance 

and this was her outfit... yes, she’s wearing a Duvet, from all the things she could choose. 

Aslo the artist of the YouAreHome art reposted her performance in SNL, cause why not

I thought that maybe Harry could be doing a ft in her album, but we have the tacklist already and there’s just 2 ft, one with The Weeknd and the other one with Tokischa 

Also I was checking the info from DM when we were told that H was havin some ft in the album and yup.. she’s right there too 

Also guess who was really happy about Rosalía being in London in January

So yeah. I think this is happening. Not sure about the date. Cause Friday it’s her album release date. Could be a couple of weeks later to help her with her new album, I bet if H and Rosalía release music together a lot of the people who don’t know her work are gonna end up listening to her last material so it would be beneficial for her. March 25th, April 1st or April 8th. March 25th keeps bein a possibility with all that’s happening with YouAreHome and the doors... First teaser of H’s first album  was released on MArch 25th 2017, and he was walking and opening a door... so yeah, could be, who knows. 

Another weird but probably reach connections are the post Rosalía did back in january 2021 Rosalía tweeted CHERRY and posted a series of gg stories (I couldn’t find them now) of her in the coast with Cherry stickers. This was around the same time that lottie posted a pictures of Cherrys in her feed and Alessandro started commenting the TPWK pictures with cherrys too, so it was all bit confusing. Probably unrelated.

But now we have cherrys on the Lamp ad... so IDK what to think.

I don’t think home it’s completeky related to this ft, but maybe the collab it’s a part of the whole HS3 YouAreHome promotion. So let’s keep it in mind. If I found anything else I’m gonna add it here.

I’m adding the link to a recepit of a friend of Rosalía saying she hasn’t change her phone number in a while so more reasons to believe this was brought up for promo 

[stormblessed95]

Jikook Dynamics Through The Years: 2014 Part 3

The previous posts for the first 2 parts can be found in my masterlist under Jikook Dynamics as well as I'll link them here for you. This is when I think things start getting more interesting in my opinion. Something important to keep in mind that I'll be sharing moments, AND my personal opinions, along with facts. My opinions are my own. You can agree or disagree. I encourage you to go and check it all out, see this content for yourself as well and form your own opinions during this time frame too. I will be splitting this up into 3 different posts probably to manage the length and be able to add more links/photos in each post. This will be the final part, wrapping up the year with moments from Sept - Dec. This is so so long. I'm so sorry!

Starting this post off with September 1st! Our Kookie's birthday! There was actually a lot posted this day. Lol starting with the Naver Starcast Chuseok celebration live stream. You can watch it (in 3 parts) with English subs here. Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3. I'll just give a brief warning to headphone users here for volume control, there is a lot of yelling and Loudness 😅🤣 JK introduces all his hyungs to the steam and when he calls out Jimin he smiles sweetly at him before he even gets on camera and says "oh, so handsome." Jimin rubbing JKs back when he gets embarrassed over all the birthday wishes from his hyungs. Lol very sweet. And Jimin ends the live by wishing JK a happy birthday again and telling him to please accept my love, while blowing a kiss to the camera (the kiss representing his love lol). They performed Danger in their hanboks during the live stream. And they filmed it again after the live stream for a dance practice bangtan bomb, you can watch the appeal version of Danger and all the chaos in HD here too lol it was released on the 5th.

On this day we also have the official fancafe post for JKs birthday with him holding a cake and all his hyungs taking turns taking photos with him. Jikook pressing their heads together for theirs 💜 you can see the rest of them in the link.

Followed by Jimins Twitter post for his birthday with 2 more silly photos. One of them together from AHL and the other of JK in the middle of getting his hair dyed. Lol he called him cute and apologized for using goofy photos in his caption and said "but you know that I love you the most right? Kekeke"

140906, Bighit offical Twitter post after their 2 day Dark & Wild fansign event and Music Core performances. Jikook snuggly on the couch with everyone else. You can look up fancams and photos from these fansigns (on the 5th and 6th) if you want to see them. They whispered to each other when they were sitting next to each other and were openly fairly touchy with the skinship and playfulness with their photos too. Really nothing big or major, just sweet and cute

Pops in Seoul Interview over their Dark & Wild Album. They were asked a serious of which member questions. When they were asked which member looks better or changed the most for the best since debut, they all picked Jimin. Lol when they asked if he did anything to look better, JK spoke up and said it's because he tried super hard and that he tries the hardest. He said that hyung watches music videos all day and practices. Jimin asked him if he looked okay doing it, and JK answered that yes, he looked really cool.

We finally get another jikook log! Filmed on the 10th. They talk sweetly about how they spent their individual time with their families over Chuseok. They were given a 48 hour break from the company and their parents came to Seoul to visit them. They talk about how they are the same in that they both just enjoy the little things in the moment too, like eating good food and watching movies with their family. There is a small mistranslation in this video though, JK is not talking about a waitress. Lol he is talking about going to a restaurant in a hotel and almost says the full name of the hotel chain, which is why Jimin cuts him off to censor him to be safe. Regardless it's a very sweet short log, where we do see JK speaking more informally a couple times with Jimin too, hinting again simply towards their closeness as friends, that such informality with someone older is allowed and there is no reaction to it. Something that has just become more and more prevelant as the years go on.

We then have BTS show up on the Volume Up Radio Show on Namjoons birthday. I'm including it here for really just one reason, which is that when talking about the way they describe love in their album, the hosts ask about their experience with dating. It's sort of confirmed that JK does have experience with dating (which we knew that he had a sort of girl friend in middle school. Where they dated but broke up later because he didn't talk to her for 200 days. Lmao). And when asked who is the most innocent member (least experience in dating basically) the answer was Jimin. Not the type for random hook ups and didn't really have dating experience previously. Namjoon was pointed out by the members as the "player" of the group. Lol they also talk in this interview about their experiences on AHL and living all together in one room, which is why they really never have any privacy nor any secrets between them. It's worth watching even though it's long!

Briefly including this one in here too, a small video from M!Countdown. Tae is wild here 😂 but not the point. Sorry, i can't find subs for this one, but it's short and the only thing I want to draw attention to is when they all squeeze into the elevator at the end, JK gets in last and basically just squeezes in next to Jimin who opened up his arms to be able to pull him into his side so that he can fit in nicely. It's sweet and clearly skinship in general isn't actually a problem for them.

Again from M!Countdown backstage we have them all being goofy together. But what we also have is Jimin being throughly impressed by Jungkook's muscles when he shows them off after carrying around a big camera (he was being the cameraman for a bit). Followed by Jimin showing off his own. And then Jimin also suggesting that the younger members get to address the older members informally for a bit as part of a game. Someone save Jin from the maknae line please 🤣🤣 and we also get to see Jimin fanboy over one of his sunbaenims for a bit too who is also preforming that night.

On 140922, Jimin, JK, V and RM visit an orphanage as part of the Hope Delivery that they were doing. They tweeted many cute photos from their time there with the kids, jikook danced for them too, and later the orphanage shared this photo of the boys with some of the kids from this visit too. Which has a very sweet moment of JK back hugging Jimin for the photo. Very sweet to see. Tweet from Jimin. Tweet from Tae. Tweet from JK. Another from the 4 of them. Orphanage tweeted the photo from this 2014 visit in 2017 which is when we got to see this photo (above) for the first time.

Starcast Interview Translation from 140926. Very sweet photos of behind the scenes and everyone being playful with each other. Jikook playfully boxing together.

On the 28th, they have a behind the show interview, again about Danger. JK says his ideal type of girl is one who bears a boxy white button up shirt, Jimin didn't answer this time. I'll also point out in the beginning, Jimin dances to Danger briefly and JK squeezes his arm for zero reason other than just it was there I guess. Lol Jimin also makes a play to have the fans vote for him saying he will expose more skin if he wins 😅🤣 JK kinda looks like he checks him out a bit as he says that before laughing and teasing and shoving Jimin with the rest of the hyungs for taking things too far lmao.

On the 29th, they are in Deagu for a fansign. Jikook sit next to each other and take cute photos together for fans. It's very sweet. Here is a Jimin focused fancam (very short, but very HD) from the event. Jam to One Direction too as you watch. Lol now I'm not saying this was anything for sure, but um that look JK gives Jimin about 40 seconds in before they put their heads together again for another photo 👀 idk, song choice feels appropriate somehow for that look 🙈😂 some cute minimoni, yoonmin and jihope in here too 🥰🥰

On October 11th we have BTS spotted by paparazzi at a photoshoot location for war of hormone. This is also where we see photos of JK coming up and taking Jimins lollipop that he was previously sucking on during photos and while waiting for photos. Boundaries who? Jikook please 😅

And also on the 11th we see them on the Global Idol show, episode 63. They each get asked a question at the beginning. Jimins question is if he wants to act. He says yes, they tell him to act out a scene for them. A scene where he has to stop his girlfriend from leaving/breaking up. Tae goes to get up to play the part of the girlfriend (vmin soulmate skits as usual lol), but JK jumps up SO fast to pretend to be Jimins girlfriend for this skit. Lmao like he really said "nah, this role is mine" 😂😂 wonderful little skit too. Lol Jimin was very passionate as an actor. He then also picks which beautiful actress he would have liked to act beside one day, to which JK replied "why didn't you pick me?!" I'd love to get another opinion on that one though since it's not officially translated and I haven't seen many others translate his words. Lol

October 13th! Chimchim day! Fancafe post with all the members posing with Jimin for his birthday. Jimin giving JK a piggyback ride for their photo. These are all cute. The hyungs all holding Jimin in some way, and then Jimin holding both the maknaes. It's precious. Hyung of the Maknae Line indeed 🥺

Jungkooks twitter post to Jimin for his birthday was insanely sweet. He posted a silly photo and a photo of a letter he wrote to him. The translation for his letter is:

"Hello Park Jiminnie hyung I am Jeongguk Hyung ♥ it’s your 20th birthday

So I couldn’t NOT write a letter keke

Happy birthday and I’m always grateful

And I always ignore your jokes and don’t acknowledge them but

You know I’m not doing that on purpose, right? ke 

Hyung I love you and

Happy birthday once again!~

I’ll buy us a meal next time!! Ke"

JK adored his hyung since always 💜💜💜

BigHit staff uploaded multiple photos to Facebook in celebration of Chimchim day, including this super sweet and incredibly cute photo sequence of jikook and JK coming up to tickle and backhug Jimin. Seriously. One of my favorite photo sequences of them from the early years. Precious 🥺

BTS held concerts on the 17th - 19th and Starcast Naver did an article over them full of photos, not just from stage, but from rehearsals and after the concert too. Where we see Jimin try to kiss JK again jokingly which are some of the photos included. They make a joke about Jimin still trying to practice the blanket kick choreo with Jungkook 😂

BTS appeared on A Song For You on the 21st. They played games, watched and returned messages from a few fans, answered some questions and sang some songs! It was all cute. The game they played was where they tossed marshmallows and the other had to catch them in his mouth. Jikook made an excellent team, becoming the ace players for their team. As soon as the game even started being explained, JK saying that Jimin hyung was good at this game. And he kept blowing on the marshmallows each time before throwing them so that the powder wouldn't get all over Jimins face. They killed it. Plus so many amazing jikook harmonies too. The song for you group also made a post on Weibo with photos from the set and we see JK watching Jimin VERY fondly both times he got up to dance during the show, once on his own, and once when 3J danced.

On the 21st the Music Video was released as well as the concept photos. If you haven't seen them go look them up. 3J in this photoshoot were 🔥🔥 later the behind photos from the MV were released as well (again, look them up if you haven't seen them before!) But this one cracks me up. For as often as JK minorly panics and dodges all the times Jimin has jokingly tried to kiss him or asked for kisses, he doesn't seem to want Jimin giving Namjoon those kisses instead. Went ahead and directly blocked said kiss with his fingers 😂

We then have the MV shooting film as well. Where we see JK WILDING sir, remember you are underage here thank you 😂 and Jimin laughing at his antics and them cuddled up on the couch together. And when Jimin is chilly, we see JK immediately offer him his jacket, just standing there holding it out to him silently until Jimin notices it himself 🤣 smooth, sir, smooth. Weren't you Mr. "I don't like to share my clothes". What happened?

Haru Hana Magazine Vol 22, Twitter Q&A interview, 141022. BTS answers fan questions from Twitter. If NOTHING else, this interview should highlight how close all the members are, ALL OF THEM, almost weirdly so. Lol Suga borrowing JKs underwear when he ran out his own, much to JKs disgruntlement who now protects his underwear more 😂 when asked if they have any special secrets with the members, they share that they literally know everything and they have no secrets from each other. They know everyone's birth marks even because they shower together because there is only one bathroom and limited time. Lmao so it is often they will shower 2 or sometimes 3 at a time. When they said no privacy, they really meant it 😅😂 when asked if they were a girl who would they date, Jimin picked JK, because he is very cute and shy, but also has a very manly side. When asked about if they fight over things, JKs answer was that sometimes they fight because he lacks social experience and while he is just joking around and wanting to be funny, it can come across wrong/inappropriate. And so then his hyungs will teach him better. When asked if they could become another member who would it be, JK said RM because he wants his smart brain (just one more moment in these early years JK has expressed wanting to be smarter like RM). There is ALOT more and it's a good read, you should check the full interview out if you can.

October ends with their Halloween dance practice. Lmao we have this cute Bangtan Bomb of them getting ready where everyone is very playful and giggly over their makeup. And then of course the final BTB of their dance practice in costume that is just pure silliness.

Seasons Greetings 2015. It's got a couple cute jikook moments in there too. My thoughts over that DVD and those moments can be found in this post. This was all released in December, but filmed sometime in October.

On 141102, BTS perform War of Hormone and then all hit up Twitter to say thank you to their fans for coming to support them. Jimins post referenced when Tae roundhouse kicked him on the ass on stage 🤣 JK posted a series of selcas with Jimin thanking ARMY for coming out to support them. They are incredibly cute. And unrelated, but I gotta include, Jin posted a thirst trap. Lol

Through this interview. JK hangs out right behind Jimin the whole time and around 4 minutes in, Jimin answers a question about how RM takes care of the maknae line, being a little silly with it. JK stares at him fondly the whole time he is answering, Jimin passes the mic to Tae to answer next and JK just continues to stare very fondly at Jimin, smiling bigger watching him laugh over Tae's answer.

Jimin posts on Twitter promising to look after his troublemaker members and thanking ARMY for supporting them.

On 141109, they go to have a mini fanmeet and jikook are very cute multiple times through it. You can find fancams if you want and cute photos too

One of the most infamous jikook Scenes out there comes from this video... and it's always taken so wildly out of context, so here is the full thing. PLEASE WATCH IT ALL. I've seen not only antis, but jkkrs as well use cut up versions of this clip. Antis use it to pass along the narrative that JK hated Jimin or still does. And jkkrs use it to push the jimin fell first, but jk fell harder narrative. Or the I'm so glad that JK doesn't treat Jimin badly anymore narrative. Which has NEVER been the case. If you haven't seen from all my previous posts in this series, they have always been close and he has never treated him badly. I'll cut my rant short and just say, watch the video please. JK starts lightly kicking Jimin in the butt imitating the whole vmin teasing gimmick those 2 do during every war of hormone stage. Jimin then jokingly starts shoving JK against the wall. "Oh you are making me shy, why are you like this, why are you being annoying" etc etc things like this. JK is laughing his ass off as Jimin shoves him repeatedly into the wall. Jimin pushes JK FIRST. This starts their game of rough housing that we then continue to see. Jimin then jokingly wraps him up in a hug and says we are in a love relationship. JK says no and pushes him into the wall. Which was only what Jimin had just been doing to him. They laugh a lot and Jimin says "We are in this kind of relationship. I hit you, you hit me. Our relationship is good." They then shove each other back and forth, again, Jimin starting it. And JK has the BIGGEST smile on his face the whole time too and afterwards goes in to give Jimin a big hug. Rough housing between friends does not equal hate or discomfort or that they didn't want the other around. And this wasn't JK being mean, he was just giving Jimin everything back that Jimin gave him. It's actually a really cute little clip if people watched it in full and stopped manipulating it around.

A bangtan bomb posted where jikook are having fun together backstage, singing and dancing along to another group who is currently performing. Jimin absolutely caresses JKs chest during one of his dance moves there too.

On the 17th, JK once again posts to Twitter to thank ARMY for their support after their show with a jikook selca. One that is honestly one of my favorites for some reason. They both look so cute 🥰 but the follow up tweet from Jimin is even better. 🤣

Jimin posts to Twitter after this, JK has fallen asleep, but not before he drew all over Jimins phone case. And Jimin posts photos of it with his how dare you vandalize my phone and then go to sleep caption, with 4 different photos attached. And I just want to say that it's super cute how JK chose to vandalize Jimins phone by decorating it with hearts and the word love and sis. Lmao it's something alright. An interesting choice is all. Especially to contrast to how years later when we see him doing the same thing to Jins phone, it's just with his joking version of his name they tease him with "jan" and not love, sis and hearts all over 😅

We follow this up on the 20th with an interview on Pops in Seoul, and this is a bit of a hard one to watch at times. They pick sticky notes with questions on it to answer. JK picks one that again has him rank the members by look. You can absolutely tell he thinks this is going to be a funny joke that they all laugh about like they did earlier in the year. It's clear that he just really did not think through how Jimin had expressed that it wasn't a joke he liked even if he went along with it. Jimin is 100% not into this question from the moment it starts, situating hinself outside of the group a bit for it. And when he is again ranked last, he looks not surprised but also genuinely a little hurt by the whole thing. Pretty sure he thought they left this whole joke behind them. The rest of them too, RM even scolds JK a bit and Tae questions why he didn't change things up. It brings me back to that interview I listed above where JK mentioned how sometimes they fight because he wants to be funny, but that he sometimes says things that are insensitive without thinking about it. This is one of those times I think.

Jimin posts his travel blog on the 24th. These are always so cute. And in this one he includes a photo of JK comforting him when he thought he lost his airplane ticket, but the airport staff luckily found it for him. Lol its the cutest little photo. He also includes a photo of jikook enjoying a chicken meal together too.

A fansign on the 27th has the maknae line all in a row and being very playful with each other. Photo at the top from this fansign. Jikook sat quite close together too. And this wraps up November for us for the most part.

We start Decemeber off on the 3rd with the Oricon Style Interview. This is QUITE the interview. It's a lot 😅 so please just click on the link to read the translation of the whole interview. JK once again changes who his ideal type is. He says that he focuses first on a girl if she has a healthy beauty and well balanced muscles. Which then starts BTS off on a tangent and Jimin bringing up that his ideal type is... well, Jimin. Lmfao which JK in a almost panic like fashion, denies. He says he likes a girl with tan skin who does workouts daily. To which Jimin just says that he has pale skin. But otherwise is sticking to the "you just described me as your ideal type of girl" teasing. Which also he continues to tease the other members through the interviews too, his response to JK was quite different. Lol Jimin again says that he likes cute and charming girls. When talking about their ideal love story, Jimin scolds Jin a bit about how love is equality and if he wants something, he has to be able to give the same energy in return. And he says that his ideal love story would be where he loves only one person for the rest of his life. JK makes a joke about just being a lonely man. And when asked to expand basically just says that he can't think about love right now, but when he does, he is sure he would want to spend lots of time with her.

This is again, giving me JK doesn't know what his ideal type of girl is so it keeps changing and yet somehow ended up similar to Jimin at this point? Jimin seems way too interested in what JKs ideal type is and that whole exchange was so awkward too. Cute and crinegy. It's a pattern at this point for 2014. Lol and Jimin is so sweet with his view and outlook on love. JK and his outlook on love, for some reason he doesn't seem to think it's in the cards for him or at least not any time soon. I'm not trying to project, but if asked what my opinion over this is, it's honestly giving me thoughts that he is trying to figure out what love is to him, he might be trying to come to terms with his own sexuality at this point too. He just seems not that into this question and doesn't really know how to answer it.

Also on Decemeber 3rd are the MAMA awards. Which is the iconic Jimin ripping off his shirt and then performing shirtless MAMA award show. Lol we have the MAMA behind cam here which was posted on the 10th. Jikook have a few little moments through essentially the entire 2ish minute video. Lol it looks like they just sort of stuck near each other alot during this trip/stage prep. Including a jinjikook gym session. Lol we then also get another MAMA Behind the Scenes video here of them prepping for their stage and then after they perform. This one is longer and my favorite moment from it is towards the end. They all come backstage after performing and the reporter loses it a little bit and gasps and zooms in on Jimins abs. Lmao JK covers the camera up as Jimin walks by and jokingly basically just tells the lady that she is enjoying herself too much.

On the 10th that also gets posted is this BTB. It's mostly all just jihope focused and them being goofy about working out. But um, I won't say JK seems to be hovering, but he seems to be hovering a little bit. Lol

On Christmas Eve, BTS post a cute little Christmas themed "radio show" meaning it's basically a voice only video, they posted it on YouTube. It's just under 30 minutes long. Around 19 to 20 minutes in, jikook have a very cute, yet also cringey exchange of JK giving Jimin advice on how to confess his feelings to the girl that he likes (aka ARMY). Lol

Also on Christmas Eve, jikook post on Twitter. 4 selcas and the caption "Christmas Day. Coming soon." And they are the sweetest, most cozy selcas ever. JK just looks so comfortable and at home there with Jimin, the eyes closing and heads touching 🥺

On Christmas Day, the 25th, jikook post their cover of Mistletoe, retitled Christmas Day.

Jimin posted a blog post over it as well when he posted this video as well as another photo of him and Jungkook. Translation of his post as follows:

Christmas Day

Did you receive our present?

It was really tough so hurry compliment that we’ve done well

Hm Hm I’m Jimin~

This Christmas song is a song by me and maknae Jungkook, a song titled Christmas Day

This time round its a song made by just two of us.

1 month ago while we were together practicing our singing, the suggestion came up that we try and record a song together

Our clever boy Jungkookie was the one who said that we try make a Christmas track

So we started on it and actually we really did not have much time so we worried a lot over what if we couldn’t reveal it.

Still we recorded during our free times and prepared, for it to be revealed like that it’s really movingㅜㅜ

A more more more more more important fact to note!!!

This christmas song’s lyrics are personally written by me kyaha

That I wrote while thinking about our pretties~ That’s for real

Our hyungnims can write a few songs within a day but its the first time I’m writing lyrics so it took a really long time for me to complete it

Heehee it’s my first time but do think of it cutely and listen to the song~

Also our ARMY

In this while there’s been a lot of memories

A year and a half, time’s passed all at once

In the future too be it cool things happy things or things that we congratulate one another while smiling

And the pretty memories that we’ll be making

I’m really looking forward to it so

Do look forward to it too and love us a lot in the future too

Merry Christmas A.R.M.Y~

Sweet dreams~

They end the year on the 31st with a performance on MBC. They later tweet out their thanks to ARMY, including this tweet from I think Jimin, which was a cute jikook selca. And this tweet with a very cute group photo and Jimin leaning his head on JKs shoulder.

And I'm ending this post before I wrap it up with a quick add on from May (which shouldve been in part 2). I'll edit this into part 2 as well since I missed it there originally that way things are still in chronological order for the most part. So I'm very sorry!

140529, BTS is on a Japanese Public Broadcast, you can watch the full video here. Very fun. Very playful. And for someone who dodges all requests for kisses, JK seems to give quite the little indirect kiss here. Lol ugh, what a moment to have left off the original post! JK blows a kiss himself, then uses the same hand to blow a kiss for Jimin who had just simply puckered his lips before. Lol is this him trying to give Jimin a kiss? No, he is just being cheeky, but it's a cute little moment anyway. I mean, clearly their boundaries are lower with the skinship that people assumed. JK just had Jimin kiss his hand after he himself kissed it. Lol follow this by a few months later and JK deciding to share Jimins lollipop with him. Yeah.... boundaries just got lower lol

And that wraps up 2014! Not every moment was included, more just so the ones I personally felt like were ones more worthy of calling attention to and spoke to their bond. I'm not including every skinship moment or playful moment or moment where they looked at each other. Lol and my opinions are littered throughout these posts too.

Basically, I think the overall feeling of this year between them was friendship. I think it's clear that there is the beginning of a crush forming between the both of them, a mutual crush so to say. But that neither are acting on it really or even aware of the other feeling that way and are mostly just drawn to be around each other more. Jimin especially has been very vocal about wanting more time with JK and how much he enjoys spending time with him. Where as JK has been a little more subtle, but while he might not be saying it, he is clearly been seeking out Jimins company and we see them together often too. They aren't inseparable though, they still often at times seek out and prefer their other members at times too. I'm not even sure if they themselves are admitting the beginnings of said crush to themselves yet or are just rolling with things about how they seem to want to be around each other.

I'm also sure there might be some denial of said inner feelings to themselves too that they might be working through. Wanting to be a good hyung to him and nothing more, not wanting to cross any lines, etc. Possibly having to work through some inner "is this okay to feel like this" type of feelings. They grew up in a very conservative and homophobic country, even if their parents didn't raise them that way, they would have been exposed to that type of thinking regardless. So this year I think was still them focusing on and enjoying their friendship. And the moments and vibes I got from them were definitely hints towards a crush, but one that isn't even being actively pursued or thought about all the time. This year was all about being playful and rough housing and silly fun times together mostly. The friendship was definitely the top priority for them, with some additional feelings slipping out every so often lol. But those underlying feelings? That's what kicks off the next changes for them over the following years as they expand upon them. At least, in my personal opinion, and how I see all of this.

Sorry again that this post is so long!! If you have read all of this, thank you!! And thanks for letting me share all my thoughts with you 💜

[nicanario]

The Doctors as Starfleet officers

so, I'm going to sort the Doctors into Hog... I mean, into Star Trek shows and Starfleet divisions, based on vibes and maybe a few character traits. Also, I'm counting the first Star Trek pilot, The Cage, as a separate entity to The Original Series, because it has an almost entirely different set of characters and, um, vibes? and I'll also be countring the upcoming series Starnge New Worlds because there's not enough Star Trek eras.

1st Doctor: after the Sybok incident, this old Admiral regularly contacted the Enterprise in order to send them on missions and the like. despite his general crankiness, Captain Kirk was happy to learn he wasn't evil or anything.

2nd Doctor: in the Academy he was nicknamed "cosmic hobo", and he truly demonstrates that in the Enterprise NX-01. he and Archer have regular meals. T'Pol once mentioned in passing that he didn't smell as strong as the rest of the humans.

3rd Doctor: he's been transferred to the colourful USS Enterprise of The Animated Series as a science officer. he's been trying to get off world for a while (something about being on Earth for too long), and has been teaching Arex some kind of weird Aikido, which apparently really works for him since he has three arms.

4th Doctor: iconic, colourful, great first season and meh last season? of course, he belongs in The Original Series. he's an engineer, and it frustrates Scotty that he always says the exact amount of time it's going to take him to perform a task.

5th Doctor: he was briefly appointed Chief Medical Officer after the departure of Dr Pulaski and the return of Beverly Crusher. on his record there is a long section dedicated to the time he served as a Rigelian Cricket referee.

6th Doctor: after the attempted forced relocation of the Ba'ku from their planet, he was appointed as a high-ranking security officer in the Enterprise-E. he said he decided to go into security after a friend told him he had the face for it.

7th Doctor: he'd be a plain, simple candy shop owner on Deep Space Nine. like a certain other shopkeeper he hangs out with a lot, he has a hidden motive for being there (maybe some kind of big plan, a long game?) but, unlike him, nobody suspects it until the big reveal.

8th Doctor: he visits Picard once in a while at his vineyard, greeting Number One with much enthusiasm. from what his Romulan aides have overheard, he's a friend from the USS Stargazer, though he really doesn't look that old.

War Doctor: you know what? he deserves some light-hearted work as a security officer in the USS Cerritos. he's been through a lot lately in the Dominion War. wait, what's this about the Pakleds I hear?

9th Doctor: former Maquis, now on Voyager. no further questions.

10th Doctor: the previous yeoman to Captain Pike before his first trip to Talos IV, probably the reason why he was weary of newly arrived yeoman Colt and definitely not because of sexism :)

11th Doctor: he's serving as a communications officer on Pike's Enterprise in Strange New Worlds, because, um, modernized feels?

12th Doctor: no-one knows exactly what he does at Starfleet headquarters, but Admiral Vance has said that he has some 'experience at avoiding wars.' Saru has managed to speak with him and says that he trusts him, as they should this new Starfleet in general.

13th Doctor: she's another hologram in the USS Protostar, along with Janeway, but as an emergency medical hologram. just in case, y'know? they might get inexperienced cadets there.

Bonus

Shalka & Curse Doctors: they're both officers aboard the USS Enterprise from the Kelvin timeline films because alternate reality. they get on each others' nerves a lot. Shalka is a nurse and Curse (9) is a biologist. he was transferred out of Medicine because of all the sex jokes.

Dr. Who: not a Star Trek show per se, but I can imagine him being in the Mirror Universe. you know, a distorted and horrifying alternate version of our beloved main characters.

what do you mean I should write a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover? I'm already """writing""" a Doctor Who/Avatar crossover. stop, you'll make me want to actually write it! well, now that you mention it, I did have some ideas for-

[lwt28brave]

LT2 masterpost

If it was up to me, we would get an autumn or winter EP. Since it’s not up to me at all, here, enjoy this post with everything we know so far of LT2, which is to say, not much at all. Everything here is hypothetical. I’ll be updating every time I see something relevant. A little disclaimer that while this is a masterpost (kinda), it could be read as discourse (duh, it’s also a theory), AND it’s also by me, and you shouldn’t expect me to be serious at this point.

Due to me restraining myself, there’s no reference to any of the times he’s mentioned his guitar skills and him improving but I hope you know I cried every single time.

I’m also linking my old pinned here. It was written before AFHF and around the free merch thing that didn’t lead to much, but I still think I made some good points.

Possible tracks:

Copy of a Copy of a Copy

Change

Faith in the future??

369??

Possible names:

369

Faith in the future

When is the album coming out?

Your guess is as good as mine

Friday 28th of January 2022. Almost two years after Walls. It’s a Friday. It’s a 28th. What else can I say?

Here you can find @want-to-be-loved timelines for every month.

Here you can find @berlinini’s timeline of what Louis has been up to this year (2021).

The rest is under the cut. And here you can find a PDF version where Tumblr can't tell me how many pictures I can add.

2020

He said back on May 2th 2020 he wasn’t writing anything new yet.

(x)(x)(x)

Interestingly enough, he’s said many times after that that the album’s not ready cause he has no new experiences to drawn from. I won’t call him out because he does it himself.

May 4th. He liked a tweet from DMA’s Johnny Took saying they had to go write together again. Louis has been credited as an influence for them and (kind of) participated in their previous record, so I’m assuming he meant for their music and not his, but you never know.

Nothing(literally nothing??? how did we survive) until 11th of July. We all know what happened that day. We all celebrated it. Nonetheless, that’s not what I’m talking about here.

(x) So, by the beginning of July 2020 he was working on concepts and ideas for the new album. That was fifteen months ago. I know perfection takes time but…

Brief summary of important things that happened from then until the next mention of new music:

Louis left Syco!!!! 10 days later he rescheduled the tour for the first time. He followed Matt Vines on Twitter, probably so we could publicly shame him into doing something. Also, the 10thanniversary. He followed more people I wish he hadn’t.

Then more nothing until September. Not even a single tweet. The first merch drop was on the 28th of August but he just RT’ed the tweet. He first mentioned Free my Meal on the 25th of September. Then on October 1st Walls hit #1 on a lot of countries and Louis was incredibly happy and excited about it ^^

And then, that same day, October 1st, 2020, he dropped this bomb:

(x)

He also said it was too soon to be sharing new lyrics with us (x)

And, obviously, this tweet which is actually what made me start this whole post. I would hope you know mate.

(x)

He also told us he was cooking "banger after banger" and that he was incorporating more social themes into his music (x)(x) (I believe any social issue is a political issue but that’s not the point rn).

COPY OF A COPY OF A COPY?!?!

These next paragraphs are brought to you by my mind not remembering things and me not having any links. I’m assuming COACOAC came from those writing sessions that supposedly happened in October. Or in LA but I have no idea if he actually was in LA at any point other than a Daily Mail article putting him there on December which would have been too late, but I do remember that someone said he was in the studio in LA last autumn???? A rumor. Maybe. IDK. Did I mention already all of this is very hypothetical?? Well, this is it. I can’t even remember if this was October or November or what. So, take this with a grain of salt.

I’m also… taking the liberty to assume, if you must, that Copy wasn’t meant to be a Walls reject because it sounds more mature and darker and it has a vastly different tone that Walls songs. I know he’s said that song probably isn’t getting into the album, but I want to have faith (in the future) that I’m getting a studio version. (But also, Louis, if you’re reading this, first of all GET OUT OF MY BLOG second of all, please don’t ever feel pressured again to add a song to the album because we have already heard it before. It’s your art and it should always be under your own terms).

So yeah, I believe that Copy is either one of those four songs (then imagine the other three??!!) or was written around the 1st of October date.

---End of the Intermission---

Then not much important (other than sharing more about Marcus Rashford fight against food poverty and the 2nd merch drop) until he announced the livestream on the 24th of November. (x)

It wasn’t until a few days before the livestream date we even thought again about new music (jk, I know we’re always thinking about new Louis’ music). So, December 9th/10th, 2020. Nine months ago. We got our first taste of new music!

He made sure we knew Copy of a Copy of a Copy isn't a cover! (x) (x)

(x)

Ok, so that’s it for 2020. (I feel like I’m missing something from September 17th because tweet was deleted but maybe he was still talking about cucumbers. We might never know. Unless I understand how Tumblr tags work). Expected, cause Walls was released in 2020. We needed to let it sit for a while.

2021

Another Summary: Louis third tweet of the year was telling the UK government off. So was the fifth. What a good beginning. On the 26th of January, he said he prefers pancakes over waffles. I hope he meant pancakes other than his own. More importantly, he tweeted the infamous “you lot read into things too much”. Don’t get me started, Tomlinson. Don’t. Then the 31st came around and Walls was one. He tweeted this. How wise. And Project Defenceless happened!!

15th of February!! Who cares about Valentine Day when the next day we got this? ♥

(x)

(x)

So…AN EP?? AN EP?? PLEASE RELEASE AN EP.

“I’m sure I will have something out this year but unlikely that will be the album”. Unlikely but not impossible. Also. A single would be good. This is the second time he mentions releasing something in 2021 and he sounds surer about it than the first time around.

He also said that he isn’t sure we will get a studio version of Copy. And that the best bridges from Walls to LT2 are Walls, OTB, KMM and Copy. Can’t wait!

Then we jump to March 6th when he announced he was going to create his own management company. “Sometimes action is needed first to encourage the motivation and belief”. As we can tell he was already manifesting some stuff which will lead us to the numerology stuff/Tesla… kidding. Or not. We might never know.

On the 22nd of March he answered some questions:

He told us music was still his main focus ♥ mwha. (x) I included this tweet to guilt-trip him into giving us music in case he’s reading this even after I told him to leave. ILY.

(x) I’d love to get a visual EP this autumn. Just saying. It sounds like a lovely concept.

(x)

…next (I will get into it, I promise. I’m just mad).

On the 25th he left for Mexico until April 10th. You could assume it was just for the documentary where we got ten seconds of footage or admit the obvious: LT2 its a Mexican baby!!

On the 26th (so, not so far apart from that first 369) we got the first Faith in the Future mention: (x)

Back then we were innocent people who had no idea what was coming upon us. We still have no idea because what the fuck does he mean with these. Please explain. I have one braincell and I don’t use it enough for this. I’m linking some theories.

On the 30th of March he confirmed he was already working on the documentary. So AFHF was already on the works. Will it take this long for us to get the Veeps numbers? We also got this tweet: "Got a decent chorus idea down" (x).

Same person that got the “something out this year” exclusive. If you know something share with the class. Also. Is this Change? I feel like this could be Change but I also assume he wrote Change after hanging out with his friends or being in Doncaster. But who knows.

(x) And the second mention to 369.

(x) 15th of April. The second "Faith in the future".

On the 19th of April he announced that he had something BIG for us later on the year which turned out to be the Away From Home Festival ♥♥ (x) I love him so much.

Then on the 28th he announced the 369 merch drop (which it’s probably the Walls drop? Except that the TOU and KMM ones were “drop 1 and drop 2” and this was drop 369 which, again, makes no sense) but we still don’t know what 369 means.

Into May’ 21 we go.

He rescheduled tour again. And dropped another bomb (x).

He announced he has signed with BMG as an independent artist by RTing this tweet on May 10th. The article also says that he’s already working on writing and recording LT2. The timing… we don’t know. What this deal involves… we don’t know either. Bear with me here because I have a lot to say about this.

I think the deal is only a distribution one, but that BMG are interested in Louis and what he (us) could bring to the table. They were either present at the festival or watching it, but officially they had no involvement at all with it (everything is credited either to Louis own company, 78 Productions, or Charlie Lightening’s company). That’s the case for both giveaways too; the vinyl one and the tickets for the festival.

I think it would be an unbelievably bad move not to test the waters with BMG now or soon-ish. At least a single, to see how it performs. Due to the circumstances, it’s obvious there’re certain limitations on place but I want to see how they push it, whether the radio play exist this time around and if the song is playlisted and promoted and all that… I would also love to know, since it says he signed with BMG UK, but it also states it’s a global deal, how things are going to go on the US and other countries.

Yes, yes. I know those are all questions and no answers. But I know the same as you, sadly. If any of you know more than you’re letting on… again, share with the class.

Where was I? Yes, on the 25th of May Louis had a great day writing (x). Since the first time he had mentioned he was officially writing to this date there’s almost eight months. And I believe he was writing before October’ 20.

He followed Robert Harvey that day and, on the 28th of May (why is it always the 28th???) he was spotted at the studio for the first time.

June was an interesting month for the fandom ♥. Lots of LHL content which I will love and cherish for the rest of times. On June 4th, June 9th, and June 10th he was spotted at the studio, but I believe he was there more days.

(x)

This was posted on June 6th and captioned Studio. Charlie also shared it with “Mega tunes being put down, can’t wait for this @louist91 #louistomlinson #LT2” as the caption. This gives me 2019 (Elton-Joint) vibes. I like it. Feels like we’re getting closer to something.

He added the Milano date on the 9th too which I’m mentioning because I’m going alone. Anyone wanna go with me please? I’m nice and I never eat anything before a concert so you can have my food. On other news. It didn’t come home.

During July he was at the studio at least three days too. Probably more. Feels like more with all the fan pictures we got. Or was that June? Anyway, July 1st and 9th we got some videos from Robert Harvey and wearesuperhi, which is who Louis has been working with the most, that we know of. I don’t know for sure they’re from that day. And on July 5th we got an article and lots of pictures of Louis looking really good outside the studio.

On the 12th of July the first fans started getting the free, 369 bucket hat and print. We still don’t know what the purpose was other than to thanks fans. Maybe that was it. I want answers and I still think it relates to a future project (see theories above), but it could also just be a bridge with the Walls breaking.

He didn’t tweet about anything interesting for a while, mostly because he lost his phone (he either throwed it in the air or smashed it who knows). Then on the 29th of July he announced the festival!

I’m glossing over it because there’s already been a lot of talk about it (rightfully) and while it was a wonderful thing, it doesn’t have much to do with LT2.

Let’s talk Change!

On August 3rd he tweeted this about the setlist.

(x)

And this (x) on the 28th! I can’t stand him.

We didn’t get it, obviously. Because who was going to get that. But we read too much into things. Alright.

On the 16thof August Dave Gibson shared this post tagged #LT2 with the eyes emojis 👀👀👀. I believe this has to do both with Change but also with whatever else came out of that Mexico trip.

(x) Last relevant tweet related to LT2 is this one.

So, on the 30th of August we got Change and we cried, and we know that Change is going in the new album. He said it. With those exact words. He also said he was “getting a feeling for it”. This has to meant he already has a general idea of the vibe of the new album and what’s going in it!!!!!! (Right? RIGHT?).

Anyway, let’s go back a few weeks because some other things happened on August. He was at the studio a few more times. Or it was suggested that he was there. On the 17th and the 18th. (Why was it so time-pressing to be at the studio instead of rehearsing for the festival? There was no studio at all on the documentary. Which makes sense, but again, then why?).

On the day of the festival we got another mention of Faith in The Future that made me feel part of a cult ngl. The words were flashing on the screen for less than a second. Okay.

And then he tweeted those words again after watching the livestream/documentary on the 4th of September (x). This is what makes me suspect it's either the name of the album or of the single.

On the same day, we got some interesting quotes about LT2 on the documentary.

“Soon I’ll have to think about me second album, which in my head I’ll get the tour out of the way and then I’ll address that. So, I hadn’t really given it much thought, to be honest”.

“When every day is the same is hard to feel creative and it’s hard to have any kind of proper inspiration”.

“As season started to come back, I started writing again and it was great and some of these songs turned out alright”.

And I think this is it. I might be overlooking some important details but that’s what we know and what we don’t know.

So. Conclusions. That’s what you missed on Glee. I do believe the album is, if not mostly done, partially there. And yes, this post is pointless and never-ending but it’s all in here if you need to tell Louis “Hey, you said this, mate”.

[kyotakumrau]

2021.02.16 1st talk session of Meguro Rock-May-KanGIG at Zepp Yokohama

Zepp Yokohama is a such a nice venue, I really hope we will get to see dir play there live properly!

The concert recorded at Meguro RockMayKan was great! The setlist surprised me quite a lot (especially encore!!!)! And I think that was the smallest stage I ever saw dir on!😆 the footage definitely deserves a separate entry and I don't want to spoil anyone if they go to next events.

After the concert film screening staff quickly prepared the stage, bringing two long tables and four chairs, they also placed a water bottle at each seat.

Punctually (thank you for not repeating Nagoya's situation😆), at 3:30 Fujieda came on stage and started with greeting everyone, and asking us to greet the band members with applause.

After a moment of uncertainty (even as my heart was almost set it will be Kyo) Die came on stage with Kyo after him.٩( ˆoˆ  )۶

They both looked super classy. Die had a dark grey suit with a long jacket, his usual award winning hair and wore sunglasses.

Kyo had a black jacket (with a round Chanel pin) and shirt, green hair, he wore glasses (not sunglasses).

When they sat (Kyo stood in front of the chair first until Fujieda gestured them to sit) F asked them to introduce themselves.

D: ども、Dieです

K: 京です

...and then F announced 'today is Kyo's birthday!' and a birthday song melody began to play😆

Kyo turned on his murder face glaring at Fujieda who happily observed 'oh what's this song?'😂

The soft Happy Birthday melody got then a guitar joining in and Takabayashi came on the stage carrying a small strawberry shortcake (with a chocolate message おめでとう京さん) which of course he placed in front of Kyo.

We couldn't sing but we clapped.

Kyo snatched a strawberry and popped it in his mouth. He gestured 'throat slashing' looking at Fujieda😂

And then ate another strawberry🍓😂

F: the song was made by Die.

K: (only interested in the cake) Could I get a fork?

(staff went to get him one)

F: how do you feel? (about your own birthday)

K: I don't care.

The fork arrived and Kyo literally dug in right in the middle, scooping a huge piece he put whole in his mouth.

Fujieda wisely left Kyo to his cake then and started talking about RMK footage. Die said they had hard time deciding on a tour or events like this in COVID situation. They also mentioned the secret show in 2009 was held in RMK.

Next Die talked about how nice it was to rehearse and play together with the band, first time since March, he was happy about the show, creating sound together as 5 people.

F: did you finish eating K?

K: yup

(there was last 🍓 left (out of 4 big ones), he ate about 25~35%?)

F: then tell us about recording the RockMayKan show!

K: the place was very narrow.

F: anything else?

K: Not really.

But then he added more, that as it has been a while it felt like the first day of the tour.

F: was there anything that was difficult? Was a struggle?

K: when recording I can do it at my own pace, I can do one song when I want, but that day it was back to performing over 10 songs all at once, it was tough, hard on my throat, energy/stamina wise.

But at the same time it was exciting, meet with other members, play music together, that was nice.

F: 2019 was filled with shows, it was busy, then things changed. So after a break to see an audience again got me nervous, in a good way.

Next F said had would like to talk about the release of Oboro.

D: what do you want to know?

F: so the song is not out yet, any hints?

D: it's gonna stay a secret for a bit more.

F: the 2nd track is TDFF？

D: (interesting letters ???didn't catch exactly) it's a powerful song.

F: how is Oboro for you Kyo?

K: quite fresh/refreshing

F: really?!

D: especially the video

...but then Kyo just burst with a whole speech how Fujieda always ask something and when he gets an aswer he didn't expect he doesn't react well, just says what he wants, is not listening to what Kyo says and... it went for a while😆

Next F moved to the topic of the merchandise and asked the band members which items they like.

K: the big badge, before the big pick was huge, shouldn't the badge be like this size (showing about 20cm with his hands). It bothered me from when I saw it. Isn't it just normal?

in the end they agreed it's just 'a bit big' 😂

F: how about for you, D?

D: the rubber key chains?

F: they got sold out very quickly, sorry to fans about that.

D: they are cute. And I like the wristbands too. The color combinations are nice.

T: the badge has the old band's logo, it brings me back

D talked about old times when artists made stickers like that, with logos, to put on their equipment, they worked a bit like business cards, he said he still have some at home.

T picked the rechargeable heat pack.

K: so it's to be used instead of heat packs? (ホッカイロ)

F: uh, it's already warm.

D: huh? Show me? (F passed it to him) it's like a phone that gets hot when charging.

Next they moved on to fans questions. ("~~" is a question from fans they read)

K (unusually picks the first question super fast): "what's your favourite cake?"

K: Well, the strawberry shortcake is good, but this one doesn't have strawberries inside, just some jam, it should have strawberries inside too.

(F so dead😂😂😂)

F: "what's your best or bad memory connected to birthdays?"

K: at a concert somewhere, it was quite long time ago, I got a present all wrapped and in a bag from a silver accessories brand I liked, so nicely wrapped, I opened it and it was empty, isn't that really strange? I looked at the attached letter and it said the person is keeping the item for themselves. It annoyed me so much, the worst bd memory ever.

☹️

F: how about you D?

D: it's not exactly bad memory, but many band members have birthdays in February, in the past when we were still giving each other presents Toshiya and I had to think what to get for 3 people, it was always tough. We stopped that at some point.

T: "any memory/story about China Town?"

D: I like China Town

T: do you go often?

D: sometimes. But only to my favorite restaurants. (?? Talked more about the stadium?)

T: do you usually order the same thing?

D: Mabodofu, the spicy version

(then I think he said something like there's no point in overdoing spicyness, it's not healthy??)

K: I don't know which restaurants are good so I get annoyed. I don't know what decides it's a good one or not.

F: I don't go, but I'd like to.

then they talked about the types of Chinese food and food they tried when in other Asian countries.

K: when we were touring in the US I ordered Chinese abd it was terrible, it was all bad. The egg soup was all clumpy, so bad.

D: "any stories about RockMayKan?"

D: honestly I don't have good memories with this venue, when with a previous band we played together with more senior bands and they took over the dressing room, we couldn't use it, and we also had to greet all senpai musicians.

K: remember when Shinya sat on the lockers? Like on top of the 170cm lockers?

D: was it in Nagoya?

K: he's done his make up there, like a cat or something

D: Shinya climbed a locker and made a space for himself there

K: He's not exactly human. Normally you would not even consider climbing a locker...

D: we usually did our make up on the stairs, didn't use changing room. When we played at RMK as dir for the first time I saw 'this is the changing room!'

He also talked about how the hair spray used by all the bandomen would stink up the whole place 😂

F: "what do you usually wear to sleep?"

K: just underwear. Doesn't matter if it's summer or winter I want to feel the towel like fabric, I use towel cloth for my bedding, I want my whole body to feel it so there's no point in wearing pajamas.

D: at home...wait you mean my home or my family house? At my parents' I always wear the pajama my mum got me, currently the Mickey Mouse one. I only have that one there.

K( with sudden interest): can you draw it?

D: it's about this big, quite big print. The one I wear at home, it wasn't sent by my mum.

K: not Mickey one??

D:  that's Nightmare Before Christmas.

K: Disney theme?

D: this one has a face in the front.

K: do you change characters (for pajamas) every year?

D: this year it's Nightmare.

Next was something they wanted to say to F. K chose to comment on his haircut, because it's asymmetric K is bothered that it will end as an uzumaki in the back. They talked more about F's style.

F: "I'd like you to tell us about your costumes you wore for RMK show".

D: I wanted something motovating so red colour.

K: I had no special reasoning, just what I wanted to wear then.

D: "have you gotten any food delivery?"

He said he only got it once or not much, I think he said he's not fond of shops that don't do it properly, but when recording it's good???

F: Shinya said he orders Uber almost everyday.

K: I only got Uber once.

F: what did you get?

K: Burger King. I quit McDonalds. After eating Burger King I can't go back to McDonalds.

They talked about sizes of burger here?? Whooper versus Junior Whooper?

F: So McD is not good?

K: the meat taste is different. McDonald now tastes like trash.

F: what about the Mc fries, when they get a bit soft.

K: not only a bit. Gross.

D: in the US we usually also have some American staff, when we had some time and we went to eat out, it was funny, American staff went for sushi, Shinya went for McDonalds.

F: was it last time?

D: no, quite some time ago.

F: when did you eat McDonalds the last time?

D: I also don't eat it, it's been some time already.

They talked more about the food, some restaurants D liked in the US (didn't catch the name🙃 but in Sacramento?), then F talked more about event schedule and the time was over.

Last comments from the band members:

Die: From today the new series of film screening starts, thank you for coming to the first day. So well... the band is working on the new album while coming to the events at the same time, we're working on creating a great album. Please come amd enjoy the events.

Kyo: I don't have a special thing to say. Many of you will be coming to few or many events and will end up with many t-shirts, you can do whatever with them, even use them as a doormat, there are many ways to use them, no problem for the whole year.

[kanmom51]

Ok, this might be a bit controversial but even though I side eye many "jeonlous" moments on yt or other media because they literally just zoom in on jk's impassive face, I have seen some that seem legit. I think there is some truth behind it all, meaning that it is possible that jk is a bit possessive, especially when it comes to minimoni or even Taemin for some reason. I mean, he has said he had trouble sharing and it is not difficult to imagine this would also apply to his relationships.

This is not to say that he thinks Namjoon or any of the other members are a threat to his relationship with Jimin because that would be ridiculous. It's just that maybe sometimes he doesn't like some of their skinship (for whatever reasons we don't know) and the rest of bts is probably aware of it. I mean, that clip you reblogged where Jimin sneakily looks at jk and then proceeds to touch namjoon's thigh doesn't have many other explanations. He probably knew what he was doing 😂 There is also that part of their live post billboard 2017 where something was going on with jikook and namjoon.

Actually, I think this is true for both jk and jm, even if it is less obvious/frequent. Maybe I'm crazy but I got the same kind of vibe from Jimin in the black swan mv behind when jk was hanging off of tae.

I don't mean to imply they are toxic or anything but they are young adults and while some telenovela like narratives going around are just insane, i don't think it is fair to assume that their relationship is perfect and that they don't do things that annoy each other or that they don't have behaviors that aren't exactly ideal or 100% healthy. Especially because problems are bound to rise if they are a couple but constantly have to act as if they weren't because their relationship is not public.

I know you are really open minded so I would love to read your thoughts on this 💜

Where do I start here?

Controversial is good.  I like me a good controversy once in a while, as long a it’s not offensive.  It makes for good discussion.

No, I do not believe and definitely don’t like the Jeonolous narrative out there.  It makes for fun YT content, but it’s toxic and paints JK as this possessive ass, which I don’t think he is.

I have addressed this in the past, and said that I don’t believe in this narrative, but on the other hand I do see JK and JM as human beings, and as such, not perfect and prone to natural human behaviour and reactions.  

Even those who are not prone to jealousy, that are in the best of relationships, can get jealous once in a while. 

Another thing we need to remember is that what we spot as jealous can be something other than the obvious possessive jealousy we automatically tend to associate that word with.  It could be something like annoyance or discomfort in a situation. 

The dictionary definition of ‘jealous’ is:

feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements,  possessions, or perceived advantages.

 feeling or showing a resentful suspicion that one's partner is attracted to or involved with someone else.

fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions.

 As you can see, what we call as jealousy can contain within it several meanings.  There is possessive jealousy.  There is jealous of one other’s advantage, such as their connection with someone else.  There is jealous not of the connection with the other, but the ability to showcase that connection (being able to be free with the other, while you have to hide your own connection), and there is what I call the classic jealousy, when there is a suspicion your partner is attracted to someone else.

With all those there is also a spectrum of levels of jealousy, from low level jealousy to toxic jealousy.

JM & JK’s relationship doesn’t live in a vacuum.  If we believe they are in a loving gay relationship, well they are living that relationship while being K-pop idols in SK, a highly traditional society.  They are in an environment you are not supposed to have a romantic relationship, let alone an unthinkable ‘gay’ relationship. So, showcasing such a relationship, for them, is problematic, and could be dangerous, to their careers and even their own personal safety.  It can be detrimental not only to themselves, but to the band and all the members.  So, as a whole, they have to hide it.  And that in itself can also be a point of friction.

Another thing to point out is that jealousy can also be a facet of insecurity, in yourself and/or in your relationship.  The stronger the relationship, the more secure you are in your connection, the less jealous you will be.  I think that this is something to take into consideration when we look at JM & JK, especially in the early years.  

Also, not every time that JK pokes his cheeks with his tongue does it mean he’s jealous or angry.  Not every behaviour should be interpreted as jealously.

Saying all that, I have seen several occasions that stood out to me, and I find hard to explain.

The 4th July 2015 fan meeting incident is one of them.  The way JK reacted to RM taking a hold of JM was not only jealous behaviour but it was such an extreme reaction and effected JK’s behaviour with the fans as well, which was really unprofessional, and uncharacteristic.  

Same vibe but not as extreme was JK during BTS Bomb after KBS music bank 1st place 9 May 2015.  moody JK when he’s eyeing Jimin interacting with Hobi and Jin, also the way JK averts his eyes when Jimin looks his way. He’s not happy. Mood changes when Jimin pays him attention pulling him by his shirt.

Both of these were, at least as far as I am concerned, before JM & JK’s relationship progressed into something ‘more’.  This could be a kind of ‘I want that’ or ‘why are you giving him attention and not me’ jealousy.  Whatever it was, it was a clear reaction to JM’s interactions with another member of the band.

Another one I think about was 3rd April 2017 – BTS Front row live entertainment interview.  

This one intrigues me. I watched and re-watched the full interview several times, and for the life of me I can’t see what happened there between JM and Hobi that triggered JK’s reaction?  JM’s placating look at JK, like telling him nothing happened… this one is used a lot to create the JK jealous narrative, and to be honest, I really don’t know what happened there. When JK turns back, JM looks into the camera with an uneasy gaze.   Something was going on there, no idea what it was.  Was it jealousy?  Was it something else between them? Idk, but it was a curious moment.

The issues JK has with Taemin. We do know that something happened between JK & JM the night JM performed with Taemin (if it had to do with Taemin we don’t know).  

We have also seen JK’s reactions to Taemin & Jimin together.  I do think there is a dislike there, it can stem from jealousy, but it can also stem from simple dislike of the man.  We have no way of knowing.  It’s kind of who came first, the chicken or the egg.

The clip I reblogged, and that you mentioned anon, is something else to me.  Yes, JK’s reaction is of uneasiness, even anger, but the feel I get here is that this is a JM kind of teaching moment, and JK reacting to that. It feels like JM wants to teach him a lesson for some reason, and JK crossing his arms and look at JM kind of radiates anger more than jealousy to me.  The way JM stretches out his hands, the look on his face before he puts his hands on RM’s thigh, the way he looks back before and after to make sure JK is looking.  He was there to teach him a lesson.  That was my impression.  We have no idea what happened before or after.  We have no idea why JM decided to do this, but JK’s reaction to me was more pissed off than jealous.  That’s the vibe I got.

I have seen JM reacting in a manor that looks like jealousy on occasions.  The one I can think about is the Vlive where JK is sitting in front of Tae, JM on the other side of the table, and Tae is using JK as his play thing.  The way JM looks at them, the way he storms out the second the live ends, the way Tae pipes up immediately, looking like he’s off to follow JM.  They all paint a jealous or angry reaction.  

JM was clearly bothered but I don’t think of this as JM being jealous of Tae & JK.  I think the bond between those three is strong enough. Again, this was one of those questionable moments.

Bottom line –

JK & JM are human beings, and as such exhibit normal human behaviour.  

Jealousy can be considered as a normal human behaviour, and can also be seen in healthy relationships, as long as it doesn’t become toxic, obsessive, overbearing or controlling. I will even go so far as to say that there are those who thrive on jealousy.  Jealousy is a way for them to feel their partner loves them, a way to get reinforcement that they are wanted/loved.  Again, this is something that can turn toxic, but not always.

Jealousy has different facets.  You can be jealous of someone, jealous for someone.

Do JK or JM sometimes show jealous behaviour. Seemingly they do once in a while.

Does that make one or either of them jealous monsters?  Does that make their relationship possessive or toxic?

By no means what so ever!!!!!  

It’s natural, it’s human, they are human.  Their relationship has ups and downs. It holds a beautiful bond filled with love and care, but also may hold insecurities and arguments and everything a normal relationship between two human beings will hold.  

We just need to give them a break.

It’s ok to ‘analyze’ behaviours, but it’s not ok to demonize either one of them.  See the behaviour, talk about it, but also remember we only see part of the picture, the edited version of what is going on between the two.

 And first and utmost remember they are human beings, just like the rest of us.  Don’t hold them up to ridiculous standards because they are ‘idols’.

[irumatheassassin]

Chapter 9: "The Assassin And His Strict Piano Dad"

Soi: Iruma, you took piano lessons with Kalego before being asked to be the pianist, right?

Iruma: H-How do you know that?

Soi: I followed you when you went to the Chairdemon's office, on the day Clara fell in the hole.

Iruma: O-Oh really?

Soi: So if Kerori assigned use to Kalego and you agreed to it as a good recommendation, you should tell me right now how Kalego is gonna train us. I'd rather know now than be straight faced shocked later.

Iruma: Strict.

Soi: Yes, but how strict.

Iruma: Well...

[Flashback]

Kalego: Iruma! You're playing that all wrong! Start over!

Iruma: Y-Yes sir!

Kalego: Off beat! Again!

Iruma: Umm...

Kalego: I won't stop until you get this lesson in your head, is that understood. You asked for this, you get everything that's coming to you.

[End of Flashback]

Iruma: ...Let's just say we have to learn quick or else we'll be stuck all night just for him to teach us.

Soi: From experience?

Iruma: From experience.

(Iruma and Soi walk in with Kalego already there playing the piano version of "Bye Bye Yesterday")

Iruma: Isn't that melody-?

[Flashback from a few days after Chapter 8's events, Kalego was with Iruma for piano lessons]

Kalego: Iruma, has your classmates decided on your theme for the Music Festival?

Iruma: No... we're kind of stuck.

Kalego: Figures.

Iruma: Say Professor Kalego, is it alright if I can get a free play once in a while, to help with stress?

Kalego: Free play?

Iruma: It's when you play a instrument for fun and relief.

Kalego: Is that something humans say?

Iruma: No, it's only me. I use to learn from Professor Bitch.

Kalego: About that, is her name actually called "Bitch"?

Iruma: No no, it was a nickname my former class gave her, since her last name Jelavic sounds like Bitch and it sorta stuck with us.

Kalego: What song do you play with her?

Iruma: Oh, you wanna hear one?

Kalego: Well, you said you wanted a free play, and this is one of the few chances I'll allow this.

Iruma: Okay, then I'll play one of my favorites. It's not a song she taught me, it's more I searched it up on my own and self taught myself.

(Iruma plays piano version of "Bye Bye Yesterday")

Kalego: (Soft, light yet oddly sad. A melody from the human world, way different feeling than most musical pieces.)

(Iruma finishes playing)

[Endo of Flashback]

(Kalego finishes playing the same time when the flashback ends)

Kalego: You both are here. Your classmates told me everything. I will so no mercy with your learning, as it should be.

Iruma & Soi: (Ah f*ck.)

----

[Timeskip after the music festival and during the after party where all the students are distracted while Iruma and Kalego have a chat]

Iruma: Everyone is really having fun.

Kalego: As long as they don't overdue it then it's not my problem.

Iruma: Of course.

(Kalego pats Iruma's head with his hand)

Iruma: Ah.

Kalego: Look for a 1st year to be ranked He is ridiculously rare, understand now how much weight you carry with that responsibly to set a example. And also...

Iruma: And also?

Kalego: (*sighs*) I'm very proud of you of today's performance, your lessons really paid off, as it should be. I'll help with any problems that should arise. It is a father's job, after all to keep you safe.

Iruma: A... father's job?

Kalego: (Ah! Son of a-! F*ck! Did I actually just say that?!)

(Iruma's eyes start to sparkle a bit in hopefulness)

Iruma: You actually think of me... as you son?

Kalego: (Ah no! Ah shit! God dammit!)

Kalego: W-Well I... I ummm (*sighs*)... If I say yes, will you not tell your classmates. I... I won't hear the end of it otherwise.

(Iruma smiles and is very happy)

Iruma: Of course. Thank you, Processor Kalego. I'm honestly happy you think of me like cause... Well to tell you the truth I... I sorta saw you as a father for a while now...

(Kalego looks at Iruma in surprise)

Kalego: For... how long?

Iruma: S-Since the moment you accepted me taking piano lessons from you...

Kalego: (Really, that long? The old man is never gonna let me live this down is he...? Well he doesn't have to know and... maybe being a father figure won't be so bad...)

[doienseatee]

One with the Star

GIF IS MINE

Pairing: Doyoung x Reader

Genre: Strangers to Lovers, Fluff, College

Note: I’ve been having a hard time for the past week so it took me a while to finish this and be satisfied about it so forgive me for that matter. Writing this became an escape for me from my problems so I hope you’ll understand the delay. I didn’t proofread this yet so there might be a lot of grammatical and typographical errors ahead. Thank you so much for the likes in chapter 1 and I hope you’ll enjoy this chapter as much as you did with the previous one. Do leave a like or comment below because it really means a lot to me and your simple heart uplifts my mood. Thank you and enjoy :)  Word Count: 2.1k 

Summary: You developed a crush on the school band’s vocalist and somehow got close with him when you friend, Jungwoo, joined them. You’re too shy to make a move and so you are more than happy to be friends with a star like him. 

CHAPTER 2

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next chapter 

It was a Monday morning when you were on your way to watch Jungwoo's 1st day of practice with NCT. You didn’t have any morning class and you accomplished everything on your to-do list so you can enjoy observing them (and listen to Doyoung's heavenly voice again and again) Suddenly, you remembered what happened last week and although you'd like to indulge yourself with the adrenaline rush when he followed you on Instagram, your notification didn't let you. 

"@do0_nct is now following you" 

was immediately succeeded by 

"@eh_ovo_nct is now following you" 

"@_jeongjaehyun is now following you"

"@onyourm_ark is now following you" 

Soon realizing that the entire band followed you and not just Doyoung. Well, as much as you were disappointed, you focused on the fact that they followed you! Isn't that great? So you followed them back immediately and you were happy and contented to be mutuals with them on IG. 

Going back, you are now in front of the university's music room and you are hesitating to knock the door for some reasons. You suddenly felt shy for being there and barging in their practice session when you're not even a part of the band. However, your train of thoughts were interrupted when the door opened revealing Doyoung inside and both of your eyes widened when you saw each other. 

"Hi!! How long have you been standing there?" he asks with his gummy smile on his face that ignited the butterflies on your stomach.

You had nothing else to reply than "not too long ago" to put up a facade in front of him that you're all good and so he proceeded to escort you to the room only to be surprised that it's just the both of you that are present. Apparently, they're all running late and not picking up his call so he was about to look for them that's why you met in the doorway. At this point, you're now shaking on the inside because you're alone with your crush but of course, he didn’t notice since you were hiding it. You were thinking about how you should’ve just arrived with Jungwoo or how you should’ve just came late to avoid being alone with Doyoung. 

It’s not that you were uncomfortable being with him but more like you didn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of your crush so you tried to calm down and be as “normal” as you can when he apologized in behalf of his bandmates for being tardy. It was nothing to you since Jungwoo was running late as well but the fact that you’re alone with him on a Monday morning does make you feel things. 

He then started calling the members one by one to let them know that the both of you are in the practice room already but Taeyong and Mark still weren’t answering for some reasons while Jaehyun suddenly cancelled because he had a make-up quiz that he totally forgot. So you called Jungwoo as well to check up on him because you haven’t heard news about him since you woke up and he was just telling you how excited he is for his 1st day of practice with NCT the night before, so his absence was making you worried. 

It took you 2 attempts before hearing Jungwoo’s morning voice so you assumed that he just woke up therefore you told him that “you’re late! I’m already here in the practice room!” and you heard him curse a little bit and start fumbling through his things to “get ready” and told you he’ll be there as soon as possible before ending the call. You just sighed and said sorry to Doyoung for your tardy friend but he just shrugged it off and said sorry as well since his friends are late as well —missing in action even. 

So now, the awkward silence (for you) was back and you didn’t know what else to do but that’s not the case for Doyoung since he offered that you can take a look around the practice room and make yourself comfortable while you wait for the others. You accepted the offer since you were itching to roam around the room the moment you entered but you were just shy to ask if you can so thank God, Doyoung suggested you to do so. 

It wasn’t a big special room unlike what you see in those dramas that are provided for the elites in the school, it’s spacious enough for the instruments and for the little lounge area for the band. It had drums, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboard and synths, 5 mic stands, a 5-seater couch and a table. It also had a shelf for trophies and photos that made you curious more than anything else in the room (aside from the man observing you) so you looked at him with eyes asking for permission if you can check them out to which he nodded and to your surprise, he joined in you looking because he wants to “relive the moments” according to him. 

The first photograph you talked about was a photo of them in highschool with their original member who recently graduated college and was replaced by Jungwoo and he went by the name Taeil as per Doyoung. It was the group’s first stage performance as their school’s band and the eldest was in 11th grade followed by Taeyong in the 10th, Doyoung as a 9th grader, Jaehyun in the 2nd grade and Mark as a freshman. They all looked young but you’ll be lying if you said that  Doyoung won’t catch your attention back then because he still looked charismatic just like now (or you were just genuinely whipped for the man, who knows?) He just laughed at how young they looked and how puberty wasn’t on their side back then and although you beg to disagree, you just laughed with him to avoid being suspicious if ever you say that he still looks good even in high school. 

The 2nd photo he pointed was the group’s first time to win a championship in an inter school competition and they finished off as the first placers. They were all smiling from ear to ear with a trophy and medals and their arms were linked to one another. You could feel the happiness of that moment through the photo and you wished to see a version with Jungwoo in it in the future. You also felt butterflies in your stomach when you saw how happy Doyoung was and you just wanted to give everything that the world could offer to see that kind of smile on him again. You went back to reality when you heard the man of your dreams speak and tell you that it was such an amazing experience and you just agreed because obviously they enjoyed that moment based on their faces. 

You were about to move on to look at third photo when his phone rang and showed that Taeyong was calling and so Doyoung excused himself to take the leader’s call. You went on and took a look at the photos alone and even without Doyoung explaining the context, you could easily tell the stories behind the photos through the settings. One was in Taeil’s high school graduation, another was in Taeyong’s and then  another for Doyoung’s and then Jaehyun’s and the most recent ones were Mark’s and Taeil’s respective graduations. You then realized that the group wasn’t just a band and that they are now home considering how long their friendship has been. You then thought how it is an honor that Jungwoo is now part of the group and you just hoped that they would all click with one another and not leave your friend out.

You snapped back to reality when you heard Doyoung’s “well then, see you later i guess” and their exchange of “bye” with each other and you concluded that the morning practice is cancelled. Right after, he approached you while saying that Taeyong couldn’t make it right now because he was procrastinating a project due later that afternoon and that Mark had an emergency at home so he would be gone for the entire day. He just sighed and said “sorry” for all the troubles and something along the lines of “so much for Jungwoo’s first day” but you assured him that it was totally fine since Jungwoo himself was running late. Afterwards, you offered to message Jungwoo and notify him that the practice for today was postponed and he doesn’t need to rush anymore. All you got was a “Ok”, “Thanks”, “Sorry” and “See you later” from him. 

Disappointed wasn’t the best term to describe what you’re feeling at the moment but your excitement definitely dissolved into thin air when you grasped the situation and thinking of all the sleep you would’ve gained more if you didn’t come early but on a brighter side, at least you got to know the band’s history and most especially Doyoung. The little time you spent together made you a bit more comfortable beside him (and fell for him even more)

As you were about to say goodbye to him, he went on and asked if you would like to grab some snacks with him. You still had time before your first class and so you agreed in a heartbeat soon realizing that you’re basically having a snack date with your crush. How crazy right?  Of course, you tried to be as cool as you could while you were walking with him on your way to the cafeteria. It’s a good thing that he never runs out of topic so there was no dead air between the two of you. 

When you arrived at the cafeteria, it’s obvious that many people recognized him. Of course, he’s the school band’s main vocalist, he’s somehow well-known but unlike in the dramas, no one’s glaring at you for being with him. It’s like no one paid attention to you but in a good way and you were relieved because of that and you just thought that you were overthinking things so you went on and asked him what he will eat. It’s not like the cafeteria had a wide variation of food choices so the both of you just ended up with a big slice of pizza, fries and iced drinks. 

You spent half an hour finishing your food and it was longer than usual since you were chit chatting with Doyoung the entire time that you didn’t notice the time.From your highschool memories, to their competition stories, to academic stuff, his hobbies and your past times and all that he could ever think of were all discussed when you were munching on your foods. To say the least, you enjoyed your snack date (and watching him eat like a bunny) and you loved talking to Doyoung and you really hit it off with him — as a friend, you thought. You were blessed to discover more about him and his smile was not helping you to not fall deeper for him. It was as if your budding friendship was a way for you be fond of him even more and not that you’re complaining but you were scared at the same time. 

He’s like a star that you can’t reach the only difference was that he was an inch closer to you but still hard to obtain. So you remind yourself that you need to be wary and take care of your heart even if it’s just a crush. 

It was almost time for your first class so you started to clear the table to throw away the trash and start preparing for your class. Doyoung stood up to throw everything for you and you started to say goodbye to him since he still have an hour before his class. Before he let you go, he asked for Jungwoo’s and your phone number so that he can easily reach out to the both of you in regards with the practice schedule since they kinda forgot to exchange numbers in their own group chats (might seem funny but embarrassing for him) 

On your way to your classroom, you were pondering on how Doyoung is such an easy-going person and considerate to you even if you’re not formally a part of the band. The little snack date that you had felt surreal and will surely be one of your most memorable moment with him.  It warms your heart and made you smile unknowingly but the text message you received made your heart skip a beat. 

“Hey, it’s me Doyoung. Are you up for a snack date again tomorrow? :)” 

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taglist: @jungwoosnoopyyy​ @staysstrays​ :) 

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edit: should i include the song inspiration that i use for every chapter? well, not exactly "inspiration" that the chapter is aligned with the song's message but more like what i was listening to while I write. should i? :))

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CHAPTER 3

***chapter 3 is now up :)

[potteresque-ire]

Hi! I have been reading your posts and responses to anonymous and I am inclined to comment on your broadly realistic views and detailed analystic answers and let us not forget your ability to be warm in putting forward your opinions. I am truly a huge fan. Thank you for being a station for various answer seekers.

If you have time and patience, please elaborate on the situation GG is still facing post 227. Recently I read various comments insinuating GG copied DD for Douyin night which is absurd but the implication that only one party is still being targeted unnecessarily raise hackles of a lot of solo fans. And I, under any circumstances, DO NOT believe the involvement of the other party. Firm believer of BJYXSZD.

My point is what is being done to stop these antis from targeting GG. Since one of the motive to target GG is to severe the relationship of GG and DD, IMO at least. Does constant attack (external stimulus) on GG (belittling him by comparing him to DD) may have the possibility to effect their relationship (internal reaction)? Objectively yes, but given your perception of their relationship, what is your opinion in this matter, however subjective it may be?

Moreover, how much extreme and sometimes irrational analysis done by bjyx community can lead to harm to both of them especially GG?

Also, I have seen DD being the captain of BJYX in various circumstances but also throwing off people from their old predicted/maintened theories especially in case of Kadians. I am not sure how much to trust these 'candies' since he has a reputation of not giving a f*** of others opinion. So why would he post GG related or non-related content with same kadians. I mean if he posts private content with GG related kadian then why post promotional content with GG related kadian. Does it imply that kadians are related to GG or not or he doesn't care and we are thinking too much. I am not sure what I am writing now, maybe multitude of thoughts poring out here. I am extremely sorry for that.

I do not know whether people believe or not but 1st post by GG yesterday had initials YB in the circle. Not at all explicit, and depends on believers but I felt like he was just trolling BJYX, it may be good naturedly but after his promotional brand picture of shrimp in bunny's hand. I do not know I just felt, dissappointed/bitter/unsure about all of this. I think it is normal to feel this way from time to time even for SZD because along with emotional investment we have rational perspective which is necessary to scrutinize evidence(maybe) from time to time.

I whole heartedly apologize for writing an essay length ask, this is the reason I wanted your patience 😅.

If any other blogger wants to add or comment on this please feel free to do so. Your suggestions are highly welcomed. 🙏

Hello Anon!

I take it that your questions about safety are concerned about the behaviour of c-solos and c-turtles? International fans aren’t likely to put Gg and Dd at any risk. That said, however, frequent fighting among i-fans would likely drain Gg and Dd’s international fanbase, as many fans do not enjoy being a combative atmosphere (I, for one, will run away as quickly as a turtle can run!). Lost i-fans can’t be easily replenished, whether they’re turtles or solos ~ The Untamed, as a foreign language show so beloved that fans are willing to scale tall language and cultural barriers to understand it, isn’t something that comes around often. (stanning Gg and/or Dd does take a lot of work!)

About the arguments. I probably only know about a fraction of them since I do not interact directly with fans outside Tumblr . As far as I can tell, however, recent arguments among c-solos and c-turtles have been ordinary fights, and also, fairly “bi-directional” between the solos (ie. I don’t think Gg or Dd has been relatively exempt from attacks compared to each other). 

These arguments can be heated and some of the attacks may sound vicious, but there’s nothing much to worry about from a safety angle, as they haven’t caught the attention of those outside the fan circles.

The theorising by turtles are also not inherently dangerous. c-turtles have mostly been careful about keeping their discussions among themselves. The only risk it may lead to in the future, that I can think of right now, is the associated YiZhan content on China-based websites (ex. Bilibili, Douyin), which has become fairly plentiful. YiZhan candies used to be relatively obscure given the guidelines of CP fans to keep them among themselves (they call this practice 圈地自萌, literally, drawing a circle on the ground and have fun in it by oneself). These days, however, anyone who’s curious can get a good sense of YiZhan’s story by browsing Bilibili. 

This probably contributes to the continued growth of the turtle population; however, some of this content is created by non-turtles who seek viewership and have little concern over Gg and Dd’s safety. They are the ones who re-upload the BTS, for example, despite the repeated pleas and warnings by the “站姐”s—the superfans who take/purchase these videos—as well as the turtles to not do that. If these content creators go overboard, there’s a possibility that YiZhan content may get caught in the government’s “Eradicating Pornography and Illegal Publications”（掃黃打非) movement. The movement originated in the mid 2000s, and its recent waves have been used as pretext to remove LGBT+ and BL content on line (I will eventually set up a post re: those events). Just last month (2020 Dec), Bilibili has been explicitly named by the government for hosting questionable materials, which means it’s already under scrutiny. Sweeps performed on an entire website are usually broad-based enough that no specific individuals are targeted; however, the government also encourages, with financial incentives, the reporting of specific content and has set up a dedicated website for doing so. While all YiZhan content has no direct relation to Gg and Dd, removal of such content may cause an over-reaction from fans, which can, in turn, lead to accusations of poor fan management by Gg and Dd. Most people will also assume the YiZhan content to be created by turtles.

(Another example of how an alleged turtle mis-step can get the YiZhan fandoms and Gg and Dd tied to the 掃黃打非 movement: a few days ago, a Weibo post showed a photo of a hardcover version of an explicit BJYX fanfic, reportedly sold for profit, and GG haters were calling for an arrest for “illegal publication.” So far, there’s minimal noise on the issue, so it isn’t something to worry about. It can also be fake news, which is so bountiful on the platform and on every aspect of daily life that most die a very peaceful, very well-deserved death.).

Whether fan arguments / theories may affect Gg and Dd’s relationship (assuming they’re in a relationship) … my guess is, not much. Gg and Dd are busy people, unlikely to closely follow their fans’ discussions. Again, I expect effects to be felt only if the arguments get out of hand ~ as in, if they begin to involve the public and/or the government.

As for the question about what is being done to stop Gg being targeted: fan wars are incredibly common in China (as in everywhere else), and Gg and Dd’s aren’t special in that sense ~ it’s just that as turtles, we know about those surrounding Gg and Dd and they feel significant to us. No individuals can stop a fan war ~ all we can do is to not join these wars ourselves.

Personally, I think the international fan base of Gg and Dd, as solos and cpfs, have more chance to achieve peace than its Chinese counterparts — if they choose to want that. Popularity in China is not only quantified (which is likely true everywhere, by marketing departments), but very visibly so. Sales numbers, votes, traffic attributed to each idol are frequently released to the public, possibly to foster competition among fans and drive these numbers further upward. c-turtles’ demonstrated strong performance in pushing these metrics has made them a target to those who wish to have usurp their consumer power. They, therefore, have good reasons to be wary of anyone who try to sway them from their “turtle-ship”, whether to turn them into solos or to lure them into an entirely different fandom. The swaying messages are also not always obvious, not always a direct “your cp suck”.  They can be subtle, many even come from netizens who appear to be fellow turtles, who may say “oh, maybe we (turtles) are wrong” or “we have to be realistic; Gg and Dd will never look at each other publicly again”—messages that cast doubt and sink morale in a fandom that’s already running an uphill battle. Remember: traditionally, CP fandoms are not expected or welcomed to last, and solos have been happy to (correctly) point out that the BTS, the origin of the most solid “evidences” of BJYXSZD, are getting older by the day. c-turtles can’t expect anyone else to help defend their ship if something happens, given CP fandoms’ lack of respectability, given YiZhan being a real person M/M pairing that is often frowned upon. So it’s understandable, to me at least, why c-turtles are on guard, and occasionally, clash with those who they feel may be trying to take away what they love.

i-turtles, I feel, don’t have that many reasons to fight. We don’t really have other fandoms (for example, the up and coming danmeis—the adapted BL dramas) vying for our attention (and wallets). No one can put an expiration date on the YiZhan communities except ourselves.

Another way to see this is: we—as in, the combined Gg + Dd international fanbase, the solos + CPFs—are lucky in a way the fans in Gg and Dd’s home country are not. Collectively, we’re much further removed from the pressure to perform as fans, which is immense in China with their fan circle culture and fan economy. i-shrimps and i-motorcycles ~ some of you are reading this, I think? (hello!) ~ here are my humble thoughts: the solo/turtle ratio of Gg and Dd’s international fans doesn’t make much of an impact on Gg and Dd’s star status, on the popularity metrics that matter. Our spending power is limited outside China’s borders, and while Gg and Dd likely love us equally as fans, our adoration for them doesn’t really matter much, if at all, to the production/media/commercial companies that control the trajectories of their careers. 

Along this line, the turtles’ “double loyalty” doesn’t have much of an ill effect, because there are few popularity contests here that mean much; few times (if any) when the turtles must face the dilemma of whether to vote for Gg or Dd because only a single vote is allowed; few situations where they have only x amount of dollars and must split it equally between Gg or Dd’s endorsements. There’s also much less cause to worry that i-turtles may draw the attention, or ire of the Chinese government ~ the whole international fanbase is too far away, too spread out to destabilise the regime in any way.

What the turtles do have in common with you, the solos, is their knowledge, their love for Gg/Dd. Knowledge, in particular. The people who know about Gg/Dd are still far and in between—at where I am, at least, and my guess is, it’s likely true for many of you too. Think of the turtles as people who you can talk to about your favourite star in places where few people know about him, can help promote The Untamed  far and wide—many people still haven’t heard of the show, and they deserve to.

For the turtles ~ no one can take away our turtle-ship identity, as long as we don’t give it away. No one can report on the our communities to the government and get them dissolved. Our votes, our spending habits are no one else’s business but ours here.

So, Anon, here’s what I think, and these are all very personal opinions, very personal decisions on how to navigate fandom …

I truly hope that we, as the international fanbase, can try to use this luck that we have. Make our communities not mere copies of their (combative) Chinese counterparts but something different, something with our own flavour, something with more peace and less fighting.

Specifically, I see little cause to try to persuade/dissuade anyone to be a solo/turtle. I find them… not the best use of time. Why? Because frankly, neither solos nor turtles have a better grasp of who Gg and Dd are. Neither solos nor turtles have a truly good grasp of who Gg and Dd are. These discussions are therefore bound to end up with more ill will than conclusions, since both sides are short of facts.

We’re all short of facts as audiences, who’ve all only seen a tiny sliver of who Gg and Dd are as human beings.

I don’t mean Gg and Dd’s star image is fake ~ it’s just that, their star image is their “work face”, and even I, a lowly turtle, must act somewhat differently in my own office. It’s part of being professional.

Gg and Dd’s star image are their professional face, and no professionals worth a salt truly ignore other’s opinions, especially when the profession is being an entertainer whose job is to face and hold the attention of the public. 

This is true for Gg; this is true for Dd.

Social media accounts are also part of Gg and Dd’s professional face ~ whatever is posted on there will be scrutinised by millions of fans, and they know that. The posts do provide some insights about Gg an Dd’s personalities, but they can’t be expected to show a complete picture. No parts of these posts, therefore, whether it’s the content or the kadians, are sufficient evidences for / against any aspect of their personal lives (especially as private an aspect as their romantic lives). Anon, you mentioned promotional marketing materials, and here’s my understanding of them ~ ambassadors such as Gg and Dd have minimal control over their design. The shrimp-holding bunny you’re referring to, for example, is very likely provided by the company.

However, may I also add this? Please try to not think of the shrimps / motorcycles as enemies of the turtles. Millions of people are behind each of these labels, and true for any group of this size, a fraction of its members are bound to be annoying. A small fraction may be awful, even. But they don’t represent the entire group. The shrimps are not only Gg’s fans, many of them have supported him longer than any turtle (since turtle-ship can’t be older than 2018); they’re also the reasons why Gg is in the industry ~ they voted for him in X-Fire. Likewise, a subset of motorcycles have been with Dd since UNIQ; they were there when the Korean ban effectively dissolved his group; they stuck with him when he was attacked for taking on the role of LWJ.

We’re all Gg and Dd’s fans, if you ask people outside the fandom. Remember: few outside China understand why heated arguments can occur between a bunch of shrimps, turtles and motorbikes. (It sounds a bit kafkaesque, just typing it out.)

It’s important not to lose sight too, that Gg and Dd’s social media accounts, where many new candies are found, primarily function as bridges of communication between them and their fans. These accounts do have different degrees of “professionalism” ~ Weibo and the official accounts being more formal, and Oasis, Douyin being more laid back and intimate; still, they all serve similar purposes. They’re not candy generators, or a script Gg and Dd have an obligation to follow to confirm / refute BJYXSZD.

Also: these accounts are accessible and watched by the public, not all of whom are friendly to Gg and Dd.

Re: Gg’s drawing on Oasis. He used the account as it’s intended for—to interact with his fans (the caption of the first draft was an unspoken invitation to shower him with ideas) and maybe, to show off a little (it was a very nice piece of artwork ~ a comment that I, sadly, haven’t seen much of). I doubt he posted his drawing because he wanted fans to carpet-search for traces of Dd in it (even though he probably expected that would happen); I very much doubt he posted his drawing because he wanted his fans to fight over scratch marks or black dots.  

If these fights keep happening, I can imagine a possible outcome. He’ll stop showing us his drawings. His social media accounts will become less and less personal, as they already have.

I’ll share with you my thoughts about candies too, while I’m at it. These are probably not-so-popular opinions, so please take them all with a grain of salt.(Salted caramels? 😊 )

I haven’t looked at why candies are called candies, but I find the name appropriate for how I think of them ~ candies are 1) neither evidences or truth, 2) sweet, 3) treats (non-essential, not like the main course).

The first point is, perhaps, the one I try the hardest to keep in mind. There are posts out there claiming the candies as made-beliefs—generated from edited pictures or videos, exaggerated translations, and their interpretations forced by “guidances” in the annotations/narration. There are also posts claiming that turtles are deceivers, or have been deceived by brainwashers who maliciously created these make-beliefs. A turtle may assume these posts are all lies, all made by antis. 

But, speaking turtle-to-turtle, I’d venture to say this … there’s some truth in the *first* statement. Many candies do, indeed, taste different if their taster returns to the original source—not necessarily unsweet, but less sweet. Candies, remember, are generated by fans like you and I. Same for c-candies ~ they aren’t endorsed by Gg and Dd, aren’t necessarily closer to the truth just because of the relative proximity of their birthplaces to their leads. 

Candy generation is The Tradition of CP fandoms. It’s a celebrated skill, and who doesn’t want to generate a candy that will be talked about, that will be part of the BJYX canon, for as long as the fandom lasts? Some fans are, therefore, also more … efficient in the “marketing” of the candies they generated — in persuading others that their candies are evidences, the truth. “Guidance” photos and videos (which pinpoint the place to watch, sometimes with appropriate sound effects for emphasis) have come about that way, and because they’re easy to digest—especially where language barriers exist—they end up spreading to i-fandoms.

These photos and videos may look more professional / trustworthy, but they often have an additional layer of subjectivity ~ on top of the already subjective opinion of what makes a candy. Translations (of BTS, fake rumours house content etc) also introduce a subjective element. Word choices can significant modify the tone of a conversation; speakers of different Chinese dialects may also have different interpretations of the same phrases. Example: I, as a non Chongqing/Sichuanese speaker, can guess the literal meaning of the “puppy” term Gg used for Dd — 狗崽崽 (gou zai zai) — but I also had to rely on others to tell me how endearing the term is; me being a Chinese speaker actually doesn’t make my interpretation any more valid, or authoritative, in this scenario, because my dialect doesn’t use this term at all. 

It doesn’t mean the people who’ve put in the work have any less-than-good intent; the vast majority of them come from a place of deep love. It’s just that we all carry our own perspectives, and as fans, our strong emotions in our fanworks.

This is why candies are often insufficient as good “points” for arguments, why they fail to convince non-believers, sometimes to the disappointment of some turtles. As evidences, they aren’t objective enough; they’re also often touch upon the assumption that’s mark the fundamental difference between solo and cp fans — the assumption that Gg and Dd are (not) together. Take, for example, this segment from a (polite) ask I got from an anon solo:

All the matching clothes, jewelry, shoes etc. Stopped being valid candy when I realized that the brands have popular stars "endorse" their products. The lightning pendant? Other actors have also worn it. Does that mean they are in a 3-way with (Gg) and (Dd)? Probs not.

Solo anon was correct! Brands have star endorsers, and other entertainers have, indeed, worn the same lightning pendant. The implied argument is also valid: people who don’t care about, don’t even know about each other can wear the same things. Most of us do that on a daily basis with our mass-produced garments.

However, a counterargument can also be made to the statement above, and easily: even the most precious, most beautiful wedding rings (say, from Tiffany!) are not exclusive to the first RL couple who bought them. It doesn’t mean the first RL couple is sleeping with all the couples who bought the same rings afterwards, doesn’t mean those rings aren’t significant to every one of these couples as romantic mementos. More often than not, couples wear matching things not because these things are exclusive to them—because how often can one find things that only exist as a single pair in this world? They wear matching things because they want to see something on themselves that remind them of their significant other and so, as long as the things aren’t so prevalent that everyone is wearing them, they can already serve their purpose.

But you see, Anon, that arguing over this would’ve been a waste of time? Because the solo came in with the assumption that Gg and Dd were not a couple, and the counterargument was made with the assumption that they were. The pendants alone are insufficient to prove either side correct or wrong. No one knows why those pendants ended up on Gg and Dd’s necks, except Gg and Dd and their teams. If I were to argue with anon solo, we can go on and on and on until we’re both left with bitter tastes in our mouths and WWX-red in our eyes, and forget the one thing that really matters: we’re both Gg’s fans.

(We could’ve spent the time talking about how that scene in The Wolf with Ji Chong throwing Zai Xing in the water is ❤️.) (I can’t believe the script waited 30+ episodes to do it. 😂)

This leads to my second point, Anon. Candies are meant to be sweet, and they’re meant to be sweet for you. In Chinese, a term for an expert candy person is a 嗑學家 (the candy-eating in CP fandoms is called 嗑糖 (ketang) ～ with 嗑 ke denoting a specific form of eating that requires breaking something open first with teeth—such as watermelon seeds; a 嗑學家 is a 嗑 (ke)-ologist). A 嗑學家 isn’t someone who can recall the longest list of candies, or spread the most candies around, or convince the most people that the CP behind the candies is real; they are those who can find their own candies in a source material, and be overjoyed by the sweetness of their discoveries without outside help. To me, at least, this term encapsulates the subjective nature of candies ~ what’s right for you may not be right for me and vice versa, and that’s perfectly all right. In other words, there are many candies out there but you’re not required to believe in all of them; instead, you’re free to choose candies to your own liking, compose your own version of the BJYX canon that you love, that you find sweet.

Wait, but you may say. Doesn’t that make my canon fantasy? Yes and no, because candies are based on real events. They’re interpretations, which sit somewhere between reality and fantasy. They’re like … opinion shows on news channels.

But what if I need to convince people of my canon —

Your “opposition”’s canon is as fantastical, and as real as yours — maybe it isn’t, but neither of you have a way to prove it one way or another.

Wouldn’t solos call me delulu, or clowns?

Maybe. But one step outside the fandom, and all of us fans—solo and cpfs—are delulu, clowns.

(That’s why while I’ve used the cpn label, I haven’t called myself delulu, or a clown. Anyone who thinks I have the truth about the love story about a pair of idol I haven’t met from thousands of miles away … the joke’s probably on them, don’t you think?)

Of course and again, Anon, this is only my take! I like candies precisely because I like to watch the real-time generation of candies, which ones different people claim as their own, which candies fall away and which stick around in the fandom over time. As a fic writer, this ship has gifted me with a treasure trove of information ~ what do people think of as romantic gestures, as give-away signs of love? The fun/amazing part of BJYX is that candies are available for so many different answers to these questions. Some people think of longing gazes and sweet smiles; some think of touches that can’t be helped (the many, many, many “fights”); some think of service (buying foods, designing clothes); some think of caring about the other’s well-being (throat candies and dumplings + noodles + crackers); some think of being The Other’s One and Only Exception (Dd being so talkative around Gg, Gg being so … fussy around Dd); some think of expressions through the arts (songs, drawings, dances); some think of grand gestures (the wave heart in the ocean); some think of matching clothes and symbolic accessories (rings); some think of birthdays and anniversaries (314, 622, the first snow); some think of sharing life’s hassles and small tidbits (fake rumour house); some think of … just looking VERY good together. Etc etc.

Some think of a subset of these, some think of all of these…

(Personally, I’m a very picky candy eater. I know about many of them, but only a small fraction impresses on me.)

(Still, I love watching candies. I love watching the joy of people sweetened by them ~ or, when c-turtles exclaim kswl! — the short form of ke si wo le! 嗑死我了! I “ke”ed so much I’m dying!)

This gets to 3), Anon, and I apologise to you too, for answering your not-essay-at-all with an essay! Candies are, to me, treats, and I don’t expect them to come at any frequencies higher than treats do. The reason isn’t because I don’t like candies ~ I enjoy watching them, as I said, even if I don’t eat many of them; the reason is because I don’t expect anyone’s romantic love to leave a trace in everything they do. For example, if I truly find myself in a SZD/SJD discussion re: Gg’s drawing, I’d say the lack of Dd in Gg’s self-portrait doesn’t really mean much. Even if Gg and Dd were head-over-heels in love with one another, Gg doesn’t have to put Dd in everything he touches. Likewise, Dd doesn’t have to present a consistent, or decipherable story with his kadians. This is true for the real-life couples around us too, isn’t it? They don’t perform every single act in life leaving a noticeable trace of their significant other. And the misunderstanding that couples do that — that their romantic lives take over who they are as individuals — IMO, partially explains why people who choose to not to date or marry, people who’re aro-aces, often have a difficult time convincing others that they’re complete humans. Romantic love is, of course, very, very important and can be life altering, but it also isn’t everything about a person ~ especially not if a person who has a career as exciting as Gg’s and Dd’s. Gg and Dd who also have friends, family, (many) talents and interests …

(And lots of ugly icons on their cell phones. Yes, I’m talking about you, Gg. That long-armed Pepe from your 2018 snowless Beijing post will give me nightmares…)

[murdereraisuha]

I wrote this for myself to try and organize my current theories on TWST, but I might as well keep this blog going even though I’m out of ideas for card maker memes.

This is basically a rant that starts out with theorizing about RSA, the Cater=Cinderella theory, and Split Card, but then spirals into a Cater character analysis.

For anyone who doesn’t know the Cinderella theory, it’s basically just Cater might have something to do with Cinderella because he has two bossy sisters, and during the ghost marriage there was this whole thing where Riddle needs to rescue Cater before midnight because of some Queen of Hearts rule. 

Spoilers for Cater’s personal stories (including his halloween outfit story) and chat, and chapter 4 of the main story. Okay now let’s get into it. Over 1,800 words geez what am I doing with my life

   Aight so Ace and Deuce don't have their unique magics yet and there is obviously Something going on with Cater so it really makes me think that we're gonna return to Heartslabyul somewhere down the line. We know there's gotta be more stuff with RSA, so that might tie into the Cater = Cinderella theory. Maybe we have a chapter focusing on RSA and Cater will be the main focus or ally for that. IDK man, I'm still kind of eh on the Cinderella theory cause it makes a lot of sense but we already have Mozus being the evil stepmother. Him and Cater are from the same hometown (?) but my concern is that if Cater is a main focus and he gets connected to Mozus then Mozus would also be in the spotlight which would be odd given how nothing seems to suggest that the teachers (except Crowley) getting bigger roles in the story. However, it could always be a situation like with Farena where Mozus is there and some sort of connection is briefly discussed but he isn't important and maybe someone else takes the role of evil stepmother in the story.

   Ok idk so we're gonna go back to Cater. If the Cinderella theory is true, we gotta consider how exactly Cater represents Cinderella. Does he represent Cinderella in the way that he's twisted from her (ex. Azul & Ursula) or that he just takes the role of Cinderella for a chapter (ex. Azul & The Genie)? The fact that he uses dark magic points to it being the latter, that he really is twisted from a card soldier. However, we gotta consider 1. the nature of his unique magic 2. the plot of Cinderella. Though we know he has the ability to clone himself, we don't know how exactly this works. Are the clones identical, or do/can they have differences? In episode 1-15, the Cater clones all have slightly different responses ("はーい" "まかせて！" "おっけー♪") to getting ready to paint the roses. Given how clones don't exist in real life, it's impossible to tell whether this variation indicates actual differences in personality, is just due to the clones' slightly different experiences (like a sort of butterfly effect), or if it's just a decision by the writer so they aren't repetitive. Another thing to note is that in that same episode Cater claims that cloning himself is tiring. If this is the only source for this information, there's the possibility that it just was a lie to let him manipulate the 1st years into helping him paint. Finally, Cater's ability makes me think of Twice from BNHA. Can only the original Cater create clones? Or is he like Twice in that his clones can also make clones, therefore making it impossible for anyone, including himself, to tell who is the original?

  What I'm getting at here is the possibility of Cater having clones that 1. stick around permanently and 2. are significantly different than him. This would create the possibility of him being twisted from both the card soldiers and Cinderella, but he is able to use his clone ability to split up those aspects of himself. One Cater is the card soldier one normally walking around NRC and who has dark magic, but then there's another Cinderella Cater who has light magic. Assuming this is what is going on, it would kind of connect to his two-sided personality, where he presents his bubbly, social-media addict personality to the world but has another, depressed, more private personality underneath. 

  Now, getting into what I mentioned before about the plot of Cinderella, Cinderella normally looks like a humble servant. However, with the aid of the fairy godmother, she completely transforms herself into a breathtaking princess so she can go to the ball. However, once the clock strikes midnight, she transforms back. Basically, Cinderella has the ability of transformation, to have two completely different versions of herself. One version is her true, plain self, while the other is a flashy deception. This information strengthens what I just said about Cater's personality and clone ability.

  Actually, just going into Cater's personality for a bit (yeah, “a bit” lol)... He has a big focus on always being presentable. In his lab coat, he seems pretty desperate to hide all evidence of his true self, claiming that he just failed at putting his magic in the depressed mandrake and then hiding all his other mandrakes aside from the fun ones. This desperation is similar to Cinderella's, with how she flees the ball in a hurry once it reaches midnight so no one will see how she truly looks once the spell breaks. Now, why do Cater and Cinderella behave the way they do? I don't remember Cinderella's exact motivations for attending the ball, but wikipedia says that she had to flee the ball because if the spell broke there she could get caught by her stepmother & stepsisters. What is Cater's "ball"? Well, because of his strong social media presence, his "ball" is basically everywhere, all the time. If something happens on social media that exposes his true self, breaking his "spell", not only can other students see it, but his sisters can also see it.

  Cater hates sucking up to his older sisters, which implies that he has had to suck up to his older sisters and put up his happy front around them too. Just like how Cinderella can't afford to let her stepsisters realize her true identity at the ball, Cater can't afford to let his sisters realize his true self. It's honestly kind of sad; unlike Cinderella, whose stepsisters only showed up later in her life, Cater's older sisters have been around him and making him miserable for all of his life.

  Kinda unrelated, but looking though Cater's chats, in the one he has with Trey they talk about the Queen of Hearts and her love for sweets, Cater remarks that he wants to have tea with her too, leading Trey to say that Cater would be unable to befriend her since they're in different social classes. Isn't this basically a genderbent version of Cinderella, just a commoner, wanting to go to the ball where the Prince is? 

  Now going back to Cater's personality. Even if he does fear his sisters, that doesn't seem to fully explain his 24/7 pep and focus on being magicammable. Now, what if we say that happiness=nobility. In Cinderella, she dresses up like nobility so she can remain in the ball where the actually rich people are. What if Cater is acting happy so he can fit in with the people around him, who are naturally happy enough that they don't need to fake it? Is this a fake it until you make it situation? At the end of his ceremony robes story, after he says he's tired and doesn't care about the ceremony, he says he's just kidding and goes back to talking about the selfies he took that day. Even though he's alone and wouldn't really get hurt for dropping his performance. It gives the vibe to me that his situation is not like Jamil's, where he's fully aware he's unhappy, deliberately acts otherwise in front of others, and tries to eliminate the cause of his unhappiness. Instead, Cater is trying to eliminate his unhappiness itself. He grasps onto magicam because if he fills up his account with pictures of a happy life, it's like he's actually living a happy life.

  This idea I have of Cater trying to fit in also goes along with his focus on the current trends, like in one of his gym uniform voice lines where he panics at the idea of not knowing about a new popular game. Rather than making his own aesthetics or trends, he goes along with the crowd. Sweets and desserts are trendy? Then he'll take tons of pictures of them and say they're super delicious even if he actually hates sweet food. He disregards or evades his own preferences to create the appearance that he's just like everyone else, and he puts effort into staying up to date so he can maintain that appearance.

  Moving on, I reread his halloween outfit personal story. Something that stuck out was the end, when Cater thinks that Lilia wouldn't understand what he's going through. Specifically, Lilia wouldn't understand his 下らなくてどーしよーもない feelings. According to jisho, 下らない can mean trivial/not worth bothering with/worthless, and it can also mean stupid/absurd/silly. Then, どーしよーもない (どうしようもない)  means something that can't be helped, that has no way out of it. Doesn't this seem kind of odd? That he claims his feelings are just trivial then but also he can't help having them? Is this a contradiction? Or is it something like he believes that most people wouldn't have these silly feelings but he specifically is too weak to push past them?

  For self-esteem though, he seems to at least be trying to boost it. Like in his gym uniform story, when he decides to just clone himself and have each one run 1 lap instead of him running 5 by himself, his clones all praise him for the idea. However, this could be a fake it until you make it thing again. The praise does seem a bit heavy-handed. 

  There's also the whole thing in the 2nd part of the story where he talks about all the shallow friendships he has made. He notes that he'd rather have a casual time with people rather than get attached. That plus his family situation... means he's really never had anyone to trust. Anyway, he then goes on to talk about how magicame is amazing for helping him maintain all these casual friendships. So there we have another reason for his social media addiction: not only does it let him create a picture of happiness, he can get tons of feedback affirming his happiness and serving as proof of happiness. How can he possibly be lonely if he has so many friends?

  Both in his ceremony robes and halloween outfit stories have a moment where Cater is tired and admits he's tired but then downplays it. Yeah, the ceremony was tiring, but he got tons of great pictures out of it! Yeah, dealing with guests was rough, but at the same time all the halloween stuff was exciting! This sort of thing is a pretty common strategy for increasing the persuasiveness of an argument. By first agreeing (yes, he's tired) with the opposing view (he is not happy), he can then push his own view (he is happy) and point at his earlier concession as proof that he has looked at both sides of the issue instead of only looking for evidence of his own belief. 

 So basically what I'm getting here is that Cater Is Not Okay. Prevented from building close bonds with friends or family, he's reinforcing his isolation himself through his fervent efforts to never let anyone close and never let his mask drop. He's gone so far as to try and convince himself that he's happier than he actually is through self-deception and social media.

  Alright that’s all I got for now see ya

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

KAORU&TOSHIYA INTERVIEW  BURRN!! OCTOBER 2020  2/2

‘Ochita koto no aru sora’ was released as the band’s first digital single ever. In the middle of what it seems to be nightmarish situation in which they can’t predict at all what’s lies ahead, what are the hopes and emotions that these 5 people put into this song?

Text by You Masuda “We are in a difficult position, aren’t we? How long should we wait? For example, if this situation continues next year, I feel like it’s going to be complicated for us.”

Notes before reading: This is the second part of the Kaoru and Toshiya interview done by You Masuda for BURRN!! October 2020 Issue released last September 4th. You can read the first part here.

You can support and get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan.

Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts. ------ (1st part here) -Once the video (‘The World of Mercy) is completed, it will become a big thing as well. However, since that song should have closed the flow of the 'The insulated world' in the first place, if it appears again in the future, it is possible that the flow becomes odd for some reason. K: That’s right. Originally, we were planning to complete the feeling of the album at Pia Arena. But actually, that’s not possible. Although we have to use this video for future activities, we have to think about what kind of presentation should be done for it. The song itself is a thing of the past, we can’t simply go like “we are publishing it (the video) for the people just because we made a clip”, it’s not interesting anymore. The heat of the enthusiasm has cool down a little. -In the meantime, the next single and its consequent video are coming out. But whatever the future is, you are about to start producing your next album.  Is the idea/concept already there? K: Well, little by little. Currently I don’t feel like we have many songs yet. From this month (August), we are supposed to start marking songs properly. -For example ’The World of Mercy’, will it be part of the next album? K: No, it won’t be included. After all, this song is the conclusion of ‘The insulated World'’. -In terms of discography, it will be a bit independent from the next album. T: I think it’s like that. In that sense, it will be like 'Ain't afraid to die'. (Note: This song is a single released in 2001 to conclude the flow from 'Macabre’ and is not included in any of the original albums.) K: Well, that's fine, right?  Probably we won’t need it for the next album (laughs) -No, of course, I'd be happy if there were as many new songs as possible. It’s not like I’m not convinced that this song won’t be included in the next album but, whatever happens in the future with your live activities, from a creative perspective is it ok to think that  flow from the album (The Insulated World) is over with this song? K:  Of course. However, I think there will be also some flow  similar to this song. That's because 'The World of Mercy 'is simply closer in time than 'The Insulated World'. But well, I don't know what will happen (laughs) -As we discussed earlier, there was also a sense of continuity in the lyrics. In recent years one of the most remarkable things that’s being said is that “there is no correct answer”, “A lie could be also the truth for a person” or something like “It may be true if you keep believing in it, even if you suspect that it may be wrong”. I felt some sense of contradiction. So, at the end of the two nights in Yokohama, I felt like you were hinting at something  with the line “Ill feelings will continue coming”, a variation on the lyrics of “Sustain the Untruth”. K: That’s simply  because it was the last song at the end of the show, like creating the image of playing it with the audience while the lights were on (Note: they used live footage for this song at the broadcasting). It was just this song  because it wasn’t included the day before. However, when it comes to lyrics, there are moments that you can think about it  in that way. -A two-night performance that was supposed to end leaving such an aftertaste. But without closing the previous flow, “Ochita koto ga aru no sora” comes into the world and goes on. I'm looking forward to it while I was imagining how is it going to be. A concrete thing about this single again is that  you have had Brian Gardner as mastering engineer for some time, right? This might be the first time you have teamed up with Josh Wilbur, who was in charge of mixing this time. Does this mean that it was the right timing to do it? K: That's right. He is very popular, so we never had a chance to work with him. It seemed possible this time, so we decided to ask him for the first time. Well, he is quite of a “on my own way" type of person. Like, he plays with the sound as he feels. The first time he sent us back what he created, we were like “what the hell is this?” (laughs) -You really didn’t see that coming, right? K: That’s right. Even if the song was processed just a little, at first there were parts that it was like “what?” “this can’t be good” (laughs). After all,  as he is a person who also does pop music, don’t you have a tendency to try to do such things? -In short, in these times, processing like that is a way to create an upgraded form (of the song) K: Actually, I don’t know if I would say that it is an “upgraded” form.  Somehow, it’s like he doesn’t want to leave it as it is. -He is simply not someone that just says, “I will make it sound good”. K: That’s right. T: Yes. Maybe he is someone who wants to leave a mark in the sounds he makes. I guess he is that type of person. But when I heard the sound that came back from the first mix he did, I thought it was "interesting". It was too different from our previous approach, but it was interesting from an objective point of view. However, at first, we sent him a provisional mix made here in Japan, telling him we wanted it to sound “like that”. Usually, the song would be sent back with that feeling (as we requested). As it came back with a completely different direction, it was like  a shoot and I was struck by it. I was a bit surprised. -You don't know what kind of person he was until you actually try to team with him. K: Yes. At first, we thought it would take him some time to do it. But as he is a person working in many things, as we told him the appropriate things, we thought he would do it properly. Actually, he sent it back to us quickly. So, when it comes to that, if we told him “please do this thing here”, he sent it back (done) soon. -In short, at first, he may not be the type of person that at the time of sending it back to you, sends you something “safe”. It’s like he doesn’t want to do it in a safe way. K: That might be true. But at first the sound of the band itself was strongly metal. -Do you mean more than what it was? K: Yes. Like the drums…. the drums were much sloppier than the final version ones. I feel like I overlooked his intentions a bit. -However, if you are in a situation where you can work by exchanging data, even if the returned idea is not what you were looking for, you will realize "Oh, can turn out like this?"  Even if it's not the correct answer for you right now, it may be a hint for someday. K: Certainly, there were moments like that. However, although it is exciting in itself, we had a strong consciousness that we were actually doing it, so I didn’t expect that much (laughs) Wanting to do it “more like this” comes out first. However, if I listen to it again later, I think that the “Oh, I see” feeling will come out. "No, we don't know that yet. It's just a song that was completed as a single. It starts from here though” Kaoru -It must have been meaningful to you to know what kind of work he would do. You said “he is a person working in many things” but he turned out to be a person that doesn’t do everything in a smooth/safe way. K: Yes. On the contrary, there are some people who won’t take the song to the extend that you want even if you can see the answer (final result) from the beginning and tell them “how about this?”. In that sense, I guess he was well suited for the task. -It’s hard to point out the specific difference from your usual sound but, after all, something feels different. K:That's right. Moreover, somehow isn’t the existence of the song itself already big?  I thought it would be difficult to put it out like that, so I thought it was he someone who would do it.

- You can hear Kyo’s mid-range singing very well. The lyrics of those parts also come up clearly.

K: Yes. But that doesn’t mean that some sound is being cut off there. Everything is coming out in a really clean way. That’s why I feel like he (Josh Wilbur) is a person who knows how to produce all kind of sounds.

-Yes. If you look at the works he has done in the past, it's not just heavy rock, it's very diverse in musical terms. (Note: The list of artists he has worked with includes not only LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH, TRIVIUM, but also P!Nk and Faith Hill.) DIR EN GREY has had many opportunities to work with several engineers this way, but for the future….

K: We want to continue working with him. If he tried with the single and it worked out well, the next step would be the album. I wish we could find someone who would like to work with us on the next album, but I'm not sure if he will take care of it. It’s depends on what we will do in the future until we find someone like him who can do it.

- If all goes well in the future, I think you should be able to tell us about the next album you are already picturing in your imagination in a few months.  Do you think the production schedule wouldn’t have changed in the first place, even if this first domestic tour or the two-night performance in Yokohama were held as scheduled?

K: That's right.

-In other words, do you mean that you will be absorbed in production the album this year?

K: That’s right. Well, as a matter of fact, I feel that we can do nothing but to move in a different way under this situation. At least, isn’t it hard to think about doing new lives? If there were more live shows that have already been scheduled, we would think about what to do with them. In our case, we cancelled the tour, didn't we? For the time being, there are venues where the postponement is still on hold and there are other venues that are actually still booked. But, well, in the current situation, the question is if new lives should be announced at those places (that are booked).

- At the same time, even if there is a not officially announced live schedule, it does not necessarily mean you should do it in the way you originally thought.

K: Yes. So, in the end it's likely that it will be postponed again and if that happens, I think we should hold the venue again sometime next year There are a lot of things to think about, and in fact, all we talk about now is how we're going to move.

- Actually right now, is there anything left to announce after the two-night performance at Pia Arena?

K: That’s it. There is nothing that can be announced now.

- Even if you make a release schedule, the situation will be different depending if you can play lives or not. Of course, if you have a situation in which you can play lives as before, you'll want to do it as soon as possible, but we are waiting for that to be possible….

K: We are in a difficult position, aren’t we? How long should we wait?  For example, if this situation continues next year, I feel like it’s going to be complicated for us. We can't wait forever, but we can't force it ourselves. So, I can only say that it depends on the situation. For example, you're planning a tour in winter right now. Normally, we would have to announce it soon, right? But in the current situation, that is not possible. If we decide and announce it right away, we will sell the ticket according to the guidelines*  at that moment, but actually no matter when you restart doing lives, I don't think we can announce it with the minimum time in advance, and I think the guideline itself will change in the future if we announce it with months in advance. To sell the tickets according to the guidelines at that time, you would have to do (the lives) in a short span of time, like a month later.

*Japan's guidelines for events (concerts, sports events...) are measures to prevent the spread of Corona virus.  These measures  limits the venue capacity and  advocate for social distancing among other things. However, the guidelines is not  legally enforced.  

-For example, in the future, in a seated venue, you can only perform if there is an interval (empty seats) between attendees, and in such a situation, the picture that comes to your mind when you imagine a live will be different. In that case, I guess that it’s hard that this fits the way of doing lives that you have been trying to do until now.

K: That's right.

T: I think everyone has no choice but to explore the options. Of course, the idea of ​​playing lives normally should still be there, but I think we should explore other ideas as well. That's why…...there are many unclear parts, but the current situation is that it cannot be clarified. As this happens, I think there is no choice but to think about the possibilities in both directions. So, if we can do something interesting, I think we should do it, and if we can play lives in a safe environment…. the guideline may change again, but of course I want to do it right away.

-I hope the situation where we can enjoy live performances as before will return, and I hope  you will be able to do what you were trying to do this year in a similar way  in the future. When that time comes, it will be an upgraded form.

K: Of course. In fact, we are always thinking about a year ahead, no, even more…Of course, there are plans that we will keep. However, we are not sure if these things can be done as we planned. But well, we work on the premise that we can do it, and if we can't do, there will a right time for it.

-When the right time comes, you may have to do all at the same time, what you originally thought you would do and the things that you were putting aside too.

K: Yes, that too (laughs)

T: That can be tough, though.

-As soon as the touring ban is lifted, and each band restarts their live activities at once….

T: That's a difficult thing, isn't it?

K: That’s why….it might the same from the audience’s perspective but, it also depends on how much the people around the artist and live staff can resist. I want them to endure this situation until somehow, we can play live without worrying about it. What should we do so they can endure it? The hardest thing would be that they weren’t there when we can play lives again. That's why…. I hope everyone can survive this situation somehow.

My conversation with these two people ends here. I don't know how the situation will change in the future. Optimism is dangerous, but we don't have to imagine the worst. In this phase,I am grateful that the new song was released at the promised time, and I would like to get ready for the right time to come without giving up hope. However, we can’t do anything about it, just long for it.

[lost-in-yujikiri]

References of Classic Literatures in SAO

This post are thoughts I have on discord plus discussion with friends. I didn’t intend to publish this publicly but this was so well-received and a friend asked me to do so, so here it is.

Below are the classic works that I think SAO main arcs took many inspirations from:

1) Aincrad arc & Little Red Riding Hood

- Asuna is the Little Red Riding Hood, with Kirito as the brooding hunter who protected her and led her to a happy ending, and Kayaba is the wolf who disguised himself as Asuna's "Grandma" (aka her caretaker).

- Kayaba's nickname is the same name as the central character of Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff), both men created their world of their own obsessions (for OG Heathcliff is his love with Catherine, for Kayaba is his castle dream) and during that creation they ended up destroying a lot of lives, even innocent people involved.

2) Fairy Dance arc & A Midsummer Night’s Dream

- Fairy Dance might take references from A Midsummer Night's Dream with Fairy King & Queen Oberon & Titania, who are a married couple under quarrels (Asuna and Sugou). The Fairy Dance arc also presents the themes of falling in love with the wrong person (Suguha/Leafa’s feelings for her brother/cousin Kazuto/Kirito) and unrequited love (Recon to Leafa, Leafa to Kirito) albeit in a different way than the original story.

3) Phantom Bullet arc & Sonezaki Shinjuu 

- The classic kabuki play Sonezaki Shinjuu (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki) is a story about close acquaintances/families/lovers being tangled in conflicts of opposing sides, with the main couple performing a double suicide ending so they can be husband and wife in afterlife (just like Kyouji & Sinon). In SAO Kyouji tried to force the double suicide on Sinon but it failed.

3) Alicization arc volume 9-14, Eugeo’s story & The Little Prince

- When people see Alicization cast many might think of Alice in Wonderland first. However Eugeo's whole story in Alicization 1st half was most likely inspired from The Little Prince, with Eugeo as the Prince, Kirito as the Prince's wise old buddy and also the story's Narrator, and Zuberg as the Prince's Rose flower in his homeland which he loves so much but was separated from for so long. Only Alice S30 is the Alice in Wonderland, which is why she isn't the one Eugeo looked for.

- Friendship between the Narrator & the Prince is somewhat similar Kirito & Eugeo, in how the Prince is the only one who truly shares the world view of Narrator. In stories of his own journey, the Prince met a lot of adults, each of them showed their greed, selfishness, ugliness in their way, and the Prince's pure heart couldn't understand or withstand most of them. Just like Eugeo's naivety and pure heart can't accept even the littlest unfairness and evils of his world.

- The Prince thought he didn't love his rose in the correct way, and during his journey he knew his rose isn't so special because there are millions of beautiful roses on Earth. But later he learned that it's the time and space that he spent nurturing his rose that made the rose truly special and distinct. Isn't that similar to how Eugeo learned that love is giving, like nurturing flowers continuously?

- However, the Prince agonized then because he was in a place too far from his home and he left his rose for too long that it might have been eaten, like the distance and long pining towards the Alice in Eugeo's past that killed him inside, while his childhood has long gone.

- In The Little Prince's ending, the prince followed a poisonous snake's offer that if he lets it bite him, he would be able to return to his planet with his beloved rose (Quinella's deal, anyone?). The narrator realized what would really happen but couldn't stop the Prince. Before following that offer, the Prince told the Narrator please look at the stars to remember him, if it looks like he has died, it is only because his body is too heavy to take with him to his planet. The next day, the Prince's body couldn't be found and in his later journey, the Narrator ask the readers if any of them have seen the Prince. In Eugeo's story though, instead of creating an ambiguous ending, Reki presented both ends of the Prince's fate literally. Eugeo died in a sacrifice of his choice, and at the same time went into the light with the little Alice in his past (aka the Little Prince's rose).

- Kirito, just like how the Narrator who believed the Prince didn't die, continued to live in his own world of darkness like the time he spent with Eugeo hasn't gone.

4) Alicization volume 13-18, Alice Synthesis 30′s story & Alice in Wonderland

- Alice Synthesis 30, from an empty knight who has no knowledge of the world with a forced Knight identity, was thrown to the unknown in War of Underworld and had to fight off everything and figure her self-identity out on her own, has parallels with Alice in Wonderland. Original Alice fell into a rabbit hole into Wonderland when she followed the White Rabbit, while Alice S30 fell from Floor 85 of the Cathedral when she fought after Kirito, both Alices learned about the mess that is happening in the world they're in after this.

- The original story is more about all kinds of creatures and humans in Wonderland rather than just about Alice herself, while War of Underworld is also more about people participating in the War rather than just about Alice S30.

- Kirito is the cheshire cat who guided her somewhere along the way but left her on her own device at some point. There are pig-lookalike creatures called "Rath" in the original Wonderland story, and in SAO we have RATH company who is monitoring project Alicization as well as the pig-lookalike Orcs in WoU. In many versions of Alice in Wonderland the stories involve a coup d'état towards a tyrant queen, in Alicization we have a Quinella as similar type of ruler whom Alice S30 and her friends fought against.

- At the end of both stories Alices left the mess in their "Wonderland" to get to real world. Though for OG Alice it's getting back to reality, while for Alice S30 she just got thrown to another "Wonderland" where she has even less attachment to as well as being shunned by most other humans without being able to go back to the UW she knows.

5) Kirito’s character arc in Alicization & Yu Boya and Zhong ziqi:

Kirito's character arc in Alicization was inspired by the story of Yu Boya & Zhong Ziqi, whose story has invented the words 知音知己 ("2 souls who understanding each other's tone & self the most") which usually get translated to English as "bosom friends", Chinese usually called them the epitome of friendship/ companionship. In Japan their names are translated as "Haku Ga" & "Shou Shiki".

Full story can be found here:

http://chineseaesop.blogspot.com/2012/09/yu-boya-and-zhong-ziqi-romance-of-guqin.html

Summary: Boya was an accomplished statesman from the Kingdom of Tsin and also an expert musician who played the "qin". One day as he played a musical piece on the river when he sailed to the Kingdom of Chu, he met a woodcutter named Zhong Ziqi, who might be poor but is very knowledgeable about music & what Boya's soul wanted to convey through his music. Being very happy that he could find a partner who can so quickly clicked with him, Boya & Ziqi stayed with each other talking for 3 days. Though Ziqi eventually had to go back to support his parents so they had to part with a promise of seeing each other again. The next year Boya went to find Ziqi, only to hear from Ziqi's father that he had died while trying to both work to support his family & study to catch up to a successful man like Boya. Boya played his last piece of music in front of Ziqi's grave and then destroyed his beloved musical instrument and swore to never play it again, because the life friend who could understand his heart & soul was no longer in this world. He then told Ziqi's father that he would adopt Ziqi's parents and support them like Ziqi did, saying "I was one with Ziqi and he with me. Do not think of me as an outsider."

So Kirito = Boya who are both accomplished in life (battles/social hierarchy), Eugeo = the woodcutter Ziqi who's inexperienced but wise and shared a love of something (swordmanship for Kirito & Eugep/ music for Boya & Zhong Ziqi) with the other man, both died young before they truly accomplished any of life goals. Their deaths devastated their friends, Boya destroyed his own musical instrument and his own musical ability, while for Kirito even though he was right at the chance to wake up from coma, due to the guilt of Eugeo’s death he intended to use his sword to stab himself, but having no sword so he tried to destroy his heart instead.

In the end though Kirito was stopped by a fragment of Eugeo’s soul, who give him the strength to stand back up again.

Personal thoughts:

- I find it interesting that Kirito is very apt for 2 different roles in the Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Prince, more than any roles with other heroines. In Aincrad/Progressive he is the hunter who managed to protect the Riding Hood Asuna from the wolves and in one way or another lead her to her own happy ending. In Alicization he is the best friend to the Prince Eugeo, he wanted to show the Prince the world and lead him to happiness too, but ended up having to watch his Prince walking to his own death.

- Mother's Rosario is treated as a side story in the original Web Novel and not a full-blown arc, so it doesn't have classic references. But Reki said in an interview along with the author of yuri manga/anime Bloom Into You that it's the most yuri-esque story he has ever written (despite not being technically yuri).

[fearsmagazine]

Courtney Gains’ MALACHAI RISING NFT available September 23rd, 2021.

Children of the Corn star Courtney Gains will release an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) art collection called "Malachai Rising". The 9-piece collection is a mixture of digital and physical artworks produced by the master of horror painting, Gary Pullin A.K.A. Goulish.

More and more artists are using an NFT to display and sell their digital assets online. NFTs are popular because they use a highly secure technology called blockchain which ensures that the art is permanent and uncopyable. This permanence and guarantee of authenticity are what also make NFTs very valuable. Some of the most sought-after NFT art pieces have sold for millions of dollars in recent months.

Courtney Gains' "Malachai Rising" NFT collection stands to rake in nearly 20 million dollars during its 24-hour auction event on September 23 making it the second-highest-grossing NFT in history behind Beeple's 69 million dollar "First 5,000 Days".

Gains, whose other credits include Back to the Future, Memphis Belle, and Sweet Home Alabama, is gifting numbered editions of the first NFT directly to 1,984 of his fans.

"This is something fun for everyone who wants to have a piece of this history." When he says everyone, he means anyone who can actually get into the time-limited event. Popular NFT drops are notorious for jammed ques of eager collectors all trying to connect at once. "We will hopefully minimize that rush by giving away most of the NFTs in batches over 8 days before the main event." says Gains, "It's very important to me that everyone who wants to be part of this is gets something from it." The remaining eight NFTs range in prices from $19.84 to $19,840,000.00 all based on the year 1984 when the film was released. The works are inspired by Malachai's appearance in the original film with the main attraction of the event being an original digital painting by Gary Pullin of a larger-than-life Malachai looming over a darkened cornfield. The painting also appears on the album cover and cd case for the remastered soundtrack. This main event NFT will be sold Dutch Auction style where the price starts at 19+ Million and falls every millisecond until someone buys it. By winning the NFT, the buyer also acquires the 1 of 1 18" x 24" archival print of the painting signed by Gary Pullin and Courtney Gains.

Fans will be able to get a slice of ‘80's culture during the all-day auction Thursday, September 23rd, and can sign up for more information on the website www.malachairising.com starting September 1st.

In the early '80s, 18-year-old Gains tried out for a role in an upcoming low-budget horror film. Courtney's intense audition prompted producers to cast him on the spot as the "very troubled" teenager, Malachai. The film that he was to star in was based on a Steven King short story called Children of the Corn. Gains was not aware at the time, but the shocking performance he was about to deliver would become the fuel of nightmares for decades.

The phrase Children of the Corn has become ingrained in the cultural lexicon so much so that when a group of young people starts behaving unruly, they are referred to as Children of the Corn, or when kids erupt into a cafeteria food fight they are described as acting like Children of the Corn. The nearly 40-year-old film routinely appears on top ten lists of favorite horror film classics, with much of the credit going to haunting memories of Courtney Gains' portrayal of Malachai, and rightfully so.

During the first few minutes of the film, Gains' Malachai brutally slashes the throat of an unsuspecting diner customer and proceeds to assist other children in the mass murder of the town's remaining adults. For the next 85 minutes, moviegoers hold their breath every time Malachai appears on the screen. Courtney Gain's performance as Malachai is particularly terrifying because it feels so authentic. His passionate rage-filled monologues resonate with our natural contempt for corrupt authority and the desire to be part of something righteous. As he believably twists these puritan ideas into unchecked evil, we recoil in fear because we know that a monster like Malachai could exist among us.

In a behind-the-scenes interview, Courtney said that to prepare for some of the scenes he would walk through the rows of corn on the way to set and say to himself, "This is my corn." That he would be taken over by the muse of Malachai, and he would arrive on set with a look in his eyes that even his parents said was intense. Gains stayed very serious and committed to his character throughout production and would not allow himself to celebrate or be happy until filming was complete. When it was all over and the film was released, several critics panned Children of the Corn as fluff. Fans were not discouraged and word began to spread that this movie was different and not to be missed. Its legacy as one of the scariest horror films of the time had taken hold. At the box office, Children of the Corn earned more than 15 times what it cost to make, and solidified Courtney Gains as a bonafide movie star while permanently etching the character of Malachai into the history pages of ‘80's pop culture.

Fast forward 38 years. Courtney Gains has remained humble and grateful for the opportunity he was given so many years ago. He happily accepts requests from fans to take pictures and sign autographs. He still laughs when they tell him Malachai haunted their dreams after they watched the movie and how they still get chills when they drive past a cornfield.

The film's lasting allure to fans is also evident in the continuous flow of sequels and merchandise surrounding the title. The Children of the Corn franchise includes 10 films translated to over 15 languages. There are Children of the Corn branded clothing lines, memorabilia, fan sites, and a made-for-TV movie. This year, a completely remastered version of the original soundtrack was released on Vinyl and CD. The first 3 movies were given 4K digital restorations from their original film negatives, and those will be released on Ultra HD and Blu-ray this September.