#everything was perfection the concept the visuals the stages the looks and of course she’s such a powerful elegant incredible performer

[lilidawnonthemoon]

[yeen-meteor]

thinking about how fucking cool i-no guilty gear is and how much i love her. narratively and design wise. like.

the first two things you pick up from her visual design are that she Fucks, and she plays guitar. That she’s a hedonist, and maybe an artist, or maybe just someone who would hang out at dive bars and play covers and get drunk and have a good time.

and neither of those things ever seem to be true at all, with how she’s portrayed in the stories. She sometimes puts on the whole sultry thing just to sling insults, but for the most part she’s just, serious, and vaguely miserable, and taking part in the Greater Scope Plot and fighting over the Fate Of The World. She never does anything for herself, never does anything for fun. She puts all this effort into using time travel to avert disasters, both in the drama cd and in the xrd sign arcade mode - and from what i’ve heard of the drama cd, she hates doing it, she hates feeling like the Author of the world and not just a participant in it - but eight years later she’s still doing it. She holds deep, deep grudges over who the chosen ones are, who gets to wield the flame of corruption. In Strive, she tries to become God, she schemes and fights hard for it, and she seems bored at best and miserable at worst the whole time.

She wears the visage of a free-spirited hedonist, but she can’t keep herself out of fate-of-the-world conflicts, she can’t seperate herself from what she is, what she was created to be, and what power she has. She spends her whole life toiling away at all these plots to alter the course of the whole world.

And when she’s defeated, at the end of Strive, she asks Sol why the fuck he has a weapon that strong, when he was practically unstoppable already,

and Sol just basically says, “It’s a hobby. A man’s gotta have hobbies.”

And like. I-no just. Doesn’t. She doesn’t have hobbies. She looks like she does, she looks like she wants to, but she doesn’t.

And Requiem is such a fucking cool song lyrically, talking about how her ascent to power is just destroying her, how she flew high so she could see everything but now there is no up or down above the clouds and she can’t breathe - just this self-destructive, obsessive involvement in The Big Picture, pursuing power because she’s Supposed to, and never once thinking about what She Wants.

And through her interactions with Axl, through the lyrics of Requiem, through Sol’s comment about hobbies, and through I-no’s visual design, even through Testament who almost seems to exist as a perfect foil to this concept as someone who has limitless power but just lives small and happy with all the hobbies in the world, we’re just left to wonder - 

what if she actually did the things it looks like she does? What if she just, went to a dive bar, got on stage, played Stone Cold Crazy (with the Metallica lyrics just to piss off Frederick somewhere), got wasted, Hecked, and had just a wild, inconsequential, hedonistic good time, and left all the Big Picture behind? But it’s too late for her, because she’s already flown too high.

She’s so fucking cool like,.

[jeskoholic]

(G) I-DLE: First Chapter 2: Idle Room

This is Chapter 2 of a finished series. If you finished out on the previous entries, you can check my masterlist here.

---

Soojin and I followed the rest of her members towards their dorms. I got to say, they really act different from what they’re portrayed on their stages and in front of the general media and public. Everyone else was so outgoing and bubbly which really came as a surprise since they always show them as this fierce and dangerous group of girls that you do not want to mess with. At least that what they seem to me. Anyway, I paced slowly with Soojin and my heart was pounded against my own chest as we made our way towards the girls’ respective dorms.

“I heard you were hired for two weeks now, Hanjin?” she asked in inquiry, breaking the short silence.

“I-uh- well yeah,” I replied rather shyly, clearly caught off guard. “They said that I would be managing a girl group. I’m not really sure I understood the job description properly when I first heard of it.”

Soojin smiled. Her red lips lining sexily on her perfectly fair and round face. “Sorry to disappoint. We’re quite a handful. You’ll know why soon.”

“No, no I do not mean that! I mean, I wasn’t really into Korean music despite being half-Korean myself. I lived my life quite accustomed to western music styles so the music, as well as the artists, never really came to my attention until now.”

“I see. So this must be a huge adjustment for you. It must be something relatively new.”

“It is actually,” I am starting to get comfortable here. “We’ll I’m not gonna lie; I did listen to a little bit of your music when I learned that I’d be managing you. You guys really are good. I love your songs, and there’s no joke about that.”

“Ah that. Soyeon actually does most of the writing and production. She divides work among us six very carefully. She was a perfect leader and a great friend, if I may add. She heavily considers everything when she makes decisions.”

“Yes I think she really is. She’s very scary on stage though.”

Soojin let out a little giggle.

“Well, ‘on stage’ is very accurate. Well that applies to all of us, not so much on the scary part but we adapt as the concept requires so. Of course by ‘us’, that includes me.”

“Why didn’t you run out like everyone else did?” I blurted out of nowhere. I had that thought in my head and I just thought it out loud oh my god.

She placed her hands behind her back. “Well, someone had to walk you here right? Looks like no one else would. They just took off before even thinking about you.”

“Oh, well that’s right… Thank you.”

I fell silent not knowing how to continue the conversation. She was very thoughtful and I could not seem to keep up with that; not to mention the huge trail of sweat that was running down from my temple. I don’t know why I was so nervous being next to her, let alone talk to her. Good thing I was beside her and quite hidden from her view otherwise things would have had been really awkward than it already was.

Not to mention I haven’t really been this close to a person this beautiful, an idol even, on top of all that. Holy shit

“By the way, how was the tour?” I asked, breaking the silence between us. I thought it was the safest question to ask.

“Exhausting, but it was worth it. I would get the exhaustion off better once I finally got to lie down on my bed upstairs.”

“It must be hard being an Idol.”

“Well it really is not easy for sure, but it would grow on you given time. Pretty much everything does. Why? Have you imagined yourself being an idol? You really have the visuals to make it, manager-nim. You have that looks with you.”

I felt my ears grow red hot like her lips at that compliment. It was so simple yet it meant so much coming from her. I merely smiled and let out a little chuckle.

“Well the entertainment industry isn’t really for me I think. I was well out in college before I went here in Korea, so it really never crossed my mind.”

“Oooh, so what does your family do for a living?”

“Well we a-“

“AIGOO, SOOJIN-UNNIE IS THE ROTTEN EGG AGAIN!” I heard Yuqi’s voice from the stairs ahead. I was so immersed to talking with Soojin I haven’t noticed that we are already here. All other members of (G) I-DLE were standing with Yuqi in front of the doorway.

“Well,” said Soojin, taking a few steps ahead the stairs and looking back towards me. “It looks like Hanjin-oppa is the rotten egg now.” She finished, exercising a toothy grin. “Newcomers are not an exception for tradition, right?”

“Ah Soojin-unnie, teasing manager-nim already,” said Yuqi as she descended towards me. Her short but slender legs were being emphasized on her very short shorts. She moved beside and casually hugged me before turning to her members.

Okay, I admit: being hugged like this on my very first day of meeting them is really beyond my expectations.

“Manager-nim here is just new to us. I don’t want him to quit his job right away because you’re all ganging up on him. It’s hard to get young and good-looking managers like him these days.”

“Yah, who told you that you can just hug him like that…?” asked the Thai member, Minnie, pointing a finger towards both of us in front of them. “Let him go so we can show him inside! He’s already turning blue!”

---

For starters, Hanjin was very surprised how spacious their dorm was.

The living room had three large sized couches surrounding a large table. To the left, there was a large TV placed elegantly on a beautifully trimmed wooden rack, with all sorts of decorations of figurines, photos, plants, and technical peripherals surrounding it, placed perfectly opposite the curtained windows at the right side of the room. Hanjin could see the small kitchen opposite the living room, separated only by a white counter. A hallway was located to the mid-right of the room, lining with the counter. Five doors were distributed on the walkway; three rooms lay on the immediate right and another room lay opposite them, just beside it was a large restroom and bathing area. The end of the hallway laid entrance to a small dance studio and another large bathroom beyond that. Despite just being back from the tour, the dorm had that girly scent to it.

“Ah~ It feels nice to be home at last,” exclaimed Soojin, placing her pouches and some more of her bags on the glass table before letting herself fall on the couch.

“I’ll be at our room. I want to get changed,” remarked Miyeon softly.

The team’s leader, Soyeon as well as the maknae Shuhua followed their unnie without a word, giving up from the exhaustion as well as the welcoming comfort of the place they called home.

Minnie sat on the other couch opposite Soojin while Yuqi went straight to the kitchen to check on the fridge. Hanjin shyly took the unoccupied couch and placed his case beside him, not quite sure if he was already welcome to sit next to them. Minnie’s eyes were quick to notice his presence and immediately moved to speak to the rather nervous young man.

“Manager-nim, since you are becoming our manager soon, did you know that our managers always shared our dorms with us? Did Manager-unnie tell you of that already?”

Hanjin’s eyes widened in disbelief as he turned towards Minnie

“Yes,” Yuqi called from the kitchen, holding a glass full of water and walking towards them. “We requested it so that we could get along together and feel the camaraderie, not necessarily in the same room but at least we’re here. Soyeon loves that idea as well, that way she can personally relay her concerns on a short notice.”

“Is that allowed? I mean… I’m a guy…”

I don’t know why I’m blatantly stating the obvious here but I’m just so damn nervous!

“I think you’re not that type who’s up to no good, right?” said Minnie, glaring her eyes at him and then smirking.

Hanjin felt his ears burn. “O-Of course I’m not!”

“Oh, look at him blush,” Soojin said with a teasing tone.

“Then we don’t have a problem with that,” Minnie replied. “We don’t have enough room for everybody though…”

Yuqi sat down and raised her free hand. “Hanjin-oppa can room with us Minnie-unnie! I don’t mind!”

Soojin and Minnie laughed at her.

“Don’t make it weird. You’re making manager-nim here sweat.”

Hanjin felt his butt sink deeper into the couch.

Do I need to be here when they discuss this?

“Hanjin Oppa,” opened Soojin. “You can take my room. I’d just room with Shuhua like we did before. It’s also the most spacious among all the current rooms here in the dorm. It hasn’t been that long since I moved anyway, so I won’t be adjusting that much.”

“But…!”

“SHUHUA…!” Soojin called towards the rooms.

Shuhua stepped out of the room with a large blanket draped over her entire body.

“Yes baby?”

“Manager-nim would take my room. We’re roommates again. Please clean your mess because I’m moving my things back there again.”

“Hey Soojin I-“he began.

“YAAAY!” exclaimed Shuhua. “I’ll get our room ready!” and then sped back towards their room.

“There’s your room Oppa. Just give me some time to clear it off of my stuff. Don’t worry, I really don’t have that much.”

“Soojin, It’s really is okay for me to--“

“Manager-nim doesn’t want to be with us,” complained Yuqi, supplying Hanjin with a pout.

“No, I don’t mean it like that, it’s just…”

I can’t wheel my way out of this it seems.

Might as well…

“Well if you guys really insist, I guess I’ll have it a go.”

Let’s see how this would turn out…

“YAAY!” exclaimed Yuqi and Minnie in unison, with Minnie standing up and raising her arms up in the air. Soojin crossed her legs and game Hanjin another red hot smile.

Soyeon emerged from their room, apparently half changed as she wore her tank top and her pajamas while carrying a pillow.

“Yah Yuqi, keep your voice down please. Miyeon-unnie’s already fast asleep.”

“She’s already asleep? We haven’t been in the dorm for what, fifteen minutes?”

Minnie and Soojin laughed in return, and Hanjin could only do so much and join the banter of her new friends on a place he would eventually call home.

[usermaha]

Queendom 2: FANtastic Queendom Review

some ppl interpreted this round simply as ‘fan-favorite/recommended by fans’. others made the stage centered around the fans as a display of gratitude. imo both routes are not incorrect as long as the actual performance is something memorable. 

i got surprisingly introspective as the round went on, it made me think about the unique relationship between any fandom and their artist. Yes it can be quite surface-level, but sometimes i feel something genuine, and i can’t place whether its my imagination. There is more give-and-take than we realize. We need our idols as much as our idols need us. 

Hyolyn: her Position Unit performances didn’t do it for me, and in the preview i saw summer concept again and neon, which turned me off. but the full thing i rather enjoyed. see sea is an actual vibe. she was back in her element with her own song, her signature stage presence was overflowing. adding the Street Woman Fighter dancer and incorporating that storyline was so cute.

VIVIZ: okay maybe bop bop isnt too bad of a song. the queen bee concept was fun, once again i enjoyed it more than anticipated. but in every performance their weak vocals becomes a glaring issue, they just don’t sound that good. 

Brave Girls: now ppl are not going to like me for this. I can imagine how disheartening it is to work for years with no recognition or progress, how terrifying it is to stand at the edge of losing your career, it can be hard to forget. but from where i see it, it seems like they earned this first place by emotionally manipulating ppl to pity them. legit display it on a projector?? this performance i felt like took ‘FANtastic’ a bit too far. the song in particular... idk about the lyrics ‘cause they kept saying the lyrics were very moving. but i didnt feel anything when i heard it. it was your average Brave Girls performance; light on dance, vocal heavy, cluttered in terms of stage direction. the glass heel plot i didnt get. i didnt like the outfits maybe this is where its coming from. 

WJSN: the outfits were so pretty!! THE PURPLE!!! the sequins!! i had acknowledged their visuals, but this performance i couldn’t look away. I am not aware of who Miss Bona is but she is GORGEOUS. WJSN really has a discography. they could really just pull out a B-side to set a performance of this grand of a scale. the drama, the effects, i loved all of it. this is the kind of thing i was expecting from WJSN this competition. 

LOONA: this is where i started getting emotional. Bc when they talk about orbits i actually understand. I know how far and wide orbits have reached to get loona’s name out there in the blackout, this insane cult following might truly be the only reason they are still here.

Of course it had to be Butterfly, what else could have it been? Butterfly is a song which has so much history and sentiment attached to it. To me it represents LOONA at their best, at transcendent, their legacy. The lost potential, their tragedy. I still hear ppl in kpop community talk about it, the title with no wins, the last song before they plunged into darkness for an year. This song represents the hope orbits held on to in that time that we will hear from them again. The little montage made me feel so proud. it hit me: oh my god. They didnt disband. They are still here. They are on an mnet survival show, with more exposure than they ever had. And im so glad. 🥺

As for the actual performance i wasn’t quite satisfied. I love the respect they showed to the original, but then changed the choreo. The original choreo was perfect, she was iconic, she was everything. Unfortunately Butterfly is not a song that supports a good vocal performance. Not a fan of the outfits. I think ive seen every Butterfly stage ever and ive seen ones that hit harder.

Kep1er: im not even that familiar with 2nd gen, but i have to say it: they dont make music like this anymore. first up everyone looked so pretty in black??? Xiaoting with her wavy red hair??💯 moving to the actual stage: the witches in the dark forest…? What does that have to do with anything? To think of it, kep1er vocal weakness has been on display on this show since day 1 😬. I should have felt much more cool and badassery than i actually did. The dance cover on weekly idol was giving more imo. But Youngeun center and that head tilt, iconic.The biggest win for Kep1er is me begrudgingly respecting Youngeun, yes she was born for this i suppose.

Ranking: WJSN > Hyolyn > Kep1er > LOONA > VIVIZ > Brave Girls

[asherlockstudy]

How to do perfect staging: a lesson from Italy

I mentioned at some point I might actually make a post drooling over Italy's Måneskin performance and staging. I was kinda bored to be honest and decided against it but then all those trashy rumours that try to bring the winners down seemed so disgraceful and embarrassing to me that I decided again to do it. Now, the truth is that their performance was a little better in the semi-final introduction act. Perhaps this was due to the anxiety of the Grand Final. This is why I am going to use photos and gifs from that act and perhaps this will show to some that the perfect package might need a little bit of everything, and not just slap your language on the audience's ears with the expectation that this alone is always enough. *Did I make this too personal?*

Anyway, I digress. And I don’t mean that the Grand Final performance wasn’t still the best of the night, I just mean it wasn’t at the same God Tier level as the semifinal one.

Here's why the Italians took advantage of the Dutch stage until its very last millimeter and way more cleverly than any other country.

This is the only act that starts from the back of the stage, where the singer Damiano David waits for us alone.

Even with the rest of the 25 competing countries, this intro makes you forget that you are watching a contest with 26 countries as guests. Unlike anyone else, Italy looks like the host, like this place belongs to them and the frontman waits for you to show you around and possibly drag you to the world of Måneskin. In fact, you almost forget it’s Eurovision - this now looks like a Måneskin concert or, even better, a more private space of theirs with an ominous industrial feel. One of the most impactful things now is the lighting. Take a look at it. Almost all contestants throw all the lights on themselves or on some important prop they have prepared. The Italians are the only ones who chose to just light the stage itself. The simple white lights on the black stage give the impression of depth and it is the only act which shows emphatically the size of the stage. Why this? Well, we already established that in the first seconds the viewers feel they are in a new space belonging exclusively to Måneskin - the lights make us feel that their area is vast and dark and we are about to be drawn to its depths.

Damiano indeed guides us to the front as he sings, where the rest of the band are on the top of a platform. The other members won’t come down and join Damiano until he sings the appropriate verse “Buona sera, signore e signori” (=Good evening, ladies and gentlemen) and accompany it with a theatrical flamboyant bow (that feels very Italian). That’s when, technically introduced to the audience after the official greeting, bassist Victoria de Angelis and guitarist Thomas Raggi come off the platform and join Damiano.

There’s nothing excessive about the visual effects. Only the use of white lights that give the perception of depth and in the background the big shadows of the group’s silhouettes. They are in the front and they cast their shadows in the back; they create to you a feeling of being trapped by them but do you really want to escape?

When the second verse starts, Victoria and Thomas take the paths left and right of the stage and leave Damiano alone. They take even more advantage of the stage and in a typical classic rock band way. These two play with the side cameras but the focus is more on Damiano, whose verse sounds more like a tongue-twister. Since the cameras are rightfully on Damiano, I must now address the elephant in the room. Damiano is particularly attractive. In fact, the whole band is almost mind-bogglingly attractive and they clearly take a lot of care about how exactly they are going to look but Damiano, as the frontman, does especially so. So let’s talk about the outfit. They all have essentially the same outfit, however it is cut differently for each based on the person’s looks and personality. Isn’t it fantastic?

Damiano, who oozes confidence and sex appeal, has accordingly the most “provocative” outfit of the four. His chest and arms are bare so that his many tattoos can be seen. I’ll talk about the other outfits later as they all have their place in the... uh... white lights.

During the second chorus Victoria and Thomas return at the center and after the chorus it is time for the first solo; Victoria’s. The cameras are now on her but the lighting remains modest to accentuate the dark beat of her bass.

Victoria is the only girl of the group and the most dressed of them all - how refreshing! Her outfit is more similar to Thomas but she is buttoned up in the front. How does she wish to underscore her uniqueness as the woman of the band? But of course, with long flamboyant girly sleeves that come to delicious contrast with her aggressive stomping and her wide strides. Both her hairstyle and her outfit is inspired or basically just outright 70′s classic rock look.

It’s time for the bridge of the song right after her solo and Damiano has his attention on her and also draws the viewer’s attention to her some more. This part of the song is lower and softer - in relative terms - that’s why Damiano “chooses” her to sing it to. The lights now turn red, the intensity rises but there’s light flirtatiousness between them, with many smiles to each other and the camera that turns around them as they launch at each other playfully.

Then the song gets darker, more intense, the guitar stronger than the bass and Damiano’s voice turns to a scream. For this part, he turns to his bro, guitarist Thomas and he now draws the attention to him.

He grabs Thomas by the neck in an intense, intimate way (that doesn’t mean sexual, just intimate. His interaction with Victoria wasn’t sexual either). It is clear that through different ways Måneskin want to stress how good and close their relations are and that their singer, who is apparently a show stealer by birth, wants to ensure that they all get equal amount of attention from their audience. I love this.

True enough, nobody is left behind! The last chorus starts with a drums solo and Damiano goes up to the platform to now meet and introduce to us Ethan Torchio. Ethan stands up and his giant shadow is on the now blue background: this is the moment for the - so I hear - somewhat shy drummer to shine in his own aesthetic. The Italians leave none of their assets to fall down and Ethan’s impressive hair rightfully steals the show.

Just like Victoria and Thomas look alike, so do Ethan and Damiano, that’s why their costumes are the most similar. Ethan has a vest that covers him more than Damiano but leaves his arms bare. Because whose else the arms do you need to see if not the drummer’s?

This song has something peculiar because it was not a song originally written for Eurovision; it slows down in the end and  does not end on some impressive note from the singer as usual but with the last solo we expect, that of the guitarist, because everything is fair in Måneskin! The focus has to leave Damiano, so now it’s the time for the visual effects to finally catch fire, literally,  because nobody is allowed to take their eyes off them! Måneskin use a huge amount of pyro that however feels appropriate for the intense chorus and the ending guitar solo.

Thomas steps up for his solo and I forget we are in 2021. This is the most 70s thing I would ever hope to see.

In a hell of pyro, Thomas looks like he was tranferred right from a 70s rock ‘n roll concert. His outfit would be gladly taken by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. The unbuttoned jacket with this boho tie, such a classic 70s fashion touch. His haircut and even his FACE are the epitome of the 70s - what an ending sequence!

But hey we reached the end and this is Eurovision, the song slows down dangerously. Like I said, the Italians forbid us to get distracted. The attention must return to Damiano ASAP. Damiano says one last line and takes the audience with him to the very end with a death drop.

There you have it. Måneskin had me holding my breath for the full three minutes and I did not want to take my eyes off my TV. There are countless shows that are awesome - in this very Eurovision as well - but I was impressed by how they seemed to have found the perfect balance for everything in every single moment. They found the perfect stage concept for the song, they relied on visual effects only when they needed them and they stressed every twist and turn of their sound with a perfectly fitting move or interaction. They also all effortlessly could hold your attention and they made sure that they all would, with members often helping bring out other members. This performance was beautiful and, above all, clever which is why it was undoubtedly the worthiest of the win.  

[hxneydreamers]

Hello, could u share your journey in the law of assumption and how u started and what progress you've made till now, what you had trouble with at first and how you resolved them, and finally what concepts made everything click for you and made manifestinf super easy like being on a roll for you? And thank you for starting this cool blog 😊

Hey! I'd love to!

I'll first point out that I am still learning and whilst I am here to help people manifest, I am learning alongside you! I want you to know that I am very well educated on the law of assumption, and I am also currently manifesting an SP. I have manifested lots of things in the past (like traveling, meeting a celebrity crush, as well as multiple specific people including my current SP), but I never really pushed through because I never properly tried. I was always on and off my game for a number of reasons, so I would receive my manifestations, but not in full, and this was all because of my self-doubt and self-concept.

I first discovered manifesting with the Law Of Attraction a few years ago after watching the documentary 'The Secret'. I had NEVER EVEN HEARD about manifesting before, and I felt like it was a bit far fetched.

For a very long time, I was extremely non-religious, I didn't believe in God or magic, the afterlife, spirits, fate, NOTHING! I was the biggest non-believer out there. When I watched 'The Secret' I tried to simply change my attitude to be positive as much as I could so I would only attract positive things in my life, and I noticed it worked for a little while, but it wasn't anything significant. I pretty much forgot all about manifesting very quickly, because I never took it seriously.

The next year one of my friends was obsessed with the law of attraction and twin flames and all that spiritual stuff, and she was trying to convert me a bit. I was intrigued by the concept, but I didn't really believe in any of it at all. I just liked making vision boards with her for fun. I never took any of it seriously.

My friend made me go to a psychic with her for fun one day and I resisted and said no, but I eventually gave in because I got curious. Seeing this psychic was extremely earthshaking. I won't go into detail about my experience with her, but some things happened that pretty much changed my view of life and way of thinking. I was much more open to the possibility of things like manifesting.

A year ago, 2 people close to me sadly passed away. I felt very lost and I spent many nights awake and I stumbled across 'Sammy Ingram' on youtube and discovered the Law Of Assumption. I began to binge watch her videos and I did sooooooo much research about the law. I was immediately obsessed.

I started manifesting text messages and instant replies and dates so easily because I was so excited about it and felt no doubt that it would work.

I had success manifesting an internship, consistent shifts at work/consistent money flow and other money manifestations, I manifested dating a specific person (but I ended it for natural reasons), I manifested another specific person literally within a night, just to see if I could do it, and I manifested my current specific person as well (we have a past).

After these successes, I ended up having to deal with some personal issues with my grief for a while, as well as finish my studies, AND my internship, which took my mind off manifesting, and as a result, I manifested negative circumstances in many areas of my life, because I let myself spiral.

I won't tell you the old story too much, because I don't want to revisit it, but basically, for years I had been stuck in a cycle of being abandoned. I felt unlovable and my self-esteem was quite low. All of these beliefs were reflected in many ways, and I was constantly worrying about everything. My internship became toxic and I wanted to leave, my relationship also ended temporarily, and my self-concept was very very very bad!

I felt like I was obsessing over everything in my life going wrong and I wanted to manifest my SP because I thought that he would fix everything, but by putting him on the pedestal I was stalling.

As soon as all this happened, I was of course upset, HOWEVER, I had suffered so much loss at that point that I was determined to make sure that I turned my life around. So I decided to manifest ending my internship naturally, rather than me leaving or being dismissed.

I started visualizing a conversation with my superior where they told me that something came up and we would have to pause the internship.

Literally, two weeks later, he met up with me and told me this exactly, and he said that the decision was ultimately up to me if I wanted to continue later or not. So I said that the timing would not work with my studies, and I successfully manifested leaving the internship naturally.

Next, my SP.

- I literally went to sleep every single night repeating my affirmations.

- I affirmed every single day, I affirmed through tears and I affirmed with my friends. EVERY CHANCE I GOT!

- I started affirming from a place of peace, indifference, faith, and trust that it would work out

A week later we were back together again.

My struggles with the law were mostly that:

- I KEPT CHANGING MY AFFIRMATIONS

- I was on and off my mental diet

- I kept looking for confirmation in the 3D

- I kept repeating the old story

- I focused too much on my SP and not enough on me

About 2 months ago, I had a breakthrough where I decided I needed to completely change everything in my life to put myself in control.

- I started listening to music that made me feel extremely happy and would watch movies and shows that put me in a great mood

- I decided to pick my affirmations and stick with them NO MATTER WHAT!

- I started having a better mental diet, and I noticed results immediately

- I started being able to say 'I don't care what I see, I'm getting my manifestation, and genuinely feeling relaxed and peaceful about it

Once I shifted the focus onto myself and even took some space from my SP, I felt amazing 24/7 and my mental diet was practically perfect.

He has started implying that we are a couple, I don't feel needy, and don't even text him much anymore, he is the one chasing me and constantly blowing up my phone. He is constantly asking to see me, begging me even. He initiates ALL CONTACT NOW! Finally, the whole tone of our relationship has changed and our interactions have been extremely amazing! I have never felt so confident in myself and I can see it reflected in how he treats me.

I manifested him in steps to build our relationship to this point, and I didn't want to begin manifesting commitment until I felt my self-concept was perfect, as I want a healthy relationship with him. Now I am finally beginning to manifest the final stage: official commitment, and I am certain that I will get it!

My biggest tip based on my own experience is to:

- Persist in the same affirmations.

- Do not affirm from a place of desperation and lack

- Keep yourself busy and prioritize yourself and your life, they must reflect this and prioritize you as well

- Trust that it is done and don't check the 3D for confirmation

- If you started having negative thoughts, PERSIST! Do not be discouraged!

- If you know that you have been doing everything right, but suddenly everything feels wrong and your negative thoughts are coming out all at once and/or the 3D looks like shit, you could be in a transition period. THIS JUST MEANS THAT YOU ARE FINALLY GETTING RID OF THE OLD BELIEFS AND YOUR MANIFESTATION IS REALLY CLOSE! SO PERSIST THROUGH THIS!

So for whoever is reading this, please remember that I am here to help you, AND I am on this journey with you! We are all human and none of us is perfect!

I'll share updates on future manifestations in the future, but this is my story so far and my current manifestation in progress!

I will probably make a post in the future about past manifestations such as celebrity crush and travel etc.

[sassyduckqueen]

Miraculous: Rise of Anatis 50

Ok so here is the Silencer inspired Chapter but obviously, I had to change directions with this in order to work with the story. I think this turned out really well. It took a bit of time and I struggled a little with some of it but thanks to my good friend, @naruwitch, I was able to get past that. I also may have taken a bit of inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra to help me visualize how to write certain parts. Anyway I hope you guys like it :D

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Chapter Fifty: Blackout

~The Grand Paris Hotel~

 "My good old friend, Bob! How wonderful to see you again," Mayor Bourgeois gasped, greeting the producer and shaking his hand as he walked to him with XY. The mayor smiled and turned to XY, pinching his cheeks a little. "And you brought little Xavier-Yves with you too!"

 "Uh my peeps call me XY, Mr Mayor," He declared, pushing his hand away and making a sign with his hands as he glanced to the side. "Xavier-Yves sounds way too-"

 "XY! Of course!" The mayor gasped, cutting him off as he excited moved his hands around. "Famous DJ XY!"

 He laughed, pushing them towards a table and chairs. The two took the hint and sat down before glancing up at the mayor.

 "It's such an honor for the Palace to receive such a fantastic artist and his father!" He declared, making Bob smirk. Of course, the mayor was sucking up to them. It's what he always did in order to make sure he had very powerful friends. Of course, he was dumb enough not to realize that Bob didn't see him as a friend. Not at all. Andre was just another way to the top for Bob and while he remained useful, Bob would keep him around but the moment he no longer had a use, Bob would drop him like a ton of bricks. He had no time for anyone he couldn't use. He smiled and turned his head to Andre.

 "Does that mean dinner's on the house then?" He asked, smirking. Almost instantly, Andre begins to stutter and panic as he didn't want to reject his friend but he didn't want to give them a free meal either. Seeing his expression, Bob began to laugh, causing him to relax a little. "I'm joking,"

 "You're too much, Bob," He laughed before pointing at him. "Always the comedian. Enjoy your meal. Bon appétit,"

 As soon as the mayor was out of earshot, Bob let out a sigh.

 "Eh, I tried," He muttered before looking at his son. "Ok, we need to talk about this special TV appearance you're gonna be making. We need to make sure it's a full success! After all, this is a major promotional event for us, especially since Jagged left the label and got the number one 1 spot again. We need to kick him off that throne and make him regret leaving. Now have you got any new material to premiere? New ideas?"

 "Course not, Dad. You know I never have any ideas," XY replied before the two of them laughed. "Besides, you don't need to worry about that has-been. He might be number one right now but I'll easily knock him back down once I release a new single,"

 "Excellent," Bob smirked. "So let's here what you've ripped- I mean come up so far,"

 XY took out his netbook and placed it on the table before turning to face his father and pressed play. The music that came out was repetitive and boring but Bob ignored them and listened it, moving his shoulders a little as he did before he noticed something. He held up his hand, causing XY to pause the song.

 "Isn't it a bit similar to what you were doing last year?" He asked, causing XY to blink at him before he turned the netbook around and pressed the icon for last year's song. He pressed play and listened to it, moving his shoulders slightly as he did before chuckling as he realized it was in fact similar to it.

 "Oh yeah," He grinned, glancing over at his father. "I guessed I ripped off my own music,"

 He laughed in an obnoxious way, causing Bob to join in with him.

 "Never mind. No one will know the difference anyway," He declared, not even fazed. Even if a couple of people noticed, there would be a hundred people who wouldn't and would lap up whatever they released. Fans were desperate in that way. "Image is king! What kind of visuals you got going? Any concepts?"

"Any what?" XY asked, looking confused. 

 "Ah, forget it. I'll use the same plan that's made me the rich man I am today," Bob declared, pointing his thumb at himself before moving his hand to the side of his mouth. He leaned in and moved his eyes around as if looking for people watching him. "If you're short on great ideas, 'borrow' someone else's,"

 The two of them burst into loud laughter, causing a number of people to glance at them with concern as well as disgust. It's not like the two were quiet about their plan to rip off other musicians.

 ~A Couple of Days Later~

 "Guys!" Marinette called out as she rushed down the steps, causing Luka and Ivan to look at her, along with Rose and Juleka. She stopped in front of them and held her legs a little as she caught her breathe before straightening up. "I have something I need to show you,"

 "What is it?" Rose asked, curious as Marinette took out her phone and brought up a video. Kitty Section surrounded her and looked at her phone as she pressed play on the video. Bob Roth appeared on the screen and began to talk about how his studio was looking for new talent and had created a competition to find it. The goal was to create a music video with great visual and musical skill within two weeks. The prize was getting to play live in KIDZ+ Studios on one of their shows. The video finished, causing Kitten Section to gasp in surprise. 

 "It's the perfect opportunity to showcase Kitty Section," She gasped, making Luka pull a thinking face. He could pull in favors with Jagged but he didn't want to use his dad in that way. Besides, this way they could prove their worth. It would also mean they could show off some of Marinette's designs as she had been planning to make some for them.

 "And the stage clothes you designed, Marinette," He added in, making her look at him as her cheeks turned pink. She giggled shyly before shaking her head.

 "If we all pitch in two weeks is more then enough time to make an awesome video!" She declared in an energetic way as she looked at them all. "Everyone in?"

 "Here we go!" Rose declared, holding up her arm before the five of them high fived together, shouting out their name before they pulled away.

 "Why don't we get started tonight?" Luka suggested, making Marinette look at him. "We have band practice planned anyway so Marinette, you can come over with your sketch pad and listen to us while we play. Hopefully, it will help give you inspiration,"

 "That's a great idea, Luka," She grinned, making him smile back as Juleka and Rose shared a look. "I'll just have to go and grab my stuff then we can head there,"

 "Hey, why don't we go ahead and Luka, you can go with Marinette to collect her stuff?" Juleka suggested, causing both of them to blush. She smirked a little at their reactions. "We can give Ma a head's up and start setting up the instruments,"

 "Um... sure? If Marinette doesn't mind?" He asked, causing her to grin and grab his hand, pulling him to the bakery as Rose shouted for him to pick up some snacks as well. Luka gave her a wave as an answer and walked with Marinette, keeping hold of her hand as he did. She glanced back at him and gave him a shy smile before they walked into the bakery. She let go of his hand and walked over to Sabine, gently kissing her cheek as she greeted her.

 "Hey, Mama," She smiled. "I'm going over to Luka's for a bit but I'll be home for dinner if that's ok?"

 "Of course, dear," She smiled before waving to Luka. "Hello, Luka. It's nice to see you again,"

 "You too, Mrs Ch- I mean Sabine," He replied, correcting himself as Marinette walked back over to him and pulled him into the apartment, waving to her father as they passed him in the back of the bakery. Tom waved back as the two of them climbed the stairs and headed up into Marinette's room. As soon as they entered, she went straight to emptying her bag and switching out her sketchpads from her practice one to her professional one. Luka rose an eyebrow as he watched her take out her pencil case and put in her bag as well. "How come you don't bring those ones to school?"

 "Lila and Chloe," She replied, making him frown. "Chloe use to laugh at my designs and even stole a design before. As for Lila, she had tried to get her hands on my work and destroy it. I managed to get it back before she did any real damage but since then I've left my professional sketchpad here. As for my pencils and pens, I've never brought them to school. They're pretty expensive so I'd rather not bring them to a place where people can easily get them. It's not like my locker is secure or anything,"

 "I'm sorry," He muttered, making her look to him before she shook his head.

 "Oh, it's not your fault, Luka," She smiled. "I'd actually trust you with those things. I know you would take care of them and you won't steal my work, even if you were into fashion,"

 "Of course, I wouldn't," He replied, making her smile a little. "I actually hate it when people steal art work regardless of what media it is. It's just wrong,"

 "Yeah, it is," She nodded, zipping up her bag and putting it on. "Well, I have everything I need so let's go get some snacks,"

 "Sounds good to me," He smiled, making her smile back. The two of them headed back downstairs and went to grab some pastries. Sabine came over and handed them a bag each, making Luka smile. "Thank you,"

 "There should be enough for everyone," She replied, making him smile a little more before Marinette thanked her and said goodbye. Luka waved as they left the bakery and walked towards the Seine in a comfortable silence. Marinette was happily humming a little bit, making him smile a little.

 "What?" She asked as she caught his glance. He chuckled and gently ruffled her hair, making her giggle.

 "You seem happy," He smiled, making her blush a little before she smiled shyly at him.

 "I am," She replied, playing with the straps of her bag. "I get to design awesome costumes for an awesome musician... I mean awesome musicians!"

 "I'm glad you're designing stuff for us, Marinette," He smiled, making her look at him. "I love your designs. They're always so authentic and original. You capture people's songs and turn them into beautiful designs,"

 "Luka," She gasped, blushing. "I-I'm glad you like them,"

 "Of course, I do," He smiled as they came to the liberty. Rose waved to them as Luka opened the gate on the plank and gestured for Marinette to step across. She smiled shyly at him and climbed onto the ship. He followed, closing the gate behind them as Juleka did a sound test on her bass. His guitar was leaning against the side, waiting for him to play it. "We bring snacks,"

 "Excellent!" Ivan grinned as Luka put down the bag of snacks and took off his own bag, placing it to the side. Marinette took a seat and took out her sketchpad and pencil case as Luka crossed over to his guitar and picked it up. He slid the strap over his shoulders and plugged it, testing the sound and making sure it was tuned. He tweaked it a little before playing again and smiling as he was satisfied with the sound. 

 "Ready?" He asked the others, getting a nod of Juleka.

 "Yeah!" Rose declared as Ivan picked up his drum sticks. He clicked them together, counting them in as Marinette opened her sketchpad to the sheets where she had started to work on some concepts for them already. She took out her pencil as they started to play, causing her to look up at them. "You know I love unicorns and nothing makes me feel better!"

 She smiled and began to outline one of the mask designs she had before glancing up a little. Luka looked over at her and gave her a soft smile as her eyes connected with him. She blushed a little and shyly looked back at her book before she continued to draw out the masks as an idea began to form in her head. She turned to a fresh page and began to draw out the idea, sketching out Rose first. Once she had done her base drawing for her, she moved on to Juleka then Ivan and finally Luka. With those done, she began to design outfit ideas and play around with different masks. She wanted Rose's to be a little bit different to the others as she was the lead singer but she didn't want it too different as they were still part of the same band. She also wanted to make Luka's and Juleka's similar to represent that they are siblings. She glanced up again and found herself slightly mesmerized as Luka played a bit of a solo before quickly glancing back down as a light blush came over her cheeks. Over the next two weeks, she spend as much as time with them as she could, causing her ideas to flow onto paper as she listened to them to play. Luka would come over to her during the breaks and take a look at the drawings. He helped her pick out which designs she would create and during school hours, they would meet for break and lunch to talk over the ideas they had. She drew final designs for each of them. With Rose, she went with a primarily pink mask with dark details and an aqua green horn. She picked out rounded shoulder pads that had stars on them and a pink chest plate, that was cropped, with the kitty section logo on it. With Juleka, she went with a primarily purple theme but she put in hints of pink to represent her relationship with Rose. She chose a star design for Juleka's mask. She painted it pink with a blue outline. The pink was for Rose but the blue for Luka. For her outfit, she created a triangular shaped collar that extended over her shoulders and chest in a light purple shade. She decided to go with something subtle for Juleka as she was a quiet person. With Ivan, she took a bit of inspiration from Leatherback. She wasn't sure why but he kind of reminded her of Ivan a little. She created a circular chest plate similar to Leatherback's costume but instead of been a turtle shell design and green, she made it red and gold with a similarly colored Kitty Section logo in the middle. The straps that connected to it were a dark scarlet with a gold trim and with gold studs going up it. His mask's base was white but she drew out a design similar to flames around the eyes, coloring it red. The horn was a dark scarlet red and she had also added some arm guards with spikes on them. In her sketch book, she posed him with his arms above his head as if he was gonna smash something. She drew out his name like a brick wall and even drew a little bit of debris as well. She had done something similar with Rose and Juleka as well. Juleka's name was done in a curled style with the star in the back ground. She was stood with her hands in front of her and a shy smile on her face. Behind her, Marinette had drawn a flag with the kitty section logo on it and her bass guitar to the side. With Rose, Marinette drew her jumping excitedly with her hands stretched out in a claw like pose. Her name was drawn in a style similar to Juleka's but she had swirls around it instead of a star. With Luka, she had drawn him as if he was walking forward with his arms out slightly. She put lines and little stars around him to emphasis the movement. His name was drawn out in bold letters with little stars around them too and she drawn several types of lightning bolts. She had settled with a simple one that would cover his right eye in the same place as Juleka's star. His mask's main color would be white but the lightening bolt was blue with a pink outline. The horn on his mask was a metallic teal blue and his outfit had curved shoulder pads with added spikes on the edges. They were glittery blue with little stars inside them and a white outline while the shoulder pads were a light blue. His chest plate was the same color as the shoulder pads and had a nine pointed star in the middle. It was a glittery blue with a pink outline and a kitty section logo in it. She had also created him a fanned collar with spikes that was teal blue in color. When the outfits were created, she took them straight to the liberty and helped them get into them. Luka gave her a thumbs up when she checked his before she handed him the mask she made as the others put on theirs. She took a step back and grinned as they posed, making her laugh. They couldn't complete the video that day as she still had to make some props but the hardest part was done for now. That night she began working on the props and even managed to get a good amount done before she had to go on patrol. Luckily, she didn't have to make much as the liberty had some flags already up. She created a large rainbow with the kitty section logo in the middle of it. She added pink stars and purple lightning bolts to it to make it stand out more and she even painted up Ivan's drums with the kitty section logo and a beautiful butterfly pattern in purple, orange, pink, red and green. When it came to filming, Luka helped her set up the props and they put a purple back drop around the area they were to film in. Once that was done, the band got into the position and Marinette began to film. While she had been designing their outfits, they had been practicing the song and coming up with a few dance moves as part of it. Rose made a clawing movement towards the camera before Luka and Juleka moved side to side as they played. Marinette couldn't help but feel proud as she filmed them. Luka moved over to Rose and the two of them made clawing movements towards the camera. Marinette smiled happily as the song came to a stop before stopping the recording. With the main parts done, all was left was to edit the video and submit it. Marinette took home the camera and uploaded to her computer, editing almost straight away. It took a couple of days in between school, akumas and patrols but once satisfied, she invited Kitty Section around to watch it. They were really happy with it and it needed no extra editing so they submitted it to the contest before pulling Marinette in for a group hug.

 ~Couple of Days after the Contest ended~

 "And nothing makes me feel better!" Rose sang as the song finished before she held up her fingers in a peace sign. 

 "Wow! This is so awesome," Luka gasped. He hadn't felt this energetic in a while but it was hard not to. Everyone was so excited about the contest and they had been practicing pretty much non stop for the last two weeks but it didn't feel like a chore. It was fun and exciting. "We're so in the moment! This song is fun and totally sincere!"

 He smiled before glancing over Marinette, who was sat on the sofa. She was looking at her phone but her expression was one of worry and sadness. Luka frowned a little before walking over to her.

 "Hey, Marinette," He stated, causing her to look up at him as he sat down. "Still no news about the contest?"

 "Maybe they didn't like our song," She replied, looking sad. Luka instantly placed his hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

 "They must have received a ton of videos," He explained. "They probably haven't made their pick yet,"

 She gave him a small smile and nodded a little as his words reassured her. Of course, lots of other musicians had entered. It was the chance of a life time after all.

 "Uh oh," Ivan gasped, making them both look to him as he stared out of the window before he looked back at them. "You better take a look at this, guys!"

 Marinette and Luka looked at each other before jumping up and moving over to one of the other portholes before glancing out as Rose and Juleka moved to the other one and did the same. The screen on the TVi studio was showing a performance by XY but to their horror, it looked stupidly similar to their video. Marinette quickly took out her phone and pulled up the live stream to play it, showing XY playing a really bad version of I love Unicorns.

 "Cause I love my unicorns and my fluffy blue bunnies too!" He sung while literally hitting the DJ deck he was using. Luka gritted his teeth as he glared at the video. The song ended with XY crossing his arms before it switched to Alec Cataldi.

 "Wow! Loving the new look, XY! You've really out done yourself this time," He declared, glancing at the camera as the so called musician came over to him. "How did you come up with a style that's so... original?"

 "It's all in here!" He replied, taking his head and making Luka let out a small growl. 

 "But that's our original style!" Ivan gasped as Marinette gripped the phone tightly.

 "Your unicorn and your mask," Luka gasped, looking at Marinette. He was annoyed on her behalf and judging by the look on her face, she was annoyed on his behalf as well.

 "That's your melody! It's your music! That's... That's not fair!" She declared as she looked at them. "That should be you guys up there on TV!"

 She frowned as she looked at them before turning around and glaring at the large screen, showing XY.

 "There better be a good explanation for this!" She declared, clutching her phone before she turned to the others. "We need to have it out with Bob Roth and XY! Let's head to the studio!"

 As soon as she declared that, the band nodded and rushed out of the boat. Luka and Marinette were in front as the other three followed them but Luka wasn't sure if there was a good explanation. To him, it was clear what had happened. XY had stolen their style and music. He wasn't really surprised since he had seen the way XY had acted towards Jagged and this was obviously his attempt to get back on the number one spot. They came to a stop as they saw the TVi building. Outside of the doorway were two security guards. Marinette took a deep breathe and stormed over to them with the rest of the band.

 "Can we help you?" One of them asked, glancing at them.

 "We need to see XY and Bob Roth," Marinette replied, making the men frown.

 "They're not here right now," One of them replied, making Marinette click her tongue.

 "Seriously?" She gasped before pointing to the screen on top. "They're right there on live screen!"

 "You're not allowed in," He replied again, making them frown. "You're not invited and the show's already started,"

 "But it's our show!" Marinette argued, annoyed as Luka frowned.

 "Not our problem, Miss," The other one answered, making them frown a little more before Luka turned to Marinette, who gave him an identical look. The two of them smiled at each other before turning to the others.

 "Come on, guys... we'll work out something else," Luka sighed, leading them away from the doors with Rose muttering something about not giving up. They walked down the stairs to the Seine, taking them out of the line of sight of the security guards. Since they were hidden, Luka stopped the group from walking and turned to Marinette with a mischief glint in his eye. Rose, Juleka and Ivan rose an eyebrow as they noticed Marinette had the same look in her eyes. "You think what I'm thinking?"

 "Find a way to sneak in and confront Bob Roth and XY?" She asked, making him grin.

 "Exactly," He smirked before the two of them pulled identical expressions. "How to do it though?"

 "Well, we need to distract the security guards," Marinette replied, frowning as she tapped her finger against her chin. Luka glanced over the wall and looked over at the building. The guards were still stood there but they were talking to each other. Luka glanced over to his friends and smiled as his luck vision kicked in. Ivan got highlighted then Juleka and Rose before he looked back at the building. The two security guards got lit up then the doors before he looked back again. Finally, Marinette got lit up.

 "I've got a plan," He announced, smiling as he moved over to them, causing them to look at him in surprise. "Rose, Juleka, you're gonna pretend you're been chased by an akuma, who will be played by Ivan. That should be enough to get security guards' attention then Marinette, me and you will sneak past them,"

 "Ok but how am I gonna be an akuma?" Ivan asked as Luka thought before snapping his fingers together.

 "Your kitty section costume. We're close enough to the Liberty to go grab it," He replied, getting a nod of everyone. "I'll go grab it. You guys keep an eye on the guards and text me if the show ends,"

 "We will," Marinette replied, getting a nod of him before he ran off. Tikki poked her head out of his pocket as he got closer to the boathouse. 

 "Do you think Bob Roth and XY will admit what they've done?" She asked as he walked across the gangplank and went below decks.

 "I don't know but we have to find out why they did this," He replied, grabbing Ivan's costume and mask. "It's just wrong,"

 "Definitely," Tikki huffed, crossing her arms. "They should be ashamed of themselves,"

 "Yeah. Let's get back to the others," He replied, opening his jacket so she could fly into his inner pocket. He had asked Marinette to create an inner pocket in his jacket for Tikki. Of course, Marinette had no idea that it was for a kwami but she did it for him anyway. He ran back to the others and held out the costume to Ivan, who grinned before he took it and put it on. He fixed on his mask before turning to Luka.

 "You sure this will work?" He asked, making the guitarist nod.

 "It will work," He grinned, giving the drummer a thumbs up. Ivan grinned at him before roaring out loud. Rose and Juleka instantly screamed and ran up the stairs as Ivan chased them, shouting about how their friend had akumatized and to call Anatis and Lady Noir at once. Luka watched as the security guards kept their eyes on them. They told them it wasn't working but they also weren't aware of the full plan. Luka carefully took Marinette's hand and led her closer to the building, hiding against the edge closest to the door as they did. Rose screamed again, causing one of the guards to sigh in annoyance.

 "Stop messing around, kids," He declared as Luka and Marinette sneaked closer. "It's not going to work,"

 "We've got work to do," The other replied as the door opened and the two of them slipped inside. "So get out of here and go watch the show at home,"

 The door closed as Marinette and Luka looked around. The lobby was completely empty, making their plan a lot easier. They walked over to the lifts and pressed the call button, causing one of the doors to open. They got inside and pressed the button for the studio that XY was in. The door's closed and the lift began to move up. Marinette turned to Luka and gave him a smile.

 "That was a great plan, Luka," She grinned, making him smile.

 "Wouldn't have been able to pull it without you guys," He smiled as the lift pinged and the doors opened. He glanced around as he stepped out with Marinette. They weren't sure where the entrance to the studio would be. They stopped as a woman walked by, heading towards a door. Marinette tapped Luka's arm and pointed at her before she disappeared into the studio. Luka nodded and the two of them ran over to the door she had gone through. They carefully pushed it open and peered in. XY was stood next to Alec Cataldi.

 "So, tell me, where did you get this inspiration for all this new material?" He asked as XY looked at him. 

 "Oh, it's nothing really," He replied, moving his head to the side. "I came with the whole song in like five minutes,"

 "In five minutes?" Luka gasped, annoyed. "He couldn't even sing it the way it was suppose to be sung!"

 "And his mask isn't even a good rip off," Marinette replied, equally annoyed. She glanced over and noticed Bob Roth stood behind the camera line. She rushed inside the studio and over to him. "Mr Roth!"

 He turned to look at him with a blank face.

 "My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng," She explained, making him frown. There was a hint of recognition in his eyes, causing her to realize he knew her but he couldn't place where from. "I'm the one who sent you the kitty section video!"

 "Video?" He asked in an aggressive manner. "What video? I don't know what you're talking about, Kid!"

 "Maybe I can jog your memory!" She declared, taking out her phone and holding it up to him as it played the video, causing him to look at it. "Look! The costumes, the masks, the music, the dance moves... they're all the same,"

 "There's no comparison!" Mr Roth declared, crossing his arms before he gestured to the phone as XY joined him, mimicking his father's pose as he looked at them with disgust. "This here is some amateur garage band. My son is a solo artist,"

 "Son?" Luka questioned as he put his arm around XY, who had started to smirk.

 "You guys play instruments, his music is all digital," He continued, pointing to XY. "Our unicorn is much more cooler and our masks are nothing like yours,"

 "That's not true!" Luka yelled, surprising Marinette as he glared at them. "You copied Marinette's costumes!"

 "And it's the exact same song!" Marinette added in, looking at the two thieves. "You stole Luka's music!"

 "Oh, come on! Let's not exaggerate now," XY stated as he looked at them. "We may have been just a little... inspired! That's all but I thought you would know that given that your father is a musician,"

 "Ah, that's right," Mr Roth smirked as he looked at Luka. "I thought I recognized you. You're Jagged's son,"

 "My father has nothing to do this with this!" Luka growled, making the two of them look at him in surprise. "And you weren't inspired! You flat out stole!"

 He walked up to XY and poked him in the chest as he looked at him in an angry manner.

 "You didn't design this mask!" He yelled as he grabbed the mask off XY and ripped it off him, causing the DJ to rub the side of his face in pain. "Marinette did!"

 "Look, it's not too late to do the right thing!" Marinette gasped, causing Luka to look at her in surprise. Even though he really shouldn't be. Of course, Marinette was gonna try and appeal to their better selves. She always saw the good everyone, even those who didn't deserve it. Luka was even sure that she probably still managed to see good in someone like Lila despite what she's done. "Just tell the truth and let Kitty Section appear on the show! That's all we're asking,"

 "Yeah," Mr Roth replied in a disbelieving tone before he pointed at them. "First, they'll want to be in the show then they'll be asking for a cut of the profits! No way! Never show or heard of Kitten Division!"

 Luka gritted his teeth as he felt his anger rising but Tikki gently pressed her paw to his chest, causing him to remember that he couldn't risk been akumatized. He took a deep breathe and turned to Marinette.

 "Forget it, Marinette," He gasped, gently grabbing her shoulder to lead her away. He didn't her to get akumatized over this either. "It's no big deal. Let's just go,"

 "No!" She gasped, pulling away from him. "It's not fair! I won't stand by and let my friends' work get stolen!"

 She stormed over to Mr Roth and XY as Luka looked at her in amazement. Despite the situation, he could feel himself falling for her harder then before. 

 "If you won't tell the truth then I will!" She threatened, surprising Luka again as she pointed to Bob Roth. "Right now! On the air! Live!"

 She stormed pass Mr Roth but suddenly grabbed her arm, making look at him and Luka to step forward as the urge to protect her kicked in.

 "If you do that, I'll tell them that you're the copy cats, not me!" He declared as she yanked her arm free from him. Luka gritted his teeth as his anger began to rise again. "I've got all of the music biz eating out of my hand! So who do you think they're gonna believe? Me or a group of nobodies?"

 He glanced over at Luka as he spoke, causing Luka to narrow his eyes and growl a little. He wasn't a nobody and neither was Marinette. None of Kitty Section were and how dare Bob Roth imply that they are. Mr Roth turned back to Marinette as he continued to threaten her.

 "You'll never have a future in this business! You'll never make another costume!" He declared, pointing his fat digit at Marinette, who stepped back. "And there will be no more music for your buddies! Because as far as everyone's concerned, you'll be the rip off artists!"

 He pointed at Marinette, making her flinch back as Luka flinched and glared at the man, getting angrier as he watched him. Not only was Bob Roth threatening Marinette but he had also stole their project and the way he was acting was reminding Luka of his step father. The way he towered over Marinette was mirrored how Issac would tower over Luka when he was younger. It was making him more angrier then he already was. How dare Mr Roth threatened the girl he loved?! How dare he steal her hard work and claim it as his own?! Sure, he was pissed that he had stole his work but he was more annoyed at that Marinette had been caught up with it. He growled as he gripped the mask in his hand, seething with anger.

 "I can destroy your future with a snap of my fingers!" Bob Roth laughed as Marinette looked up at him in horror. He laughed as she stepped away, causing Luka to growl again as he failed to notice the akuma that was fluttering towards him. "Not quite so cocky now, are we?!"

 The akuma entered his mask, opening the psychic link to Hawkmoth.

 "Silencer," The super villain stated, causing Luka's body to freeze up as he realized what was happening. "I am Hawkmoth. This man is the voice of evil and I'm giving you the power to silence him for good! All I ask in return is-"

 A buzzing noise interrupted Hawkmoth's speech, confusing both him and Luka as they heard it.

 "What?" Hawkmoth gasped as he wondered what it was. It resembled white noise but confused the hell out of Hawkmoth. He had never came across this before. Meanwhile, Luka gripped his head, groaning as white noise continued to filled his mind, causing him to drop the mask. He lifted his other hand to his head as it began to get louder and louder. He could hear Marinette yelling but it sounded so far away. "Silencer, I-"

 "Shut up!" He shouted, surprising everyone around him. It felt like his mind was going to explode. "G-Get out of my head!"

 "Luka!" Marinette gasped somewhere from in front of him but she still sounded really far away and the white noise was still around but he could hear something else within it. It was a voice saying something in a language he didn't understand. It seemed to be repeating something and it almost felt like it was trying to break through but he couldn't handle it. The sound was tearing his mind apart. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor as his body began to convulse violently. He heard Marinette's scream and he was afraid of what was happening but he couldn't stop his body as he fitted.

 ~Meanwhile~

 "Silencer! Answer me!" Hawkmoth shouted as he had no idea what was going on. He could feel extreme fear and panic coming from the boy and he could hear the white noise but it was dramatically reduced for him. "I demand an answer!"

 "You're not welcome here," A deep voice that definitely didn't belong to the boy replied, sending shivers down his spine before the connection was forcefully broken. He blinked in completely surprise as he hadn't called back the akuma nor had the boy rejected it and it wasn't purified. It had just been pushed out. He blinked in surprise before ordering his akuma to move around. He frowned as he used it's eyes to see what was going on but gasped in surprise. The boy who he had targeted was on the floor, violently fitting as Marinette Dupain-Cheng was trying to helping. Bob Roth was stood to the side, looking completely shocked while XY was backing away in fear. 

 "Go to XY!" He ordered, causing the akuma to flutter over to him and enter his head band. XY growled as the connection opened to Hawkmoth. "Blackout, I am Hawkmoth. These wannabe rock-stars are accusing you of stealing their original material. Well, I'm giving you the ability to take away something from them. All I ask in return is for you to get me Anatis' and Lady Noir' miraculous and find out what happened to that boy. Do we have a deal?"

 "Yes, Hawkmoth," XY replied, accepting the power.

 ~Back to Marinette~

 "Do you have any idea-" XY stated as Luka suddenly groaned, causing the three of them to look at him as he gripped his head, dropping the rip off mask as he did. Marinette gasped as she saw it had turned black. She rushed over to him as he stepped back and groaned. 

 "Luka!" She gasped, worried. "Luka! Listen to me, you don't need-"

 "Shut up!" He shouted, gripping his hair as his face screwed up in pain. She covered her mouth as she wasn't sure what to do. "Get out of my head!"

 "Luka!" She gasped, going to encourage him but his eyes suddenly rolled up into the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor, convulsing violent. She let out a scream and rushed to his side. She grabbed his head as tears filled her eyes before she looked up at Mr Roth and XY. "Phone an ambulance!"

 Bob stepped back in fear as Luka continued to fit. Marinette tried to calm herself as best as she could. Since Mr Roth and XY weren't helping, she grabbed her phone and dialed 112. The phone rang for a few seconds before it answered.

 "Hello! I need an ambulance!" She gasped in a panicked voice. The woman on the phone told her to take a deep breathe and explain the situation. Marinette took one. "It's my friend. He's having some kind of fit. He needs medical-"

 "Yes, Hawkmoth," XY suddenly declared, causing her to gasp and look over as he got consumed by the purple smog before some kind of shock wave exploded from him, knocking everyone back and plunging everyone in darkness as the purple smog disappeared. Marinette pushed herself up and looked at her phone, gasping as she saw it was now dead before she looked over at Luka. He had stopped fitting but his eyes were still rolled up and he didn't appear to be responsive. Marinette leaned over him and frowned as she wasn't sure what to do. She had to get him out of here. She thought about transforming but the sound of footsteps caught her attention, causing her to gasp as the akumatized XY walked over. He was one of the more scarier akumas she had seen. His hair was made of blue flames and his headband was black. He wore a black vest with spiked shoulder pads and a bright blue hem. Underneath it was a black fishnet top that covered some of his stomach. His pants were blue with yellow triangles and he had a black belt around around his waist with a lightning bolt shaped belt buckle. It was purple with a yellow line. The same lightening bolt was on his mask but the rest of it was purple. His eyes were light blue with purple scleras and he had black lips as well as fangs. His skin was light blue and he had black fingerless gloves on. His boots were black with blue flames on them and his fingers were skeletal. His ears were pixie like, had two black bands on his right arm and he had a bass guitar around his back that was back with a blue flame on it. Marinette gulped as he stood in front of her. "Hawkmoth wants to know what happened to your little boyfriend,"

 "Leave him alone!" She gasped as he leaned down and grabbed her, shoving her aside. "He needs medical help!"

 "I could crush him right now," He smirked, causing Marinette to get scramble and try to find something in the darkness. Her fingers found something, causing her to feel it. She smiled as she realized it was a fire extinguisher. She pulled it off and set it up as XY leaned over Luka. She aimed it at him and sprayed him with it, causing him to yell out as she managed to out his flames for now. She picked it up when it ran out and threw it at him, causing him to scream and dive out of the way as she rushed over to Luka. She slapped his cheeks, causing him to groan but he wasn't quite awake yet. She tried to pull him out of the studio as XY got back up. "You little- ahhh!"

 He dived out of the way as several rafters came crashing down as Marinette managed to reach the door. She tried to find the handle but it suddenly opened, allowing her to drag Luka out with difficulty. It wasn't that he was large or anything but he was a dead weight. She gasped as she saw to green eyes before letting out a sigh when she realized it was Plagg. She gasped and pulled Luka to the side before letting out a breathe. He groaned, causing Plagg to hide in her purse as he coughed.

 "M-Marinette..." He gasped, making her let out a sigh of relief. "W-why... dark..."

 "There was a blackout and we have an akuma who seems to want to know what happened to you," She explained, making him groan.

 "Need... Anatis..." He muttered, trying to move. Marinette helped him leaning against the wall as he groaned. "Feel.. sick..."

 "I'm not surprised," She mumbled, gently placing her hand on his head before her fear got the better off her. "Luka, you scared me. You started to fit and I didn't know what to do,"

 "I'm.. sorry...." He muttered, making her let out a small sigh.

 "It's not your fault," She replied as they heard a crash. She gulped as she realized it was probably Blackout. "Think you can walk?"

 "M-Maybe. Might... need help..." He admitted, making her nod. She moved over to him and helped him up, getting him to lean on her as they began to walk away from where they were, feeling the wall as they did. They turned the corner, just as Blackout burst through the door. Marinette's eyes began to adjust in the dark as she looked around, still feeling the wall as she did. She made felt a door and moved her hand over it, realizing it was a push door. She felt something on it and realized it was a metal sign. She moved her hand across it and gasped quietly as she realized it was the woman's toilets. She pushed open the door and helped Luka inside before helping him sit against the wall. 

 "Stay in here," She ordered, going to get up but Luka grabbed her hand.

 "D-Don't go," He muttered, making her frown. She had to leave him but part of her didn't want to.

 "I'm just gonna go on the roof and flag down Lady Noir or Anatis," She replied, gently placing her hand on his cheek. "You'll be safe in here as the akuma won't think to look in the women toilets for you,"

 "Me-Melody," He muttered before groaning. "B-Be careful,"

 "I'll try," She replied, biting her lip before she leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I'll get them to send paramedics as soon as they can for you and I'll be back as soon as I can too,"

 Before he could answer, she rushed outside and away from the bathroom. She hated leaving him, especially given how weak he was but she had to protect him. He was too important to her not to and she could keep the akuma away from him as Lady Noir. As soon as she was far enough, she transformed into Lady Noir and went looking for the akuma.

 ~Back to Luka~

 As soon as Marinette left the room, Tikki flew out of his pocket and pressed her hand to Luka's cheek. She gasped as she realized he was hotter then usual and his breathing was weak.

 "Luka, you need a doctor," She gasped as his breathing got swallow as if he was struggling with it. "Luka!"

 "I'm... ok..." He gasped, trying to get up but he fell back onto the floor. "I... need to... protect... her..."

 "Luka, you're in no fit state to transform let alone fight," She gasped, concerned. She had no idea what happened. She knew he was close to been akumatized but because of the seizure, he hadn't. Had his natural luck causes it? She wouldn't consider it lucky but in a backward way, it was.

 "I h-have to..." He gasped, pushing himself up again. "T-Tikki... spots o-on,"

 She got sucked into his earrings, transforming him in Anatis as he fell to the floor again. He pushed himself up and took a step forward, groaning as he felt dizzy. He felt the room shake, causing him to frown before he took a step forward and left the bathroom. He made his way through the building blindly, using the wall as a guide. He managed to make his way up where the shaking and crashes were coming from before he held a voice yell that he recognized as Lady Noir. She came flying through the doors of the studio and landed near him as the akuma stepped out.

 "Now you'll see why they call me Blackout!" He declared, taking out his bass guitar and strumming it. Anatis uses the last of his strength to rush in front of her and used his yoyo to block the attack as Lady Noir got up but he couldn't hold it back and was knocked into her, causing him to fall to the ground as he breathed in heavily as his head began to buzz again and feel like it was splitting. He could feel himself falling backwards into darkness as he began to lose consciousness. Lady Noir didn't notice as she jumped up and used her baton to redirect Blackout's attack. Blackout growled as she smirked at him.

 "Think you can get us a lucky charm, Annie," She grinned but frowned when he didn't reply. She redirected Blackout's attack before kicking him back and attacking him. "Annie! A little help here!"

 He didn't answer again, causing her to look behind her and gasp. He was slumped to the ground with his head bowed, causing her to gasp.

 "Annie!" She cried out, allowing Blackout to take advantage. He hit her with his sound wave, throwing her back into the wall but when she got back up, she gasped as she could no longer see properly in the dark. All she could see was Blackout's flaming hair. He laughed and began to walk over to her as she held out her baton but she couldn't fight Blackout and protect Luka while protecting Anatis. She had to get him out of there. She bit her lip and prayed that Luka would forgive her. "Cataclysm!"

 She slammed her hand onto the wall behind her, causing it to crumble as a hole appeared in, allowing sunlight into the building. Blackout cried out and jumped from it, allowing her to grab Anatis and lift him up before she jumped out of the building and to the next one. It wasn't easy but she managed to carry him as best as she could to Master Fu's. He was slipping in and out conscious, making her worry. She burst through the door, causing Master Fu to look up in surprise before he gasped and rushed over to them.

 "What happened to him?" He asked as he helped her get him to the massage mat, getting him to lie down. "Lady Noir?"

 "I d-don't know..." She gasped, tears in her eyes. She explained that she had been fighting Blackout and that he had tried to protect her from been hit by a sound wave. Master Fu frowned as he listened. "But it weaken him dramatically and I don't understand why! I mean I got hit by the wave but all it did was take away my night vision,"

 "This is most unusual," He replied, getting up and gesturing for her to come over to him as her ring beeped. He led her into a different room, just before her transformation dropped and turned to her as she handed some cheese to Plagg. Anatis may be semi-consciousness but that doesn't mean he wanted to risk their identities. He grabbed some equipment that made Marinette give him a strange look as Plagg ate his cheese. When he was done, Marinette transformed back into Lady Noir and followed Master Fu back into the main room. He placed the equipment down next to Anatis and got back up. Wayzz was sat with him as he breathed shallowly. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was pain. Master Fu walked over to the phonograph and took out the miracle box before bringing it over to her. "Lady Noir, you must chose an ally you can trust to fight alongside you on this mission. Once the mission is over, you must retrieve the miraculous and return them to me,"

 "What about Anatis?" She frowned as she looked over at him. "Don't we need him to fix everything and capture the akuma?"

 "I will see if I can restore his energies and heal him but you must try and capture the akuma," He replied, making her nod. "I will give you one of my enchanted jars in case,"

 "Alright," She nodded before glancing at the miraculous. "I don't know these as well as Annie does but I do know that Blackout didn't like it when I created a hole in the building and sunlight came in and I could also use someone who can sneak up on him,"

 "In that case, I recommend the Rooster and the Tiger," Master Fu recommended, making her look at him. "The Rooster can use Flare, which allows them to create a burst of bright light and the Tiger can use Veil, which makes it's user completely invisible until they either touch something or they run out of their time,"

 "Those two would be perfect!" Lady Noir gasped before frowning. "But can I even bring two out?"

 "Normally, I wouldn't advise it but with Anatis out of commission this time, I am suggesting it," Master Fu replied, causing Lady Noir to nod and grab the two miraculous. Master Fu got up and walked out of the room as she went to the draw and put the two miraculous in their boxes before placing them in her pocket. She moved over to Anatis and knelt down next to him, gently moving his hair as his eyelids fluttered a little.

 "Don't worry, Annie," She whispered. "I'll find a way to fix this,"

 Master Fu came back in and handed her a jar before she took off out of the window and jumped across the rooftops. For her allies, she needed people who have a strong sense of justice and who can handle tough situations. She also needed someone who is a quick thinker and logical and she knew exactly who was perfect for it. She landed on the school roof and jumped down, heading straight to the computer room. It was a bit of a shot in the dark as it was a Saturday but she knew a number of students did extra classes on a Saturday if they weren't hanging out with their friends.  As soon as she entered the room, she saw who she was looking for. Max was trying to get the computers and Marvok to work again.

 "Max Kante," She called, getting his attention. He gasped and jumped in surprise as she strolled over to him. "I need your help,"

 "Is there an akuma?" He asked, getting a nod of her. "Anatis sent you to get help?"

 "Anatis... is hurt..." She muttered, looking to the side. "I've got him to someone who can help but I can't just let this akuma continue to rampage,"

 "I understand but I'm not sure how I can help," Max replied, frowning as Lady Noir reached into her pocket and took out the box that contained the Rooster miraculous. Max blinked as he looked at it.

 "Max Kante, here is the miraculous of the Rooster which grants the power of Illumination," She explained, making him stare at it at surprise. "You will use it for the greater good,"

 Max gaped at her in surprise before slowly taking the box.

 "Once the mission is done, you must return the miraculous to me," She explained, making him nod. "Can I trust you?"

 "You can count on me one hundred percent, Lady Noir," He replied, opening it. A bright orange glow appeared out of it and circled around him, causing him to gasp before it manifested in a small creature that resembled a rooster, who stretched and looked at him.

 "Hello, I'm Orriko," It stated, making him know. "Who are you?"

 "Um... hello, my name's Max," He replied, making Orriko nod before they turned around and frowned as they looked around. "Is something wrong?"

 "Where's the young master?" Orriko asked, looking at Lady Noir. She glanced to the side sadly. "Is he ok?"

 "He's with Master Fu," She answered, making the rooster nod. "Orriko was it? We need to face Blackout but I don't know much about your power so I can't really explain it to Max,"

 "No need to worry, mistress," They replied, making her blush a little before turning back to Max. "To transform, all you need to say is Orriko, Sunrise and to detransform it's Orriko, Sunset. The power you will have is called Flare. Calling upon it will allow you to create a flash of bright light with your arrows,"

 "Ok," Max replied, nodding as he slipped on the thumb ring. "Orriko, Sunrise!"

 Orriko got sucked into the ring, charging it up. Max swiped his hand over his hand, changing it's color to red and orange before the golden energy spreaded across his body, creating his outfit. It was most orange that faded in yellow but his legs had dark teal green on them. He had red shoulder pads and a bright orange neck area that was triangle-shaped. His gloves were a dark teal green with red spikes and his boots were yellow. He moved his hand across his eyes, creating his mask which was most red but with a yellow nose area that was shaped like a beak. His quiver appeared on his side and his bow appeared on his back before a red belt appeared around his waist, completely the transformation. 

 "Whoa," He muttered, holding his hands up as he looked at him.

 "Not bad," Lady Noir smiled, making him nod. "You'll need a name though,"

 "Call me Apollo," He smiled, making her nod. "What's the plan?"

 "We just need to pick up one more person," She explained, making him nod. "Would you mind waiting for me on the rooftop?"

 "Of course, Lady Noir," He nodded, making her smile. "Would you like me to do anything while I'm waiting?"

 "Well, you could study your user's guide," She explained, making him nod. "Your bow will have a build in phone and manual,"

 "Interesting," He replied, jumping up to the roof as she rushed to the art room and looked around. There were but none of them called out to her for the tiger. She apologized to them and rushed back out  before looking around the other classrooms. She frowned to herself as she continued to do so. She needed to find someone and soon.

 "Lady Noir?" A voice called, making her turn around as Nino stared at her. "Is everything ok, dudette?"

 "Are you alone?" She asked, making him nod.

 "Yeah, I wanted to work on some lyrics," He replied, making her nod. "Where's Anatis?"

 "He's... um... he's hurt... the akuma did something to him. I got him to safety but I need help," She admitted sadly, making Nino gasp before clearing his throat and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I can't defeat Blackout on my own,"

 "I'll help you as best I can, dudette," He replied, making her nod. "Though not sure what use I'll be,"

 "Actually," She muttered, wiping her eyes a little before taking out the box with the tiger miraculous before holding up. "You can be more helpful then you realize,"

 "Is that what I think it is?" He asked, making her smile.

 "Nino Lahiffe, here is the miraculous of the tiger which grants the ability of invisibility," She declared, making him stare at it. "You will use it for the greater good, if you are willing?"

 "Definitely, dudette," He replied, taking the box.

 "Once the mission is done, you must return the miraculous to me," She explained, making him nod. "Can I trust you?"

 "I got your back, dudette," He reassured as he opened the box, causing a magenta colored ball of light to appear and fly around him before it manifested into a small tiger like creature. "Whoa, what are you? Are you like a genie or something?"

 "I'm a Kwami," It replied, crossing it's arm. "The name is Roarr and I can grant you powers,"

 "Um Roarr, would you mind explain your power to Nino?" Lady Noir asked, causing Roarr to look at her before they glanced around, frowning. "Anatis isn't here... I know you're more familiar with him but-"

 "No worries, Lady Noir," Roarr grinned, making her look at them in surprise. "The boss talks about you quite a bit and since he trusts you, we trust you. Besides, us cats gotta stick together,"

 Lady Noir smiled before nodding. Roarr turned to Nino.

 "So, Cub, the transformation words are Roarr, Leap out and to detransform, it's Roarr, Crouch Down," They explained, making the DJ nod. "And then there's your special power. My specialty is been sneaky. I grant the ability to turn invisible. Since you're a cub, it will only last five minutes then you'll transform back... but if you touch anything before that, you will be revealed. To activate it, just say Veil. Got it, Cub?"

 "I think so, Dude," Nino replied, taking out the Panjas Bracelet and putting it on his hand. He glanced at it as it turned into a simple silver bracelet connected to a simple silver ring before looking up at Roarr, who nodded. Nino held up his hand and grinned. "Roarr, Leap Out!"

 Roarr got sucked into the bracelet, charging it up before a magenta light moved up his arm as he moved around. It created a dark purple suit with magenta colored strips around it. His boots were black with dark purple strips on them and styled as combat styles. His gloves and mask matched his boots and he had a dark purple hood over his head with two tiger ears poking out. His eyes were catlike and brown in color. The light created a purple belt that was long enough to resemble a tail, finishing the transformation. 

 "Whoa, this is so cool," He gasped as he looked at himself. "This is legit,"

 "I'm glad you're impressed," She smiled, making him nod. "You're gonna need a name,"

 "Call me Sabertooth," He grinned, making her smile before the two of them left the room and jumped onto the roof, where Apollo was waiting. Lady Noir walked over to him and greeted him as Sabertooth walked behind her.

 "Sabertooth, this is Apollo," She introduced, causing the boys to shake hands before Apollo turned to her.

 "I have analysed the user's guide but I also discovered that there is an ongoing live stream with Blackout," He explained, showing her on his bow. "He is demanding that we hand him the miraculous as usual but he is also demanding that Luka Couffaine be handed over to him,"

 "What does he want with Lu... I mean Mr Couffaine?" Sabertooth asked, making her frown. 

 "The akuma Blackout is XY. He stole music from Mr Couffaine," She explained, making them frown. "And Mr Couffaine found out. I think Blackout wants to get rid of Mr Couffaine so he can't tell the truth. What's the threat this time?"

 "He's threatening to plunge the city into darkness," Apollo replied, making her nod. "But he hasn't left the TVi studio. Instead, he's been live streaming from there but I don't understand why he hasn't left,"

 "Because he can't," Lady Noir replied, making them look at her. "He can't go in light,"

 "Then my power will come in use," Apollo replied, making her nod. "What's the plan?"

 "We need to get into the studio and confront him," She replied, frowning. She wondered how Anatis did it. "Let's go!"

 ~Back to Master Fu's Place~

 Master Fu frowned as he crushed up some herbs in a bowl to create an incense that might help with Anatis' condition. He was really weak and kept slipping in and out of consciousness. He added the crushed herbs to another bowl that had a charcoal disc in it before picking up the bowl and knelt next to him, picking up a fan and using it to waft the smoke towards him. Anatis groaned and moved his head, making Master Fu frown.

 "Luka, if you can hear me, I need you to detransform," He explained, hoping he could. He needed to talk to Tikki and find out what had happened. He had a feeling that it wasn't to do with the akuma. Luka didn't reply at first, making him frown. However, Luka groaned, making Fu look at him.

 "T-Tikki..." He muttered, making him gasp. "S-Spots... off..."

 The red light appeared as his costume disappeared, causing Tikki to manifest. Luka's head flopped to the side as Master Fu caught her but she flew out of his hands and landed next to Luka's head, gently placing her paw on his cheek.

 "Luka," She muttered, frowning before looking up at Master Fu. "Can you heal him?"

 "I can try but I need to know what happened," He replied, making her nod. "Lady Noir told me he got hit by Blackout's power but the miraculous should have protected him from any physical effects,"

 "It wasn't Blackout," Tikki explained, making Master Fu looked at her as she looked worried before she let out a sigh. "Luka almost become an akuma today. He and Marinette were trying to deal with a man called Mr Roth and the DJ XY stealing their artwork. Luka was willing to let it go but then Mr Roth threatened Marinette and Luka got so angry that Hawkmoth sent an akuma to him. It technically possessed him but something happened to him. He started to grip his head and told it to shut up and get out of his head. I thought he was talking to Hawkmoth but then he collapsed to the floor and had a seizure. While he did, Hawkmoth recalled the akuma,"

 "Oh my," Master Fu replied, frowning. "I've never heard of an akuma causing someone to have a seizure. Of course, I imagine him getting hit by Blackout didn't help. I think I may be able to restore his energies to heal him,"

 "Please do, Master," Tikki gasped, looking at Luka. "I'm worried,"

 Master Fu nodded and went into over to the equipment he needed to heal Luka's chi. He began to work using his crystals and gongs but it seemed to taking longer then usual. Tikki bit her lip as she watched, hoping that Luka would be ok. She didn't understand what had happened but she knew that he needed to be ok. She would never forgive Hawkmoth if he wasn't. Master Fu tapped his gong again before holding his hands over Luka's chest, reading his energies. He gasped as he opened his eyes before doing the action again, causing Tikki to frown.

 "Master, what's wrong?" She asked, making him frown as he moved his hands. "Master?"

 "It is most strange," He replied, making her frown. "I can sense Luka's aura but I can also sense a second aura or present. Are you sure the akuma was called back?"

 "Yes," She replied, certain. "It went into XY's headband, turning him into the Blackout,"

 "That can't be right," Master Fu stated, making her frown. "When a butterfly user recalls an akuma, it is purified but if it is rejected by the host, it remains charged,"

 "That means Luka rejected it," She gasped, causing Master Fu to look at him as Luka's eyes lids flick. "Can't you get rid of the second aura?"

 "No, it could damage Luka's soul if I did," He replied, making her frown. "I don't know if this second present is just his subconscious manifesting itself or if it is something possessing him. Either way, it is too dangerous, especially if it causes his seizure,"

 "You think this other presence might possessing him?" She asked, frowning as she glanced over at him. She bit her lip again before glancing back at Fu. "Do you think it could be Hawkmoth himself?"

 "I don't know, Tikki," He replied, frowning. "I don't know,"

 ~Back to Luka~

 Silencer, I am Hawkmoth...

 Luka!!  Leave him alone!

 Luka, you need a doctor! Luka!!

 I could do with a little help here! Annie? Annie!!

 You're not welcome here... Luka groaned and gripped his head as images flashed through his mind, causing his headache to feel so much more worst then it already did. He didn't understand why he was seeing them but he knew that they weren't his memories or even times where he had been in them but at the same time, he did know them. They seemed very familiar to him but he couldn't explain why. He groaned and gripped his head even more before slipping farther into darkness before he jolted awake. He slowly sat up as he heard a strange humming and could smell herbs been cooked. It instantly reminded him of the special potions that Master Fu made for the kwamis. He rubbed his eyes as he still felt tired and his brain still hurt but he instantly went on edge when he heard someone moving around. Finally paying attention to his surroundings, he realized very quickly that he wasn't in Master Fu's apartment or in his room at the Liberty as he looked around. In fact, he didn't recognize the place he was in. He jumped up but instantly felt dizzy, causing him stumble back and grip his head as the buzzing came back. He slid down the wall to the ground as he gripped his head. He had no idea how he got where he was but he knew he had to get back. Marinette and Lady Noir needed him. There was an akuma and he had to save people but he felt so weak and tired. He wasn't sure what was wrong but he knew something was. He couldn't remember exactly what happened but he had heard Marinette screaming. He gripped his head as the buzzing noise continued to get louder and louder until it got to the point where he had to cover his ears. He flinched as someone touched his arm, making him look up in surprise at a man who was knelt in front of him. He was dressed in clothing that was definitely not modern. In fact, it reminded Luka of the kind of clothing he expected a farmer from ancient China would wear. The majority of the man's hair was short but the part that was long was tied into a low ponytail. He wore a simple gray hanfu with loose pants that were tied just below his knees. He had a short robe over his main clothing that was blue in color and had short sleeves and had flat black shoes on that resembled martial art shoes. He was taller then Luka and good few years older. If he had to guess, he would say this man was in his early twenties. He looked at Luka, taking him in with his silver eyes, causing Luka blinked and looked again. Yeah, this man's eyes were definitely silver. That wasn't natural but Luka found he wasn't afraid of him. In fact, Luka felt like he could trust him and that he wasn't a threat. Despite not knowing that he had never seen him before, Luka found that he somehow recognized the man. He was extremely familiar to him. He felt like an old friend who he hadn't seen in years. He couldn't explain it but he instantly felt calmer in the man's presence. The man smiled gently at him before gently placing his hand on his head, causing Luka to gasp in surprise as he felt his energy been restored. He tilted his head back as his eyes turned completely silver before he slumped into darkness. When he woke up, he found himself back in Master Fu's apartment. He groaned and slowly sat up, causing Tikki to flutter over

 "Luka?!" She gasped, making him blink and look at her but to her surprise, his eyes were silver instead of his usual blue. She frowned a little. "Are... are you ok?"

 "I'm fine, Tikki," He smiled, standing up causing her and Master Fu to look at him quite confused. He glanced around before noticing Master Fu and realized how he got here. Lady Noir must have brought him but she was no where to be seen, which mean she had gone back to fight Blackout. He transformed before saying goodbye to Master Fu and leaving the apartment. He swung across the buildings until he came to the TVi studio. He swung into the building through the hole in the side of it and landed down, frowning as he noticed the majority of the building was dark. He frowned to himself and decided to proceed with caution as he walked through the darkness. To his surprise, his eyes adjusted a lot quicker then usual and while it wasn't perfect, he could see better then he expected. He heard yelling and shouting coming from deeper in the building and broke into a run as he followed it. He stopped at the door and carefully opened it, slipping inside. Two heroes he didn't recognize were trying to take out Blackout and protect Lady Noir who was down on the ground. Blackout growled and used his guitar to knock both of them back, repeatedly hitting them with the sound wave before they felt on the floor. He stalked over to Lady Noir who was weakly trying to get up. She got to her feet and tried to attack Blackout, only for him to punch her before he lifted her up by the throat, causing a wave of panic and angry to flow through him as she struggled against him.

 "Now to take your miraculous, Pretty Kitty," Blackout smirked as she tried to grab at his hand. He lifted his other one but Anatis threw the yoyo, wrapping it around his arm and pulling him back, causing him to drop Lady Noir as he fell. She gasped for breathe as Blackout to get up and growl as he faced him. "Oh, you're back. I thought you had ran off with your tail between your legs, Anatis! Well, now I can claim your miraculous!"

 "Not on my watch, asshole," He growled, spinning his yoyo around as Blackout ran at him, swinging at him. Anatis blocked his fist and knocked him back as one of the other heroes managed to get up and rush over to Lady Noir, helping her up. Anatis spun around and kicked Blackout, sending him flying before he threw his yoyo and wrapped it around some of the rafters before pulling them down on Blackout, causing him to scream before he rushed over to the last hero and helped him up, following the other hero out with Lady Noir. Anatis led them to the area where the hole was. "Is everyone ok?"

 "Annie!" Lady Noir gasped, hugging him and catching him off guard before she pulled away and cupped his face, causing him to blush. "Are you ok?! I was so worried,"

 "I'm fine, Kitten," He smiled, making her frown a little as he pulled away from her. He seemed off to her and why were his eyes silver? Was it from Blackout's attack? She frowned a little.

 "Are you sure you're ok?"

 "I'm still weakened from Blackout's earlier attack but the cure should fix that," He replied, smiling before he looked other at the other two. "I see you made some friends.,"

 "Oh, this is Sabertooth and Apollo," She replied, smiling shyly. "I needed help,"

 "Blackout is tough," He replied, frowning. "But hasn't followed us out,"

 "It's probably because of the light," Lady Noir replied, making Anatis give her a puzzled look. "It seems that he can't go in it,"

 "I'm guess that's why you picked the Rooster," Anatis grinned, making Lady Noir smile before he glanced over at Sabertooth. He realized he was using the tiger miraclous but despite that, it seemed that they were struggling to fight Blackout. He frowned as he thought about it. "What's Blackout's power?"

 "He can create sound waves that are is more then just shock waves," She sighed, making him frown. "He has caused a literal black out but it seems he is able to take away abilities from people but not in a traditional way. When you were hurt earlier, he took advantage and hit me with his sound blast. It took away my ability to see in the dark,"

 "I'm sorry, Kitty" He muttered, making her frown. "I should have been more careful. As a result, you-"

 "No! It's not your fault, Annie," She gasped, holding up his hands. "I was reckless,"

 "Still," He muttered, looking to the side before shaking his head. "We need a plan to defeat Blackout. Do we know what where his akuma is?"

 "In his headband,"

 "Ok," He nodded before throwing up his yoyo. "Lucky charm,"

 A pair of glasses appeared out thin air, causing him to frown as he caught them. Just what was he suppose to do with these? He put one pair on, gasping before taking them back off. Lady Noir rose an eyebrow.

 "Night vision glasses," He smiled before glancing around in the luck vision. He frowned as he couldn't see the solution before sighing. "But I can't see how to use these so let's review what we know,"

 "Well, he's taken away your ability to work out how to use the lucky charm and my ability to see in the dark," Lady Noir sighed before Anatis gasped and clicked his fingers.

 "Of course, he may have taken away our sight in a way but what if we could restore yours?" He asked, making her blink at him before she gasped as she realized what he meant.

 "Night vision glasses!" She gasped, making him nod. "But won't he be able to switch them off?"

 "These aren't modern night vision goggles," He replied, making them look at him. "They have special lens that will help you see in the dark. Admittedly, not as well as your actual night vision but they'll work and it also means that they don't have a power source,"

 "Meaning Blackout can't switch them off," Lady Noir gasped, grinning. "So what's the plan?"

 "You wear these but we need to work out what else we know," Anatis replied, making the others nod. "Let's start with what did I miss?"

 "Well, he freaked out when I used my power to create this hole," Lady Noir replied, making Anatis give her a confused look. "That's why I grabbed the Rooster. It has Flare,"

 "The ability to create a blast of light," He muttered, nodding. "I think I'm forming a plan,"

 "Do tell,"

 "Ok, Lady Noir, me and you are going to distract him while Apollo fires his arrows from a distance. When he's distracted with us, Apollo can use Flare to blind him..." He muttered, frowning. The three other heroes gave him a confused look. "But even blinded he could still grab our miraculous and use his ability. How does he use his ability?"

 "He uses a guitar," Sabertooth replied, causing Anatis to look at him before nodding.

 "Ok, revised plan," He nodded, grinning as he did. "Me and Lady Noir will distract Blackout and disarm him while Sabertooth.. you uses Veil and sneak up on him. Apollo, you're gonna need to use Flare but don't use it straight away. Wait until my signal,"

 "Yes, Anatis," The Rooster nodded.

 "Also, Sabertooth, don't use Veil straight ok? Try and get behind him first as you'll only have five minutes of invisibility when you use it," He replied, making him nod. "Alright, let's go!"

 The four heroes rushed back into the darkness. Lady Noir put on the night vision glasses and gave Anatis a thumbs up before they burst through the door. Blackout growled and went to blast them with a sound wave as Sabertooth sneaked through the shadows. Blackout gasped as Lady Noir blocked it with her baton and attacked him as if she could see in the dark again.

 "No! I took your sight from you!!" He shouted, shocked before trying to block Anatis' attack and Apollo's arrows as they heard Sabertooth move.

 "Veil," He whispered, completely disappearing from everyone's sight. Lady Noir knocked out the guitar out of Blackout's hand and Anatis threw his yoyo, wrapping it around the guitar and putting it towards him. He smashed it on the floor, causing Blackout to gasp.

 "How dare you!" He shouted, charging at him and trying to hit him. Anatis blocked his attack and kicked him back, making him growl as he fell to the floor.

 "Apollo! Now!" He shouted as Blackout got up, saying something about ripping Anatis in half.

 "Flare!" Apollo crowed, causing his arrow to glow a little before he fired it at the ground. The moment it hit the floor, it exploded into a bright light, causing Blackout to scream and cover his eyes. Sabertooth suddenly appeared as he grabbed his headband.

 "Lady Noir, catch!" He shouted, throwing it to her.

 "Cataclysm!" She shouted as she caught it, turning it into dust. It crumbled onto the floor as the akuma escaped, allowing Anatis to take out his yoyo and capture the akuma as Blackout slumped down, now completely docile. He walked over to Lady Noir and took the night vision glasses she was holding out, smiling a little at her before he threw them up in the air.

 "Miraculous Ladybugs!" He called out, causing it to explode into the cure before it spreaded over Paris, fixing everything then came back to the Studio and swarmed around, fixing everything in the studio before wrapping around the heroes as the lights turned back on. Blackout turned black into XY and looked around confused as Bob Roth came out of his hiding place. 

 "Finally!" He declared. "It took you heroes long enough to fix everything! Where's that musician?! It's his fault my son got akumatized! I'm gonna sue him and his little girlfriend,"

 Lady Noir let out a growl and stormed over to Bob Roth, making him blink as Apollo and Sabertooth crossed their arms. Anatis glared at him before glancing around and smirked as the camera was lit up in his luck vision. He tapped Sabertooth's arm and nodded towards it. Sabertooth smiled and moved over, turning it on and pointing it towards Bob Roth and Lady Noir.

 "With all due respect, Mr Roth! None of this would have happened if you hadn't stole Kitty Sections' music and costumes!" She gasped, growling. "That akuma wasn't even intended for your son! It was intended for the musician who you ripped off and if you had told the truth in the first place, none of this would have happened... but you can still fix this. You can tell the truth, Mr Roth,"

 "Are you crazy?!" He growled, causing Lady Noir to make a hissing noise. "Do you really think that I'm gonna do that?  That I'm tell the world that I stole Kitty Section's songs and that kid's girlfriend's costumes for my useless son?! Ha! Not if I can help it!"

 Lady Noir gritted her teeth as Anatis walked over and gently put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him.

 "Don't worry, Lady Noir," He smiled, making both Bob and Lady Noir look at him. "I think the truth will out,"

 "Oh and why's that, you overgrown beetle?!" Bob growled, making Anatis smirk before he pointed to the camera.

 "Because, Mr Roth," He smiled as Bob glanced over. "You're live on air,"

 "W-What?!" He gasped, shocked as Sabertooth waved at him. Anatis' miraculous beeped, causing him to move his hand to his earrings before he turned to the others.

 "Sorry guys. This bug has to get going," He smiled, getting a nod of them before Lady Noir turned to the other two.  He rushed outside and made his way into the bathroom where Marinette had originally hid Luka. The transformation dropped and he caught Tikki as his eyes turned back to blue. However, a sudden wave of nausea hit him, causing him to suddenly gag before he let go of Tikki and rushing to the toilet. He gasped as he threw up before slumping to the ground, causing Tikki to rush over to him. He groaned and curled up as his headache came back with a vengeance, closing his eyes as he did. It was too bright in there. Tikki gasped as she heard someone opening the door. She quickly dived into his jacket as Marinette rushed inside and over to him.

 "Luka!" She gasped, kneeling down in front of him. She gently placed her hand on his head as he groaned and slowly opened his eyes as she looked away. "He's in here!!"

 "M-Mari..." He muttered, making her look back at him. "Need... to..."

 "Ssh, it's ok, Luka," She whispered as two paramedics came in the bathroom. Luka felt his eyes getting heavily before he fell back into darkness. "Luka!"

 ~At the Hospital~

 Luka groaned as he opened his eyes and looked around. The room he was in was dimly lit but he recognized it as a hospital room. It was getting dark outside as the sun was setting. He let out a little sigh before glancing over to the side. Marinette was sat in a chair with a blanket wrapped around her. Her hair was messy and she was breathing lightly, making him smile a little as he looked at her. Next to her was Juleka and Rose. Like Marinette, they were also asleep but Rose was sat on Juleka's lap. A third seat was near the other side of his bed but didn't contain anyone. He frowned a little but the door to his room opened, causing him to look over as his mother walked in with a doctor.

 "The good news is his brain scans showed no damage and- oh," He replied, looking over at him before he smiled as he walked over. Anarka gasped and rushed over to him.

 "Luka! You're awake!" She shouted, hugging him. Her yells causes the three girls to jolt awake before they blinked over at him.

 "Luka!" Rose cried, joining in on the hug.

 "I'm ok," He mumbled, though his voice was a little horse. The doctor called them off and checked out him, shining a light in his eyes and asking him a number of questions. He answered them as best as he could before the Doctor declared that he was alright for now. He smiled at Anarka before walking out of the room. Luka sighed and looked at his friends and family. "S-Sorry for worrying you all,"

 "Luka, you don't have to apology," Marinette gasped before a dark look came into her eyes. "That piece of trash, Bob Roth, should be the one apologizing! If he had to the truth then you wouldn't have nearly been akumatized!"

 "I was nearly akumatized?" He asked, a little confused. As he thought about it, his memory was a little blurry even as Anatis. Anarka cleared her throat and gestured for Rose and Juleka to leave, joining them and promising to get some food for them and Marinette.

 "Yeah and you... you had a seizure, Luka," Marinette gasped, surprising him as she had tears in her eyes and a haunted look. "I was so scared and then XY got akumatized and he tried to go after you... I tried my best to protect you... Luckily, Lady Noir and Anatis turned up with some new friends and defeated him but we got separated and I was terrified you would..."

 A sob escaped her lips, causing Luka to reach out and take her hand.

 "I'm ok, Melody," He smiled, making her look at him and nod. "But what happened with Bob Roth? Is he still insisting that he didn't steal?"

 "N-No, actually Lady Noir and Anatis exposed him live on air," She gasped, making him blink. "And Jagged got involved. He's suing Bob on your behalf. He was here earlier with Penny and Adrien came by with Chloe and Kagami to see how you were. Ivan and Mylene were here yesterday and Marc came with Alix, Nathaniel and Aurore. Even Alya came by with Nino. Lila tried to get in but we blocked her,"

 "H-How long was I out for?"

 "A week," She explained, surprising him. "You were in and out of consciousness,"

 "I'm sorry," He muttered, making her shake her head. "Do they know why I had a seizure?"

 "They have no idea," She frowned. "You've had brain scans but they all came back normal. No damage was done either,"

 "That's good," He nodded as she linked her hand in his. "What else did I miss?"

 "Well, Mr Roth has offered Kitty Section a record deal and a place to play 'I love Unicorns' Live at the TVi studio as his attempt to deal with the damage to his reputation," She explained before telling him what he missed. Luka happily listened to her as she spoke before his mother came back in. She told him that the doctors wanted to keep him over night to make sure he was ok. He nodded and talked to them before having something small to eat. Gradually, Marinette and his family had to go home, leaving him alone. He let out a small sigh before closing his eyes.

 "Luka?" Tikki's voice caught his attention, causing him to open his eyes again and smile at her. She rushed over and hugged his cheek. "I was so worried,"

 "I'm ok," He reassured, gently stroking her head. She looked up at him.

 "Master Fu came by to see if you were ok," She explained, making him nod. 

 "Does he know what happened to me?" He asked, making her sigh. "Tikki?"

 "He has a theory," She explained, making frown. "He believes that the akuma made have clashed with your empathy and basically you got hit with a backlash of magic,"

 "Oh," He replied, making her nod as he began to feel sleepy again. Tikki gently placed her hand on his arm as he closed his eyes again.

 "Rest, Luka,"

 ~At the TVi Studio a Few Days after Luka got Released from Hospital~

 "And now please welcome the next big thing in town! Kitty Section!" Alec declared at the camera. Luka smiled and went to walk over with the others but Marinette gently grabbed his hand and said his name, causing him to turn to her. She had a light blush on her cheeks and was looking down shyly. He smiled a little and stepped closer to her.

 "Luka, did you really mean those things you said when you were recovering in hospital?" She asked, surprising him. He had talked to her a couple of times since waking up but she had explained that he had said some things to her during the week he was recovering from the akuma attack but he didn't remember what he said. He only remembered the day he probably woke up but the week before he had no memory of. Tikki explained that it was probably a side effect of the magical backlash he experienced but it disappointed him a little. He let a small sigh.

 "I'm sorry, Marinette," He muttered, frowning. "But I don't remember... what did I say?"

 "Oh, nothing," She gasped, blushing even more. "It was nothing at all. You were recovering from Hawkmoth's attack after all,"

 "I don't know what I could have possibly said. I just hope it wasn't anything mean," He sighed, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him with a blush on her cheeks. He felt Tikki gently tapped his side as if to tell him just to tell her. Sure, every time he had tried something had gone wrong but not this time. "Cause you're the most extraordinary girl, Marinette. As clear as a musical note and as sincere as a melody. You're the music that's been playing inside my head since the first day we met,"

 He gave her a soft smile as she blushed at his words before gently pulling away and walking over to the rest of Kitty Section as Marinette blushed. He had no idea but he had repeated the exact words he had muttered to her when she had visited him. She had been so worried about him and visited him every day she could after school. Sometimes he was conscious and sometimes he wasn't. When he was conscious, he was kind of out of it, like he was drunk but she figured it was a side effect of the seizure he had. Of course, it was during this time he told her those exact words. It had caused her to have a mini spiral of panic but by the end of it, she had come to a conclusion. She was in love with him and judging by the fact that he had repeated those words while he was lucid, he may feel the same way.

 "T-That was a declaration of love," She gasped, blushing before looking at Plagg. "Right, Plagg?"

 "Yeah and one of the most gross I've ever heard," He gagged, making her chuckle. "Tikki would love it though,"

 She shook her head and looked up as Kitty Section started to play.

 "You know I love Unicorns! And nothing makes me feel better!" Rose sang as Luka and Juleka leaned against each other as they played. Luka moved over to Rose and the two of them made the clawing movement with their hands before he moved away from her and glanced over at Marinette, causing her to smile gently as her eyes met his. Yep, she was well and truly in love with Luka Couffaine.

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

Next Chapter: Chapter 51

[mhdiaries]

Frights, Camera, Action! – Hauntlywood Honey Swamp Diary

2 April

Mama Swamp has always said that navigating the waters of New Goreleans gentility is tougher than a cypress stump, but looking at what’s waiting for me this year, I’ll swear high society has nothing on high school! What with advanced film studies, the school newspaper, Fearbook photography, and all those lil’ social engagements a lady must keep, my calendar is filling up faster than a cistern in a hurricane. Nothing to fret about though, as I’ve formulated a ghoul-proof plan to make this year a success;

Create a student film that simply overflows with passion and originality

Impress Mr. Rougarou, my film teacher, so very much that he enters it into the annual Bayou Boovie Fest

Win accolades galore from the judges for my breakout cinema-togre-phy

Get discovered by Hauntlywood and move out west to work with the  monstrously talented SoFeara Gorepola. We'll make a divine boovie-making scream team!

My student flick last year—"Lurking on the Levees"—scared a major coup thanks to my expert eye for film decomposition, but the script was... well, just a teensy bit lacking, I must confess. Visually I'm always top of my class, but I'll be honest; cryptwriting is not my forte. That's why this time I'm going with a much more "cinéma scarité" approach—my neck of the woods is fairly alive with true stories to tell! Now I just have to find a subject that screeches "Hauntlywood", and I'll be all set.

10 April

Creeping kudzu, I do wish my hair would behave! I've been so busy dealing with the humidity I've hardly had time to think about anything else. Monsters outside this little soggy neck of the world don't know how lucky they have it with the weather; I may have been born here, but my lovely locks have not adapted. Lately they've been either limp as a wet noodle or more ornery than an itchy gator. I should whip up a batch of my famous smoothing marsh mud and see if that helps. A ghoul has to look her best, even if I'm more comfortable spending time behind the camera than in front of it.

19 April

My mama has, at least to my mind, a particularly unusual fascination with vampire royalty. She can tell you all the queens and their names and who their families were down to their 20th generation. She also has a whole bookshelf just stuffed full of stories about the "missing vampire queen" and who she is and where she may be hiding, and if the current jewel they use to detect who the true queen should be is real or a fake. There have been supposed sightings of her all over the world. One ghoul even wrote a whole book that says the missing queen has actually been unliving her life as a high school student. Now I know some drop dead debutante divas in my class that would give any royal highness a run for her money when it comes to acting like a queen but none with the pedigree for it. So, although I don't pay much mind to it, I have to say it has been rather interesting here lately, especially since now the news is saying that the new vampire queen has been found at... a high school. Now there's something you might be able to turn into a film or a book.

25 April

Today in film studies we had to give a presentation about our industry scream job. Most of my ghoulmates talked about being cryptwriters, directors, and boovie stars, of course; I was the only cinema-togre-pher in the class. Not that I'm all that surprised, mind. Most monsters get into booviemaking to see their names in lights, but cinema-togre-phy is a lot of responsibility without nearly as much recognition. A cineme-togre-pher defines the "look" of a boovie; she's a director's right-hand-monster for everything that you see on screen. The lighting, the camera movement, the special effects—everything has to look its beast if she wants an audience to lose themselves in the film. If she does it right, it's almost undetectable—but if she does it wrong, it's all anymonster will be able to see! I must have made a convincing case, because when I'd finished my presentation, half the class wanted to change their focus. Mr. Rougarou was impressed (all according to plan!) and said he'd be "very interested" to see my finished film, which makes me as nervous as a long-tailed werecat in a room full of rocking chairs! I gotta find a subject, and soon.

2 May

Still lurking for the perfect subject for my documentary. So far I've rejected half a dozen concepts, from an exposé on Mardi Claw (too cliché) to a search for the perfect gum-boo recipe (mine, of course, so it'd be a hideously short film). So far, nothing quite has that spark of inspiration I crave. My friends, bless their scary-sweet hearts, call me a perfectionist. Which I absolutely am! But unlike them I don't think of it as a weakness. After all, being a perfectionist doesn't mean you do it right the first time, every time—it just means never giving up until you're satisfied, even if that means you have to do it a hundreds times. That's how truly great art is made. Rotten Scaresese or Alfeared Hitchshock never would have given up after trying just one measly lil' time, and neither will I. Besides, I still have a hundred other ideas I have yet to give a fair shake—a little more time and screesearch should have me in the pink.

5 May

It was club picture day; always a busy one for the Fearbook team. I'm still learning about film, but photography will always be my first and dearest love—even when it's just snapping shots of my ghoulmates making freaky faces. The only fangup was a couple of vampires sneaking into every photo—of course, their faces didn't show up, but the out-there accessories they were wearing sure did! It was so funny I about fell out laughing... and then I realized we'd have to do all the shots again. Sigh... so not scare.

10 May

I took some time this weekend to haunt around Jackson Scare, looking for inspiration for my boovie. The deadline is still far off, but time is flying by and I have to admit I'm getting a lil' bit nervous—what if inspiration doesn't strike in time? I've got a half-dozen half-shot films, but nothing I can really call a boovie yet. And I want it to be good enough to blow away not just Mr. Rougarou, but all the judges at the Bayou Boovie Fest. I had some coffee and boue-uiets at the Cafe du Moau, watching the tourists stroll by, but still nothing came to me. If fangtastic southern cooking can't make your brain give up the ghost, what can? I clearly need to shake the ol' idea tree a little harder and see if something else falls out.

14 May

Last night, Mama hosted a dinner for some visiting digniscaries and asked me to lend a claw with the cooking. Entertaining is a big part of a Southern gentleghoul's repertoire, and you gotta be good at it. Photography isn't my only skill! I come from a long line of excellent cooks on both sides—Mama's always said one of the reasons she married my daddy was for his dead beans and rice! It's hard work, but between the two of us Mama and I kept the ladies and gents grinning all evening. Eventually talk turned to famous New Goreleans legends. It's an old town, and hauntings and happenings are all around. Our frights are famous and our mausoleums are second-to-none! One of the monsters in attendance mentioned the legend of the Bayou Bijou, and I sat right up. I'd heard of her, of course, but had no idea she was still floating. I should mention, "she's" a ghost ship, rising from the waters and floating across the bogs in the dead of night, with the famous plays and performers that appeared there still echoing on her stage. I asked the gentlemonster why this information wasn't better-known, and he said it was because the Bijou is so deep in the swamp that sightings are rare, and information rarer still. But nowhere in the bayou is unreachable for a Honey Swamp. Finally, an idea with bite!

15 May

There are advantages to being born and raised in the bayou—you get to know the lay of the land like your own scales. It was the work of just a few hours tracking through the swamp to find where the ghost ship rises. Seems she only appears on the full moon—so I had to lie in wait for a bit, but patience is one of my many, many virtues. Pretty soon I had the first-ever footage of the Bayou Bijou in all her beauty! It'll take a few more stakeouts, but I think I can finish my boovie in time for the festival—and with a subject so unique and fabulous, it won't be hard at all to make a film worthy of recognition. Just wait, Hauntlywood... Honey's comin'!

[dracoria-azucar]

Here it comes! My super long, super overdue “Ivy is Yvette” theory post! (Below the cut, with photos and everything!)

Alright so this is a theory post about a character from the webcomic Never Satisfied by Taylor Robin. There are about to be MAD spoilers for the entirety of the comic so if you aren’t up to date with the comic then I don’t advise reading this! So we all know and love Ivy, the “familiar” of the protagonist Lucy Marlowe! How could you not love this face??

As the comic progresses we’re starting to learn more about Lucy’s vague past. Like how they used to be the child of Fidelia and Antoine who was at some point made to live on the streets with a younger Tobi and Su-Yeong, ultimately leading to them being taken in by Joe Rothart and “Dr. Malliet” who has been presumed dead by most up until this point. 

But that’s not the can of worms I’m trying to get into right NOW so we’ll come back to that later!

We surprisingly have learned a LOT about Ivy during this comic. A lot more than we have about any other familiar, which we could write off as natural since she’s the protagonists main companion. On the other hand, nearly HALF of the comic has been spent viewing the lives of various other characters and we haven’t gotten nearly as personal with any other familiar compared to Ivy.

So let’s cover what we know about Ivy! She is a lovely white cat with unnaturally blue eyes... Every other familiar in the series has had normal eye coloration. Not even when they’re being used as a visual conduit by their magician, like we see Joe do with Romeo.

So then why are Ivy’s eyes... Like That???

It’s difficult to write it off as a stylistic choice, since Ivy is literally the only animal, let alone the only familiar, with eyes like this. We even see that Isra owns a normal PET cat with two black dots for eyes.

In Never Satisfied, eye color is often indicative of an individual’s magical alignment. Every magic user we’ve seen has had an eye color that matches the color of magic that they use.

We KNOW this isn’t a coincidence because of individuals with unnatural eye colors as well as the fact that Ana’s eyes change their color completely when she loses her magic!

There’s more connections to eye color and magic though. When we meet Su-Yeong, a husk, we learn that Husks are most noticeable in their first stage due to their eyes.

Eyes that are glowing, with magically colored scleras instead of pupils....

..... Huh.

So, even if Ivy ISN’T a husk we can at least agree that she’s a magical anomaly. She’s unlike any familiar we’ve seen. She even said it herself!

In fact, she even makes it sound like she’s not a familiar at all..... Like she’s a person........ Wait a minute.............

In this scene Ivy is telling Lucy that she won’t be going with them to compete because she is THIERRY’S familiar, not Lucy’s.

But.... we KNOW that’s not true because Thierry is a HUSK and husks don’t HAVE familiars!

In fact, Ivy’s relationship with PIPER the frog we’ve seen subtly placed in the background of scenes before has more of a familiar relationship to Ivy then Ivy does with any human she’s been with.

It’s been established that magician’s can look through their familiars eyes, as pictured earlier with Joe looking through Romeo. 

In chapter 7 we see Ivy doing the same thing with Piper! 

Now that I’ve established that Ivy very obviously is NOT a CAT, or at the very least not a NORMAL cat, let’s get into why I think she’s Yvette!

The easiest thing to cover is the shade of magic shared between the two. The silhouette of Yvette we see is dressed in a light blue. Ivy is seen using light blue magic against Su-Yeong.

Now of course that isn’t conclusive evidence since January, Joe, Thierry, and a few other characters we’ve seen ALSO have blue magic. It’s not uncommon. So let’s get into more of what little information we have on Yvette and work back from there.

Yvette was the representative before the story began. She was seemingly mentored by Fidelia and went “missing” some unspecified amount of time ago.

Now that’s not a lot to work with I know but TRUST me.

Yvette was mentored by Fidelia who we’ve come to learn a lot about recently. Fidelia has been shown as manipulative, overbearing, and power-hungry. 

The way she speaks about Yvette shows that she held no real attachment to her, she just viewed her as another puppet to control behind the scenes.

In Fidelia’s original speech to January she talks about her experience with the guard. Glorifying January’s “heroism” in an attempt to flatter her. In fact, it seems like Yvette ALSO apprenticed with the guard, since Joe seems to know her well enough.

And at the end of her dialog with January, Fidelia speaks to her familiar about how January is “perfect” for what she needs. Easily controllable. Then ends the scene by stating the following,

...... Incredibly ominous, I agree. 

Now looking back at everything Fidelia has said about Yvette we can conclude that she was heavily manipulated by Fidelia. 

Yvette suddenly “disappearing” seems less and less likely the deeper we dig. It makes sense that Yvette could have recognized what Fidelia was doing and ran away. It also seems probable that Fidelia has no more use of Yvette and “disposed” of her... 

But the way Fidelia talks about Yvette seems to indicate that she’s at least a BIT mournful of the loss of Yvette. So while Fidelia COULD have done something to Yvette it makes the most sense that she would have kept her around as long as physically possible.

So maybe Yvette DID just run away when she realized she was being treated cruelly.

Now we know that Yvette and Fidelia had an abusive relationship but what does that have to do with Ivy?

Well, Ivy has never directly interacted with Fidelia but she has indicated how she feels about the woman once before. When Lucy first went missing and the seeker stones where flying around town.

The way that this is phrased makes it clear that Ivy knows that only one person is looking through these seeker stones for Lucy, and that person is Fidelia.

Why would Ivy be so afraid of being spotted by Fidelia if they’ve never interacted before? It makes no sense! Of course there’s the possibility that Fidelia could capture Ivy and question her relationship with Lucy but Ivy really isn’t Lucy’s familiar and she doesn’t know where Lucy is. She would be of NO help to Fidelia’s search. Then even if she thinks she might be questioned, it doesn’t explain why Ivy knows that Fidelia is the one looking?

Maybe it’s because she’s afraid that Fidelia will take her back. If she really is Yvette, and Yvette really did run away to hide from Fidelia then it makes more sense. Yvette ran, Fidelia wants her back to use her, and Yvette is scared of being caught.

A few pages before the seeker stones are shown, Ivy even directly states that she’s on the run!

From what, we don’t really know, but if Yvette is on the run and so is Ivy it’s certainly a strange pile of coincidences.

The last issue I wanted to cover is Ivy’s relationship with Thierry and Yvette’s apparent relationship with the Rotharts.

Now we already know the “Dr. Malliet” is actually Thierry Rothart who became a husk and faked his own death. We know that Lucy Marlowe was actually originally Morgan, a child under the direct care of Joe and Thierry, who was also presumed to be dead.

Lucy and Thierry being together just makes sense. Thierry became a husk and burned down their house, panicked for whatever reason, fled with the incredibly ill Morgan, and when it turned out that Morgan had lost their memories they became Lucien and Thierry became “Rothart”.

So then, where the hell did Ivy come from? She’s not anyone’s familiar and it’s clear that no one else we’ve encountered has recognized her beyond her connection to Lucy.

If Ivy was with Dr. Malliet and Morgan before they “died” then surely Isra or Neith would have recognized her? It makes sense that they wouldn’t see the face of Morgan (a supposedly dead 12 year old) in the face of Lucy (a super alive 17 year old) but I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t piece together a very distinct magical cat with unnatural blue eyes.

Except, it’s clear that Ivy and Thierry have a close emotional connection! Thierry has shown more compassion for Ivy than he has for Lucy who is his own child. He even remains non-violent with her despite being so overwhelmed by his own aggressive husk nature

So when exactly did Ivy join the duo??

Maybe she had been there all along.... just with a different name and a different body?

.............. Okay so I know french names aren’t ENTIRELY uncommon in this comic but hear me out.

Both of them have lighter blue magic, while this isn’t concrete proof that they’re related, having magic of the same shade has been narratively indicative of familial relationships in this comic MULTIPLE times.

Sylas and his father Antoine both have purple magic.

Seiji and his mother Rin both have red magic.

January and her uncle Joe both have blue magic.

Ana and her grandmother both had red magic.

Even the fact that Emilia had pink magic while neither her father or “mother” did was hinting at the fact that Emilia’s birth mother was actually FIDELIA. 

The same concept was used to show a relationship between Lucy and Fidelia! When Lucy flash-backed to a younger age and Thierry was trying to get them to use a spinel to focus their magic, it clearly showed that their magic used to be pink.

Thierry and Yvette being RELATED could explain why Joe was speaking so fondly about Yvette. Maybe she was even the reason he met Thierry in the first place! 

A younger Yvette apprenticing with the guard, befriending a young officer Joe, and ultimately introducing him to her older brother seems possible.

It would also explain why Ivy was so willing to defend Thierry to Lucy up until Lucy ran away! She didn’t want to abandon her family but when she saw that Thierry was treating Lucy how she was treated by Fidelia before she ran away, she realized she had made a mistake.

Also! It’s kinda cute to imagine “Ivy” being a nickname Thierry gave to Yvette when they were younger

Anyways this took me like two hours to type up so enjoy these screenshots of Ivy and Thierry having chaotic sibling energy.

[fmdsooaharchive]

CHO SOOAH — HEADCANON #4 (30 DAYS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT - IDOL EDITION)

SUMMARY: We ask ourselves why would you write more than 5.000 words in a single day for something that was supposed to go on for 30 days and we reach the conclusion that we needed the points and why not, am I right? While writing this I realized that Sooah doesn’t have many friends her age but also, she isn’t friends anyone in Gold Star besides her members so please befriend my kid. WC: 5.042 MENTIONS: way too many people to be honest. TW: Really bad writing because I did it when I was clearly sleepy.

+ Day One: Introduce your muse. Are they solo or in a group? What is their position in the group? Consider this day the day for writing the basics.

Cho Sooah is part of Gold Star Media’s five-member group, Fuse. She was added to the team in 2015, a few months after their official debut in 2014 as their rapper and vocal as well as becoming the new maknae of the team. 

+ Day Two: Talk about your muse’s childhood. Where did they grow up? Did they have any dream jobs besides being an idol? When did they realize they wanted to be an idol?

Sooah was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She had a pretty ideal childhood, she thinks. She was very lucky to have loving and supportive parents and very great older brothers who always looked out for her in their different ways. She was always connected to her family and that’s her grounding circle to this day. She’s very thankful to them for everything they did for her. While growing up, Sooah was always praised for her beauty and sweetness but she was usually taken advantage of and made fun of because of that. She had very little friends growing up but she didn’t mind that much because she had a pretty solid group that always supported her. Growing up, she wanted to become a stewardess and those were the plans until she was scouted by Gold Star. She never really realized she wanted to become an idol and even after she was signed under the company, she was still not sure about it. She became surer of it after she debuted and had a taste of how performing felt like.

+ Day Three: Take us back to when your muse was either recruited or auditioned to become an idol. How did that go? How did they feel getting up on stage for recruiters? If your muse could give their younger selves advice before the audition, what would they say?

Sooah is one of those people who go with their friends to an audition and end up being cast as well. She was accompanying Mia in her audition. She wanted to give her moral support and make sure everything would go as planned when one of the recruiters asked her to do something for them. Sooah was never really skillful. She couldn't sing or dance or act. But she’s pretty and that’s the main reason why they decided to sign with her. She was very nervous when she performed in front of them. She didn’t have anything prepared but a school song that they were supposed to perform in a festival soon and a guitar that she could barely play. 

Sooah would tell herself not to be so harsh because maybe they did hire her because of her looks but that doesn’t mean she was a complete talentless failure. She was always so gentle to others; she should learn to be gentler to herself too.

+ Day Four: Remember the trainee days? What are some of your muse’s memories of being a trainee? How long were they a trainee? Were they worried about potentially not making a debut? Talk about any challenges they might have encountered.

Sooah’s memories of trainee days are almost blurred together in a mess of constant practice and doubting herself. Those weren’t very happy times, she felt insecure and out of place because these more talented people were training with her and she was not sure of her abilities or if she even deserved to be there with these people. 

Sooah was a trainee for one year and four months, from November of 2013 to March of 2015 when was added to Fuse. Sooah always felt like she would never make it to a group and would eventually be kicked out by the company or be reassigned to a different department like modeling or acting. So, she had a constant fear of not making it to debut. 

+ Day Five: Recall your muse’s debut. What was the song they debuted with? How did it feel performing for the first time on stage as an idol? Feel free to bring up their thoughts about the concept, choreography, lyrics, music video, or other components. 

Sooah debuted with Fuse’s first EP and it was called ‘Ice Cream Cake’ from the album of the same name. She remembers quite vividly feeling very excited but also extremely terrified. She never performed in front of an audience before and the Fuse fans had made it pretty clear even before she made her first appearance that they weren’t fond of Gold Star’s strategy of adding a useless member to a group that was already perfect as four. But she was finally making it to debut and there was no hater in her life that would stop her from feeling ecstatic at this opportunity. 

Sooah liked ‘Ice Cream Cake’. Both the single and the album were nice. She thinks the MV was particularly aesthetically pleasing, her unnies looked stunning as always. She wasn’t certain about the ‘everyone will go blonde’ but the different tones made each of them stand out in different ways. At the time, she had never practiced choreography as much as she did for ‘Ice Cream Cake’. She went over and over this routine thousand times just to make sure she wouldn’t mess up. She was only sixteen at the time, so everything kind of overwhelmed her. 

+ Day Six: What concept does your muse think they can pull off best? Cutesy? Manly? Sexy? What concept do they have a hard time pulling off? What kind of concept would they want to do at some point?

Sooah can put off cutesy, happier concepts better than the more badass, girl crush ones and that has a lot to do with her looks more than with what she’s comfortable doing. She doesn’t mind their more happy and upbeat concepts just as she doesn’t mind when she has to do more serious stuff. ‘Peek-a-Boo’ remains as one of her favorite MV’s and songs to this day just as much as ‘Red Flavor’ and she thinks that’s nice because that’s the whole concept they were going for with Fuse. With how many weird concepts they’ve done in the past, Sooah thinks they can pull off pretty much anything at this point but she knows it’s very unlikely that Gold Star would invest in a concept similar to Lucid’s Nightmare trilogy. She would love to do something like that though.  

+ Day Seven: Which era is your muse’s favorite in their career? Why is it their favorite (think concept, promotions, choreography, etc.)? If your muse has recently debuted, talk about what they would want to do for their next comeback.

‘Russian Roulette’ is an era that she thinks many people end up forgetting and it’s not fair because it was pretty fun to promote. The storyline for the MV is not the lightest, of course, since they are trying to get the others to get badly injured but the scenarios were so colorful and full of life (ironic). The choreography was tricky, but all choreographies were tricky for Sooah. It was fun to learn though, and she had a lot of fun while learning it because it didn’t give her much of a headache and she quickly learned the movements. It was a very cute kind of concept that she remembers fondly. 

+ Day Eight: Talk about your muse’s strengths and weaknesses as an idol. Feel free to discuss their thoughts regarding these components. Think of qualities such as vocals, dancing, visuals, acting skills, and variety show skills, for example.

Sooah’s strengths as an idol are very reliant on her visuals and variety show skills, so everything that isn’t performative. Her looks were always something people praised her for even before auditioning to become a trainee. She was always very pretty and always had this soft look on her that works very well because it makes people feel at ease. It’s not the type of beauty that pushes people away but draws them in. 

She used to be very shy in variety shows but Sooah got much better at that as years went by. To be fair, she got a lot better over time, but her weaknesses are still singing, dancing, and rapping which is ironic since she’s an idol. The main problem there is her confidence, though. She doesn’t believe she’s good or capable and that uncertainty remains clear in the way she performs.

+ Day Nine: What is your muse’s fashion style? Talk about what kind of clothes they love to wear. To them, what is the essential thing to have in their closet? What is their favorite outfit?

It depends a lot on the season. During spring, Sooah will use very flowy and long skirts, with pastel colors, and be the princess of spring because that season fits her image incredibly well. During autumn, she’ll rely on more earth tones and long coats. Winter is the season she’ll just dress to not freeze, so everything comfy and warm, she’ll be using and summer, though not her favorite season, is the time in the year when she’ll allow herself to use short shorts and sleeveless shirts, maybe use more flannels and overalls. Sooah has a very consistent and good sense of fashion and she likes going shopping with friends. You’ll always find jean jackets in her wardrobe and she’ll try to fit them into some outfit she has to wear. Her favorite outfits are the more romantic ones though, so spring is the best time for that.

+ Day Ten: Talk about your muse’s three closest friends. How did they meet? How long have they known each other? What do they love most about their friends?

Yuanjun is one of her closest friends and someone she cherishes a lot because despite being a little different personality-wise, they get along well to form the infamous 99-line. She likes his company and appreciates that they could remain, friends, because there weren’t any scandals involving the two of them. Boys and girls can be friends in the end and she’s glad people learned that, in this case.

Mia is one of her long-time friends. She’s the reason why Sooah was scouted by Gold Star because Sooah was only accompanying Mia when she decided to audition. Their relationship was a little messy because Mia was always the talented one but she ended up not debuting while Sooah, who was always pretty useless managed to make her way into Fuse. Sooah always felt guilty but Mia is now making sure that she knows none of that was her fault and they are still in good terms. 

And last but not least, she would mention Minjung because despite not being the same age and being in the same team for work, Sooah still sees her as one of her closest friends and someone she can confide to. She was added to Fuse in 2015 and she was anxious because Minjung used to be their maknae and she was stealing the spot now but Minjung only proved to be very nice and sisterly to her and for that, she’ll be eternally thankful.

+ Day Eleven: Has your muse had any scandals? How have these scandals affected your muse as an idol or as a person? If your muse has not had any scandals, talk about their views on scandals. Is all publicity good publicity?

The only “scandal” of sorts Sooah was involved was when she was added to Fuse and some fans were not happy with Gold Star’s decision to add a pretty face to the team when they were perfect before. After that, Sooah lived pretty much like a saint, with no scandals and nothing that could tarnish Fuse’s or her image. It depends a lot on the scandal. Silly things as dating shouldn’t even be seen as scandals because idols are still humans but bullying scandals should surely be taken more seriously. And is bad to think that all publicity is good publicity because what kind of image they would want to build for the groups and company if they build their reputation around scandals. She’s not very fond of that idea.

+ Day Twelve: If your muse is in a group, what are the fun things about promoting with other members? What do they love about being in a group? What do they love about their members? If your muse is a solo artist, what are their thoughts on promoting alone? What do they love about being solo?

Sooah loves promoting with her members. She is very fond of them all and thinks she’s very lucky. She didn’t expect to be in a group where the members would be so supportive of her and look out for her the way her members do. It’s nice that the waiting rooms are never silent, there’s always someone talking and it’s noisy and because she grew up in a house full of people that is very comforting. She loves her members as a whole but also individually. She loves that Miyeon is like this force of nature that is amazing in pretty much everything but still has time to be supportive of Sooah. She loves that Suji was like a mother to her and took great care of her and made her feel comfortable in the group. She loves that Minjung is someone who likes to pamper her and is like a pretty sister she has now. They all feel like family to Sooah.

+ Day Thirteen: For the muses in a group, what are the challenges of being one of several people in a group? Have there been any troubles that have come along with being in a group environment and times they wish they were alone? For the solo artist muses, have you ever felt lonely promoting alone? Do you ever wish that you were in a group instead?

Sooah never hoped to be alone because she doesn’t think she can perform if she’s alone on the stage. Being in a group means that the public’s attention can deviate from a member to others and that’s only normal and it’s totally fine. There will be times she’ll feel like she did a good job but other members get more attention but Sooah thinks it’s only fair because she’s not exactly someone people will have their eyes set on for any reason in particular. She’s not the best singer, or dancer, or rapper. She knows people will look at her because she has great visuals though.

+ Day Fourteen: If your muse is in a group, how do you think they would have fared had they had a solo career instead? What kind of concept would they have? If your muse is a solo artist, how do you think they would have fared if they were in an idol group? What position of the group do you think they would have? 

Sooah would do very poorly as a solo artist. To be fair, she probably wouldn’t even be sent to be an idol and would be redirected to the modeling or acting department instead. But if they were silly enough to still debut her as a solo artist, they would go with something light and aesthetically pleasing to match with her visuals. The songs wouldn’t go to high places and everything vocal would be minimalistic. Think of Kriesha Chu or even SOLE or Younha and we’ll have Sooah as a solo artist. 

+ Day Fifteen: Who does your muse look up to in the industry? Why do they look up to this person?

Sooah looks up to everyone because she’s a sweetheart but if she had to pick three people she looks up to the most, those would be Lipstick’s Minah because she’s amazing in everything she does. She can sing, she can act, she can dance and she cooks amazing meals to Sooah. The perfect person who remained humble even after the success of her group. She wants to be like Minah when she grows up. She also looks up to Lux a lot and it’s not only because Lux helped her to write a song from scratch and promoted the song with her. She thinks Lux is an amazing artist and songwriter/composer and she wants to learn a lot from the older girl. On a similar note, there’s Joosung from Element. They worked together briefly during the BASE project and she saw him in this new light and thinks he’s a very talented and easy-going person. She aims to be a good producer like him in the future.

+ Day Sixteen: If your muse could do a special stage with another artist or idol group, who would it be and why? What song would they perform?

Sooah would love to work with the members of Lucid. Maybe Sooah and Alice, they are the same age and are already close because of the 99-line Sooah has going on. Since they have similar positions in their respective groups and because Alice is a great dancer, they could have a special stage singing to one of the classics of K-pop. Maybe a BoA song. If given a proper heads-up maybe she can even compose and write a song for them.

+ Day Seventeen: How would your muse fare in a variety show? If your muse could appear on any variety show, which variety would it be and why? If you don’t have a lot of knowledge of variety shows, talk about what kind of variety show they would go on.

It depends a lot on the variety show. If it’s something like DoReMi Market or Knowing Bros, she’ll do fairly well because she feels comfortable, it’s just them there having a talk and telling stories, sometimes playing some games. If it’s a show like Running Man or Law of the Jungle where she’ll have to actively show surviving skills or running and jumping, that makes her more anxious because she’s just not good at that kind of stuff. 

+ Day Eighteen: What entertainment agency is your muse a part of? What do they think of other groups and artists that are in the same agency as them? Which labelmates do they get along with the most, excluding group members?

Sooah is part of Gold Star Media. She thinks people in her agency are dope even if the company itself makes some questionable decisions sometimes. But every single one of their artists, Sooah likes and listens to their songs. From their soloists to the co-ed group they have. Gold Star releases really good songs, she thinks and she’s very musically oriented and the company offers her the kind of support she would need to thrive in that area. She’s not particularly close to anyone in her company, except her members, though.

+ Day Nineteen: Is there anything besides idol activities that your muse would want to do? Would they want to take their hand at hosting a variety show or act in a television show or drama? Would they want to try out modeling or a musical? If they have done things such as these, talk about their thoughts toward these things.

Sooah thrives in the modeling route and that’s the most obvious path for her because of her unapparelled young visuals. That’s something she would want to do especially because it’s very easy for her and it’s also fun but to be honest, she would like to try her hand in variety shows more now that Fuse already has an established image.

+ Day Twenty: If your muse was able to be a part of a supergroup that comprised of current idols, who would they want to be in the same group, and why? What kind of concept would this group have? How do you think the group would do in terms of popularity?

If Sooah was to pick members for a supergroup, she would struggle a lot because many others are better qualified. But she would pick Lipstick’s Hyeju, Lucid’s Hyoyeon and Jeonghwa and WISH’s Sophie, besides herself. All of them are skilled and have the visuals Sooah would want to see in a group, besides being charismatic so she thinks they would do well together? Because they would look very powerful, they would probably invest in a more powerful, girl crush concept, like the ones in Femme Fatale. And since they have big names in the industry, they would also do fairly okay, popularity-wise.

+ Day Twenty-One: How does your muse feel about their fans? How do they feel about sasaeng fans? How would they handle a situation in which they were faced with obsessive fans that followed them or invaded their privacy? If they’ve had problems with sasaeng fans before, how did they feel about it?

She’s appreciative of her fans and she’s extremely glad that they are kind to her and her members too. She’s grateful that they kind of protect her from OT4 stans and that warms her heart a lot. She doesn’t know what she should do with sasaeng fans though. She’s scared of them, more than anything. She’s scared of which boundaries they might break to get her attention and she fears there’ll be a day they’ll end up hurting someone to get to her. She would try to communicate her thoughts and ask them to leave, even though she knows that probably wouldn’t work out. She would just be scared and ask her manager to help her with it.

+ Day Twenty-Two: Talk about your muse’s goals that they have for their group or themselves if they are a solo artist. Where would they want to promote if given the chance? Do they want to do a solo album at one point? This can be any sort of professional goal.

There isn’t much she can think of because she’s good at following the flow and doing as she’s told. Fuse reached a point where things are comfortable and their name is established. She wants the other members to be able to have separate careers and still be successful with the things they want to do so maybe that means they’ll have to be more recognizable not only internationally but also locally. She never visited Central or South America and she would love to visit the countries in these regions sometime in the future to promote.

+ Day Twenty-Three: What are your muse’s thoughts on being an idol and dating? Are they against dating? Have they ever been in a relationship after debuting? If so, talk about the challenges that have come along with dating. If they aren’t dating, would they want to date?

She understands why some people are against it. She doesn’t agree with their thoughts. She thinks that they are young and they are surrounded by beautiful people all the time and at some point, is only natural to feel attraction towards someone. And as healthy, young people, they should be allowed to have normal experiences such as dating. Sooah was never in a relationship before or after debut. She was way too young when she became a trainee and she was way too focused on not messing up and practicing after she debuted. And of course, she would love to date someone if she feels it’s the right person.

+ Day Twenty-Four: Who is your muse’s ideal type? Why is this person their ideal type? 

She has been saying since debut that she finds Lee Dong Wook very attractive and nominated him as her idol type since 2015. She never talked to Lee Dong Wook personally so she can’t talk about anything but his good looks. The sharp jaw and the kind of eyes are what draws her to this kind of aesthetic and she’ll be the first to admit that people like him don’t look like they smile a lot but there’s a certain satisfaction in getting a smile from them and the possibility makes her heart flutter. She has to be able to rely on the person and feel comfortable being around them. They also have to know how to properly cook, otherwise, they’ll rely on take-out for a long while.

+ Day Twenty-Five: What does your muse want to be remembered for in the idol world? Do they want to be remembered for their vocal prowess? Their image? Their dancing skills? Their scandals?

Sooah wants to be remembered as someone who improved over the years and became great in the end. She won’t stand out in any meaningful way. She’ll never be the greatest singer or the best dancer or someone remembered because of her little rap lines in Fuse’s songs. She does expect people to have the image of someone who came from the bottom and still managed to become someone great and who learned and improved a lot. Someone who never really stagnated and worked on herself to become a better artist. 

+ Day Twenty-Six: Does your muse ever regret becoming an idol? Do they ever think about what they would be doing instead if they lived a normal life? If they could go back in time, would they do everything all over again? Or would they end up doing something else?

She remembers regretting becoming an idol when she went back home after living with her members in the dorms. She was moving back home so she could spend some more time with her parents and she remembers seeing them after a long while and thinking, “they have aged”. There were wrinkles around her father’s eyes and her mother was slouching a little bit more and she remembers feeling very sad because she barely spent time with them in the last 4 years or so. She never thought she would have a normal life, to begin with. She dreamed of big adventures and in a way or another, this is a big adventure and she tries not to regret things or think how things would have turned out. She doesn’t think she would trade her life now for a “normal” life mainly because she can’t imagine herself not having the people, she has in her life now.

+ Day Twenty-Seven: After working hard on promotions, your muse is given the chance to take a two-week vacation anywhere in the world at any time they want, with nobody bothering them. Where would they go and when? Why would they want to take their vacation there? If they had the opportunity to bring three other people, who would they bring?

She always wanted to visit Machu-Pichu so maybe she would go there and hike her way up the mountains. She remembers seeing a documentary when she was younger and that became her plan with her mom that one day they would go to Peru and see the clouds from up there. She still didn’t have the time to do that with her. She would take her mom and her two older siblings with her. Dad is not very fond of that because he has back problems so he would have two weeks of freedom at home on his own. 

+ Day Twenty-Eight: Talk about your muse’s low point in life. Why was this a low point in their life? What kind of challenges did they face and how did they feel about this? Were they able to overcome it? If it is still ongoing, are they working on overcoming these challenges? 

During the trainee years, Sooah’s self-esteem hit a really low level. She was self-doubting a lot at the time and thinking she wasn’t enough and that she wouldn’t be able to ever get better regarding her skills. She was surrounded by incredibly talented people but there she was, not being remotely good in what she was supposed to do. Sooah thinks she’ll never get completely rid of this kind of thoughts, mainly because she knows she has a long way to go but things now are much better and because she has so many supportive figures in her life, she can rely on them more and not suffer on her own anymore.

+ Day Twenty-Nine: Talk about your muse’s most meaningful moment as an idol. This is what they feel so far is the highest point in their life and where they’ve never been happier. Recall the memory and describe it; what happened and how did they feel? 

Sooah remembers the moment of their first concert with a lot of fondness. They have been practicing for months at the time and Sooah was so nervous because it would be their first time doing a concert only with their fans and she didn’t want to mess things up. The moment they were waiting backstage to be okayed to go up and perform, she had a million thoughts in her head that slowly started dissipating as they sang and danced. She remembers feeling very warm in her heart when they had their first break and as they introduced themselves, she would hear the screams of the fans. When her turn came up and she heard their screams of support, Sooah laughed and her eyes teared a bit even. She was never so happy to perform like she was with the ‘Red Room’.

+ Day Thirty: Think about your muse’s life down the road. Where would they be and what would they be doing? Would they still be in the entertainment industry? Would they settle down and have a family?

When Fuse eventually disbands, Sooah will probably not get involved with music. At least she won’t be releasing songs for herself to sing. She’ll be more than happy to remain active as a lyricist/composer/producer and that’s her priority. Maybe invest more in her career as a model and start putting her visuals to good use, too. But she doesn’t exactly see herself wanting to be the center of attention like it happened in Fuse. She wants to slowly show her process of retirement, pretty much like Hyori wanted to do once in past. She sees herself settling down to have a family. She also sees herself traveling around the world and enjoying life differently too.

[urirealvibekiller]

꒰ ꒱ this is an idol life ship for my sweetest and softest bb @sarahbkwl​​ !! hope you like it hehe !! <33 

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

꒰ ꒱ your entertainment company

꒰ ꒱ your training years

you trained for a year before debuting. 

you auditioned for the company through yg global auditions and got accepted because they saw immense potential in you and your talents. 

you were pretty shy as a trainee but goddamn, with just one year of training and consistent hard-work, you glowed the hell up as a performer and artist. [kind of the same scenario as bae jinyoung (my bb <33) of cix and wanna one]

before debuting, you appeared in some of winner and ikon’s music videos, which is where fans began noticing you. 

꒰ ꒱ number of members in your group

there are five members in your group; two koreans, one korean-american, one japanese, and you. 

two koreans :: one is the oldest, sub vocalist, sub rapper, and the visual while the other is the main rapper and face of the group 

one korean-american :: main vocalist and the leader

one japanese :: lead dancer, lead rapper, and maknae

꒰ ꒱ your positions

you’re the main dancer, lead vocalist, center, and face of the group 

꒰ ꒱ your roles

you’re the fake maknae of the group; you may look and dress in a way that is a bit intimidating, and your charisma be through the roof on stage; but off the stage, you basically radiate babie energy and your group members as well as your fans feel protective over you because of your sensitive and clumsy nature. 

also the photographer; you’re known for your photography skills and you have over ten million followers on your instagram where you often post very artistic and aesthetic pictures of yourself, sceneries/places, your group members, and anything else that inspires you really.   

꒰ ꒱ your group’s concept 

a mix of badass and girl crush with a hint of sexiness. very similar to ddd by exid.  

꒰ ꒱ your idol best-friends

felix from stray kids || as foreign idols, it’s no doubt you guys hit it off immediately as soon as you guys met and got closer at MAMA. you may be shy at first but with him, it was like an immediate sort of connection. 

you’re definitely hype bestfriends !! constantly complimenting, supporting, and basically just hyping each other up. 

vedi affectionate best-friend. sends you memes at 2 a.m. 

oh and you both mc -ed for pops in seoul together and your close friendship is evident on camera; it’s just a very wholesome energy. needless to say, your friendship is one of favorites in the kpop industry.

seulgi from red velvet || you two would be the sweetest angels adskj 

you guys did a dance cover as a collaboration stage and have been inseparable since then. you’re often on each other’s instagram and openly shows support for each other’s comebacks and professional projects. 

she’s the type of best friend you can talk about anything and you would just laugh about everything. expect lots and lots rofl and majority of the time, you wont even know what you’re laughing about. 

lots of cute dates at cozy and underrated cafes or restaurants in town, which are perfect places for your photography and perfect for her to try new food, especially desserts. 

also she’s really good at art, especially drawing !! you’re both just so artistically talented and similar yet different in the best way - no wonder fate brought you two together as best-friends. 

꒰ ꒱ your fanboy(s) 

the members of verivery are huge fans of your group and have done a number of covers of your group’s songs. 

kangmin especially is a huge fan of you. 

꒰ ꒱ your boyfriend (public)

chittaphon leechaiyapornkul (can you tell i copy pasted that) aka ten. 

i mean we ain’t surprised at this point. it’s an established fact that you + ten = purfect. 

okay, so i see you guys being only professionally involved at first like your group and a few members of nct were doing this collaboration stage for an award show and it’s a sort of like group couple dance stage and you and ten were paired together. think of the who’s your mama dance stage at 2016 sbs gayo daejeon. similar to that aaaa 

but through the whole process of rehearsing and practicing together, you guys ended up becoming closer because i think your personalities would just click just like that. i think ten is someone who can just connect with anyone but with you, it would just be a different and special sort of connection. 

honestly, i think your relationship would be a mix of slow-burn and fast-paced. it would take him a while to ask you out or to confess verbally but his actions would show otherwise like he would do all those cute things like text you good morning or good night and face-time you regularly. he would buy you gifts. he would smile and laugh a lot more around you. 

i don’t know why i also see him following you on his finsta accounts (that you already know about) and would probably comment cheesy pick-up lines on your posts.

when he does decide to confess, he’ll be so straightforward about it but not in a way that’s overbearing - just very sincere y’know. 

you guys would probably keep your relationship private at first although he wouldn’t be the biggest fan of that but that really wouldn’t last that long. 

the dispatch catches you on a date and pictures of you two are released and both of your companies would confirm the relationship. 

and it’s a praised relationship and fans are supportive - of course there are inevitably and unfairly some negative response but overall, there’s an immense amount of positive reactions from fans that the negative ones are overlooked. 

you guys would be the epitome of a romantic couple and so artistic too augh !! 

oh and guess what, ten’s new best-friends are felix and seulgi now. eeep 

꒰ ꒱ miscellaneous 

your group gets your first win just a week after debuting, making you guys one of the fastest to win at a music show 

even as an idol, you pursue art and photography as more than just a hobby. you make your debut as an artist two years after your debut and some of your pieces are displayed at art galleries. 

your group is extremely popular and active in the US and you have collaborated with some western artists like Lauv, Little Mix, and Anne Marie. 

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

thank you for requesting angel <33 have a beautiful day/night !!

[this-glittering-world]

Okay so I the sequel to the Shamer's Daughter movie adaptation has just come out, and I'll be watching it in the cinema tomorrow, and I thought I'd write out my current adaptation opinions beforehand. Fair warning, it's super rambly.

okay so first things first, the plays were both excellent. I still listen to the songs on a regular basis, and they started my current habit of showing up every time Østre Gasværk adapts a new book for the stage (Pelle Erobreren last fall was such a great!)

they changed the structure a lot, from being 100% from Dina's perspective to where you could almost say it had three protagonists: Dina, Nico and Rosa. And I am 1000% in favor of that decision, because it was so obviously the correct choice, it worked so much better on stage that way. It meant you got to have juxtaposition! And the Min Familie song! And you got to see Nico before all the murders, which, considering he's my favourite character, I obviously enjoyed getting to see that part of his life

(sidenote, Dina's part of Min Familie is a little weak, because she doesn't really have family problems like the two others - except then in the sequel she does, and she gets a reprise, and I just love the concept of, even though it was years later, they remembered what they did with the original and they noticed that they had the perfect opportunity here)

The sequel's also structured very differently from the books, because they wanted to take three books and turn them into one sequel. And they totally succeeded, using mostly the plot from the third book, with some plotlines lifted from the second, and changing a few things around so Drakan is available for stabbing at the end and the fourth book isn't necessary. Also they whole cloth invented a plotline for Rosa, because she doesn't really get a lot of those in the later books? (it worked really well, was a good contrast to Dina's, and ended in a really great sad song.) And the end result, like the first musical, was an adaptation that was still recognizably the same story, but was structured in a much more ensemble-y way, because that works better in a visual medium.

the movie, on the other hand, kept the viewpoint squarely on Dina. But that's not to say they didn't make structural changes, because the bit where she's on the run played out super differently, it's just that that change didn't really seem to accomplish anything actually

just. why.

also it's sort of a really important plot point that Dina's mixed-race. The whole plot of the sequel is about her father. who is from a different country. But it's also relevant in the first book, which starts out with her being sad about not fitting in, not friendship-wise with the other kids in her village and not visually with her own family.

so of course they cast a white kid to play her in the movie.

The musical wasn't perfect in that regard, either, but it feels a little more defensible in that case, because it's more of a thing with plays that the actor doesn't always look quite like the character, that sometimes their age is 20 years off or they're a different race. (One funny example I've seen of this was at the Prince of Egypt stage play last summer, when Moses' bio brother was SE Asian as a child and then grew up to be white. But there's also the entirety of Hamilton, which did it deliberately for effect in a way a movie wouldn't.)

and the thing is, the kid they cast in the movie was genuinely really good, and it is really hard to find good child actors, so I can see why they picked her. But it's still not a great look.

(as a downstream consequence, I looked at the casting page and apparently her father's being played by a Eastern European.)

New topic: Everything about how Nico was portrayed in the movie.

Okay so the first thing we saw there was this super effective opening scene, where you see some blood soooowly trickling out from this room, and then this maid walks in there without noticing it like she's just doing her normal maiding routine, and she screams, and then bam we swap to Dina's perspective. Was really well done.

Another neat thing I noticed was how, you know how most movies when they cast people to play relatives the family resemblance tends to start and stop at the hair color. Not here, Nico and Drakan had different hair colors but vaguely similar facial shape.

(not that that'll be the case for the sequel, since Drakan's been recast. But that's not really the director's fault.)

A casting decision I am less happy about is the aging up. Because it means that instead of having spent a few years in his late teens ignoring his problems and using party culture as a coping mechanism, he's been doing that for at least a decade. Which turns it from "suboptimal problemsolving, but in a relatable way" to just kind of sad and pathetic.

One place where my headcanon disagrees with both adaptations is with Nico/Adela. They both make it so Adela reciprocates those feelings and is unhappy about her marriage, which, why? It just turns her into a traditional damsel in distress, and it doesn't even get you anything, Nico being a pining dork with an awkward crush is adorable all on its own.

(in my personal headcanon she might not be marrying out of love, but she's still choosing it, because she's politically savvy and it's the smart choice. And also she's nicer to Nico than anyone else around, which is not a high bar, and therefore he gets a crush.)

But that's not the worst Nico decision. That one comes at the end of the movie.

So. Our heroes got away from danger, and in the process Drakan and Nico had a short duel. Drakan was obviously more skilled, but Rosa helps and Nico gets a really good opportunity. And hits Drakan with the flat side of the sword, because of course he does, because he's Nico and that's what his entire character is, is not wanting to kill anyone, and also he grew up with Drakan and he might be a killer but — he can't — and then that's what Nico's entire character arc in the later books is about, is getting to a point where he's able to do that, where he's able to push the can't aside and know that this needs to be done to save everyone else. He gets there eventually but it takes him literally years and is a pretty compelling character arc.

Meanwhile, at the end of the movie, Dina asks him about it. Asks if he'll use the sharp end of the sword next time, if there is a next time. And he says yes, without any uncertainty.

On that note, I hope the sequel movie turns out okay. That Dina's arc plays out nicely, and that her father's lullaby is in there being the turning point it was in the book, being the moment she starts to see him as just a person. I also hope they do Davin and Nico's storyline well, but that one might be less likely since clearly they don't really Get the things I like about Nico.

[twtrv]

an accurate guide about red velvet

So since so many people are getting into Red Velvet recently, I decided to make a guide to help them out. You know, give yall some slack because learning five names is super hard. A guide accompanied by my half-assed jokes, interesting. 

PSA: If you’re only here to stan the girls because of their recent comebacks like Peek-A-Boo and Bad Boy and are going to drop them as soon as they release tracks similar to Dumb Dumb and Ice Cream Cake, leave because we don’t want you here.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get straight to business (TO DEFEAT THE HUNS WHY DID THEY SEND ME DAUGHTERS WHEN I ASKED FOR SONS)

Basic Facts

Red Velvet is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment in 2014.

There are five members (OT4 stans can choke).

They debuted on August 1st in 2014 with a single called “Happiness”.

Fandom name is Reveluv. Since “rêve” means “dream” in French, the meaning behind the fandom name is that us, Reveluvs, make their dreams come true and Red Velvet gives us their immense love in return, thus the “luv” part. Sometimes they also call us “Luvies”.

Official fandom colour is pastel coral and not red because l o g i c

The fact that they were formed by SM Entertainment doesn’t mean they got a free ride to the top so sit your entitled asses down, thanks.

Now, you see, they weren’t actually supposed to debut in 2014. I bet you must be confused but don’t worry, it is I, your trusty homie, that is gonna help you realize how many similarities every student has with SM lmao plus the reason for their early debut.

2014 was a rough year for our buddy Lee Soo Man. Jessica left Girl’s Generation; Sulli left f(x); Kris, Tao and Luhan left EXO... This, of course, caused a goddamn World War III amongst the fans of the respective groups. They were about to go in front of the official SM building with torches and pitchforks to demand SM to step up their game. To calm the situation down, our amigo SM must have thought: “Welp I sure fucked up. How the hell do I fix this? Wait, I have an idea! Let’s debut another girl group to cover up all the shit that has been piling up for years now!” 

And your boi gone and did it. He basically debuted another group despite the number of problems he had to deal with already. This is every student ever, just make another problem to cover up the first one.

Red Velvet debuted with four members; Irene, Seulgi, Wendy and Joy. The “Happiness” music video got 2 million views in a day and was the most viewed kpop music video for the month of August in 2014. See, the queens already breaking records.

However, the original version of “Happiness” was full of controversial topics such as 9/11 being the most prominent one. This caused such hate to the girls that everyone started calling them “flops”. Lmao Red Velvet stays unbothered as the kpop act with the most Billboard charted albums bYE.

Some of you still may be wondering what the hell happened with Yeri. Well, because their debut was rushed and due to her age, Yeri, unfortunately, couldn’t debut with them. When Red Velvet debuted, Yeri was 15 years old so basically a child. 

“bUt jiSUnG fROM ncT DreAM dEBuTed wHeN hE WAs onlY FoUrteEn”

Before, there was a law which stated that kids under the age of 16 couldn’t debut.

No need to worry fellow Yeri stans! Red Velvet only released another single called “Be Natural” before Yeri was officially added. The single featured NCT’s Taeyong on it too so if you are one of those fangirls, better go and check it out because your oppar is there + it is an underrated bop.

Yeri was added to the group during Ice Cream Cake era! Of course, many people hated her, acting as if Red Velvet released so many songs and solved world hunger without Yeri. Um, bitch they had two songs take a seat.

Discography and music in general lol

IT IS GOLD!1!!!!111!!

Okay listen, every single song of theirs makes me thot-drop in the middle of the goddamn school. Jesus Christ sunbaenim is shaking.

Albums:  Ice Cream Cake, The Red, The Velvet, Russian Roulette, Rookie, The Red Summer, Perfect Velvet, The Perfect Red Velvet.

Queens of naming their albums don’t even @ me.

Listen to every single song if you want to cure your depression, clear your skin, feed your children and harvest your crops. Seriously, all of their b-sides are so amazing and such bops they are worth a listen and you, as a person who chose to stan Red Velvet, deserve to have your ears cleansed.

Another topic that I want to bring up is “the red concept” and “the velvet concept”. It is not complicated. Basically what it means is that they split their concepts into two. The red concepts are more upbeat, catchy and poppy songs such as Dumb Dumb, Rookie, Russian Roulette etc. However, the velvet concept is where they show their mature, more serious ballads. Songs that represent the velvet side are Automatic, One of These Nights, Peek-A-Boo etc.

They filmed 13 music videos so you are going to get attacked by visuals 13 times, good luck.

The members 

The most interesting and fun part of this guide to be honest. So yeah, five members and five completely different personalities. Trust me, you’re gonna love every single one of these girls because they all have such amazing personalities and are extremely funny. Get abroad the homo express!

- Stage name: Irene

- Real name: Bae Joohyun

- Colour: Pink

- Position: Leader, Visual, Main Rapper, Lead Dancer, Vocal

- She really is a bae tho we love a powerful woman

- Born on March 29th, 1991; the eldest

- She literally looks five what the fuck

- tiny

- Takes pictures of everyone and everything so that she can stare at them while she does the laundry because she is such a mom

- “Shut the fuck up I am not a mom”

- A GODDESS PLUS TOP VISUAL OF THIS GENERATION NO PRINTER JUST FAX

- loves pussy

- Drinks men tears to stay hydrated

- Forgets names of her kids aka the rest of Red Velvet

- Snorts laundry detergent

- Talk shit get hit

- Silent but plotting world domination with her at the top

- Speaking of tops, she doms bYE

- She survived the World War II and was Stalin's deskmate when they were in the third grade

- xXButtLoverXx

- Likes winning. Who got to the finish line first? Her. Who travelled to space first? Her. Who found the cure for world hunger? Her.

- Actually very talented in everything she does and is a blessing to humanity

- Stage name: Seulgi

- Real name: Kang Seulgi

- Colour: Orange

- Position: Main Dancer, Lead Vocal

- Either as fluffy as a teddy bear or a fucking sex God there is no in between

- Born on February 10th, 1994; second eldest

- hER EYES MAKE ME QUESTION MY SEXUALITY

- She, in general, makes me question my sexuality

- also tiny

- “Hello I am the 71st prettiest face in the world”

- First half of the “DD” also known as “Dumbass Duo”

- Someone help her she is lost in time and space

- The type of person to put a red sock to wash with the whites

- Is not capable of doing the splits because she dumb lmao

- How the fuck is one this confused???

- Gets bullied by her members a lot

- A sunshine in human form. You know that sun from the Teletubbies? That be Seulgi

- Her abs make me feel like Kylie Jenner, y’know... pregnant

- “If there’s no food I’m going home”

- THE number one fan of Beyonce™

- Pringles advocate

- She didn’t train for 7 years to have people shit talking her because she is multitalented and leaves people all around the world shooketh

- Stage name: Wendy

- Real name: Son Seungwan

- Colour: Blue

- Position: Main Vocal, English speaker

- Is also a HELLA good rapper

- Born on February 21st, 1994; third eldest

- Used to live in Toronto when she was younger, her English proceeds to give everyone a boner

- the tiniest out of all

- The kpop singer with the widest vocal range (this is an actual fact)

- “S H I N E  O N  M E”

- So caring it makes me bawl. She literally cooks for everyone and is so supportive it is truly beautiful

- Is actually the one behind the iconic “PARK SOOYOUNG! WHEN YOU SMILE I SMILE TOO”

- If she ever covers your song, you can say goodbye to it because it’s hers now

- A soccer mom

- Also that famous Kris Jenner “You’re doing amazing sweetie” meme

- Rescue her scalp someone pls

- Probably used “WHOMST” once in her lifetime unironically

- The gayest out of all the gays

- She is a boob person and also has a very nice butt Irene knows

- Once stacked a gazillion hats on top of her head because why the fuck not

- Is also a sexy pornstar ... no wait, I meant a “saxophonist”

- Is so beautiful and deserves all the love in this entire world but the world doesn’t deserve her at all 

- Stage name: Joy

- Real name: Park Sooyoung

- Colour: Green

- Position: Lead Rapper, Lead Vocal, Mood-maker

- + an actress

- Born on September 3rd, 1996: fourth eldest

- Invented “cute” and “sexy” don’t fight me on this

- TALL (for a Red Velvet member lmfao)

- Has the prettiest profile, God took extra time in crafting such a masterpiece

- Speaking of God... God is real and in a form of Park Sooyoung

- Likes finer things in life such as herself

- If the song “Me Too” was a human, it would be her

- Ruthless

- When she gets scared her soul deadass leaves her body and it is hilarious

- A dramatic bitch

- HAS THE BEST BODY SORRY YALL CAN’T COMPETE

- Can get very angery

- Probably was kinkshamed by someone once

- Is having a mental breakdown at every waking moment

- “Can you stop I’m very sensitive”

- Tom to Yeri’s Jerry

- Just the most amazing human being, an all-rounder and a happy virus

- Stage name: Yeri

- Real name: Kim Yerim

- Colour: Purple

- Position: Maknae, Lead Rapper, Sub Dancer, Vocal, Songwriter

- Is being an absolute savage a talent?

- Born on March 5th, 1999; the youngest

- The other half of the “Dumbass Duo”

- So much sass is contained in this tiny human being

- Plans to take over SM soon one day

- HAS THE MOST CONTAGIOUS LAUGH IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND IT IS SO GENUINE I LOVE IT

- Likes pineapple on pizza cancelled

- The OG Sone

- A mess

-  (ง •̀_•́)ง

- Not a big spoon nor a little spoon, she a knife

- Tries her best

- Knows everyone and everything; what a social butterfly it warms my heart

- Likes to read smut so all of you smut fanfiction writers, watch out, she is lurking

- SPEAKING OF LURKING

- She lowkey had a fan account that was all about Girl’s Generation

- A woman we all aspire to be

- Is an actual cinnamon roll that yes, could kill you but everyone loves her because she really improved a lot. WE WATCHED HER GROW UP INTO A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN SHE IS NOW B L E S S

Popular ships, let’s play a game where you guess which two people are paired up (not like it is completely obvious)

SEULRENE 

WENRENE

WENSEUL

JOYRI

YERENE

JOYGI

JOYDY

WENRI

SEULRI

Ending note

On a more serious note, Red Velvet is an amazing girl group that deserves so much more. I hope this at least got you to check them out. If not, your loss lol.

I could use a fuckton adjectives to describe their perfection but trust me, that ain’t enough.

Anyways, OT4 stans can fuck off, don’t comment on this post.

Just love all the girls and don’t point out their insecurities in a rude way mmkay?

This is all from me and I hope you enjoyed and that this helped you and maybe made you chuckle (maybe?)

If there is another question that you want me to answer, ask me because I would love to.

P.S. It doesn’t have to be Red Velvet related because I am trash that stans more groups than the number of bad jokes I made in this post.

Follow for more quality top-notch content.

[lacquerware]

Mega Man should stop presenting its flaws as indispensable features

When I was fifteen, I learned to play the song Malagueña on the piano. It was a laborious project; the culmination of nine years of piano lessons under the tutelage of Mrs. Diane Miller, and the main event for her upcoming student showcase.

This arrangement of the piece was a seven-pager, and somewhere around page four was a problem phrase I kept playing wrong, a rapid two-handed run up the keyboard with tricky fingering. I got to a point where I could play flawlessly up to that phrase, only to flub the phrase every time. Each time I flubbed it, my teacher would stop me and send me back to page 2. “You have to perfect that phrase,” she would say, “so try it again, but first play the preceding two pages, so it’s no longer fresh in your mind by the time you get to it again.” Alas, this would result in more flubs, and after three flubs in a row she would send me back to the beginning of the entire piece. “You’re still not getting it,” she’d say. “So I think we should run through the stuff you’ve already mastered one more time.” I would glance at her, trying to read her intent, and she would stare back at me, bug-eyed and malevolent.

The above story is false,because Mrs. Miller was a kind, intelligent, and non-insane person. Like all people of that description, she understood that you don’t work out a problem area by indiscriminately repeating ALL PRACTICE. When you get one problem wrong on a math quiz, you don’t review the entire textbook. You don’t work on your free throws by drilling layups and then also free throws. You can’t learn to poach an egg by toasting English fucking muffins all day. To suggest otherwise is an act of hostility.

Mega Manhas always carried this hostility. The game dishes out its challenges in neat little screen-sized units, but penalizes your failures with gratuitous setbacks, often requiring you to replay entire stages from the beginning. This makes learning inordinately tedious. You have to retread every yard for every yard gained.

I guess this is a relic of the arcade age, when games were designed with the express intent of punishing players—unless they paid up. Indeed, most of Mega Man’s NES contemporaries inherited this same feature in the form of finite lives and scarce checkpoints, but it never made much sense on home consoles. You could argue that it prolonged the lifespan of each game, but that only held true for the masochists who continued to tolerate this torturous system rather than reallocate all that wasted time to more fruitful pursuits like, I dunno, learning to play piano or poach an egg.

I’ve always liked Mega Man, but it was already starting to feel like a tired concept as early as Mega Man IV. I was about eight years old by then, and starting to catch on that they were running out of boss motifs. Pharaoh Man felt like a red flag.

Mega Man has since proliferated into a multi-faceted franchise spanning more than 120 titles and three decades (and for the record, I’ve played through almost all of them), but it’s never really dispensed with its ancient baggage. Mega Man X brought new visual flare while diversifying the core action; Mega Man Zero imbued the series canon with new consequence and cool factor; Mega Man ZX fused the classic gameplay with the Metroidvania template; but all of these spin-offs continued to punish, punish, punish, to gatekeep their content from the series’ own consumers to no certain end.

When Capcom revealed Mega Man 9, I was momentarily taken with the nostalgia of it, but quickly lost interest when I realized that Capcom had no intent of evolving the series’ concepts, even in basic quality-of-life ways. Lives and weapon energy were still pointlessly commodified, checkpoints sadistically scarce. They’d even removed what few innovations the series had seen to date, such as the slide and the charge shot. Nor did the roster of Robot Masters appear any more inspired than the cast of rejects that had turned me off five installments prior. Capcom had had seventeen years to think about it and all they’d come up with were lame analogs of pastbosses, like Tornado Man and Magma Man. It’s like they thought they hadto retread the same shit beat for beat or people would get confused. Even their ace, Splash Woman, was just another in a long line of water-themed bosses.

Mega Man 10 as a follow-up was downright depressing. Strike Man, Pump Man, and Chill Man are what you get when you realize yesterday was the deadline and all you’ve got is a pen and a cocktail napkin. I can’t fathom that a bunch of game designers sat around brainstorming ideas for Mega Man fucking 10 and someone was like, “Hmm, what about an ice-themed boss.”

Now we have Mega Man 11, the long-awaited, belligerently-demanded revival of the MM franchise after some eight years of dormancy. After playing the demo, I find myself wondering why. Why are we here? Why is Mega Man 11 Capcom’s answer after saying no to Mega Man for eight years? It’s the SAME.

Yes, it looks and sounds nicer and there’re a couple new mechanics—which are themselves comically uninspired takes on the ancient tropes of bullet time* and Devil Trigger—but I’m mystified at how unchanged the formula still is after eight years of seemingly adamant dismissal of the entire franchise, let alone the thirty-one years they could’ve been critically examining it. Do they realize that other developers have been building on this genre since the eighties?

*Weird side note: The tutorial for Mega Man’s new “Speed Gear” ability explains that the gear makes you “move so fast that everything else seems slow,” but in practice Mega Man moves just as slowly as everything else. So it’s not Mega Man who’s moving fast, it’s. . . the player?  

Punishment as “Difficulty”

In the Block Man (lol) stage of the demo, there’s a section where you have to jump and slide through elaborate platforms as they scroll toward you, an insta-kill grinding device nipping at your heels all the while. The third platform has very peculiar collision detection, such that your head bonks against the empty space you’re supposed to jump through, seemingly rendering the challenge impossible. This is several screens into the stage but still prior to the first checkpoint (on Normal mode), so every time this platform killed me, I had to start the entire stage over. After about fifteen tries, I discovered that the collision doesn’t trigger if you’re holding left as you make the jump—an illogical thing to do unless you’ve died so many times you’ve run out of other ideas. By the time I cracked this idiosyncrasy, I’d already spent close to an hour replaying the preceding screens over and over for no reason. Why is this still a thing? This is punishment, not difficulty. It contributes to the challenge only in that it makes the experience less fun, “challenging” your resolve to continue playing. Think of all the origami you could be learning. All the old ladies you could be helping cross streets.

The Mega Man games are quite clever in the way they parse out the platforming and shooting in little bite-sized units. Each screen is essentially an action puzzle for you to solve. It would be so logical for each screen break to be a checkpoint, because each screen break isa checkpoint—the start of the next challenge. Games like Super Meat Boy do this, meting (meating?) out their challenges in bite-sized, infinitely repeatable increments. Nobody accuses Super Meat Boy of being too easy because it doesn’t make you repeat the shit you’ve already completed when you fail at the current task. If you wantthat kind of punishment, no one’s stopping you from resetting the game.

Mega Man 11 adds a “Casual” mode which increases the number of checkpoints, but it’s still annoying to me that the more punishing model is treated as the norm while the more logical distribution of checkpoints is treated as a concession. Soulsplayers will tell me to “git gud,” but that’s why I led with the piano analogy. I got damn good at Malagueña, and I still had time left over to do my homework and play video games.

Special Weapons

Using your Special Weapons in Mega Man games is like spending the money you might need to pay rent on stuff you could be getting for free through your well-connected friend Dave. The trial-and-error pairing of the right weapon and the right boss is such an integral part of Mega Man’s progression that any other use of anyspecial weapon becomes a high-risk gamble—unless, of course, you just Google the answers.

I understand the need to impose limits on the more powerful weapons, but games have figured out countless better ways to do this in the thirty-one years since Mega Man 1. Cool-down times. Cool-down meters. Recovery proportional to damage inflicted. Recovery proportional to damage received. Recovery by way of skillful attack, à laMetal Gear Rising. Enemy fire absorption à la Alien Soldier and Radiant Silvergun. Ranger X on the Sega Genesis had solar-powered special weapons; why not steal that idea for this game’s allegedly solar-powered protagonist?

Instead, even in its eleventh installment in two-thousand-goddamn-eighteen, Mega Man still employs an RNG-based item drop system. Replenishing your meter is as simple and menial as finding an enemy spawn point and brainlessly standing and shooting until an enemy happens to drop the energy you need. Don’t forget to cycle over to the gun you want to replenish, or else the battery is wasted, as if Mega Man just eats it by mistake.*

*Later games in the series introduced the Energy Balancer, a purchasable item which automatically refills the weapon that needs refilling even if you don’t have it selected. Why is that a thing you have to buy? Why put a fundamental improvement to the game behind a paywall, virtual or otherwise?

Meanwhile, MM11still employs the same bizarre meter continuity between deaths as past installments. Each death means repeating sections of the stage without reacquiring any previously spent meter, effectively creating a difficulty vortex—the harder this game is, the harder it gets. There was a ruthlessly capitalistic logic to this in the arcade days,but the Mega Man series has never been coin-operated (with a few obscure exceptions). It hasnevermade sense that, often, the best strategy is to voluntarily leap to your death over and over to force a Game Over, just to restart with a full weapon meter as an alternative to the tedium of refilling it manually or facing the boss without it. What is the explanation for this meter continuity in the first place? Are we supposed to think Mega Man is repeatedly exploding and materializing but he can’t materialize a few extra shots from his bubble gun while he’s at it? There’s a multi-faceted idiocy to this whole system.

Rush

Capcom ought to take a long, hard look at Rush, Mega Man’s transforming robot dog companion. It’s hard to believe the same guy who invented a fully autonomous solar-powered robot boy couldn’t design a dog-shaped spring that runs on renewable energy. Special weapons are one thing, but why does Rush have an exhaustible meter? He’s a fucking spring. It makes no sense as a narrative detail nor as an element of game design. What exactly are the designers trying to limit? Your ability to spam high jumps? The logistics of the Rush Coil already do that; you have to set him up like a lawn ornament and he peaces out after a single bound. He’s unspammable, even with a full bar. To begin with, there are rarely that many useful opportunities to use the Rush Coil within a single stage, and energy power-ups are infinite as long as you’re willing to endure the chore of finding them, so it’s not as though the game is challenging you to budget your resources—it’s just discouraging you from searching for those meaningful jump opportunities in the first place. It’s driving you to Google.

Bosses

The Robot Masters have always received special star treatment in the Mega Man games but rarely been very interesting as boss fights. You know the deal: dodge the dizzying hail of projectiles in an empty square room while desperately scrambling to land enough hits with the weakness weapon before you die. Considering all the fanfare these bosses get (mug shot, intro screen, and now reveal trailers), most of them feel kind of interchangeable. Most of them have nearly identical silhouettes and shoot functionally redundant projectiles in superficially different shapes. Every gun is a Lucky Charms marshmallow.

The boss fights actually do seem a little more interesting in Mega Man 11—Block Man in particular stands out with his mid-fight transformation into a hulking colossus. I’d hoped to see more of this in future Mega Mans—fights that evolve and really set each Robot Master apart as a distinct embodiment of its corresponding motif—so maybe they’re onto something this time. Still, it’s a little ridiculous that this game has yet another fire boss, electricity boss, cold boss, and bomb boss. Why are we still here?

Before the mob comes for me, I want to stress that there’s always been lots to love about Mega Man, and I’m glad Capcom is investing in the IP again. I just hope this is the start of a long-term effort to reevaluate and improve the series, not another short-sighted extension of a tired status quo.

[kpop-wetdreams]

The Composure of the Composer

The Composure of the Composer

[one shot; soulmates!AU]

Author: Kpop-Wetdreams

Pairing: Jaebum x Reader

Rating: 18+ [fluff / angst / smut / nsfw]

Warning: Explicit Sex

Word Count: 11.6k

Author’s Note:  A soulmate!AU series of oneshots by @kpop-wetdreams, @igot7bangtanbaes, and @yehet-me-up, based on a concept by @kpop-wetdreams. The Master List can be found at: The Inevitability of You.

You woke up to the light streaming through the windows and hitting you squarely in the face. You groan as you roll over to evade the sun that was the world's most adamant alarm clock with no such luck as your cat, Sir Fat Butt, decided that it was time you fed him. This time your groan was less voluntary as you felt him jump onto your back and start to knead you, trying to get your attention. Groaning for the last time you roll back over and sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes and absentmindedly petting your cat. His purr could be felt through your bed as you reached for your phone. You had band practice today. You were a drummer in a moderately popular band if you did say so yourself. You were actually quite proud of the achievements your bandmates and yourself were able to achieve. Your style of music was rock ballads not that you could hear them, not the way everyone else did. That was your deficiency, your impairment. For as long as you could remember you watched as people mouthed along to a secret melody that you were never privy to. People had tried to explain the phenomenon of music to you but it was hard to grasp.

It wasn't that you were deaf, for from it. You could hear sounds but for some reason, when they were strung together in a melody, you were locked out. It was an infuriating experience. You wanted to be a singer more than anything else. You felt it in the deepest parts of you that you had something to share but you were terrified. You were too embarrassed to sing in front of anyone because you yourself couldn't hear what you sounded like. What if you sounded like nails on a chalkboard? Worse, what if you were actually making no sounds at all. It was so difficult to tell. Your vocal chords felt the way they did when you were talking if only that they were tighter at times and more loose at others but that was hardly any indication to go off of. The ding of an incoming message in your band's group chat drag you out of your thoughts.

[Sasha 7:44 AM] Good morning sleepy heads! Meet at the practice room by 9? I know it's early but the sooner we get there the sooner we can be done right?

You shake your head as a small chuckle escapes your lips. Sasha was the leader of your band and the lead vocalist and back up guitarist. She was the bubbly beautiful visual that stood center stage and drew everyone in. Despite her sweet appearance, Sasha was actually quite the hard ass.

[Meri 7:47 AM] Don't lie to us, Sass. We all know the sooner we get in just means the longer we're practicing. There is no get out ‘early' with you.

[Thomas 7:48 AM] ^^^^^^^^ this an infinite amount of times.

You laugh out loud this time. Meri was the bassist and Thomas, was backup vocals and lead guitarist. With Annie on the keyboard and you on drums, that was the entire ensemble of U4ria. You knew Annie would still be asleep but she would somehow always make it to practice on time even if she wasn't the most active in chat (though it was your sneaking suspicion that Sasha took a detour to Annie's place and hauled her out of bed to ensure she was on time you have yet to prove your theory with evidence).

[________ 7:59 AM] See you dweebs there xoxo

You type quickly and hopped into the shower. You had an hour to get ready and grab your bag and head out of the door. Luckily for you, since you were the drummer that meant usually you didn't have to lug your equipment around, just your drumsticks. The shower was quick, short, and hot and ended too soon. You tie your drying hair up into a quick and messy bun and after throwing on an oversized sweater, some black tights, and combat boots, you were out the door with a bag slung over your shoulder and drumsticks securely in hand.

As you walked along the street you drummed an invisible beat. Sometimes you were envious of those that walked with their heads down, plugged into their devices and you assumed, listening to music as they went about their day. You wondered if they even knew how lucky they were to be able such a ‘mundane' luxury when you would give up almost anything to hear the music.

"No matter." You tell yourself as you continue to the bus stop. Just because you couldn't hear music didn't mean that your life lacked sound. You listened to all the sounds around you. Bird songs were exempt from your inability to hear the music. You whistled their tune back to them and noted the sound of passing cars. The rumbling of engines… the laughter of children playing at a nearby playground. They were music to you. In your head, you arranged entire orchestras of the sounds around you and the sounds that were invisible to others. Sounds that were just ‘noise' to them but were everything to you.

Band practice had gone great and without a hitch. Everyone had shown up on time, early even which had delighted Sasha but as predicted, they went on until the bitter end. You were currently lying on the floor heaving, letting the air conditioning wash over you. You never understood how you got so sweaty playing the drums but you always did. The others always teased you for your ‘passionate' playing but you just wanted to convey the song, the heartbeat of the music as best as you could and apparently that meant looking like you ran a marathon.

"Did you hear the new song released by Jaebum?" Thomas asked excitedly taking out his phone.

"Did he actually sing in this one or just you know, do everything else?" Meri teased. Jaebum was a famous composure. He composed the music, wrote the lyrics and produced the songs though he never sang on them himself. His career had taken off quite suddenly a few years ago and showed no signs of slowing down what-so-ever. One of the other reasons his career took off the way it did was despite his music being incredibly moving, being lyrically beautiful, he also shared the music impairment. He couldn't hear the music he produced. Not in its entirety anyways. That's why the other thing he was renowned for was being a merciless womanizer.  Apparently, he would do anything to hear his music even if it was just in snippets, just bits, and pieces. Finding your complete soulmate, that absolute perfect match would of course ‘cure' you of your impairment in its entirety but there were work-a-rounds. What Jaebum did was actually quite common. You see, there were varying degrees of matching within all those that shared the same impairment. Rumor had it that Jaebum went around finding the girl with the highest match and that's how he lived his life. Ever searching for the greater match just so he could compose and hear his music, never seeking it for the fulfillment of his actual soulmate bond for how much more it could actually offer him.

You always thought it was a little unfair of people to judge Jaebum so harshly on how he chose to use his soulmate bond. It wasn't like there was some magical guide on how you were supposed to treat your soulmate as long as it was consensual with both parties, what was wrong with what he was doing? You were sure these women that agreed to be with Jaebum knew his reputation and what his typical pattern was so it wasn't a surprise but the heart was a fickle thing really.

"Speaking of Jaebum… did you hear that he was supposed to be a guest judge at that charity talent show that we signed _________ up for?" Annie asked nonchalantly as she was packing away her keyboard.

You sprung upwards, staring at your friends though right now they looked like a buncha backstabbing cows more than friends.

"Annie!" Sasha hissed. "You weren't supposed to tell her yet!" she screeched in hushed tones.

"What. The. Actual fuck is Annie talking about?" You asked through narrowed eyes.

Meri walked over to you and wrapped you up in a tight hug and started to pet your hair. Meri was always the mother of the group, trying to keep things smooth and from bubbling over too much. "We all know how much you want to sing _________. We thought this might be a fun way for you to get out there… you don't have to go if you don't want. All we did was sign you up and pay the entrance fee." she said encouragingly.

"Though if you did decide to do it, you would kick ass _________. Sasha showed us the demos on your computer." Thomas said grinning and giving you a thumbs up. Now it was your turn to screech at the top of your lungs and point accusingly as Sasha.

"TRAITOR!" You yell at the top of your lungs, livid. You showed her those demos in confidence! She wasn't supposed to go blabbering to the rest of the group about your singing or your lame attempts at it!

"HEY IN MY DEFENSE, YOU LEFT ME ALONE. IN A ROOM. WITH TOP SECRET INFORMATION AND THE ABILITY TO COPY THE FILES. WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?" Sasha asked, shrugging but pouting at you and giving you her infamous puppy dog stare that would have your anger melting away.

You gave up and just decided to lie down. You laid down completely flat on your stomach and didn't move.

"Look at what you did Sasha. You broke _________ again." Thomas scolded as you could hear your friends scuttling about and surrounding you on the floor. "Honestly _________, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. We were surprised when Sasha showed us the demos and hurt that you didn't feel like you could show us yourself. You have talent even if you can't hear it _________ but we can.  You are a singer. You pour that passion you have when playing the drums into your singing and Sasha will have to watch her back or we will end up with two lead vocals." Thomas teased, nudging your side.

You could feel someone pawing at your hand and you finally turn to face the source to find Sasha's face but an eyelash distance away. "Don't be mad. We did it for you stupid. We believe in you. I wish you believed in yourself half as much as we believed in you. If you believe in yourself that much then you could dethrone even Jaebum as the greatest composer and artist of our generation." She said seriously.

The room was silent as the whirring sound of the air conditioner could be heard before you sat up. "Do you guys really think so?"

You didn't need an answer as your friends all collapsed about you, forming a massive doggy pile and group hug all at once.

Jaebum stared at the invitation sitting open on his desk. He ran his hand through his hair again and sighed the umpteenth sigh of the day. He was too busy. He simply had too much to do to make an appearance at this charity event as a guest judge like his company wanted. It was some feel-good event, non-profit media frenzy event. The winner of the ‘talent show' didn't even get a prize. All you got were more good feelings. Jaebum had nothing against charities. He loved charities. Yay giving back to the community. Yayyyy but he was simply just too busy. Lately, he found that his impairment was bothering him more than normal. More of the music was slipping away from his fingers which only meant one thing, it was time for a new mate.

His solution wasn't a perfect one but it was one that worked. He would find the most suitable mate possible in the moment he needed them and kept them around until the music started to fade, which usually meant their affection for him was waning as well and then it was time to upgrade to a new model. This one had lasted a surprisingly long time. He had even enjoyed the sex and her company. They had shared interests but it was never her that kept him there, only what she offered him. He didn't feel guilty. These girls knew what they were signing up for when they agreed to date him. They were using him just as he was using them, they used each other in different ways and used each other until there was nothing left and then they'd fall apart. It was something that Jaebum had probably gone through at least a dozen times that now it was just routine.

Jaebum held up the invitation again to scrutinize the cursive writing embossed on the paper. "Fuck it. It's Christmas time. Do what we can for those that can't right?" he muttered as he turned to his laptop and opened up an e-mail to the event coordinator letting them know that he would be in attendance after all but he had a few...demands.

He wouldn't have to appear on any broadcast; and

He could sit away from the Judge's table.

Those were his only two stipulations to his attendance. They could use his name all they wanted as long as he didn't have to appear. It wasn't that he wasn't confident in his looks (if women were any indication, he was rather good-looking), he just valued his privacy and the moment he revealed his face, he would lose that forever.  

Once Jaebum got the confirmation e-mail back that all his conditions will be met, he sighed again. "Whoop-dee-fucking-do. Let's go put in some charity work," he muttered to himself, placing his noise-canceling headphones back over his ears and getting back to his producing project.

"Stop pacing _________. Honestly, you're going to make me throw up." Sasha said as she rubbed her temples from her seat backstage with you and the rest of U4ria.

You couldn't help it. You were not going to come. You had flipped a coin. Then plucked petals off a poor flower. Then back to the coin. Then counting toes on the tiger and all the things. You had finally resolved not to come to this thing despite practicing all week long. Meri had been careful to monitor how much you were practicing so you wouldn't strain your vocal chords and actually do more harm than good. It was strange to practice singing without being able to hear the song. You were going to be singing one of Jaebum's many compositions. The words were actually pretty easy to sing (since you already knew them by heart). It didn't matter how many times Meri told you that you sounded amazing, you didn't believe her. How could you? How could you believe something you had never experienced first hand?

Your hands were shaking so much it looked like you had downed 5 espressos on the way here. It didn't matter how many times you wrung them or tried to take deep breaths, nothing seemed to be able to settle your nerves. You almost didn't register the contestant that was just before you step out onto the stage. Almost. As soon as you saw the duo walk past you and out onto the stage, you started hyperventilating.

"SOMEONE GET HER THE BAG," Annie screamed as people threw things around and you were eventually handed a paper bag and some water.

Thomas patted your back sympathetically. "You can do this _________ but if you really don't want to you don't have to. We are proud of you either way." He tried to comfort you. You knew that your friends would be proud of you either way but you wanted to do this. You maybe wanted to do this? No. You definitely wanted to do this for yourself! You had to do this. But really, did anyone have to do anything at all? If you left right now, your friends would still be proud and no one would be the wiser. Well, no one except you. Would you be able to look yourself in the mirror tomorrow and not feel regret? You uncapped the water bottle and downed the entire thing like it held something stronger than just water hoping for some liquid courage but no such luck.

"_________. _________!" Someone called your name as your head shot up.

"H-h-here!" You said unsteadily as you walked towards the person that had called your name.

" Hi _________. We need you to be on standby and be ready to step out on stage as soon as you're given the cue. Good? Good." They said without looking up from their clipboard and walked away before you could ask a question if your brain was competent enough at that moment to form one. You were shaking like a leaf standing on that red ‘x' and apparently, you went on autopilot because the next thing you knew, you were standing on a different red ‘x' and a spotlight was shining in your eyes. The judges' panel regarded you curiously as you introduced yourself and when you were ready, you cued Thomas to play your music.

Ok. 1, 2, 3, 4, rest, 2, 3, 4, rest, rest, rest, 4, rest, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, rest, rest…

You took a deep breath and something strange happened. You sang, projecting your voice on pitch and for the first time in your entire life, you heard yourself sing.

Jaebum had entered the venue through a side door to avoid the commotion out front. His name was plastered all over the building and the organizers had spared no expense to deck out the building and really make it feel like something special. In front of the venue stood a Christmas tree that was so large that you couldn't see the top of it if you were standing too close to the base. Twinkling lights were strung across all the outside areas to mimic the night sky and even he had to give credit where credit where it was due, the venue looked spectacular.

He had met with the other judges briefly to go over the program and what was to be expected. The Talent Show only held about 25 contestants, nothing too crazy. Good enough to put on a program and a good selection of talents and acts for them to choose a winner from. The winner won a small sum of money and some recording time in a professional studio. It wasn't a bad prize, especially for something smaller. All in all it was more of a focus on the charity aspect of the event and once all the judges were caught up and they were given the cue, the judges that would be appearing on the broadcast, as well as the MC, filed out and Jaebum exited stage left and found his way up to the nosebleeds.

Jaebum situated himself dead center and high up enough that he could see the contestant but they wouldn't be able to see him, not with the spotlight shining in their eyes. This was his happy place. Somewhere he could observe and not be observed in return. He had his laptop open on his lap as he clicked away on the keyboard, chatting with the other judges through instant messenger. One by one the contestants filed on, performed their acts, Jaebum provided his professional opinion and they left the stage and the next person was ushered on. It was starting to get a little tedious and he could feel his irritation levels start to rise. He was grateful that the organizers had left this particular balcony completely empty so he would be undisturbed. He sat hunched over slightly in his black, oversized hoodie, hood up, typing away and drinking the occasional sip of water.

"_________." He muttered as he typed your name into his notes. His eyes flicked away from the screen to the small figure standing on stage. Even from way up where he was sitting, he could tell that you were nervous. "Doubtful she will be any good with how nervous she is. Even if she is good she won't be able to perform at her optimal condition," he muttered, typing so into his notes mechanically. It wasn't that he was cold-hearted or cruel, he was just straightforward and honest.

He hears the music start and he puts away his laptop, preferring to completely focus on the performer as they were performing and opting for a pen and paper where he could scribble things down without looking. It's one of my songs. He chuckled to himself softly. Maybe she thought she would earn brownie points if she went with one of my songs. Jaebum chuckled. What an amateurish decision to make. Jaebum was about to close his eyes and take a quick nap when he heard it. Your voice. It was unlike anything he had ever heard before and suddenly he was at the edge of his seat. The way you voice carried the song… the way the song melded into your voice. The crescendo. The subtlety. The breathiness that he wanted to convey, it was all there just as it had been in his mind and for the first time, he was hearing it. It was the first time he was hearing his song in its entirety.

Jaebum was sitting on the edge of his seat, hands gripping the railing as he listened to your voice and his song. He couldn't believe it. A complete match. You were a complete match. "Just who are you _________…" Jaebum muttered as he watched you perform. Your performance was sincere as you conveyed all you could through your voice and the song. There were no excessive movements or additives on your part and it was perfect. He had to meet you. He had to -- he didn't know what he had to do but what definitely wasn't going to happen was that you were going to slip back into anonymity and slip away.

It took Jaebum a moment to register that the song had ended and it seemed like it held the same effect for you as you stood on stage, unmoving with the mic dangling at your side. Only with some hushed sounds and waving from the stagehands did you realize that you needed to clear the stage. Your walk turned into a speed walk which turned into a full-on sprint as you dashed off stage and Jaebum dashed after you. He ran down the millions of stairs from the balcony to the main floor, cursing the fact that he decided not to sit with the other judges. That was just a stone toss away from you instead of the winding maze he was doing now.

Jaebum didn't even bother to run towards the stage as he made a straight beeline to the back where the other contestants where. Upon arrival, all he saw were people setting up or tearing down and getting ready to go. You were nowhere to be found. He ran from room to room, down one hallway and down another but you seemingly had vanished into thin air. Jaebum hit his clenched fist against a wall in frustration. "You have to be fucking kidding me!" He couldn't believe that you had managed to escape. You! You were the key to his music! To finally unlocking all his music and he had let you get away. Jaebum dashed from room to room, even opening some closed doors only to be met with gasps from changing patrons which he quickly blushed, mumbled an apology and promptly closed the door to open up a broom closet and being hit square in the face with a falling mop. "Fuck!" he growled in frustration. Jaebum walked away from the treacherous closet and tried a few others but those were all locked. He was at the last door in this particular hallway, his hand hovered over the doorknob but this one was clearly ‘Janitor's Closet'. His hand was grasped around the knob and just about to turn it when he heard a voice that he could've sworn was yours.

Jaebum ran towards the sound only to come to an open reception area. He closed his eyes, rubbing his temples at his mounting frustration. Jaebum chewed the inside of his cheek, he wasn't a quitter. He found solutions.

Jaebum jogged to the event coordinator's office and asked to see the sign-up forms for all the contestants today. The woman behind the counter was a little bewildered and wouldn't hand the papers over. This was the first time Jaebum found the fact that she didn't know who he was to be detrimental.

"Sorry. Let me clarify. My name is Im Jaebum and I am one of the judges. It is of the utmost importance that I am able to examine the sign-up papers for the contestants of this event."

The older lady was not buying whatever he was trying to sell. "How do I really know you're Im Jaebum," she asked, narrowing her eyes at him pointedly. Jaebum sighed, pushing his hand through his hair before fishing out his wallet and handing her over a piece of ID on it with his face and name.

"Please ma'am. The papers."

"How do I know you're the real Im Jaebum and not an imposter. I hear you can make a fake ID these days quite easily…." she said, tapping his ID card on a nearby table to see if it would magically explode or something of the like.

Luckily it was at that moment that one of the main event organizers was walking by and saw Jaebum. Jaebum smiled relieved. "Mr. Oh, Will you kindly vouch for this very, very, very diligent worker that I am a judge?" he asked through gritted teeth. After a few more minutes of convincing, Jaebum was finally leafing through the papers until he came across the one for you complete with your picture glued to the application. Jaebum entered your number into his phone and set your contact picture with the picture that was on your application. He smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time. "_________. I'm going to find you. Just you wait." he muttered to himself as he pocketed his phone, neatly collected the papers and returned them to the staff member.

The music had been overwhelming but still, you endured. The sound of your voice and the swell of the instrumental accompaniment was more than you could ever dream of hearing. It sounded like all the songs you had composed in your head using the bits and pieces of whatever you could hear but at the same time, so much more. It was a hard thing to explain to feel like you've known something all your life, have it missing then suddenly and all at once, be immersed in it. Your voice wavered but never cracked as you finished the song, the final notes lingering in the air, the auditorium silent. The only sound that you could hear was the thundering of your beating heart and your ragged breath that followed. The applause was slow but as it grew in size, it drowned out your heart and the tears that you had been holding back erupted. It was too much. The music. The sounds. It was all just too much.

You bolted. You don't remember much about what happened next but all you could remember was the flashing of blurred faces as you ran. Ran as hard as you can looking for somewhere to hide. You needed to just decompress. You needed to process. You had tried multiple doors before you found one that would open. It was a janitor's closet but you didn't care. You pressed yourself into the corner and dropped down, gathering your knees into your chest, squeezing your eyes closed and hands covering your ears.

You had to just concentrate on your breathing and not the constant ringing in your ears. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Your heart was still hammering in your chest but you could no longer tell if that was because of what had happened or how hard you had been running. When you finally felt a modicum of your control return back to you, you sat flat on your bum in the closet. Your hands were shaking and it seemed like no matter what you did you couldn't get them to still. The music. Oh, the music had been beautiful. It had been everything you ever dreamed of and more. Being able to hear it in its entirety only made you more determined to be a part of that world but not only that, it confirmed that you could never go back… go back to not being able to hear.

Only after a few more minutes had passed that it dawned on you. Amidst your panic and being overwhelmed you never thought about the implications. What did it mean that you had been able to hear the music. "Shit." you mutter to yourself rubbing your eyes again and resting your head against the wall. "Fucking shit." Your soulmate. They had been within the allowed proximity to trigger your inability to completely vanish and you hadn't realized. They weren't just a partial match… they were a complete match. The hardest to find and you had bolted from the area. You groan gathering your knees up to your chest again and wrapping your arms around your legs. Resting your chin on your knees you stare at the wall across from you. You were never one to worry about your soulmate. You were of the firm opinion that if you found them you found them, great; if you didn't, it wasn't the end of the world but to have been in the same building or maybe even the same room as them and not found them felt… lacking. But it wasn't even just lacking… it was like you had the winning lottery ticket and you had lost it. It was a weird sense of loss that you couldn't describe. It was as if somehow your body knew, knew that your soulmate was close and now it yearned for that person even more so but you couldn't give your body… your soul what it desired. It was an ache. A slow and throbbing ache.

Your breath hitched in your chest and your eyes went wide as the doorknob jiggled. You stared at the door willing the person on the other side to go away. You couldn't really explain why you were in this closet and would rather not have to. You knew your face was tear-stained and probably not presentable anymore and you just didn't want to deal with people. You didn't want to have to deal with anyone yet. You wanted to wallow and attend your pity party for one for just a little bit longer before you had to face the world again. It seemed like your silent prayer worked as the door remained closed and whoever was standing on the other side of it went away. You let out a breath you didn't know you had been holding. You squeeze your eyes shut again before you crawl towards the door. Reaching upwards you gently turn the knob and open the door just a crack and peer out to make sure there was no one outside so you can make your escape. You slowly poke your head out and once you confirmed there was no one around, you gathered your strength and bolted from the closet, making a beeline for the exit with only home and the safety of your bed and comforter in mind.

It had been two days. Two days since the whole talent show fiasco. Two days that you had holed up in your apartment not answering any of the group messages or the multiple phone calls from your bandmates. You knew they were worried but you couldn't answer questions when you yourself still couldn't really understand what had happened. You had turned off your phone not wanting to hear the constant pinging and reading the constant messages asking where you were and if you were ok. Apparently, your bandmates had had enough. With Sasha in the lead, they stormed your apartment followed by a string of apologies from Meri. You had given Meri a key to your apartment for emergencies which Sasha had commandeered. She was personally leading this raid on your apartment to make sure you were still alive.

"You look horrible," Sasha said regarding you with cool eyes, hands on her hips. You were sure she was right. You hadn't moved from your bed unless it was to feed Sir Fat Butt. You had cereal strewn about your comforter as you casually tried to brush some of it off like that would fix the problem. You could hear the others starting to clean around your apartment and Annie in the kitchen clanging around which meant she was probably going to try to feed you. Your eyes narrowed at Sasha wondering what her duty was. "Up." She commanded. "C'mon, get up. You can use a shower." She muttered as she pulled your comforter off of you and you were reluctantly shoved into your bathroom. "You better shower before I go in there and make you shower," she warned. You chuckled sure that Sasha would definitely follow up on her threats, the small girl didn't make idle threats after all.

You showered quickly and as the water was running down you realized how lucky you were. Your friends loved you so much and you had worried them unnecessarily. You towel off and get dressed in clean clothes and go out to meet your friends. You could tell they had all been worrying about you by the looks on their faces. When your lip starts to quiver with how bad you feel about adding to their stress, they all gather around you and hug you tightly. They all take turns hushing you and reassuring you that no one was mad and that it was ok. You hold onto your friends tightly, not knowing what you had done in your past life to be so deserving of such kind souls in your life. You hear Sasha sniffle as she brushes something away from your eyes and clap her hands.

"Ok. Enough of this. Let's eat yeah?" She said dispersing the group and you all sit down and settle around the table.This was exactly what you needed. You needed them. You needed the support of your friends and only when everyone was full and you were feeling more like yourself again did you finally manage to convince them that it was ok to leave and you would be more present and answer their texts.

"Ay, remember to turn your phone back on your cheeky little butt." Thomas scolded as he handed you your phone as they were all leaving. You hugged them all goodbye before plopping yourself onto your couch and staring at your phone. You turned the device back on and saw how many multiple messages and missed calls you had from your friends. You smiled. You loved them so fucking much. You had all been friends before you started the band together and since you didn't have your family around anymore, they had become everything to you. They were your friends, your family, your support network and you would all do anything for each other.

As you were scrolling through the messages from your friends you notice a text from an unknown number.

[Unknown 11:43 PM] Is this _________'s phone?

[Unknown 11:56 PM] Sorry to disturb if this isn't… but I'm pretty sure it is?

[Unknown 1:03 AM] Sorry this is probably a little… creepy but I am Im Jaebum, the composer. I was at the charity event you performed at and I have an opportunity for you if you're interested in music. Please contact me. Anytime.

You stare down at your phone and the series of messages. You blink, your mind blank staring at the screen unable to make sense of the words displayed. What do they mean they're Im Jaebum? Im Jaebum the composer? Like the actual Im Jaebum? You had heard that he was supposed to be a judge at the charity event but how did he get your number. There were so many questions that suddenly ran rampant through your mind. How did you even know that this was Im Jaebum and not some catfish serial killer that was going to wear your face. Your eyes narrowed and figured since they clearly already had your number, there was no harm in reply….

[_________ 2:45 PM] Um. Hello. How do I know this is really Im Jaebum and not a serial killer.

You press send and waited a few moments before your phone pinged. You were surprised that ‘Im Jaebum' had replied so quickly.

[‘Im Jaebum 2:47 PM] Haha. That is probably for the best that you were suspicious. Better safe than sorry right? How would you like me to prove my identity? A picture?

You took a moment to think about the question. No, a picture wouldn't work because the serial killer could just go into some deep search and pull some weird Jaebum selca… no. Something live would be best…

[_________ 2:53 PM] Facetime?

You hesitate, your finger hovering over the send button. What if this was actually the Im Jaebum? What would you do then? Steeling your nerves, you press send.

When your phone rang with an incoming Facetime call you almost drop your phone. Luckily it only hit the couch and fell into the mysterious beyond but after you fished around quickly, you were able to answer it.

Jaebum's face appeared on your screen and you were thankful that Annie had made you presentable with a little bit of eyeliner and a touch of lip gloss that had survived the food.

"Ah, _________. Sorry to interrupt your day like this. Have you had a chance to think about my proposal?" He asked.

Proposal? Why are you proposing to proposing to me Jaebum… we don't even know each other. You thought before your kicked yourself mentally.  He was talking about his business proposition.

"Ah yes. What kind of opportunity did you have in mind?" you ask curiously.

"I'm looking for an assistant of sorts to help me with my music and I was impressed by you and what you had to offer at the charity event and was wondering if you'd be interested. We can discuss the terms of your employment face to face if you'd like. … Well that is if you still don't think I'm a catfishing serial killer." he chuckled and you felt your cheeks heat up with a blush.

"Oh yes. Well. Like you said, better safe than sorry. When were you thinking of meeting?" You ask.

Jaebum glances at something off screen and you can hear some clicking. You assume that he's probably looking at his schedule or planner to see when he was available. This was Im Jaebum you were talking to, the most sought-after composure and music producer right now.

"Um if it's possible can we do this afternoon? It seems like that's the only time I'm free. Probably early evening given what time it is now. Shall we say 5 at my studio?" he asked, his eyes flicking back up to the camera and seemingly straight through you.

"Yeah sure. That works for me. Just … text me the details and I'll see you then." You agree. He nods and you both exchange goodbyes and the call ends.You sit a little disoriented on your couch. The sound of your clock echoing throughout the room. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

"OhmygoshI'mgoingtogomeetImJaebuminlessthan2hoursandpossiblyworkforhimdoingtheonethingIwantedtodoallmylife."

The words tumbled out of your mouth without so much as a breath between them. You flop flat on your back on your couch and stare at the ceiling. "Can I even do this?" you wonder out loud to yourself. You had heard the rumors of Jaebum's inability being that he couldn't hear music which is the same as your's but he's had professional practice getting around that… If you were going to the studio to help him work on his music did that mean his… girlfriend or whatever would be in the room with you as well so he could hear what he was working on? Did they even have to be in the same room? You suddenly felt like you knew nothing at all and you had to somehow figure out how to get to Jaebum's studio.

You shot a quick text to Sasha with the address of where you were going with strict instructions that if you were not heard from again tonight to please send police to that address.

After paying the taxi driver, your hand rested on the handle. "I could leave right now and he'd be none the wiser," you muttered to yourself. The taxi driver waited patiently as you finally gathered your thoughts and pushed open the door, exiting. You stood in front of a daunting building, staring at it not sure of how you could proceed… You figured it would be best just to walk straight up and hopefully talk to a security guard or receptionist of something of the sort and maybe just maybe, they'd be able to lead you to where you were supposed to go.

As luck would have it, Jaebum had the foresight to give your name to the attendant and they lead you to Jaebum's studio. With a quick tap of your knuckles on his door, it opened to reveal the composer. It was weird to see him in real life. He was a lot more handsome than you were anticipating. It was surreal that you were standing there and then he smiled and you forgot how to breathe for a second. It should be illegal for someone to be this… good looking. You thought to yourself.

"Hi _________! Welcome! Come in come in!" he ushered happily, gesturing to a leather couch he had in his studio.

You perched on the edge of the seat as he sat down in his chair.

"So before we talk about business I want to show you something I've been working on," he said enthusiastically. He turned around and started pressing some buttons on his music equipment.

"Actually my inability doesn't allow me to he--" the words died on your lips.

Suddenly the room was filled with music and you could hear everything. You didn't understand. Your eyes flicked back and forth between the equipment and Jaebum. You let the music play out and fade into nothingness. The room was silent as neither one of you moved.

"W-w-what? What does this mean?" You ask shakily.

Jaebum looked at you with a bright smile on his face replacing his usual expression of coolness. "Don't you get it? We are a complete match. We are the complete match. We are soulmates." His eyes were twinkling as he laid it all out plainly for you.

You were sure you looked like a trout with your mouth hanging open and then closing but you just, you couldn't believe it. You watched with Im Jaebum. The Im Jaebum?! What were even the odds of that? Probably less than the odds that people end up finding their complete match but here you were, you found your complete match and it was him. You didn't understand. What did he want from you then? Did he want to start dating you? God, surely he didn't want to just marry you right off the bat, that'd be absolutely insane! Insane! There were a million different thoughts running through your head when you realized that you didn't know the man sitting in front of you. You had no idea who he was as a person, his ethics, his morals, other than what his name was, what he did for a living and the rumor of how he treated women. You didn't want to be just another one of those tabloid cases…

"I know this might be overwhelming for you but once I met you I knew I had to see you again. It would be insane to think that we would meet the way we did and I don't expect anything of you. Please know that. I just want the opportunity to work with you like I said over text earlier." he explained.

"We are soulmates which means we both share the same inability. The inability to fully hear music but when we are together, I, we, we can hear everything. Everything _________! I want the opportunity for us to work together. For both of us to fully be able to experience the music. You want to become a singer right?" he asked.

You nod slowly, trying to wrap your mind around the idea of working with one of the composers you had idealized for the better part of your life.

"Well after working with me I'm sure there will be so many agencies lined up to sign you that you will have your pick of the litter. So what do you say _________? Will you work with me?" Jaebum asked enthusiastically.

You kept blinking. All he was asking for was that you worked together. Surely you can handle that. He wasn't asking for your hand in marriage.

"Yes. I would like that," you said softly. At that, Jaebum showed you the most brilliant smile you had probably seen in your entire life as he clasped your hands in his.

"To the best working relationship, there ever was!" Jaebum declared.

Over the course of the next few weeks, you worked quite closely with Jaebum as he taught you the in's and out's of the industry. Not only did you help him work on his music, he helped you develop your talents. Now that you were able to hear yourself sing, you were starting to take vocal lessons and together, you were composing music. It was some of the most fulfilling work you've done and it made you so incredibly happy to be able to do so.

Not only were you learning about what it took to be a singer and improve, you were also learning a lot of Jaebum himself. You learned that he was uncomfortable displaying aegyo but had affection for his parents and would act cute for them without hesitation. You learned that he was hyper-aware of his facial expressions and feared that people would think he was ‘unapproachable' or ‘mean' or ‘angry' whenever he wasn't smiling just because his resting face was a little emotionless. You learned that he took care of people subtly, quietly in the background and preferred not to take credit for things like that. You also learned that one of the reasons he didn't do a face reveal was that he was shy to a degree. He didn't like to be the center of attention like that. He wanted his music to stand on its own and in a way, be completely detached from who he was in a person. His vision for his music was that when people heard it, they would only hear about the music, think about the lyrics and not about the person who wrote it. You found that quite admirable of him.

You explained everything to your bandmates. They were just as shocked as you were when you revealed that you had gotten an opportunity to work with Jaebum that you couldn't turn down and they completely understood. They didn't make you feel guilty about accepting the offer or anything and were just genuinely glad for you. You owed so much to them. You want to make them proud. You want to learn all you can and show them just what you can do, to show them that their faith and love in you is not misplaced.

The more time you spend together the more you come to realize just how fundamental the soulmate bond is. Your complete match is something that is so hard to explain. It is like the other person is ‘perfect' for you. They understand you without having to exchange a lot of words. You are more than just compatible it is as if you were made for one another. You compensated for the shortcomings and together, you were much stronger than you were alone. It was natural that you fell for him. He was amazing. He had fully immersed himself in the world of music and extended his hand to you. He took care of you just little things like he had brought a throw into his studio once he noticed you wearing your jacket. He made sure that the studio had the brand of tea you liked even though he didn't drink or like tea. Just little things that made it impossible for you not to fall in love with him but with that knowledge, you were also scared. He had clearly laid out what this relationship was to be. He had stressed that it was to be a professional, working relationship; nothing more. It would be.. unwise of you to expect anything more from him but despite how hard you fought it, you found yourself slipping further and further.

It was an afternoon like any other and like many of those that had already passed. You were a little early to meet Jaebum at the studio but you didn't mind working on your own lyrics while he tended to other things. You were about to knock on the door when you could hear the muffled sound of Jaebum talking to someone on the phone.  You were about to walk away when you heard your name mentioned. You were curious and pressed your ear to the door.

"No, she isn't a distraction. I know we're spending a lot of time together but she's good for my music."

"Yes, I understand."

"No, it isn't like that. There is nothing romantic between us. It is a purely professional relationship."

"With her, I can hear everything. The music. All of it. That's the only reason I'm keeping her around."

"Yeah. Ok. I'll talk to you later."

You were barely able to pull away from the door when it swung open. Jaebum regarded you with wide eyes as you tried to play it off like you had just arrived.

"Uh… did you just get here?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yeah! I just got here literally just before you opened the door." You answered, a little too brightly for it to seem natural. You could tell that Jaebum didn't quite buy your act but he let it slide nonetheless. He stepped aside and you walked into the studio like you had all the times before as you both got down to work. Things were off. You could both tell that but you both refused to address it. You were both stubborn as you pushed through but the day was simply not productive. No matter what the two of you tried you were just out of sync and no matter what you did, you couldn't seem to get into the flow of things.

Jaebum pushed his hand through his hair irritatedly and sighed for the millionth time that day.

"Let's just call it a day. Nothing is happening and we are just getting more frustrated." he reasoned which you totally agreed with. You nodded slowly sitting there.

"Hey, _________, are you ok?" he asked concerned as he reached out to touch your arm. You jerk your arm away and Jaebum's facial expression changed, becoming confused and maybe a flash of hurt across his eyes that disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

"Sorry. I just. I don't feel well." you said hurriedly as you gathered your things. "I'm just going to go home," you said. Not waiting to hear his answer, you push open the door and escaped. You were walking quickly to the exit when you heard Jaebum calling your name.

"_________! Wait up!"

But still, your gait didn't slow. You hailed a taxi and climbed in, giving him your address, you drove off as Jaebum exited the building and stood there. You watch his figure become smaller and smaller in the side mirror and you can't help but feel terrible.

"I shouldn't have done that. I'm so stupid," you mutter to yourself, blinking back your tears. You shouldn't have had any expectations of him. It wasn't his fault that you fell for him. He never asked you to. Why did it hurt so much that he was expressing how professional your relationship was with his manager? Or you assumed it was his manager. For all, you knew it could be his girlfriend. But still, the ache in your chest you felt in the closet returned. You felt so incredibly stupid. Not only did you manage to make yourself look like a fool, you could've potentially just jeopardized the best shot you had at making something of yourself in this industry all because you just couldn't get your head on straight.

You cried silently in the back of the taxi and thankfully, the taxi driver didn't ask why.

The streak of unprofessionalism continued. You couldn't bear to be in the same room as him. You kept canceling your appointments and trying to reschedule things to a point where Jaebum had to call you.

"What is going on _________? Do you not want to pursue a career in this anymore?" Jaebum asked pointedly.

It took a second before you could make your vocal chords obey. "No. It's not that. I just. I. I don't know." you answered softly.

"I don't know is not good enough. They won't accept I don't know's from you when you have deadlines to meet! What are you thinking?!" Jaebum started to scold you.

You let him continue to ramble on, talking about how irresponsible you were being and how you were sabotaging yourself and if you wanted this you couldn't act like that.

"... is it true what you said the other day?" You ask your voice barely above a whisper.

"What are you talking about _________?" You could hear the irritation in his voice. You would be irritated too if you were him.

"When you told whoever you were talking to on the phone that you were just keeping me around so you could work on your music." You said.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"The other day. You told someone you only kept me around so you could work on your music. That you … " you couldn't bring yourself to say the words ‘not romantically interested' because if he confirmed them, then there would be no solace for you.

"Is that what all of this is about?" Jaebum asked. "Of course I don't keep you around just for that. I… I care about you." he said.

"But do you just care for me like you would a friend?" you asked, a burst of courage coming out of nowhere.

"Of course I care about you as a friend… you know me better than anyone else _________. Are we not friends?" he asked.

You sighed. You felt so foolish. It was clear that your feelings were one-sided and now you looked like an idiot.

"_________? Are you still there?" Jaebum asked, worry in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm still here. Um, I gotta go." You said abruptly.

"What? But we haven't addressed the issue of whether or not we are going to meet our deadlines. You can't just go _________. You have to be a profes--"

You hung up. Only when the tears fell on the screen of your phone in your lap did you realize you were crying. You were being such a big baby about this but why did it have to hurt so much? Surely you wouldn't cry as much if it didn't hurt like this. Your phone vibrated in your hand as Jaebum's name flashed across your screen. He was trying to call you back but you hit decline. You didn't care that you were being irresponsible right now. He had been able to compose before you met and surely he'd be able to compose afterwards too. You were of no consequence to him. You were strong and independent and somehow when you were around him you forgot that. You found yourself wanting to rely on him too much. You looked forward to seeing him just, too much. You had let him in regardless of your boundaries and now you were the only one that was hurt.

You had to end things. You would find a different way to break into the industry without his help. It wasn't like you could unfind your soulmate. You knew who he was. He would always be there but it hurt too much to be around him and know that he didn't reciprocate your feelings. You didn't want to be that sappy dumb girl that yearned for a boy that would never love her back. That wasn't who you were! You copped out and wrote Jaebum a text explaining that unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to continue working with him because your bandmates really needed you and that you didn't want to let them down. You told him you appreciated the opportunity he had given you by letting you work with him and you'd make sure to carry on everything he had taught you.

You didn't give him a chance to reply before you blocked his number for good measure. You didn't need him contacting you to try to sway your decision. This is what you wanted to do. This would be the best thing for the both of you. He could continue on being an award-winning composer and you would find a way to sing again.

Your bandmates were excited to have you back. They tried to ask you about your experience but after some clipped answers, they dropped it. The days drifted by until the ache was less painful until it was just a dull thrum in your chest. You knew what you wanted. You knew why your soul ached. It wanted to be with Jaebum. You wanted to be with Jaebum but he didn't want to be with you. So you pushed on. You lived every day, just day by day, concentrating on producing music with your band and practicing singing the best you could.

There was an up and coming showcase for the agency that Jaebum worked for and it was revealed that Jaebum would be performing. Actually doing a live performance at this showcase which was absolutely unheard of for him. Despite yourself, you bought a ticket. Just because you weren't talking to him didn't mean you couldn't come and support him. You knew how hard he worked despite his reputation as a womanizer. You knew just how much music meant to him and how far he would go to produce his music so you could do this little bit for him. It was actually very hard to secure a ticket given the novelty of Jaebum's face reveal but luckily you were able to secure a ticket with one of the staff that remembered you used to work with Jaebum. You thanked her profusely and she ensured that it was no trouble at all.

The night of the performance you were a bundle of nerves. It had been a few weeks since you had seen him but you were sure he was even more nervous than you. You were attending the event alone and it didn't take you long to find your seat.  You looked over the program and you saw the Jaebum was closing out the show which made sense since he was the main attraction. You also knew that Jaebum would know that you were here. In this building because you would both be able to hear all the acts tonight without any hindrance. The knot in your stomach only tightened when the lights dimmed and the show began.

Everyone had been spectacular. You could see everyone's hard work paying off and all those long hours of practice, they were finally able to show off all that they had been working for. You clapped enthusiastically for each act as it concluded and when it was time for the final performance of the night, you thought that you were going to throw up. Jaebum walked on stage dressed sharply as a single spotlight followed him over to the piano that had been set up for him at center stage. He sat down and adjusted the mic.

"This song is for someone that I undervalued. When I thought what they gave me was all I could accept and only when they left did I realize the void that they had left behind."

With those final words, your song filled the auditorium. Correction. It was the song you and he had been working on and the one you had abandoned halfway through. He had finished it. He was singing your lyrics. You were crying again but you weren't the only one. Many of the people around you were tearing up at the song. This was the power of music. The ability to be able to touch so many souls and convey such moving emotions. It was so powerful that you just felt swept up. Though Jaebum was known for composing and producing, his voice was like honey. It was smooth and rich and so warm. It enveloped you and made you crave more.  It felt like an eternity had passed but at the same time, it feels like it ended too soon as the final notes lingered in the air.

When Jaebum was done, he got up, bowed and exited. The roar of the applause was deafening as you excused yourself. You had been an idiot. You knew you were an idiot but now it was confirmed. You needed to see him. You gathered your dress in your hand as your excused yourself and ran backstage. You ran down what seemed to be a million endless hallways and ran into half a dozen security guards. You kept getting stopped and then you saw him. Your eyes met and he froze.

"_________?" He asked unsure as if he were seeing a ghost.

"Um. Hi." You said waving awkwardly. You look up at the security guard and with a grunt, he let you pass.

"_________. I can't believe you're here." Jaebum muttered as you made a beeline towards him.

"I'm going to kiss you." You said looking Jaebum straight in the eye. "If you don't want me to. Say no. But if you don't, I am going to kiss you." you said. Jaebum's eyes widened but he didn't say no and he didn't walk away. You stood up on your tiptoes and moved your face closer to his, giving him plenty of time to pull away before you pressed your lips against his. The kiss was tentative at first. You were hesitant and it was nothing more than the two of you pressing your lips against each other's but when Jaebum's started to move against yours, it changed.

His kiss grew hungry as his arms wrapped around you and pressed you up against a wall. It was only when the security guard cleared his throat that the two of you separated. Jaebum cleared his throat sheepishly.

"Um. Ok. Yeah. Me too." He grinned holding onto your hand tightly. "Do you want to go talk in private? Back at my place or something? Or your place? Someplace not here?" he asked.

"I vote not here. Not here would be great." the security guard quipped.

You couldn't help the giggle that came out as Jaebum grabbed your hand and ducked out of the nearest exit. You were able to hail a taxi in no time at all and sat on your best behavior in the backseat despite Jaebum giving you seductive glances. Through the whole taxi ride, your hands never left each other and it took no time at all for you to reach Jaebum's apartment. It did, however, take him a little bit of fumbling with the keys before he finally got the door unlocked.

Once he got you inside of the apartment Jaebum gathered you up in his arms and kissed you, hard, and hungry. "I should've done this the first time I saw you. This was the only thing I could think about seeing you on stage. Just how incredible you were." He said in between his kisses. You laughed and turned around.

"How about you help me out of this dress?" You asked moving your hair from the zipper found at the back of the dress. Jaebum laughed as he unzipped your dress and it slipped off your shoulders. It didn't take much longer for the both of you to find yourselves free of all hindrances and on Jaebum's bed.

His hands roamed your body, his fingers ghosted against your flex and found themselves soon against the apex of your thighs. Your breath hitched as you felt his finger press and dip against you, eliciting a soundless moan as your lips parted. Jaebum took advantage of that fact as he started kissing you again, invading your mouth with his tongue as he left his imprint on you. His finger delved into you as you reached down and wrapped your own hand around his hardened length. Jaebum groaned against your neck.

"Yes… just like that. That feels so good." Jaebum cooed. You could feel the wetness between your legs start to pool. You needed him. You needed him so desperately.

"Jaebum… please. I want you." You begged softly. His eyes twinkled with delight as he rolled over to his nightstand and retrieved a condom. Once he had it, he maneuvered himself between his legs. You widened your legs for him and when you were relaxing, preparing yourself to be filled to the brim with him, you felt his tongue on you instead.

"Jaebum!" You moaned, throwing your head back and clutching the blanket underneath you. Your breath was coming in pants as he stroked and parted you using his tongue, his fingers expertly dipping in and out of you, mimicking what would happen in just a few moment.

"Oh, baby you taste so good." Jaebum purred against you. Your fingers entangled themselves in his hair as your back arched.

"Please Jaebum… I need you inside of me. Please… I won't last much longer." you plead and he obliged. Sheathing himself, he lined up to your entrance and in one fluid movement, entered you.

"Ah…" he groaned out appreciatively.

The sound of Jaebum's hips hitting yours echoed off the walls and it was a sound you would never get tired of hearing. His lips closed around a hardened nipple which only made you wrap your legs around him. Jaebum chuckled softly, adjusting to this new position but he didn't let it slow him down much. If anything, it only increased his pace as a thin sheen of sweat covered both of your bodies.

"Baby, I'm not going to last much longer…" he groaned, burying his face into the crook of his neck, the slight shift in angling had him now hitting that special spot inside of you that made you feel like you were going to explode. You couldn't even formulate the words to answer him back but instead, a strangled cry erupted from you as stars exploded behind your closed eyes. Jaebum tensed and grunted loudly as he too, reached his climax. He laid atop of you trying to brace his weight on his elbows as you both caught your breath. Jaebum kissed the tip of your nose as he rolled over. You chuckled slightly as you stretched out, feeling better than you had in a long time. After Jaebum cleaned up, he brought you a towel to wipe off the sweat. He pulled you gently towards his body and held you close.

"I… didn't think this was going to happen," Jaebum admitted softly. "Before you, there was only the music for me. That's all I wanted out of life and I guess that's why I didn't realize..  Just what you meant to me until you went berserk." he chuckled.

You gasped in indignation and slapped Jaebum's arm playfully. "I didn't go berserk!" you defended.

"Let's not kid ourselves. You definitely lost it for a little bit there." He chuckled. "But I'm glad you did because if you didn't, you wouldn't have been able to break the composure of the composer." he laughed.

You grinned like a fool as you cuddled closer to Jaebum, holding onto him. "I think I love you," you said softly.

Jaebum's arms wrapped tighter around you. "I guess with a soulmate bond it's pretty inevitable huh… I never expected someone like you to come into my life but I'm glad you did. You bring a soundtrack all your own and now it's all I can hear. I love you _________."

[fayewonglibrary]

Commentary on Fable (2000)

BY: Chinese Musicians Exchange Association

Li Yunlin:  

In terms of the overall temperament of the album, the literary character is very good. The integrity of the lyrics is very complete. When Lin Xi dominates, it is beautiful. The tone in the first half is more retro with a blurred and variable concept of love. In the latter half, each song contains its own separate theme. I personally prefer the first half which is more articulate. It feels very cohesive. Lin Xi mastered the lyrics. Faye Wong composed the first five songs and Zhang Yadong produced and arranged them which makes them very polished overall.

Shi Rencheng:

In my personal opinion, Faye Wong’s album is high concept and executed at a high level of skill. Their entire team collaborated and performed very well. I have always been curious about how her albums are made. For example, in terms of the five songs she wrote, it is not easy to write lyrics from that perspective. The melody is actually not easy to grasp but the lyrics and arrangement fit together very well as if the lyrics were written first. The arrangement is so highly refined, it captured the artistic conception of the lyrics while bringing out the true colors of the song. I think Zhang Yadong is very remarkable. I like this one very much because we get to see Faye Wong, Lin Xi, and Zhang Yadong’s chemistry. Miss Faye Wong's singing created a visualization of the concept. Her vocals are very powerful, they almost seem unreal. This album had many mainland musicians participating and combined with Faye Wong’s vocals, it is of a world-class level. It’s brilliant. 

Tao Xiaoqing:

Listening to her album is like a journey through the mind. I always look forward to her collaborating with talented musicians and the sparks that will be created. She felt a bit like Madonna. For example, they were both talented and daring. Because they have already reached a certain stage in their careers, they can unite the best people in the world on their albums.

Yao Daiwei had a similar thought as mine: “This is Lin Xi’s album.” It’s a bit educating. There’s an explanation for the word “Cambrian”. Even the word "Firefly" needed to be explained. Of course, these definitions were strategic. This record is no longer a pop record. It has a very classical element. It is not something that people in the pop market will like when they listen to it, especially the first half. But I think that’s okay. When listening to "Flower on the Other Shore", I felt it was like scenes from an old black-and-white movie. Because she sang a section of the song and left a section blank [without singing], it can give you the feeling of imaginary space. So when I listen to her, I don't compare her with ordinary pop music. I think she is her own thing. I don't know if young people who like trendy music will like this kind of stuff? But when hearing the latter half of the album, there were still very pop-friendly songs.  　　　　 　　　　

Yao Daiwei:

This is an excellent album in terms of lyrics and singing. Lin Xi’s lyrics dominated the entire album. No matter how different and difficult they are to understand, with Faye Wong’s singing, everything seems to make sense. Of course, the tacit understanding of their long-term collaboration dictates that it is not just a Faye Wong album, but also a Lin Xi album. But tracks 1-5 can be a bit tired because they are all the same combination. They are all Faye Wong’s compositions, Lin Xi's lyrics and Zhang Yadong's arrangements. Zhang Yadong’s variations in the arrangements were relatively limited. The eighth song "Your Likes Are Not as Important as Mine" is very similar to her previous song "Give Up Halfway". "Goodbye Firefly" is similar to a 007 movie song. The last two Cantonese songs show Lin Xi's skill. In terms of writing, I like this one very much. It's like poetry. I had doubts about Faye Wong's music because she has imitated the Cranberries singing and music before. I wondered if she would do so again this time.

Qin Yuping:

I truly think Faye Wong was born with beauty. Just listening to her singing is a kind of beauty and art. I believe that most singers admire her for having such good skills. I think this album displays a very mutual understanding among her team. It is a masterpiece of cooperation. To be honest, I didn’t listen to her music very carefully in the past. I did not even like her singing during the Cranberries phase very much. But here, I listened to her singing carefully. It was perfect and subtle. Her own natural singing voice embodies that kind of tone. Even without the arrangement, her singing already has musical elements, so she can be so bold, free, and laissez-faire. I can only say that this is natural beauty. 　

Minghua Lin:

This album sounded a little strange at first. The style was a bit like her prior song "Face". It sounded a bit boring at first, but I think the music and lyrics are very powerful. The most important thing is that Faye Wong's tone is very good and the whole feeling is very harmonious. But if she did this for the entire album, if there was no “Your Likes Are Not as Important as Mine" or "Book of Laughter and Forgetting", it may have been a little harder for this album to be accepted by the market. She didn't exert tremendous effort in her singing. She just expressed her personality and feelings.

Wu Jiaxiang:

I like Faye Wong very much, but I don’t really like this album after listening to it. It may not be such a good thing that all the lyrics were written by Lin Xi. From one perspective, it is cohesive with a high degree of literacy. But from another perspective, it only emphasizes one tone. Like Yao Daiwei said, it seems to be an album by Lin Xi. The first half is rather boring and the second half returns to pop elements which makes me feel that they were afraid of themselves. I have the feeling that they wanted to let go and make something because they have reached a certain level [in the music industry]. But they didn’t dare to go all the way. It seems like they were pulling back. Combining symphony and electronic music together in the first half reminds me of Madonna's music, I don't know if I’m the only one with that perception. I also don't like her packaging very much. I bought the deluxe version but there is too much packaging. It is a waste and it feels too unenvironmental. Of course this has nothing to do with the music, but I think the packaging should be environmentally friendly. When others listen to her album, as Sister Tao said, it is like a journey through the mind and everything will make sense. But if it is interpreted by another person, it may be different. Because we are too familiar with Faye Wong, her personality and her style, there are very complicated mixed emotions. If it were not for her, none of this would be established today.

Shi Rencheng:

I very much agree with the prior comment. In fact, Lin Xi’s lyrics account for more than 70% of the Hong Kong market. He sometimes uses similar concepts on other singers but it doesn’t sound quite right. Of course, other singers want to use Lin Xi’s skills but few can sing with that taste. I don't know if it's because we like Faye Wong too much and we are biased.  From the perspective of Faye Wong's usual work, there is a certain depth and a certain taste. I think it’s a very important point when interpreting such lyrics.

Qin Yuping:

In singing, Faye Wong has not changed much from before. But the good thing is that the Cranberries-style vocals are more subtle than before.  It was quite natural. It is a feeling and expression of a very mature voice. Compared with Karen Mok, her pronunciations are not as clear. Faye’s voice is closer to the music. I personally like her very high density vocals combined with the music. There is not much breakthrough in her personal singing but it is absolutely not subpar. Instead, she pushed herself as an artist on the entire album. 　

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SOURCE: SINA // TRANSLATED BY: FAYE WONG FUZAO