wip prince hua cheng and the scrap collector! (future ghost king xie lian, better known as just wu ming in this time)
"gege has the most beautiful smile this prince has ever seen."
"your highness, has anyone ever told you how insincere you are?"
"gege is the first."
"and will your highness continue to show such kindness to a simple scrap collector in your kingdom?"
"a god is just a human. a prince is just a human. trash is just trash. maybe the only difference is that gege has a prettier smile than mine."
ps: the age gap continues to exist!
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if you're hoping for joe 2.0 to get his 'revenge' in the second half of the series...
warning: mild novel spoilers (but also not really because i'm just discussing things that have been shown in the trailer)
i really think you should either drop the series or give up the hopes of a satisfying makjang revenge storyline in my stand-in instead of setting yourself up for disappointment. because that simply isn't the story that my stand-in is trying to tell.
so what is my stand-in about really?
well, for me i think its a romance tragicomedy drama about an idiotic scum male lead losing the person he loves most because of his own arrogance and refusal to listen to his heart and the series of unfortunate events that happened consequently for our protagonist who was living a peaceful and quiet life as a stunt actor before the scum male lead entered his life.
joe 2.0 and his approach to life
i've mentioned it twice now that one of my favorite traits of joe/zhou xiang is that kindness in his strength where even if he can be choose to be mean or cruel, he simply doesn't because he has such a soft heart and he's weak to see others in pain (joe is my fellow enfp people pleaser okay) (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ which is why even in his 2.0 life, you won't get to see joe turning 180 degree and going around to hurt everyone who's ever hurt him like it's some makjang kdrama.
and while that seems like it could be fun, i think the reason why i loved professional body double (my stand-in novel) so much in the first place is because that very distinction between joe and other rebirth/second chance at life protagonists that you often see in revenge kdramas/cdramas/thai lakorns.
logically, if my stand-in was a 24-episode one31 lakorn/thai soap opera, joe would be full of hatred and burning rage after his rebirth and started his intricated revenge plot while still falling in love with ming whom he should hate the most.
and yet he isn't (or at least it seems to me so far).
if you read the lyrics 'Die For You' - the opening ost of my stand-in, i think you can have a good guess of what the second half of the story will be like.
Even running away to death can't help.
If my heart had chosen to stop at you
I'll have to surrender with the confusion I feel.
To come back to the same old place.
Even if I have to die, disappear and then be reborn
But the love is still buried deep inside, even if it's been shattered into pieces
Even if my life ends, I can't stop my heart from calling out to you
Because this whole body, life, spirit
It is yours only, for all eternity.
and even from the trailer of my stand-in, you can tell that joe 2.0 has a lot of internal conflicting feelings about whether he could trust ming again after the betrayal he faced in his 1.0 life. and i feel like essentially the journey of ming proving to joe 2.0 that he really does love joe is very much the central plot in the second half part of the story.
so i'd like to take this part to note how well the series has done to adapt the novel so far. i think a good adapted change they've made is this early realization of feelings for ming in the joe 1.0 timeline. i do think the novel made him realized his feelings a little bit later but my stand-in did well to show within ep.3 what happiness could have looked like for joe 1.0 and ming and i think it rationalizes a bit more more for why joe 2.0 would still have feelings for ming 'buried deep inside' even when he's been badly hurt the first time around. and reading the story i've always found it interesting that they took this route to focus on the re-entangled complex relationship between mingjoe rather than going for a joe-centric revenge makjang plot (i swear if this was your typical thai lakorn, joe would seduce ming while planning to take down his whole family or something).
of course, that's not to dismiss that there's a lot of character growth for joe in the second half of the story, especially in his building of self-confidence, self-worth, the ability to put himself first and the fight for his own happiness above all. but like i've mentioned above, his growth journey is not at the expense of a drastic personality change in regards to the kind hearted joe we saw in his 1.0 life. instead, we get kind hearted joe 2.0 who quickly adapts to his new life and attempts to start anew while conflicted feelings resurface for him as he is pulled back into the relationships he once had.
all in all, my stand-in is still at the heart of it, a love story. perhaps, a dark romance as my friend @dragonsandphoenix would call it, but a romance nonetheless. i think that is what also makes professional body double such a compelling read too, because the progression in the feelings and complex emotions of these characters are so tightly written that it's convincing enough for me (maybe not for others though) to believe that yan ming xiu has/will always love zhou xiang (to the point ymx would probably eliminate anyone else who dared to steal zx from him). obsessive love? yes. do they both need therapy? probably. yet i still believe in their happy ending? of course.
final note/disclaimer: then again, this is just my PERSONAL opinions based on the novel and up til 3 episodes of my stand-in (which seems to be very faithful to the novel so far), who knows maybe they can anger novel fans and adapt it completely differently later on (something i sure hope they don't but we'll seeeee) ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ
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Wanted Game is a cowboy fantasy with some lovecraftian horror interactive fiction game
You wake up in the middle of nowhere, the sun blistering hot
no food,
no water,
and probably the most concerning thing of all you don't remember anything not your name, not where you are and not what you look like
You are found by a gang of outlaws the leader (or who you assume the leader to be) takes you captive but then offers you a deal you can't possibly pass up but things smell fishy.. they are outlaws who are there for their selfish reasons how can you truly trust them;
especially when they all seem to know something about you even though you have a mask stuck to your face they aren’t willing to tell what they know about you
no matter how close you get or how many tricks you try
• A customizable Mc though physical customization is somwhat limited until later in the story.
• Paint/design the mask and thought out the story their will be some options that will affect your mask
• Romance 10 of the charaters 7 main ones and 3 youll just have to figure out, one of the secret romances is a poly route with Oscar, got commitment issues or just looking for fun theres a large aray of flings along the road so dont you worry
• Doom or help the jobs succeed with your choices
• Grow relationships with the rest of the gang {{and even the group of bounty hunters chasing after you and the gang}}
• When not doing jobs entertain your self with a hobby or work on your skills
Oscar || He/They || 24 || 5’3
{{ Attracted to Men & Non-binary people }}
Growing up in the gang most would probably assume Oscar is mean, greedy, selfish but if given the chance you would find a soft caring man with a love for literature almost always with a book when he is not scouting or helping his ma with sewing up clothes the gang tend to wreck
Emile || Xe/Xem || 27 || 5’10
{{ Attracted to Everyone & Anyone }}
Oscars older brother Emile is very protective of Xyrs little brother emile is known to sleep around and be a massive flirt but never actually letting anyone be anything to Xem then a pretty face Xe can fool around with. sometimes you catch Xem staring at you with a expression you don’t quite understand
Louis || He/Him || 30 || 6’2
{{ Questioning }}
A very quiet man always tending to the horses or making wood sculptures hes very quiet keeping to himself not because of anything distrustful or rude he seems to just like being alone he is always looking to help out with jobs as long as he can keep his distance with people
Boss || He/Him || 58.. || 6’0
{{ Attracted to anyone but must be close to them emotionally before he does anything sexual in nature }}
A very talkative older man with alot of elegance for a outlaw he always has plans brewing though his number one goal is keeping the gang safe. He tends to be overprotective of everyone and can be a very hotheaded man its very easy to press his buttons
Ares || he/they/she || 28 || 5’11
{{ Attracted to anyone }}
Growing up in high society Ares learnt to be a very charismatic and social fellow most people would call her a charming, gentle, kind person but if you peer close enough through their wall you will soon learn that she is not at all what she appears and she has a more nasty complex towards commoners, rich folk and especially outlaws
Clara || She/Her || 40 || 5’5
{{ Attracted to men }}
Clara a sweet older lady recently joined up with the gang temporarily to help get funds to get her home but something about her story doesn’t add up, she seems like she wouldn’t hurt a fly so many dismiss her but some ought remember she is still an outlaw no matter how sweet she seems
Adelaide || She/Her || 37 || 4’9
{{ Attracted to women and non-binary people }}
Adelaide is the best with all things traps, distractions and explosives she cant be a bit much always adding a flare to everything and talking so fast you only barely understand she isn’t very observant when it comes to body language and tone so don’t expect her you realize your emotions straight away. she is also Boss’s Niece
T} ??? || he/him || 30 || 6’0 || Poly route with Oscar
{{ Attracted anyone}}
“They are so utterly perfect for him I’m jealous of them but i also want them aswell how selfish my heart is”
S} ??? || They/Them || 29 || 5’8
{{ Attracted to women }}
“In darkness she is the one stray ray of light that kisses my face”
J} ??? || they prefer just to be called by their name || 33 || 6’5
{{Attracted to women & men}}
“Its against my job, my morals,my life so tell me why it feels so right”
||Demo:TBA || Pinterest || Art Acc || My boundaries and asks boundaries
Sorry for any misspellings or weird way i worded things
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