#subsidary

[lovistella]

[wild-at-mind]

Now that I'm taking part in an actual organised boycott, I'm even more frustrated with those 'campaigns' that are just like 'to boycott this thing just stop buying it and idk maybe fill in this form or something'.

[wordprefect]

I love all of these!!!!

Bad Girls Club by Xin Yingzong

[guentzel]

remembering when someone sent me a nastigram over an easily googleable fact

[pnutbutter-n-j-elyy]

Free VCHA TW: Mentions of Suicide, Eating Disorders, Unconsentual Surveilence and Self-Harm

I don't even know where to start...

My heart absolutely breaks for VCHA right now.

Hearing about everything they’ve been through- the self-harm, the gained ED's, the surveillance, the suicide attempts- it’s devastating.

Especially when those girls minors as well.

No one, especially young girls, should ever have to endure this kind of pain just to chase their dreams.

The fact that KG is filing a lawsuit to terminate her contract says so much about the conditions she’s been facing.

This isn’t just about one group or one company- it’s an industry-wide problem.

And let me preface-

before anyone starts directing all their anger at J.Y. Park, it’s crucial to understand that he isn’t the one pulling the strings- especially in the subsidaries.

Yes, he’s the face of JYP Entertainment and a prominent figure in the industry, but he’s not micromanaging every decision or daily operation involving artists like VCHA. Decisions about trainee management, promotional schedules, or group dynamics are typically made by a network of executives, managers, and staff within the company. J.Y. Park might set the tone as a founder, but the way the system functions extends far beyond him.

Instead of focusing on hating or blaming one person, we should direct our energy toward challenging the larger system. This isn’t just a “JYP problem”- it’s an issue ingrained in the ENTIRE entertainment industry, where idols are often seen as products rather than people.

Real change requires dismantling the exploitative practices and structures that allow mistreatment to happen, no matter which company is involved. Let’s shift the conversation to fight the system that perpetuates this harm, rather than focusing on an individual who is only a visible part of it.

These are kids debuting in hyper-competitive, high-pressure environments, with their lives micromanaged for profit. The secrecy VCHA endured pre-debut only adds to the emotional strain. I hope this lawsuit opens more eyes to the toll this industry takes on these artists.

This year alone has been a disaster for the industry. There have been countless reports of idol abuse, mistreatment, and even deaths linked to the extreme pressures idols face. The tragic situation with VCHA is just another example in a long line of issues that need to be addressed. The exploitation of minors and idols in general in the K-pop industry is a problem that can’t be ignored any longer. It’s beyond time for a widespread reckoning, where the industry shifts its focus from maximizing profits to truly caring for the well-being of its artists.

I hope KG’s lawsuit, along with the attention that this case is receiving, opens more eyes to the toll the industry takes on its artists- especially those who are still so young.

These idols deserve more than just our admiration; they deserve our empathy, our support, and a system that treats them as people, not products. My heart goes out to KG and the rest of VCHA, and I pray they find the healing and support they so desperately need.

They are worth so much more than the system that’s failed them.

#FreeVCHA #ProtectOurIdols

(tags are to spread views quicker)

[arathejedi394]

NO NO IT IS NOT INCREDIBLE THIS IS UNVERIFIABLE YOU CANNOT PROVE THAT I WAS TELLING THE TRUTH but yah it's true this is in fact part of my lore

YOU JUST CAN'T PROVE IT

but yes i should be one of your favorite ao3 authors bc im good at it

i cracked this morning and read the first like 200 words of my og novel that i wrote when i was 13/self-published at 14

and like

why did hank green post it on his instagram with praise?? like i think of it and i cringe. today i re-read the first 200 words and i wanted to stop existing?? why did my mom give him a copy of it i did not ask her to do that??? i just went to one of his concerts in 2014 and my mom just gave the book to somebody and for some reason that somebody gave it to hank green and then suddenly im in the crowd 15yo new best friend bc nerdfighteria and hank green is like "oh somebody gave one of the guys this book just before the show and i took a look at it and i kinda like it it's pretty good" and up he holds none other than my og novel he goes "a 14yo wrote this and it's pretty good this affirms my faith in humanity or something like a very young not-adult did this whole novel and it's not bad that's cool" idk what he said it was 10 years ago. and there's me in the crowd freaking the fuck out i say to my new bff who i had just met at the beginning of the concert bc we were standing next to each other like "BRO THAT'S MY BOOK" new bff is like "BRO THAT'S YOUR BOOK???" and starts jumping up and down for attention like "YO THAT'S THIS GUY'S BOOK" hank green hears points at me and goes "HEY HE'S RIGHT THERE YOUR BOOK'S PRETTY COOL KID" AND THEN!!! HE FUCKING PUT IT ON HIS INSTA??? AND PRAISED IT??? THE STICKY NOTE MY MOM LEFT ON IT WITH LIKE 10 WORDS OF SYNOPSIS STILL ON THE COVER??? ALL OF HIS INSTA FOLLOWER'S SAW MY MOM'S HANDWRITING??? AND MY WHOLE ASS INITIALS + LAST NAME??? A COMPLIMENTARY REVIEW BY HANK GREEN HIMSELF??? WHY?? WHY WAS MY 15 MINUTES OF FAME THAT CRINGE ASS Y/A NOVEL???

nobody go looking back at hank green's 2015 insta. do not confirm this is true. let this be a totally unverifiable claim of some rando fandom blogger.

listen. i was 13 when i wrote that book. i was so full of brand new baby teen angst. i do not understand why hank green did not open the book flip through a couple pages go "oof this kid needs a therapist and a writing coach" and never mention it again. i do not understand why he mentioned it on stage, i don't know why he put it on his instagram, it was so bad. ohmygod. i wish i could forget it ever happened

eXCEPT I CAN'T

bc iT wAs SuPpOsEd TO BE A TRIOLOGY. aNd I ONLY WROTE ONE. AND MY PARENTS ARE STILL ASKING ME WHEN BOOK TWO IS COMING.

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS.

[evalevaeva]

show you off | ryu shio

guys, dont worry, your ryu shio fanfic dealer is here

‼️SPOILERS FROM RECENT EPISODE!

"Shio," you called as you opened the door of his office, seeing him focused on the contents on his screen. He looked up from the screen as his serious expression turned into a smile, turning in your direction on his chair as you walked to him.

"Yes, love?" Shio asked as he looked at you, his attention completely on you.

"I heard you were going to dinner with your new staff today... teg teg?" You asked as you butchered here name, on accident.

The man in front of you chuckled as he rested his cheek on his palm, "How are you so cute? Do you mean Tseg Tseg? Why, dear?".

You looked around the room as you asked quietly, "Why... I mean, couldn't you just go out with me to dinner? Why ask Tseg Tseg?".

You were slightly jealous, and Shio knew it. It was so obvious, and it pushed him to tease you even more with this new side to your relationship.

"But, I want to go out with Tseg Tseg. Is that wrong?" Shio asked as you turned to look at him, your face offended as you saw his teasing smirk on his face, knowing he completely got you.

Shio patted his lap as he motioned for you to sit on his lap. You sat as he leaned into your ear, whispering, "I want to show you off too, but I need to get the information I need from her and after that, we'll go out everyday until you get sick of me,".

You turned to him, feeling a slight shiver as your eyes locked with his.

"For now, how about you do something for me?" Shio asked as he turned the chair with one of his legs, making the both of you face the computer screen on his table. You were faced with a cctv screenshot from the heritage club Shio had told you he was going to a few days ago.

"I need you to find out who this man is. He said he's the CEO of a subsidary company of Hwang Geum Joo's company, but I'm not buying it. You can do that for me, right, love?" Shio said as he showed you the photo of the man.

You stared at the screen as you sighed, nodding as you muttered, "You know I'd do anything for you and you take advantage of that".

"I wouldn't call it 'taking advantage', but I'd say it's simply to make me feel guilty for keeping you hidden," Shio said as his hand was on your chin, making your eyes connect once again, before the gap between the both of you disappeared within seconds.

"Welcome to the heritage club! I'll be serving you for today. Do follow me!" You said as you looked at Shio and Tseg Tseg, who were in front of you. Tseg Tseg never having met you before. She happily waved at you as you gave her a wide smile, feeling slight anger, watching as Shio smiled at her. Shio was doing it on purpose to distract you. He knew you were capable of finding out information on this man, but what's a mission without a few obstacles?

You held open the door as you motioned for Tseg Tseg and Shio to enter, Shio's hand grazing yours as he walked past you into the room. You entered last as you stood in the corner of the room, waiting for the actual staff to enter with the food.

"This is the assistant that will be helping me for the time being," Shio introduced Tseg Tseg as you scoffed quietly, making sure to not be noticed untim Hwang Geum Joo called you forward.

"Could you leave for a while? I need to speak to them in private," Hwang Geum Joo asked. You were about to leave the room until Shio spoke, "She can stay. She's sworn to secrecy under the heritage club's rules".

Smart, but Hwang Geum Joo wasn't stupid.

"Do you think that just because you have the help of russian mafias that you're unbeatable?" She stated, which caught everyone in that very room off guard. Your eyes widened as you looked at Shio from the corner, watching as his teeth clenched. He was losing his patience, and you were worried. Tseg Tseg placed a hand on his shoulder as Hwang Geum Joo continued, "Pavel? Is it good to have their help?".

You were irritated at Tseg Tseg's action, but you were fearing more for Hwang Geum Joo's life.

"That's out of line. Mr Ryu Shio is a talented man that doesn't need the support of such dirty tricks!" Tseg Tseg responded as you felt relief flooding through your veins. Shio scoffed as Hwang Geum Joo nodded, "Alright. Well, I will not fall for you dirty tricks, and I'll find out the truth".

"Who did she think she is?!" Shio shouted as he threw the things on his desk onto the ground. You were seated behind him on his office chair as you watched him release his anger onto the non-living items in the room.

"She even asked you to leave the room? Who did she think she is, ordering people around and asking you to leave the room?" Shio shouted as he turned, placing a hand on the handles, his face in front of yours as he muttered, "One day, after all this rubbish is over, I'll show you off to everyone and everyone will know you're mine...and I'm yours".

Shio connected your lips as you leaned into him, not wanting to let him go.

----

do yall eat octopus because its so strange knowing some people dont...

[txt-cherry]

AMAHLE MANDLA KHUMALO, better known as AMAHLE, is a South African-American singer and songwriter under BIGHIT MUSIC, a subsidary under HYBE LABLES. She debuted in the co-ed group TOMORROW X TOGETHER on March 4th, 2019 with the song 'CROWN' which is a part of the extended play 'The Dream Chapter: STAR'. Amahle debuted as a soloist with the single 'PUPPET SHOW' on November 28th, 2023.

MASTERLIST — TAGS — WIPS — RECENT

‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ — ❝ Said the devil by the window ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ Dream on, dream on, good night! ❞

© TXT-CHERRY ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ⌞‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎all rights reserved���‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ⌝

[alpaca-clouds]

Digimon and the Chinese Market

Back when I was doing my economics degree, I learned how to read investment reports and I did the next logical thing for someone with autism and a hyperfixation on Digimon: I started to read Bandai Japan's yearly reports starting with 1997, when Digimon first launched. Now, due to my issues with investment Japanese and the fact that online translators were not that good, this also meant that I had to annoy two dear friends about those reports again and again. While I quickly learned how to read the actual tables of returns, gains and so on, they did have those columns on how their franchises were doing. And I quickly learned that they usually just put the "overseas market" for their stuff off as: "Oh yeah, we released this and that in the US, this in Europe, and this to Asian markets." And that was pretty much it. Because Bandai - like many companies - basically is partitioned into subsidaries with different investment reports. So, basically we have Bandai America, Bandai Europe, Bandai Asia, and Bandai Japan. While these days the Japanese reports go a bit more into oversea sales, that did not start until the late 2010s.

So, for the most part I never really thought about Digimon outside of my own country - Germany - the US (due to the biggest fansites being US run) and Japan. I kinda knew that the series was pretty big in Brazil, apparently, but that was it. Well, and I knew that from time to time Bandai Asia, and specifically China would get merchandise that the rest of the world would not get. Most notably some Digivices and V-Pets that were kinda cool looking but never got released outside of Asia. And there was D-Cyber of course. Which was cool, and thankfully got a translation. But that was it.

Well, until around 2015 I watched a documentary that someone had uploaded to Youtube. Tbh, I do not know how that documentary was called, but it had a couple episodes and was probably from around 2010 (maybe 2009, maybe 2011, but around 2010). It was basically about Chinese culture around learning and school and how children in different parts of China grew up. I was mainly watching as research for story I was writing back then. But then I noticed something: Digimon.

Yeah, in this absolutely not Digimon-related documentary, I saw... Well, a lot more Digimon merchandise, than I would have expected. One of the kids in Rural China was wearing a T-Shirt with Agumon. One of the other kids was in a soccer kid club, that had a Digimon mascot. And one of the city kids clearly had some Digimon merchandise in his room. Now, mind you, the documentary never mentioned the franchise by name in any way, but as an autistic person obsessed with Digimon, I was sitting there like: "Wait... Is Digimon kinda big in China?!"

Well, a couple years and three chinese-exclusive mobile Games later - one of them apparently featuring a whole ass story... Yeah, actually apparently Digimon is actually pretty popular in China o.ô

I think this is almost funny in a way, given that usually in the west we just do not think a whole lot about the chinese market in any way or form. Sure, these days, when it comes to movies, we will at times mention that indeed, a lot of companies are marketing their movies towards the chinese market. Or you will hear how the chinese game market is big. But that is it.

But in terms of Digimon, it seems that indeed China has a really strong market with a lot of people willing to invest in not only into Digimon merchandise, but also games and manga. I think most of us by now know, that there was a ton of exclusive Chinese manga.

While D-Cyber eventually also released outside of China (as did the Manhua adaptations of the first four seasons), neither Legendary Skies (a sequel of sorts to Frontier) or Battle released or even got so much as a scanlation. Same seems to go for the manga adaptions of Savers, Xros Wars and the Adventure remake. (At least according to Wikimon.)

All in all, I feel this is a rather interesting aspect of the fandom, that rarely is discussed.

Obviously the lack of discussion also has majorly to do with how little information on some of those Chinese things. We have a fairly good overview of the plot of New Century, and as mentioned got D-Cyber translated. But all we have from Legendary Skies is some single pages and a plot overview.

Now another Phone Game has released a couple of days ago - Digimon Source Code. Another one I will asume is going to have its own little story.

And... Yeah, I don't know. I am fascinated by this almost invisible part of the fandom.

[canonical-transformation]

Alas, we live in the less funny timeline.

The strike prohibits union members from working anything without a specific exemption (interim agreement), and going by the past few weeks of trailers, it doesn't look like Hoyoverse is in a rush to get one. It's been about 7 weeks; I guess the staggered release of 1.2/5.1/2.6/1.3/5.2 will give us a good sense of how far ahead the recording happens 😇

this will never happen. but. imagine Hoyoverse signs an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA solely so that [the CEO] Da Wei can publicly demonstrate his commitment to worker solidarity

the resulting discourse would be sublime(*)

[hyperlanenomads]

"Republic forces, bolstered by their victory at Geonosis, are deployed to front lines being drawn across the galaxy as the Separatists lure more and more systems away from the Republic cause. In the Mid Rim, Republic Agents on the planet of Zolan have dropped out of contact. Fearing a Separatist plot on the planet, a team is prepared for a stealth mission to learn of the fate of their agents and the wider plot brewing on the surface."

FOLLOW THE STAR WARS FAN-COMIC "HYPERLANE NOMADS" HERE , updates on the occasional Thursday

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[yapfactory]

Beast of Indoctrination AU

The Gist

Background

Inspired by the idea that each of the Ancients' Soul Jams can also be twisted with their own negative connotations.

Ancients take the place of the Beast cookies, and vice-versa.

The AU!Beasts didn't corrupt within their bakers' lifetimes. As a result, the witches who baked them didn't—and won't—return.

The AU!Ancients' Soul Jams manifested independently of the Beasts'. Unlike in canon, they aren't derived from the shattered remnants of the Beast cookies' jams.

The Beasts exist at the same time as the Ancients.

While the Beasts' heroic acts are well-known, their true identities have (mostly) faded into obscurity. This changes things.

More details under the cut.

Toxic Yaoi

Pure Vanilla Cookie | Vanilla Extract Cookie

A "knight" of the Vanilla Empire. The last Beast to fall. He wields the Soul Jam of Indoctrination.

The Vanilla Empire is named such because it colonized neighboring (and not-so-neighboring) states. The Crème Republic is a subsidary state of the Vanilla Empire.

As a knight, he's known as the "Prophet of Truth".

He desires to eliminate suffering by uniting cookies under the truth—his truth, without regard for their individuality, freedom, or autonomy. He believes blind faith is more powerful than knowledge, which can instill doubt and hesitation.

PV began keeping his eyes open, even though his vision is poor, to blend in with others at the mage academy. He doesn't have a seeing-staff.

Speaking of which, PV is a "knight" because he failed out of mage academy! The Beasts didn't meet until they were well into their adulthoods, since kingdoms were more isolated in the past; this means he skipped more classes because White Lily wasn't there.

The Vanillan aristocracy thinks PV's ancestor helped found the kingdom, unaware that it was actually PV himself. They keep him around as a national symbol.

Gingerbrave, Strawberry Cookie, and Wizard Cookie are pages (in the manner of medieval hierarchy). They don't quite agree with corrupted!PV's dogmatic ideology, but they're determined to stick with him until the end... whatever that may be.

Vanilla extract tastes bitter alone. It's a pun on the phrase "[the] bitter truth". Also, PV's name derives from "pure vanilla extract", with "pure" emphasizing his goodwill; Vanilla Extract is just what's left when he falls.

Blueberry Milk Cookie (Shadow Milk Cookie)

A traveling scholar who perhaps parties too hard.

As of now, a lot of my art is set while PV and SM are still in the Vanilla Empire (PV hasn't corrupted yet). SM is giving lectures there, and covertly attempting to learn the truth about what happened to the Beasts.

He's a total lightweight.

Black Sapphire and Candy Apple are his "research assistants".

Black Sapphire's a theatre major. He started attending SM's lectures to fill a course credit, but stayed because BM isn't as strict or condescending as some of the other teachers.

Candy Apple skips school most of the time, but finds SM's lectures entertaining (plus she doesn't want Black Sapphire to have anything to himself).

His design is inspired by Sage of Truth because I love that costume.

Blueberry Milk's name derives from the headcanon that Shadow Milk was the founder of Blueberry Yogurt Academy.

I think it's plausible that Blueberry Yogurt was his real name, and that he changed (or forgot) it, but I like the sound of "Blueberry Milk" better.

Other Stuff

Hollyberry Cookie | Thornbush Cookie

Wields the Soul Jam of Fanaticism.

Possibly the first to fall. Hollyberry's protectiveness turns to obsession, and she begins isolating her kingdom from others out of possessiveness and paranoia.

Golden Cheese Cookie | Melted Cheese Cookie

Wields the Soul Jam of Excess.

She and Hollyberry Cookie fall at around the same time. Her desire for expansion leads her to neglect her people; her generosity becomes selfishness, and her indulgence, hedonism.

Dark Cacao Cookie | Cacao Powder Cookie

Wields the Soul Jam of Obstinance.

The third Beast to fall. His high standards and unyielding will transformed into arrogant stubbornness; though he's grown tired of his role as king, his own sense of responsibility prevents him from abdicating the throne.

White Lily Cookie | Wilting Lily Cookie

Wields the Soul Jam of Chaos.

The second-to-last Beast to fall. She began to corrupt after prioritizing the pursuit of her goal above the wellbeing of others (and herself). She wishes to fight against "fate" at all costs.

Fragrant Spice Cookie (Burning Spice Cookie)

A warrior-turned-adventurer. He travels the world in search of new discoveries (and thrills).

Rice Flour Cookie (Mystic Flour Cookie)

A pagoda master who enjoys baking in her spare time.

Pearl Sugar Cookie (Eternal Sugar Cookie)

A singer-songwriter chasing their dreams in rustic villages and vibrant marketplaces.

Sea Salt Cookie (Silent Salt Cookie)

A knight from the Faerie Kingdom.

The Faerie Kingdom isn't the first known kingdom in this AU, since there was no need to build it because the Beasts weren't corrupted.

Miscellaneous

I changed the name to "Beast of Indoctrination" because it's more up-to-date with AU!PV's whole... thing. Yikes.

The AU!Beasts are listed in order of when they fall.

The AU!Ancients keep the non-corrupted ideals of their Soul Jams (e.g. Knowledge for Shadow/Blueberry Milk, Happiness for Eternal/Pearl Sugar).

Other characters' info (specifically, the canon Beasts') might be updated as canon reveals itself. We'll see.

[4tide]

›ㅤ  is  that  𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗞  𝗧𝗔𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗚  ?  stepping  onto  the  island  is  always  a  sight,  and  theirs  is  no  exception.  the  𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬  -  𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧  year  old  𝗢𝗟𝗬𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗖  𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥  &  𝗛𝗘𝗜𝗥  has  been  calling  𝒄𝒉â𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒖  𝒂𝒛𝒖𝒓𝒆   home  for  𝒔𝒊𝒙  𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒔,  effortlessly  moving  through  azure’s  elite  while  ensuring  all  eyes  remain  on  them.  with  a  staggering  net  worth  of  €3.2𝗕,  they’ve  more  than  secured  their  spot.  they’re  always  seen  with  their  𝒅𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅  𝒚𝒖𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏  𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒏  𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆  and  every  time  you  hear  𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆  𝒘𝒊𝒕  𝒖  𝒃𝒚  𝒋𝒐𝒆  &  𝒈-𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕   playing,  you  can  guarantee  it’s  them.   

𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑰𝑪𝑺 ..

full  name:  park  taesung

nicknames:  tj,  tae.

gender  &  pronouns:  cis  man,  he/him.

sexuality:  bisexual.

age:  twenty-eight.

date  of  birth:  march 27th,  1997.

place  of  birth:  hannam, seoul,  south  korea.

zodiac  sign:  aries.

occupation:  olympic  swimmer  &  youngest  heir  to  samsung  group.

languages  spoken, in order of fluency:  korean, english,  mandarin, japanese.

𝑨𝑷𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑵𝑪𝑬 ..

faceclaim:  jung  jaehyun.

height:  6'0"

build:  lean  &  athletic.

hair:  dark  brown.

tattoos:  none.

piercings:  three  in  each  ear.

distinguishing  features:  dimples  on  both  cheeks.

style:  casual,  comfortable  clothes  often  paired  with  luxury  watches,  necklaces,  rings,  or  bracelets  to  accent.

𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑶𝑵𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑻𝒀..

(+)  charismatic,  intuative,  flirtatious,  fun-natured,  dedicated,  adaptable,  spontaneous,  affectionate,  independent,  strong-willed.

(-)  frivolous,  impulsive,  blunt,  spoiled,  addictive,  irresponsible,  self-indulgent,  judgmental,  irritable,  selfish.

mbti:  isfp-  the  adventurer.

moral  alignment:  chaotic  neutral.

habits:  cracking  his  knuckles,  running  a  hand  through  his  hair,  laughing  at  inappropriate  times.

𝑩𝑰𝑶𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑷𝑯𝒀 ..

a  mistake  child  is  what  taesung  is  coined  as  from  the  moment  of  his  birth,  an  accident  between  a  failing  marriage  that  not  even  a  endearing  child  could  fix.  his  two  siblings  are  almost  20  years  older  than  him,  growing  to  see  his  sister  as  more  of  a  mother  than  a  sibling,  and  his  brother  as  a  stranger  who  hadn't  acknowledged  his  presence.  one  of  the  largest  conglomerates  of  south  korea,  the  apparent  heir  to  the  fortune  of  samsung  is  left  between  the  two  eldest  children,  taesung  never  in  the  running  to  begin  with,  at  least  for  the  coveted  chairman  position.  his  lack  of  effort  in  studies  and  focus  were  enough  to  solidify  that  he  was  the  child  that  would  inevitably  be  left  with  sizable  shares and eventually overseeing a less significant subsidary,  but  nothing  more.

more  athletically  inclined  than  academically,  taesung  is  thrown  into  sports  and  activities  from  the  time  he's  young.  while  apt  in  multiple  skills  like  music  and  team  sports,  it's  clear  that  he's  a  naturally  gifted  swimmer,  the  sole  focus  of  his  childhood  meant  to  hone  in  on  the  talent  that  would  make  him  of  value.  taesung  is  happy  with  it,  little  interest  in  business  and  finding  himself  at  peace  in  the  water.  he'd  move  to  the  states  in his teenage years,  attending  private  school  and  receiving  training  from  the  best  of  the  best.

naturally,  a  career  in  it  was  expected,  attending  his  first  olympic  event  in  rio  of  2016,  representing  korea  with  more  than  a  few  medals  and  a  reputation  as  a  talented  athlete.  he  acclimated  well  into  the  bit  of  notoriety  gained,  partially  known  for  who  his  family  was  and  partially  for  his  successful  career, later finding  himself  the face of  countless  brand  deals  and  celebrity  appearances.  while  he  is  strict  with  himself  when  it  comes  to  training  and  working  towards  the  next  four  years,  he's  more  than  often  caught  in  the  tabloids  with  other  celebrities  at  parties  and  events,  building  a  reputation  for  being  somewhat  of  a  player.

his  career  as  an  athlete  shines  despite  controversy,  cementing  himself  as  one  of  the  greatest  male  swimmers  in  olympic  history,  with  15  olympic  gold  medals, numerous world records,  and  over  20  world  championships  to  his  name  after  a  decade  long  career.  following  his  third,  and  widely  speculated  to  be  last  olympics  games  in  the  summer  of  2024,  taesung  steps  back  from  the  limelight  and  career  to  vacation  in  the  elusive  azure  isle.  the  reason  for  the  sudden  break  of  relaxation?  he's  been  summoned  back  to  korea  to  take  his  rightful  place  in  working  under  his  siblings,  pressured  to  publicly  release  his  retirement  statement  from  the  world  of  competitive swimming once this little vacation comes to an end.

𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑵�� ..

his  alma  mater  is  columbia  university,  graduating  with  honors  and  a  degree  in  business.  taesung  isn't  entirely  clueless  when  it  comes  to  school,  but  it's  well  known  that  his  parents  made  a  few  sizable  donations  that  helped  him  graduate  in  the  end.

does  in  fact  love  all  bodies  of  water.  thinks  it's  just  about  the  only  place  he'll  feel  happy  in,  so  frequents  in  swimming,  surfing,  sailing,  and  all  the  likes.

uses  an  iphone  to  spite  his  family.  though  they  publicly  celebrate  his  career,  he's  still  considered  the  black  sheep  of  the  family  and  both  of  his  siblings  feel  he  isn't  entitled  to  any  of  the  family  wealth.

isn't  a  confrontational  person  and  tends  to  ghost  people,  especially  if  he's  romantically  involved  with  them.  also  not  inherently  violent.  rarely  gets  physical,  but  can  have  a  sharp  tongue  at  times.

speaking  of!  the  antithesis  to  commitment.  someone  who  was  once  a  little  more  emotional  and  romantic  has  long  been  forgotten  after  an  intense  relationship,  only  coming  to  an  end  when  it  didn't  meet  his  parents  standards  and  his  significant  other  took  a  sizable  amount  of  money  to  break  up  with  him. 

typically  doesn't  bring  up  his  family  or  business  if  he  doesn't  have  to.  while  people  in  higher  up  circles  would  know  how  much  he's  worth  and  that  he's  an  heir,  taesung  doesn't  readily  talk  about  it  to  everyone  he  meets.

something  between  a  party  boy  and  an  antisocial  hater.  enjoys  fun  with  the  right  people,  but  is  said  to  have  an  increasingly  low  social  battery.  judgmental  yet  welcoming,  he  tends  to  keep  his  less  polite  thoughts  to  himself—though  his  eyes  are  always  a  dead  giveaway.  even  if  he's  the  disgrace  of  his  family,  the  spoon  he's  fed  will  always  remain  golden.

𝑾𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑷𝑳𝑶𝑻𝑺 ..

𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 ..

𝐘𝐈𝐍  𝐀𝐍𝐃  𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐆. ( platonic ) .  :  the  louder,  somewhat  happier  counterpart  to  taesung.  someone  who  makes  it  easy  to  drop  his  shoulders  and  relax  a  little  bit.  if  taesung  is  an  anchor  in  the  ocean,  they  are  the  boat  that  roams  free  knowing  home  is  never  far  from  reach 𝐀  𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓  𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐘.  (  unknown, open to multiple  )  :  a  familar  face  in  a  new  place.  maybe  from  birth,  childhood  days  filled  of  never  living  up  to  expectations,  maybe  from  school,  despite  him  barely  being  in  the  classroom.  maybe  from  his  career,  celebrity  appearances  and  traveling  to  new  places.  whatever  links  you  two  has  somehow  become  forged  in  the  memory  of  taesung,  whether  it  be  friendship  or  something  else. / 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐘: lana paladesh 𝐁𝐀𝐃  𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀,  𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓?  (  romantic, open to employees  )  :  within  the  months  taesung  has  settled  into  azure  isle,  whispers  become  louder.  of  his  status,  of  his  wealth,  of  where  his  eyes  tend  to  linger.  always  the  one  to  want  what  he  can  have,  to  reach  without  regard  for  anything  but  his  own  pleasure.  it  isn't  the  residents  seen  leaving  the  esteemed  park  residence,  it's  various  employees  that  keep  the  island  so  beautiful.  whisked  away  into  temporary  luxury  and  gold,  only  to  be  forgotten  within  the  week.  is  it  a  treat  to  experience  it,  or  a  curse  to  be  an  outsider  to  it.

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄  𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒.  (  platonic, open to guests  )  :  they  look  back  at  their  childhoods,  fond  memories  of  the  simple  times  when  distance  didn't  matter  and  love  wasn't  so  hard  to  digest.  maybe  they've  walked  the  line  together,  seen  the  world  through  the  years  and  stuck  it  out  through  thick  and  thin.  maybe  the  miles  between  them  grow  larger  and  larger,  but  the  companionship  remains.  it's  a  feeling  of  home,  one  that  feels  a  little  bit  warmer  than  the  one  they  were  born  into.  always  just  a  phone  call,  or  a  flight  away. 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐘  𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐒  𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐘. ( romantic )  :  the  absence  of  a  beating  heart  doesn't  make  taesung  still.  he  moves,  treating  affection  for  flimsy  companionship.  nights  aren't  so  nice  to  be  spent  alone,  two  souls  secretly  a  bit  lonely  finding  themselves  entangled  together.  it  may  not  be  love,  it  may  not  be  romantic,  but  it's  genuine,  deep  rooted  understanding  for  each  other—at  least,  that's  what  they  both  think. 𝐃𝐔𝐄𝐂𝐄,  𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑  𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋.  (  platonic  )  :  brought  together  by  an  interest  that  they  both  take  more  fun  than  seriously,  it's  only  natural  that  two  competitive  spirits  form  some  rivalry  to  keep  things  interesting.  it's  not  out  of  malice,  it's  out  of  respect, and bragging rights, of course.  the  score  between  them  stays  close,  always  evening  out  by  the  time  each  season  passes  by.  in  the  fall,  taesung  dominates.  in  the  winter,  they  take  the  lead from him.  spring  comes  around  and  they're  neck  and  neck,  each  win  never amounting  to  anything more  than  paying  the  bill. 𝐇𝐎𝐖  𝐓𝐎  𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐌:  𝐅𝐎𝐑  𝐃𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐈𝐄𝐒.  (  platonic  )  :  taesung  may  not  wear  his  olympic  achievements  as  a  badge  of  honor,  but  they  certainly  trail  behind  him  enough  for  it  to  be  noticed  anyway.  they  want  his  help,  because  who  wouldn't  want  to  receive  swim  lessons  from  an  olympic  swimmer  instead  of  a  certified  trainer  ?  taesung  is  amused  and  not  exactly  stretched  for  time,  so  he  agrees,  because  how  hard  is  it  to  teach  someone  how  to  improve  in  swimming  ?  except,  he  manages  to  be  an  awful  teacher,  harsh  and  blunt  and  wearing  a  face  of  disappointment.  he  thinks  he's  being  helpful,  but  all  he's  doing  is  killing  whatever  motivation  they  have.

𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 ..

𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓  𝐈𝐍  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒.  :  the  fated  one  who  got  away.  taesung's  first  and  only  chance  at  genuine  love,  brought  to  an  end  by  the  supposed  betrayal  of  his  lover  and  the  interference  of  his  parents.  though—it's  only  what  he's  been  told  after  all.  the  real  truth  of  their  breakup  remains  a  mystery,  if  they  saw  an  easy  way  out  of  what  would  only  be  an  uphill  battle,  or  if  they  chose  to  leave  on  their  own  accord. / 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐘: kim ahri 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄  𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐒  𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑  :  two  souls  that  clash  in  all  ways  possible.  a  fire  meets  water.  does  it  grow  further  when  made  from  oil,  or  does  it  contain  itself  into  ash?  does  the  water  succumb  to  the  flames  or  destroy  the  both  of  them?  there's  nothing  to  agree  on  but  mutual  disdain,  yet  the  two  find  themselves  revolving  in  the  same  orbit,  paths  forced  to  cross  unwillingly,  only  a  matter  of  time  before  every  question  is  answered. / 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐘: samuel gao 𝐓𝐖𝐎  𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒  𝐎𝐅  𝐀  𝐂𝐎𝐈𝐍.  :  what  better  than  two  rich  people  brimming  with  trauma  and  deep  seated  hatred  have  better  to  do  than  become  best  friends?  at  the  very  least,  there's  comfort  in  confiding  in  each  other.  the  world  of  the  rich  and  famous  is  a  cruel  one,  and  bad  decisions  are  guaranteed  to  be  made.  these  two  can't  help  but  hold  hands  and  walk  the  path  together,  mutually  shared  destruction  until  either  can  achieve  some  semblance  of  peace. / 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐘: rocco yang  𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍  𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓.  (  unknown  )  :  two  people  looking  to  let  loose,  free  from  the  outside  worlds  problems  and  ready  to  live  for  the  moment.  they  dance  and  drink  and  have  whatever  other  fun  they'd  like.  it's  transactional,  but  neither  of  them  are  complaining.  an  easy  number  to  call  when  they're  ready  to  lose  their  mind  for  a  night,  a  familiar  face  that  only  has  two  options  :  join  them  in  disaster  or  be  the  one  that  holds  them  back  from  the  edge. 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓  𝐖𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 ( platonic )  :  as  he  leaves  routine  behind,  taesung  finds  himself  with  too  much  time  on  his  hands.  no  6am  wake  up  calls,  no  practices  before  the  sun  rises.  instead  he's  afforded  the  luxury  of  a  sunset,  to  bask  in  the  darkness.  it's  the  mutual  appreciation  for  the  later  hours  that  bring  the  two  together,  biding  the  time  together  whichever  way  they  feel  fit.

[hayleysayshay]

SAG-AFTRA Critical Role TLOVM and M9 Season Listings -- renewal confirmed?

So COMIC BOOK .com posted this article about season 3 of TLOVM being renewed, and then said Sag-Aftra listed seasons 4 and 5. After searching on the SAG-AFTRA website I found the listings:

So seasons 1&2 (batch production no doubt), then seasons 3, 4 and 5. And then Mighty Nein seasons 1 and 2 are listed here as well.

I will say I think it's odd that these are all listed as 2020 --- they could very well be pre-emptive registrations of production interest, and not a true renewal of the seasons. However, the majority of Robin Red Breast's (RRB is a subsidary of Titmouse. I believe RRB is unionised unlike other parts of Titmouse) shows are listed as 2020. I don't know if Titmouse decided to register everything planned for the future in 2020, or if this is just some sort of error, or if the seasons were backdated to 2020.

The potential implication that Mighty Nein was confirmed in 2020 is interesting, though.

However I do see 'pilots' listed, with no follow up season. If it was just interest, surely there'd be more seasons planned that didn't go into production?

So yeah. To be clear this is not a confirmed renewal. But it is interesting.

(Also it is good to know this is a SAG-AFTRA production. I think the theory was that it was Animation Guild. But it is SAG. I don't think 'High Budget New Media Animation Agreement' is a contract that was struck though.)

[horizon-verizon]

hotd feels like a downgrade compared to got, got had tank writing after they didn't have the source material to work with everything in hotd looks cheap despite had bigger budget this include the cinematography and the visual a bit yellowish like they try to hide something, the costume, even the actors? how the hell d&d with small budget at that time got Sean Bean (Lotr), Lena Headey (300), and Peter Dinklage (Narnia) and hotd got..... Matt Smith ... Sorry im not british he's probably popular there because dr who stuff But the rest? Emma D'arcy pushing 30 and this is their debut as a lead? i can understand why they never got cast for big movie or show before this they just using Emma as their diversity token.

George probably regret ever said this show would win eight Emmy.

To get one thing out of the way, GoT was always going to have a "dip" in quality sometime down the road bc its head writers and producers David Benioff & D.B Weiss expressed that:

they wanted to make the series palatable to "soccer moms" and I think football enjoyists...basically to it less magical or to focus much less or develop those instrinsic, story-making/plot-driving elements of the original work. Bran, Dany/dragons, direwolves, greenseer, Lady Stonehart, etc. all were cut or severely reduced to focus more on the politics and social chaos, which was very dumb. What was left in the scripts were was in the available books and it is still "half" of what was in those books. not just a "little" trimming, but VERY CRITICAL storylines and characters and whole characterizations of those characters!

As the entire series more or less can be quickly told as an informal indictment against people focusing too much on gaining power for themselves to observe their environment and be good leaders for others....I refer to the Long Night and the Others (the show renamed them to "white walkers"), who are an environmental cataclysm that only dragons and other sorts of magic is needed to defeat. In turn, they deliberatly meesed up Dany's character in nearly every which way, esp to mischaracterizae her mannerism and valiues. There is both sexism and xenophobia in how they handled/developed her arrival at the North, how they developed all Brienne, Arya, and Sansa's arcs that has nothing to do with in-world sexism and xenophobia but their own. They even severely mischaracterized Jon, tbh!

GoT was far more enjoyable not bc D&D had less material. Once again, they didn't "get" ASoIaF from the start and basically HALVED the entire story, so yeah, at one point even if they hadn't had the last books they would have been pressed to properly justify some things that GRRM might have written for the final battle...a lot pf people would ave been lost as toow soem tins worked or ow we ot there...bc the magic element was treated as subsidary.

Anyway, GoT was more enjoyable bc:

the writers at least had much more space to develop their characters seeing as they got much more than 10 episodes a season

they didn't wait long between seasons

you can see where they took in more consulting from the author than not, than Condal from GRRM (you see such from reading the books, comparing it to the shows to see what was left out, what was rewritten and how much, etc.)

and D&D got more access to the motivations behind the politics they craved to portray more then magic, more than Condal or Hess or whoever did for the entire F&B Targ list of generations, which you'd have to get to write for the Dance

by the last few seasons, they themselves have said that they wanted out and to write for other shows so they phoned it in; because magic the lack of last few books are really them not having anything to fallback on and pretend that they

I will give the HotD writers a tiny bit of leeway, since F&B is a history book that takes one to be able to read through secondhand, culturally inherited, etc. biases very well unlike the main books and it doesn't provide direct PoVs. Heads Up - Context

Though PoV chapters/writing also often has biased characters, those characters do not only provide summaries of their feelings and observations in those PoV chapters. They give corroborated observations as well as their own near-unfiltered thoughts and reactions to events/people...there is more obvious, direct, or firsthand information that we can trust is coming from a more obvious, traceable phenomenon/cause and effect. Whereas F&B doesn't record people in their absolute most intimate moments but events from a comaparatively more distanced persepctive.

F&B is, as PhoenixAses eloquently said, a secondary source that uses a lot of primary sources like Daemon and Otto's letters and royal/official written declarations of Aegon II and Viserys I and Rhaenyra and so forth. In any sort of non-fiction writing and rhetotical excercise (historical writing, essays for example), a secondary source is any document (video, written, audio, etc.) that draws on one or more primary sources and interprets or analyses them. A primary source is document that gives the direct experience of a thing that is being researched or studied, but not necessarily just one's perosn's thoughts so much as a contemporaneous news report of a thing not long after said thing happened, a photograph, or an audio or video recording of the actual event itself. A photograph of a group of concubines, a recording of a war prisoner being tortured, or the diary of a prince are all primary sources. A textbook that includes them is the secondary source.

F&B is all 2ndhand (different from "secondary source") information of collected testimonies form various people at various points of time witin events information and various maesters' an even some primary sources (Mushroom and Septon Eustace) speculation of what most likely happened between Targs and why they did certain things. Plus what pieces of dialouge and hearsay the maesters managed to preserve after nearly 200 years post-Dance. It was the maesters' and our job as readers to try to decipher what could have most likely happened in incidents where there's missing or suspect information and explain why with as much reliable evidence/knowledge of the society as possible--bc there is always a limit to what could have happened. You need to have a lot of knowledge of how people in particular positions of society will try to present or unconciously presents images of people they like or dislike or believe will be a good/bad influence on whatever the writer/source thinks matters. How those people and people in general construct arguments for why and how something happened, accept specific forms of Westerosi cultural biases as well as the systems that birth them and the history that justifies them.

Therefore, while some online will try to imply that this means one can do whatever they want to create something totally not possible in the orig lore and the story of the Dance ("unreliable" = "all or most of it is fake and propganda") or think bias = propoganda (they aren't bc I could have a certain bias against goldfish but I don't have fliers out there trying to convince anyone that goldfish are disgusting creatures). It actually means that it behooves you to DO YOUR RESEARCH into the lore of pre- & post-Conquest Westeros, the characters not just in F&B but also AWoIaF and the So Spake Martin Website, the main series (so many people think Rhaneyra was always and universally ahted in Westeros or that it was a severe minority that was neutral towards her....not the case. Even Shireen's famous and much-abused quote was more about the "tragedy" of how the royal infighting caused wide destruction, not how hateful rhaenyra supposedly was. In fact, there's a lot more evidence of Aegon II being credited as a subpar and even hateful ruler AND person than for Rhaenyra in noble Westerosi society! And Rhaenyra is called a "Queen" unironically by both Martin and many maesters in all the books). That doesn't mean they liked or approved of her being the heir or being queen, it means that they acknowledged she ruled and was made heir.

I personally would suggest doing even a bit of historical research into how medieval to early modern period European elites thought of religion(s), health and illness, bastardy as a concept and how it changed over several years, etc. as GRRM did to see why he writes certain characters the way he does. this isn't a historical fiction series, though, as som fans seem to want it to be. It is fantasy fiction, so despite F&B being a nonfictional piece of work within Westeros...it's still also a fictional piece of work part of a fictional series doen by a real man. It obviously has themes or narrative relations and tie ins and context for what is happening in the main books. None of these books are intellectually isolated installments! Book franchises with different styles never are!

So I also said it often before, but again Condal and Hess--who are the head writers who get to decided what are the final drafts and what direction the other writers will write and how, plus the directors in some capacity and more than others can--wanted to/did write a story with a much simpler and out-of-touch, benevolvently sexist story where they try to make their female characters less "hateful" to their audiences and it resulted in them dampening their fire, passion, ambition. So these women--who so happen to be the most prominent and driving characters of the entire story about SEXISM of the society and the Targs' assimilation tactics--overall are made boring in a critical way where D&D did not.

Here's the thing. We can and have already seen how terribly sexist they rewrote Dany to be more Cersei-like and other women being written towards a "temptress" or "harpy" (opposite end of the sexist spectrum opposed to how HotD writers have done), but they also still portrayed women who didn't take shit lying down. That is always going to be more entertaining, bc these women are doing stuff and have some type of brain activity/strategy going on, even when they are not overtly being confrontational. This would be true of men; if a man is doing nothing, it's innately less superficially entertaining than a man or child or whatever who are making moves and using theit brains to do it.

So yeah, GoT was more entertaining. But not bc of this too-simple idea of the books being unfinished.

And then there's how Hollywood has in the most recent years been more lead and taiolring their most prominent shows/working producers and writers to skew cis white men....the demographic who simply do not understand the ful breadth of life or has insight into women of any race, class, sexuality...even women of their own race, class, etc. Hess has shown herself to be still way too out of touch in the class department, even with her being lesbian. There is an article called "Hollywood's DEI Programs Have Begun to DIE. How Hard Did the Industry Really Try?" as well as multiples statisticalreports of cis white men on the older side as well as of higher classes still ruling the industry in almsot all ways in terms of the economics and who's directing what, etc. So yeah, this show is merely a reflection of what has been happening to this country, the industry, and its population's steady, historical race, gender, class divide.

[kivaember]

SLAPS DOWN SOME FREUD AND RUSTY STUFF. It's just Freud being a freak and Rusty being very alarmed and then very murderous towards him.

Guess you can call this one-sided freud/rusty on freud's side??? i'll leave it for the reader to decide. enjoy!

Arquebus work functions were absolute hell on earth.

It wasn't just the fact that Vespers were paraded around as products rather than employees, it was the fact that Rusty had to stand around and smile vapidly while he had far too many people who he fucking despised talk to him and shake his hand and ask far too many personal questions that weren't relevant to his augmentions or job description at all.

Well, no, technical lie. There were many questions about his augmentations, but they were rarely about their effectiveness in improving his piloting abilities and the like. They were normally things like "is it true that these augmentations extend your life?" or "Arquebus have been advertising the Gen Tens are something that can hit the domestic markets, that they improve the human body in all qualities, is that true?" or "So I hear that one of the biggest risks to augmentation surgery is erectile dysfunction, what do you do about that?" or "Is it true you have to be sterilised?? So you can't get girls pregnant, right?"

There was a reason behind such questions. With the Gen Tens finally out of the experimental stage (as in, they managed to get them to stop killing people) and being extensively field tested in multiple roles, Arquebus had boldly began an advertisement compaign encouraging the domestic sector to invest in augmenting their employees.

Gone were the days where augmentations only benefited soldiers and pilots! With the Gen Tens, the augmentation surgeries were so safe that they could be done far more cheaply than previous generations, and offered a slew of advantageous that would make you a very productive and long-lived worker! The military sector, while booming, was still very restrictive in terms of how many people you can augment until you start scraping the bottom of the poorest barrel, so now Arquebus turned their hungry gaze on the domestic sector.

Arquebus's many subsidaries were going to fall in line, but the executives still had many questions they wanted answers to when spinning up their own advertisement campaigns. What better way to get those answers than from the source? Hence the Vespers, trotted out like good little dogs, barking to the tune that Arquebus wanted, lying through their teeth, telling the corporate vultures what they wanted to hear, all while Rusty hoped they all did get augmented and died horribly from unexpected complications.

Would serve them right.

But it made these work functions an utter horror show for him. Draining. Exhausting. As the initial slew of questioning and socialising began to slow as the alcohol levels rose in everyone's bloodstreams, Rusty was grumpy, tired and had a pounding headache. He kept his smile up only by vividly imagining blowing everyone up with his mind.

"-so the sterility isn't universal?"

"It depends on what you mean by 'sterile'," Maeterlinck answered with a patience Rusty had long ran out of. It was him and her, fielding questions from Executive... Mike Mcfuckhands of Shit Company #69. By this point most people were very drunk, but somehow he and Maeterlinck got ambushed by the one half-way sober executive before they could successfully escape without notice.

(It was one of the few times that Rusty genuinely commiserated with his fellow Vespers. The look of utter despair they had shared had been emphatic.)

"Well, you know..." Mcfuckhands waved his wine glass a little carelessly. Rusty watched with dull eyes as wine spilled over the lip and onto the floor. "You don't need condoms to have some fun, if you know what I mean."

"Well, the augmentations won't protect you from STIs, of course," Maeterlinck said evenly. She was a stronger soldier than Rusty, that was for sure, keeping such a straight face and bland voice. "They'll mitigate the worst of the symptoms, but it won't grant you immunity."

"Oh, er, of course, of course, but, you won't get someone pregnant?"

"No."

save me, Rusty begged whatever deity or demon was listening, save me from this hell.

His prayers were, amazingly, answered almost immediately.

With a chiming tune that was out of place of their swanky surroundings, Rusty's phone began to trill. Leaping upon this opportunity like a starving dog on a bull carcass, he slipped his phone out of his pocket and stepped back.

"Sorry, gotta take this. Important call," he said, ignoring Maeterlinck's dagger stare of 'you cowardly traitor'.

Sorry, Maeterlinck. It was every man for himself out here.

Preparing for it to be a spam call trying to sell him some kind of gizmo or whatever, Rusty answered the call without checking the ID as he strode with purpose towards the ballroom's doors.

"You just saved me from a really painful conversation from some dumbass executive so I'll listen to whatever you're peddling," Rusty said. "What is it this time? A roomba that'll clean your apartment and then suck you off once it's done?"

"...haven't got one of those in my toolbox, but now you've got me interested, V.IV."

Rusty froze comically.

"C-Commander?" he half-squeaked, mortified when Freud started sniggering in that low, throaty way of his. "What- I thought you were a telemarketer! Why're you-"

Wait.

"...why're you calling me?" Rusty asked dumbly. Hesitantly, he started walking again, his confusion eclipsing his mortification. "Is V.II not picking up?"

"Why would I call Snail?"

Because you're the commander and he's your deputy bitch, Rusty did not say.

"To torment him," he said instead.

"...okay, fair," Freud conceded. "But I called you intentionally. You need to ditch that party and return to HQ."

"Is there an emergency deployment?" Rusty asked, easily slipping into business mode. He exited the ballroom, the music and chatter cutting off when the doors shut behind him. The entrance hallway was far quieter and cooller.

"Emergency deployment... eh, yeah, something like that..." Freud said vaguely. "Just hurry up to the hangar. I'll be waiting, V.IV."

He hung up without much as a goodbye, and Rusty pocketed his phone with a frown. He wondered what kind of mission this was, to have Freud directly calling him and circumventing Snail. It must be pretty bad. Maybe Balam had finally managed to reclaim Pluto from Arquebus? They'd been duking it out over that planetoid's chunked remains ever since it had blown up.

(Why had it blown up? Rusty had no idea. Any details pertaining to "Pluto's Cracking" were very vague and buried under impenetrable black ink. Must've been some UEG experiment that went horribly wrong, was Rusty's theory.)

But if it wasn't Pluto... Rusty couldn't think of anything else urgent enough to warrant Freud's calling him during a work function. Well, even if it was something as mundane as acting as his punching bag in simulated spars, it was leagues better than suffering stupid questions from equally moronic executives...

And Freud was a good excuse to hold up if Snail cottoned onto his early departure. Yes, whatever Freud wanted will be worth it.

-

Two hours later and standing outside of the London's city limits in STEEL HAZE, Rusty reassessed his earlier sentiments.

Upon arriving at the hangar after switching out his suit and tie for the Vesper flight suit, Freud had all but chivvied him into STEEL HAZE and ordered him to follow him to a set of coordinates outside of London's city limits. All flight clearances had been given for them to travel in flight configuration over the city, Freud assured, and Rusty, unsure but curious, did as he was told.

The coordinates led them both to a large stretch of absolute nowhere deep in the irradiated wastelands of Earth. The ground was rocky and uneven, large fissures gaping where the crust had split open with tremendous force, and so deep that not even STEEL HAZE's sensors could detect the bottom. A flashing alert for unsafe levels of radiation blinked at the bottom of his HUD, the value registering around 7Gy - potent enough to give him acute radiation poisoning if he opened his cockpit hatch. The sky as well was an unsettled shade of rust, the reddish brown dust that coated everything hazing the air due to the constant blistering winds.

It boggled the mind to think some humans did actually live out in these wastelands, somehow, and even more boggling that the Rejuvenated cities were functioning oases where it was easy to forget the state of the world beyond their towering walls.

Honestly, looking at the wasteland around him, Rusty couldn't help but feel relief that Rubicon wasn't this bad. Yeah, the climate was stuck in the middle of an ever deepening ice age in some parts, and majority of life had been rendered extinct... but the atmosphere was irradiated, plants still grew without aid, there was still rain and groundwater and other signs of defiant life. Earth didn't have that. Outside of its fake movie sets that were those cities, the whole planet was straight up dead.

Just completely, totally, utterly dead.

"Right, yeah, this'll do..." Freud hummed. "Some good cover, wide open space, far away enough that those Peacekeepers won't get involved..."

Ominous words.

"Hey, Commander?" Rusty said.

"Yeah?"

"Are you planning on murdering me out here or something?"

Freud didn't immediately answer. Slowly, LOCKSMITH swivelled around to face STEEL HAZE, but its weapons remained inactive and the Scudder rifle was pointing downwards towards the ground. Rusty still kept his finger close to his trigger, though, his implants ready to engage his FCS the second LOCKSMITH so much as twitched wrong.

"......is that what you're into?" Freud finally asked.

What. "What?"

"Hey, no judgement on my part. I get that there's a bit of excitement at consensual attempted murder-"

What???

"Uh- no? No??" Rusty stuttered, unsure on how Freud even made that bizarre leap of logic. "I'm not- that's not why I asked! You just-"

Freud cut him off with a horribly obnoxious laugh. "You're so easily flustered, V.IV! I'm just yanking your chain. I know you're a good little tamed wolf."

Rusty huffed, his face feeling uncomfortably hot. "With someone like you, it's hard to tell, commander. You've always had unique tastes."

"Ooooh, looks like this wolf's muzzle can slip loose," Freud purred. "Perfect. That'll make this more... fun."

STEEL HAZE's sensors picked up LOCKSMITH's weapon systems coming online. Functioning purely off instinct, Rusty activated his own and snapped STEEL HAZE's arm right up, its SAMPU machine gun aimed squarely at LOCKSMITH's Core - just as LOCKSMITH's Scudder rifle pointed at him.

"You didn't even blink," Freud murmured. "Good."

"I've always been quick on the draw, commander," Rusty said lightly, maintaining V.IV Rusty's confident, airy mein all while his mind raced frantically, trying to figure out if he had slipped up somewhere, if Freud had cottoned onto his true nature. Had he really called him out here to get rid of him? Well, least Freud offered him a fighting chance - better than being vanished by the Peacekeepers in the middle of the night.

"Yeah. Your reaction times in the sims were always somewhat impressive..."

LOCKSMITH started to sidestep. STEEL HAZE matched it. They began to circle each other.

"But sims are rarely indicative of a pilot's true skill," Freud said conversationally, like they weren't holding guns in each other's faces. "It's only when they're really under pressure that they show their true abilities."

"Is that what this is?" Rusty asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice. "You want to see me perform under pressure?"

"You half-ass your spars in the sims." Freud's voice went flat - almost cold. "You can clearly do better, but you don't. You pretend to be less skilled than you really are, and it really, really, really pisses me off. So this is what we're going to do."

With its free hand, LOCKSMITH gestured to their surroundings. "We're going to fight here and now. If you don't give me your all, I'm going to crack your cockpit open like an egg. What's the ambient radiation level right now? 7Gy?"

"Yeah," Rusty said flatly.

"Hm, that means you'd have about ten minutes before you start vomiting your guts out and your intestines try to escape your body through your asshole," Freud said, so matter-of-fact. "I think it'd take, what, a few hours before you start bleeding from every orifice?"

It'd be a horrible way to go. Rusty felt his pulse pick up a little. "Did Arquebus HQ authorise this 'test', commander?"

"I always ask for forgiveness than permission from HQ, and they always forgive me," Freud laughed, but there was something strangely bitter about it. "You can be replaced, anyways. Now."

LOCKSMITH's head tilted fractionally.

"Fight like the cornered wolf that you are, V.IV," Freud murmured. "Let me see those fangs of yours."

And before Rusty could respond, LOCKSMITH fired.

-

In the end, the decision was easy to make.

Though Rusty had told himself he'd try to conceal his true skill as much as possible, even at risk to himself, when his back was really pushed to the wall and he had to choose between dying and keeping his cover, or fighting back like a cornered animal desperate to live and blowing everything, Rusty didn't really have to think about it.

He fought back with everything he had. He bared those fangs. He pushed himself to his very limits, Freud matching him every step of the way, pushing him and pushing him, until their ammunition was spent and the generators were close to overheating, their battle tearing up new scars along the cracked earth and leaving chunks of of themselves behind.

The fight didn't end in a draw so much as they wordlessly came to a mutual halt several tens of metres apart. LOCKSMITH was missing an arm - a casualty to Rusty's laser slicer shearing the limb off at the shoulder - and parts of its armour was warped and dented from STEEL HAZE's plasma missiles eating through the military grade steel. The Scudder rifle had been tossed aside a while back, and LOCKSMITH's fingers on that hand were partially crushed from where it had slugged STEEL HAZE in the gut at full force. Rusty was still feeling the ache from that even now.

He wished he could say STEEL HAZE was in a better state, but the fact was the AC was barely functioning. Its right arm was useless - Freud's revenge for LOCKSMITH's dismembered arm - and STEEL HAZE's ablative armour was stripped down to nothing, revealing the dull, gunmetal grey base armour underneath, scorched and scratched from deflected rounds or glancing blows from the MORLEY grenade launcher. Rusty had sacrificed many of STEEL HAZE's functionality to defend the Core at all costs, knowing it would take only one minor breach of the Core block to have him dying from acute radiation poisoning.

If they continued to fight, Rusty would lose. That was cold, hard fact, and he was braced for it, braced for overloading his own generator and latching onto LOCKSMITH if need be, if only to drag Freud into his grave with him, but instead after a long, charged pause, LOCKSMITH's weapon systems deactivated.

Rusty kept STEEL HAZE's active.

"...that's more like it," Freud murmured. His voice had a distinct breathlessness to it that Rusty tried to ignore. "You were glorious, V.IV. Vicious, fast, and decisive. You almost killed me a few times, might've if luck had been on your side."

"You sound disappointed," Rusty gritted out, not bothering to pretend to be V.IV Rusty. "Don't tell me this was some fucking convoluted suicide attempt."

Freud laughed - no, cackled. "Suicide attempt? You still think you can beat me right now?"

Rusty swallowed down his pride, sensing a trap in Freud's breathless, wild voice. He clenched his jaw, bared his fangs in a snarl that Freud couldn't see but definitely hear as he growled: "Not right now. But one day."

"One day. One day, you might be able to." Freud inhaled deeply, and let it out slow. "Yeah, one day."

Rusty waited, his pulse still thumping like a drum in his ears, STEEL HAZE poised to lunge, teetering on a tripwire. After a long, long pause, where Freud audibly pulled himself back under control, folding back his wild, deranged true self into the far more socially acceptable lines of V.I Freud, Vesper, LOCKSMITH turned away.

"Well, I think we've been gone long enough. Come on, V.IV. Let's go back."

Freud didn't wait. He launched LOCKSMITH upwards and boosted back towards the city, the AC travelling at a much slower speed than its flight-configuration allowed. Its armour integrity was likely hanging on by a thread, much like STEEL HAZE's.

Rusty reluctantly followed him but kept his distance, still trying to figure out what the fuck that had been about. Freud had always been a bit of a mystery, but it turned out he was fucking insane and couldn't be trusted to be normal at all. Who the hell invited someone out into the middle of nowhere to goad them into a fight to the death?! What was wrong with this guy?!

i better be careful around him, Rusty thought agitatedly. Freud now knew his true skill - had known he'd been holding back for a long while, it seemed. Had he shared this information with anyone else? Was he onto Rusty, or was he so fucking nuts that he only cared about being cheated out of a good spar in the sims? Was Rusty going to be called out into the irradiated wastelands to fight him again? Should he complain to Snail about this?! Would Snail side with him out of his hatred for Freud, or with Freud out of his hatred for Rusty???

And more importantly...

...

Who was going to authorise STEEL HAZE's repairs... since this wasn't an official sortie, then... then this might come out of... Rusty's wages...

...

i'm definitely going to kill him, he decided, cold with an intense, deep fury, maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day, i'm going to fucking kill him.