#bugaboo tv
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To cope with Good Omens season 2 finale… or not – Halloween![Miraculous X Good Omens]
Context : for Halloween, Cat Noir, Good-Omens-tv-show-fan, is dressed as Crowley, and discovers that his Lady is dressed as Aziraphale... but she has only read the book. Long story short, he convinces her to watch the show with him and let’s just say...season 2 finale hits hard.
– Why is everyone in hysterics about this show? The book is great, but not high drama.🤨
– My Lady, you haven’t seen the season 2 finale. 😏
several episodes later
- Oh, Bugaboo, will you manage to get over it ?🥲
– Sh...Shut up .😖
(My journey with a Graphic Tablet Pad : Day 51)
More details about this Halloween Project : here!
Costumes sneak-peak right here !
Little "Piece of Cake❤️" Halloween comic right there!
Bonus!
Sometimes i finally prefer the first version without colors... This is sad, this coloured one took me 5 days, more or less.
#Halloween#Miraculous#Miraculous ladybug#Chat noir#Ladybug#Adrien#Marinette#LadyNoir#AdriNette#Ml#MLB#Good Omens#Gomens#Art#My art#Illustration#Cute#Miraculous fandom#my Miraculous art#Elenthya&MiraculousArt#ElenthyaAndMiraculous
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Just Friends
Eep sorry this chapter is soo late!! I was superrr busy today. Anywho, I hope you like this chapter! Not sure if I’ve ever written post-reveal pre-relationsip for Ladrien before but boy oh boy it sure was fun hehehe.
AO3
It was official.
Adrien Agreste was melting. Honestly, it was a wonder that it had happened before. Especially now that he knew that the two people that he had completely and utterly fallen for were one and the same.
Marinette was Ladybug and honestly finding that out had been the happiest day of his life. Nothing would ever... could ever compare.
It had been an accident at the time. He had dove into the locker room and mere seconds later had transformed back into Adrien. Giving Plagg his cheese to give him time to recuperate after the akuma attack, he was about to duck out when someone else crashed into the room.
Ladybug’s wide eyes greeted him mere seconds before pink light enveloped her. Adrien didn’t even have time to think about closing his eyes before she detransformed into Marinette.
His heart was racing as he gaped at her. Because wow. Suddenly everything made so much more sense now. Why he had gotten tingles for the brief second Marinette had kissed him at the Grévin Museum. Why he always wanted to be near her. Why his heart pounded whenever she giggled or laughed or even smiled at something he said.
How had it taken him so long to notice?
Whilst Adrien was still experiencing the high of euphoria, though, he noticed that Marinette’s breaths were coming shorter and shorter. She was panicked. Completely and utterly terrified. He had to say something. Had to reassure her that everything was going to be alright.
Clearing his throat, he took a cautious step toward her. “Marinette, are you okay?”
She shook her head, clenching her eyes tightly shut. Adrien took another step towards her, noticing Tikki glancing between the two nervously. Slowly, he reached out, touching her hand softly. When she didn’t pull back, he took it and gave a quick squeeze.
“It’s going to be alright, Marinette. We’ll get through this... together. Just like we always have. You and me against the world, remember?”
Her eyes slowly peered open, confusion swirling in them. He simply grinned at her until recognition mixed with uncertainty in her expression. “Ch-Chat?”
Intertwining their fingers, his grin got even larger. “Hey, bugaboo.”
In the next second, Adrien got an armful of Marinette as she threw herself at him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her head in his shoulder. This must be what heaven was like because he couldn’t imagine anything sweeter. Closing his eyes, he hugged her back, inhaling the wonderful aroma of vanilla and strawberries.
Adrien could have stayed just like that. With Marinette cuddled tightly to his chest and his nose buried in the scent of her hair, he could have stayed there for an eternity.
The sound of the bell was a brutal reminder of why they even had the opportunity of revealing their identities. It was time for class which unfortunately meant he’d have to part from her arms.
Reluctantly, he pulled back, already mourning the feel of her warm arms around him. Marinette’s eyes simply sparkled as she grinned up at him.
“Later,” she murmured. “We’ll talk later.”
Talk later they did. In fact, it was difficult to get them to stop talking now. They grew even closer because of the reveal, sending each other secret looks and smiles during class.
Some days Adrien snuck over to her house as Chat Noir and other days Marinette snuck over as Ladybug.
They were at his house at the moment. They were stretched out across his white sofa. His head was in Ladybug’s lap as something played on TV. He wasn’t paying attention though. The only thing Adrien was listening for were her soft breaths and chuckles at the show. Every so often, she’d swipe a hand over his hair causing his eyes to flutter shut.
He loved her. Every single giggle set his heart aflutter. He was practically bursting at the seams to tell her. To declare just how overjoyed he was about the fact that he had fallen in love with her twice.
But Adrien couldn’t... not anymore. Not now that it had the potential to ruin any closeness that they had garnered.
No. They were just friends. And that’s all they’d ever be.
Honestly, though, that’s all he needed. Ladybug was amazing and he’d rather have her in his life than not at all.
Adrien couldn’t stop himself from shuddering at the thought. Yep. Friendship was just fine for him. Besides, he already knew that she was in love with someone else.
A thought caused a furrow to form between his brows. He peered up at Ladybug some of the curiosity fading as he saw her bright smile. It wasn’t enough to keep him from asking the question though. “Is the guy you’re in love with and Buttercup the same person?”
Adrien watched as Ladybug slowly tensed. Her shoulders stiffened as she glanced down at him. Her blue eyes were wide, filled with... fear?
Just as soon as he saw the emotion, though, she flicked her gaze away. “Where did that thought come from?” She chuckled almost nervously, waving a gloved hand in the air.
He shrugged, shifting slightly in her lap as he tried to push down the bitterness. It was almost definitely the same person.
“Just curious is all.”
“Oh, um well...,” Ladybug trailed off before looking back down at him. Her eyes were soft. Softer than he had ever seen them before. “Yes, yes, he is,” she whispered.
There was something loving about her tone and this time Adrien couldn’t clamp down on the wave of jealousy. Her declaration had been beautiful. Whoever it was was so lucky, and he didn’t even know.
Adrien crossed his arms, scoffing quietly. This time it was Ladybug’s turn to frown and how was it possible for her to do that and still look so adorable? That little wrinkle in her mask was so cute. It was hard for him to remain jealous.
“I-Is something wrong, Adrien?” she asked, sounding worried again.
Immediately, he blinked, shaking his head. He couldn’t let her feel bad! Not for his own sour feelings.
“No, not at all! I was just thinking.”
“Thinking about what?” Ladybug murmured, brushing some of his hair away from his face.
Don’t do it! Don’t do it!
Adrien’s thoughts begged him to stop but he couldn’t stop himself from blurting out, “I just think it’s kind of stupid.”
Her lips parted and she looked astounded and a little bit hurt. Quickly, he rushed to clarify, “I-I mean because of how oblivious this guy is! Obviously not because of you. You’re amazing. I’m just mad that he doesn’t reciprocate your feelings!”
The hurt left Ladybug’s face, leaving traces of what seemed to be amusement glimmering in her sapphire eyes. But why was she amused?
“I’m not so sure he even knows.” She giggled softly.
Adrien frowned. Surely Ladybug should’ve been upset by this notion but instead, it seemed like her amusement simply grew. A hint of mischief teased across her smile as it grew.
Either way, he sat up, gesturing wildly as he scoffed again. “Well, then that’s even more ridiculous! If it were me you lo—”
He clamped his mouth shut. Ladybug’s eyes had widened to the point of saucers. He was sure his own mirrored hers. What had he been thinking? Now he was going to get rejected again.
And what if—now that she knew—she left? What if she decided that she was done with their meet-ups and silly talks and glances at school and left him? Adrien bit down sharply on the tip of his tongue, ignoring the pain. He was doomed. All because he couldn’t keep his jealousy to himself.
“Y-you’d what?” she whispered, her voice sounding choked.
He clenched his eyes shut. How could he fix this? Chuckling nervously, he scratched the back of his neck as he tried to brush off his slip-up. “Can’t we just forget it? I shouldn’t have even brought it up in the first place.”
“Adrien.” The word sounded so important—so vastly important that he simply had to turn his head to hers, connecting their gazes. Ladybug’s eyes were so intense that he found himself holding his breath. “P-please... what would you do?”
He was drawn to her. To the hope in her voice and the something that was flickering across her face. Slowly, ever so slowly, he scooted closer to her. He had to try.
“I’d... I’d,” Adrien trailed off, biting his lip as worry overwhelmed him. He glanced down as nerves churned in his stomach. What if he was wrong and the hope was actually panic? Before he could spiral any further, though, a hand gently rested on top of his.
Blinking back up at her, he saw the soft, sweet smile on Ladybug’s lips. She nodded her head as if to say it was okay and that was all the reassurance he needed.
“I’d tell you that when I first heard that beautiful confession to Buttercup at the end of our trip to the movies I was suddenly struck by two different emotions. Awe and envy.”
Ladybug tilted her head in confusion. “Envy?”
He nodded, his heart pounding. “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, Ladybug. And, at the time, I was confused by the sudden pain in my chest I got just from knowing that confession was for someone else.”
She gasped. “Even then?”
“Even then.”
All at once, he was wrapped around Ladybug as she threw herself at him. Her lips found his in a desperate kiss. It took a great deal of effort, but Adrien had to know the truth.
Just barely managing to pull himself away from her, his eyes flicked between hers, searching for any sign that she was lying to him. “A-are you serious? Buttercup’s me?”
“Always has been.” A wobbly smile was on her face as she sniffled.
Adrien felt dizzy, struck by the fact that he was the idiot the whole time. Even still, that didn’t stop him from being the one to surge forward this time as he connected their lips once more.
How could he ever have been content with just being friends? Ladybug’s lips were sweeter than he had ever dreamed them to be. He could spend the rest of his life kissing her. And, suddenly, he fully planned on doing that. Was marriage too soon to propose while they were still in school?
He’d ask her later. Right now, he was too busy nibbling on the bottom of her lip as she moved even closer to him. There’d be time for serious discussions later. Right now, Adrien just wanted to kiss his future wife.
#ladrienjune2023#ladrienjune#ladrien#love square#jealous adrien#jealousy#post reveal pre relationship#post reveal#pre relationship#miraculous#miraculous ladybug#ml#mlb#ml fic#Fic#fanfic#adrinette#Adrienette
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Produce 48 Recaps: Entrances (episode 1)
Hello there, National Producer! (That’s you. You’re a National Producer.)
Do you miss giant scale Korean reality shows? Are you fainting away, wishing there was one to watch? Or are you, perhaps, a fan of AleXa, Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, El7zup, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, IZ*one, k-dramas, Kep1er, Le Sserafim, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch, Secret Number, or any of the 48 franchises - AKB48, HKT48, or NMB48? Did you watch Sixteen or Produce 101 and want to know what happened later? Did you watch GirlsPlanet999 or Queendom Puzzle and want to know what happened before? Are you bored and enjoy snarky recaps of tv shows from five and a half years ago? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions, then stick around! And if you didn’t, stick around anyway because this is going to be great. But if you’re not a fan of (a) honest assessment of skills and performance (b) curse words ( c ) sarcasm (d) long, chatty, rabbit-hole digging, silly recaps that take longer to read than it would take to watch the show, maybe not.
You might be wondering, well, who are you, anyway? I’m an adult female human being living somewhere in North America. You can call me BPR-Unnie (or BPR-Noona, if that’s better for you. This link may help you decide!) I know a smattering of Korean and a bit about Korean culture, but I’m not Korean. I know a smattering of Japanese as well but I’m also not Japanese. My favorite kpop group is EXO and from that you would be correct to conclude I tend to have a bias toward excellent singing. But if I sneak in the fact that I have watched more than my fair share of Kai fancams, you’ll learn that I am not immune to stage presence and dancing. I like girl groups and boy groups equally and am basically just the multi-est of multi-stans, though “stanning” for me doesn’t tend to include watching variety content or buying things. For the most part, I just listen to music and watch performances.
If you’re wondering, what the heck is Produce 48? As Wikipedia says, it was “the third season of the South Korean reality competition series Produce 101. It was a large-scale project in which the public ‘produces’ a girl group by voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants from South Korea and Japan…. The show was a collaboration between the MNET series Produce 101 and the J-pop idol group AKB48.” The winning 12 girls were announced as new project group IZ*One on August 31, 2018. (Other side note: IZ*one is pronounced “is-one” not “eye-zone”, per the Korean phonetics.)
It’s fun to go back and rewatch this show because around a third of these girls went on to do other things in the world of Kpop, and it’s fun to see them when they were so much younger. Also, shows like this are fun and weird just in general.
This recap will spoil some things, but not every single thing. I’m going to, as we go along, mention where various people end up -- I’m assuming that if you’re here, you either already know or don’t mind being spoilered on that kind thing. I will point out future members of Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, Le Sserafim, Kep1er, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch and Secret Number. I’ll also point out future Queendom Puzzle visitors. But I’m not going to go out of my way to tell you exactly who makes the final lineup of IZ*one, exactly when people will be eliminated, and where every single person is going to end up (I’ll tell you after they get eliminated). That seems like the best compromise based on the poll. Plenty of people become famous after a show like this without making the final line up of the debut group -- like G-Idle’s Soyeon on Produce 101. So if you don’t know the name of every member of IZ*one, you can watch the show along with me and enjoy it, while still knowing who everyone is. And if you do want to be spoilered on who makes it into IZ*one, you can just look up the names of the members and keep that handy as you read. I hope that all makes sense!
I actually watched Produce 48 many years ago -- maybe 2019? It was after IZ*one had already debuted, so I was watching to get caught up. It was the first such show I ever watched and I wasn’t in the habit yet of taking notes to keep track of everyone, so for the most part I had no idea who anyone was the whole time. I mean, with 96 girls, many of whom meet certain beauty standards and thus can look quite similar to one another, and all of whom are in the habit of changing their hair/eye color/style constantly, it’s hard. So I have almost no memory of the show except for two things: (1) loving Huh Yunjin and (2) feeling sorry for the girl who the show made fun of for having intense eyes. I thought Yunjin was obviously the best on the whole damn show and was irritated that she was ever ranked anything other than first fucking place, and that other girl, I just wanted to give her all the hugs. We’ll meet her soon enough!
Finally, you may wonder, where am I watching the show? I watch it here: https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-1.html I have to note that sites like this are really spammy and you’ll need a good adblocker and, to be on the safe side, working anti-virus software before you to click that link. Once you’re on the page, when you first click “play” on the video, it always opens a pop up ad that you have to close and then try again, when it will actually play. The pop-ups I’ve seen haven’t been offensive or gross in any way, and this site is less spammy than the one called kisstvshow, which bombards you with actual photos of actual peens like, immediately. Just close-up peens, glistening at you. No thank you. You can also find clips of the show on Youtube, but they’re kind of disorganized. There are some bits and pieces of episode 1 in this playlist. I’ll also provide links to individual auditions as we go.
Ok, let’s go!
We start off with some typical MNET self-congratulatory stuff -- all the buzz about this show before it even debuted! -- complete with a picture of THE SAKURA™, future visual queen of Le Sserafim. Then as a gentle piano rendition of our soon-to-be-favorite song Neko-ya plays, a voice over talks about what the 96 girls (and women) on this show think about their training journey, and we see the lovely profile of Huh Yunjin. Yay! My favorite!
We hear that it’s hard for them to be trainees and that sometimes they almost want to give up. But they keep pushing forward to try. 96 seeds working hard to sprout, and the national producers will shine on them like sunshine! Awww. Produce48 starts now!
An alarm rings, shocking us awake from our gentle piano daydream. We’re confronted with… this. Whatever this is.
It’s Lee Seung Gi, the host this time! His bed is vertical! It makes too much sense!
Ok, folks, for me personally, Lee Seung Gi being host is super important, because he’s sort of the reason I’m even here. He was one of the stars of the ridiculous, the sublime, the problematic, the perfect, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho.
This drama aired on a local Korean-language cable channel back in the day (I lived in a major city that showed foreign programming on cable), and I stumbled on it while changing channels and stood there staring at it wondering what in the actual fuck I was watching. Who needs subtitles or any knowledge of Korean when you have… this?
It’s the first piece of Korean culture I ever consumed, other than kimchi. This was even before Gangnam Style! It led to me watching more k-dramas, including, eventually, It's Okay, That's Love, starring Do Kyungsoo, also known as EXO’s D.O. I was curious about what he’d be like as a musical performer, and the rest is history. So, what I’m saying is, Lee Seung Gi set off a chain reaction that led to me eventually recapping his own performance as host of this show. The circle is complete.
Lee Seung-gi (born 1987) has been a singer, specifically a solo artist, as well as an actor, since 2004. He’s like Rain, but not as irritating. He hasn’t made much money from it because of his agency stealing from him. In fact, in April of 2023, a law was passed called “the Lee Seung-gi Incident Prevention Act” which requires entertainment companies to disclose their earnings settlement details to their celebrities at least once a year. Seems like a good thing to do. He’s still in demand, I’m sure, and quite loved, so he’ll land on his feet no matter what. Seung-gi, fighting!!
Ok, back to the show! Seung-gi explains how to vote, which we can skip -- the only info of note is that only Koreans could vote back then, quite different from the modern era -- and go to about 5:30 for an extremely bombastic set reveal.
5:49 The girls start to walk in
Note: All ages given are the (international) ages of the girls at the start of the series.
The first three to walk in are the Yuehua trainees.
Left to right: Yiren, Sihyeon, Yena
Kim Si Hyeon (김시현), age 18, in the pinky/purpley long sleeved shirt
She was also on Produce 101 (first season) as a “kaein” (individual/no-agency) trainee, where she did pretty well (made it to episode 8), but didn’t necessarily stand out. After this show, she debuted as part of Everglow, where she performs under her real name and is currently the leader, as well as a visual and “face of the group.”
Choi Ye Na (최예나), age 18, with her hair in a ponytail. We’ll be seeing a lot of her this episode!
Wang Yi Ren (왕이런), age 17, pink shirt with black edges, statement belt
She is actually Chinese, though she speaks Korean pretty fluently. You probably know her now as a member of Everglow, where she is lead dancer as well as a visual and also the “face of the group.” How many faces can a group have? Also, isn’t Mia the face of the group, as well as the body and the voice and the feet and the hands? Sigh. I really like Everglow. We just… all know the drill with line distribution and center time.
They come in and exclaim how pretty and shiny the set is and say “daebak” a lot. They sit down in a row along the top, and faintly, in the distance, Bon Bon Chocolate begins to form in a songwriter’s head.
Next in is Kim Min Ju (김민주) from Urban Works. She’s 17. She was a child actress before the show. The others are impressed that she’s here by herself and that she’s very pretty.
I love how in Korea having a small face is a compliment.
She goes to sit in the first place seat, then changes her mind and chooses 5th place instead so she doesn’t have to sit up so high.
Up next is YG Kplus, a modeling agency not to be confused with regular YG, the agency that is home to Blackpink and Treasure. The trainees are Ahn Ye Won (안예원), age 17, and Choi Yeon Soo (최연수), age 19. Yeon Soo has a celebrity chef for a father but doesn’t want to just be another nepo baby. She has the black skirt, while her label-mate Ye Won is in all red. They walk in to the strains of Blurred Lines (🤢) and the other girls exclaim jealously about how tall they are. Yewon is 172 cm and Yeonsoo is 170 cm, making them both about 5’6.
Next in is a group from CNC School, featuring some familiar faces!
Left to right: Kim Yubin, Kim Da Yeon, Lee YuJeong, Yoon Eun Bin, Hong Ye Ji
Kim Yu Bin (김유빈) is 16.
Kim Da Yeon (김다연) is 15 and you may know her (now) from GirlsPlanet999 and Kep1er. Aww, this is before she got her teeth done! She’s adorable. I am a Dayeon apologist and will hear no words against her.
Lee Yu Jeong (이유정) is 14 and you may know her (now) from Lightsum.
Yoon Eun Bin (윤은빈) is 14.
Hong Ye Ji (홍예지) is 16.
Yena thinks that the CNC girls look like babies. I think she looks like a baby! And this old lady I tutored today told me that *I* look like a baby. So I guess everyone is a baby.
Next is MMO, home to the sexy Kang Daniel, everyone’s fave from Produce101 Season 2 (often called “Broduce101”). The mere mention of his name sends Yena into a tizzy. I mean, low key same (though I’m more of an Ong Seungwoo fan [though not enough to watch his Pepsi commercial omg what was that?!?]). Anyway, out comes MMO’s Won Seo Yeon (원서연), age 18, a cute girl with a nice low voice and a pretty blue outfit. She seems worried about living up to her sunbae’s success.
Next comes pretty, big eyed Ko Yu Jin (고유진), age 17. She’s from Blockberry Creative, and the Orbits out there are now resisting the urge to smash their device screen at the mere mention of that agency! [Side note: Sensitive is a great song even if Loosemble is a terrible group name. Check out the song, forgive the name.] She’s in a cute striped shirt and interviews that her role models are Taeyon and HyunA, and you know, same.
The girls in the retro polka dot dresses are from How Entertainment.
Yu Min Young (유민영) is 18, in the mint green.
Kim Min Seo (김민서) is 15, in the yellow and is a Jeon Somi fan, as are we all.
Wang Ke (왕크어) is 17, Chinese, and in the red.
The next group, in white tops and black booty shorts, is from MND17 Agency.
Left to right, they are:
Park Chan Ju (박찬주), unknown age. She has the tightest shirt.
Park Min Ji (박민지), age 19, was also on Produce 101 and now (2023) is in Secret Number. She has the floofiest shirt and says she likes ChungHa, which, I mean, don’t we all, but also it’s kind of funny since she was on Produce101 with her so they probably kind of know each other.
Lee Chae Jeong (이채정), age 18, who now (2023) is in a group called Alice (formerly known as Elris).
Another girl comes out in a big yellow shirt with purple… shorts? A skirt? Unclear. She is from an agency called A -team and is named Kim Cho Yeon (김초연), age 16. After this show she was in Bugaboo, a group that has since disbanded but certainly has its adherents. She also likes Chung-Ha, so much so that she also wants to be in fourth place just like her. Also, MNET hates her. HATES HER SOOOOO MUCH.
Next out is someone from MNH Entertainment, the horrible agency that utterly mismanaged poor beautiful Chung-Ha for years. (Sihyeon, who must be practicing for later, says in Japanese that she loves Chung-Ha.)
The MNH trainee is little Lee Ha Eun (이하은), who, at 13, is the youngest on the show. She’s adorable, the way a little kid is adorable, and in a meeting with Chung-Ha herself, we see that little Haeun obviously almost worships Chung-Ha. Chug-Ha tells her to be herself and people will love her. Will this prove accurate? You’ll have to keep watching to find out! As Haeun seats herself amongst all her pretty unnies, she interviews, “This place is very pressuring.” I can’t imagine being in 8th grade and on a show like this. I don’t know how I made it to and from school every day when I was in 8th grade. I don’t know how I continued to like, breathe oxygen and use it in a redox reaction in my body without screwing that up and exploding.
Side note to my loves in middle school who may be reading this: First of all, how dare you, this is for grownups, and secondly, go ahead and read anyway. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, famously said “Middle school is the deepest pit in hell” and yeah, it is. So, please know that I love you. You can do this. It’s going to be rough, can’t lie, but it does keep getting a bit better. Please don’t let these years matter all that much to you. Don’t let it scar you. You’ll get through this by just trying to have as much fun as you can and not caring about crushes and whether or not they have a crush on you, or whether other kids are being nice or mean or whatever dumb middle school shit they’re pulling on you. It doesn’t matter. Just enjoy life and be as happy as possible. Once you get older, you get to decide on the kind of adult you want to be, and if you want to surround yourself with Squishmallows and watch kpop videos with all your free time, you can. Or whatever makes you happy. Hold on. You got this. Now, back to the recap.
Yena chats a lot with her friend Sihyeon, and the editors keep showing them. Yena’s charismatic and it’s fun to get her perspective. They’re sitting in those big chairs that are kind of far apart, so she has to lean way over to do it. They are talking about how they’re excited to collaborate with the Japanese girls, and that they’re excited. Yiren grins widely as she says she want to make friends with the Japanese girls. I’ve already seen more charm and cuteness out of Yiren than I have in any given Everglow video. She’s really engaging in real life -- wish we got to see a bit more of that during her performances.
Kim Dayeon is sharing what she knows about Japanese language with her teammates, but her pronunciation is a little sus.
Stone Music is up next. The four girls come out nervously, and the other girls in the audience think they look familiar.
Left to right, they are:
Jang Gyu Ri (장규리), age 20, in pink.
Jo Yu Ri (조유리), age 16, in yellow.
Lee Si An (이시안), age 19, in purple.
Bae Eun Yeong (배은영), age 21, in mint green.
All four had already appeared on a different MNET reality competition show called Idol School, which had aired the year before this show aired. What’s interesting is that Gyuri actually *won* that show and debuted as a member of its winning group, fromis_9. A lot of famous folk were on Idol School, including a personal favorite of mine, Natty (who has since debuted in the absolutely phenomenal group Kiss of Life). I’m starting to think I should go back and watch Idol School! Anyway, that’s for another day.
Next out is Cube -- everyone is very excited since Cube is a larger agency. Han Cho Won (한초원), a tall mature looking 15-year-old in a hoodie and red pants, comes out to the strains of (then) Cube artist HyunA’s “Lip and Hip.” She squints at the audience, trying to decide where to sit, and while she does that, I’ll tell you that now (2023), Chowon is in a group called Lightsum. The other girls think she’s cool and swaggy, but to me she just looks a little confused. Maybe she has bad distance vision.
Next out is FNC, home of N.Flying and AOA. (If you watched Queendom Puzzle, you might remember Chanmi/DoHwa, who used to be in AOA.) We meet Cho Ah Yeong (조아영), age 16, wearing black, and Park Hae Yoon (박해윤), age 22, wearing white. HaeYoon has since debuted as a member of Cherry Bullet. Everyone seems to be very intimidated that they’re from FNC, but me, an intellectual in the year 2023, is thinking, yeah, but no. As far as I’m concerned, FNC stands for “FuckiNg over Cherry bullet” and if you’re like, but BPR-Unnie, that doesn’t really work as an acronym, I respond, EXACTLY. Nothing about FNC works.
People are excited to meet the Starship trainees, and MNET definitely wants all of us to be excited too. And I mean. Yeah. Here they come:
Left to right: Yujin, Kahyeon, Wonyoung
An Yu Jin (안유진), age 14, in the sleeveless shirt. She had previously been in music videos and commercials.
Jang Won Young (장원영), age 13, the tallest one, in the pants
Cho Ka Hyeon (조가현), age 14, in the collared shirt and skirt
Nothing against Kahyeon, who is a lovely and talented girl, but it’s hard not to focus on the one-two punch of Yujin and Wonyoung, future stars of IVE. It’s entirely possible you’re reading this recap just because you’re fans of one or other of them. I’ll say that I’m more of a Yujin girl than a Wonyoung girl, but I like them both. True to form, they’re boisterous, showing off their smattering of Japanese knowledge, and flirting with the camera. They take turns sitting in the number one seat briefly, and then choose other seats.
The trainees are talking about how pretty everyone is, much prettier than in Season 1, and I disagree with that part, but yeah of course they’re all pretty. Yoon Eun Bin laments that she’s “the only ugly one.” Aww, baby! And of course, we keep checking in with Yena, our unofficial narrator of this episode, as she jokes non-stop with her friend Sihyeon. It kind of reminds me of how in Broduce 101 we hung out with Kang Daniel and Yoon Ji-sung for most of episode 1.
Out next is Pledis:
Who could these tall, beautiful girls be?
Huh Yun Jin (허윤진), 16, with her hair up in a ponytail, is about 5’8. Her family name 허 is sometimes transliterated “Huh” and sometimes “Heo”. Korean vowels are hard, ya’ll.
Lee Ga Eun (이가은), 23, with her shorter hair down to just her shoulders, is about 5’7. Her name is also sometimes transliterated as Kaeun.
The others girls recognize Gaeun as a former member of After School, an idol group known for their sexy concepts. (In the performance I linked to, Gaeun is the one with her hair in two braided pigtails -- she starts off on the pole on the far left. We actually see a brief clip of that performance on this episode at about 20:58.) The girls are abuzz to see Gaeun back in the idol sphere after a few years’ hiatus. That hiatus was just due to Pledis’s mismanagement. Shock! Horror! Who would have thought that PLEDIS of all companies would screw over a talented idol group? Surely, neither of THESE girls will get screwed over on this very show?
Anyway, back to 2018. You’re going to have to accept that fact that I love both of these girls a lot, but I doubt that will be a problem, because I think you’re going to love them too. Most people do -- more about that much later! Yunjin is one of the reasons that I’m rewatching this show -- I loved her the whole time I watched it the first time, as I said earlier, and I was so incredibly happy when she debuted in Le Sserafim.
The two Pledis girls sit down and we have a brief “coming up!” montage. When we come back, we can see that more girls have come in unobserved by us, the viewers, which is fine. Finally, strains of Heavy Rotation by AKB48 begin playing (“I want youuuuuuu… I need youuuuuuu…”), and the Korean girls are excited to meet the AKB girls!
First, we learn a little bit about the franchise -- it’s like, what if a female NCT, or a TripleS, but with literally 600 members, and they’re all wearing outfits that make them look like they are members of the Piñata Marine Corps. Also, most of them can’t really sing and their choreography is mostly step-touch wiggle-wiggle.
Bless their hearts.
There is, obviously, talent amongst them, as we will see. It’s just that talent is not really a *requirement* for being in the group. Girls in the AKB48 franchise are expected to be cute and cheery on stage, to approximate some form of “singing” like noises, and to learn and do choreography so easy even I could probably do it, and I’m about as coordinated as a newborn deer. Plenty of them are capable of more, and I take my hat off to those who pushed themselves to come on this show and face this challenge. They’re in for a lot, and I respect them.
I also want to say that the biggest issue I have with the AKB48 franchise is that their fanbase is almost exclusively men in their 40s who think that 19 or 20 is over the hill. It’s like, soft-core kitty-corn and I know you know what I mean. I guess a similar allegation could be made about Produce101 in general. I don’t want to linger on this for too long because these girls just want to be entertainers and to bring some fun and excitement into their lives, and it’s not their fault that middle-aged men ruin everything. But I have to acknowledge it. I could post some really disturbing pictures here of AKB48 girls in outfits that read *really, really young* but also are obviously meant to be sexy, but I really don’t want to, in part because it might make the FBI knock on my door. Similarly, I don’t want to link to it here but I’m amazed there wasn’t a public outcry about the video for Heavy Rotation. They’re all in lingerie and rolling around together and kissing each other and bathing in a bathtub together while feeding each other cherries and whipped cream. Like, it’s not subtle. Meanwhile the song itself sounds like something from a Kidz Bop album. The juxtaposition between the cutesy childish tone and the obviously sexy, almost pornographic images is really… disturbing, there’s just no other word for it. Add in the fact that Japan might be the only developed country that’s worse than the USA in terms of how it treats and cares for women, and you’ve got a pressure cooker of ick. Poor girls. I hope they’re all safe and well -- in 2018, in 2023, and beyond.
And here they come, all 19 of the AKB48 girls, in red and black plaid outfits. This specific group is from Tokyo. (Each of the -48 groups is based in a different city.) We’ll meet these girls a bit later when they perform in smaller groups.
We see that one of them, 24-year-old Miyazaki Miho, can even write in Korean a little! Good for her. Takahashi Juri -- 20-year-old future member of Rocket Punch and visitor to Queendom Puzzle -- interviews in Japanese, “I think that the popular idol singers in Korea are really the best artists in the world.” Goto Moe, 17, says that Kpop idols are true musicians. Muto Tomu, a 23 year old palindrome, says she wants to learn from the Korean idols. She and Juri want to be the best in the world. Yes! I love the ambition.
But where will they sit?
Juri, in an outfit that would make Nina Garcia weep if she had tear ducts, is tempted by the number one seat. As she should be. We love Juri in this household. But the girls’ competitiveness gives way to their friendliness, and soon all the girls, Korean and Japanese alike, are giggling and waving and making heart signs to each other. AND THAT IS WHAT I’M HERE TO WATCH, by the way. I love this shit. Friendship is the best ship.
Juri introduces herself to MND17’s ChaeJeong in careful Korean, and ChaeJeong responds in equally careful Japanese. Everyone is using the few words they know, combined with sign language and body language, to try to bridge the communication gap. They exchange hellos and names and try to figure out who’s older. The Japanese girls think the Korean system of adding a year to your age is kind of odd, but that’s how culture do.
Next out are the girls from NMB48 - the Osaka team -- in blue outfits. Then the two SKE48 girls, from Nagoya come out, in different blue outfits. One of these two is Matsui Jurina, who is only 21 but somehow looks a bit older to me.
Asai Yuka on the left, Jurina on the right.
A lot of the girls recognize Jurina; per Wikipedia, “She is recognized as SKE48's absolute "ace", having placed in the top 10 in many of AKB48's annual general elections and winning the 2018 election.” Apparently she was in AKB48 for a while, and then chose to go back to SKE48, either for altruistic reasons (to support the smaller subunit’s success) or for her own reasons (to go back to her home city, perhaps).
You’ll be hearing more about “elections”, so let me talk about that. In the -48 system, fans who have bought a copy of a 48 album are given the right to vote for the member they like best -- the general election. In other words, it’s a popularity contest, and only fans willing to spend money are allowed to vote. (There’s a story about a fan who spent $300,000 on CDs to vote for his favorite girl!) If Jurina has won so many elections, she is/was undoubtedly quite loved by her fan base. I approve of the fact that this woman, who looks like a woman and not a little kid, is/was so loved.
Side note here, and it’s a real, real, real side note, so I'm putting it in a different color so you can skip past it if you want, but the story of the man who spent $300,000 to vote for his favorite member of AKB48 reminds me a bit of the story of Grant Amato. Let me explain. Grant Amato was in his late 20s when his life hit the skids for various reasons and he began spending a ton of time in a cam girl chat room. He began “tipping” her absurd amounts of money, convinced that this was creating a genuine bond between himself and her. He began stealing from anyone who left their credit cards in his vicinity, especially his parents, from whom he stole $200,000 or more. The family tried to put him in rehab, and told him he couldn’t talk to his “girlfriend” any more -- so he killed them, in part to remove the obstacle, and in part to get their money. Looking into this story more, I learned more about the psychology of tipping cam girls, and it seems really similar to the parasocial relationship between -48 girls and their fans. No other men in the girls’ lives; the illusion of sexy, available youth; the man feeling like a protector or guardian of the girl he's never met and never will meet…. This extremely NSFW guide to cam-girling has a lot of nuggets of wisdom, especially this: “A man wants to feel attention from an attractive women on him, and this is made even more satisfying when it’s to the exclusion of those around him. He is showing off his power by buying your happiness.” I know that Grant Amato is an extreme example when it comes to him literally murdering three family members, but other people -- nearly always men -- spend that much money on cam girls and on AKB girls and on other stand-ins for real love. I don’t have some big point to make here. Just that it doesn’t seem particularly healthy to me.
Pigtailed Sato Minami, age 14 and a member of Tokyo based AKB48, interviews that everyone in Japan knows Jurina. 17-year old Nakano Ikumi says she joined AKB48 because she idolizes her, and 14-year old Asai Yuka, the other SKE48 member in Produce48, says that they all admire her.
They aren’t sure where to sit, as now only lower-ranked chairs are available, which is so silly since it doesn’t actually matter at all what chair you sit on today, but that’s the show for you. Jurina, befuddled, says “ehhhh?” which is sort of like “what” and sort of like “otoke?” It’s so characteristically Japanese that some of the Korean girls think it’s cute. Plus, they’re all eager to make friends.
Jurina smiles with cute, puppy eyes, and then for a moment, a bit of avarice flashes over her face, and the xenophobic MNET editors make sure to zoom in on her, while letting one of the other girls give her a defining caption:
Bombastic opera music plays -- will she take the seat? She has been ranked number one enough times in her other life that it seems kind of fitting. But no. She ends up sitting down in a normal chair, interviewing that she didn’t have the courage. I don’t remember who sat in the number one seat and am starting to think it might just be whoever walks in last at this point.
I feel like I could write a whole sociological paper about the difference between girl seasons of this show and boy seasons of this show and their approach to the Number One Chair. Girls eye it but don’t like to sit on it because it marks them as greedy and makes them unpopular. Boys fight over it, either physically with arm wrestling or via skill displays, like rutting caribou. It’s really interesting.
Interlude! They’re all hungry. Juri shows off more of her Korean skills. The other girls at least know how to say the names of food and are building friendship off of a shared love of eating. Hey, that’s how you make friends with a cat or dog so it works for me. Food!
Here’s the RBW girls, who you might recognize:
Na Go Eun (나고은), in the “Respect” shirt, age 18. She is now a main vocalist of PurpleKiss.
Park Ji Eun (박지은), in the red striped shirt, age 20. She debuted in PurpleKiss but left due to an anxiety condition. Aww! Poor sweetie. Hope she’s doing ok these days.
The girls are excited for Banana Culture, partly because they’re hungry and want to eat bananas, and partly because it’s home to EXID, a group I’ve always liked too.
Out come the two Banana Culture girls, who sit down immediately:
Kim Da Hye (김다혜), on the left with black accents, who I think is 16 (but reports vary).
Kim Na Young(김나영), 15, on the right with red accents, who you may now recognize as a member of Lightsum.
Next is Woolim, and the other trainees are impressed. They should be! Check out these four:
I know this screen shot is terrible, but I’m doing my best, folks.
Left to right, that’s:
Kim So Hee (김소희), 14, who is now in Rocket Punch.
Kim Chae Won (김채원), 17, who is now in Le Sserafim.
Kwon Eun Bi (권은비), 22, who is now a soloist.
Kim Su Yun (김수윤),17, who is now also in Rocket Punch, and who you may also recognize from going on Queendom puzzle. She’s 5’7, if you’re wondering.
I’m so excited to see Sohee and Suyun meet Juri! And for Chaewon and THE SAKURA™ and Yunjin to all meet each other! This is going to be so cute.
And here’s WM Entertainment:
Left to right, that’s:
Cho Yeong In (조영인), age 16.
Lee Chae Yeon (이채연), age 18. Before this she was on Sixteen, the show that created Twice, and after this she will, among other things, make a brief appearance on Queendom Puzzle. She’s also the older sister of Itzy’s Chaeryeong, and they have a strong family resemblance. Everyone is pretty impressed by her, and I’m sure she’s glad about that.
Lee Seung Hyeon (이승현), age 17. Ok, if you watched Queendom Puzzle, I dare you to try to recognize Seung Hyeon. Do you know who she is? Picture her with chin length hair. Hold your finger up to the screen and really try. Ok, give up?
That’s Riina from H1-Key! I would have never guessed. I wonder if Chaeyeon recognized her on Queendom Puzzle? I wonder if she voted her up or down? Chaeyeon does seem to sort of do her own thing. Love how the show never mentioned that they knew each other.
It’s time for the Fukuoka-based HKT48 girls to enter, and their black logo prompts Million Market’s Son Eun Chae (손은채), 18, future member of Bugaboo, to comment to her label mate Cho Sa Rang (조사랑), 14, that black is her favorite color. Sarang replies, “Our faces must look black by now,” cracking Eunchae up. Aw, I like them.
The other Japanese girls are excited, because they know that soon they will be seeing…. THE SAKURA™. Her name means cherry blossom, and she wants cherry blossoms to blossom in your cherry. I mean heart. Whatever.
It’s always so odd to me the way that certain girls are picked out as stunningly beautiful, when to me they’re all pretty. It feels so random. Why is THE SAKURA™specifically the most beautiful? It’s like in Red Velvet. I think Seulgi and Wendy are every bit as pretty as Irene, maybe prettier. But what do I know? Also, I probably ranted about this exact same thing in one of my BP recaps. Anyway, Jo Yuri tells her labelmate Sian, “I made eye contact with Sakura and I almost fainted.” Ok, Jo Yuri is growing on me.
Everyone thinks everyone else is pretty, and cool, and cute, and intimidating. We check in again with Sarang and Eunchae, who seem to be having a fun time.
Who will be last to walk in? YG’s logo pops up on screen, shocking everyone, including our polka dotted friends from HOW Entertainment, one of whom is in the process of administering eye drops to another one when the logo pops up. YG? WUT? But no -- these are *former* YG trainees. Now, they’re here as “kaein yeonshipsaeng” -- individual trainees. Trainer-less trainees. Just… -ees. They walk out to strains of “I am the Best” by 2NE1, a song whose video I still watch whenever I need a pick-me-up.
Park Jinny (박진희), 20, with dark hair, now a member of Secret Number.
Park Seo Young (박서영), 19, with light hair.
We cut back to an interview that must have taken place some time before taping began, when Seoyeong had brown hair. We find out that Seoyeoung was in the famous “Future 2NE1” video and both of them traineed with Blackpink. They’re here to make you wonder why YG let them go.
There are only two chairs left -- the #1 seat and the #96 seat. The now-blonde Seoyeong plunks down on the number one seat and everyone applauds. When I watched it the first time, I thought even at the time that there wasn’t much chance of her making it after that. You just can’t sit in that seat and make it in to the final lineup. I’m with Yunjin, who says, “If that was the only seat left, I’d sit on the floor.” Yep.
35:10 Somi and Daniel
Two figures emerge and the girls go nuts as they recognize everyone’s favorites, Jeon Somi (ranked #1 on PD101 Season 1) and Kang Daniel (ranked #1 on PD101 Season 2). I’m happy to see them, though I’ll note that they’re both capable of looking a lot better than they do here. I’ll blame their hair -- they were both born to be honey blondes, even if it wasn’t in their DNA.
Must be kind of weird for Chaeyeong to see Somi again after they both competed on Sixteen together. But there are always all those ties amongst idols and trainees.
Somi and Daniel talk about how only viewer votes will matter here. They don’t know that this is a lie, of course. Vote rigging was absolutely a thing on all four seasons of PD101. But we’ll talk about that later.
The reality sets in for the trainees -- they’re really on PD101! Or PD48, whatever you want to call it. S&D talk about how only the top producers will work with them, how they’ll debut in Korea and Japan at the same time -- this will be big. They talk about the specific producers, who have worked with some top groups, but the names of the producers don’t ring bells for me and likely won’t for you, either: Han Sung Soo, who writes kpop hits, and Akimoto Yasushi, the creepy old dude who created AKB48 and writes their most misogynistic lyrics. Great. I am just going to call him “Gross Guy” from now on.
The girls find out that 12 of them will debut in the final lineup, which is great news, because now it’s a 1 in 8 chance of getting in. (Well, it’s a 100% chance for those whose agencies paid enough money!) Why couldn’t Kep1er and ZB1 have had 12 members? Then Park Hanbin would have been in ZB1 and I’m not sure who else would have been in Kep1er but I know it would have been great. Maybe Fu Yaning, who I will always love and hear no words against.
Anyway.
Say goodbye to Somi and Daniel because we don't see them again after this. It's time for the judges to come out! And that's what we'll pick up with next time, when we recap the first ten auditions!
#produce 48#IZ*one#Jeon Somi#Kang Daniel#Lee Chaeyeong#Le Sserafim#IVE#BPR recaps P48#Sakura#akb48#rocket punch
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The Only War we Shouldn't Care About
You know what time it is. December's a few short weeks away, most stores are starting to freak about Christmas, I've already covered my shopping for Walt and Sarah - all that's left is for the seasonal classics to settle in. There's just one classic I don't want to deal with.
Up here in Montreal, the War on Christmas is this absurd Conservative bugaboo we look at derisively, as we tend to wish one another Happy Holidays. Legally, whether you celebrate or not, no matter if you're Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or Buddhist, you'll get a certain amount of time off from your employer, between mid-December and early January. That's all it is to us - time off. If you don't celebrate, your only recourse is to not decorate and, well, maybe show an ounce of patience for TV networks who won't have gotten the message. They obviously won't have; the Western-dominant culture practically demands its yearly re-appropriation of Pagan elements like the effective transformation of a tree into what's effectively a votive symbol, even if you do it from an Atheist perspective. We ask of the right to cling to memories of the last Season of Plenty, as that's what our ornaments are - the brief presentation of an evergreen tree into the affected appearance of a fruit-bearing tree - and I can definitely see how that can be overbearing.
Add to that the more overtly religious aspects - what actually gets the Kirk Camerons of this world crowing about persecution in the most laughable way imaginable; and it's easy to get the sense that for several people, Christmas Season can be, well, too much.
It explains the seasonal blues, the way some workplaces cut the Gordian knot and simply ban seasonal decorations altogether or the way others default to a neutral "Happy Holidays", up here. It's fair of some people to expect the legally-provided time off with no further requirements.
The thing is, some of my remote colleagues are very Christian. Not in the sense you might be familiar with if you're American; they're still a lot more into tolerance and general goodwill than what you might consider the norm for these types - and for them, Christmas isn't quite religious enough, as strange as it might seem. They're not pushing it into Cromwellian excess, but they do get the sense that this is a holiday meant to celebrate renewed hope, spiritually speaking - and I've seen Nicole's WFH office setup start to feature both a Santa Claus figure and a small Nativity diorama. Nicole is the sweetest Compliance Officer you'll ever meet, she's technically retired from the industry but joined us to round out her pension - and she's a hardcore believer, coming from first-generation Sicilian immigrants to Canada.
On the one hand, she's a "good" Theist, in that she isn't overbearing in her spirituality, the same way we avoid discussion topics like war and politics in our workplace-focused Slack channels. On the other, when she says "God bless you", she means it. It's always a bit of a shock, when you're used to everyone and their mother tossing that offhandedly. It makes the less tolerant Theists - usually Evangelicals - that we'll run into while shopping around town, sort of stand out like a sore thumb.
I try and conflate Christmas Season, considering all this, into a time where all of us are allowed to be openly spiritual in the broadest sense possible. If you don't practice anything and are a hardlining Atheist, you could say it's a great time for self-reflection and for preparation. It's a great time to focus on the more holistic aspects of existence, as even Skeptics like me could agree that meeting people can be good for the soul. Putting more time down at the soup kitchen isn't a question of racking up more Redemption Points or whatever, it's about meeting people at a time where my potential assistance will be most useful. Nights are getting cold, warm meals are starting to require some investment of time and resources, and if you have no warm place and no kitchen to work in, you're not going to get that. That's pretty much the extent of my spirituality. Unsurprisingly, it's gotten surprised looks out of some colleagues during our Zoom meetings.
"You're not worried? I mean, you lost people, haven't you? Don't you think you have a soul?"
The fact is I just don't know. Considering, why bother imposing my beliefs on anyone else? Why bother trying to pay lip service to anyone else's belief or lack thereof? We'll decorate the condo because Walt and Sarah love that stuff, but I've been the exact time to forget to pull out the boxes of decorations until December 20th. It'll look pretty for a week or two, then we'll pack it all back in - same as Halloween.
Maybe there is an afterlife, but it's not worth any respect if my accession to it depends on my putting the right little Caucasian Porcelain Baby in my Nativity scene made up of equally whitewashed characters in someone else's distorted story of Middle-Eastern displacement.
So, maybe consider putting your chips down on all the other seasonal symbols, instead: the clean smell of the first few snowfalls, the way cold air always feels cleaner than anything hanging in summertime urban haze, the taste of a good cup of hot cocoa after some exposure to the elements, the return of Sweater Weather, the way the season's blithe consumerism always intersects with your younger relatives getting "the best Christmas ever" every single year as their eyes light up at the sight of the One Thing They Wanted - or the way it all translates to base thoughtfulness between adults.
Kindness. Brotherly love. Friendship. The giving of oneself, really. Things anyone of any culture or religious background could agree on.
That, to me, seems essential. Far, far more than anything related to Christianity.
#thoughts#christmas#holidays#the war on christmas#evangelicals#speaking as an atheist#atheism#spirituality
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Apollo: A swaying, spiraling stack of DVD cases. "The Steel Samurai", "The Nickel Samurai"... "The Pink Princess", "The Zappy Samurai: Electric Bugaboo"... They're all children's action hero shows...
Phoenix: This "kid" I know keeps sending them to me.
Apollo: Huh. Like a niece or nephew?
Phoenix: ...Something like that.
Apollo: Quite the collection. This kid's parents must be really generous with their allowance. (Funny, Mr. Wright doesn't seem the type that kids would like.)
[...]
Apollo: What's that on TV? Looks like some sort of action hero show...
Trucy: Oh, I know that one! That's the Sniffling Samurai! His "Booger Flick" attack is a big hit with the grade school crowd.
Apollo: I had no idea you liked this kind of stuff, Mr. Wright.
Phoenix: Well, what else is there to do when you're stuck in bed? Besides, the episodes will just keep piling up if I don't keep up, you know?
Apollo: Um... yeah. (Try not buying them.)
Phoenix: Now's the only time I get to watch and write up my reports.
Apollo: Your... reports?
Phoenix: It's a long story. Like a lot of things, actually.
maya sends him all the samurai shows and makes him write reports on them.....
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bugAboo(버가부) | booboo TV EP.25 (ENG) 1theK SWITCH ON BEHIND
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Fuck u. Hack'n'Slash drabble
Skulker's suit was. . . Well, gross, in a word.
Tucker sat cross legged in the middle of his apartment's living room with a rag, scrubby sponge, and a bottle of ghost-safe ectoplasm remover Vlad had made for him. Quiet hyperpop music played form his tv's soundbar, the atmosphere relaxed as the sun started to set outside
He had gotten through most of the body and internals, and now was just working on scrubbing clean the helmet, his glasses pushed up onto his head so they wouldn't sleep off.
A noise to his right had him stop his careful scrubbing of the eye holes, looking up.
In a small 5-gallon fish tank sat Skulker atop dry river rocks, his bulbous body stretching up to the lid in thin green strands. He slipped from the tank and crawled towards Tucker with his tendrils, making Tucker hold in a snort as he crawled up his shirt, poking his small head out under Tuck's chin.
"It'll take longer if you keep tickling me." The hacker hummed as he adjusted himself to lay back more comfortably against the couch, lifting the metal to the sunlight to watch it shine.
". . . Thank you. For cleaning my suit." Skulker's voice echoed on itself like this, and Tucker froze as he realized he could feel Skulker purring against his chest.
"Yeah." He leaned down to kiss the evolved blob, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt. "No problem, bugaboo."
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Orientation and Gender Hoard I Belong To
Attraction:
aceflux, aroflux, aplatonic, daisy gay, polyamorous, gay, lesbian, aegosexual, pomosexual, T4TM, T4TW, monotropism, aroace, enbian, quoiromantic, quoirosexual, oriented aroace, toric, trixix, achillean, sapphic, abromantic, abrosexual, mspec lesbian, mspec gay, cupioromantic, cupiosexual, orchidromantic, orchidsexual, neptunic, uranic, recipromantic, aroaceflux
Gender:
agender, nonbinary, demiflux, cassflux, transmasc, transfemm, paranoidenby, chronifatighost, bloodcovic, timarix, hoodiecomfic, poppunkinightalgic, gendersilence, echobeing, mistymorntempic, moonchild, lesboy, turigirl, femboy, genderqueer, queer, genderfae, demiboy, demigirl, demigender, bigender, androgyne, polygender, genderfluid, rosenboy, aboy, xenoboy, dollboy, sleepygender, neoboy, boyflux, nebumasc
Kin:
TV object head, Radio object head, eye object head, vampire, cat, fawn, fae folk, bunny, bugaboo, jester
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MLB Bloopers
[movie/TV-shows scenes rewrite]
Chapter 5: MLB x Friends (Ao3)
[Post reveal, Mari and Alya’s shared apartment, Adrien, Nino and Kagami visiting. Marinette made lasagna for her parents’ first visit]
Adrien: Has anybody seen my ring?
Nino: Yeah, it’s extremely cool, bro!
Adrien: Oh God, oh God, oh God oh God oh God oh God.... [Starts to look under the couch cushions]
Alya [glancing at the nervous Marinette]: No, look, don’t touch that!
Adrien: Oh, like I wasn’t dreading tomorrow enough, having to give it to Felix... “Hi Felix! Remember me? I’m your cousin who promised to exchange miraculous with you for a week because you helped me to take down my evil father!” Oh God and now I’m gonna have to give him the ring, without the ring, which makes it so much worse, because without the ring to hold Plagg’s powers back, these two will just destroy London! Or worse…
Marinette: Easy Adrien, we’ll find it. [To all] Won’t we?!
Alya, Kagami and Nino [jumping from the chairs]: Oh! Yeah!
Kagami: Alright, when’d you have it on last?
Nino: Doy! Probably right before he lost it!
Alya: You don’t get a lot of ‘doy’ these days...
Adrien: I know I had it this morning, and I know I had it when I was in your kitchen with...
Alya: Dinah?
Adrien: [looks at the lasagne and realizes something] Ohhhhh, don’t be mad...
Marinette: You didn’t!..
Adrien: Oh, I am sorry, Bugaboo...
Marinette: I gave you one job! [Starts to examine the lasagne through the bottom of the glass pan]
Adrien: Oh, but look how straight those noodles are, milady!
Nino: Now, Mari, you know that’s not how you look for a miraculous in a lasagne...
Marinette: [puts down the lasagne] I just... can’t do it.
Nino [looking towards the open door of Marinette’s bedroom]: Boys? We’re going in!
[A flock of kwami fly out of the bedroom and dive into the lasagna with squeals while there’s a knock on the door which Marinette answers]
Luka: [standing outside the door] ...Hi…
Marinette: Wow. That is not a happy hi.
Luka: Juleka’s pregnant.
Tikki: [emerges from lasagna with the Black Cat miraculous while everyone in the room is stunned] Ooh! I found it!
Marinette: W-w-wh-... wha-... w-w-w-...
Luka: Yeah. Just a couple of weeks ago she gave me a bunch of resumes and asked me which of the men I liked best, but I didn’t think they were for that... [He enters.]
Alya: Aren’t she and Rose too young for that?
Nino: Well now, how-how do you fit into this whole thing?
Luka: Well, Juleka says she and Rose want me to be involved, but if I’m not comfortable with it, I don’t have to be involved... basically it’s entirely up to me.
Kagami: She is so great! I miss her.
Marinette: What does she mean by ‘involved’?
Alya: I mean presumably, the biggest part of your job is done when choosing a donor.
Luka: Anyway, I’m her big bro and they want me to go down to this- sonogram thing with them tomorrow.
Adrien: So what are you gonna do?
Luka: I have no idea. No matter what I do, though, I’m still gonna be an uncle.
[Kwamis start to eat the rest of the lasagne champing loudly and everyone turns and stares at them]
Plagg [Popping out of lasagna]: What? This is still ruined, right? I can’t let all the cheese in it go to waste!
#miraculous marichat#mlb marichat#marichat fanfic#marichat#miraculous ladynoir#mlb ladynoir#ladynoir fanfic#ladynoir#adrianette#miraculous adrinette#adrinette#ladrien fanfic#ladrien#miraculous ladrien#miraculous fanworks#miraculous fanfic#miraculous world#miraculous fandom#miraculous#miraculous chat noir#miraculous au#miraculous ladybug#miraculous lb#ladybug and chat noir#ladybug#cat noir#miraculous adrien#adrien x ladybug#adrien x marinette#ladybug x chat noir
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Travelling with children advice
I was asked recently about advice for travelling with young children.
My family including our now 4.5 and 2 year olds, left home almost a year ago and I have this advice: after about 37 accomodations and eight countries.
Travel light. Lighter than you think. Being as little stuff as possible.
Lots of snacks. More than you think you need.
Make iPad/TV shows a special treat. Fish out the special treat when necessary for sanity or social goodwill like in a line, stuck in a train or plane cabin, or a restaurant.
Discipline your kids lovingly and well in private so they are awesome humans when in public.
Teach your kids to be bored and look at everything out the window.
Figure out what kind of daily sleep/wake/activity routine or schedule works best for your kids and run with it so that all of you have a good day and you’re not dragging your kids through a hike they were never going to enjoy.
Expect to see and do far less things than you imagined. If we do one travel or touristy thing a day that’s a win. Two is a big day. Three is a mistake.
When in lines at immigration or other important things, and they’re really unhappy, just grin and bare it. It’s a few minutes of everyone’s life, we’ll all be fine, and all the other assholes around you have been expecting the tantrum anyway. If people look at us or comment on a tantrum, I just joke about it like “sorry, she just learned about taxes” or “sorry, this is my first abduction and it’s not really going well.”
Teach your kids their names, ages, and your names so that when police come after you make a joke about abductions you can price they’re yours. Make sure they know not to joke about who their parents are and what their names are.
Bring extra dummies/soothers.
We swear by the Phil & Ted’s Travel Cot version 5. Not sponsored. We’ve tried the rest, the Bugaboo is awesome, Phil & Ted’s is better.
We also swear by the BabyZen YoYo and/or the Baby Jogger City Tour travel prams. The rest are not as good.
When boarding flights ask the staff where to “put the kids” as if you’re expecting them to not sit with you. So if with a straight face, and kind of hold the child out toward the staff, gesturing that they can take them now.
Book accomodation that is walkable to public transport and parks. Nothing else in your life matters more than a good playground. Also look for accomodation with cooking facilities, you’re going to want to cook at home.
Whatever you order for them at a restaurant will not be good enough so share meals. Encourage them to try new foods. Our mantra is that you can’t say you don’t like something if you haven’t tried it yet.
Almost all long queues can be skipped if you are a family, or if you accidentally go down the not-foreign-passport line, or if your kids has a tantrum. Turn that lemon into line-skipping lemonade.
I’ve got VLC installed on my phone with a series of old school TV shows offline like Franklin the Turtle. Old school slow TV shows are better than the visual cocaine that modern kids shows are. Damn you, Paw Patrol.
Take a million photos. Sync them with iCloud Photo Library so when you drop your phone in the Mediterranean Sea you’re not devastated. Buy disposable film cameras for the kids to make them feel involved.
Each of our girls has a snuggle toy that has come with them the whole journey. When you’re changing accomodation every few days a common smell and feel is a godsend.
I’m lucky to have travelled so much with Qantas that I have a Qantas Platinum status which gets us more luggage and airport lounges, this is so good with kids. Everyone in the Oneworld First Class Lounge thinks they’re having a fancy moment but then in runs my two year old ready to bring hell. It’s my favourite part of every flight.
Snacks. Water. Lots of snacks.
My kids like to play with tape so we have random coloured sticky tape for them to play with on flights.
Sleep. So much sleep.
These experiences and memories will be priceless. Be in the moment for them all.
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The Great Produce 48 Rewatch
Hello, lovies! This post marks the start of my Produce 48 Recaps. For those of you who don't know, this show was the first time we met various trainees who went on to join a bunch of other groups, including Alice/Elris, Bugaboo, Cherry Bullet, Everglow, H1-Key, IVE, Kep1er, Le Sserafim, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, Queenz Eye, Rocket Punch, Secret Number, and of course IZ*one. Some of them also appeared on Girls Planet 999 and/or Queendom Puzzle.
Since the show is so iconic, and so messy, I'm going to back to 2018 to recap it in my own chatty, opinionated way. This post will be the anchor post and I'll add links to other episodes as we go along. Welcome to the ride!
I've decided to split the difference with respect to spoilers. No one wanted me to write it as if it's still 2018, but some people did want me to avoid spoiling who makes the final lineup, and I'm going to go with that. I'm going to tell you who goes on to be in every other group EXCEPT for who makes it into IZ*one, because that spoils this specific show and will make it less fun to watch along if that's what you want to do. I'm also not going to spoil things like when people go home and what their final ranks will be. However, after each elimination round, I'll tell you where people are now.
In case you want to either find or filter out all these recaps, I'm tagging them all with "BPR recaps P48."
If you want to start watching the show, this link is the least crappy one I've found. https://kshow123.tv/show/produce-48/episode-1.html
Intro:
Episode 1: Entrances
The audition round:
Episode 1: Auditions 1-10, Auditions 11-24
Episode 2: Auditions 25-36 , the unaired auditions (and audition wrap up)
Signal song mission:
Episode 2: Dorm Move in and Practicing for Nekkoya Part 1
Episode 2: Practicing for Nekkoya Part 2 and final prep
Episode 2: Grade Reassignment, Part 1
Episode 2: Phone Calls Home and Judges Table (Grade Reassignment Part 2)
Episode 3: Grade Reassignments, Concluded
Interlude: A bit of Grade Analysis
Episode 3: Signal Song Performance + Start of Challenge Mission 1
Challenge Mission 1:
Episode 3: The teams start practicing and we visit each one
Episode 3: Love Whisper
Episode 3-4: Peekaboo
Episode 4: Short Hair
Episode 4: Mamma Mia
Episode 4: High Tension
Episode 4: Boombayah (featuring Hell-bayah) (part 1) )(part 2)
Episode 4: Like Ooh Ah
Episode 4: Very Very Very (featuring half of Iz*one)
Episode 4: Ep 4 Wrap Up and BRAPPY Awards
#Produce 48#AKB48#IVE#Le Sserafim#Lightsum#Purple Kiss#Queendom Puzzle#Rocket Punch#IZ*one#BPR recaps P48
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Final fantasy viii eyes on me
I still think the cutscenes and backgrounds look good, and far better than they should, but the new character models do draw sharp contrasts with their flaws. The new character models magnify these flaws because they look so good. The real issue isn’t the aspect ratio, but the fact that these cutscenes are old, and can start to show their age in some places, with noticeable jaggies and fuzziness. Square would have had to redo every background and cinematic in the game. There’s no way to avoid this because of the pre-rendered nature of the game’s backgrounds and cinematics. They largely still look fine, and like the rest of the game, are presented in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. The final visual bugaboo is the game’s pre-rendered cinematics. I didn’t see it that way – again, the pre-rendered backgrounds largely hold up – but the contrast is more noticeable now. One person who watched me play, and has never seen FFVIII before, remarked that they looked pasted over the background. Another major issue is that the new character models stand out against the pre-rendered backgrounds. Still, this likely won’t be a huge deal on smaller screens (I didn’t notice it until I played the game on a 55” TV). This isn’t frequent I only really noticed it in bigger environments, like Deling City, but it was jarring.
They’re of noticeably lower quality than the remastered character models, and it hurts the game visually when you see the beautiful new models moving around in an area contrasted with the static pre-rendered characters. Most of the time this looks fine, but it can be an issue when the pre-rendered backgrounds also include characters you can interact with. Similarly, the pre-rendered backgrounds, while rendered in 1080p, are still more or less how they were in 1999. That means that while characters have pretty new character models that look really, really good, their mouths don’t move when they talk. Beyond that, this is FFVIII as you remember it. The PC version will also feature the ability to max out your items, abilities, GF level, gil, magic, Limit Breaks, and cards for Triple Triad. All of these abilities can be toggled by pressing down on the left or right analog stick (or both at the same time). The menus have received an HD facelift, as have the character models, and Square has added the ability to turn off random encounters, play all scenes at 3x speed, and turn on battle assists that max out your HP and ATB gauges and give you constant access to Limit Breaks. It’s a remaster, which means that a lot of it is the same as it was in 1999. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered isn’t a remake. Let’s get something out of the way from the get-go. It’s a remaster, which means that a lot of it is the same as it was in 1999." "Let’s get something out of the way from the get-go. So when I tell you that Final Fantasy VIII Remastered made me reevaluate my view on the game, I hope you’ll understand that I don’t say it lightly. For a long time, I believed it was one of the worst Final Fantasy games, an aberration that soiled the otherwise incredible run that was IV, V, VI, VII, IX, and X. It’s also a game that I didn’t like very much the first time I played it. It is still a radical game and a bit of a series black sheep, especially because it followed the massive success of Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy VIII spends a lot of its time upending your expectations of what a Final Fantasy game can and should be. The epic fight you witness is little more than a schoolyard brawl between moody teenagers and the teased romance initially starts off as two characters that can’t stand one another. The game that follows it isn’t at all what you’d expect. The music crescendos and the scarred man and the woman in blue step forward to embrace one another as the screen cuts to black.įinal Fantasy VIII’s opening is iconic. Several images, mostly of the woman in blue. One slashes the other’s face, and the one who has been scarred retaliates. A woman in a blue dress faces a clear blue sky.
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It was nice, James thought as he fished his keys out of his pocket, to have friends. It was also nice to have a place to go when you had run out of energy and needed to be alone to recharge your batteries. He pushed the front door open and stepped into his apartment, inhaling the soft scent of lavender as he toed his shoes off and dropped the keys in the dish by the door. A sleek black kitten bounded towards him with the expectation of food and he scooped her up on the way to the kitchen. “Hello, Bugaboo,” he crooned as he rubbed the kitten behind her tufted ears. “Did you have a good night?” The kitten mewled at him, less excited to answer his questions and more happy that he was back in time to feed her. He set the kitten down and went about making dinner for the little animal, setting her preferred meal down by his feet as he heated up leftover pizza for himself.
He left the kitten to finish eating and changed into his pajamas; retrieving his laptop and food before sinking into his favorite spot in front of the tv. He really should have been more excited to be young and go out. In some ways, he certainly was, but there was something about changing into comfy clothes; turning on Dr. Phil, and opening his laptop to write that brought him a certain comfort that nothing else seemed to. As he watched the episode and ate his pizza, he jotted out ideas for his next book.
A sudden sound jarred him, making him tense up so hard he could feel it in every single muscle in his body. Get up you lazy little bug! He shuddered, gripping his pen so tightly in his hand he almost broke it. It had not been so long ago that he wasn’t living at the mercies of his aunts; their voices harsh and their hands heavy. How dare you even DREAM of leaving!? He hadn’t lived with them since he turned sixteen but they haunted him like malignant ghosts intent on hurting him. It was difficult to remember that they could no longer hurt him at times. They were still in England in the decrepit little house on the rocks. How dare you disagree with us! Beat him, Meredith!
Bugaboo jumped into his lap, jolting him back to the present. It took him a moment longer to realize that the sound he’d heard was the sound of the neighbor boy playing ball against the wall. He exhaled the tension he felt in his body and sagged back into the couch. He was fully aware of the voices coming from the tv, the warmth of the cat beneath his hand — the writing momentarily forgotten as he set his laptop aside.
He had written his imaginative little stories with no intent but to exorcise husband grief and process everything that had come after the loss of his parents. It worked. What he hadn’t expected was that others would find resonance within his stories as well. It was something beautiful but sometimes, on rare occasions like this, even their antics didn’t seem to help. He gently patted the kittens tiny head, holding it carefully as he curled up in a ball, pulling the blanket he kept on the back of couch over himself like a shield from all the phantoms that tried to come for him more often than he cared to admit.
The kitten purred against his chest; aiding in further grounding him. He needed to write or at least plan some things but he was suddenly too tired to care. He reached and turned the lamp off, leaving the only light in the apartment the flicker of the television. He was tired. The writing could wait. All he wanted to do now was sleep.
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Fire TV User Manuals. Follow. TV User Manual: Model EL4KAMZ5517 · TV User Manual: Model EL4KAMZ5017 · TV User Manual: Model EL4KAMZ4317Download PDF versions of user guides for Fire TV and accessories. Alexa Voice Remote. 2nd Generation Quick Start Guide · 3rd Generation Quick Start Guide -
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bugAboo(버가부) | booboo TV EP.25 (ENG) 1theK SWITCH ON BEHIND
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42pc3dv service manual
View and Download LG 42PC3DV service manual online. 42PC3DV plasma tv pdf manual download. Also for: 42pc3d, 42pc3d-ud, 42pc3dv-ud, 42pc3d/dc, 42pc3d/dc-ud.
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