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#he shows up in ep 32

simply-whump · 5 months

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Gyeongseong Creature (경성크리처) - Whump List

Whumpee : Jang Tae Sang played by Park Seo Joon

Synopsis : Jang Tae Sang is a wealthy man. He is also a reliable source of information around the area. His talents, including the ability to react quickly to situations, a keen insight, and sociability, have led him to his current position. He soon gets involved with Yoon Chae Ok who arrives in Gyeongseong to find her mother. They follow a series of mysterious missing person cases, and they come upon a terrible reality. (MDL)

Genres : Action, Thriller, Historical, Sci-Fi

Note : I made an edit on this show that you can watch on my youtube channel >> Here

Warning! Possible spoilers below!

Jang Tae Sang

Ep 1 : (11:13) Tortured by electrocution, tied to a chair, shaky breathing, electrocuted again, screaming in pain — (16:50) Splashed with water, still tied to a chair, kicked repeatedly — (20:26) Threatened — (22:11) Comes home looking really bad, concern for him — (43:05) Fighting, hit multiple times — (47:10) Slapped

Ep 2 : None

Ep 3 : (34:43) Beaten up, at sword point, fighting, cut by a sword, beaten again — (43:48) Comes home once again looking beaten up and hurt, treats his wound, in pain, concern for him, refuses to go to the hospital

Ep 4 : (06:27) Wincing in pain — (37:52) Wincing in pain — (39:45) In pain because he keeps moving around while injured — (50:12) Wincing in pain — (51:12) at gunpoint, kicked, pistol whipped, fighting — (53:32) Heavy breathing, bleeding, looking exhausted — (55:07) Wound treated, in pain (Gif Set)

Ep 5 : (07:26) Attacked, arm injured, running away — (14:47) Captured — (19:50) Tied, manhandled — (29:20) Put in prison

Ep 6 : None

Ep 7 : (02:48) Appears and seems injured and in shock, half collapse, starts mutating (it was all in the female lead’s dream) — (04:51) Unconscious in an unknown place — (15:05) Shot at, arm hurt — (22:35) Stays behind to allow his friends to escape, concern for him — (26:02) Shot at, glass falls on him, in a desperate situation — (30:00) Running away, chased, falls through some vents, lands unconscious — (37:46) Wakes up, heavy lidded eyes, in pain, gun at his head, gunshot heard but nothing shown — (55:20) Wakes up, gets up with difficulty, shaky breathing, can barely walk

Ep 8 : (09:19) Bloody and just not in good shape, exhausted, heavy breathing — (14:00) Barely standing, passes out (poor guy has been through a lot) (Gif Set)— (22:31) Wakes up in bed, told he was unconscious for four days — (27:25) Reappears when everyone thought he was dead — (42:30) Female lead’s reaction to seeing him alive and well — (51:00) Attacked, choked

Ep 9 : (58:10) Teary-eyed — (59:25) Sits down in shock, crying

Ep 10 : (26:05) In an explosion — (47:05) Attacked, fighting, stabbed, cut, keeps fighting, surrounded, saved — (53:30) Worried for someone, panicked, screaming — (01:06:00) Teary-eyed

>> More Whump Lists

#gyeongseong creature #whump list #whump #asian whump #park seo joon #kdrama #korean drama

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max-xie · 2 months

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in honour of gothcleats becoming cannon, all gothcleats moments throughout season 2 (some are more of a stretch then others but shhhhh)

normal and taylor teasing link about asking scary out on a date even though that wasnt what the note said -ep 1

scary says link is metal for pissing on a teachers foot - ep 1

link saying scary is a better soccer player then him - ep 1

link askes scary and only scary what class she is - ep 1

scary choses to go to detention with link - ep 3

scary says link is cool for leaving class - ep 3

link wrote scarys name first when writing to the principal about skipping school -ep 3

link said scary was smarter then him - ep 3

link offers scary to the dance with him or normal and she in return gets very flustered and says no -ep 5

scary admits link is her friend - ep 5

when taylor mentioned that link needed another date, scary sighed loudly to draw attention to her - ep 5

link's voice gets higher when he is talking about how scary is doing a speed date and he said he "doesnt care" very rushedly like he was lying - ep 5

scary called link "pretty cool" - ep 5

link was the only one listening to scary when she went to the mic to tell everyone to run from the dance even though the mic wasnt on -ep 6

link said that scary should get something when the group was saying who should get what from the vending machine - ep 7

link said that he hopes scary is okay - ep 10

link got scary a black coffee and sugar just how she likes it with out him asking, plus he noticed how she likes her coffee - ep 11

link called scary really nice - ep 12

link helps out scary to not be scared in the up down room - ep 13

scary told link not to listen when papa john was talking to them - ep 15

scary knew links exact height - ep 17

scary giving advice to link on how to talk on the phone - ep 17

scary didnt want to say to link "dont get cocky kid, this is the only pussy youre gonna get" when sparrow suggested it -ep18

link and scary figured out how all the magical items worked together - ep 18

link said that scary is probably a good singer - ep 19

link said scary dresses cool - ep 19

scary said that link is so cool when wearing goth clothes - ep 19

out of everyone, scary insults link the least when vinc asks her to insult her friends -ep 20

link went "yes!" when scary said she wants to go back to soccar - ep 20

link giving advice to terry jr about scary and how terry can show his love for her -ep 20

link says "scary youre such a leader" -ep 21

scary tells grant to give link some space -ep 23

link asks scary and only scary if thats her when when went to the church of the doodler and changed into their grand daddies -ep 23

link tells hermie to be a little less when flirting with scary -ep 24

links dnd character is a LOT like scary, plays soccer, looks deep and brooding but is broken inside -ep 24

link misses scary when she wasnt there with them - ep 26

taylor said "fuck scary!" and link said "well... i dont know" - ep 26

1:05:00 (with ads) aka gothcleats bitchy era - ep 27

link breaks the pic anchor with love for scary ("not leaving the group"🙄) -ep 29/30

when mat rolled a 17 for whether the anchor was broken out of love or hate and when the 17 was rolled freddie said "that's love baby" -ep 30

link defended scary against normal -ep 30

scary said that link had a good normal impression -ep 30

scary laughed at links joke -ep 30

link said that he is worried about scary -ep 30

scary said that she never thought that link was a piss boy and defended him -ep 30

link was the only one not to say "i" when they made a vote whether or not theyll vote scary out -ep 30

link heals scary even though they are fighting eachother -ep 31

link hugs scary and scary takes the hug -ep 31

even though scary casts eldrich blast link keeps hugging -ep 31

link said that scary looks peaceful when she sleeps -ep 32

link defends scary by saying she is going through something when taylor was mad at her -ep 32

link says that scary is always funny -ep 33

link asks scary what character she is and asks nobody else -ep 33

link kept on saying "you can do this scary! you can do this" -ep 34

normal as pickle rick told link to tell scary he likes her (and to just fuck already) - ep 34

normal apologies to link about what he said about him telling link to to ask out scary and said that he can ask her out in his own time - ep 34

link screamed "where did scary go" when she disappeared -ep 37

link told normal to stop talking about dads bc scarys step dad died -ep 38

normal said that scary and link had a big crush on eachother and they didnt deny it -ep 38

link said he HAS LOVE FOR SCARY -ep 39

link said that all of scarys thought are dark and beautiful -ep 40

link gives scary protection -ep 41

scary defends link when grant said he is going through a phase - ep 42

link said that scary doesnt need to apologise to tony pepperoni -ep 44

link says he only cares if scary feels better -ep 44

link told only scary a joke about tony and how his wife hated him -ep 44

link says that they should cook dinner for scary more often and asking her if she wants dinner - ep 44

scary is the first person to help link when he turns into lego -ep 48

scary reassurances link that he isnt dead and she trys to calm him down -ep 48

scary declared link the leader and said he was really strong -ep 48

scary said that link is greater then the sum of his parts -ep 48

Lincoln askes where scary is first -ep 49

link got mad when they didnt save scary -ep 49

link wants to find scary -ep 50

scary wishes for links ball when they wished for him without it and he got upset he didnt have it with him -ep 51

link says "thanks scary you really get me" -ep 51

link says that scary is good at a lot of things -ep 51

scary turned into lerry bc she saw link go into heaven prison and she didnt do anything about it (like try to stop that from happening) and her tone sounded sad when she told the group this -ep 51

link says that scary turning into lerry was really impressive -ep 51

scary freaked out when link said he was not needed -ep 51

link said scarys jeans were cool -ep 52

link said that scary is such a good whistler -ep 52

link remembered reminded the group about how scary wants the thrown -ep 52

link convinced taylor to be the air dropper so that scary could have the thrown -ep 52

scary and link talked about what theyll do when they all become god only together -ep 53

link and scary talking about buffy -ep 53

link asked scary what she thinks about the whole god wish situation -ep 53

linc called scary honey -ep 53

scary called linc babe -ep 53

linc called scary babe -ep 53

scary says "oh i love you" to link -ep 53

link says "oh i love you too" to scary -ep 53

link puts his arm around scary to dance -ep 53

link and scary have a son together named "gerry" -ep 53

GOTHCLEATS CANNON IN FUTURE!!! -ep 53

#gothcleats #dndads #dungeons and daddies #lincoln li wilson #dndaddies #scary marlowe #this took me months #there is actually a lot of things

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joshym · 9 months

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Lilac Moon: Chapter 5

Pairing: Josh Kiszka x f!Reader

Word Count: 9.5k+

Warnings: 18+ ONLY. mentions of anxiety and depression, mentions of death of a parent, brief recollection of childhood trauma, angst, illness. SMUT. oral f & m receiving, fingering, unprotected sex, a little voice kink, some cock warming, & of course fluff because i can't help myself. (pls let me know if i missed anything)

Masterlist

If you'd like to join the taglist, click this link to add yourself or just let me know & i'll be sure to add you. 🤍 enjoy!

(ps. yes, there's a new moodboard. 😉🤍)

Amongst a sea of people, the stage is your vessel and you are the captain.

The music starts; you’re home.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

The morning of the opening show

Everything is prepared. Your stage outfits hang in the closet of your dressing room. Your makeup is spread out on the vanity, ready to be used. The setlist has been narrowed down and perfected. The only thing left to do: perform.

You and Ivy are the first ones to arrive at the venue. You’re exhausted as you had hardly slept last night, the nerves and anxiety clouding any other thought that dared enter your mind.

You couldn’t even bring yourself to think much about Josh, about last night and the song you shared with him on the stage that you’ll step foot on tonight. You let your guard down with him, yet again. But, that’s the last thing on your mind.

Tonight begins the expedition that will lead Lilac Moon to waters never explored.

You want it to be perfect. You need it to be perfect.

You open the door to the dressing room you and Ivy will share. It’s dark, so you turn on the lights. You scan the room, looking at all of the gifts left for you from the venue. T-shirts, snacks, drinks, but the thing that catches your eye is a large bouquet of white roses sitting on the makeup vanity. The fragrance they carry fills the entire room with their floral notes. As you come closer, you see a handwritten note attached.

“A few adoring fans will receive one of these from me tonight, but no one is as deserving of a full bouquet as you. -Josh”

They’re beautiful. They’re in full bloom and so perfect that they nearly resemble satin. You can’t help but wonder just how much he spent on them, but you’re not sure you want to know.

“Where did those come from?”

You look towards the door as Ivy’s walking through the threshold.

“I’ll give you one guess.” you say through a smile.

She laughs, “That man is a damn fool for you.”

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

10:32 am

8 hours and 58 minutes until showtime

You and Ivy are the only ones at the venue, save for a few employees, so you take the opportunity to walk around, exploring the halls and watching as merchandise tables are being set up. Amongst the endless choices of Greta Van Fleet merch are a few Lilac Moon t-shirts that you designed and a few copies of your ep’s on cd and vinyl. You weren’t able to do much, only as much as your funds would allow. But, nonetheless, seeing your band's t-shirts next to Greta Van Fleet’s is a surreal sight.

You’re shocked as you look out the window to see a few hundred dedicated fans already lined up for the show that’s still over eight hours away. The venue didn’t allow camping, so these people made it here as soon as the Bridgestone arena would allow to ensure the best spots.

It suddenly hits you. As you stare out at the hundreds of fans, you realize that you’ve never even performed in front of an audience as big as these early birds, let alone the nearly 20,000 others that will soon join them.

You’re hit with a wave of uncertainty, of meekness.

Ivy must sense it as she moves closer to you, grabbing your hand as you continue to stare outside.

“What are you thinking?” Ivy says. “Your mind has wandered. Tell me where it’s gone.”

“Look at this, Ivy. All of these people. It seems like so many. This isn’t even close to the number of people that will be here tonight. I know they aren’t here for us but they'll see us. They’ll hear us. What if they hate us? What if they just count down the minutes until we leave the stage? I’m terrified, Ivy.”

“But what if they love us, y/n? Don’t do this. We’re here for a reason. Don’t let your stupid brain tell you otherwise.”

“Stupid? Gee, thanks so much.” you say with a smile.

Ivy puts her arm around you as you both watch the waiting fans. “Sometimes I wish your brain would fuck off and let you live in peace.”

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

11:56 am

7 hours and 34 minutes until showtime

The nerves haven’t let up. In fact, they’re beginning to become worse as the show draws nearer. Anxiety is not something new for you, but there are moments where it becomes particularly debilitating, and right now is one of those moments.

Jay and Julien are here now, talking with Joe and Ivy as you sit in silence, stewing in your worry. You get up and leave the room in search of somewhere to be alone for a few moments.

You walk into the bathroom down the hall and lock the door behind you. You sit on the floor, head plopped in your hands as you begin to cry.

The fear of it all is setting in. You’ve never been one to handle criticism well, and by doing this tour, you’re opening yourself up to a host of critics who will point out your every flaw.

You’re excited for this new chapter, but you’re terrified all at once. You’re ashamed of your ambivalence, but you can’t shake these feelings of inadequacy.

Your mother never shied away from telling you that you weren’t good enough, that everything you’d ever done was wrong.

You lost your biggest support when your dad died. He took all the love with him when he passed.

Your mom only got worse. Without him there to defend you and love you, she took advantage of it and tore you down as often as she could.

Maybe she was just trying to save me from getting hurt. She saw something my dad and I couldn’t see; she saw failure. I wasn’t enough for her, I wasn’t enough for Jay, and I’m certainly not enough for Josh.

Your cries become louder when suddenly the doorknob to the bathroom starts to jiggle.

You hear a muffled voice from outside, “I’m not sure who’s in there but I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Do I need to call someone?”

You immediately recognize the voice that belongs to Danny.

“Yeah, I’m fine! I just need a minute.” Your voice is shaky but you’re doing your best to sound composed.

“Is that you, y/n? I’m not leaving until you open the door.”

Dammit.

You quickly get up to check yourself in the mirror. Your eyes are swollen and puffy. There’s not much you can do right now to fix it, but you splash a little cold water on your face anyway before opening the door.

“Hi, Danny.” you say as you try to dart past him quickly.

He puts his hand lightly on your shoulder to stop you while he softly says, “You’re not getting out of this that easily.”

You look at him to see a sweet, concerned smile across his face. “What’s going on, y/n? I could hear you crying from my dressing room at the end of the hall.”

Of course.

“God, was I that loud? Please tell me none of the other guys heard.”

He quietly laughs, “No, I’m the only one here so far. Those fuckers are never on time. They probably won’t show up until the curtain is down.” This makes you smile, and you’re grateful for it.

“Seriously, though. Are you okay?”

“Just a case of the pre-show jitters.”

“Must be a pretty serious case.” he says as he grins. “I know that can’t be all of it.”

You know deep down you can trust him. Danny is one of the last people on this earth who’d judge you, but the thought of opening up to him right now is something you’re just not ready for yet. It’s rare that you reveal this part of yourself to people.

“There’s a little more to it, I guess. But it’s really not that important. I’m fine, I promise.”

“I won’t pry. You tell me when you want to. I’m here for you whenever the time feels right.”

He holds his arms out for a hug and you happily embrace it. Danny's hugs are so warm and reassuring; you desperately needed it.

As you make your way back to the room, you see Joe out in the hall, bracing himself up against the wall with one hand while he’s struggling through a coughing fit.

You run up to him to help him stabilize himself. “Are you okay?” you ask.

He can’t answer you as he’s coughing too much. He’s holding a tissue tightly in his hand as he coughs into it. You notice it’s stained red.

“Shit. Come on, let's get you to the hospital.” You try to help him down the hall but he stops you.

“No.” he says in his weak voice. “I’m fine, kid. It’s just a little cough. Nothing to fret over. It’ll pass. But do me a favor, hun.” He shoves the stained tissue in his shirt pocket, ensuring it’s concealed. “Don’t mention this, alright? I don’t want everyone in a tizzy over me.”

Your self-centered feelings have quickly switched to worry for Joe’s health.

He pats your back before walking away, seemingly fine.

But you know he’s not fine. He’ll do everything to convince you otherwise, but you know deep down something is seriously wrong.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

4:59 pm

2 hours and 31 minutes until showtime

“I can’t see fuckin’ shit out of these things.”

You hear Josh’s voice ring throughout the arena as they’re working through a final soundcheck. He’s wearing his giant bejeweled sunglasses that serve no practical use as he’s tripping all over himself trying to navigate the stage.

“Seriously, I can’t see a fuckin’ thing.”

“Take them off, you dumbass.” Sam says in his mic perched on his piano.

“Obviously that would ruin my look, Samuel.” He’s already dressed in his ensemble for tonight, looking wonderfully angelic. You’re doing your best to avert your gaze, but damn. He makes it difficult.

The two go back and forth with each other until finally Danny slams his cymbals and Jake plays an aggressive chord to get them to shut up.

You, Ivy and Julien are sitting in the audience seats watching the whole thing, cracking up laughing at their brotherly banter.

They finally manage to run through a few songs and you’re in awe over how easily it comes to them. Within seconds of bitching at each other, they play a song to perfection as if nothing had happened.

They don’t bother running through the whole show, opting to just ‘wing it’ when it’s showtime.

You can’t imagine that kind of mindset. You figure it’s because of how long they’ve been in the game. It comes so naturally for them, so authentically. Too much rehearsal might take away some of that authenticity for them. Aside from that, they just don’t need it. They are so in tune with each other that practice seems like a waste of time.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

5:33 pm

1 hour and 57 minutes until showtime

You had some intent behind choosing your stage outfit. You wanted something that felt like you, felt like Lilac Moon, and something with a little meaning behind it.

A month ago, you had all finally narrowed down stage looks.

“Why don’t we wear purple?” you had suggested after hours of trying to agree on something.

“Why the fuck would we do that?” Jay asked.

“Think about it, man.” said Julien.

“Oh my god, why the hell haven’t we thought of this before? You’re a genius, y/n.” said Ivy.

Not only is purple an obvious choice for a band with the color in its name, but it also made you think of a sweet memory with Josh, when he recalled a show of theirs you’d attended a few years ago and you wore a lilac colored dress with puffy sleeves. He loved it so much that he locked it away in his memory.

You wanted to mimic that look for nostalgic reasons.

You chose a purple skirt paired with a black top with sleeves almost identical to the ones on the dress you wore that Josh remembered every detail of.

As you’re putting it on, you feel all the emotions you’d felt the day you talked with him about that memory. It’s a bit of a full circle moment for you as an artist and as a person, and it’s also a reminder of the sweetness of Josh. Regardless of everything over the last few months, he’s as warm as sunshine that never dims. He’s made a dent on your heart, and that is something you’ll never be able to deny, no matter how hard you try.

You sit next to Ivy at the vanity to finish your hair and makeup, talking and joking with her when you hear a knock at the door.

“Come in.” you yell.

“Our hands are a bit full.” Josh says.

You get up to open the door to find Josh and Jake, each holding two drinks.

“Damn.” Jake mumbles as Ivy joins you at the door, adorned in her black sequined black crop top and purple velvet bell bottoms that accentuate her body perfectly.

“What was that, Jacob?” she says slyly.

“You look quite dashing.” he says as he walks through the doorway.

“Y/n you look absolutely, I mean you really look… well I haven’t the proper words.” Josh says to you as his eyes follow a path up and down your body.

“Fucking finally.” Jake jokes, making Ivy laugh.

“Thank you, Josh. Or, at least I think I should thank you. Is rendering Josh speechless a good thing?”

He smiles at you, “In this case, undoubtedly.”

“We weren’t sure what you ladies liked to drink so we have options,” Jake says as they both set their drinks down on the coffee table. “We’ve got a tequila sunrise, a vodka lemonade, a salty dog and a bloody mary. Take your pick.”

Ivy instantly grabs the bloody mary, a favorite of hers.

“Ah, a woman of class. Good choice, Ivy.” says Jake. She thanks him as she takes a sip of her tomato drink.

You go for the vodka lemonade, to which Josh says “You don’t want the salty dog?”

“Absolutely not. Grapefruit makes me want to vomit.”

Josh scoffs, “A salty dog is the perfect fruity and salty fusion that is both refreshing and intoxicating. To not enjoy it is to not enjoy happiness.”

The twins hangout with the two of you as you add the final touches to your makeup and hair, finishing off all four drinks.

Jake decides to head back to the bar to grab a few more. Ivy joins him, leaving you and Josh alone.

“You know what you could use?” Josh asks.

“What’s that?”

“I’ll be right back.”

He runs full speed out of the room, returning almost as quickly as he left with a tote bag in his hand. He digs inside of it and pulls out a small box and a tube of eyelash glue.

He pulls a chair up to sit in front of you at the vanity, putting both of his legs on either side of yours as he takes a seat and scoots as close to you as he can.

“One thing I’ve learned since the last tour is you can never have enough sparkle.”

He opens the box containing a slew of rhinestones.

“Should I consider this my very own entry to the rhinestoned diaries?” you say with a little sarcasm.

He rolls his eyes and laughs, “Those are a work of pure art and you know it. Now, let’s see.” He tucks his bottom lip in his teeth, eyebrows furrowed as takes in the structure of your face.

He holds your chin between his thumb and index finger, maneuvering you a bit to really get a good look at your features.

“We want to accentuate these lovely cheekbones of yours.” He runs a finger along your right cheek, the contact causing your breathing to stutter a bit.

His tongue peeks out of the corner of his mouth as he strategically places dots of eyelash glue along the high points of your face.

He dumps out a few gems on the table, picking each one up with a pair of tweezers to place them over the dots of glue.

You can’t help but watch him, the way his nose twitches slightly as he meticulously places each stone, the way he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, his tongue gliding over his mouth every so often. He’s just so pretty.

He looks up into your eyes, catching your stare. He doesn’t say a word, just smiles. His beautiful, warm smile that demands a smile from you in return.

“Not that perfection needs any improvement.” he says as he places the final rhinestone. He stands up and turns your chair around so you’re facing the mirror. “Look at that. Just gorgeous.”

You smile at your reflection. As silly as you initially thought it was, you actually feel really beautiful.

And he’s right, you can never have enough sparkle.

He sits back down next to you, gathering up his things to take back to his room.

“You truly look stunning.” He says. “I’m not sure I want you going out there like that, might cause a bit of chaos from the crowd once they see you.” He laughs a little, smiling at you once again.

The all too familiar Josh-induced blush starts creeping up your rhinestoned cheeks.

“I doubt that. It’s not me everyones here to see, anyway.”

“After tonight you will be. I just know it.”

He moves closer to you, staring into your eyes with a look that speaks a thousand words. You start to lean into it, feeling drawn to him.

No, y/n. Don’t let him lead you on again. The roses, the rhinestones…he’s doing it again. This isn’t why you’re here. He’s just distracting you yet again from the only thing that matters.

You suddenly break eye contact and stand up, moving away from him.

“We agreed to keep this professional, Josh. You need to stop.” You can’t bring yourself to look at him. This is hurting you, and you know looking at him will only make this so much worse. “I told you, my career is the most important thing. You don’t need to be leaving me roses or helping with my makeup. It's inappropriate.”

“I was just trying to be nice, y/n. I give roses to everyone, doesn’t mean anything more than a friendly gesture. It was just my way of welcoming you on tour. That’s all. Don’t read too much into it.”

His voice is much more stern than you had anticipated it would be, and you noted a bit of sarcasm. You can tell you struck a nerve but you decide to ignore it. It's almost time for the show and you can’t be bothered with this right now.

“Well, thank you for welcoming me. ” you say as you walk out of the door to head to the stage. You’re pissed that this happened minutes before your show. As if you’re not nervous enough.

You set it in the back of your mind, shaking it off and pulling yourself together so you’re able to give this performance your all.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

7:30 pm

Showtime

The four of you walk out on stage together, all holding hands. You look behind you to see Josh, Jake, Sam and Danny standing in a hidden spot behind the stage to watch.

You’re struck still for a moment as you look out to the filled space that was barren just hours ago. Every seat is filled. Every spot is taken. They’re screaming, screaming for Lilac Moon.

The stage lights shine brighter than the sun against your face on a hot summer afternoon. The vibrations of the screaming fans felt beneath your feet like a ship rocking against harsh waves.

The stage serves as your vessel and you the captain as you navigate the sea of 20,000 people.

It’s time.

You walk to your mic stand, Ivy situates her bass, Jay tucks his guitar strap under his arm just the way he likes and Julien takes his seat at his throne.

You can do this.

“How are we doing tonight, Nashville?”

There’s excitement painted on their faces as their eyes are fixed on you. You know you’ll tuck this image away in the depths of your memory to cherish as long as you live.

“It’s an honor to be here. Let’s do this!”

The music starts; you’re home.

Every fear you’d had has dissipated.

You make use of the biggest stage your band has ever played on, moving all over it, letting the music guide your body.

You watch as their faces light up with each song, as their heads nod to the beat. Some start making hearts with their hands, a few even singing along with you.

After the fourth song, you hear a faint “I love you!” coming from the crowd, to which you respond with “I love you, too!”

Everyone screams, and you couldn’t pry your smile away if you tried.

“We’ve got just a few more songs for you all, then we’ll make way for the star attraction.”

The crowd gets even louder at the mention of the headliners. You realize you haven’t introduced the band yet, so you take a few moments before the next song to do so.

“We’re Nashville-born Lilac Moon, and I don’t know if you know this, but you’re the largest crowd we’ve ever stood before.” You pull the mic away as you take in the roar of the audience. “You’ve welcomed us with so much love and we can’t thank you enough for making us feel at home on this stage. This is the first night of the Starcatcher world tour, and it’s definitely one for the books.”

You move to the center of the stage and take a seat on the ledge. Jay grabs his acoustic while Ivy comes to sit on your right, sans bass with her mic in hand. Julien takes his cajón and sits on the left side of you.

“We’re going to play a little acoustic number, if that’s okay. I’m sure you’ll recognize this one. If you do, please sing along.”

One of the first songs you’d ever played together as a band was Imagine by John Lennon. It was the song that helped you find your sound; the sound of Lilac Moon. You’d incorporated it in shows as often as you could, always acoustically as that’s how you played it together the very first time.

It’s been a while since you brought this one to the stage. You had all agreed that tonight felt like the perfect opportunity to bring it back.

Jay plays the first few chords and it seems the crowd recognizes the song almost instantly. You and Ivy switch back and forth singing the verses while harmonizing together with Julien during the chorus as he taps a subtle beat on his cajón.

The crowd glows with twinkling lights coming from their phones, swaying back and forth and singing the lyrics to the beloved tune.

This moment feels like the most intimate experience you’ve ever shared with an audience, though this is the largest one you’ve ever played for.

This right here, this is what it’s all about. The music, the unity, the love. It feels as though every obstacle in your life has led you to this very moment. It suddenly all feels worth it.

________________________

The last song has come to an end. As you take a bow with your bandmates, tears threaten to flee your eyes.

It had all gone so beautifully, better than you could’ve imagined.

You take out one of your in-ears to finally be met with the true sound of the audience that’s been muffled by the ear monitor.

You take it all in, the boisterous, beautiful sounds of 20,000 people cheering for Lilac Moon.

“Thank you, Nashville!” is all you can manage to say before heading off the stage just in time to avoid going over your 45 minute time slot.

You leave the stage to Sammy, Danny and Jake all congratulating you, giving you hugs and kisses on your cheeks, but you can’t help but notice that Josh is no longer here.

Seriously? He couldn’t even stay for the whole thing?

You start to head back towards the hallway your dressing rooms are in to find him when you’re stopped by Julien grabbing you, Ivy and Jay in a massive group hug.

“I love you guys, dammit. I’m so proud to do this with the three of you.” he says through choked back tears.

Joe comes up to join you all. He’s absolutely elated, so proud of you all that he can’t stop praising you.

It’s an emotional moment, and you’re angry.

You’re angry that your only thought right now is Josh. He’s taken over so drastically that you can’t even be present right now with your band, your family, after undeniably the best performance you’ve ever put on.

All you can think about is him.

While everyone is hugging and cheering for each other, you manage to slip away, unable to free him from your mind. You have to know where he is, you need to find him.

You quickly make your way down the hall, stopping first at his dressing room. No luck.

You check each of their rooms that are all empty.

You decide as a last ditch effort to check your room.

You open the door and as you walk in, you see Josh sitting at your vanity.

“Josh, what are you doing in here?”

His head is in his hands, his leg bouncing wildly as he has yet to look at you.

You ask him if he’s okay before he sighs loudly while finally standing up.

“No, I’m not okay, y/n.” he says as he walks up to you.

His hands quickly find your waist, squeezing you with his fingertips.

There’s a fire igniting in the pit of your stomach. His touch is much more heated than ever before. You're fighting against the trembles of your body.

“I know that we decided not to take things any further,” he says as his eyes are fixed on where his hands rest, “but I can’t watch you out there and not want you.”

He darts his eyes to yours. “I want you, y/n. I need you. Like I need the air in my lungs. Watching you out there, so mystifying, so goddamn beautiful. I can’t take it. I won’t be able to do this every night.”

You can’t fight your body much longer. His words are like sugar laced with honey.

You don’t speak, and before you can think twice about it, your lips crash hard with his.

“You…” he says between attacking your lips “...are so fucking incredible.”

He shuts the door before pushing your body up against it.

You lift your leg to wrap it around his waist, his hand kneading the flesh of your thigh.

You grab hold of his curls, forcing his body to press harder against yours.

As close as he is, you need him even closer. You need to feel him everywhere.

He licks and sucks on your neck, his breath leaving goosebumps on the wet skin.

“Josh…”

He groans in your ear, not relenting a bit.

“Josh…it’s almost time for you to get out there. I don’t want…” he pulls your skin between his teeth, sucking and nibbling as you lose all inhibition.

The moan that escapes you is louder than you would have liked, you’re almost sure someone heard. You simply can’t bring yourself to care.

He pulls tighter on your thigh, moving his hand up to your hip under your skirt. He grips you tighter, his thumb brushing dangerously close to the hem of your thong.

He pulls you closer until you’re pressed against him, feeling his cock harden against you.

You start grinding yourself on him, his hand on your hip helping to move you just right against him.

“Fuck…” he whispers in your ear. His jaw is beautifully clenched, his eyes squeezed shut as he moves his body along with yours.

Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door that you're leaned up against.

“Josh? Are you in there? Come on we have to fucking go! The curtains about to drop!” Jake yells.

“Josh, go.” you say with heavy reluctance.

“You can’t expect me to go out there like this.”

You look down and notice his massive erection straining against his skin tight pants.

“You don’t have a choice, Joshy.” you say as you kiss his cheek and he lightly slaps your ass before opening the door.

“God, I can’t wait to get off that stage.”

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

You and Ivy stand by Jake’s side of the stage near the crowd, enjoying their magnetic performance.

It’s like you’re back in 2018, traveling all over together to catch their shows and having the absolute time of your lives.

So much has changed since then, but somehow it all feels the same still yet.

You catch Josh looking over in your direction often, eliciting screams from the fans you’re standing close to.

After Josh throws out his signature white roses, the show comes to an extravagant end. Of no surprise to you, the crowd is going absolutely crazy over them.

They rush off the stage and instantly their crew is tearing the set down to pack up for the next show. You and Ivy are caught by fans asking for photos and autographs and giving you their bracelets they had made for the show. You stay back and talk with them for a while, answering all of their questions about your band and how you made it here. They’re all so sweet and excited to be talking with you, and it warms your heart.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

He’s covered in sweat, the sheen on his skin giving him the most glorious glow.

He rips his jacket off and throws it across the room.

You walk up to him, putting your hands on his bare chest. His pecks are so hard and hot under your touch as you skim your fingers over him, brushing against his nipples as you wander down a little further to his stomach that’s clenching against your fingertips.

“I’m so sweaty, y/n. Why don’t you let me get cleaned up?”

You put your fingers to his mouth, dragging his bottom lip down. “No. I want you. Now. Just like this.”

A smirk graces his lips, his eyes heavy and full of lust as he watches your hands explore his body.

You tug on the button of his pants until it’s free from the loop it was secured in.

You slowly pull his fly down, noticing that he’s stopped breathing entirely.

“Breathe, Josh. It’s just me.”

He huffs a nervous laugh. “Yeah, just you. I’ve imagined this more times than I’ll admit.”

“What have you imagined?” you say as you continue pulling his fly down at an agonizingly slow pace.

You finally pull it down completely, pulling his pants open a little before your hands make their way back to his sweat covered chest.

You’re still high from the show, adrenaline running wild as you get the nerve to speak to him and touch him this way.

“I’ve imagined how you’d feel, how you’d sound…full of my cock…your pretty mouth wrapped around it…” he plants the gentlest kiss to your lips, holding the pulse point of your neck, “…that beautiful voice of yours singing my name…” his hands have found your breasts, still covered by your top, “…a sweet song only for me. I can’t wait to learn every pretty sound you make.”

You reach your hand through the open fly of his satin pants. You run your fingers lightly over his shaft, shocked over his size and how he’s throbbing against your gentle touch. His eyes roll in the back of his head as he lets out a high pitched, beautiful whimper.

“I’m excited to hear all of your pretty sounds, Josh.”

He giggles breathlessly as you plant kisses all over his chest and neck, still running your fingers along his length, toying with him a bit. You relish in this moment of control, how he’s crumbling under the slightest contact from you. The sounds he’s making, the labored breathing. It’s as though he could melt at any moment.

You reach your hand down further, taking his entire cock in your hand. The sound he lets out reverberates through the dressing room.

You slowly make your way down to your knees, looking up at his sleepy grin, when suddenly…

Why the fuck didn’t I lock the door.

You’re both too shocked to move as Ivy walks in completely oblivious to what’s happening.

“OH! Holy shit, oh fuck!” she yells when she realizes, dramatically slamming the door shut.

As embarrassed as you are right now, you’re thanking every god in the universe that it was just Ivy who walked in and not anyone else.

You stand up immediately, still reeling with humiliation as Josh starts zipping his pants back up.

“So much for right now, huh?” He laughs nervously. “I’m thinking maybe we should put this on hold.”

You put your face in your hands. “I’m so sorry, Josh.”

He laughs as he grabs you in a hug. “Don’t you dare be sorry.”

“We’ll finish where we left off soon, I promise.” you say quietly in his ear.

“I’m holding you to that.” he says as he kisses your forehead before opening the door to leave.

Ivy is still standing on the other side of it, shielding her face as he walks out. He looks at her with a smug grin. “Sup?” he says with a nod of his head while he walks past her.

“What the hell did I just walk in on?” she says. “Were you giving him head or were you helping him tie his fucking loafers?”

“Well, I was going to give him head until the world's biggest cock block barged in.”

You’re both caught in a fit of laughter trying to pack everything up. You only have about 20 minutes until you have to leave the venue so you’re in a bit of a rush.

“Are you still staying with me tonight?” you ask.

“Well, that’s what I was going to talk to you about.”

You stop to look at her, waiting for whatever it is she’s gearing up to tell you.

“Jake was telling me about his custom Fender jazz bass, and I told him I’d love to see it but it’s at his house so…I’m going over there tonight.”

You look at her with wide eyes and a huge smile. “You’re going over to see his super cool bass, huh?”

She giggles maniacally, “Yes, y/n. Just to see his super cool bass.”

“Also,” she continues, “we’re taking my car, so I guess you’ll just have to have Josh take you home.” she says with a wink as she zips her makeup bag shut.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪

You had asked Josh for a ride, and of course he couldn’t turn you down.

He asked if you wanted to come to his place for a bit and without hesitation you said yes.

You’re in his room, sitting on his bed as he insisted on taking a shower as soon as he walked in the door of his home.

“I usually try to take showers at the venues before we have to leave,” he says as he opens the glass shower door. “but for some reason I just didn’t have time for that tonight.” he says through a laugh.

There’s a small opening in the master bathroom door, just enough for you to be able to see him in the mist. You try to keep from staring at him but he makes it impossible. He’s stunning. His sculpted, wet body is far too enticing.

He’s still talking, saying whatever pops in his mind as the bathroom begins to fill with steam. You hear his voice, but your mind has stopped comprehending his words.

Without much thought, you stand up and make your way to the bathroom. He’s facing away from the shower door so he’s oblivious to the fact that you’re here.

You start removing your clothing. Feeling the most courageous you’ve ever felt, you open the shower door and slowly make your way inside.

Josh stops what he’s doing, his back still facing you, as it seems he’s noticed your arrival. He turns around, eyes locked in on your nude figure.

“I was wondering when you’d give in.” he says through a smile.

You step into the water, letting it drench your skin in warmth and soak your hair as you make you way closer to him. His hands trace up and down your now wet body as you reach up to slick his hair back. He moves closer, pressing his body against yours as his hands move to cup your face. His eyes dart back and forth between yours and your lips before he slowly leans in, kissing you gently before stepping away.

He grabs a bottle of body wash, opens it and begins pouring it over your chest. He massages it into your breasts, tweaking your nipples with his slick fingers. With the same bottle, you follow suit, pouring it over him and watching the suds cascade down his toned frame. You run your hands over him, just as he did you, rubbing the sandalwood scented lather into his chest and flexed torso.

You both go without saying a word to each other. The intimacy of this moment is one that should only be spoken with touch, lips only moving to embrace the other.

He then washes your hair as you do the same for him, silence still lingering as your lips leave willful kisses on one another.

He moves his hands to the small of your back, then reaches down to squeeze the supple flesh of your ass as he licks and kisses along your neck. His nearly throbbing cock rests between your thighs, gently nudging at your hardened bud. You reach your hand down to stoke it, pushing his head against your clit.

You pump him against you a few times before sinking down to your knees.

You look up at him, noting that same sleepy grin from earlier in the dressing room. “Just keeping my promise.”

You kiss the tip of his cock, leaving kitten licks along the underside of his head before slowly sinking him all the way in your mouth.

You bob your head as you swallow as much of him as you can, his hand buried in your wet hair as he lets you take the lead.

“Look at me baby, look at me.” You do as he says, keeping your eyes on him as you take him deeper and deeper down your throat. “So beautiful like that. So fucking beautiful taking it all.”

He bucks his hips a little, shoving himself in further. The moan that escapes him echoes off the shower walls. Such a pretty sound and all you want is to make him sound like that over and over again.

“Fuck. Come here, sweet girl.” He leans down to pick you up. You wrap your legs around him as he holds you with one hand and pushes the shower door open with the other.

Without even bothering to turn off the water, he takes you into his bedroom and lays you down on your back and leans over you with his arm propping him up. You’re both still soaking wet, his body dripping all over yours, his hair still slicked back from the water with only a few wet curls hanging over his face.

He looks into your eyes, lips pouting and eyes heavy.

“Josh, I…I need to tell you something.” Your voice is shaky, his face now full of concern and worry.

“Are you okay, y/n? Oh shit. I’m taking this too far, you’re not ready. Fuck. I’m so sorry, we can sto-” you shush him by placing your fingers over his wet lips.

“No, it’s not that. I don’t want to stop. I just…I’m embarrassed to tell you this, but I feel like I need to.”

“Tell me. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s just me.”

“Well, I’ve never…” you take in a long breath, regretting even bringing it up but knowing that you’re too far into it and you have to say something. “I’ve never finished before. Not with a partner, anyway.”

Josh is silent. He moves back to sit on his heels at the end of the bed.

You panic, thinking you’ve just ruined everything as you quickly sit up to meet him.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I said that. That was so stupid of me, I-”

Now he’s the one placing his finger on your lip to stop you in your nervous rambling.

He grins at you, “Is that a challenge, sweet girl?”

He presses his palm against your chest to lay you back down. His fingers drag across your hardened nipples as he leans down to place open mouthed kisses down your belly.

“You know,” he says, lips hovering over you, “one of the main reasons women don’t experience orgasms from a partner” his tongue dances around your belly button as water droplets from his hair paint your skin, “is because their partner doesn’t take the time to learn their body.”

He moves back up to your face, cupping your jaw with one hand as the other moves to the side of your head to hold him up.

“This body deserves pleasure. This body should be worshiped, and that’s what I intend to do.”

You whimper at his sentiment. Never has anyone wanted to dedicate time to your body, to your satisfaction. You’ve always been the giver in bed, but you somehow knew Josh would be different. That’s why you felt you could tell him about never having been pleasured fully.

Now, your body is vibrating with need and want, ready for whatever this beautiful man has planned for you.

His hand moves from you face down to your inner thigh, massaging it as he moves closer and closer to your desperate core.

“Is this okay?” he says softly. “Is it okay if I touch you?”

“Yes, Josh. Please touch me.”

His fingers dip between your folds. His index rubs slow and intentional circles over your clit.

With hardly a touch, he’s already bringing you closer than you’ve ever been with anyone. You’re unsure if it’s his presence, or if he truly is just that skilled.

“Oh, Josh…”

“Yeah? Feel good, sweet girl?”

“God, it feels damn good.”

“Can I put one inside?”

“Ple-please, Josh…” you whisper.

He gently slides his middle finger inside, all the way to the knuckle before sliding it back out and pushing in again.

“Another?” His voice is a quiet groan, a pitch you’ve never heard from him.

“Yes Josh, please.”

He pulls all the way out, then adds his index finger alongside, both gliding in together. You gasp and cry out at the feeling. You had never noticed the size of fingers until they became buried in your throbbing cunt.

“Tell me, y/n.” His fingers pick up their pace as your pussy sucks them in, creating the most delicious and obscene sounds. “Tell me how you make yourself cum.”

You’re suddenly hit with a wave of shyness. You’ve never been one to vocalize much in bed.

“Don’t get shy on me now, sweet girl. Tell me. I want to hear how you make this pretty pussy feel good.”

His fingers come to a still. He curls them inside and pushes against a newly discovered spot with his fingertips. A strangled cry breaks from you. No one has ever found this spot within you, and it took him only a matter of minutes.

“I…” high pitched whispers are all you can manage as speaking is near impossible. “I like to put my fingers inside, as far as I can. And I use my vibrator on my clit…feels so good.”

He groans, leaning down to drop a kiss to your chest. “I bet you look so beautiful when you cum.”

His fingers begin moving in and out again, brushing against your hidden spot over and over. The only word you are capable of is his name as it leaves your mouth in a melody of whimpers and moans. It builds up inside of you, threatening to burst at any second.

All of a sudden you feel yourself become nervous, tensing up, fearful of letting your body give in.

“Hey, don’t do that. Get out of your head, just let go. Let go, y/n.” His voice is soft as velvet, acting as both a comfort and a catalyst in bringing your body back to the brink.

It’s building up again, this time quicker and more intense. You let yourself submit fully to his touch.

“There you go, there you go…I can feel it. You’ll give it to me, yeah?” His deep voice pulls it from you, and suddenly you’re enveloped in a wave of ecstasy so intense. Every cell in your body alight; every part of you in the flames of a brand new pleasure.

You sing a chorus of obscenities mixed with his name, your new favorite word to lay on your tongue.

“The most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. You’re a fucking angel.”

He works you through it, slowing his fingers before pulling them out. He brings his hand up, fingers glistening. A mark of your pleasure.

He licks along his coated digits, humming and rolling his eyes in the back of his head. “God…I need to taste you…s’that okay? Can I taste your sweet pussy?”

You’re still coming down from the most glorious high as you can only nod your head, desperate to feel his mouth on you.

He dips down between your thighs. His wet hair rests against your heated skin as he licks a long, slow stripe between your folds. He’s drinking you up, kissing and lapping at your juices from your climax.

“Mm, sweet as honey.” He flicks your tingling bud with the tip of his tongue before closing his lips around it, sucking it into his warm mouth.

You’ve watched this man sing for years. You’ve always been intrigued by the way his mouth moves, the way he uses his tongue to reach the most beautiful high notes. His mouth is moving on you in the same ways it does on stage, only this time, you’re his microphone as he hums an erotic melody into you.

With two fingers, he spreads your lips open wider, sucking and kissing every inch. You start to writhe beneath him while you’re on the verge of overstimulation. He drops one last kiss to your clit before coming up to meet your face.

“How was it?” he asks, his nose nudging against your cheek while leaving wet kisses along its path.

“Oh my fucking god, Josh…I had no idea what I had been missing, christ..”

He softly laughs in your ear, “I hope you’re not just trying to boost my ego.”

His lips find yours, his tongue dancing inside your mouth as you taste yourself on him.

“Sweet girl, are you ready for me?”

You smile at the pet name that he’s repeated over and over tonight, loving the way it sounds when he says it.

“Please, baby.” you say.

“Gonna go slow, okay? I just need to feel you a little bit.”

He nudges the tip in just slightly, pushing in slowly and checking on you each time he pushes in further.

He’s big. The stretch from him is one you’ve never felt before, but one you want to feel again and again.

He’s finally filled you up completely, giving you a moment to adjust to him.

“Josh, please baby. Fuck me..”

He pulls out almost all the way before slowly pushing back inside of you, holding your face with one hand as the other reaches down to rub soft circles on your aching clit.

He fucks you just like this for a moment, with slow and long thrusts. You feel every inch of him inside of you as he slides in and out.

“Faster baby, please fuck me faster.” You move your hips into his, desperate to chase even more him.

He smiles at you, eyes heavy and dark. “Slow down, sweet girl. Just feel me, okay?”

He thrusts himself all the way inside of you, all the way to the hilt. He looks down to where you two are connected, admiring how your body looks completely full of his cock.

“I don’t just fuck. I make love.”

His words send a flood to your core as you’re nearing another wave with him tucked all the way inside of you. His tip is nudging perfectly against that hidden spot from within you that his fingers helped you discover.

“Talk to me, y/n. Tell me how it feels.”

He starts sliding in and out of you again, picking up his pace just a little.

“Feels full,” you say through the whines and whimpers that you can’t conceal. “feels like I’m being filled all the way. You feel so good, Josh. So fucking good.” He sends a harder thrust into you, forcing a yelp from your throat.

“I will never get tired of hearing that pretty voice of yours.”

He lifts your legs to rest on his shoulders, finally picking up his pace as he fucks himself harder and faster into you.

“Give me another one, sweet girl.”

Within an instant you’re thrown back into the precipice of bliss as he pulls it from you, this one even more consuming than the first one.

You cry out his name again, nearly screaming it at the top of your lungs as the pleasure is so intense and powerful.

He finishes right alongside you. He paints the inside of you, filling you even more.

“My god,” he says, panting his breath. “you’re a fucking goddess. This body…this body deserves every praise.”

You grab his face and pull it towards yours, tangling your fingers in his still wet hair as you kiss his lips.

You stay just like this for a while. Him still tucked inside of you as you enjoy each other, kissing and giggling against each other's skin.

“I’m going to pull out now, okay?”

He carefully pulls out of you as you hiss at the slight sting.

He lays down beside you, caressing your face and body as you’re relaxed nearly to sleep.

Suddenly, you hear your phone vibrating in your bag that’s sitting in the chair across his bedroom.

You start to lift up to go get it when he stops you. “You stay put.” he says as he walks over to get your bag for you.

You pull out your phone to see you have 12 missed calls, all from Jay.

You’re not sure what he could possibly want from you at this hour, but you figure it’s important if he’s being this persistent.

Just as you’re about to text him, he’s calling again.

“Hello?”

“Where the fuck are you, y/n? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you forever!”

He sounds frantic, completely out of it.

“What's going on, Jay?”

Josh hears Jay yelling on the phone and moves closer to you, trying as hard as you are to figure out what is going on.

“It’s Joe, y/n. He collapsed when we were leaving the venue. He’s in the hospital and it doesn’t fucking look good.”

To be continued…

taglist:

@jakeyt @fwzco @jessicafg03 @blissfulbellss @jakekiszkapunchmeintheface @arsonkween @sicksadandrad @gretavansara @witchofendora @andtherestishistory13 @madneedshelp @myleftsock @aintthatapity @itsdannysworld @gvfmarge @sierrahhh @gvf-ficreads @surfgreensam @joshstambo @thetroublegetssoloud71 @psychedelicsprinkles @jjwasneverhere @stardustcordzz @notthedroidz @sinarainbows @kiszkashousee @jaaakeeey @tamboswife @kiszkatwinflame @slaythelightfantastic

here's a little playlist i put together of what, to me, lilac moon would sound like. enjoy. 🤍

a/n: lilac moon will be put on a brief hiatus after this chapter. it won't be long, i promise. 🤍

please don't ever hesitate to let me know what you think. your feedback means the world to me. love you all SO much.

#josh kiszka smut #josh kiszka x reader #josh kiszka fanfic #josh kiszka fic #jake kiszka fic #sam kiszka fic #danny wagner fic #greta van fleet smut #greta van fleet fic #josh fic #josh kiszka fluff #lilac moon

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joyburble · 7 months

Text

The Swords

So I was watching, as you do, some videos by some very charming and passionate martials arts practitioners comparing and contrasting various designs of sword and their usage. And I remembered that I had vaguely, perhaps subconsciously, noticed something strange about the magical swords used in this show.

The first one we see is the Hellfire sword which Dongfang Qingcang materialises as he calls Shangque.

It's straight, with no curve to the blade at all, and both edges appear to be sharp. It's basically cross-shaped, with a large, decorated cross-guard extending parallel with both edges. And it has a fairly large roundish pommel, by which he holds it:

I think I semi-consciously noticed that this looks a lot more like a European longsword, except that it's not all that long. Chinese swords are usually curved, even if only slightly, are usually sharp on one side only, and usually have disc-shaped handguards. [Edit! see reblogs for information on jians, which are straight and double-edged but with tiny crossguards] They sometimes have pommels, but the kind you see in the Wuxia genre generally doesn't.

So I thought, is this one of the subtler ways in which they're setting out to make Dongfang Qingcang and the Moon Tribe seem a little bit foreign and therefore barbarous, "not-Han-coded", as someone on Discord put it?

But then I checked the other swords, and that's not it.

Changheng's is a bit ambiguous. It has a pronounced cross-guard, less elaborate but more fantastical - it seems to be thinking about morphing into a 16th-century European basket hilt, as that downturned curve wouldn't work to catch your opponent's blade, but it isn't quite there yet:

The blade also looks very straight, and we don't see the prop without the CGI for long enough to tell whether it's meant to be sharp on both edges. It might be more of a sabre, a design that pops up in martial arts traditions everywhere.

The third sword we see is Lady Chidi's battle sword, which is the same basic design as Dongfang Qingcang's:

As you can see in the closeup, it's cross-shaped, double-edged, straight, and symmetrical, with a pronounced pommel, a long hilt for two hands, and a large cross-guard parallel to the edges.

This shape is important, because scale is an optional setting for powerful immortal beings, and she will soon turn it into this mountain, with the cross-guard becoming a very convenient platform for conversation and sunbathing:

The other plot-relevant sword, in Episode 31, is the same cross-shape, with a really big cross-guard and a fairly pronounced pommel.

However! Intriguingly, to spar with Ronghao in the illusion-forest in Episode 32, Chidi uses a very simple blade, straight, but with neither cross-guard nor pommel, like a civilised Chinese lady:

It might be double-edged or single-edged, I can't tell, but it has virtually no hand guard at all, not even a round one like a katana:

But when in a later scene Ronghao confesses, it is her own, true sword she drops, as a sign that things are getting simultaneously more magic and more real:

In Ep34, she uses it to kill some unfortunate pikemen:

Meanwhile, back in Ep 16, Yannu's sword was the same plot-relevant shape, like Dongfang Qingcang's, and she holds it like a medieval warrior saint looking down from a Gothic arch:

He held it the same way when Shangque greeted him in Episode 2.

Danyin's sword, when she manifests it, is in a rather modest and perhaps youthful style. Still straight and symmetrical, but with a very small, sharply hooked cross-guard:

When Dieyi's whip-chain-flail-thing turns into a sword, it's even more European - it looks very like a rapier with a basket hilt! Kind of appropriate to her general look, actually, and her street-fighting personality.

When she changes stance we see this bonkers wiggly blade, which looks still rapier-ish (long, pointed, thrust more than cut), only insane. She doesn't use it like a rapier, though.

Ronghao's sword for killing is a curious design, still straight and with a pommel, but this curious sort of vestigial, bulbous thing that isn't really a guard of any kind. I don't know what's going on with this but the shape is a little bit like Theoden's sword in Return of the King. Not quite.

However, when Chidi eventually attacks him, they both use their simple sparring blades again:

Anyway! I was surprised to discover how nearly all of the swords used in this particular show visually followed styles I am familiar with both from western drama and from western historical collections, and none of them, except the ones in that last shot, looked at all like the most common styles of sword you see in Chinese dramas.

Obviously the weapons function exactly like the costumes in that they're primarily artistic visual references to various moods and ideas, rather than functional objects, but I think that makes this choice even more interesting. I don't know how usual it is for this genre, or what it means.

I haven't found where, if at all, we see Xunfeng or Shanque use a sword, and it's long past my bedtime so I'm stopping there.

#can lan jue #lbfad costumes #costumes and weapons meta #lbfad #love between fairy and devil #dongfang qingcang #rong hao #this is actually weird in a fascinating way #I don't think we ever see shangque use a sword

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wilbursoot-updates · 1 year

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Lovejoy have dropped their much-anticipated new EP ‘Wake Up & It’s Over’, and yes – it has a surprise…

Lovejoy is featured in this Dork article!

Lovejoy have dropped their much-anticipated new EP ‘Wake Up & It’s Over’.

The Dork cover stars have left a special surprise for fans, too, with the anticipated but not actually announced inclusion of fan fave final track, ‘It’s Golden Hour Somewhere’.

Initially beginning the recording of this EP late last year, the boys weren’t 100% satisfied with the tracks. Having already played some of the tracks live, fans developed a particular affinity for ‘It’s Golden Hour Somewhere’, and up until the EP drops, have been under the impression it isn’t going to be released.

“I like to make rumours amongst the fan base,” the band’s Ash Kabosu told us in our new cover feature, “I sort of said yeah, it’s scrapped, we just don’t like it, it’s not up to scratch, it doesn’t fit the nature of the EP, blah, blah, blah. We’ve just made up a bunch of nonsense. And they’ve bought into it. And as I expected, they’re also campaigning to bring it back. We’ve seen signs at shows saying ‘PLAY GOLDEN HOUR’. It’s just a bit of fun, and I think the relief and the excitement they’ll feel on the day that it comes out to just see it in the tracklisting will be worth it. I think for the amount of time that the fans have been waiting, we want it to be as special as possible.”

Aiming for something a little heavier this time, the boys wanted to pull in their individual influences more drastically. For frontman Will Gold, that’s shouty British lyrics and overdriven guitars (he calls Arctic Monkeys the most famous example), with Ash also growing up on the late 2000s indie of Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club. Drummer Mark Boardman, on the other hand, was introduced to bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Asking Alexandria by his sister at a young age, pushing him into heavier territory when it came to discovering his own tastes and allowing the band to take on the slogan of ‘the only indie band with a double kick drum’. (Guitarist Joe Goldsmith simply adds, “In the words of Brandon Flowers, it’s indie rock and roll for me.”)

Opening track ‘Portrait of a Blank Slate’ pulls in those influences most brazenly, employing the mathy Foals-y lead guitar, ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ era Arctic Monkeys fiddly bass, and wordy vocals a la The Wombats. “I can’t wait to play that for thousands of people,” says Joe.

“We’ve just made up a bunch of nonsense. And they’ve bought into it” Ash Kabosu

Even with ‘Call Me What You Like’ landing at No.32 on the UK Top 40 – an enormous feat and a rarity for a new band these days – it’s still what the fans think that means the most to Lovejoy.

“It was very validating to see it go that far,” says Will. “I think that was our longest-ever lyric writing time; we had the tune down for about ten months before I even penned the lyrics that ended up going in the final release. To see that time pay off is amazing, but we had no idea it would get that reception. It’s more important that our fans really love what we’re putting out. We’re aiming to create music that will really connect with our fan base, and you know, we’ll give them back what they’ve given us.”

This is an excerpt from Dork’s new Lovejoy cover feature. You can order a copy of the Lovejoy edition of June 2023’s Dork here, or below.

#lovejoy #wilbur soot #ash kabosu #mark boardman #joe goldsmith #wu&io #dork magazine

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staydandy · 7 months

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The Golden Eyes (2019) - 黄金瞳 - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : A simple pawn shop worker, Zhuang Rui, had his own eyes mutated after an accident during a robbery attempt of an ancient Jade carving. His mutated eyes subsequently brought many changes to his life in many unexpected ways he could ever imagined. (MDL)

Whumpees : Zhuang Rui played by Lay Zhang (center) • Peng Fei played by Meng A Sai (2 eps) (far right)

Country : 🇨🇳 China Genres : Adventure, Martial Arts, Fantasy, Tomb Raider

Notes : This is a Full Whump List • This is the a revision of my Partial List, which only had 4 episodes on it! It really deserved better than that. • My favorite episodes are pink : 00

Related List : The Golden Eyes (2019) - partial list

Episodes on List : 37 Total Episodes : 56

*Spoilers below*

01 : Glass gets into Zhuang Rui's eyes, knocked out … hospitalized, eyes bandaged … blurry vision, overwhelmed by new eyesight … unsteady, rubbing eyes

02 : Headache

04 : Attacked, hooded

05 : Handcuffed … falls through a trapdoor

06 : Protects someone from an explosion, knocked out … protects someone from a 2nd explosion, knocked out

09 : Rubbing his eyes

10 : (near end) Attacked, fight

11 : Shaking head in slight pain

13 : Fight, knocked out … dizzy, eye/head pain.. unsteady

14 : Car crash, knocked out … treated in hospital

17 : Drunk, unsteady, helped to walk

18 : Shaking head, pain.. unsteady, passes out, caught … nauseous … locked in a wine cellar

19 : … continued from previous ep. ... Locked in wine cellar, shivering

22 : While driving, shaking head, pain … revealed he's been shot in the leg, bleeding, limping … temporary amnesia, migraine, collapses.. leg infected, fever

23 : … continued from previous ep. ... Limping, exhausted, eye pain.. blurry vision, collapses, passes out … headache

24 : … continued from previous ep. ... Passes out, hospitalized

25 : Chased, rolls down a hill, migraine, unsteady, blurry vision, temporarily blind … blurry vision

26 : … continued from previous ep. ... Still partially blind … vision slowly returning, blurry … steps on a landmine

27 : Peng Fei is captured, tied up, whipped

28 : … continued from previous ep. ... Attempts escape, tied up again … Zhuang Rui is captured, tied up … Zhuang Rui & Peng Fei are knocked out with smoke bomb … Zhuang Rui nightmare.. headache, ear ringing

29 : Not feeling well, not eating, depressed

30 : Wrestling match, sore after … lightheaded

31 : Lightheaded … out of it, collapses against a pillar, barely conscious, helped to walk … blurry vision, migraine, helped to walk, saying he can't see or hear, writhing in pain, given a shot to sleep

32 : Unsteady, starts to collapses, supported … slightly unresponsive … headache … nightmare

33 : Hit with a shovel

35 : (near end) [flashbacks to eps 22, 25, 31] migraine, amnesia, blind, migraine, writhing … [present] drunk

36 : Admitting he's lost his sense of taste … eye strain, headache, exhausted … (@ 13:16 Huang Fu Yun looks so much better without the birdshit highlight in his hair) … drunk

37 : … continued from previous ep. ... Drunk … captured, hands tied

38 : Shock, dizzy, migraine, collapses, caught … briefly knocked out from explosion

42 : Eye strain … captured, hands tied.. hit with bats in a fight

43 : Drugged … tied up

44 : MIgraine

45 : Dizzy, collapses, migraine.. unsteady … starts to collapse, supported

50 : (at end) Tied up

53 : Attacked, knocked out … migraine … captured

55 : Headache, backhanded, falls & hits head on a pipe, barely conscious.. carried … unconscious … hospitalized

56 : … continued from previous ep. ... Hospitalized, drugged asleep … hospitalized for brain surgery.. seizure during surgery

More Whump Lists for this show: love-me-a-lotta-whump whumpetywhump

#whump #whump list #full whump list #Asian whump #China #The Golden Eyes #黄金瞳 #Zhuang Rui #Lay Zhang #Peng Fei #Meng A Sai

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feedingicetothedog · 11 months

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new age discrepancy i noticed while reading the caption of this post:

Lestat de Lioncourt. 179 years in the Savage Garden. 148 years the blood-drinker, the bringer of death… the deer come up the trail

179 years in the savage garden and 148 the blood drinker would mean that lestat was turned when he was 31. however later in the same ep

which would make him 34.

it's just like how depending on what info you use louis was turned when he was 32-34 (if he was born in 1878 and turned in 1910 as he says during this scene, then he's 32. if the birth year on the gravestone is correct and he was turned in 1910, then he's 33 which is what he said he was in ep 1. however, there's that timeline that shows louis being turned in 1911 so if the birth year on the gravestone is correct then he would be 34)

conclusion: none of these vampires can remember how old they were when they were turned and are just approximating

#time's hammer and the minute details and all that #there's no purpose to this i just like comparing points of data and pointing out the discrepancies #i also think it's interesting that at a certain point the amount of years you spent as a human vs a vampire are trivial #like does it matter whether you were 31 or 34 when you were turned if you've spent 150~ years as a vampire?#i do think it would be funny if like in the book lestat's mortal form is technically a few years younger than louis'#i don't believe that's the case and it's completely irrelevant to the fact that he's far older than louis regardless but still #vampterview

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demise-seems-dead · 4 months

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@askingkyborg 's main here to bring you some depressing chip mini fic time because im dying

SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 32-34 AND TW FOR suicidal ideation, self harm, and some mentions of blood.

chip in todays ep was so insane for me i just i couldn't resist.

Mathidle hasn't felt a lot of warmth in their after life, and that's alright. The thing about ghosts is that they feel in opposition to a human. When you're alive, you get a spring to your step. You feel the kisses of the sun bead down over your eyelashes. The wind stirs hunger in your stomach and you fight against it in a little human battle. Your hands get warm when you work for too long, calluses thrumming with your pulse and very very warm. Mathilde knows this to be true.

They don't remember holding a lot of hands, but they remember the feeling, maybe due to its stark contrast to know. When a person is very alive, their hands get warm, and when they are dead and gone, their hands grow cold. And thus for ghosts it works the opposite. When alive hands are as cold as frosty knives but when on the brink of death their hands would be ever so warm.

Ellgas hands were moderately warm. Not technically undead but having lived multiple life spans she grew warm. With Barney it was impossible to tell. Sometimes his hands felt hot, other times too cold. Hard to discern. By way of logic Chips hands are the coldest of course. Being the youngest of the party somehow, and pretty physically adept, he was the most alive of them all, and thus the coldest. Mathilde can't touch the tieflings hands without a shiver climbing up his non corporeal body.

That's what made today so different. Chip’s are blazing warm.

They’d been giving blood to the vanian worker in exchange for currency. Mathilde put themselves close to the brink of death, but for good reason. There is a ghost after all, dying again would be a stunt and a half. Their body has started to float, and their items are starting to slowly fade through their body as he inches closer to full spirit than not. It's not as if they enjoy it, but the familiar tickle isn't a bad thing.

From beside them a sharp gasp comes from Barney's throat. A head turn shows chip loading up his crossbow, using the cocking stirrup and his foot to slide the bolt back with ease. Its a weird action for someone who had initially seemed hesitant to donate any blood at all. Mathilde raises an eyebrow just as the purple tiefling points the crossbow down at his foot and shoots. A shot of blood stains the white of his shoe and he noticeably grimaces. JJ mews from beside mathilde, circling where his feet are dangling. Mathilde knows kittens know when people are close to passing on, and especially a ghost cat. Mathilde bends a bit to scratch her tiny little grey head to let her know they're okay. It's weird knowing you're close to dying, but as a ghost it doesn't hurt, so it's a bit easier. Another crossbow bolt is shot, and JJ’s ears flatten down a little.

Mathilde looks back up towards chip. A fuzzy outline is starting to show on him, blue and purple swirly. His face is tight and screwed up, nose pressed into grooves and eyes watering. They can hear a crack of barney's voice, like he's about to say something but pauses. The old man's brow furrows. The teller behind the counter starts counting out money softly, and chip moves in a quick motion. Mathilde momentarily thinks he's putting it away, but after a moment it's drawn, but up by his head.

“Mon ami, maybe be a little bit more careful w-” Mathilde doesn't finish their thought before the bolt is wedged in chip's neck. It drips a long red string, and mathilde can see ellga lick her lips ever so slightly, but does not ignore the slight worry in her brows.

Mathilde knows Chip can't take many more shots. Three if he was lucky. Yet it doesn't stop him from moving again. Mathilde closes their eyes as he hears the loading noise, and with the shot the blurry ghost-like outline grows stronger, the purple colour bloombing out more. Another shot. That makes five. He can only take one more. JJ is meowing at the tiefling, who's struggling to stand, blood dripping out of his mouth and leaned over the counter. The clerk seems unphased.

Mathilde closes their eyes again, and sees a new colour. A soft green pushing the blue and the purple away in the dark. Instinctually, as the light brightens, mathilde opens their eyes. Chip is shuttering audibly, eyes lazing open and shut as he braces.

“Carols gone, what else is there to lose…?” JJ bats at chip’s leg, as if in an effort to stop him. Mathildes face stiffens at the assassin's comment, and they gently wrap an arm around chip, protectively surrounding him with his wings.

“Alright, I think that's enough. We’ve got plenty of spending money, right chip?” “...Spendin’ money… r-right, right yeah! Were, were rich!” The brunette moves to pick up his currency and his fingers fumble uselessly, eyes lidded slightly. Mathilde makes their hands noncorporeal and gently scoots the coins to his hands without him noticing, not to make him feel coddled. The alchemist shoots a look over his shoulder at mathilde, and mathilde nods back. The mood remains a bit darker and dreary, but chip seems somewhat stable. Mathilde takes his hand gently. The tieflings hands are warm as can be, and it makes a flood of warmth come over mathilde themselves.

Weirdly, if just for a moment, he feels a second hand reach over theirs. They close their eyes and see a ghostly outline of a tiefling woman, her hand over yours and chips. She presses a finger to her lips and gives a soft but saddened smile. She mouths to them gently.

“Don't let him down this path, mathilde…” A ghostly wiz-consinite voice whispers in their head. He opens his eyes again to see chip leaning down, smiling at a photo in his hand. Mathilde smiles softly.

“I'm glad she's watching over you, my friend.” they say even though the rogue will likely forget his words from the blood loss. He nods and smiles a bit more.

“‘M glad too, mathilde…”

#Tftsd #chip haney #stinky dragon pod #tales from the stinky dragon #fic snippet #angst #spoilers

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bengiyo · 8 months

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Love in Translation Ep 8 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

Last week, we went off the deep end with Yang being kidnapped and being forced to work on a packaging warehouse in his skinny jeans to pay back his debts. He was able to smuggle messages out by changing delivery addresses and using the language learning code he taught Phumjai. The rest of the cast rallied around to support Phumjai when they didn't know what had happened to Yang, and also Phojai and Tag reconciled beautifully. Phumjai went rogue to try and rescue Yang alone, and now both have been captured.

1:09:32 finale!!

Phumjai really had no plan and got hurt.

Now Phojai and Tag have showed up with no plan. What the hell is this?

All these boys trying to sacrifice themselves only works because these characters have cared so much for each other consistently.

We're doing PPL in the middle of the crisis. I love it. We need 5 million baht. Perhaps if the audience buys this camera we'll save the boys?

What is Bojji up to?

We took of Ngern's shirt and made him sweat, but at what cost?

The PPL is driving me insane this week. You're too injured to lift things. Good thing we have this app to our local wholesaler.

Oh no, Bojji is having issues as well.

I like that Phumjai is stepping up and putting the money he has on the line in a way that asks Yang to trust him more.

Okay, I like this show ending the debt collection on a comedic note.

Curious what Yang does long term if he's given his shares to the employees.

Phojai and Tag are moving in together!!

Obsessed with these two playing baseball as a quality time exercise.

What is it with these dramas and showing a scene from even further back as a beginning of romance event? This is specific to Asian dramas.

Final episode brotherly context and emotional reconciliation. I'm okay with it.

More PPL. I'm losing my mind, but glad this little show must have succeeded.

This episode is so weird, but I'm having fun.

Qi'er and Bojji are so valid for the screaming and falling out.

The parents look so pleased about Yang and Tag.

Little Sun is going franchise, baby!

DID TAMMY TURN THEM INTO A NOVEL?? SHE SAID I'M GETTING PAID BACK FOR Y'ALL USING MY LIKENESS IN YOUR STORE AND PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS!

They said the name of the show. Finish your drinks.

And now they're proposing? This show has everything.

Okay. Drawing the ring on Yang"s finger was so goddamn cute.

Of course they met as kids. These dramas love the notion of destiny.

Final Verdict: 8.5, This Show Was So Much Fun. Phumjai and Yang are one of my favorite pairs of the year. I liked the way they fell for each other and the way this show used its workplace. The plot wobbled massively throughout the final two episodes, and we lost the thread on a few things along the way for product placement, but I really loved these characters so much and I loved the way they treated each other. I'm going to miss having this show in the balance. Offroad and Daou and friends did a great job here.

#love in translation #thai bl #bl series #Ben watches

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the-conversation-pod · 11 months

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Summer 2023 Ep 2 - The Eighth Sense

AND WE'RE BACK!

It seems like every season we're going to have a single show dominate the conversation and the zeitgeist so much that we have to dedicate an entire episode to it! This season it was the Korean-German team-up about a boy so sprung that he joined a surfing club even though he couldn't swim. Strap in for a long discussion!

Nini and Ben dive deep into The Eighth Sense to discuss the international nature of BL, the way film history plays into our stories, the role of forgiveness in our lives, and the role of community in queer development.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Google Podcasts

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond to chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

0:00 - Welcome 1:04 - The Eighth Sense 18:00 - The Relationship Between the Seniors and Juniors 27:45 - The Hedwig Incident 36:32 - Ae Ri 42:50 - Ji Hyun and Jae Won 50:38 - Joon Pyo and Boss Lady 56:28 - Let's Talk About the Kissing (and Episode 6) 1:06:21 - The Party Scene and Forgiveness 1:17:14 - On a Possible Second Season 1:24:10 - Checking in Two Months Later

The Conversation: Now With Transcripts!

We received an accessibility request to include transcripts for the podcast. We are working with @ginnymoonbeam on providing the transcripts and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes. When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

1:04 - The Eighth Sense

Ben

Welcome to The Eighth Sense episode! Nini and I had so much to say about this that we decided to give it its own episode, separate from our overall consternation from whatever is going on in the land of K-BL, because this felt distinct. This was a piece of work from a German and a Korean filmmaking team, and it created unique results. So we're going to speak to you all for the next hour and a half? [laughs] about it, and then we'll come back at the end with some reactions to the show and how we're feeling about it a few months later.

Nini

Let's go.

Nini

We are here today to talk about The Eighth Sense, and only The Eighth Sense. Benjamin. What is The Eighth Sense about?

Ben

See I had her a little bit annoyed before we started talking. She gives my full name because she's still mad at me for being obnoxious. The Eighth Sense —

Nini

[laughs]

Ben

The Eighth Sense is an age gap college romance between a new freshman from the Korean countryside and a very wealthy Korean man, who is the heir of his family, who's recently back from military service and trying to finish school. They kind of meet by happenstance at the freshman's job and instantly have a connection between them which they both find themselves drawn to and pulling on.

And over the course of the show the freshman, Ji Hyun, ends up joining the surfing club to hang out with Jae Won, the senior, and a romance blossoms between them… but we hit a lot of very familiar western queer storytelling drama beats. It blends fairly well with the Korean storytelling beats, as these two eventually choose each other as they're trying to move forward with their lives. Much drama ensues because of the older boy’s deep mental health issues. It's a really simple plot. It's just incredibly well executed.

Nini

Well, let's talk a little bit about that execution. So this is a… it's a Korean production but it's co-directed by a Korean director, Baek Inu, and a German director, Werner du Plessis. And I think that that interplay between the two filmmaking styles, between some of the hallmarks of Korean filmmaking and then some of the hallmarks of like classic German bildungsroman… They interplay really interestingly I think, in terms of the way that it's executed. A lot of people are saying that The Eighth Sense made them think of Skam? I have not watched Skam so I can't really speak to that, but in terms of certain aspects of the techniques of the filmmaking that I've seen, in terms of lighting and color and all of those things, I could see the comparisons that they're making.

But I feel like this show… it's something all its own? We've talked on this show about how K-BL was starting to get a little repetitive and feel like it wasn't, you know, using its time well and all those other things. And I think that those are criticisms that you can't level at The Eighth Sense. It does use its time well. I feel like it is well thought through, I feel like it uses its budget well, I feel like it… really engages me, like I'm not going to forget these characters. I'm not going to forget Ji Hyun, Eun Ji, Tae Hyung, Jae Won, Joon Pyo, Yoon Won, [laughs] I'm not going to forget these characters. You know what I mean? These characters have sort of touched something inside of me, particularly Jae Won.

I feel like it came along at just the right time for me to not write off K-BL. [laughs]

Ben

I mean, is it really K-BL, though?

Nini

Well, that's the question isn't it? Because a lot of people are like, ‘oh this isn't, this isn’t BL.’ I think it's very firmly BL, but I don't know how much it feels like K-BL.

Ben

It is not relying on… the tropes or beats of traditional yaoi, as evolved by Thailand's fiddling with the formula, and what's recently been happening in Korea over the last three years-ish. When you called it like a German coming of age thing, I can feel some of those influences here. In terms of the pacing, and the knowing.

So one of the things that BL is not very good at doing that I don't always enjoy is… BL doesn't know how to make characters always gay. Like their queerness activates when it's relevant, because they're thinking about it now. It isn't… built really into the way the character is functioning. But when you're writing queer cinema, a queer character is always queer. It is always complicating their life in some way, and that feels present here with Ji Hyun and Jae Won. Particularly when it comes to the ways that two of them engage with each other.

Ji Hyun gets clocked constantly by everyone, because he's obvious to them. Jae Won and he bump into each other at the restaurant and recognize each other, flirt outside of the restaurant. Ae Ri recognizes these things in him very quickly and she starts covering for him; Eun Ji sees this in him right away, and beefs with him immediately over Jae Won. Yoon Won I think picks up on it right away, which is why she's always calling him cutie. And I think the boss picks up on it too, which is why she's kind of protective of him.

This works for me because he's so clearly different, and I like how he clearly had these big dreams about ‘I'm going to move to the city and I'm going to live my best gay life.’ Then he moved to the city and got scared, because it's such a big place, all these strangers, and it's confusing because he's not used to dealing with urban systems… And so like, he immediately retreated a little bit. He just picked up a job, so he would only have to deal with one person, because it's like a one woman operation and like the freshman temp worker she's relying on? [laughs] And I think that's one of the big things that separates it for me with most of the BL we've experienced, like Ji Hyun always feels gay for me, in the way that Ji Hyun is very… protective of himself but very honest in general. Like Ji Hyun doesn't offer himself up easily to other people, but he's consistently honest and forthright with them. And like, after his big ol’ incident — where he almost dies, and I’m calling it ‘the incident’ [laughs] — he turns really sassy, but he's still being honest, he's just not tempering that. And also he's a little bit pissy, because he has a right to be.

So like that's the biggest, I think, line between like, BL per se, and what we might call queer cinema, when I'm watching them. Like their queerness is not active only when they're flirting, like other BL characters often feel for me.

Nini

Hmmm. That's something to ponder… It is clear that Ji Hyun does get clocked pretty regularly. You know I always have a soft spot for the ones who can't hide, and… so, I can get like why the boss is protective of him, why Joon Pyo is protective of him — like, even though Joon Pyo doesn't really know? He knows something, but he doesn't really know that Ji Hyun is queer, and it's this really funny scene when he finds out in the end, and he's just really upset that, you know, Ji Hyun didn’t tell him that he had a boyfriend.

Ji Hyun feels recognizably queer, in some intangible way? Like I think about my gay friends and my gay family, and… that thing that you said about a person who is gay being gay all the time and not just when they're flirting with somebody? [laughs] That really resonated [both laugh] Thaaaat really resonated, and I think is also a little bit of shots fired for some of BL.

Ben

I don't know that I want to fire shots at the other dramas in this regard, because… it's not fair. Because some of these things are intangible, you can't really always do them really well or correctly. It's not like I have obvious guidance, like ‘hey, here are the five tips to make your character seem authentically queer when you're writing your little stories!’ [both laugh] And like, that's not fair.

What I can do as a amateur critic, is point out that this character reads queer to me: from the little gay rainbow lamp he has, to the way he had big dreams for the city then feels a little bit disappointed about it, to the way he sees a really hot boy and immediately decides to do — to join a dangerous club just to get some dick. Like that's the kind of dumb shit that baby gays do! Like can you swim? No. So you joined the surfing club? Was — was the dick even that good? Yeahhh. All right, well, shit! [both laugh]

Nini

The man said that, before he nearly died, he was the happiest he had ever been in his life. He literally said that. [laughs]

Ben

This poor boy's whole brain got rearranged by some good dick! God damn.

Nini

Our other protagonist is Jae Won. Jae Won is a poor little rich boy, he's a tragic figure with a tragic past.

Ben

He's a sad little meow meow.

Nini

He really is the saddest little meow meow. It’s up in the air whether he's closeted or not. I don't feel like he is? But I also feel like he doesn't advertise. Because it doesn't feel like any of his angst about Ji Hyun is about the idea of him dating a guy. It doesn't feel that way.

Ben

Jae Won feels therapized. He… definitely is aware of his queerness, and seems mostly inconvenienced by it. His father is described as aggressive, and there's all of these pressures on him to be a certain kind of man, and a certain kind of son. Like they get mad about how emotional he is, they get mad that he's out drinking with his friends… so he's definitely been forced to be closeted about it? So I think he is definitely aware of it, and the reason why I think he's aware of it is, Ji Hyun calls him out on it in the last episode, when he's like, ‘You had a lighter in your pocket, the first night you met me.’

Nini

It's not that I feel like he doesn't know himself, like he knows himself, I think that much is clearly obvious in the story, he knows himself. The question is whether the people around him know. I feel like Eun Ji definitely knows, that's why she's so im— one of the reasons she's so immediately hostile to Ji Hyun, because she knows.

Ben

She knows, but I don't think he's told her. He just feels really modern about it, like, yes he's gay, if you ask him directly he'd probably just shrug and be like yeah, sure, whatever, but people aren't going to ask him that. They don't want to cross that line, because they want to use him, and trying to embarrass him about that is just gonna get you iced out of his life. Again, like we know that the surfing dudes hadn't really considered it, because they're like no, Jae Won's not that way. That's also like the men, though. Like every single girl in the story clocked every single gay boy the whole time. The boss, Eun Ji, Ae Ri, Yoon Won, all clocked Jae Won and Ji Hyun. And Jae Won didn't even know about it, because Yoon Won was like ‘you better do right by that boy,’ he's like ‘what are you talking about?’ and she was like ‘girl!’ and he was like ‘all right, shit.’ [laughs]

Nini

Jae Won is not closeted but he's not out either. Let's put it that way.

Ben

I think he was closeted by default, but he had already worked through the, ‘if I really connect with someone, I will step out for them.’ And you can feel that, with the way he tries to casually say to the boss, ‘yeah I have feelings about my boyfriend,’ and the way he's forthright about it with Ji Hyun. Because I feel like he had emotionally prepared for the moment? And once he decided to commit to it, all of that work came out right away.

Nini

Well, even before he says it to the boss or to Ji Hyun, he says it to the guy at the, at the rest stop, when they're heading off to that fateful trip. It's not even a big deal for him to say that. And that's why I was wondering like, well is he closeted or is, has just nobody just ever asked him about it? And I think I'm going to land on your side of things here with, probably nobody ever asked him about it, and he didn't feel the need to announce it.

Ben

Right, and I think that's where — that's, that's mostly how he reads to me.

Nini

Do you think that Tae Hyung knew?

Ben

Yes, because he kisses him all the time. But, he knows it in the way that stupid-ass straight boys know. Where they know, and they want the attention, and they kind of want it, but they would have to be gay and they can't actually do that. Which is why he gets so… bothered about Jae Won caring about other stuff. It's the same thing we see all the time, he gets mad that he's not being paid attention to, or that Jae Won doesn't care about the things he wants him to care about. Or isn't being as miserable as they want him to be.

Nini

You know what I think is actually a subtle hint? In the first few episodes of the show, the way that Tae Hyung keeps pushing Jae Won and Eun Ji together, keeps pushing them towards each other, keeps bringing Eun Ji into the spaces. Now that I'm thinking about it, at the beginning I just never quite figured out why it mattered so much to him? But now, it makes like a strange kind of sense, if he knew or if he at least suspected… why he would keep shoving Eun Ji at him.

Ben

Right, because if she — he chooses Eun Ji, it's at least, like, the woman that he was okay with, I guess. And like it gives him some sort of weird control or investment in whatever they have going on. I feel like at some level Tae Hyung knows. But again like that's part of why this show feels more queer for me than some other stuff, because we're having this really complex conversation about who knows, doesn't know, at what level do they know, what does their knowing imply about the way they perceive Jae Won — like that's the world real queer people exist in. Where it isn't just who knows, it's what do they do with the knowledge.

Nini

I'm really recasting, like, my initial reactions of the whole Tae Hyung, Jae Won thing.

Ben

I mean if you, I don't know if you remember, I hated that motherfucker from the very first time we saw him! [both laugh]

Nini

Ben could not stand his ass from jump.

Ben

Like, the very first episode I was like, ‘oh I hate this boy so much Nini!’ [laughs] and she was like ‘damn bro, they just had like one fight!’ and I'm like, ‘oh no, it was not just one fight.’

18:00 - The Relationships Between the Seniors and Juniors

Nini

Speaking of fights between Jae Won and Tae Hyung, perfect segue.

Ben

Let's talk about him tagging that ass though.

Nini

We're kinda jumping around here, and one of the reasons that we're jumping around is I feel like, talking about The Eighth Sense, like it doesn't really, it's not really useful to talk about it in some kind of chronology, or in terms of the plot. The plot's there and the plot is good…

Ben

The plot is… a country boy snags a chaebol. It's very good.

Nini

Yeah, the plot is very simple, I feel like The Eighth Sense, the, the real meat of the discussion is in the relationships — in all the different interactions that these characters have bouncing off of each other, in some of the ways that they interact with society? I feel like that's more of where the meat of talking about the story comes from. There's going to be a lot of jumping around in this discussion I think because of that.

Ben

We’ll talk about Tae Hyung, but more specifically we'll talk about how strong the characterization is for all of these characters. Like the biggest thing that's interesting about this show is, all the seniors are miserable horrible people.

Nini

Terrible. [laughs]

Ben

All of the freshmen are not — but some of them could be. I think that's Bit Na's role in the story. Yoon Won, Eun Ji, and Jae Won are all seniors who probably should have graduated already, but because of the funding model of school and how you need to get a job, they're all stuck and they hate it. They're having the millennial problem of, we were told that if we were really good at school and we went to college and checked all the boxes, we would get decent jobs, marry wives, live in the suburbs, have a van, and have two point three kids. And uh… we didn't! And we've lived through crisis after crisis for… literally 22 years, and it sucks!

And so like I get why Yoon Won, Eun Ji, Jae Won, and Tae Hyung are so frustrated and so pissed about all of it. And like they can't even be happy about any of it, like Tae Hyung wasn't drafted, but it's not like it worked out for him, it's not like he got to do anything useful with school, and like get ahead and go work somewhere, which is why like he's glomping back on to Jae Won. Because he's his last hope, that maybe somehow Jae Won getting control of his dad's company will get him a useful job, and maybe he won't be such a piece of shit. But he's such a selfish prick that he can't do anything with it.

Eun Ji is clearly a status chaser, and she really wants to be the wife of a chaebol. And that's why she's trying to lock Jae Won down.

Yoon Won is the only person that Jae Won ends up having a real connection with, because she's frustrated, but she's trying to do something positive, like ‘hey I'm gonna be stuck in school for a while but I'm [gonna] try and keep the surfing club afloat while I'm here. I hope you can get a chance to relax and I'm really glad that you came back and helped us out because — you’re really good at it, and I'm really glad that you're here.’ Like, she's the only person who's thankful for Jae Won's presence because he offered it. And she asks for literally nothing else beyond him except, ‘so hey you feel like getting a pizza and a beer with me? I really want to go to this place but the guy only speaks English even though he lives in fucking Korea.’

Nini

[laughs] That was bizarre.

Ben

And he's gonna be such a dick about it! That felt like a dig at foreigners moving to Korea.

[both laugh]

Nini

I completely agree that Yoon Won feels like the only person who is interested in Jae Won and not in what Jae Won can do for them, in terms of the seniors. And that's why their… thing works. And Jae Won says it when they're drinking in that foreigner's bar. He's like, ‘you know, when we started school I really didn't like you. But now you're kind of the only person who—’ [laughs] Basically he tells her that she's the only person he doesn't hate, so.

Ben

Right? And he call — she calls him out, like ‘I know you hated me, you piece of shit. But it's fine. We're cool now.’ [laughs] But again like, in terms of like, early episodes… she's the only person in the series [who] respects what he wants. She's like ‘Okay, I'll take the new kid because he clearly can't swim. You take the two girls, because you gay, you ain't gonna do nothing with them girls. Teach them girls how to swim right.’ He's like ‘No. I wanna go with the boy.’ She's like ‘Girl. Are you sure?’ and he's like ‘Nah nah nah, I really wanna go hang out with this boy.’ ‘Allll right.’ [laughs]

But again, everyone else disrespects him — ignores his stated desires, constantly. Yoon Won is the only person in the show who, when he says he wants something, she lets him have it. And then she's like ‘Hey the cute boy drew a picture of you… wanna see it?’

[both laugh]

Nini

She gives him so much shit in like her own way, I love it. You know I’m all about besties who give you shit, you know that's my favorite, [laughs] that's my favorite trope. Besties givin’ you shit.

But yeah, so you've got all the seniors who are stuck and miserable because, I mean, other than Jae Won — if they all came in at the same time, other than Jae Won because of his military service — they should have all graduated already. And the fact that they haven't, and they're all there just kind of, you know, sitting there miserable staring at each other, is a big commentary on everything.

So compare them to all the freshmen. Now, the freshmen are… still young and hopeful and they have all this energy and all that stuff, and it’s such a contrast to the seniors who’re all fucking miserable. Even though there's fear there, particularly, like sort of shown up in the person of Ji Hyun, there's still this kind of enthusiasm? And then there's this brightness that comes off of them? And you kind of understand why Yoon Won and Jae Won gravitate, kind of, towards the freshman. And they feel protective of them, and they, they want them to have a good experience? That's one of the things that I really enjoyed about, for example, the surfing trip. They really invest in making sure that the freshmen have a good experience, like they keep the skeevy senior guys away from them…. they tell them they don't have to drink, they tell Tae Hyung, like, stop being a creep.

Ben

Right? They keep telling him to fuck off, they're like, ‘None of these rituals or things you're supposed to do that we did did anything for us. It didn't move us forward, it didn't make us closer to our seniors, it didn't help us succeed at school. We just got bullied by people who are older than us. And you hated it too, so chill the fuck out.’

Nini

Yeah! I like how invested they are, Jae Won and Yoon Won, in making sure that the freshmen have a good time, and that they're taken care of and protected. I really did like that. Like, it's almost like they want to help them preserve their innocence for a little bit longer, which I found was a great commentary to be quite frank… [laughs] I did love that. And then you also see, like you were mentioning in the character Bit Na, you're seeing somebody who could go along that trajectory towards misery, that landed Eun Ji and Tae Hyung where they are now.

Ben

Exactly, it's implied that she's doing all the things, like, you're Expected To Do(™), but there's a little bit of her being like ‘No I'm not gonna drink all that stuff from you’ and like at the end, like, she's furious with Tae Hyung. She's like, ‘No! I know that you've been causing problems for me, because you have a possessive crush on me. Fuck you. Get out of here.’

Nini

Scram! Beat it! [laughs]

Ben

Pulls out her little spray bottle: sks sks sks Move! [both laugh] Go on now, get!

Nini

So, she's sort of the antagonistic force that's pushing back against that stuff, while Ji Hyun and Ae Ri are more like that force that's laughing at that stuff. One is like, dismissive, and the other is… antagonistic. And it's two ways of dealing with the same thing.

Ben

I love how when the two of them start to bond, they just turn into like the meanest little catty duo. They're like ‘Oh well she hasn’t mentioned you at all” and “Oh has she really not? If I had a crush and had a best friend I know that I would be talking to my best friend about the crush, so… it's really embarrassing for you that she really hasn't mentioned you at all to her, right? Oh geez.’

Nini

[laughs] And he says that and then he doesn't tell Joon Pyo about his crush. Terrible.

Ben

And that's why Joon Pyo was pissed.

27:45 - The Hedwig Incident

Nini

Let’s talk about Ji Hyun and Ae Ri being catty for a second. So, we've already seen Ji Hyun and Ae Ri in class making fun of, like people giving their presentations… for this class on, I guess some kind of film studies course or whatever, because they're doing these presentations about films that they've watched or whatever. So we've seen them doing their little mean girl duo act in class already, where they, you know, kind of quietly snicker at whoever is in front of the class at the point in time — which I mean, come on, who hasn't done that with your friend in class? [laughs]

When Ji Hyun comes back from his accident, the one that they're making fun of — and this is the part that I wasn't quite sure what they were trying to say, because I didn't recognize the character. So at first I didn't know if it was a character we had already met or if it was just a character that we hadn't seen before. And I think not knowing that also made things a little more difficult to parse? Because you get the sense from the way that this character talks to them that this is a character we're supposed to know who it is. That we have seen before or something. But I don't recognize him. Anyway. So this character is doing their presentation on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is a… queer classic?

Ben

I have not commented on this particular moment on Tumblr, because I didn't feel like getting flamed? But this is The Conversation! So I will say what needs to be said. So a big part of this film critic class that they're taking is that most of these presentations people are giving are only doing surface level reads of the source material. And this guy's read is not that deep either, but he dresses as Hedwig and thinks like he should be getting a lot of points for that. Whereas, they give a really solid read that understands the themes being explored in the Park Chan-wook film…

Nini

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay?

Ben

They give a really solid presentation, they clearly understood the themes involved, but their presentation didn't have a lot of pizzazz, and they barely passed the class team. But they don't really care, because they took what they needed from the course: they engaged with the source material, they understood it, and they moved on, whereas he's cosplaying as Hedwig, a gay character. Does he appreciate the life of this gay character?

Which for me felt like this show taking shots at performative queerness happening with BL in particular. A lot of these boys are cosplaying as gay: do they understand gay people? Do they understand the lives we live? Like you're sitting here beefing with me, an actual gay, and my hag over our presentation. But do you have any appreciation for who we are? Why don't you go ahead and scamper your ass down a little gay district off here and figure out what gay people actually live through? Like people didn't like that because they thought it read as transphobic, which it probably did, and I'm not going to begrudge people what they took from it. But for me I read it as you can cosplay as us, but you ain't us.

Nini

Hm. So I have never watched Hedwig, so… I couldn't really get a read on what they were trying to do with this? Because I didn't know if what the guy was saying had any weight of understanding to it.

Ben

It didn't… like even just knowing the film by reputation alone, and knowing older gay men who loved it, his read on it was weak. And it's, that's what, that's what I got, like — I don't want to drag anybody who is like ‘this is transphobic, and gay people should be better’ — it's also a surface level read on what's going on there. You're reacting to the fact that they diss a guy in drag, but not why they dissed a guy in drag — who started beef with them! I come from the school of talk shit get hit. So. [laughs]

Nini

[laughs] My main reaction to it, like I said because I, I don't have the… the context. Right? So my reaction to it was just kind of confused? I think that's what my overwhelming reaction was. I was confused by what was happening, I wasn't sure. I'm seeing all the takes, you know saying this is transmisogyny, this is transphobic, this is this that and the other, but the only thing that didn't read right to me about those takes — again, acknowledging that I didn't have the context — was that I don't know that this guy is part of queerness.

Ben

You know he ain't one of us because he couldn't walk in heels! You don't cosplay as Hedwig and not walk in heels.

Nini

Fair.

Ben

It's fine… The reason why I let everybody have it is, it was a deep cut and it wasn't for everybody. And that's kind of why I love The Eighth Sense because, the people who don't do their homework, who don't do the research on the genre history, who don't watch this stuff, who don't really engage in complex interactions with queerness — they kind of miss these sort of things. And I think that's okay, like, does the interaction read a little transphobic? It does. Do gay men's interactions with drag queens and other trans people often read transphobic? Hell yeah, they do! But I got it.

Like, is it a great interaction? No, but… you ain't gonna last long in queer spaces if you can't handle a botched interaction.

Nini

I feel like it was probably the only really clunky part of the show, in that it wasn't clear. I feel like everything else that happened in the show was, it was very clear — it was abundantly clear what the show was saying, what the characters were saying and feeling, what they were trying to do. But I feel like this moment, this particular interaction, was the only time I felt like the show got a little… got a little clumsy.

Ben

It's the only indulgent thing that the show really does. It's the German director's favorite film, and he was taking a dig at people who get caught up in the fact that there's… gender performance stuff in Hedwig, and the wearing of the wig and dressing as a woman stuff, but they're missing, maybe the meat of the story. They focus on the wigs and the makeup, but not the person and the story.

I have this particular beef too, like — I had an interaction with a colleague about what parts of queer cinema that they should maybe check out. And they really just wanted me to validate the things they wanted to watch. And that's kind of how this guy reads to me… like, the gay boy in the room is laughing at his performance. ‘How dare you laugh at my performance, I know I did my fucking research, I know gay people!’ [both laugh] That's — that's how that felt for me. Like, bro, why are you in my face? Like, go drink your juice Shelby, shit!

Nini

When you just said it like that, it made me think about white gays appropriating the language of the ballroom.

Ben

Well yeah, exactly, that's exactly what it feels like! Like… you aren't us, but you're wearing us. And it's fine, like you can get your little grade, you can make your little coins. But like, the rest of us are still here, trying to create queer lives that have meaning and comfort to them. Are you going to be with us there? That’s, like, if we're going to beef with this show for being rude to a guy in drag… what have you done for us lately? Like you might be queer too, and I don't mean to make you feel bad… but also if you're queer and all you do is watch BL, there's way more work to be done sweetie!

Let go of your beef about the Hedwig scene, go watch Hedwig. Go watch I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay. Then go watch the fucking sequences where these kids gave weak-ass takes about these really classic films, and then understand why they were getting laughed at by the teacher too. Like sure you dressed as Hedwig, but do you appreciate her? No? Okay, you get a B plus, I guess. Thank you for wearing drag.

It's not the most elegant moment in the thing? But it's one of those moments that it's like: who knows and who doesn't know?

36:32 - Ae Ri

Ben

Let's just talk about some fun gay shit. Let’s talk about Ae Ri! [laughs]

Nini

Ae Ri’s an interesting character. Ae Ri is a Seoul kid, so she's not like a country mouse innocent like Ji Hyun. She's with it, she knows what's going on, she, she understands the haps, you know what I mean? She's savvy. And she becomes Ji Hyun’s…

Ben

She becomes a hag. Let's call her what she is. Let's give her the term of endearment that we used to hand out to the best of the ladies.

Nini

She becomes the hag, yes, she becomes his fairy godmother. The way that she just kind of scoops Ji Hyun up? And is just like, ‘oh you poor little baby, come, let me help you because you very clearly need help’ [laughs] I just think that's delightful. I think that the way that their friendship develops — because at first Ji Hyun is convinced that she has a crush on him. And honestly, I'm not sure that he was wrong.

Ben

Elaborate.

Nini

I think that she clocked him when she had actually like, spent time with him?

Ben

I don't think she was paying attention to him until he drank the — until he drank the liquor for them, and then she's like, ‘Why would he do that, because all he does is look at Jae Won — Ohhh.’ [laughs]

Nini

Yeah, I feel like that's, that's where we go with this, it’s like ‘Aww! He's nice! Let me go scoop him up because he clearly needs help! Because he is not going to make it like this.’

Ben

He did though, like he needed somebody to be like ‘Bro. If you're trying to be closeted, because it seems like you are, let me just be clear: you’re doing a terrible job sweetie. Also? Them fits is busted. We need to buy you some clothes, like immediately. We're going shopping right now.’

Nini

It's like, ‘You’re trying to get Jae Won's attention? This is not how you do it. Okay, we're gonna need to accentuate those eyes darling. Ok?’ [laughs]

She's the best girl. She ends up being protective of Ji Hyun, and because she's protective of Ji Hyun she also becomes protective of the people that Ji Hyun cares about, and Ji Hyun cares about Jae Won. So she becomes protective of Jae Won [laughs]. And she has claws! And she will use them. We talked about it earlier, but that scene where she just very neatly — she and Ji Hyun very neatly take Tae Hyung apart. The reason that they take him apart is because he goes for Jae Won, and Jae Won just looks really sad about it, and they're like ‘Not to-fuckin-day! We are going to end your entire career.’

She's the best girl. She's the best girl. I want her to have everything that she wants. I don't know what she wants, because it's not really clear, but I want her to have whatever she wants. She just seems to be vibin’, and I always love a character who's vibin’.

Ben

The reason why I like Ae Ri is, in a room of seniors being awful to her friend, she stood up and challenged them — and that was scary for her. Like she broke down in tears after that confrontation with the other seniors and Eun Ji. If you read that a certain way you're like, well is she weak or whatever? Like no, it's, it's scary to stand up in front of a bunch of people who are being awful and tell them like no, you guys are mean and this is not right.

Nini

That confrontation among the surf club after Ji Hyun has his accident is so ugly. You really see how self-centered these people are, these seniors. They do not care that this kid nearly died.

Like yeah ok, they're upset about their club getting canceled because it's not technically fair. It's not like, you know, this was a club activity that he got hurt at. So yeah, ok, it's not technically fair, but the claws that they have out! And the way that they completely dismiss that at this point Ji Hyun is still in the hospital! It's not like he's back. He's still in the hospital, and they are so catty and vicious.

Ben

I don't even know if he was conscious at that point.

Nini

Yeah! He's — like he's, they're all so vicious about it. It's like they don't care whether he lives or dies? They don't care about anything other than the fact that this is inconveniencing them. And… that, Ae Ri takes that in, she like feels that, she internalizes that, and she realizes: y'all don't give a fuck about us.

Which, which we’re dealing with like intergenerational relationships, and you're in a situation where you are the low man on the totem pole. You expect a certain amount of care and consideration to be taken with regards to you, because you're, you're the low man on the totem pole, you can't protect yourself necessarily. You need these people to care for and protect you. And… realizing, quite clearly and unambiguously, that these people will not protect her. They will not protect any of them. They don't care. Like I can understand why she breaks down.

Ben

Exactly. Like it's terrifying to realize that the people you're asked to respect do not give a shit about you. They'll demand abasement all the time, but when some shit popped off, did they care about Jae Won? Did they care about Ji Hyun? No, they're like: wow this is awfully inconvenient for us isn't it.

Nini

It was so ugly. I just remember being shocked, like you — I felt that one, you know what I mean? It wasn't just like, the intellectualization of what was happening on screen, I felt that deep somewhere inside of me.

42:50 - Ji Hyun and Jae Won

Ben

My appreciation for The Eighth Sense is more intellectual than it is emotional. I think it's very excellent: I gave it a 9.5 when I rated it? But I'm not… obsessed with the romance of this the way I might have been in another show. I like the way this one unfolds; I really like the way these two talk to each other. I like the way they see each other, I like that they totally misunderstood each other after the near-death crisis moment, and I like that other people pulled their heads out of their asses for them, so that they could be together, and then they followed through on that.

But because this is just a very ‘boy likes boy’ sort of story, there isn't really a whole lot to say about the romance, but I do think we should take some time to unpack how we see Jae Won and Ji Hyun engaging with each other.

Nini

Yeah, so let's do that. These two are, as you would have said before, drawn to each other from the start, like Jae Won clocks Ji Hyun in the restaurant, Ji Hyun clocks Jae Won… I haven't rewatched the first couple of episodes as yet, but I think I remember that when Jae Won goes outside to smoke, Ji Hyun follows him?

Ben

Ji Hyun is outside, maybe on like a break or whatever? Just decompressing after a stressful moment, and all of Jae Won and his friends are maybe thinking about leaving. And then Jae Won asks for a lighter so he can light a cigarette.

Nini

He asks for the cigarette first, because he doesn't have a cigarette. He asks for a cigarette and he asks for a lighter, which is why I thought I remembered Ji Hyun following him outside, because the lighter that he gives him is the gas match for the restaurant, not like a, a standard bic. It's the big… gas match that he uses so — to light the cigarette for him, and he gives him two cigarettes. One for now and one one for later.

Ben

Jae Won was definitely flirting in a subtle way, and then Ji Hyun responds in a way that's like, I see you, but it both gave them the chance to back off of it and just write it off. Which is where I started to really appreciate the show, because… BL flirting is too overt sometimes.

Nini

It’s a dance that I've seen before, this kind of, I think you are but are you? And there's like these little subtle signals, and all these other things… I mean I don't need to tell: you're gay, you know.

Ben

[laughs] No no Nini! Go on!

Nini

Hilarious. [both laugh] Fine, read me.

Ben

Nah, it's, it's legitimately fun for me to see what other people are picking up on.

Nini

The thing is that it's so easy to dismiss, and it has to be. So these two, they clock each other, they do the dance, you know — ‘are you? I think you are, but are you? I think you are’ kind of dance.

Ben

What's so fun about them dancing is, like it could have been a one off moment. But then Ji Hyun joins the surfing club. And Ji Hyun forces Jae Won to see him. Like ‘No, my name is Ji Hyun, what's yours? You said you wanted to be friends. Were you just bullshitting me, or were you just flirting?’

Nini

Yeah, Ji Hyun is actually pretty…

Ben

He's so brave! I love him!

Nini

He is pretty forward for a baby gay, I will say that.

Ben

He knows who he is. And he sees a boy in pain — who's very pretty — and he's like, ‘I can help him.’ Not ‘I can fix him.’ ‘I can help him’ — Ji Hyun doesn't really demand anything of Jae Won really. He just won't let Jae Won fully push him away, and continues to offer him emotional support. He's incredibly patient, in a way that maybe city folk aren't used to.

Nini

Being city folk myself I can't, like, speak to city versus country in that regard, because I simply don't have the country experience.

Ben

I'm from Louisiana! [laughs]

Nini

The extra shot in that daiquiri gettin to ya, huh?

Ben

It really is. We are two-thirds of the way through this 32 ounces? That's a lot. [laughs]

Nini

There is something to be said for like, the way that Ji Hyun is… he's brave, he's forward, but he does it in this kind of quiet still way. He's pushing, there's definitely no doubt that he's pushing. But he's also not pushy?

Ben

When I was really on Twitter a lot, there’s this writer I used to follow, his name is Anthony Oliveira? He's queer, and he used to say like once or twice a day on his Twitter, he would say: Be brave enough to be kind. And that's where Ji Hyun fits for me. Even when he's being catty with people, it's only with people who came at him sideways. It's… the Hedwig boy coming at him for no reason, it's Eun Ji beefing with him for no reason, it's Joon Pyo picking on him a little bit, and him being like nah, fuck you bro. Other than that, he treats people really well. He gives people back the energy they give him. Like when they drag Tae Hyung, we mentioned this earlier, he was being shitty about Bit Na when she wasn't even there. And it's like bro, she don’t owe you nothin’.

That's kind of what I love about Ji Hyun, because that's what he gives Jae Won. Jae Won flirted with him a little bit, he flirted back. He won't let Jae Won run away after starting that with him, like ‘Hm! You made a mistake — you should not have started this!’ And like, he's so confident at the end, like he's singing a song, like, ‘I won, ha ha!’

Nini

It's like ‘Jae Won’s miiiiiine, Jae Won’s miiiiiine’ [laughs] I love that so much!

Ben

And Eun Ji’s like, ‘What’s it like to win?’ and he’s like ‘Hm, I’ll tell you later tonight!’ [laughs] And let's talk about that boy later that night, because he pinned that boy down… he's like oh no, we've been here for four hours of this TV show? It's time to get mine.

Nini

Ahhh, he literally said — what's the line that he said? ‘Don't laugh, you don't know what's coming next.’

Ben

Right? I was like, baby boy!

Nini

I loved that, I loved that!

Ben

I was in my — I was like yeeeeees bitch, yeeeeeees!

[both laugh]

Ben

Get! It! In!

Nini

He's like, I — he's like, I may look, I may look innocent but I ain't that innocent, you know, kind of…

Ben

He said I am suited, tooted, and booted!

Nini

He’s like, I have the internet, I know how these things go… [laughs]

Ben

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.

[both laugh]

Nini

God I hate you. [both laugh] Oh god…

50:38 - Joon Pyo and Boss Lady

Ben

Speaking of getting it in… let's talk about my boy Joon Pyo.

Nini

Hello! Hello. I said it in the clown server and I'm gonna repeat it on this podcast and I don't care how filthy it is okay? You just know — I'm sorry he might be a virgin, but I know that dick game bomb. I know it!

Ben

Look, we've been here a while; anybody who's still listening wants to be here. Let's talk about this for a second. Both Yoon Won and Joon Pyo are fat characters, who are seen enjoying food repeatedly in this show, and I am so glad that the two of them get to have what was clearly a very enjoyable makeout session with each other. And got to vibe for the rest of the night, and are confirmed to dip — off to wherever they're going on their own, so we got time to do our little gay thing we need to next to my rain! bow! lamp! in this room.

My boy! He's been there for his homie the whole time, because he knows his friend gets lonely, he tries to make sure he does social things with him. Maybe he's a little overbearing, maybe he's a little codependent, but he had his boy’s back, and when his boy was down for the count? He starts working at his job, treating the boss with respect — because the boss seems like she might be picky about who she lets work with her. And she seemed to like Joon Pyo too! He brought that man his school supplies to make sure that he didn't have to lose a semester. And when he found out that his homie was gay, and the reason he almost died was for some dick? He was like, ‘shit was it worth it? Yes? We need to secure that bag, don't we? What we doing next?’

Nini

He was for it!

Ben

He stumbled briefly, he's like ‘Wait, Ae Ri knew before me?’ ‘Yeah, but she's from Seoul, she clocked me, I don't know.’ ‘All right, so she's just smart. Is she cool? Are we friends now, does that mean I get to hang out with cool people?’ My man is always looking at the best way to proceed forward. Ain't nobody doing it like my man Joon Pyo.

Nini

Not just that — when, after all this shit when Ji Hyun and Jae Won finally get back together, Joon Pyo clears out of the room that first night, he's like, ‘clearly y'all got some stuff to be doing and I don't want to be here while y'all do it.’

Ben

Right? Jae Won, he's like where'd you, like I felt — I felt it for Ji Hyun, like he wakes up in the morning and Jae Won's gone and like, that boy is not well. We knew that boy almost hurt himself in the show. Ji Hyun’s, ah, understandably worried, he goes out and he's just vibing with with Joon Pyo and he's like ‘well what's going on here?’ He's like ‘well Joon Pyo hung out outside all night for us, so. He brought us coffee, I'm honoring the man's commitment to us.’ And Joon Pyo’s like, ‘you're very pretty and popular, like… would you please take me clubbing?’ He's like ‘hell yeah, let's go clubbing. Let's get you some, son!’

Nini

[laughs] I love that!

Ben

And he's like ‘how do I need to dress, how do I need to be?’ He’s like ‘man you just need to be yourself’ … says the rich boy with all the nice clothes. [laughs]

Nini

You just know that Jae Won gonna make it rain on Joon Pyo at the club. He's going to make sure that he has everything.

Ben

I love Joon Pyo. I liked how there were kind people even in Seoul, like… like these are two freshmen clearly not used to Seoul who want to try specialty drinks for the first time. And I like how that bartender only teased them briefly, and then gave them the kind of popular drinks people their age might want to enjoy. Like that felt so gentle to me in a way, and it really stuck out when I watched it.

Nini

I feel like one of the things that the show gets right, that I really enjoyed, was that the businesses around a university are really accustomed to having students — particularly new students who don't know what the fuck they're doing. The people who work and who own and work in businesses around a university can really be quite nice like that.

Ben

That's how I feel about the boss character. She clearly loves young people, in a genuine way, and like Eun Ji thought she was really doing some stuff, ‘Oh I'm about to post a negative review on you on Yelp.’ And I like how she's like ‘Business improved as a result of your negative review, you insufferable waste of human flesh.’ [laughs] People were like, ‘So this mean catty person got chewed out by, by a business owner for being rude to the support staff? Yeah, we should go to that place.’

I like how the boss doesn't have a name, because it doesn't really matter if she has a name or not, because she's a temporary component of their lives. They're not going to really remember her name in a way that it matters, they're going to remember the things she said to them. They're going to remember how she treated them. They're going to remember like, how she helped them grow, how she pushed them to choose the things in their lives that they wanted. And like that's what matters about her character. Like, that's why they don't give her a name, because it doesn't matter what her name is, because she's so much older than them that we don't have to distinguish her. She is the positive older mentor figure in their lives.

Nini

I just think of her as such a, I mean, [laughs] Because you’re right, she doesn’t get a name, but she is so important to… not just having the story unfold, but she's important to the characters.

56:28 - Let’s Talk About The Kissing (And Episode 6)

Ben

Let's talk about the kissing?

Nini

You go first.

Ben

Oh absolutely not. [Nini laughs] You of the… you of the, ‘all of the kissing is bad and I have notes?’ [laughs]

No, it's fine, I'm gonna go first cause, I have more fun than you sometimes with these terrible kiss scenes. I will say that overall I enjoyed the execution of intimacy in this because everyone is very earnest, and I never feel like I'm not observing the character. This is shored up by the fact that Im Ji Sub gives absolutely terrible kisses with Eun Ji’s actress, on purpose. Straight actors will win me over so much in queer cinema when, when they're forced to kiss women, they look like they hate it. [laughs]

Nini

From a character standpoint I found it very believable.

Ben

Okay.

Nini

I found it extremely believable from a character standpoint. It wasn't pretty, but it's not supposed to be pretty? Jae Won is definitely more experienced than Ji Hyun, and that shows? It works for me, because I don't feel like Ji Hyun is supposed to be good at it. I feel like he's new to the whole thing, and because of that, the enthusiasm carries more for me than the technique. He's new to it but he's going for it in a particular kind of way. There's some little acting choices that Oh Jun Taek does, like he opens his mouth, like really wide when —

Ben

I loved it! The first time I thought, I was like, go — I was like go in baby boy!

Nini

I loved that, because — that's the kind of thing you do when you're learning to kiss, you overcompensate.

Ben

I love it.

Nini

You overcompensate when you're learning to kiss, it’s one of the things that you do, so I actually really like that detail? He looks like he wants to swallow Jae Won whole, and I really [laughs] really like that —

Ben

I fucking love it, I loved it so much —

Nini

I really love that and that's, that's the kissing at the end, but then the kissing sort of in between as well, is really… good, because those kisses — those kisses like towards the end… like they're together at that point, you know what I mean, it's a whole different thing. But the way that he kisses him before that, there is a little bit of tentativeness to it, some — in some parts? When they're surfing when they're on their trip, and he kisses them in the sea? Like, in terms of pretty? Those are the pretty, those are the prettiest kisses, like you know what I mean? Those, those aesthetically pleasing, all that good stuff, and you feel the sense of euphoria that's coming out of it? They are having this whole moment, there is so much joy in those kisses, which I truly love.

And that's the other thing, like every — all the kisses have different moods. And you know I like to follow the trajectory of a relationship through the… to the intimacy and how it's being portrayed. So watching all the kisses and the, all the intimacy have different moods to it? Fantastic. I can't complain about it. Is it pretty? In a lot of instances, no. Does it feel real? Absolutely a hundred percent, all the time.

See? See?

Ben

I'm so relieved y'all, because normally I'm like ‘I really enjoyed that!’ and Nini's like ‘Hmmm… it was terrible’ and I'm like, ‘Awww.’ [laughs]

Nini

You know, I'm out here being Beyonce, ‘look at my technique,’ you know kinda thing [laughs] And Ben's like ‘No!’

[both laugh]

Ben

Leave them alone! They're doing their best, shit.

Nini

No… No but I really, I did, I did like it here. It's also maybe something to do with the style, because the style is so vérité? When you get an ugly kiss — quote unquote ugly kiss — in a vérité style, it feels different…

Nini

…than when you get a quote unquote ugly kiss in a style that's very polished.

Ben

I know what you mean. Like a —

Nini

You know?

Ben

Right, right. When it feels very fanciful and like ‘this is the best kiss that's ever happened,’ and you're like ‘oh but it wasn't.’

Nini

Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Precisely.

Ben

All right, so, while we're talking about the intimacy and stuff, I think we should talk about episode 6 reactions. First, I'm going to say that I loved episode 6, and I particularly enjoyed the way they handled the intimacy of episode 6? I think that was very appropriate for… the newness of the actors, the lack of an intimacy coordinator…

I want to talk about the reaction. I don't know if you were on Tumblr for this, but there was a lot of discussion at the end of episode 6 where people were saying that episode 6 was not real. That it was fake — and I have written on Tumblr on record about how much I hated that take, and I want to unpack it here.

Nini

I did see the reactions on Tumblr, I mostly stayed out of it… I didn't really delve too much into The Eighth Sense discussion? I did do, like a little thing about Eun Ji, but I didn't really delve into The Eighth Sense discussion because I wanted it to play out. I felt like The Eighth Sense is one of those shows that… the episodic discussion wasn't going to give much. I felt like it's one of those shows where I needed to see the full, the full thing, to really… understand. Because it's not — as, as we said earlier in the show, it's not really one of those… episode by episode kind of things where the plot is what's driving it or whatever, it's really about the interactions that these characters are having, the way that they're interacting with their surroundings.

It's why we've been jumping back and forth in discussion, and like it's how I felt about it while it was airing, so I really kinda, didn't really delve too much into the whole episode 6 discussion. I saw it, but… I wasn't getting into it.

Ben

I guess I'm just gonna deliver a little read while we're here then.

Nini

Okay!

Ben

[laughs] Here we go!

Nini

Here we go.

Ben

I don't want to disrespect anyone before we get into this. Let me be clear. Like, I do believe people were relying on very fair reads of traditional filming techniques, for why they believed that some parts of… episode 6 might have not been real, or that Jae Won would— became an unreliable narrator for it? But I think it's very important to talk about this.

Just because it's unpleasant to consider does not mean it's not real. This is not meant to be read as disrespect to those of you trying to make sense of what's going on because you were nervous and concerned for Ji Hyun. That is valid. But, please understand, that for me — this is just me! As a queer person in these streets with y'all — whenever you all seemingly get squicked out because one of us isn't being entertaining or sexy? It makes me feel a little bit unwelcome. That's all I'm going to say about that, because you know who was right as of episode 7? Me! It was real!

[both laugh]

Ben

I was insufferable that week, I feel sorry for everybody who had to talk to me.

Nini

[laughs] I didn't think you were insufferable.

Ben

I felt insufferable. I was smug! My crops were watered.

Nini

The field in which you grew your fucks was barren.

[both laugh]

Ben

I don't want anyone to feel embarrassed if you just — felt called out by what I just said. But I would like you to approach these shows with just a little more kindness. The goal of watching TV is not to be right. It's about finding connection — with fictional people, and the real people who are also finding that connection with you. It can bring you closer to other people. It can help you understand other people. It can bring you just a little bit of peace and joy in an otherwise difficult time. There are no points to be awarded, you are not taking a test when you watch these shows. So please… be kinder to yourselves. Be kind to the people making these stories, and be kind to the people who are also watching them alongside you.

Nini

[singing] Message!

Ben

I'm a little drunk but that's all I'm going to say on that!

1:06:21 - The Party Scene and Forgiveness

Nini

Let's talk about that end scene, the party.

Ben

Okay, let's talk about forgiveness for the next thirty minutes. [laughs]

Nini

I think that's a good segue from what you just said: let's talk a little bit about forgiveness.

Ben

I'm gonna let Nini talk, because I just made you guys feel bad for like, probably 10 minutes of this edit.

Here's the thing: Nini and I… came down on the side of forgiveness for this. But Nini and I are a little bit older than some of the viewers, so… I'll let you talk about the final scene and particularly how there were mixed reactions to Jae Won’s and Ji Hyun’s decision to reconcile, at a party, with Tae Hyung and Eun Ji: the two worst offenders of this particular story. Nini?

Nini

See here's the thing: I didn't read it as a reconciliation? And that's probably why I have a, like a different view of it. So the way that I read that is, when you're stonkingly giddy happy… when you are at a celebratory event, when you are… drinking, let's just be real about it… It is so easy to just be like, ‘You know what? I don't want to fight, I don't want to argue. I just want to let all this go… like, there's so much love in this club, I'm just gonna…’ [laughs]

Ben

And there is love in this club tonight! Some of you don't even know.

Nini

That's part of it. That's definitely part of it. But also, you have to understand what's happening with Tae Hyung, and with Eun Ji in here as well.

Tae Hyung is a dick. That doesn't change throughout the show. He was a dick at the start of the show, at the end of the show he's still a dick… nothing about him changes. But you get to understand the value that Jae Won finds in Tae Hyung. Because he… outright asks him, Tae Hyung asks him ‘Why are you still friends with me?’ because Tae Hyung doesn't even understand why Jae Won keeps him around. And what Jae Won says about that, he’s just like… Basically he tells him, ‘I keep you around because you don't mask and I find that really refreshing.’ That's basically what he tells him.

And that makes so much sense to me. And it also makes me understand why he would just let the shit go, at this point. Because Tae Hyung's not going to change. We see that at the same party. He continues to try to hit on Bit Na. He has to get read to the ground by Bit Na for his bullshit. Tae Hyung is never going to change.

Ben

That's true. He's the most bitchless motherfucker in the whole show.

[both laugh]

Nini

Completely! A hundred percent. He's never going to change, and Jae Won finds that comforting. Also, I have seen men forgive each other for all kinds of shit? So that just read a hundred percent true to me. I have seen dudes fight, box, wrestle, nearly kill each other… and then two days later they're out together hanging out.

Ben

Dude I've seen them after the fight bloody, like crying, hugging each other like I love you bro! [laughs] And I'm like, the hell just happened?

Nini

That rang a hundred percent true to me… I think that if Tae Hyung and Jae Won stay in contact — because there's no guarantee that that's going to happen either, because they're coming to the end of things now. The fact that they're having this party because Yoon Won got a job means that things are starting to move. Where all the seniors were stuck before, things are now starting to move for them. They're coming to the end of this period of their lives anyway, so they've also got like a hefty whiff of nostalgia permeating the whole thing, and also? They don't know if they're gonna see each other really, after this. They don't know if they're going to stay friends. It's easy in that situation to just let the shit go, and I've seen the situation happen so many times before and I'm just kind of like, you know what? That rang true for me, I wasn't worried about that.

Ben

I’m with Nini. As a boy, I have friends like that. Where… you know who this person is: kind of a sad sack, kind of a shit heel, and you get it. But they're weirdly there? And so, you just accept these losses, like yeah he tried to get me kicked out of school but he failed, because he sucks, so… whatever. Was that annoying? Yes. Is he going to apologize for it? No. But he wouldn't be himself if he apologized. And like that's not great, but this is again a reflection of the current state of social… politics.

Nini

It's more of a question of, is this realistic? And to me, yes it is.

Ben

Nini and I are both from cultures that have carnival. And so like, I've seen this happen at Mardi Gras, where blood feuds have ended because, like, we ran into each other at a parade. And like, the right thing was said at the right moment, and people just let go of decades worth of beef. Like it can happen! And like, the question is like, does holding on to this anger at Tae Hyung help Jae Won take care of Ji Hyun? So let it go.

Nini

The way I can best describe it is: whatever, I'm over it. It's not like he's gonna, like make him like godparent to his first born or anything like that, I don't think that's where their relationship is going. I'd be surprised if they're speaking to each other in two years. For now, at a party? Everybody's happy, everybody's drinking. You're gonna go home with your boyfriend later and have a great time, like… [laughs]

Ben

Right? The music is good, the drinks are flowing, there's love in this club tonight.

Nini

The other one that everybody’s upset about is Ji Hyun forgiving Eun Ji. Now I also found that incredibly believable. Not just for party reasons but also for career reasons? Eun Ji is still his senior. The first thing he does, like when he walks up to her, is he apologizes for being snarky with her. In the moment and like the heat of battle so to speak, he might have popped off at the mouth, but he's gonna feel bad about it later. And I can see him, like, apologizing to her about it. And I can genuinely see her, having lost so comprehensively? Licking her wounds, taking a step back, and reassessing her entire life.

Ben

Here's the thing about the way she lost to Ji Hyun. What she realized from Jae Won handing her her entire ass was, Ji Hyun was never her enemy. She lost way before this boy showed up. And so all the beef she had with him in this whole competition for Jae Won? Was nil, because he said, ‘I saw you.’ And so all of the presumption she had about, like, what was at stake, is this a battle for Jae Won’s booty or whatever… Like none of that works out. He had already dismissed her. And he was adamant: he did not want to be with her, the whole time. So she feels like an asshole, because she's been in the wrong the whole time.

And maybe like a part of her was true about this. Maybe she was just bitter that Jae Won was gone. She's mad about him being gone, but she didn't do right by him and she lied. That's the big thing, like she's been caught lying. There's no coming back from that. Whatever her goals were for Jae Won, she had to eat that bowl of shit, and set it aside. And like there's no value for her in beefing with Ji Hyun anymore, because it just further exacerbates how much of an asshole she is. This boy did literally nothing to her, and they are not equals in a struggle for the heart of a bisexual boy. She lost her chance before this boy showed up. And so it's actually good to see her becoming the senior she's supposed to be, now that she has some experience to maybe pass on and grow from.

Nini

I agree with that read, I really think that she's reassessing and reevaluating her entire life at this point? She's feeling a little vulnerable, she's feeling a little… raw. She’s feeling a little humbled, and so… when you're feeling that way, just what do you do? You sit quietly and you try not to do too much. I don't know if this feels the way that it feels to me because I am an old bitch? But… [laughs] The first and hopefully last time you ever find yourself beefing with a fetus? Like… [laughs]

Ben

BEEFING WITH A FETUS! AAAAH! [laughs]

Nini

You know I'm right. You know I'm right.

Ben

I know what you mean! I mean there’re times, I'm like, oh lord I almost threw hands with a 12 year old today.

[both laugh]

Nini

You literally like, when somebody slaps into you like, what are you doing? Like this is a child! Hopefully it only ever happens to you once. And hopefully you very quickly realize that you are, in fact… you're in an antagonistic situation with a child.

Ben

It's really hard to realize sometimes that you are wrong. And to accept that and try to, like, move on from it properly. Like, I think she does okay. And like, she's still an asshole… just like Tae Hyung’s still an asshole. But I think she does okay.

Nini

To me it feels right, that the end is not… a comeuppance in that sense or a vengeance, but it's more like everybody being like, ‘Look okay, we all been through it. Let's just hug that shit out. Maybe I'll see you again, maybe I won't, but for right now, we’re here, it's a party, let's just have a good time, and not like do all this shit.’

1:17:14 - On a Possible Second Season

Ben

Speaking of ‘maybe we'll see each other again’ how do you feel about returning to these characters?

Nini

As you always say: Dick is not magical, it does not fix you.

Ben

It does not!

Nini

And there's still a lot, particularly on Jae Won’s side, like there's stuff with Ji Hyun too, but especially with Jae Won, there's still a lot there… in terms of his mental health, in terms of his family, in terms of all that stuff. So… there is room there? For something else, that could be interesting, but… I feel like if this was all there was, I would be good with it.

How do you feel? What, what are your thoughts on a potential sequel?

Ben

So we talked about sequels in the spring season and I was really amped about sequels! I don't… feel the pull for one here yet. I'm not opposed, because… these characters are so strong, like we're gonna remember these characters, we're gonna remember Ji Hyun, Jae Won, Joon Pyo, Yoon Won, Eun Ji, Tae Hyung, the boss… Ae Ri! Don't forget my girl, I'm sorry boo boo. We're going to remember these characters, and their characterizations are fairly strong. So I am confident that the voice of the characters is strong enough to carry them into whatever new situations they want to put these characters through.

However… I believe that this particular outing had a lot of very specific things they wanted to say, about queerness, about being Korean, about being young in Korea… and I hope that if they really want to continue the story, that they have more things that they think are worth saying, and they do that in a way that's legible. I am just concerned that they aren't prepared for… a domestic story where one of them is still in school? And the other one is trying to survive their homophobic family? And abusive dad. And I'm not entirely certain that I am… eager to explore that?

I'm not opposed to a sequel, I'm not yearning for one, but I do hope that we get more melodrama out of these guys. I enjoyed this production a lot! Even if we don't get more of The Eighth Sense, I hope that this team continues to make cool stuff. I really loved the way Oh Jun Taek played Ji Hyun this whole time. I loved the way he moved, I loved the way he spoke, I loved his smile. And like, I like how in the final episodes when Jae Won has, almost the Japanese running-to-the-boy moment, I just love the way that… Ji Hyun is just so ecstatic to finally get what he's been hoping for. And he's clingy for the final parts of this show, and he's having a good time! He's literally radiant for the rest of the show! Oh Jun Taek plays the relief and joy of that character so well.

Like you see, even Jae Won, like you can see his old bones creaking. That's, he's like ‘I can experience joy again?’ as he quickly wakes up for this, and like — I feel like some of the… final bits were a little bit rushed? But I'm not going to complain, because like… I like the therapy bit with Jae Won, like it allows me to be forgiving about a character — who's had a lot of emotional struggles for the whole fucking show — to very quickly adapt to the situation, and like ‘no, we're boyfriends now.’ Like you can see the work of somebody who spent a great deal of time working with a professional about how he's feeling and how to manage them… expressing them properly, now that the hugest block is out of his way. And that lands really well for me in the final moments, like in another show it might have felt like this got resolved too quickly.

Nini

I don't feel like it did get resolved too quickly. If I have to do like, one more ding for the show: I think that the passage of time, particularly in this last two episodes, wasn't really clear?

Ben

It is not.

Nini

There's a sequence where Ji Hyun is in a classroom and he's sitting in different positions in the classroom and wearing different clothes, and we're meant to understand that that is time passing. So there is a bunch of time that passes, in episode 9 in particular, that I don't think it’s very clear to the audience that there is a lot of time passing. We're seeing Jae Won becoming stronger and stronger and happier and happier. But because it all happens in a montage where it's not clear that time is passing, it feels rushed. I don't know how much time there is? But it feels like they go through a season, because you see his clothes change. At one point he's just wearing a t-shirt, and then the next time when they meet each other up, they're back into like maybe something heavier, like more like fall clothes? So I feel like they at least went through the summer.

Ben

Though I did love this show, this is not a show that's going to be, like, part of my personal canon.

Nini

For me, it's like… I can appreciate it as being objectively good. I can feel the emotions that it was going for?... Watching it is kind of… ticking something off a film syllabus.

Ben

That's the exact feeling… that like, I think it is!

Nini

That makes it sound bad in a way, but I don't mean for it to sound bad.

Ben

It goes on the must-watch list, but you're like, ehhh.

Nini

It's all the things: it's good, it's worthy, it's enjoyable, it's emotional… It's all of the things that you want a drama to be. I will recommend it for sure, I think it's important work. I… don't really see myself rewatching it? It touches me but it doesn't give me the visceral feelings.

Ben

This is not calling the show bad!

Nini

Objectively, this is a 10 show for me.

Ben

Don't let our mid commentary at the end of this two and a half hour recording deter you. We loved this show! And like we said in the beginning, we will remember every single one of these characters, because they're so vivid, and they're so expertly crafted. Do we recommend The Eighth Sense? Wholeheartedly yes! Please! You should experience this. Go watch this.

1:24:10 - Checking in Two Months Later

Ben

Okay, Nini… it's been about two months I think since The Eighth Sense ended at this point? How are you feeling about it two months later?

Nini

As I predicted I have not rewatched it. I have not felt the need to rewatch it. When I was doing the edit I was listening to us talk about it and everything just came flooding back. Like I could remember distinctly how I felt watching it, the things that we were talking about, but I still don't feel compelled to rewatch it.

I feel like it's one of those things where… it has stuck? Somewhere deep inside? And because it stuck I don't need to go back to it and reinterpret it and review it and look at it again, I feel like it was so clear. It was so legible. It spoke for itself really, and so I don't feel the need to go over and over and over it. It's very different from how I normally consume media because if I'm really into something I will go over and over and over and over it. This is… very different for me, a very different experience of taking in media.

What about you Ben, how do you feel about it a few months down the line?

Ben

I feel a bit weird about it, and I think a big part of it is the way that the team behind it is continuing to release behind the scenes content in a way that I wasn't expecting — like I was hoping it’d feel more akin to… the gravitas with which Boss and them released the I Told Sunset About You documentaries. But it's been a little bit on the silly side?

There's talk about them doing a second season. And I'm not opposed, but I feel like it's left me in a liminal space with the show, like I feel like I'm sitting on a, like a train station waiting for the next train to come.

What has stuck with me, and I was thinking about this when I listened to the edit, is: I'm so glad that we had that whole conversation on forgiveness. Because let me tell you, the amount of peace I have had over this show because I'm not sitting here hating on Tae Hyung or Eun Ji all these months later? Because they just don't matter. I really like that the show left us with these two driving down a tunnel together and saying, ‘Whatever is coming next, we'll do this together.’ That's so lovely.

Like I feel like where I was with the show at the end of it, like it is one of those things that goes… in my cataloging of, this is a really good piece that I am going to remember and recommend to the youths, when they ask me about things that are worth watching from certain places or from certain angles. But I don't necessarily find myself yearning for Jae Won or Ji Hyun the way I have for other people. It was fun though, revisiting our absolutely unhinged love for Joon Pyo when I went back through this. [laughs] I still love that boy so much.

Nini

Joon Pyo the MVP! Everybody needs a friend like him. Everybody.

Ben

He was a really good friend.

I think what stands out for me really about The Eighth Sense is that the field itself is just so much more crowded now. So much good stuff was airing when this show aired, more good stuff has aired since this show aired. It's not a knock on The Eighth Sense, it's just that… we have such a wide variety of excellent offerings to choose from, that I find that you're going to be able to find shows that hit your specific emotional resonances more consistently. Regardless of how good The Eighth Sense is, it didn't fully resonate with the exact weird queer sensibilities I have, that would make me put it into one of my heart shows.

Nini

You know what it is I think, Ben? I think we're getting older. [Ben laughs] I think this is an intensely youthful show. I watch these coming of age dramas all the time I mean, you spoke about ITSAY and that still like hits me like a ton of bricks. But that's because it feels like my youth?

Whereas, I feel oddly… both connected and disconnected from The Eighth Sense. It feels like a youth that I'm familiar with? But not one that I have experienced? We talked about the millennial thing when we were talking about the show, and how this feels like that. But it still feels distant from my experience of being a millennial somehow? I think maybe I'm just too old for the show. Like, I can appreciate it for what it is, but I'm too old for it and it doesn't hit the nostalgia buttons that I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You the Moon and shows like that hit. I think this is one for the kids, Ben.

Ben

I don't think that's bad! What I'll say is, I'm really glad that there is room for that now. We've been talking in other spaces about how fandom feels like it's bifurcating too many times now, that it feels thinner than it used to be? Like it feels like there used to be a lot more of us around. But I just feel like a big thing at this point is, we're not all trying to get some sort of energy from the exact same shows anymore.

Right now I'm yelling on Tumblr about a whole show that Nini is just not watching. And I think that's okay, because Nini and I are still screaming at each other about at least two or three other shows, and so like I'm not feeling despondent because Nini, who's one of my best friends in fandom, isn't watching one of the shows that I'm really enjoying right now. It's okay that The Eighth Sense is the type of coming of age experience that maybe is more suited for the Gen Z types than the millennials.

Nini

So now that we have fully memento mori’d ourselves, I think that's that's a wrap for us. [laughs]

Ben

It's a really good show guys. Don't, don't get us wrong like we're, we're being a little bit wistful at the end of this, but — I really liked this show. Like I still, I stand by everything we said in the original recording.

I really like the performances here, I really like the gumption of this entire production. I really like the casting choices. I like the way Oh Jun Taek and Im Ji Sub really worked together. And… sincerely, if they want to do more work with these two guys and reprising these characters, I will be there, seated, to see what they do next.

Nini

All right! And with that, we out! Say bye to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace!

#the eighth sense #korean bl #podcast #lgbtq #the conversation #ben and nini's conversations #spring series #season 3 #summer 2023 #on art #summer series #Spotify

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heeracha · 2 years

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ep 31. / ep 32. — the one with jake throwing a shoe at jay. / ep 33.

end of the line. — p. jongseong

synopsis: thinking it was a hotline for people who just need someone to talk to, jay calls. but why did a clueless student answer? with jay’s phone call has a time limit, you, the clueless student, insists on staying with him until the end of the line.

pairing: jay x f!reader

content/genre: college au (wow shocking), slowburn, fluff, angst and crack, smau.

warning(s): friends teasing friends, yk affectionate teasing, swearing, tell me if i missed something !! jay lowkey being a jerk. jake throwing a shoe at jay HSBDZJHSD

note: here's the playlist <3 okay here u go. im not sure what time am i gonna update later but uhhh theres a possibility that i wont be able to,, yikes, sorry. anyway,,, enjoy jake throwing a shoe at jay for now <3

jay looks up when he hears the door of his room open. jake comes in, glaring at him. “what?” jay asks. “where have you been? have you eaten?” jay asks, sitting up.

“do you have thin walls?” jake asks and jay shakes his head. “JONGSEONG, WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!” jake yells and jay furrows his eyebrows together. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? ARE YOU INSANE? DID YOU DROP YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD? WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT?”

“do what? can you calm down?” jay says.

“jongseong.” jake firmly says and jay realizes it’s serious. “you fucking rejected y/n and made sunoo tell her for you?”

jay sighs, closing his eyes as he brushes his hair with his fingers.

“jake, i—“

“jongseong, rejecting a person is fine. rejecting the person you like is questionable. rejecting the person you like and make your roommate tell her is just you being a jerk!” jake raises his voice. “do you know sunoo is so mad at you right now? you couldn’t have told y/n yourself that you can’t? do you know that y/n has been so upset and embarrassed for more than a week and half now because of what you did? sunoo said she feels like she can’t show up in uni because of you!”

“jake, i can’t face her.” jay says and jake groans.

“for fuck’s sake, jongseong!” jake says. “she made the first move, what more do you want?!”

“jake, do you remember bubs?” jay says.

“you like her now? not y/n anymore?” jake asks. “that’s fine, jongseong, but you should have been the one to tell y/n yourself that you don’t want to.”

“y/n is bubs, jake.” jay says and jake frowns. “i’ve been talking to her all along. i was her cute guy. she was the girl i’m talking to up until seven in the morning.”

“really?” jake says and jay nods. jake quickly grabs jay’s shoe that was lying around and throws it at jay.

“OW!” jay exclaims and jake huffs.

“then? why did you reject her?” jake asks. “don’t tell me you ghosted her.”

jay frowns and jake groans. “jongseong!” jake exclaims. “why? why would you do that?”

“jake, it’s y/n for fuck’s sake!” jay says, sighing. “now that i know it’s her, how can i talk to her? the person i’ve been pining for over a damn year and i’ve been talking to her the whole semester? with y/n i tried hard to think what to tell her. how can i talk to her now?”

“then talk to bubs.” jake says. jay was about to open his mouth, but jake cuts him off. “i know. bubs is y/n. but you’ve been talking to her the entire time, jay. you talked to her until seven in the morning. just talk to her, okay?”

jay sighs, frowning.

“and apologize to sunoo.” jake says as he grabs the doorknob, opening the door. “i’ll go now. update me. unless you haven’t talked to her yet.”

jay nods and jake exits, closing the door.

he knew that one way or another he would talk to you again. he can't resist you after all.

#enhypen imagines #enhypen scenarios #enhypen x reader #enhypen smau #jay imagines #jay scenarios #jay x reader #jongseong imagines

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simply-whump · 7 days

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Lovely Runner (선재 업고 튀어) - Whump List

Whumpee : Ryu Seon Jae played by Byeon Woo Seok

Synopsis : Ryu Seon Jae shines as a top-tier celebrity, captivating the spotlight since his debut. Im Sol, an unwavering fan of his, reeling from the breaking news of Ryu Seon Jae's tragic demise is transported back 15 years into the past, she confronts him in his 19-year-old high school self. She grapples with the formidable challenge of altering the trajectory of his future, driven by an unyielding determination to avert the impending tragedy.

Genres : Comedy, Romance, Fantasy, Time travel

Warning! Possible spoilers below!

Ryu Seon Jae

Ep 1 : (26:45) Grabbed by the collar — (36:35) Falls into a pool from high up, unconscious, given CPR, wheeled to the hospital on a stretcher, ambu bag, shocked, flatlines, dies (Gif Set)

Ep 2 : (32:16) Shoulder pain, wincing

Ep 3 : (22:07) Shoulder in pain while swimming, old injury relapsing, groaning in pain, concern for him — (24:35) Told he has to get a second operation on his shoulder, has to give up his swimming career — (30:45) Slapped — (Flashback) (31:50) Doing rehabilitation for his shoulder — (Present) (32:10) Angry, frustrated, crying — (44:15) Crying — (46:28) In the hospital with a sling after his shoulder operation — (51:20) Arm in a sing, depressed

Ep 4 : (0:33) Face bruised — (01:00:45) Jumps into water to save someone, worried

Ep 5 : None

Ep 6 : (11:00) Hit in the face, falls on the ground, drunk, passed out (comedic)

Ep 7 : (07:20) Worried, jumps into water to save someone, hit in the head, fighting, strangled — (09:21) Crying

Ep 8 : (01:03:50) Told on the news that he was attacked, showed unconscious on a stretcher, in surgery

Ep 9 : (01:18) In surgery — (Flashback) (06:25) Worried, fighting, thrown through some glass, strangled — (Present) (08:05) Unconscious in a hospital bed, on ventilator — (43:37) Tased, passes out (comedic)

Ep 10 : None

Ep 11 : (32:15) Manhandled (comedic) — (48:00) Drunk (comedic)

Ep 12 : (01:02:45) Crying

Ep 13 : (29:00) Stabbed, bleeding, falls from a high cliff into water, concern for him, dies

Ep 14 : (16:24) Crying — (28:17) Waking up from a nightmare, sudden headache

Ep 15 : (01:02:04) Gets a headache, teary-eyed, groaning in pain, gets his memories back, runs onto the road, strong headache, almost gets run over, falls to the ground, passes out (Gif Set)

Ep 16 : (00:20) Repeat of previous scene, unconscious on the ground, concern for him — (03:23) Wakes up in a hospital bed, teary-eyed, IV — (07:00) Teary-eyed, crying — (45:50) Drunk

>> More Whump Lists

#lovely runner #whump list #whump #asian whump #kdrama #korean drama #byeon woo seok

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sathellio · 7 days

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it's genloss ep 3 rewatch time! let's see if I cry this time

1. OH MY GOD I don't remember the last time I watched this episode and THE INTRO?? GOES SO HARD??? the glitches, the drone footage, the MUSIC??? ugh, perfection. literally took my breath away

2. hi gl!Ranboo, we are here, we want to help so badly (I feel so much despair at their ask for help)

3. I forgot how much the soundtrack in this ep adds to the ambience. it just feels so perfect for an abandoned mall where you don't know what to do, how to move forward

4. poor gl!Ranboo was just so scared. I think the only reason he trusts Hetch is because, well, what else can he do in this moment? he doesn't know where he is or presumably how he got there in the first place, so he clings to the first and only person to offer help, and that becomes his downfall

5. oh god, Hetch plants the idea that we, the audience, are not to be trusted. he says "they can't control you anymore." yes, it's true to some extent that we controlled him sometimes, but by saying "control" instead of "help" or some other, more positive connotating word, Hetch is making sure that Ranboo doesn't trust us, also making them trust Hetch more. it's an us vs them mindset. no wonder gl!Ranboo probably thought we killed him out of hate :(

6. oh, one of Ranboo's first thoughts being that he could have helped the others :(

7. "the police can handle this I can't handle this" ow ow ow :(

8. "that's security, you won't have to worry about it" yeah Charlie's the one that has to worry about it (I'm sorry)

9. oh Hetch said he reprogrammed the employees to think Ranboo is part of the show, but he really didn't because he Is still part of the show

10. "how long have I been here" :(

11. when Ranboo is searching the office for the usb he finds a little army dude just like the one found in Charlie in ep 2. do you think the employees donated all the things Charlie had or,,,

12. on the day 1 plan whiteboard there's magnet letters spelling out "newspeak." did we ever figure out what that's for?

13. "looks like they've upped security since, uh" since last time? :(

14. I saw someone say that in the heart of the facility the place where Ranboo enters the code looks like lungs, and that made me realize all the tubes and wires around that are like intestines and arteries respectively. even the colors make sense for that

15. remember how I said Hetch planted the idea that the audience is not to be trusted? yeah, that's why it didn't matter what code we picked. gl!Ranboo was too scared of us

16. who's blood is it at security when the door is opened? an employee?

17. oo the fire alarm adds so much (so silly it wasn't planned)

18. ugh the corridor running scene <3

19. Charlie saying he needs longer legs, silly

20. Hetch refers to himself as The Hetch, clue to his identity or him just being a weirdo?

21. gl!Ranboo murder arc rahhh

22. man the reveal of the cabin gets me every time

23. they already reset the cabin. they're ready for the next show

24. just Everything about it between the cabin reveal and the button press

25. no the music and the light and the birds and oh he almost made it :'(

26. AHHH THE BOW AND HETCH AND THE SLOW RISE WITH THE MASK ON THEN NOOOOOOOOO

27. god this is so painful :(

28. the subtle change in Ranboo's eyes when Hetch says the audience gets to pick oh god

29. the way Ranboo gets quieter as they weigh the options

30. I think the feeling of choosing death will live with me forever. the way the majority chose live at first because of course we want to save them. and then we heard what will happen, and we tried so hard to 50/50 it because we couldn't accept either option. the moment Ranboo begged for death it switched over. the long pause before Hetch announces the result when we know what was chosen lets our decision sink in. and then it's done. we were forced to speedrun the five stages of grief, or at least the first four

31. the way we can hear gl!Ranboo's last breath before the box closes? god

32. the way, when the lights go red and there's silence and all we can do is watch, it finally looks like a heart with all the veins and blood. roll credits and tears roll down my face

33. and then, of course, it's just another tape. nothing special. just an experiment

god I love generation loss so so much and I'm so so excited to see where it will go in the future. see y'all June 15th I guess

#generation loss #genloss

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