#okay but what if its a marketing strategy
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Those Eyes Chico ༓ myg (m) | chapter two
✑ Summary: As the new marketing director for Min Yoongi’s upcoming D-Day album & tour, you’re expected to bring your expertise to the table. This shouldn’t be a problem—you’re the best in the business and you’re used to drawing a strict line between your professional and personal life. But what happens when the lines you’ve fought to keep as separate blur for the first time?
pairing: idol!yoongi x plus size!poc!reader
genre/AU: angst, fluff, smut, slowburn, coworkers2friends2lovers, winter setting, forbidden love
word count: 6.1k+
warnings: This chapter in particular is written from Yoongi's perspective, oc is 28, Yoon is 30, oc is not originally from South Korea, oc has light brown eyes, swearing, mentions of alcohol consumption, smoking, mentions of body shaming by Hybe executive, bestie!tae is wonderful support 🥹, light fighting between members (literally crack), Namjoon has a little crush, Oc being a total boss at work bc she is amazing at her job, and cute & meaningful Yoon and OC interactions that make them finally start bonding (a little flirty too, hehe) 😉
now playing: Sweet Dreams by The Last Shadow Puppets
a/n: CHAPTR TWO IS HERE! GOD...the slow burn exists outside the series too with me not updating for two months. I'm sorry guys but TYSM for your patience! I'm VERY excited to release this chapter bc I think Yoon & Oc are super cute, hehe. Okay anyway, this series is dedicated to my wonderfully crazy friend and sorta beta, Gloom @theuselessdaydreamingidiot, and to all our fellow Yoon lovers bc we miss our sweet man SO MUCH 🥺 Enjoy! 🥰 Also huge thank you to @itaeewon for designing this beautiful series header! Love it!!
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Yoongi stands with his hands placed loosely on his hip, chest heaving as he attempts to catch his breath. The seven of them had been practicing choreography for their new RUN BTS song nonstop when Jimin called for a much-needed, fifteen-minute break. There’s a part of him that’s thanking the younger for it and another that’s wishing he hadn’t, as every moment left alone with his thoughts is spent decoding his last encounter with you at the cafeteria.
Why had you made such a beeline for the exit the moment he was waved over by his member?
You also completely ignored his attempts to greet you on your way out. He only stopped by the cafeteria to slip an orange in his pocket before returning to his studio. He didn’t mean to intrude or incite that you had to leave with his sudden presence.
Taehyung assured him that you merely left to tend to work matters, which he’d typically sum as hyper-fixation with one’s work as he’s prone to do the same, but this felt different at its core. Your behavior seemed more intentional than that. The last thing he wants to do is misread the whole situation, but he must’ve done or said something to cause your uneasiness.
“Hyung, how did the album meeting go this morning?” A clear voice comes from Yoongi's left as his fellow band member, Namjoon, strides next to him, water bottle clenched in his fist. Like himself, large droplets of sweat dots around the man’s brow. The minor interruption shakes Yoongi out of his slightly dazed state.
“Went well.” He takes a big swish of his own water before screwing the cap back on. “We reviewed everything in three hours and the album looks better than I anticipated. There are a couple of promotional strategies that still need finalizing, but I’m pretty confident about it overall.”
“That’s great, man. __-nim’s been doing good work with TXT for the last few years, so she’s definitely suited for the job. I thought about requesting her help to promote Indigo but the timing of it all didn’t work.” Namjoon’s voice drops an octave at the last part, as if remorseful for more than a missed professional opportunity.
“Ah, maybe your next album hyung,” Jimin suddenly chimes in, slapping the taller man on the shoulder from the side. “I have a feeling you and __-nim would work well together. Think about it, you’re both natural born leaders and you’re smart too. I bet __ -nim has as high of an IQ as you.”
Namjoon’s cheeks flush with the faintest tint of rose as Jimin flashes a knowingly cheeky grin. Yoongi, of course, witnesses the entire exchange, the slightest part of him feeling uprooted by the thought of his band member and new marketing manager suddenly hitting it off. He decides not to comment on the matter, choosing to remain in ignorance instead. This is all speculation, right?
Now that they’re all on the subject of his album though, it gets him thinking that maybe he’s been too narrow viewed regarding the reason for your off putting behavior at lunch.
D-Day’s release has become a consuming priority lately, with everyone involved worked to the bone. Aside from himself, you’ve been bearing the brunt of it. He’s appreciative of course, considering the album holds a deep sense of meaning to him, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want it to be perfect. A little pushback during the first proposal is natural, yet he did get more resistant toward ideas during this morning’s meeting than anticipated. Perhaps some of his nitpicking was unnecessary, adding to your already heavy load.
Yoongi’s head feels worse the longer he entertains the possibility. He doesn’t want to make the first time working together a complete whirlwind, especially this early. A strong, healthy partnership starts with trust, safety, and mutual respect. The same philosophy can be applied to relationships of varying natures. That reminds him—since when did Taehyung and you become so close? He’s been ruminating over it all afternoon, like a jigsaw puzzle he can’t solve.
It’s odd how little he knows.
“I heard someone mention __-nim over here. I want in.” A small grumble leaves Yoongi’s lips as Jungkook pushes next to him, displeased by how tiny his space bubble has gotten due to the huddle his members have formed around him. Just why the hell is everyone so interested in his new marketing director? That's what he wants to know.
“Can you introduce me to her sometime hyung?" Jungkook pleads. "I’m thinking about releasing an album in the next year and it’d be great if you could hook us up…yknow?”
Oh, Yoongi knows. He knows exactly what this young buck is insinuating, but it isn’t mating season yet and even if it were he will do no such thing as to “hook them up”. Besides, his conscience tells him that you wouldn't be interested in the company of a younger man anyway—not that your dating life is any of his business or anything.
“Get in line Jungkookie, behind Namjoon. He needs her for his album first.” Jimin squeezes down on Namjoon’s muscular shoulders with both hands, shaking him just enough to hype him up. His hands are removed seconds later when he’s told to knock it off.
“That’s enough about this, okay? I’m pretty sure Yoongi-hyung is the only one who actually needs __-nim right now because, in case you dumbasses have forgotten, D-Day is set to release in April,” Namjoon scolds the two with a commanding tone. Jungkook, per usual, remains persistent in his original request and keeps his full attention on Yoongi.
“Anyway hyung, as I was saying, I know your album takes priority so I’m in no hurry to meet her. I can be pretty patient as you know-“
“Heh, that’s a lie.”
“Shove it Jimin, no one’s talking to you.” Jungkook’s eyebrows scrunch together as Jimin snorts helplessly next to Namjoon.
“You shove it Kook,” Jimin counters. “And stop trying to date __-nim! Find your own woman!”
“I’m not trying to date her! She's my noona for gods sake! Do you think I’m oblivious to how the public reacts to idols dating? Also, __-nim is a Hybe employee, not an idol. I can only imagine the type of scandal the media would spin it as.”
“Right, we all know you actually just want to take her to your bed instead,” Jimin interrupts for the umpteenth time. “Our handsome leader, on the other hand, is interested in her professional abilities. We can learn a lot from him.”
“Why are you always trying to start a fight with me Jimin? Is it because I can take you, now that I've been building up more muscle?” Jungkook’s accusations earn him nothing more than a sea of eye-rolls until Jimin lunges himself towards him, puffing out his chest the best he can to size him up.
Namjoon rubs his face with a hand, a clear visual display of his exhaustion. He’s been moderating these stupid squabbles for nine years now. “Alright very mature, biggest boy band in the world and this is what it’s come to? Amazing, congrats to everyone for winning the award for most-”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Seokjin interjects, effortlessly shouting over everyone while waving his hands. “My brothers…why are we fighting over here like a couple of peacocks? We are all beautiful in our own, individual ways. Mine, for example, is my handsome face.”
“For the love of god hyung, we’re trying to settle something. Go take your inspirational pep talk elsewhere!” Jungkook bends his knees, swooping down to throw Jimin over his shoulder but he misses when the man starts tickling him ruthlessly.
“St-ah-stop it Jimin!"
“You stop it, you frickin’ brat! Trying to take advantage of our hyungs for your own selfish gain.” Jimin then slaps Jungkook on the ass which does not go unappreciated as Hoseok cackles from the other side of the room. Up until this point, he’s been scrolling on his phone, completely unbothered by the chaos. As Hoseok nears the action, Jungkook delivers a swift kick to Jimin’s rear end.
“Ow, what the fuck Kook?!” Jimin tries soothing the sting by massaging it with his hands. “You little prick!”
“Oh come on, I barely hit you. Gaining sympathy points won’t help this time, plus I see you trying to hide a grin. You think this shit is funny. You’re sick you know that?”
Jimin makes a move to return the kick to his youngest member but ends up hitting a far taller, and leaner subject instead. Taehyung, who just returned from the bathroom, throws a hand over his abdomen and grunts from the sudden impact.
“What is—shit Jimin that really hurt!” Taehyung’s baritone voice echoes off the walls as he winces from the pain. He takes a few deep breaths, then viciously eyes the two brawlers followed by the rest of the room. “What the hell is going on? I heard you all talking about __-nim from the hallway. Yoongi-hyung here is trying to kick off his album and tour, which we are supposed to be celebrating over drinks this Friday, but here you are arguing with each other and who has the biggest dick. Well, you can all put it away because as __-nim’s best friend, and number one wingman, only I’m allowed to set her up with someone and it won’t be with any of you! Sorry hyung…” he looks at Namjoon who appears to have brushed the comment off.
As soon as Taehyung ceases his mini-speech, eery silence sets in. Hoseok is the first to dare say a word.
“Uh, so what’s this about being her best friend Tae?”
“Yeah, I had no idea either.” Jimin quirks his head to the side, awaiting the details.
“Same,” Namjoon adds in a short breath.
“What happened to us, man?” Jungkook pouts at Taehyung, a total 180 from moments ago when he was in an unsolicited sparring match with Jimin. “You used to share everything with me. Now you’re holding out on me. Since when did you and __-nim start hanging out?”
Yoongi’s ears perk up for the first time since all the commotion began, curious to hear Taehyung’s response. He only recently discovered the blossoming friendship hours ago and even then, it was a brief inside look.
“I didn’t think to mention it but yeah, we started talking since her first day at Hybe. I bumped into her on the way into work, early morning for both of us. I expected her to be a bit on the reserved side, considering she was a new hire, but she was quite friendly. The more we talked, the more I felt like I knew her as if a childhood best friend I’d reconnected with.” Pausing, he wets his lips before continuing. “We share a lot of our meals together now, like our lunches during the weekday. Her food tastes amazing by the way. I think she missed her calling as a chef but it’s more than food— it’s a love language, a labor of love.”
“Wow, you two sure are connected,” Hoseok speaks first again, seeing the rest of his members working to process the new bit of info.
“Platonically, yes.”
“This’ll be good for Yoongi-hyung and his album then! No bad blood exists here!” Hoseok shifts his gaze between Taehyung and Yoongi, pleased with the outcome. The older of the two remains speechless, yet it’s far from a dazed expression. Yoongi is instead deep in thought, the wheels turning in his head.
So maybe it’s true that birds of a feather flock together, he hums to himself. The two of you seem to be social butterflies with a vase full of commonalities. He, on the other hand, prefers his solitude. That’s not to say he’s a hermit or anything though. Hybe hosts a company-wide New Year’s Eve party every single year and he’s made his best effort to attend them all. He mainly mingles with his members, but he still makes sure to small talk with other coworkers. Come to think of it, did he even see you at last year’s New Year’s Eve party?
He can’t remember much from the night except Seokjin scolding him for not wishing him a happy birthday the minute the clock struck midnight. He was a bit tipsy at that point. Taehyung disappeared soon after to make his usual rounds, stopping to chat with everyone in his path. Maybe he took off to talk to you during that time.
Okay, he really needs to stop thinking about you.
"Just to confirm, is everyone still on for Friday night to celebrate D-Day?" Jimin pipes. "I booked us a good place to have some food and drinks.
Taehyung nods, "I am, as long as it's not the same place we saw our CFO and his much younger date feeding each other. I couldn't eat for the rest of that night."
Jungkook fakes a gag before replying. "I'm sorry but does anyone know how is he still working here? Guy creeps me out."
"I swear, I couldn't agree more. Just yesterday he made an egregiously body-shaming comment toward __-nim to someone else on the board. She kept a brave front when she told me, but I'm damn tempted to get him removed from his position myself!" Taehyung's nostrils flare as he shares his frustration, fingers digging into his hips.
Yoongi takes a final chug of his water before abruptly tossing the bottle on the floor. A sharp crack resounds through the space, instantly commanding the authority of the room. “Fifteen minutes is over,” he gruffs. “It might be twenty minutes with all the bickering earlier. We don't have time to be talking about this anymore.”
“Come on now," Hoseok says. "Didn't you hear what Taehyung said? Our CFO really is a class-A jerk. I feel so bad that __-nim has to put up with his bullshit, she doesn't deserve it." His eyes frantically search the room, hoping to rally support.
"Don't worry about that asshole," Yoongi assures, "I'll handle it." He strides over to his choreographed position on the dance floor as if a leader in his own right, the rest of the members following in his steps.
"Just don't kill him, hyung," Namjoon says, resting a hand on the older's shoulder from behind. Yoongi merely snorts lightly in reply.
Yoongi is dead tired, his feet feeling heavier the minute he stands from his studio chair. He could have left hours ago, but here it is nearly 9:30 at night, and he's only just leaving the office.
As he shuffles down the hallway towards the elevator, he notices the eerie silence. It's thick, almost palpable. There's not a soul left in the building this late at night. When the elevator doors open, he leans casually against the metal rail, closes his eyes, and mentally retraces his day.
Overall, it was a decent day, he thinks, productive at best. Skipping dinner to work on his album tracks was an easy decision, but he might be paying for it now given the intense growling of his stomach. Despite his songs being considered perfect by his members, he can't help but tweak each one a final time. It's as if his gut tells him there's still a piece missing from the whole.
All at once, the elevator comes to a sudden stop. Yoongi's eyes shoot open, anticipation flooding his senses. Is someone still here? He listens intently, straining to hear any sound over the faint hum of the elevator. After a few moments that feel like an eternity, the elevator doors slide open to reveal an empty, dimly lit hallway. It's the 16th floor. He hesitates for a second, peering into the shadows, but there’s no sign of anyone. Strange.
Just as the elevator doors begin to close, Yoongi hears a distant, unmistakable voice. "Please hold the door!" you plead, your voice strained with urgency. He responds immediately, stretching out an arm to block the door. "Thank you so much," you say, slipping in beside him, your bag thrown over your shoulder.
Yoongi watches as you enter, curiosity in his eyes. It seems you were of like mind tonight, working late and likely burdened by the extra work he caused for you. The feeling of tension is as clear as it was yesterday, lingering as a reminder of the unspoken discomfort between you both.
But then again, there's that issue Taehyung mentioned, looming in his thoughts. He hadn't realized you overheard the horrendous comment his CFO made about you. No wonder you hurried away from him like a bat out of hell yesterday; you knew he knew. He wouldn't dare shine a light on the situation and risk embarrassing you further; no one needs to relive such a belittling experience. Yet, he's wrestling with the right words to say.
"Heading home, Min PD-nim?" You surprise him by speaking first, voice firm with a touch of gentleness.
Yoongi allows a faint smile to tug at the corners of his lips, hoping it'll relieve some tension. "I am, it's been quite a day. What about you?"
You nod, shifting the bag on your shoulder. "Same here. Just had to wrap up a few things before heading out."
He hesitates for a moment, noting how you speak as if it were only a few minutes past five or six in the evening. "I understand. I was working in my studio up until now. I should be back up there tomorrow too," he says, then chuckles lightly, "Sometimes I feel like I should just live up there."
You return the subtle laugh and smile softly at him, your light brown eyes catching his dark ones. It feels like the same prolonged gaze you shared upon first meeting, yet now, it's somehow become easier; perhaps a hint of familiarity.
"By the way," he continues, seizing the opportunity, "feel free to call me Yoongi-ssi. I'm not that formal in case you didn't know." He playfully gestures to his casual attire; tan cargo pants, grey plaid button-down, and sneakers.
You seem hesitant towards the request at first, evident from your delayed response. "Are you sure?" you choke. "I don't want to over step my boundaries."
"There's no need to worry about that," he assures. "We're on equal level aren't we? If we're going to be working side by side for the next eight months give or take, I want us to feel comfortable with each other. Please, call me Yoongi-ssi."
"Okay, I might need some time to get used to that," you say, head nodding, "I'll try calling you Yoongi-ssi from now on."
"There's one other thing too," he pauses, "since we'll be working on D-Day's promotion from start to finish, I'll have many of my own opinions. It's a natural instinct for me, but I don't want to be a hinderance. I don't want anyone else giving you issues either, so I'd like to hear your full thoughts on matters, especially when it comes to important decisions."
"That means a lot Yoongi-ssi, thank you. I'm very grateful that you'd allow me to be a part of this and I'd very much like us to have an equal partnership. This is your album though, so I want to make sure it gets the recognition it deserves in the way you'd prefer."
Yoongi glances at the floor numbers displayed to the right of the elevator doors. Any second now and you'll reach the lobby. He wouldn't mind talking longer, but letting you both get a decent night's sleep is the far better idea at this point.
"I trust that D-Day is in the right hands with you, __ssi," he replies. "It's why I recommended that we work together to promote it in the first place. Bang PD was also confident in the idea. We don't doubt your expertise for a second." He pauses when the elevator doors slide open and allows you to be the first to exit. "Have a good night, okay?"
For the first time, you reciprocate the wish with a full, illuminating smile. It's not a professional one, Yoongi notes, its a real one—as genuine and sincere as his words. He takes it as a sign that the tides may finally be turning for the better. "You too," he hears you say before you push through the large revolving doors and step into the cool night air.
In the evenings that follow, Yoongi finds himself back in his studio as promised, a glass of whiskey in hand. He ultimately decided that if he was going to be here until all hours of the night, he might as well have a cold beverage to keep him company.
As he leans back in his chair, swirling the dark amber liquor in his glass, his mind inadvertently wanders to you. Were you downstairs again? Were you here with him? It would seem that given your unexpected late-night encounter in the elevator, the validity of the idea wouldn't be all that wild or far-fetched.
With each passing minute, as the clock inches closer to the late hours, he finds himself circling back to the same thought. It's as if the possibility of running into you has become a highlight of his night.
Just then, a deep and familiar voice interrupts. "Burning the midnight oil again, hyung?"
Startled, Yoongi looks up to see Taehyung standing in the doorway, a sympathetic smile on his face. Despite it being almost 9 at night, his younger member is nothing short of flawless in appearance.
"Yeah, working on my tracks," Yoongi replies, offering a small smile in return. "What are you doing here?"
Taehyung steps further into the room, hand tucked in his pocket. "I wanted to stay late to keep __-nim company, but I'm not sure how much longer she plans on staying tonight. I was on my way out when I figured I'd stop by to see you too."
"Well, thanks for thinking of me. Want a drink?" He offers, nodding towards the nearby whiskey bottle.
"No, thanks," Taehyung declines politely, shaking his head. "I'll let you enjoy your whiskey in peace. Although, __-nim might take you up on that same offer one of these days. She has a strong taste for it, as you do. Anyway, I'm heading out. Don't overdo it with your music, hyung, they're already perfect."
Once Taehyung leaves the studio, Yoongi's previous string of thoughts return to him tenfold.
So you really are here, he muses, and you happen to like the same throat-burning alcohol. Should he venture downstairs and offer a drink? No, that would probably be too much, and he wouldn't want to interrupt you. Maybe if Taehyung were accompanying him, but not alone; he doesn't share enough rapport with you to merit such a spontaneous drop-in yet.
No, he takes another sip of his whiskey, he'll see you tomorrow morning instead; during your morning meeting. But that gets him thinking—he's still yet to decide on whether or not he'll make an appearance on Fallon's show. He’d done it with his members numerous times, but this would be the first time doing it alone. His album would indeed benefit from the exposure, though.
"Damn it," he curses, raising from his seat. "I work my ass off. I work my ass off for it all!" He then sits back down, finishing off the rest of his whiskey in one gulp, the burn soothing his frustration momentarily. With a resigned sigh, he turns his attention back to his music. "Damn it, I guess I'll do it."
If it weren't for his phone notification reminding him of his 10 am meeting on Friday, Yoongi would have missed it entirely. Normally, he never forgets important events, but several late nights in the studio had predictably caught up with him. He feels extremely sleep-deprived today, his memory more prone to blanking than usual. Waking up with a throbbing headache at 5 am, which hasn't dimmed in the slightest, doesn’t help either. Nonetheless, with only ten minutes to spare, Yoongi has no choice but to pull himself together and head downstairs to the conference room.
"Good morning, Min PD-nim," you greet him as he walks through the door. "We're about to start."
Yoongi drags out a chair and takes a seat. You look nice today, he notes quietly to himself. He makes sure to send a small smile your way before returning the warm greeting. "Good morning __-ssi," he says. "I told you we can speak informally didn't I?"
He waits for your response, easily tuning out the startled reactions from the rest of the team. Most high-ranking officials in the organization expected to be addressed formally by those in lower positions, but here he was, openly requesting you to speak as equals. It was almost unheard of during work hours. He was Min Yoongi, after all.
"Right, of course," you reply, "You'll have to excuse me, Yoongi-ssi. It slipped my mind for a moment."
Yoongi watches as you shuffle a few papers in your hand before continuing. "To get us started, I thought we'd discuss the decision to schedule a spot on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Will we be proceeding with this?"
"After mauling it over I think it's a good idea for the album. Do we have an idea of when this would happen?"
"Ideally after the album releases and around the time the U.S. tour begins April 26th. I say we aim for early May. Given Fallon's show's high demand, we'll need to get a jump on this as soon as we can." You shift your attention to your digital marketing and promotions team. "So-hyun, can you reach out to the producers and see what strings we can pull?"
She nods, scribbling a quick note on her writing pad. "We'll reach out today. I'll let you know as soon as we get a response."
"Excellent, thank you. I'm glad to hear you're on board with this Yoongi-ssi. It'll be a great way to promote D-Day and attract a global audience. The more smartly we utilize our resources, the better your album will be positioned in the current market." You take a brief pause to flip through your notes again. "Speaking of resources, we'll need to start booking magazine shoots and interviews. I'm proposing we run cover pages with Marie Claire Korea and Vogue Japan."
Yoongi would be taken aback by the flood of ideas and schedules you're firing at him, all within the first fifteen minutes, if he weren't already aware of your level of competency. This is exactly why he chose you, he hums to himself, your preparedness is impressive, but not surprising.
"I presume this will take place next year?" he asks. "During their spring issues?"
"Absolutely. We'll submit inquiries soon to get the ball rolling, but having the shoots completed now would be premature. Plus, it'll take some time before there are any openings with the companies. I think we should be consistent with tour dates and have Marie Claire go out in May and Vogue ready in August of next year."
"Okay, I'm fine with all that but we'll need to have something exciting released now, don't we? I know I start my weekly lives tonight, but shouldn't there be something more we can do?"
"I agree," you reply. "That's why I wanted to propose a brand new idea that came to me a couple of nights ago while I was drafting promotional content. Anytime idols release a new album or music, it gets published on YouTube, right?"
He nods, curious on where you're heading. "Right."
"Why don't we start a talk show with you as the host Yoongi-ssi? It can allow your fans to see another side of you, as well as the general public. We can invite your BTS members as guests where you can discuss music or past challenges that you've had to overcome—the choice is yours. To make it more interesting for viewers, you can have these frank conversations over a glass of whiskey or soju."
"I like the idea," he says, weighing it in his mind. "What would the timeline look like for this?"
"If we move forward with the idea, I suggest December 5th and we continue it for a max of two months. I know that only leaves us with just under two weeks to get started, but creating the set shouldn't take more an a day or a day and a half. We can also easily shoot a 30 to 60-minute video in an afternoon and publish it on YouTube the following week. Of course, a preview of the show will need to go out beforehand."
"Would we be able to invite other guests to the show? Outside of my members, I mean."
"Yes, feel free to invite whoever you'd like. We can start with the member for the first several episodes but ultimately, welcoming a variety of guests from the same or differing industries would be the goal."
"If I may." A member of the social media team suddenly joins the discussion, "I think Kim Namjoon-nim might be a good person to feature first since Indigo releases December 2nd."
Yoongi nods in agreement. "I can ask him."
"That would be fantastic, actually. If his availability is limited, we could have him guest star for the second or third episode instead," you add. "Hoseok released Jack in the Box this summer so we could have him be the first guest as well."
"Do we have a name yet?"
"Suchwita," you answer without hesitation. "It's a play on words with Daechwita."
"Suchwita..." Yoongi repeats, "Time to get drunk." He chuckles at the last few words, amusing the room, but you remain contemplative.
"How about Suchwita...time to drink with Suga, instead? It's simple and has a slight whimsical nature."
"Sure, let's use that," he answers, noticing that you've already begun jotting down the idea. "Yours is better."
Despite the adrenaline from the productive meeting with you and your team, Yoongi still feels the weight of his sleepless nights bearing down on him. His headache remains relentless and he is in dire need of a moment to himself. Once the team disperses, he slips his phone into his pocket and makes his way outside. The crisp, early morning air should offer him some relief, along with the pack of cigarettes tucked in his pocket.
When he reaches the building's designated smoking area, Yoongi takes out a cigarette and lights it, taking a deep drag as he leans against the cool brick wall. As he exhales, watching the smoke dissipate into the clear sky, his thoughts drift back to the meeting. The idea of hosting a talk show, "Suchwita...time to drink with Suga," still lingers in his mind. It’s an intriguing concept, and he can already envision the relaxed, candid conversations that could come from it.
His thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps crunching on the ground nearby.
"Oh, Yoongi-ssi," you say with alarm, obviously startled by his presence. "I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'll come back lat-"
"There's no need for that. Join me if you'd like." Yoongi watches as you hesitate to accept his offer, your feet already positioned to head back inside the building. "Seriously, there's plenty of room, and no matter what they'll tell you, I don't bite."
He allows himself to smirk as you carefully move beside him, only stopping when there is at least two feet of space between you both.
"Thanks," you say, pulling out your own pack of cigarettes and lighting one. "I needed a break too."
"Rough morning?"
"Just busy," you reply, leaning against the wall next to him. "But the meeting went well. We should be able to get the ball rolling now that we have a more finalized plan. I'm glad you liked the idea of starting Suchwita, by the way."
"I do," Yoongi says, nodding. "It has a lot of potential and I'm sure Namjoon will be more than happy to help us out. He's a natural at this kind of stuff. I guess it's why he's our band leader."
"You know you're good at all of this too, don't you, Yoongi-ssi?" You pause, taking a puff of your cigarette. "Even when you have a lot on your mind and a packed schedule, you have a knack for making people feel at ease. It's why I think producing Suchwita will be such a great way to connect with fans and other artists—you'll be the host."
He chuckles, appreciative of the remark. "You really think that? That I make people feel at ease? It's not what a lot of people assume."
"Nah," you reply, tilting your head up toward the clouds. "They're just on the outside looking in. Those who know you, who are around you and talk to you, will agree that you're a pretty calming presence."
"Well, I think we're not so different then." Yoongi shifts his eyes to your face, still looking up at the sky, and smiles softly. "So, what made you come to BigHit? Didn't you say you worked for Atlantic Records? That's a pretty good gig."
"Yeah, it was. I learned a lot there, and man, I was thrilled when I got offered the job as a brand manager. I've always loved music, ever since I was a kid. I could connect so intimately with the lyrics. Music is one of the few things that could soothe me during rough times, and it still does today. I'm sure you can understand."
Yoongi nods, intent on listening to your every word, intrigued by your story.
"Anyway, sorry about getting long-winded here" you chuckle. "I ultimately decided to move on when Bang PD reached out and offered me the marketing manager position for TXT. It gave me the chance to be a more integral part of bringing music to individuals who need it most. It's like we say, 'music for art and healing.' I'd never had the opportunity to manage a completely new set of musicians before either, let alone a group. Plus, being on the global marketing team? I couldn't turn it down."
"It makes sense why you joined us then, and I have to say, it's a blessing you did too. Music is a way of communication for me, a way I can best express my story. That includes my past, present, and hopefully future. After hearing all you shared, I don't think there's anyone else I'd trust with handling my album promos." Yoongi pauses a moment, unsure if he should ask the next thing on his mind. "How come we never met before? I mean really meet and talk?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure myself. But things have a way of falling into place when the time is right, I suppose." You're now looking at him, the intensity of your gaze mirrors his own. A gentle breeze tousles a few strands of your hair and for a split moment, Yoongi begins to understand what Taehyung meant earlier when he said it feels like he's known you his whole life, like a childhood friend he'd reconnected with. While it may not be to that extent for himself, there's a comforting warmth emanating from you that leaves him feeling strangely tranquil.
"Given the circumstances, I feel like we should have at least met through Taehyung by now," he slips out. "Or even at a company-sponsored event."
"Why, do you like me that much, Yoongi-ssi? After five days of working together?" Your playful tease catches him off guard, revealing a side of you he hadn't seen before. It's kind of cute-wait, what?
"I-"
"Sorry," you quickly interject, feeling the need to backtrack. "I shouldn't have said it like that."
"Don't worry, there's no need for apologies. And to answer your question, I like you enough." He hopes you can hear the tease in his own tone as he responds.
You both lapse into a comfortable silence for the next few minutes, the only sounds being the distant hum of traffic and the occasional chirp of a bird. He finds all of it soothing in a way he can't quite explain.
After a few minutes, you turn to him, your expression thoughtful. "You know, if you ever need to talk or just need a break, I'm here. We're teammates now."
Yoongi looks at you, his tired eyes softening with gratitude. "Thanks, __-ssi."
You give him a reassuring smile before pushing off the wall. "I'll let you finish your cigarette. See you later? And by later, I likely mean at 9 or 10 pm in our company elevator."
"Yeah, see you later," he laughs, watching as you walk back toward the building. He takes one last inhale, extinguishing the cigarette and letting the remaining smoke escape his lips slowly.
Yeah, he likes you just enough.
a/n: Hope you enjoyed it! Lmk what you think 🥰
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#yoongi angst#yoongi fluff#yoongi smut#yoongi x reader#yoongi fanfic#bts fanfics#bts fanfic#bts angst#bts fluff#bts smut#bts scenarios#fic:thoseeyeschico#kookslastbutton
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I left social media for a couple of hours because I was tired from work and when I came back... Oscar Piastri had a seat but then he didn't and he might be in a legal battle... f1 can't be real. If you wrote this in a tv show you'd get reviews saying how dumb the plot is and that the writers ran out of ideas
#okay but what if its a marketing strategy#i know its not im just dumb and sleep deprived#f1#oscar piastri#piasco#oscargate#alpine#mclaren racing
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5 Things about working in a (small) publishing house that surprised me
My experiences definitely aren’t true of the entire industry. I work in a very small, very local publishing house as a marketing assistant, and I’m certain that you’d have a much different experience at Penguin Random House, or even another small house on the other side of the country. That being said, here’s five things that really surprised me about what I’ve seen from the industry so far…
1. Very few of the people who work in publishing are writers
Okay this was one of the biggest surprises but also kind of makes sense? Publishing is a lot about the business side of things—numbers and marketing strategies and event planning, etc. People who are talented in design and accounting and other essential pieces to book publishing aren’t necessarily good at or practiced writers, and not all people who love reading also love writing!
I guess this surprised me so much because I’ve never been a reader without being a writer, but we often actually rely on the author’s writing on their own works (summaries, bios, etc.) to populate the backs of books and other marketing. Including me, there are three writers in my entire office.
2. Big booksellers (think Indigo) release yearly cover palettes for book covers
When we’re deciding the colours for a book cover, one thing that goes into that consideration is actually the different palettes Indigo releases! They have different palettes for different sections they update every year. I imagine it’s to fit a certain look for their shelves for new releases, but it’s not something I had ever really thought about, or thought that they would care about!
3. On that topic—publishing houses don’t sell to readers
My first day in marketing, my manager told me, “you’d think we’re selling to readers” I did think that. She said, “we’re actually selling to bookstores and libraries, they sell to readers.” How the money works is booksellers buy our books to put on their shelf. Everything they don’t sell, they’re allowed to trade back for credit, so we want them to buy big upfront, and then sell big to readers. Every book they send back is inventory we can’t get rid of and a “free” book for them down the line, so we don’t want books to come back!
If you want to support authors and your favourite publishing houses, buy from local bookstores who can’t afford to keep underselling books on their shelves for as long as say Indigo. If you really want to support authors, check out their books from libraries (yes really). Libraries are great because they buy books from publishing houses and can use the same one book to get into the hands of several readers, (in Canada) authors get a small amount every time a book is checked out (up to a certain amount so that the library’s entire budget doesn’t go to one book/author). Often, an author’s largest cheque is from libraries.
Unfortunately in the States authors don’t get the same boon, but still supporting your local libraries is just as good as supporting your local indie bookstores!
4. Soo many people look at covers, and soo much goes into creating them
I’m not really a designer, so I’m certain this wouldn’t surprise those of you who actually do graphic design, but they seriously look at every single detail and how it will benefit or hurt the sales. The placement of blurbs, choice of fonts, colours, subtitles, even the placement of raindrops for a rainy background, everything is discussed and tested and tried several different ways. So yes, DO judge a book by its cover, we work so hard on making covers perfect for the audience we’re trying to reach.
5. Publishing houses don’t necessarily have in-house editors, publicity, or other roles
I had always assumed that every publishing house had its own editors and publicists and what not. That’s probably true for the bigger ones, but if you’re being published by a smaller one (which you may be for your debut) you may be working with freelance editors and publicists who work somewhat with your publishing house and also with others as well. We have one in-house publicist, and no editors!
I wouldn’t turn down a publishing house just because they use freelancers (our freelancers are amazing!) but it’s important that they’re upfront about it. Huge red flag if they say they have in-house editors and they don’t actually—I would pass on a publishing house that lies to you.
Any other questions you have about the industry I’ll try to answer!
#writing#creative writing#writing community#writers#screenwriting#writing inspiration#books#filmmaking#film#writing advice#publishing industry#publishing#traditional publishing#trad publishing#publishing house
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Hi I just saw your post!
Could I ask you do an imagine with percy or vax (or both😅) where they find their soulmate and what it is like. Smut if you like.
Thank you 😊
I can do that! I gotcha! This will not be NSFW. Some spoilers for Season 2 will be in this. I have many other requests in the web I’m creating right now. So, we’ll have an easy one today!
Percy De Rolo
You would join Vox Machina off a whim. Got caught up in a tavern brawl and got kicked out with them.
You actually hit it off with Scanlan and Grog out of the rest of the group first. Then, Pike, Vax, and Vex. Percy didn’t accept you at first. He was wary of you because of his past.
You made it your entire effort into wanting to become Percy’s friend. You slowly gained more feelings for him the more you harassed him into a friendship.
He slowly became comfortable with you. Of course, you would never know that. He loves your company. He will never admit it.
You both are on the same wave length with everything, be it his crafting or to strategy in battle. Always by each others side.
You could sense something familiar about his aura. He found the same in you.
Soon enough, he found comfort in you. Just your presence can help ease if spiraling spirit.
He would always tell himself this is nothing more than a friendship but, he always felt deep down that he was lying to himself.
You knew you loved him with all your heart so, you would always remain by his side. No matter if he got with someone else or never at all.
He wouldn’t realize you are his soulmate until the falling of Whitestone.
You were the only one that could calm down his inner turmoil and was the one to sacrifice everything you could to keep him and his friends safe.
He finally knew it for sure when he was getting taken over by the spirit his gun possessed and accidentally shot you in the side. (As we know that never happened but in this little imagine, it did).
You went down and it snapped him into reality. He ran to catch your body only to be stopped by Scanlan and Grog as Keyleth got to work after being brought back herself.
After that day, for a while, he couldn’t stand to be out of his quarter’s at the Keep. He even refused to look at himself in the mirror.
You made a swift recovery and was told by the rest of the group about what Percy has been doing, Isolating himself.
You went to his door and knocked on it.
Percy was hesitant but opened the door. Before he could do anything, you hugged him and told him that it wasn’t his fault and that he’s okay.
He was caught off guard as he hugged you back. He listened as you consoled him, telling him that it was the spirit inside that did it, not him, and that he didn’t need to worry anymore because its gone and she is okay now.
He slowly pulled you inside during the hug and closed the door. After it shut, he let out the tears he didn’t know he was holding back.
He let himself spill, telling how he felt and that he is sorry. He needed to tell you that he wants to be by your side forever.
Of course, you feeling the same told him that you will never leave and that if you can handle what just happened and can make amends, you can get through anything.
Vax’ildan
I feel like Vax is really in tune with himself.
When he first meets you in a market place, he stole your coin purse but, your keen eye saw him do it and you stole it back and his on top of it. Sending him a wink as you walked away.
He was starstruck. He at least knew that he was in love with you.
When they moved on, he hoped to revisit and see you again but, he didn’t hold to any hope because people have lives and move around too.
He long forgot about you after that because he and the group were really busy and he got caught up in other feelings for Keyleth, which didn’t end well for him so, he hasn’t thought much of you.
After the Chroma Conclave destroyed Emon, He and his friend departed to Vasselheim in search of allies.
Guess who’s there? You!
You are actually are a mercenary. You help whoever pays you, be it the Slayer’s Take or other people.
After being rejected by the clergy, the group was making there way over to the Slayer’s Take and that’s when he spotted you.
You were walking out of there as they walked up. You a large sack of gold that you finished your bounty for and was about to head out.
Before you went too far, Kashaw opened the door and called you back in, telling that the Patron needs to talk to you.
He watched as you sighed and headed back inside.
He raised and eyebrow, You’re so important that the Patron needs to speak with you directly. Interesting.
You were a mystery to him and he loved every second of it. He thought he was the most mysterious person he knew. Not by a long shot.
When they walked in, the quarrel happened until the Patron lets them down to speak with them.
You waited down there on Osysa’s throne was she dealt with each member.
When Vax was encountered, a number of things were said but, one of the most important ones was, ‘You sought love and it wasn’t found but love is a mysterious thing. Soulmates will always be drawn back to each other, no matter the distance or time it takes. Remember what has happened and reflect on this. Love will never always be right in front of you always. Follow your spirit and you will know.’
Vax knew she was talking about you. His spirit was saying it over and over was she spoke to him.
After the dust cleared and they proved themselves worth, you were introduced by Osysa herself.
Osysa knew your heart that you hid away from everyone, she knew that you would help them and not screw them over. Plus, you are preferred to handle in the affairs of God’s, given that you are a Warlock.
Vax couldn’t take his eyes off you. He repeated your name over and over in his head. His spirit seemed to scream out to be next to you.
As Osysa sent you all away, she gave you a knowing look. You two were best friends. You were always there for Osysa ever since you have been confirmed to be of a righteous heart.
The glacé she gave you made you grin and tease back, ‘I’ll tell your hubby you said hi!’
Vax immediately as you all were walking out went up next to you, ‘Hello, I’m Vax’ildan. It’s nice to actually know your name now.’
You just smirked at him, ‘Maybe ask a name before yanking there coin purse next time.’
With that, you passed him as he stood in shock for a second. He watched as your hips swayed slightly back and forth.
It took Scanlan to break him from his thoughts, ‘Someone’s gots the hots’ He semi whispered to Grog in a singsong voice. Grog laughed and covered his mouth.
Vax just rolled his eyes and continued walking.
You hit it off with Pike, Grog, and Scanlan immediately. Everyone slowly pulled there way into your conversations.
As your journey continued, Vax admired you more and more. You’re beautiful, smart, cunning, stealthy, and just a wonderful person in general. He loved it.
After you an everyone made it successfully into the tomb, Percy found the armor.
Instead of hitting Vex’ahlia, it hit you. Killing you in an instant. Vax lost it.
He ran to your corpse and held it tightly as he cried. He just got you. He will not lose you this quickly.
As everyone was trying to resurrect you, Vax had his vision and told the Raven Queen to take him instead of you.
She excepted and you came back. He was so relieved. Yet, his emotions couldn’t express it. He just went and put on the armor.
You realized something was off immediately about Vax. You didn’t know him long but, Osysa told you he was the one. You knew it too but, it’s nice to hear it from your best friend.
After being sabotaged and Vax clutching up, you sat by the fire and watched Vax. He stood and stared into space.
You walked over to him and rested your hand on his new armor.
You knew what he did because of your affairs with the Gods and Goddesses themselves.
You looked at him, ‘Can you go on a walk with me?’
He agreed and you both started walking.
‘I know what you did. You aren’s the only one that see visions and Gods.’
Vax stopped in his tracks and looked at you, ‘I did it to save you. Nothing more.’
‘You lost part of your soul when you did that. That’s why you’re cold and distant now. Don’t worry. I used to be the same. I made a pact too. My feelings came back after I met you.’
Vax felt a rush of emotions come over him. He knew that he had someone to rely on now. He knew that you shared the pain he feels right now.
He hugged you tightly like you were going to disappear again. He let the tears flow as he held you. You held him back as he sobbed. You whispered to him that everything will be okay and that you will be there until the end.
At that point he knew for a fact, you were his soulmate. Be in life or amongst the Gods.
#vox machina#d&d 5e#x reader#dungeons and dragons#percy de rolo#percy de rolo x reader#percival de rolo#critical role#dragons#vax’ildan#vax x reader#tlovm vax smut#vaxildan#vax’ildan x reader#tlovm vax#tlovm x you
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Ko-Fi prompt from @dirigibird:
I've been looking at investment options but I don't want to be messing around too much with the stock market, and a co-worker suggested exchange traded funds. Would love to know your opinions!
LEGALLY NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed financial advisor, and it is illegal for me to advise anyone on investment in securities like stocks. My commentary here is merely opinion, not financial advice, and I urge you to not make any decisions with regards to securities investments based on my opinions, or without consulting a licensed advisor. I am also going to be talking this all over from an American POV, which means some of these things may not apply elsewhere.
So instead of letting you know what to pick or how to organize your securities, I'm going to go through the definitions of what various investment funds are, how they compare functionally, and maybe rant about how I disagree with the stock market on a fundamental ethical level if I have word count left over.
If you want more information, and are okay with jargon, I'd suggest hitting up investopedia. That is where I will be double-checking most of my information for this one.
I also encourage folks who know more about the stock market specifically to jump in! I like to think I'm good at research and explaining things, but I'm still liable to make mistakes.
Mutual Funds: A mutual fund is a pool of money and resources from multiple individuals (often vast numbers of people, actually) being put together and managed as a group by investment specialists. The primary appeal of these is that the money is professionally managed, but not personally so; it gives smaller investors access to professional money managers that they would not have access to on their own, at cheaper rates than if they tried to hire one for just their own assets. The secondary appeal is that, due to the sheer number of people, and thus capital, that is being invested at once, the money can be invested in a wide variety of industries, and is generally more stable than investing in just one company or industry. Low risk, low reward, but overall at least mostly reliable. Retirement plans are often invested in mutual funds by employer choice, through companies like Fidelity or John Hancock.
Hedge Funds: A hedge fund is a high risk, high reward mutual fund. Investors are generally wealthy, and have the room and safety to lose large amounts of money on an investment that has no promise of success, especially since money cannot be withdrawn at will, but must remain in the fund for a period of time following investment. It gets its name from "hedging your bets," as part of the strategy is to invest in the opposition of the fund's focus in order to ensure that there is a backup plan to salvage at least some money if the main plan backfires. Other strategies are also on the riskier side, often planning to take advantage of ongoing events like buyouts, mergers, incumbent bankruptcy, and shorting stocks (that's the one that caused the gamestop incident).
Private Equity: Private equity is... a nightmare that got its own incredibly good Hasan Minhaj episode of Patriot Act, so if you've got 20 minutes, an interest in comedically-delivered, easily-digestible, Real Information, and an internet connection, take a watch of that one. (If it's not available on YouTube in your country, it's originally from Netflix, or you can probably access it by VPN.) Private equity companies are effectively hedge funds that purchase entire companies, rebuild them in one way or another, and then sell them at (hopefully) a profit. Very often, the companies purchased by private equity are very negatively impacted, especially if the private equity group is a Vulture Fund. Sometimes, it's by taking it apart to sell off; sometimes it's by just bleeding it for cash until there's nothing left. Sometimes, it's taking over a hospital and overcharging the patients while also abusing the staff! (Glaucomflecken has a lot of videos on the topic of private equity in the medical industry, check him out.)
Venture Capital: In contrast to private equity, which purchases more mature companies, venture capital is focused on startups, or small businesses that have growth potential. These are the kinds of hedge funds that are like a whole group that you'd see some random tv character calling an Angel Investor (they're not actually the same thing, but they overlap by a lot). I'd hesitantly call these less ethically dubious than private equity, but I'm still suspicious.
And finally, to answer your question on what ETFs are and how they fit into the above.
Exchange Traded Funds: ETFs are... sort of like a mutual fund. Sort of. You are, to some extent, pooling your money... ish.
An ETF is like a stock that is made out of partial stocks. So instead of paying $100 for stock A, and not getting stocks B/C/D that all cost the same, you buy $100 of the ETF, which is $25 each of stocks A/B/C/D. You are getting a quarter of a unit of stock, which isn't normally an option, but because you are purchasing through an ETF that officially already bought those Whole stocks, you can now purchase the partial stocks through them.
They buy the whole stocks, then they resell you mixes of those stocks. They still officially own the whole stocks themselves, but you now own parts of the stocks. Basically, you own "stock" in a company that owns stock in other companies, and in that process you own partial stocks in those other companies.
I'm going to re-explain this using fruit.
Imagine you can buy apples, oranges, melons, grapes, etc. You can also buy fruit cups. You can only buy the individual fruits in big batches or you can pool your money with a few other people, hand it to a chef. The chef will decide which fruits look like they'll taste the best by lunch time, buy a bunch of those fruit pallets with your combined money, and plan out the best possible fruit salad for you to share with a bunch of people once lunch rolls around.
You could also buy a fruit cup. You don't have a lot of control over what's already in the fruit cup, but there are a few different mixes available--that one has strawberries, but that one over there uses kiwi, and the other one that way has pineapple--and you can pick which mix you want. It's a pretty small fruit cup, and it's predesigned, but you can choose the one you want without having to pool money with everyone else. You just first have to let someone else design the fruit cups you choose from, and you don't know which ones are probably going to survive the best to lunch time unless you ask a chef (which defeats the purpose of buying a fruit cup instead of pooling your money, and asking the chef costs money).
That's the ETF. The ETF is the fruit cup.
The upside is that you can now just track the prices of your fruit cup, instead of tracking the prices of four different fruits, and so if the price of one fruit drops, you can just... let the other three buoy it.
Of course, in the real world, there are more than just four stocks involved in an ETF. This part of the Investopedia article lists a few examples, and they're usually themed and involve anywhere from 30 (DOW Jones) to thousands (Russell) of shares by stock type, or by commodity/industry. So with the ETF, you can invest in an entire industry, like technology, and just keep track of that single "stock" in the industry game.
They do cost less in brokerage/management fees than regular mutual funds, and they have a slightly lower liquidity (slower to cash out). There also exist actively managed ETFs, which are basically mutual funds for ETFs. You are paying the chef to buy you premade fruit cups.
(Prompt me on ko-fi!)
#economics#stock market#etfs#etf#mutual funds#hedge funds#venture capital#private equity#capitalism#phoenix talks#ko fi#ko fi prompts#economics prompts
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Would you write for Sylvain x Cursed!Fem!Reader? I don’t really mind what the curse is or how you’d solve it, so you can get creative with this one! :D
Hey, lovely! This was actually really interesting and super fun. It was nice to work with establishing subtlety and growing that into a nice crescendo for the story's climax. I really got to work out my brain on how certain characters would handle certain scenarios, and of course there was the matter of coming up with how the curse would be applied.
I hope this is what you were looking for!
Requests are open. The story will be continued under the cut.
“Good morning. We have a lot to cover today, so I’ll need everyone to sit down as soon as you walk in,” Professor Byleth commented over her shoulder, drawing up the battle strategy your class had been discussing for the past week.
You entered the Blue Lions’ classroom, a small black notebook in your hand as you moved to get to your seat.
“Oh,” your professor noted, “Seteth told me this was sent to you.”
She was gesturing toward a slim box on the edge of her desk. Maybe it would fit a pen? But then why would anyone go through the trouble?
“Would you mind if I opened it now?”
“The way I see it, it’s yours. You can do whatever you’d like.”
Curious, you took the box back to your seat. It seemed you were not the only one intrigued; Mercedes and Ashe turned to watch from their chairs in front of you.
“What do you think it is?” she asked, “I’ve never received a package before.”
Ashe gave a sad smile, “Neither have I. It makes me wonder.”
More eyes came to fall on you as the tape was removed from the edges and the lid was lifted lightly.
Upon seeing what it was, you gave a small gasp. Resting inside on a soft cushion was a deep blue pendant looped through a small silver chain. The necklace was understated, and undoubtedly to your taste. You would have picked such a piece out for yourself had you seen one in the market.
“Ooh!” Annette cooed behind you, bracing her hands on her table as she stood at her seat behind you, “It’s so pretty!”
“Someone…knows me very well,” you chose your words carefully.
Sylvain leaned in next to you, scanning over the necklace with a look on his face you couldn’t quite read, “Do you know who sent it?”
Good question. You would have to meet with this person and have a little chat. No one gifted something like this purely out of kindness. Not to you, anyway. But when you lifted the cushion, there was only a slip of parchment about as long as your index finger underneath.
You set the cushion aside, reaching in to turn over the paper.
Eternity
That wasn’t helpful at all. If anything, knowing that paper came with the box only made you more confused.
The phrase was iterated to your friends as you placed the necklace back in its place.
“Maybe it’s some new jewelry line looking to get its name out there,” Annette beamed, “Ooh, you’re so lucky!”
If that was the case, why pick an understated piece? On top of that, why you? Sure, you were the daughter of a Kingdom noble, but someone had to have gone out of their way for this. To learn that you were at Garreg Mach, and then to ensure you would actually receive the package?
Even Ingrid was interested, it seemed, “You should try it on. It would be a shame for it to sit away waiting for some special occasion. Besides, the jeweler would probably want you to show it off.”
You weren’t the showy type, but you could admit you were just as interested in it as she was.
“I suppose…” the attention from your classmates was beginning to make you shy.
They weren’t interested in you, though! It was the necklace they wanted to see, you reminded yourself.
Easily, the silver chain was lifted from the cushion and wrapped around your neck. Clasping it in the back, you found that it fell just below your collarbone.
Mercedes gave a soft giggle, “It looks wonderful on you! Ingrid is right, it would be a shame for it to collect dust somewhere in your room.”
She’s right.
“Okay, then. I…guess I’ll wear it often.”
Professor Byleth gave a small scowl from the front of the room, “Sylvain, I hope you studied your notes from my last lecture as closely as you’re studying that necklace.”
“What? Of course I did! I studied during the lecture.”
You noticed he didn’t even have a notebook.
“Very well, then. Why don’t we start by having you tell us more about the…”
~~~~~~
Thankfully, you had eaten a good breakfast this morning. The professor didn’t release anyone until long after lunch had passed. It didn’t help that you had spent every second writing down as much as possible to be looked over later.
You elected to bring your lunch with you to your dorm, mind focused solely on reviewing what the Professor had spouted during the lecture for the group examination tomorrow. It seemed she was more adamant about the topic of battalion management than the other subjects the monastery advocated.
An hour or two passed, and you had successfully copied the important bits of the lecture onto your spare pages. This way, your studies for the rest of the night were more efficient.
By the time the sky turned to a dark midnight, you were still sitting at your desk in your room.
That’s enough for today.
Wanting to prepare for bed, you reached back to remove the clasp of the necklace you received. As though something was triggered by the action, it was set aglow with light.
Not right now.
“…”
Nevermind that it glows! You don’t want to take the necklace off. A new desire has overcome you.
You were in the mood for a stroll. Specifically, one to the woods outside of Garreg Mach.
The hallway was too dark for you to see properly, but you didn’t care. You shut the door behind you as you left, maneuvering about the monastery confidently until you came near the gates.
You stifled the glow of your necklace with one of your hands, sneaking around the guards as you let your feet lead the way. Somehow, these were the surest steps you had ever taken. Your destination was somewhere you had never been, yet one you were always meant to visit.
That very sense of determinism kept you mindlessly moving. Trees, leaves, grass, and several shadows drooping over everything stood as the only landmarks on your path. You treaded forth until you came to a gradual halt.
Calmly, you turned to your left. A woman in robes you could not clearly make out in the darkness made her presence known.
She approached you with a laidback ease; you were no threat to her.
And why would you be? You are safe with her. She only has your best interests in mind.
“Good to see you have accepted my gift, my muse,” the woman drew nearer, her hand brushing over your collarbone to touch the pendant, “You wear it well.”
You knew nothing of your current situation, but there was a settled feeling within you. There would be no need for questions. All the knowledge you needed would be provided, and what you weren’t told, you didn’t need to worry about.
A lovely way of saving your mind the trouble, is it not? Truly, she cares for you.
“Now, you must have seen enough of her at Garreg Mach to give me a proper report,” she gleaned, removing her hand from your neck.
Tell her all about your professor.
“Wh…why?” you managed. Your head was beginning to feel foggy, and you could no longer remember how you got here.
Hush. Do not ask questions. Only listen.
This voice in your mind was beginning to make your head spin.
“Perhaps you are too tired from your day to continue. You should not be able to resist.”
There were so many questions you wished to ask, but the blanket of exhaustion weighed heavier upon your mind than the cloud of curiosity.
“A major fault of my own design, no doubt. There is no reason to fret, though. I promise you and I will work through the problems together until we get this right.”
A rustle in the bushes caught your attention, though you didn’t get to point it out before the woman’s hand found your collar once more.
“Now, erase this encounter from your memory. Forget.”
~~~~~~
Byleth found herself working tediously at her desk an hour before classes were slated to start.
She saw you late last night, soundlessly following the gleam of your jewel until you covered it. By then, tracking you through the woods was child’s play. You did not seem yourself, so she played it safe and waited to learn where you were headed before revealing herself.
Only, she never did confront you in those woods. No, the problem ran much deeper than a student sneaking out after hours. It only took her noticing your strange gait and how the mage that appeared treated you to determine as much.
The professor needed information, though she would not have hesitated to attack if she believed you were in true danger.
It seemed the woman still needed you; however, Byleth could only hope to guess how long your usefulness would last. No matter. The witch had given her a day, and that was all she needed to form a decent plan.
The former mercenary silently debated whether to confront you directly about it or not. While it was true she left the scene early, Byleth still managed to learn that you weren’t in on the act, so to speak. Your mind was likely being surveyed, which meant asking any suspicious questions could ruin any element of surprise she might have. You couldn’t know she had a plan.
In truth, she wondered if you knew you were in danger, at all. Fortunately, there were some things she could ask.
Byleth noticed you enter the classroom a few minutes early. You had a few questions on her lecture from yesterday, it seemed.
“I would say good morning, but you look like you hardly slept last night. Were you up late?” she greeted.
Your brows furrowed slightly as you brought a hand to your cheek, “Do I? That’s strange…I actually remember falling asleep much earlier than usual.”
That was surprising. Did you not remember your encounter?
Beginning to cover the areas of confusion you wanted to discuss, the professor noted your strange clothing choice. A shawl was draped over your shoulders and covered your collarbone. You had never worn such an item before, so you must have chosen it for a reason.
Her guess? It was likely to shield the pendant from the notice of others.
Eventually, all of the Blue Lions found their way into the room and classes began. What the class didn’t know was that things would go a little differently today.
“Now, I know some of you may be upset or confused about this new arrangement, but there has been a schedule change,” she opened, standing at her desk, “Rather than doing our group work this weekend, our class will be completing its tasks today. Don’t ask me why, I don’t make the rules.”
Oh, she very much did make the rules, but nobody in this class would be so aggravated about the alteration that they would march up to Seteth just to verify the new schedule. Nobody in their right mind would contest her if it meant they’d be taking that exam instead.
“Partners and jobs will change, and as such will be decided by myself.”
There were a few murmurs at this.
You spoke out, “How long will this new arrangement last, Professor?”
“Only for this week, don’t worry.” Byleth looked to the list she had created before class, “Now, you and Mercedes will be on stable duty today. Dedue and Ashe will handle the cooking, Ingrid will go on sky-watch with Ferdinand from the Black Eagle house, and Dimitri and Felix will be working on weeding the grass.”
“What?” Felix complained, “Out of the eight other people in this room, why would you choose to pair me with him?.”
“Because it would bring me no end of lectures from Seteth to have you embarrass this House by falling out of the sky or burning a fish. Annette, Sylvain, please come see me,” she looked to her students, “but everyone else is dismissed and may begin. Your day ends when your task concludes.”
Students filed out of the classroom one at a time, Annette and Sylvain making their way to the front. Once the last student shut the door behind them, Byleth pulled the small paper she had been forming a plan upon out from her drawer.
“You two are going to have some very important tasks, but I’ll need you to keep this information private unless I exclusively tell you to share it.”
Sylvain scoffed, “What? Are others going to be jealous of our chores, Professor?”
“Do you remember the necklace your classmate received yesterday, Sylvain?”
“How could I forget after the commotion it caused?” he muttered.
“Well, I have reason to believe that piece of jewelry inflicted a curse upon her. The only time I know for certain we have is today, and we can’t waste a single second.”
Annette let out a noise of shock, “But Professor, why didn’t you confront her about it? Surely, if you had just taken her necklace off…”
“I couldn’t take that risk. There’s no way to know if that necklace can come off.” She glanced over her writing, “Just because I’m aware something is going on…just because I can get her alone…even then, I know so little that I can’t even be sure we have any advantage except surprise. We’re only going to get one shot at this, and we can’t give away that we know anything. Especially not to _______.”
She set the paper aside, “Annette, I’ll need you to do some research on curses and get back to me. Anything in the ranges of cursed objects, methods of cursing, and mind control should be good places to start. The sooner we know what we’re dealing with, the sooner we’ll know where to look for a solution.”
“Got it!” she exclaimed, rushing out of the room to the library.
“I’ll be joining you in just a moment!” Byleth called after her.
Sylvain leaned forward, “What about me?”
“You have a more…practical role to play…”
~~~~~~
Hours went by, Annette finally reporting her progress. The only way to break the spell was either by getting the mage to remove it herself, or by killing her altogether.
Best to prepare for the latter, Byleth thought. That woman didn’t look the type to go down without a fight. Or to play fair, for that matter.
Well then, she’d need to take away as much leverage as possible. The former mercenary seemed to recall that your natural exhaustion dampened your necklace’s control, the other night.
“Alright, listen up Annette. Here’s what I need you to do…”
~~~~~~
“Hey, Mercie!” you heard Annette call.
Currently, Mercedes was helping you brush out and dry off the last few horses. Today’s stallions were rather well-behaved, though it took no small amount of energy to care for the horses on a good day.
Things were also slowed down by the leisurely pace you two had been going at thus far, taking a break for lunch at one point and having a bit of fun with each other between tasks.
“What is it, Annie?”
The smaller girl gave a glance toward you before focusing on her friend again, “I, um…the professor wanted me to speak with you.”
“I see,” Mercedes nodded, setting her brush down. She turned back to you, “Please, just give me a moment. I’ll get right back to working with you once this is settled.”
“Take your time!” you smiled.
As the girls walked away, the voice that had been so present in your thoughts today grew louder.
What are they saying? They are keeping secrets from you.
No, you rationalized. They always did that sort of thing. The two were incredibly close far before you came along. Besides, this was something the professor needed. If it had anything to do with her more personal affairs, it was none of your business anyway.
Could it be that your professor is wary of you? Did you reveal the pendant? One can never be too certain, in these times…
The more you tried to reassure yourself, the more wary you became. Though you knew you were surrounded by those that would never hurt you, a feeling of dread had rooted itself within your mind.
A similar feeling came whenever your mind had its more…forceful thoughts…yet never was it stronger than when you dreamt last night.
With each swipe of your comb along horse hair, images would flood your mind. You, covering your pendant with a shawl. You, falling asleep early last night.
You, heading back into the woods tonight.
…back?
“I’m so sorry!” a voice snapped you out of your thoughts. It was Mercedes. Apparently, her conversation had concluded, but she remained standing next to Annette, “It seems the professor needs me to help her reassign vulneraries. You’ll be okay finishing the rest of this by yourself, won’t you?”
A reasonable excuse?
Of course it was. As the Blue Lions’ best cleric, Mercedes was always called to meet with the professor over vulnerary assignments.
…very well.
“No problem! Come back when you’re done, okay?”
Annette and Mercedes exchanged glances you didn’t quite like. Something told you she wouldn’t be coming back.
“Sure!” Annette cut in, “I’ll even help you out after I finish in the greenhouse!”
“Really? Thanks so much, Annette!”
But she must have never gotten her task done. Once the horses were locked up in their stables and the sky was painted orange, you were just as alone as when they left you.
Liars.
You didn’t want to hate them for it.
Some true friends you have. For them to abandon you after making promises like that…
They would never hurt you on purpose. Their chores were important, so it simply must have taken them longer than usual.
After a quick stop at the dining hall, you returned to your room. It had been such a long day, you were almost excited to get some rest.
Ah, ah. Not yet. You are meant to be going to the woods, remember?
Of course. How could you forget? You had only been thinking of that trip for what, a whole day?
Be not seen. Make haste.
Leaving your shawl behind, you changed into clean clothes before heading off.
The lovely glow of your favorite necklace shone down the hall as you went. Unfortunately, you needed to stifle the shine with your hand a few times to sneak off the grounds past the guards.
Why was this so familiar?
Just a little farther…
Greenery, darkness, moonlight, left.
A dark-robed woman revealed herself, “Fascinating. Tell me, do you know who I am?”
Who is she to you? Be honest.
“You-”
An arrow suddenly lodged itself in the woman’s shoulder.
“Augh-!”
HelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelpHelp
The amulet you wore shone brighter than ever as all your instincts commanded that you protect her.
Surveying your surroundings, you spotted someone you knew holding the bow. It was your professor, and by the way she shifted her arms in the dark, she was going to nock another arrow.
Without thinking, you advanced. At least, you tried to. Your lunge was interrupted by a strong arm catching your waist, but it was clumsy and rushed. The counterweight caused both your own momentum and that of your supposed assailant to switch, bringing you both to the ground as you collided.
HelpMeHelpMeHelpMeHelpMeHelpMeHelpMeHelpMe
This mantra kept interrupting your focus until your back was against their chest. The two of you were in an awkward, semi-upright position as you struggled against the arms restraining you.
“You sure about this, Professor?” strained a man’s voice. A lock of red hair came into your field of view.
“Do it. It’s for her own good.”
Who you now knew to be Sylvain removed one of his arms’ grasp on you, reaching for something you couldn’t see. His hand returned just as quickly, though he held a small vial of herbs and pollen between his fingers.
Suddenly, you were flipped so that you were on your back on the ground and he was above you. He clamped one of his hands over your mouth, forcing you to breathe through your nose.
“Sorry about this,” he frowned as he popped the vial open and held it underneath your nostrils.
HelpMeHelpMeHelpMeHelpMe
But you couldn’t. After five quick inhales from your aggressive, breathless state, the floral mixture muddled all your senses together.
“Protect her until…” Professor Byleth’s voice faded out, though you watched her finally rush out of the bush, sword in hand, to confront the stranger.
…cold…it was so cold.
“...onastery…”
The sweetened scent haunted you.
~~~~~~
When you woke up, Manuela was with you in the infirmary.
According to the physician, you had been asleep for three days.
“Poor dear, you looked so pale. But you’re well rested now, and I think I’ve managed to flush your system of that awful pollen.”
The pollen…
“I remember that!” you sat up in a panic. “It was Professor Byleth…and Sylvain…”
“Yes,” Manuela laughed. “They filled me in once they came back with you. I swear, that boy worried himself out of an appetite the day they brought you back. He must have held the narcotic powder to your nose for too long.”
Subconsciously, your hand migrated to the lower half of your face.
“He blames himself, of course, but in all honesty I think it was more than that. Curses take a toll on your body as they are. Combine that with natural exhaustion, and that’s a nasty little recipe that’ll keep anyone out for a long time. Not that my telling him that kept him from checking in on you every few hours.”
After a few final checks, the songstress assured you that you were just fine before sending you off to the dining hall to get something to eat.
Needless to say, you couldn’t get there without talking with everyone you bumped into on the way.
Mercedes and Annette were the first to call out your name.
“Oh my goodness! I’m really sorry about lying to you,” Annette wailed. “I was really scared, but I knew the professor had a plan to keep you safe. I felt bad every second of it, though I know that’s probably not worth anything.”
You wrapped them both in a hug, “Please, don’t worry about it! I completely understand.”
“If there’s anything we can do for you, just let us know,” Mercedes offered.
“Of course.”
You smiled and waved at each other, parting ways as you continued on your trip to the dining hall.
More members of your house stopped you as you went. Dimitri wanted to apologize, promising he would attempt to prevent such occurrences in the future. Professor Byleth approached from behind him as the prince explained he was upset with himself for not noticing anything out of the ordinary.
Quickly, you assured him that no one did; you weren’t even aware you were cursed. Your teacher chimed in at that, saying she only found out by sheer luck. She threw a rare smile your way though, glad to have you back and happy to fill you in.
The necklace was given to Professor Hanneman and the woman was brought in for questioning, according to your professor. The woman had chosen to value her life over her secrets, it seemed.
“Thank you for everything,” you worried. “I don’t…that could have gone downhill way too quickly.”
“Don’t even think about it. You are my student; it is my responsibility to keep you safe.”
Her eyes slid past yours, as though she saw something behind you.
“In any case, Dimitri and I were just headed to the training grounds to spar with Felix and Dedue. Feel free to join us later, if you’re feeling better. We wouldn’t want to keep them waiting, though.”
“Oh, good luck,” you waved as they turned and left.
You heard your name from behind you.
Sylvain looked somewhat breathless, slowing up a few paces away by the time you shifted to face him.
“Sylvain,” was about as far as you got before he cut you off.
“I am so sorry,” he started. “Goddess, when we got you back…you were bruised, you were knocked out…I messed up.”
You were taken off guard. Such blunt sincerity wasn’t something you expected from him of all people.
…Manuela really wasn’t kidding when she said he was beating himself up over this.
“Hey…you saved me- you might have saved the professor too, since I know she’s who that woman was after. I have no clue what was in store for me, though I probably would have just kept living life trapped in limbo.”
“...maybe, but…” he struggled to find an argument.
“I know. Look, I-I’d rather have a few bruises than a chain binding me. You and Professor Byleth, you’re the reason I’m free. That’s more important to me than anything.”
“Right. Okay, then,” he nodded, taking a breath.
“So there. I forgive you.” You began to laugh, “Now look at us; I’m the one who’s worried. I don’t even think there’s a way I can repay you for helping me.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” he waved it off. “Although…you could come for a meal in the dining hall with me.”
“You’re in luck. I just happen to be on my way there right now,” you grinned. “Best not to leave a debt unsettled, right?”
He laughed, “I told you, you don’t need to think that way.”
Though the two of you went back and forth verbally, you went to the dining hall together.
And this time, the only voice telling you, this is right, was the one in your heart.
#fire emblem#fe3h#fire emblem three houses#fe x reader#fiction#fe3h x reader#x reader#sylvain x reader#fire emblem x reader#fe3h sylvain#sylvain gautier#sylvain jose gautier#fe sylvain#fe sylvain x reader#fire emblem three houses x reader#byleth eisner#fe3h byleth#fe
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We're talking about Ads Again
Context for those followers of mine who weren't there: I made a post about tumblr ads being weird back in 2016 and it's literally still getting notes to this day. People responded GREAT to it. honestly, despite being like. ass old at this point and written by a literal high schooler, it's still pretty good! I thank my dad being in advertising helped significantly. I had an expert witness.
Tonight, I'm writing the sequel to that post. the sequel is this post.
let's just fucking dive into it or whatever.
why am I doing this?
okay for starters I made that post in goddamn 2016 and I refuse to believe my insights into the marketing world have not improved since then.
Also, the marketing world has CHANGED. Huge swaths of my old post are no longer relevant. What we saw with tumblr ads in 2016 was in some parts a passing fad, and in other parts the harbinger of a new wave of influencer marketing and corporate parasociality (I coined that term just now).
Honestly I've been thinking for a while that I should make an update post, but what with, yanno, adulthood, that's been kinda hard!
Well, I've missed a train, and it's Christmas, so I've finally found the time to do that.
What has Changed?
in my personal life... dad got fired!
yeah it fucking sucks. the good news is he and his wife are working towards their retirement now, shifting away from the industry overall. Good news as far as life is concerned, but it does mean I no longer have as clean a connection to the Industry as I used to.
but more importantly, why he got fired. The fact is, dad's old! I know, shocker. More than just being old, though, his field (and my stepmom's field - they both did the same work) represents an older paradigm of advertisement. he did TV spots and posters, not ad reads for Raid Shadow Legends. He was great at his work, but we're in an era of data-driven, maximalist, google adsense, low-barrier-to-entry, super-fast and super-cheap digital advertisement.
Well, more specifically,
We're on the cusp of an extinction event poised to bring said era crashing to the ground.
Pictured: the current vibes in the ad world
Siberia is on Fire and Everything is Dying
So given that my typical source on stuff like this is currently unemployed, I decided to hit good ol google (well, google and duckduckgo. fitting given what we're talking about) to see if I could get any insights into what the current state of advertising is.
and the short of it is that everyone says the end is nigh. check this out:
Digital is dead, and so is TV. God fucking damn. BY THE WAY, I loved these two articles. Chris Gadek, a man I only learned about today, is clearly an excellent writer and his professional insights are probably gonna be way better than my amateur synthesis of the half-dozen different articles I read today, including his.
blatant shilling for random article writers aside, let's get on to my half-baked synthesis, starting with:
What Set Siberia on Fire
In small part, it's the same issues facing most major companies and industries in our late capitalist world: Hubris.
As this New York Times article points out, we've got a low barrier of entry into a gargantuan industry that's increasingly pumping out slop to follow a strategy of 'more is more'. And we've all seen the bizarre mobile game ads and shady scams that have resulted from THAT.
On top of that, we've also got the fucking digital privacy issue shaking up the entire world as consumers increasingly don't like being spied on (imagine that), and the EU starts rolling out heavy restrictions on the data harvesting that was fueling a bunch of this advertisement bubble.
There's also the ad fraud. Oh, you didn't hear about that? Well, it's nothing much, just that lots of bots are clicking ads to falsify click metrics, artificially inflating the effectiveness of said ads. look, it even has a wikipedia article
oh and Facebook did it. Facebook did ad fraud. :)
and I'm not even getting into everything that works to shake up or demolish basically every advertisement channel out there - the decline of cable tv and print newspapers, the increasing use of ad blockers, the crisis of consumer trust, etc etc.
In short we are looking at a multitude of micro-crises all working together to make the environment unlivable for most current forms of advertisement.
in other words: an extinction event!
Who's Gonna Survive
And just like in a real extinction event, whether or not you survive depends on how good you can adapt to the brave new world you've found yourself in. Old school advertising needs to drastically rethink their everything if they're gonna stay afloat, and every field of the industry needs to recreate itself. As my new favorite writer Chris Gadek says,
"These crises show that there are no safe havens. You can’t substitute one advertising medium for another. Rather than pivot, the advertising industry must adapt and learn to effectively use the channels at their disposal (TV included), factoring in the seismic societal and technological changes that have occurred over the past decade and beyond."
and what is that going to look like? what's going to be the new face of advertising?
The field seems torn, at first... but also aligned, at least when it comes to the core principles:
privacy is a big issue. Seems like a lot of advertisers are seeing an end to wanton consumer surveillance, and looking into less invasive ways to gather important and meaningful data
companies that rely on selling ad space and propping up their engagement metrics are going to be relied on less, probably, because the metrics themselves are being seen as less reliable (for good freaking reason)
regaining consumer trust is going to be a massive priority in the future.
overall, we're probably going to look at a massive downturn in ads, as people turn to a quality-over-quantity strategy in an attempt to stop flooding the attention marketplace.
that's the gist I'm getting from reading oh so many different articles of varying quality from so many different sources.
So, yanno, there may be some hope out there. If smart people start leading this industry (lol), we may get to actually enjoy ads.
Yeah. Enjoy ads.
Unironically.
I know, it's crazy.
PS: if you start seeing affiliate links on mainstream TV ads, thank our lord of excellent business analysis Chris Gadek for calling it early. God, that's such a crazy left-field idea and I really want it to actually happen.
#advertising#advertisement#I'm not apologizing for the chris gadek worship. it's a good running gag fuck you.#this is probably not my best work but in my defense I missed a train and also me writing this got interrupted like 3 times today#i saw a post about ads today and it made me go 'i think the internet needs to know how much this industry is on fucking fire right now'#I am correct of course. y'all need to know.
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📢🔊🎤🎶 LOVE IS IN THE AIR... 🎙🎷🎺🎸🎹and 5 takeaways from the past months
THIS IS A LONG POST....
Oh my Gosh! What an afternoon of excitement!
Apparently Jimin changed for nanoseconds(?) his profile picture and posted one of JK
Too bad the account didn't record a video..... If there is only one person as a testimonial, let me be a bit skeptical. 🤨
But who knows... maybe Jimin was playing with Jk, as this latter did on April 28th.
https://twitter.com/jkfl6wer/status/1640512226829189122?s=20
Also emerging on twitter are the constant cacophonies heard in Jimin's last vlive....LOL
https://twitter.com/jeje_machi/status/1645017065609388032?s=20
I take these things with a grain of salt, because they always happen... there’s always someone in tiktok who hear voices in Jimin's and JK's vlives 🤣
BUT
I do think they were together the night of Like Crazy's BB100, because all the k-army accounts (I follow) perfectly hear, at the beginning of the vlive, a "go quickly" with a busanese accent. That can't be a coincidence, nor a general delulu mode!
In any case, I'm here to celebrate Jikook's love fest of this past month.
📢🔉🔊🎤🎶🎵 LOVE IS IN THE AIR... 🎙🎷🎺🎸🎻🎹
I have to admit that there was a time when I didn't understand why the hell we didn't know anything about Jikook.😫
Those who wait are in despair. And if I'm the one who waits (while quitting smoking), it's even worse, because I'm (above all) IMPATIENT! hahaha. I missed jikook a lot and I was in a total skeptical phase.
Don't scold me, I am not insecure, I like to be objective and critical. And there were things from these months that just made me wonder if everything was okay... I'm not going to go into them, because there’s no need. But I am going to share with you some of my lessons or takeaways from these months of CHAPTER 2 and that now, with more perspective, I can share, in case it helps anyone for next months.
1. The members who interact the most are the ones who are promoting at the time.
I don't expect to see others in official content, unless they have something to promote. I guess it's marketing strategy. Just compare how Suga has reacted to other albums on socmed, with how he has been more involved in Jimin's, because he came next.
The only exception is Hobi who is constant. Our dear sunshine..💜
But as I could see, if we want to see the rest, it's up to them.
2. This brings me to the next point: JIKOOK has chosen to show us that they are still there as usual, but without the exposure.
Let's cry in chorus! 😭😭❤❤
JK wanted to support Jimin and for us to see him. And he wanted it to be something special, dammit! And so it has been!
I melt with him and everything he has done so far: from saying how great the Set me free Pt2 MV was going to be, to playing the chords of Letter, and the vlive reaction to Suchita and Jimin's best moments unbothered.
Plus the next morning reacting to Jimin’s live LOL
And Jimin has always been active in JK's vlives, whenever he could, with some very memorable lines
3. What we don't see is almost EVERYTHING. And what we can see depends on many external factors.
Thanks to the editors we could see JK visiting Jimin. It looks like they were together for only 5 seconds, but we know that was not the case.
if they even said goodbye in two different positions LOL
On the other hand, Letter was not recorded remotely, nor did JK teach himself to play it on guitar on youtube, like he learned to make sushi on ITS.
This would be a point for non-jikookers who believe that jikook has not seen e/o for months.... but, I write it as a reminder for everyone, but especially for ME.
What we see in recorded content is Hybe's choice. The rest is either shown to us by them or we have to assume it by applying common sense.
On the other hand, does anyone expect jikook to plug in a vlive when they're at home together watching The Notebook for the umpteenth time? I don't...
Which brings me to the next point...
4. Army is always a support to Jungkook
I really believe that when he has been feeling very bored, alone or melancholic, we have been a help to him. Maybe he needed a rest, but at some point the inactivity has taken its toll on him, given that he didn't have his precious people around him.
In particular, I am happy to see him in his new role as CK ambassador and to see him travelling and active, at least until he enters the more intense work phase of his future projects.
So when I've seen Tae at his home, or with him at concerts, far from worrying about the cults's reaction (Who cares!!), I've been glad he was getting him out of the Mikrokosmos cave, because JK is an introvert and his comfort zone isn't exactly socialising.
[How I feel about Tae and his vlives and name dropping at certain times is another matter. But I have no doubt that Tae loves him and has made it a point to take him out bowling or to concerts]
5. Perhaps most controversial, but most obvious.....JIKOOK don't officially live together and that's what we're going to see from here until they leave for military service. So it's best not to give too much thought to the issue of houses.
But there is a very big obviousness to this issue. JK lives in a house rented by Hybe, with furniture from the dorms and barely decorated (althoug full of underwear 😁), as if he can't rent a house while his mansion in Itaewoon is being built...LOL! It's a joke! (and by this I mean that perhaps he spends part of his time elsewhere 😏).
If jikook is an established couple, as many of us think, we will always have to bear in mind is that they cant fulfil everything we would see in a long-term couple, like living together in one house 24/7/365, for obvious reasons, but basically because they are hidden couple and they’re also chased (especially Jungkook, who has a lot of sasaengs behind him).
And this is basically my main takeaways.... I'm sure I have more lessons learnt.... but I don't remember them now.... or I'm tired of writing.... maybe it's the latter ;)
I purple you 💜
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So I completed Pikmin 4 on Thursday with all treasures, all onions, and all castaways rescued. Basically everything except going back to platinum the Dandori challenges, which I probably don't care about but maybe someday. As promised, I have a lot of thoughts on Pikmin 4.
In some ways, Pikmin 4 is truly the Pikmin game that I have wanted since I originally got hooked on Pikmin and Pikmin 2 on the Gamecube. It is grand, expansive, and polished in a very Nintendo way. It brings back many fan favorite elements from the previous 3 numbered Pikmin games and expands upon them, adding its own unique twists and interesting concepts. It dives further into the society of weird little interplanetary explorers you play as than any previous game, expanding them across multiple planets (since apparently they sure do have a lot of planets). It was a very enjoyable experience and one that I don't find it difficult to recommend.
In other ways, it is a game that in making itself as marketable as possible has lost the charm of Pikmin. It is a game that feels at odds with itself, a game that loses some of the most potent elements that made Pikmin a compelling strategy game. I have seen at least one person liken it to a collectathon platformer moreso than a strategy game, and while I don't think that is completely accurate I think it clearly outlines one of Pikmin 4's biggest, most prevalent problems: the lack of strategy in a strategy game. It's a game that is terrified to punish the player, presumably in an overcompensation for the previous games not selling well and Nintendo thinking it was because they were too hard.
I don't want to make this a full on review, but let me see if I can make some sense of my thoughts under the cut. There will be full game spoilers, both for before and after the credits roll.
The first warning sign for Pikmin 4 was how slow, tedious, and long-lasting the introduction is. In previous games you had a single day of tutorial, giving you the ropes, and often had characters chime in for extra things you needed to learn afterwards, like what different Pikmin types did, but it was never so annoying as 4. 4 makes you go through multiple ingame days where the characters laboriously explain to you everything and admonish you if you try to go off on your own - the games point you directly at the first cave and if you don't go there IMMEDIATELY the game yells at you to do so. Thankfully after a few days it finally gets less overzealous, but damn was it a poor first impression.
Unfortunately, it only gets a bit less overzealous, because the characters do. Not. Shut. UP. In Pikmin 4 you have a crew of rescue explorers (who you save) who just are constantly chiming in from the peanut gallery. All the way into the very end of the game will characters remind you that you have Pikmin sprouts to pluck, or tell you to go attack the enemy's weakpoint, or whistle at Pikmin if they catch on fire, or say "aw man it's so sad we lost so many Pikmin, if only we could turn back time" not-so-subtly hinting at the game's (fine and appreciated for newer players) accessibility feature to rewind to certain points and undo mistakes. By the end of the adventure I wanted to strangle Collin in particular who is the worst offender.
The game chirps these "helpful tips" at you when you are doing the post-credits challenge mode that is explicitly the hardest part of the game! For fuck's sake! I know how the play the game by now!
This brings me to the game's accessibility options, which are much appreciated even if I wish they were less imposed on the player. You can rewind time to an extent if you need to undo things, and if you ever get lost you can get your dog to sniff up a path on where to go next. Now, I wish the game wasn't constantly telling me to use these features I didn't want to use, but I'm glad they are here. Pikmin 4 is definitely the most accessible Pikmin game and I think that is worthy of praise, even if I have some (okay maybe a lot of) gripes on how exactly they were implemented.
Speaking of the dog, I was skeptical about how it would be implemented but I largely really enjoyed Oatchi. He essentially takes the place of having a second captain and it works quite well. The big highlight is that Oatchi has different capabilities from your captain, which means you have to put some additional thought into which character you want where. This is at its best in the nighttime missions, where the captain is the only one who can use the Glow Pikmin's powerful glow bomb blast thing which is an extremely useful tool for dealing with the nastier enemies.
Unfortunately, Oatchi also kind of... is overpowered as hell. The main thing you will use Oatchi for is to carry Pikmin - when playing as Oatchi or riding him as a captain, your Pikmin will all cling to Oatchi's back instead of following behind in a group. This is extremely useful against bosses in particular, since it means you can dodge enemy attacks directly rather than having to manage the horde of Pikmin following you. Because a bunch of the bosses are ported over from Pikmin 1 and 2, this trivializes them in a not insignificant way. Man At Legs is a great example, as it is absolutely pathetically easy in Pikmin 4 since you don't even have to think about Pikmin management, just circle strafe with Oatchi while it's shooting and you'll never lose a Pikmin. This is not even taking into account how powerful Oatchi's charge and carrying abilities get when you upgrade them.
The best bosses in the game, unsurprisingly, are the two Pikmin 4 original bosses that feel actually designed with Oatchi's mobility in mind, the Groovy Long Legs and the final boss. These are also the only bosses that come close to the complexity and satisfaction of Pikmin 3's boss fights, since the game eschews boss encounters tied to going to new areas entirely, which is a damn shame since if it was going to take anything from 3 that would have been a great thing to take.
Speaking of things to take from 3 which I hate, the lock on. It sucks! I didn't like it much in Pikmin 3 but at least there there was still a bit of strategy in needing to aim after the lock on to hit enemies in particular weakpoints, and at least it was manually triggered. In Pikmin 4 you automatically lock your cursor to everything as you pass the cursor by it. This has two effects:
It can be quite annoying to try and get the cursor where you want it, and heaven help you if you want to aim at something which the game doesn't lock onto. For example, Skitter Leafs hide as leaves and then skitter when you approach, but you can instant kill them if you throw a Pikmin on top. Your lock on works when they are revealed, but when they are hiding it doesn't. This means that if you have killed a Skitter Leaf but there are others hiding nearby, you just can't even try to kill the ones that are hiding since your cursor will be locked onto the corpse your Pikmin can carry. This annoyance only happened a few times, but boy howdy is it annoying when it does crop up.
More importantly, it trivializes aiming at enemies. Throwing Pikmin in Pikmin 1 and 2 was a skill you could get better at - if you throw Pikmin near a Dwarf Bulborb, they would attack it, but if you threw a Pikmin directly on top of one they would kill it in one shot. This incentivized getting a feeling for the throwing arc of Pikmin and carefully lining up your shots to kill enemies quicker and safer. In Pikmin 4 you just... lock on automatically, and can throw a Pikmin and kill the Bulborb in one shot and go about your day. This wouldn't be so bad if so many enemies weren't ported over from Pikmin 1 and 2 directly - enemies like Shearwigs, Flint Beetles, and Breadbugs aren't balanced with the lock on in mind and as a result feel impotent. The only thing the game does to acknowledge this at all is make other Dwarf Bulborb types need two or three Pikmin to kill them, which... doesn't help much.
To swing back into things I like: the Pikmin types! The way Pikmin are introduced is reinvented and works really really well. You get Red Pikmin first with their Onion as normal, but after that you will find other colors of Pikmin in caves as wild Pikmin, or with the help of Candypop Buds, and integrate them into your team without having their Onion and thus being unable to grow their numbers manually. However, you can also find each color's Onion somewhere in the world, allowing you to raise as many as you want just like normal. This is really cool! It means that every Pikmin type (except Reds and arguably Yellows) gets a chance to be rare and important, really making you second guess how you approach things in case you lose out on those Pikmin that you might need for other things. This hit home for me when I was doing a cave with Blues and Ices, and was having trouble killing an Aristocrab. I finally killed it, but my Blue numbers had dwindled to the point that I couldn't carry a treasure out. That's cool! I love having to deal with the consequences of my actions. I ended up being put in a situation where I could keep charging forward into new areas and hope that I found more Blues or I could backtrack because I thought I had seen a Blue Onion in an area I was in before but couldn't get to it, but maybe I can now...
The one issue I have with how the Pikmin are given to the player is that the way means they aren't very well paced. Since it is essentially tied to whatever caves the player goes into, it is perfectly possible to get to the credits before even finding every Pikmin type - this happened to me, actually, as I got my first Winged Pikmin post-credits. It's a far fling from the careful metering out of the types in 1-3, but I think it largely works well outside of some pacing issues.
Speaking of pacing, this game really wants to be an open world in some ways, it's kind of silly. The areas are all bigger than normal and, as aforementioned, there aren't mandatory bossfights to get to the next area anymore. Your ability to explore is just tied to the Sparklium you collect, which has its pros and cons. Hell, Pikmin 4 even has a menu clearly riffing on the minimalist approach of BotW for some reason.
Luckily, this mostly works. The areas are great! The caves are also great! Everything feels really satisfying to explore, aided by the cool new feature to move your base to one of several predetermined areas on the map once you have found them (and usually killed an enemy on top of them). It's really fun to be able to take different approaches on each of the maps depending on where you plop down your ship and Onion.
Unfortunately, Pikmin 4 completely whiffs the "exploring a hostile alien planet" theme and tone. Every cave has a little "intro card" penned by Olimar explaining roughly what to expect in it, often spoiling the sense of discover when plunging in. New concepts are similarly explained - in previous games, Candypop Buds are shown to the player, the player is suggested that the Pikmin want to be thrown into them, and so the player tries and, in so doing, discovers what they do. In Pikmin 4, Candypop Buds are shown to the player, and the player gets a little explanation by Olimar and the other characters as to exactly what they do before the player has a chance to experiment. It's a subtle change, but when it applies to much of the game it really stands out.
The planet's hostility is a joke this time around. If you, like me, were a bit underwhelmed at how Pikmin 3 was easier than Pikmin and Pikmin 2, I have bad news: Pikmin 4 is even easier. I wouldn't even have that much of a problem with this if it weren't for one key thing that ruins it for me: enemies never respawn.
This is the single thing that bothers me most about Pikmin 4. In previous games, the choice to continue to explore a single area or go to a different one was one you made thoughtfully, because while your progress would be saved, over time enemies would respawn and you would have to deal with them again. Certain areas would even spawn harder enemies after enough time had passed, meaning that even in Pikmin 2 where there was no omnipresent day-based time limit to the game, there was still an incentive to go quickly - too long and that Snagret would be back, or a Sheargrub would chew up your bridge, or you would have to deal with a Beady Long Legs where one wasn't before.
Pikmin 4 takes this away entirely, which makes the game feel artificial in a way that the others didn't. Where once was a living, breathing world which actively continued on when you weren't looking now there is a bunch of video game levels where you can kill a Bulborb on day one and come back on day fifteen to pick up its corpse for Pikmin sprouts. It sucks, and is even worse in caves. When I went back to that cave from before where I needed to get a treasure but didn't have enough Blue Pikmin, I expected to at least need to fight that Aristrocrab again, to fight it smarter so I would still have Pikmin ready to carry the treasure. Instead it was still dead, its body still right where I had left it, and I just picked up the treasure with no obstacles in my way whatsoever. Where is the challenge, the satisfaction of holding your own against a hostile environment? Where is the friction? This change baffles me.
It's one thing to make a game easier to appeal to a wider audience, but it feels like another to me to make it so easy that you remove the satisfaction from actually besting its challenges. It would be one thing if this was an optional difficulty mode, or something, but Pikmin 4 has no such thing. And this is all on top of the copious ways that the game is made easier for the player optionally, such as the items that you can use to trivialize most enemy encounters.
The OTHER thing that I absolutely hate about Pikmin 4 is that it is a reboot for some reason. Despite being the fourth numbered entry in the series, and despite Nintendo seemingly going out of their way to port the rest of the series to Switch prior to 4's release, Pikmin 4 is a reboot, retelling Olimar's original trip to the Pikmin planet with a lot more shenanigans. I guess they did this because they wanted the whole dogs through-line to be more important to the Pikmin planet's history? It's a strange decision that didn't need to be made, and mostly serves to further make this feel like this is less a game for Pikmin fans and more a game desperately trying to appeal to everyone but.
This is a lot of text complaining about Pikmin 4, but I do want to emphasize that I really did enjoy the game. It might have beaten out Pikmin 3 for my third favorite in the franchise by its quality of content and enjoyable design. I just really truly wish it were more Pikmin and less anything but Pikmin. It feels like Pikmin has lost its character in favor of being a more generic Nintendo family friendly franchise for kids, and that's a shame.
Okay, final random comments, mostly nitpicks:
They brought Smoky Progg back which should really excite me but a loading screen tip spoiled it for me and it shows up so many times - not to mention when it does show up having nothing to do with its unique and fucked up "summoning" in Pikmin - that is dulls the impact for me. Makes me sad.
Puffstool is back but not Mushroom Pikmin??? This is baffling why even bother bringing back a fan favorite enemy if you don't bring back the reason why it was a fan favorite.
I alluded to this earlier but Groovy Long Legs fucking rules, I'm a little sad it didn't get an encore in the final boss rush dungeon. Definitely a highlight moment for me.
It's really silly that the Piklopedia entries basically only make sense if Pikmin 1-3 still happened despite the game obviously being a reboot lmfao. What the hell is a Beady Long Legs or a Ranging Bloyster, Olimar? I've never heard of these before they sound like they are from an alternate timeline or something.
I hate how many enemies just have a bigger version as a miniboss. It feels really unimaginative for Pikmin in a way that really bugs me.
Why did they remove the Pikmin dragging long enemies to the Onion from Pikmin 3, that was suitably macabre in a satisfying way. Carrying a curled up Snagret just isn't the same.
It's funny that they introduced this new baby Snagret enemy but then had like one Snagret outside of challenge rooms.
Purple and Whites finally got Onions and this made me very happy. :) It felt like a good reward for the challenge area. Speaking of the Onion I love it visually in this one, the colored segments look great.
It's very telling of the difficulty of this game in general that the hardest caves BY FAR are the final cave (as a lengthy boss rush thing) and the Waterwraith's cave they ported from Pikmin 2. Which wasn't even a late game cave in Pikmin 2 it was near the middle.
The three Pikmin types at a time felt too stifling to me, a limit makes sense but I feel like they could have made some cool puzzles around 4-5 types at a time. Also three at a time doesn't evenly divide into 100 which is obviously agonizing. Also I really hoped the final dungeon would go crazy and set me up to have every Pikmin type but nah.
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The Daily Dad
Things you might want to know, for Dec 19, 2023:
23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users — It’s probably too late and my warnings are pointless, but please kids… don’t give something as valuable as your DNA to a for-profit company that views security as a cost-center. It’s not just the millions of 23andMe suckerscustomers who have lost control of their genetic identity… their family members are compromised, too. Maybe it’s just me, but finding out you’re actually 8% Neanderthal isn’t worth giving the Russian mob the blueprints to your ancestry.
COMIXOLOGY, RIP — I was there at the start, with my little iPhone 3GS, ready to plow through a digital comic collection in Guided View mode. I was certain Comixology was going to save the comics business, and revitalize the audience. Now here we are at the end, nothing has been achieved, and a decade of progress has disappeared into the Kndle app, never to be seen again. Fucking A.
Using the iPad Pro as a Portable Monitor for My Nintendo Switch with Orion, a Capture Card, and a Battery Pack — Okay, I eat this kind of shit up. It’s absurd on a practical level, but it’s the kind of thing I’m likely to try, just for the hell of it.
Here’s what intentionally crashing a plane for YouTube clicks gets you — To paraphrase Robin Williams: the ability to crash a plane for attention is God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much money.
Facebook Messenger Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption by Default — About fucking time, Zuck. I guess he figures the petabytes of pre-E2E conversations that they can use to train their LLM will suffice, so it’s time to let the peasants have their privacy.
Noah Hawley: How 'Twin Peaks' Influenced My Work — If you were between 16 and 30 in 1990 and had any sort of creative impulse, Twin Peaks influenced your work.
What Did It Mean That Howard the Duck Was Trapped 'in a World He Never Made'? — The ‘80s movie and modern MCU cameos don’t do justice to the comic book Howard of the 1970s. He was dark and weird and absurd and (?) sexy and grown-up in a way that other comics on the spinner rack hadn’t been in decades, and I was enthralled.
The use and misuse of evolutionary psychology in online manosphere communities: The case of female mating strategies
The Bizarre Cottage Industry of YouTube Obituary Pirates
Warner Bros. Reverses Course on 'Coyote vs. Acme' After Filmmakers Rebel
‘Now and Then,’ the Beatles’ Last Song, Is Here, Thanks to Peter Jackson’s AI — The song is very good, and the technical skill and care that went into its recovery is just as interesting. The video is just goofy fun, very much in keeping with The Beatles pre-breakup sensibilties. Overall, a delightful and unexpected treat in a year that was full of absolute bullshit.
Apple Now Selling Standalone USB-C AirPods Pro Case for $99
Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid — I feel like most headlines featuring “Texas” or “anti-vax” should always include “pure stupid” as well.
How TV Executives Ruined Everything
Humane Debuts $700 AI Pin With 'Laser Ink Display' — Do I think this will be a success? No. It’s too niche and weird. But as a signal of life beyond the smartphone, it’s an intriguing development.
DAK and the Golden Age of Gadget Catalogs — As a household, we didn’t receive a ton of mail as a kid… we saw only a fraction of the junk that hits my physical mailbox these days. But every few months, the DAK catalog would arrive, and I knew I was in for at least a night or two of nerdy, consumerist joy. Page after page of discontinued, misconfigured, or too-oddball-for-the-general-market gadgets were waiting to tempt me with deep discounts on things no one really needed. Sheer bliss, I tell you.
How to Stop Your Kids From Ruining Your Apple Music Recommendations
Prince's Purple Rain puffy shirt is up for auction — You’ve gotta figure Prince’s clothes would fit an American Girl doll.
Audible's Moriarty podcast understands what makes Arthur Conan Doyle's arch-villain survive
The Real Reason You (Still) Watch Reality TV
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Karate History & Box Art Redemption
About a year and a half ago, I mentioned Jordan Mechner's seminal 1984 game Karateka in a post about Sifu, a newly-released beat ‘em up with a similar martial arts theme and tough-as-nails difficulty level. Sifu's a good game that garnered a certain amount of scrutiny from people who pointed out that it was an interactive experience steeped in Chinese culture but developed by a predominantly white team. This is not inherently a bad thing (Sifu’s devs did a respectful job), but considering Western media’s track record of misrepresenting Asia as an exotic place full of Fu Manchu-mustachioed bad guys and subservient women, it’s always worthwhile to be cautious. At any rate, Sifu reminded me a lot of Karateka, another game by a non-Asian creator that owed its lifeblood to Asian culture...and even featured the main protagonist and his love interest as white on the box art, despite the fact that the game clearly takes place in medieval Japan.
The Making of Karateka, a just-released interactive documentary by Digital Eclipse, explains the logic behind this decision via extensive notes that detail every step of the game's creation. From what I can discern, the box art design doesn’t appear to have been Jordan Mechner’s call. (Though the playable Karateka beta included in this package reveals that Mechner had some wacky non-Japanese names in mind for the game’s villain and damsel in distress... Akuma and Mariko were once dubbed “Kratang” and “Tiger Lily.” Yikes!) Rather, publisher Brøderbund’s marketing team seems to have been the division that assigned artist Thomas Blackshear II to paint the cover, instructing him that the titular Karateka was supposed to look like "a young Chuck Norris" or "Luke Skywalker" while Mariko should resemble an "American blonde." Meanwhile, only Akuma was specified as "Japanese."
Brøderbund’s promotional strategy followed the typical American metality of the era: it's okay to portray a bad guy as a foreign race, but leading men and ladies should be white and ideally blonde. It didn't have to be this way, since Bruce Lee had dominated cinemas with Enter the Dragon only a decade earlier and proved that audiences could accept an Asian hero. But Brøderbund decided to go the safe route, despite the fact that Thomas Blackshear is a person of color renowned for his Black and American Indian paintings. (He also portrayed a decidedly unblonde and possibly Asian main character in his early cover sketches.)
My intention here is not to hate on Karateka or any of the individuals involved. The original Karateka game for the Apple II did, after all, feature white hair for its leading man's sprite that could easily be interpreted as blonde (though that was likely due to hardware color limitations more than anything else), and Brøderbund justified their decision by claiming they were inspired by the multicolored hair of Japanese manga characters. (Eh, sure.) Also, if we're being honest about it, Blackshear's final art is a beautiful composition even with the questionable racial depictions.
Rather, I'm fascinated with Karateka's box as an example of mildly problematic '80s promotion, and I love how we gain insight into its development thanks to Digital Eclipse' painstaking efforts with what they call the first in their "Gold Master Series" of playable documentaries. Aside from these marketing details, The Making of Karateka delves into Jordan Mechner's early life in precise timeline fashion, letting us explore planning documents, early rotoscoping footage and prototypes of not only Karateka, but the games that preceded it, including Mechner's take on Asteroids and a shooter he was trying to develop called Deathbounce. There's even glimpses at the bones of a platforming puzzle game that started out as Karateka II and would later evolve into Prince of Persia.
Just about every review of The Making of Karateka stresses how this package sets a new standard for preservation in the video game industry, a business that is terrible at chronicling its own past. I won't repeat these arguments too much other than to say that I fullheartedly agree. Behind the scenes featurettes used to be a thing when it came to games — as a kid, I remember being utterly absorbed with the "Making of King's Quest VI" footage that came included on the CD-ROM — but these days you're unlikely to see too many of them, especially for titles that were released decades ago. In a world where Nintendo has yet to localize Mother 3 and customers need to rely on emulation and all types of hacks to revisit old games, Digital Eclipse's commitment to curating digital museums dedicated to works like Karateka is an incredible worthy goal — possibly one of the most important goals that a video game company has ever embarked upon. I can't wait to see more volumes in the Gold Master Series, and can think of many potential entries off the top of my head. Pitfall! Ultima! Doom! Maybe even one day...Sifu? (Likely a stretch, but stranger things have happened.)
But going back to the discusson of art for a moment, one of the most monumental things that The Making of Karateka does is offer a "remastered" version of its title game, complete with impressive graphical flairs, a more managable difficulty level, and even...revised box art. While Thomas Blackshear's original Karateka painting is still displayed prominently throughout the package, when you go to select Karateka Remastered under the list of playable games, you'll see a new mockup box. No longer is Akuma a dehumanized Japanese baddie, no longer is Mariko an all-American girl, no longer is the titular Karateka Luke Skywalker. All three characters are Asian...and get this, the central Karateka is not only Asian, but blonde too.
In one swift stroke, The Making of Karateka not only captures history and chronicles its mistakes, but also revises them for a bright future. Take that, 1984 marketing.
Update: An earlier version of this article stated that the new mockup cover art was illustrated by Digital Eclipse in-house artist Mae Livingston. Mike Mika, the president of Digital Eclipse, reached out to me on Twitter to explain that while Mae was responsible for Karateka Remastered's in-game artwork, the actual box image was made via Midjourney, and the characters were tweaked multiple times to look more culturally appropriate. He added that this methodology was an experiment that Digital Eclipse does not intend to rely on in the future.
I have very mixed opinions on AI art, and I do wish this box had been created by a human. I don't know if I would've written this piece if I'd known that the artwork was made by Midjourney, frankly. Nevertheless, I appreciate Mike actually reaching out to me, and the ultimate message of this article still stands. I hope Digital Eclipse considers the power that an image like this holds — especially for multiracial people like myself — and chooses human artists in the future.
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my @mcytblrholidayexchange gift for @sand-stinger ! its soup group hanging out :)
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Impulse said. “Instead of admitting that yeah, you’re into LARP-ing or whatever, you decide that if you pretend not to recognize your friends who have traveled into what they think is another universe, that would be better than admitting you like roleplaying?”
Gem wrinkles her nose. “Well, no? But it would’ve been awkward because I don’t know if any of them have a life outside of Empires.”
“I don’t think they do,” Pearl said.
They were sitting on the bridge that they had used as a meeting place back when they were trying to dethrone King Ren. Pearl had brought soup, but it went uneaten while they talked amongst themselves.
“Also, are we forgetting that Sausage literally thought Pearl was a saint?” Impulse asked. “He built a church for her and everything!”
Pearl bit her lip, hesitating before blurting out “Gem started a cult!”
“Cult is such a negative word,” Gem argued. “We prefer the phrase ‘religious organization’ — ”
“No, you definitely started a cult,” Impulse said.
“Half the members just joined for the sunglasses,” Pearl joked.
Gem mumbled something that sounded like “about two thirds.”
“I’m sorry, two thirds?” Impulse exclaimed. “Two thirds of your cult members joined because of the sunglasses?”
“Two thirds is an estimate, and we have some very effective marketing strategies!” Gem protested.
“That’s straight up bribery,” Pearl said.
“Is it really, though?” Gem asked. “I don’t think it is, Saint Pearl.”
“I didn’t bribe anyone, though!” Pearl pointed out.
“So far I’m the only person here who hasn’t started or been the face of a religious movement,” Impulse noted.
“Do you want me to change that?” Gem joked. “I can ask Bdubs about starting another religion.”
“Or would you prefer a cult?” Pearl asked, only slightly joking.
“I would prefer to fall off Stratos’s sky bridge,” Impulse informed her.
“Did you hear that Joel gifted Jevin a child for the Secret Santa thing?” Gem said suddenly.
“What do you mean a child?” Impulse asked.
“Oh, yeah, he made a child with Jimmy,” Pearl said.
“I absolutely do not want to know how that happened,” Impulse replied.
“It was cool that you guys got to hang out with my LARPing buddies,” Gem commented.
“They’re kind of weird, though,” Impulse said.
“I heard XB and Keralis came across Oli singing on top of a building,” Pearl added. “Does that — ?”
“It happens.” Gem shrugged. “He likes to spontaneously burst into song.”
“I mean, at least on Empires nobody keeps an Ender dragon as a pet,” Impulse said.
“True!” Pearl shouted, picking up a bowl of soup and loudly sipped from it. Gem and Impulse followed hesitantly, Gem grimacing once the soup passed through her lips.
“What is in this?” Gem spluttered, coughing.
“I threw in whatever I had on hand.” Pearl shrugged and gave an apologetic smile.
“Pearl, I literally can’t see,” Impulse said.
“I — ow! Okay, I’m being poisoned,” Gem said, looking a distinct shade of green. “Anyway, that’s a you problem.”
“If anything, it’s Pearl’s problem.” Impulse tried to glare at her, but ended up staring murderously at a fencepost.
“The effect has probably worn off now,” Gem pointed out.
Pearl rolled her eyes. “Besides, we’ve all been temporarily blinded by a suspicious stew.”
“At least when you’ve made them,” Impulse said.
“Are you insulting my soup making skills?” Pearl joked.
“I — not insulting, just saying you might want to attend a cooking class or two.” Impulse shrugged.
“We should all probably attend a cooking class,” Gem said.
“Nobody would be able to teach it,” commented Pearl. “We’re all terrible at cooking.”
“What about the people from your roleplay group?” Impulse asked Gem.
She made an awkward high-pitched noise and then said, “I think Scott is pretty good at cooking? Maybe Sausage, too.”
“Nobody necessarily needs to be good at cooking, they just need to be good enough at cooking that they don’t literally poison whoever eats the food they cooked,” Pearl noted.
“And I was literally poisoned by the food you made for me, so how about you stop putting lilies in soup?” Gem said playfully, reaching over to elbow Pearl.
“I put in whatever I had on hand!” Pearl protested.
“Remember that time where you put a wither rose in my soup and I almost died?” Impulse remarked. “That was fun.”
“Well, I — what else was I going to do with a wither rose? I needed to get rid of it somehow!” Pearl said, barely holding back a laugh.
“You could give it to someone else in regular flower form instead of deadly soup form,” Gem volunteered.
“Are we going to spend the rest of the day making fun of my cooking ability?” Pearl asked. “Can’t we talk about something normal?”
“If it makes you feel better, I’d rather eat your poisonous soup than Gigapies,” Impulse acknowledged.
“I’m so glad Grian’s pettiness helped us topple a monarchy,” Pearl smiled.
“That may have been the first time those words have been said in a sentence together,” Gem replied.
“At least we made some memories?” Impulse said hesitantly.
“I guess,” Gem said noncommittally.
“And money,” Pearl added.
“Right, we did steal a lot of diamonds,” Gem conceded. “A couple stacks at least.”
“We didn’t really get a chance to spend it because of the whole Rift thing, though,” Impulse pointed out.
“We can spend it now, then,” Pearl said.
They were silent for a bit. Gem ate some more soup.
“I like hanging out with you guys,” Impulse said after a minute.
“Yeah,” Pearl replied. Gem nodded silently.
“It kinda feels like there’s less to do since we disassembled the monarchy,” Pearl continued.
“We should probably take some time to just chill out and work on builds or something,” Gem said.
“Or we could just hang out,” Impulse suggested.
They were silent again for a brief moment, interrupted when Gem asked, “Did you guys hear that Doc has a pet Ender dragon?”
“I have so many questions and I need all of them to be answered immediately,” Impulse said.
“How would he get it to the Overworld, and where is he even keeping it?” Pearl questioned.
“I have absolutely no idea, and the Perimeter, probably,” Gem answered.
“Why can’t any of us be normal?” Impulse joked.
“There are so many good pets here! There are wolves, cats, pigs, horses, ocelots, axolotls, parrots — the possibilities are endless and he chose an Ender dragon?” Pearl said.
“I don’t think I should criticize him because I literally have a pet bear, but the logistics of getting an Ender dragon to the Overworld… how would you even?” Gem asked.
“You should ask him the next time you see him,” Impulse told her.
“You should visit him soon,” Pearl said.
“I should,” Gem agreed. “We all should, probably.”
“Should we go right now?” Impulse asked.
Pearl began to stand up, grabbing the empty soup bowls. “Absolutely yes. I want to see if he’s moved the dragon in yet.”
“Does it have a name?” Gem said, standing up slowly.
“We’ll ask Doc, but he’d let us name it if he hasn’t already.” Impulse stood up with a loud “oof”.
“So, what are some good dragon names?” Pearl asked.
“Tiny Tim, because Christmas,” Impulse suggested. “Or maybe Scrooge.”
“Grinch,” Gem put forth. “Uhh. Buddy the Elf?”
“We could name it Soup,” Pearl said as they headed towards Doc’s base. “Soup the dragon.”
“It could be something goat related,” Impulse put in.
“Frosty!” Gem shouted suddenly. “Sorry. It could be named Frosty.”
“It could,” Pearl acknowledged.
“It could also already have been named by Doc by the time we get there since we’re taking so long,” Impulse pointed out.
Pearl shrugged. “The point isn’t naming Ender dragons, it’s making memories!”
“It’s about the journey, not the destination,” Gem noted.
“I do want to see that Ender dragon, though,” Impulse said.
#mcyt#hermitcraft#hermitcraft fanfic#soup group#pearlescentmoon#impulsesv#geminitay#mcytblr holiday exchange
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so buddy daddies has ENDED (i know i’m heartbroken too)
and i wanted to share my THOUGHTS
buddy daddies spoilers :)
OKAY FOR ONE? LIFE PARTNERSHIP OF ALL TIME
guys this is NOT queerbaiting if i see one more person saying this is queerbait i’m going to start hissing and biting. you want to know what queerbaiting is? it’s a marketing strategy that hints at lgbt rep to draw in queer audiences. you want to know what queerbaiting is not? the depiction of non-nuclear family dynamics that don’t fit into your idea of “queer”. it DOES NOT MATTER that kazuki is seeing women lolol. it does not matter that they don’t kiss. it doesn’t matter that they don’t have some grand confession of romantic love. you can think kazuki & rei should kiss idc im not going to stop you - that’s a perfectly reasonable interpretation. but thats what it is: your interpretation. there was no “oooooooooh theyre going to KISS” - buddy daddies is a completely earnest depiction of a non-typical family and if you’re getting pissed about “queerbaiting” you COMPLETELY missed the message about how family doesn’t have to “look/be a certain way” even though buddy daddies basically beats you over the head with its themes (affectionate). queerness =/= alloheteronormative relationships lolol. if i’m being honest with you - even if you think they “hinted at queerness to draw in queer audiences” i think they followed through. these two dudes are running a cafe together and raising a kid together and living together permanently, thats queer as hell, just because it doesnt fit into a perfect box of L G B or T doesnt mean it isnt queer.
ANYWAYS RANT OVER: my actual thoughts:
I LOVE THE NEW HAIR AT THE END oh my god they’re moving on they’re growing up
um the part with miri and her moms photo OH MY GOD real its so important to me like YES her mom is still part of her life even tho a. shes gone and b. shes being raised by her dads
UGHHHH as a certified aromantic lolol i am extremely normal about rei and kazuki’s relationship. like yeah okay go on just model everything ive ever wanted yeah okay thats great yeah just punch me in the gut why dont you
WHEN REI SHOT HIMSELF? like was willing to potentially lose his arm in order to never go back to that world and protect his family LIKE
also kyu being like ‘lmao no’ when kazuki asked him to get a present for miri if they died is a. very special to me and b. funny as hell because kyu is not fooling ANYBODY we all know you got miri a gift lololol
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One of the things I really, really, Really miss in MHW is, ironically enough, variety.
MHW is a game with dozens of amazing monster designs, all with unique attacks, strengths and vulnerabilities. And what does the game force the player to do?
Grind your chosen monster again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, cause you want that upgrade and it costs a (monster name)-gem, which has around 3% drop chance.
I think I won't be breaking any new ground by saying this has been not the best decision on the designer's part.
*to be fair, only the top-est of the top upgrades require a gem, and in my experience you don't Really need those upgrades anyway, cause they will just break the game numbers. that said, my actual experience is just the main story, and I haven't touched the enhanced monsters or the raid ones, also I have not played Iceborne, and I know for certain that the numbers in that DLC are Completely broken right off the start, so maybe that gem upgrade is actually a requirement for it. I can't say for certain
This 'single-monster grind for the rare part you need' is the thing that knocked me off MHW for a while, I am just really tired of farming a single enemy like that. It's so repetitive and boring, despite the combat in the game being stellar. I have tried to switch weapons to make the grind more engaging, however, the skill ceilling for both the weapon and the monster attack patterns is too high far that to work, and you can't get the Gem if you're switching to a less powerful monster version, so that strategy won't work either.
This whole situation is outrageous to me, especially when the game has a few monsters that I have not fought even Once. For ex. Uragaan, it just looks like a Radobaan reskin on a surface level and I don't need it's gear, so I have not engaged with it even once, also Radobaan is just more badass. Here I am, instead, grinding a single monster over and over and over.
Okay, I think I've conveyed my disappointment quite adequately, now for the solution. I think this is a great time to remember about Dauntless.
For anyone who doesn't know, Dauntless is/was s f2p online monster-hunter and I've been a big fan of it for a few years. (sadly, the game has been bought by a chinese magnate and is being driven into the ground by them)
Obviously, as a monster-hunter, in Dauntless the core loop of slaying a beast > getting gear from it > slaying a more powerful beast is the same as in MHW. The difference is that you don't need that much parts from a monster to craft gear (about three kills will secure you an armour, five total should be enough for a weapon on top, those are not exact numbers, and I am speaking from memory), buuuut you need special Orbs to upgrade it. You get Orbs from doing Patrols, and here is the simple beauty of the Dauntless' solution to the grind problem-
Patrols are hunts where your target monster is randomised from a pool of monsters. Later in game, you get Heroic Patrols, which are the same, but for more powerful monster versions, and some new elite ones start appearing only in this category.
Patrols force you to engage with ALL the monsters in the game, and prevent the grind from becoming overbearing. In Dauntless, Pangar and Hellion might seem like model reuse, However the game forces me to experience both fights, and the attack patterns of these two are quite different.
So, the game loop of Dauntless is much more interesting and varied than MHW, because it makes use of 100% of its own content, while MHW has you repeatedly engaging with only 1/31 of it (= monster you grind for gear / total big monster count base game).
From my understanding, this is more of a design oversight, rather than a deliberate mistake, as the Monster Hunter series is quite old, and the 'streamlined monster grind for rare part' was the core eastern design of the series for most of that history, made primarily for the local market. However, this is still a design flaw and MH World was primarily made to bring new audience to the series, so this was the perfect time to reassess some of the carried-over design philosophy.
#i was just fuming about farming around 50 odogarons and not getting the final gem for the glaive upgrade#btw i didn't include investigations in this but they also make this issue even worse#(investigations are hunt quests for specific monster with additional random rewards)#(meaning any time you just slay a monster while free roaming the area cause you are sick of doing the same thing over and over#you are getting less item drops than you Could be if you have done investigations and the gem grind becomes even more tedious)#i don't think rise solved this issue either so here's hoping that mh wilds will#mhw#monster hunter world#mh world
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Much Ado About MOANA
Say it ain't so!
Walt Disney Pictures is working on a live-action "reimagining" of MOANA that will involve Dwayne Johnson himself, who of course voiced Maui in the original animated feature directed by Ron Clements and John Musker for Walt Disney Animation Studios and released in 2016.
As of now, the movie has three forthcoming extensions: This project, a land at Epcot in Walt Disney World, and an animated series being produced at WDAS (namely its recently-opened Vancouver unit) for Disney+.
I used to grouse to the moon and back about how much I detested much of these particular remakes and reimaginings of Disney's animated features and characters. You know, the ones made in the aftermath of Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND throughout the 2010s, and even into now. I used to see them as something of a threat to animation's reputation, and they all came at us fast! MALEFICENT in 2014, CINDERELLA in 2015, THE JUNGLE BOOK (a largely CGI movie with one live actor and maybe like, 5 real-life plants) and ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS in 2016, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in 2017, and a five-finger-punch of DUMBO, ALADDIN, THE LION KING, a MALEFICENT sequel, and LADY AND THE TRAMP in 2019... And then MULAN in 2020, CRUELLA in 2021, and PINOCCHIO this past year. Mixed in with these movies were a genuine new take on hybrid film PETE'S DRAGON and a legacy sequel to MARY POPPINS, MARY POPPINS RETURNS. Even Burton's ALICE, which got this whole ball rolling, was pretty much its own thing, ditto the 2016 sequel.
On the horizon? PETER PAN & WENDY, THE LITTLE MERMAID, SNOW WHITE, MUFASA: THE LION KING, BAMBI, THE SWORD IN THE STONE, a JUNGLE BOOK sequel, THE ARISTOCATS, ROBIN HOOD, THE CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN (which the 1985 animated feature THE BLACK CAULDRON was adapted from), THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, HERCULES, and LILO & STITCH. Now MOANA joins the ranks, the first all-CG animated Disney film to get the "live-action" treatment.
That's a ton of remakes in the span of almost 10 years, if we peg the actual start of this trend with 2014's MALEFICENT.
I think I've only seen... ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and THE JUNGLE BOOK, in full. I refused to watch the others. Back then it was out of protest and me just genuinely not being interested, nowadays? It's just the latter. These things aren't for me, and that's okay I guess. They haven't erased animation, nor did other recent "realistic" takes on animated classics, such as the 2017 GHOST IN THE SHELL movie with Scarlett Johansson. It hit me one day at my cinema job when THE LION KING was released. The Cinemark that I work at used to have a cart for movie merchandise, including things like T-shirts and Funko Pops and such. Most of the merchandise for the remakes that came out that year? Were for the animated originals... (I use the word loosely, but... You know what I mean!) I'd say it was an 85/15 ratio. Some stuff for the new remake, but mostly stuff for the classic animated movies that inspired them... It hit me... These are just over-glorified theatrical re-releases of the animated classics, made to move some merch and stuff at your local Hot Topic. It's kind of a weird transition from the way Disney used to keep their films in the public eye, whether it was a re-release cycle from the 1940s up until the mid-1990s, or their video releases being available for a limited time before being retired to the infamous "Disney Vault" (a ruthless marketing strategy thankfully put to rest with the arrival of Disney+ in 2019).
But in 2017-ish, I remember just being so goddamn grumpy about these things. Made worse by various directors, actors, and producers involved with the remakes making disparaging remarks about the classic movies for being... Well... **Animated**. Imagine that! The director of live-action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST declared that filming that story with real people gave it layers of psychological depth and nuance or some such bullshit. An actor on ALADDIN said almost verbatim the same exact thing. Disney stressed that their LION KING remake wasn't animated, even though the entire thing except a single shot was computer generated and "animated"! Then of course, several folks involved with the remakes making up nonsense about the princesses and heroines in the originals. We're seeing that now, even, with THE LITTLE MERMAID. Though these particular remarks about classic Disney heroines are nothing new, they remain nonetheless a bit irritating and proof that media literacy is lacking in many people. Then again, we do live in a world where people constantly parrot nonsense like "Batman is a rich guy who beats up poor people" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is about being bullied until you're useful to your bullies."
Some people just don't pay attention to what they watch, do they?
But really, the remakes come, make a lot of noise, often times make a crapton of money at the box office... And then they just... Disappear. Like, it was insisted that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 2017 fixed the plot holes of the 1991 movie and was "darker", more "adult", whatever- Uhhh, I don't really feel its presence anymore, whereas the 1991 animated movie directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale? Still here, still beloved, still holds up. I guess you could not outmode the dumb ol' kiddie cartoon, now could you? All that "darker" and "more psychology" talk is gimmicks at best, and most folks just kinda watch 'em because they saw the originals... and then that's it. It's a movie, it's a thing, it exists. You got what was on the tin: It's [insert Disney movie here], all over again!
This all being said... Now the CG movies are fair game, and possibly Pixar's some time in the future. It ain't just the 2D movies they're going after anymore. Look at Universal, they're readying a HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON live-action movie for 2025 with Dean DeBlois himself - director of all three of the animated DreamWorks HTTYD movies - at the helm! It's either going to be a straight-up live-action version of the DreamWorks adaptation released back in 2010, or it's going to be a whole new take on Cressida Cowell's book series. I hope it's the latter, honestly, then I might give it my attention.
To this day, many rightfully concerned folks still feel that these live-action/photorealistic remakes insult pure animation. Pure animation as in, animation that KNOWS it's animated. Straight-up cartoon or abstract. That Hollywood sees animated movies as but a "stepping stone" to superior live-action, but really... What I see is this... Money. People love an animated movie or show? Money. How many different coats of paint can we put on the car?
Some are asking... Why not just a MOANA sequel?
The weird thing about that is, Ron Clements and John Musker left Disney Animation. They were last seen developing a METAL MEN movie for Warner Animation Group. Of course, the directors being off on a new adventure doesn't mean anything in capitalism, Disney could plow ahead with a MOANA sequel if they wanted to. But they choose not to at the moment, only this and a D+ series. Kind of keeping in line with a history of not really making sequels in-house, and the days of outsourced direct-to-video fare has been loooooong over. (The remakes are often compared to the DTV sequels of the '90s and '00s, and for good reason. They're little more than brand extensions, and you can ex 'em out of the equation if you so choose to do so. Disney EU or Disney "Elseworlds" if you will...)
But what's actually seemingly upsetting is that... In the past few months, on the year of Disney's 100th anniversary... Most of the movie announcements have been nothing but continuations and brand extensions. They also serve as a nice distraction from needless layoffs, but yes... The big announcements have been things like TOY STORY 5, FROZEN III, ZOOTOPIA 2, Live-Action MOANA, etc. etc.
However, one ought to look closer. In-between all the franchisey stuff and synergetic things, there's still original movies being made... Like, there's not only 20th Century Studios continuing to make new live-action movies that aren't remakes or re-dos or new adaptations of books (y'all seen THE MENU and BARBARIAN last year? Great stuff! Highly recommended.), but you still have Pixar. From March 2020 to March 2022? Four straight original animated movies: ONWARD, SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED. After spin-off LIGHTYEAR, we're getting ELEMENTAL in two months, ELIO in spring 2024, and presumably many more on the horizon.
Oh, but ELEMENTAL looks "mid", you say? "A parody of Pixar"? Or whatever else is being mindlessly parroted at the moment? Whatever, I don't know what to say to that, but like it or not, a movie like ELEMENTAL is the rare original movie from Disney, a small island in a sea of remakes, Marvel, and Star Wars. Ditto ELIO, and again, whatever is in the works after that that isn't a sequel.
And of course, Walt Disney Animation Studios, who have all but abandoned literary adaptations outside of public domain fairy tales, keeps up with original stuff, too. After releasing no new movies in 2017, two back-to-back sequels from 2018-2019 and taking 2020 off due to COVID-19 complications, they hit us with RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, ENCANTO, and STRANGE WORLD. Next up is WISH, also an original story, despite the weird way it was presented and reported on at D23. Whatever releases after that, I do not know, but FROZEN III and ZOOTOPIA 2 aren't the only things in development there. Plus, they have partnered with Nigerian upstart studio Kugali to make an original show for Disney+ called IWAJU.
Much like the reception ELEMENTAL is getting online, a movie that isn't even out yet, a lot of the recent WDAS output and what's next is just being written off... But it's all there, it's original, it's a mere morsel of something coming out of the company that seems to be all about them brands. I'm not blaming audiences specifically for, say, STRANGE WORLD's epic floppage this past holiday season, buuuuut- Those numbers are looked at, and they possibly bring about consequences.
I do get the worries, though. Under former CEO Bob Chapek, we saw Pixar's originals post-ONWARD all go straight to streaming while franchise entry LIGHTYEAR hit the big screen... and lost money. WDAS movies had a hard time, too. RAYA did a day-and-date thing with Disney+ before most of the vaccine rollout, ENCANTO dealt with Delta and Omicron before being a huge hit at home, STRANGE WORLD was straight up left for dead after testing very poorly.
With Bob Iger back in charge, Chapek's strong pivot to streaming is being reversed, as it's being realized that streaming is not the be-all end-all of the movie world. And sharp eyes knew it never would be, either, but you know how things go in capitalism: New thing shows up, abandon everything for the new thing! Disaster! Hey, that's how hand-drawn animated features prematurely got the boot circa 2001. Anyways- Yes, Iger rearranged a lot of things, and now the release strategies and marketing campaigns are back in the hands of the studios and creatives, and I'm pretty sure that there's an effort, a commitment to make ELEMENTAL the first Pixar box office success in four years. That's right, the last Pixar movie to make its money back at the box office was... TOY STORY 4... Back in 2019... And you wonder why a fifth one was greenlit?
I'd imagine Iger saw how Chapek and co mandated Pixar to send TURNING RED straight to streaming, and knew what to do from there. Ditto how, on the WDAS front, STRANGE WORLD was just straight up abandoned. TURNING RED probably would've made ENCANTO or BAD GUYS numbers at best, which wouldn't have been enough for its hefty budget (Pixar needs to stop overspending on these things), but I wonder what's in store for ELEMENTAL. Few animated movies post-2020 have passed the $100m threshold domestically, and I feel that is due to how many trips to the movies families can afford a year. (Say the line, Kyle: In 2014, statistics showed that the average American family goes to the movies four times a y-) It's opening amidst a ton of blockbusters and other animated family movies, including Disney's own LITTLE MERMAID, and the fifth INDIANA JONES movie. Maybe movies should just be more affordable? And theaters, better places to sit down and see a movie? I can see why many just don't go anymore, again, having worked at a theater for 7 1/2 years (and ready to move on to something better).
Or better yet, Pixar and WDAS need not spend more than $150m on the movies that they make. DreamWorks, Illumination, Sony, et al. put out dynamic-looking movies that are rewriting the CG animation book for way less, WDAS and Pixar should probably consider that. Leave the tech-flexing to things like that LION KING remake and prequel, let their animated movies experiment and have fun again. But even movies they don't seem to be flexing tech cost so much. Why, though? I know in California, these things are expensive, but DreamWorks is based out of California, too. I guess that Moonray software they themselves created and other solutions have gotten their movies to cost less than $100m each time out. Well, WDAS opened their Vancouver unit, so maybe they can up them to feature status? Like they did with the defunct Florida unit way back when? Split the effort with Vancouver, lower the cost? I dunno, just spit-balling here.
Basically, I don't want ELEMENTAL and WISH to come up short at the box office. Or any of the original stuff coming out, period. Again, WDAS, Pixar, and 20th Century/Searchlight are like Disney's last outlets for that kind of stuff on the movie end of things. 20th is fine and good, because in small-scale live-action, most of the time the studios know how to be smart with budgets. $150m budgets make the average WDAS and Pixar movie a risk, that they have to get on the stage and essentially perform like a Marvel movie just to break even! That's a lot to ask of an original animated movie! And not even the WDAS name nor the Pixar name can guarantee people will show up, both have had their fair share of flops. And now, judging by how ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA is doing, the Marvel name ain't a guarantee anymore either. Ditto Star Wars, remember how SOLO just sorta existed at the box office and lost a lot of money? TV and elsewhere is a different story, of course, there's plenty of original stuff to choose from there.
MOANA Live-Action is likely being made to fund the fun cool stuff, much in the same way sequels help fund originals. They... Pay the bills, shall we say.
In other words, I'm just indifferent. Whatever. Tell me more about the original stuff coming out, and you'll have my ear.
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this kind of like booktok "domestic abuse is so cute" shit that utterly floods the romance market for some fuuuuuuuucking reason is the kind of shit im talking about when im like "i dont care if you have a kink for this garbage it's irresponsible and reprehensible to portray positively." cannot stress enough that in practice like vast swaths of people across society will ignore, condone, or attempt to justify domestic abuse and blame its victims and having like 20 million "romance" books that engage in such victim blaming and justification is not actually breaking any taboos, it's just reinforcing the dominant cultural message that domestic abuse is okay sometimes. to the point people are like aww so sweet this is aspirational :) NO IT IS NOT!!!!!! fine by me if you want to read that shit but immediately afterward you are GOING to read lundy bancroft's "why does he do that" and internalize what is being conveyed to you about the patterns and strategies employed by abusers lest you start saying stupid shit based on what you've read in romance novels and heard from abuse apologists in reality. this shit is like copaganda for people who beat their wives
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