"It's your first time here, but you speak our language so well." "Well, I studied liberal arts."

every time i read a drarry fic that's like 'potter was so stupid and unrefined and gormless and utterly in awe of the brilliant, cultured, perfectly in control, mysterious ice prince draco malfoy' im like...ok. teenage draco definitely wrote this.

You know me inside and out. You've seen me for who I am without any disguise. What do you think? Are you still afraid of me? All I know is that the man in front of me is Xie Ju'an. Everything else, whether right or wrong, true or false, is just water under the bridge. The past is the past. What matters is the future.

Story of Kunning Palace (2023) 1.36

Auron Core moment except he'd get away with it 😭

I wish I had thought of that :)

chanbaek destructive glee

“No nos has visto en la intimidad”

“Si quieres te mandamos unas fotos bien explicitas”

This is conversation is just gross😟

Do you even know how obsessed I am with Carrie's little "What even is that? What even is that?? What was that?" she says to Kayla after Kayla gives Julie the idea for the hologram band? Like I know it's supposed to be filler because we're supposed to listen to what Reggie says in that scene but Carrie saying this keeps replaying in my mind over and over like. She's so pissed!! And all she can say is just "What Even Is That??" I love her!!!

꒰Eleceed Guy's Reactions at Getting Caught Staring ༉‧₊˚✧

↷Base: Milk tea

↷Flavor: Sucheon, Jisuk, Jiwoo, Wooin, Gangseok, Duke, Asher

↷Allergies (Warnings): none

┊Jiwoo

blushes and apologizes profusely. If he's in a bold mood he’ll tell you why he was staring (you looked pretty, you looked nice, etc.) Becomes so so shy and flustered after that. 

┊Wooin

Freezes. His face turns the unhealthiest shade of red you’ve ever seen, and then looks away and refuses to make direct eye contact with you for the rest of the week. Poor boy is so embarrassed. 

┊Jisuk

Tries to play it off. It doesn't work. He almost throws himself headfirst out the window. 

┊Sucheon

Flinches slightly at being caught, and then tries to play it off with an accusatory "what?" Like you were the one staring at him. He'll vehemently deny any of your claims that he was staring at you first, but when he turns away you'll see his ears have turned a bright shade of red. 

┊Gangseok

Blinks in surprise, apologizes while doing that thing where he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. He’ll try to get himself to say why he was staring in the first place, but all he can manage to get out is, “Sorry, I just thought you looked…” before backing out at the last minute and just saying it was nothing important. Side note: He has a very pretty blush, especially because it matches his hair. 

┊Duke

Usually, it’s impossible to catch him staring. Duke is inhumanly quick at averting his eyes the moment you look at him-like his timing is perfect, you have no idea how he does it. But on the rare occasion that you do, he’ll just give you that small, airy smile that makes it feel like he knows something you don’t. If you ask him about it later, expect him to respond with a flippant, sassy answer like, “Well, aren’t eyes supposed to be used to look at things? Why are you so surprised that I used them for their intended purpose?” 

┊Asher

You think you catch a moment of panic, but it’s gone because in the next second he’s smiling with all teeth and saying that he was staring because there's a wasp crawling on your neck and “oh boy it looks pissed off” Spoiler alert: he’s a fucking liar and there is no wasp on your neck, and he will start cackling and calling you a dumbass once you figure that out. In reality, he just wanted to divert your attention from his screeching-into-the-void level of embarrassment he procures from being caught. 

YALL I WISH I COULD TWERK BECAUSE ATEEZ HAVE DONE IT AGAIN AND THE ALBUM IS FULL OF SONGS WHERE I NEED PROPER HIPS IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

ITS SO CUNTY HOLY SHIT

The thing about pairs is that it's become the most boring disciplinne to me since Wenjing and Cong stopped skating

my deepest condolences to @indestinatus 's ask box. I wasn't my intention at all.

feels like i turned into sonogong.

this has been sitting in my drafts as a response to some ideas that were circulating online a week or two ago due to that bang sihyuk interview, and it's clumsily worded but i still feel like it's a valid take so i'm just posting anyway. i'm not a music professional or connected to the industry, so if i'm far wrong just ignore this random post. i just get frustrated that for all the talk of strategy etc. everyone seems to act like bts (and by extension jk) are an established *western* act while either still promoting like a kpop act in sk schedule-wise or like a beyonce/tswift level act (which ... yeah duh) with vast u.s. name recognition (not so much) - and then wondering what's not clicking

idk about this "crisis" but i know one thing has struck me about the kpop and sk press and kpop stans in general

i touched on it back when i was talking in my tags about like crazy getting traction in the us

and what i meant was that those involved in kpop are too blinded by the industry cycle and too used to that cycle's accelerated evaluation by stans and press alike

like no one in the us who is not already a fan is waiting on the day of release to listen stream and buy. it is NOT like sk with weekly shows, several comebacks per year, etc etc

and most especially it's not this thing of: create song, choreo, mv, do a spate of music shows, see what hits if anything, maybe leverage concert dates if it does - but if not then done! next concept! move on and keep it moving - got to fill those music shows and if you don't constantly have new pieces to show you could lose attention and traction

but the general public in the u.s. is NOT socialized to all tune in to check out what's new at a certain time each week or whatever

only some check the charts and even that is mostly just to see where their personal fave is

what gp recognition goes by is repetition (that's one reason why radio is weighted so heavily in ratings- not fairly, but it's true): have we heard a song before? was it in the car on the way? was it in the club? was it in the music in the background at a store, at a party, on a friend's playlist?

when americans say they heard a song "everywhere" it means literally you could not escape it - and for that kind of feeling or environment to exist, it has to happen over *t i m e*

true, yes, sometimes a song takes off and gallops out of control like a wildfire catching but that is the exception not something that can be planned for or marketed into existence

and once you are a big enough name and have enough fans (us population @ 330 million so ... a lot more fans than it take to equal the same percentage of sales in sk ... so only a sliver of a percentage of that can mean a #1 bb hot 100) you CAN get that immediate-drop chart push

but most of the time, u.s. artists need to build up name recognition with the folks who wouldn't know a music chart if it popped up in their excel spreadsheets. that's why you get youtube reactors or even music business professionals months after release going oh i didn't know they even had an album/track/mv out

the larger a group, the longer it takes for things to disseminate past the early adopters and the media who watch them and the industry (nobody wants to be left behind, so journalists/talking heads are always like pets when you walk into the kitchen: heads on swivels in case it turns out relevant, and will write things just to be on top of a possible trend)

and this is where, i think, after watching hybe and its american arm try their push on jk, the kpop focalists are veering astray in their plans and projections: not seeing immediate huge success (or not *sustained* huge success) they think there is some kind of crisis rather than understanding that a u.s. or even just western gp fandom cannot be a top-down thing - it will take time

bts are huge (and yes a triumph for bts IS NOT and SHOULD not be lumped in as "a win" for kpop in general as has been pointed out is too often the case) but in the first days of jk's album release, *2 months* after seven had debuted, the huge nationwide retailer where i work couldn't even get his name spelled correctly in the point-of-sale database, so

the u.s. music industry is a big machine and busy on its own, many listeners only stay in their own bubbles and don't pay attention to anything outside that, because just keeping up with the output of one scene or genre can take as much effort as watching the kpop industry as a whole

to break wide you need to be either insanely ubiquitous and not just on social media (which runs the risk of people getting sick of you just as fast) or you need the slower groundswell of people going from "oh *that's* them? i heard of them but i didn't know that was their song" to "omg that's my song!! turn it up!"

there's just too much out there today to catch people's attention and the media cycle turns ever faster - used to, a song could be out and getting steady radio play and it still wouldn't hit the consciousness of the national public for like 3 or 4 months sometimes. sometimes it could take a year or more.

so this thing of short promotion periods for kpop acts - even bts! - is just not viable as a way to attract a wide gp following in the states. being on late night tv shows is a good step, but since the advent of streaming the influence of shows like that has waned considerably since the days of ed sullivan or johnny carson.

jk's run of promoting *was* the right kind of thing to do in fact - it simply should have been much more spread out over time. you can see all his album collab artists have things coming out *now* ... and there's no way to really take advantage of that with the curtailed promo.

and yes, obviously jk did get probably the second longest promo period of all of bts chapter 2 solos efforts (i think yg's tour ran longer?) and it was cut off for very valid reason! but!

i think bangpd et al. taking the fact that they couldn't make jk a household name in the u.s. nor nab him a grammy nom (nor any other kpop groups) within the 5-6 months of their fairly blatant push for us recognition as indicating a "crisis" is just not looking at the long game.

they didn't get all the accolades right away, so it seems they've decided 'that didn't work we need to make some big changes' instead of continuing what they'd been doing in support of the artists

it's this attitude of welp they didn't give us a grammy we were entitled to even though it's the first time we played ball in this particular way, so now we're worried bc we don't know how to shop kpop beyond people who aren't primed for it

like, they are looking at the business of it, and likely accurately, but not at the audience itself

it's not that the observations bang is making are wrong i just think he is basing them off premature information - songs in the u.s. DO benefit from purchase power, but they ALSO rely a lot on word of mouth. not for charts positions necessarily, but for longterm growth, support, and more importantly demand, you cannot beat a fandom that grows on its own.

the paid promotions at the end of the day serve the same purpose as bts's early days vlogs in the current western music climate - getting the artist and songs in front of as many eyes and ears as possible. but then you have to allow time for that wave to spread - and the bigger the pond, the more time it may take

Day 1: Discovery

Nadine *Lounging on couch of rented Hostel researching the excavation site they are headed towards* Chloe: CHINA!! *bursts into room holding a small box cradled into her side* Nadine *Jolts up scared at the sudden noise* Chloe: You will NEVER guess the amazing treasure I found! Nadine: This better be good Frazer... Chloe: It absolutely will. It'll make scaring you absolutely worth it's value in gold, promise! Nadine: You did not scare me Frazer. Chloe: *Wink so quick you would think you imagined it as she sits on the couch next to Nadine* Sure I didn't China. Nadine: Uggh, what is this treasure then? *trying to peak at the guarded box* Chloe: Well, as I said, I have found the greatest treasure ever! Nadine: That's a load of- Chloe: Or at least the greatest in a long while. *smiles at Nadine's irritated look* Nadine: *Unimpressed look* ... Chloe: Have a look. *slides over box* Nadine: *Unboxes the lid with care* Chloe: *Still smiling and smile growing bigger* Nadine:...It's a mirror? Why...? Is this some sort of relic? Chloe: *Absolutely beaming now* Dunno about that, but you're the one who's brought 'relic' and it's associations into play. Nadine: *Furrowed brows* What? Nadine, you're sounding like Sully. Chloe: *Goes in for a cheek kiss* Nadine: *turns at the shift at proximity* Accidental kiss happens. Nadine pushes Chloe back, accidentally sending her flying towards the arm of the couch. Nadine: *Places box down and stands up red faced* Fraze?!- Chloe: *Chuckling* Talk about a kiss for the records... Nadine: Chloe?! Explain yourself. Chloe: *Rubbing back smiling at Nadine* I can't believe I'm having to spell it out for you Nadine. The 'greatest' treasure I found is you.

Nadine:... Nadine: Ohh... Chloe: Sorry, thought I was being coy. Nadine: Don't be-sorry that is! Chloe: *Raises eyebrow* Nadine: Don't be sorry. You were-this was all pretty coquettish, so uh...you did well. Chloe: *Chuckles standing up from the couch * Oh yeah? Nadine: *weakly clears throat and makes her way back to the couch* Yeah and...if we're partners meaning to share the wealth of our discoveries...*Grabs box from it's temporarily forgotten place* I want you to know you're an invaluable treasure to me too. Nadine: *Hands box back over to Chloe* Chloe: *Takes box* I said you're my greatest, *Peaks into the inside of the box enough to see the mirror* not invaluable... Nadine: Hmmph *Crosses her arms* Chloe: But...*Tosses box onto couch next to the standing couple* glad to know the feeling is mutual. *Steps towards Nadine* Nadine: *Pulls Chloe into a kiss* Ao3 Link: