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laundrybiscuits · 1 year

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(purify our misfit ways tag | AO3)

It’s so, so strange to realize that this is probably the best summer Robin’s had since she was a kid, and it’s barely July.

Oh sure, there’s plenty she still has to worry about—she’s still dead set on escaping Hawkins’ gravitational pull and becoming someone worth being, someone who has adventures and eats fancy cheese in Paris and maybe maybe even kisses a girl under the stars someday, and that means she has to work her ass off.

If she wants even half a chance at any of that stuff, she’s got to pick up as many shifts as she can and work on her French for at least an hour every day and never ever lose sight of the goal. She can get out of here, and who knows, maybe she can even take Eddie with her. He’s bad at languages but she thinks he’d like Paris anyway, with her around to translate. She thinks it’d be fun, roaming the streets of Europe with someone who makes her laugh like Eddie does: someone she trusts more than she thought she’d ever trust anyone.

So she’s been working hard, definitely, but it wasn’t all that long ago that she’d been thinking of this chapter of her life as just something to get through with gritted teeth and grim determination. Now, she wakes up most days in the early summer sunshine and remembers that she’s scheduled with Steve, and that Eddie’ll swing by in the afternoon when he wakes up if he’s not too busy with his nerd shit, and she feels confusingly genuine happiness percolating through her. It feels like good things can exist in the present, not just the potential future. It feels soap-bubble iridescent and fragile.

A year ago, the thought of toiling in the Hawkins customer service trenches in the company of Steve “the Hair” Harrington and Eddie “the Freak” Munson would’ve sounded like a waking nightmare. Now, just the thought of Steve’s dumb jokes and Eddie’s wild dramatics is enough to tuck a smile into the corners of her mouth as she hurries to get ready, moving just a little faster to get her day started sooner.

Eddie’s managed to get over whatever weird homosexual paroxysm he was having, and acts mostly normal around Steve. Normal for Eddie, that is, which means that on one slow afternoon he sits cross-legged on a table and retells the story of Odysseus with the little red plastic sample spoons, doing progressively squeakier voices for each character; another time, he talks them into what he calls a Scoops Soup Showdown, where he mixes up three spoonfuls of ice cream until they’re basically one undifferentiated liquid and forces Steve and Robin to guess the original flavors.

Steve had been weirdly good at that one, and Robin’s still half-convinced he’d been cheating somehow despite his indignant denials. It had all ended when he’d guessed strawberry-butterscotch-vanilla before she’d even pulled the spoon out of her mouth, and she’d been forced to dip her finger in the gross goop and chase him around the back room, trying to give him a wet willy. Eddie had been cackling so hard he’d slid all the way under the table.

Robin’s not dumb, she knows high school friendships fall apart all the time, but god she hopes she gets to keep this.

That’s another thing: at this point, it’s getting kind of silly to pretend that Steve’s not actually sort of her friend too, bizarre as that would’ve seemed a few months ago. It’s a new and tentative thing, but she is provisionally willing to admit that it is in fact what scientists might classify as friendship, subcategory probational. Even when Eddie’s not around, she usually ends up having a pretty okay time just complaining about the mind-numbing drudgery with Steve.

It helps that Steve seems to have given up on the matchmaking, mostly. He hasn’t mentioned anything about Robin’s boyfriend-attracting qualities in at least a week now, though he still asks stuff about Eddie every so often in a way that makes Robin squint suspiciously.

“I think he might be, y’know, at a loose end,” is all Eddie says when she brings it up. “Harrington needs a hobby more than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s what happens when you eject the Hawkins jock from his natural habitat. He’ll find something new and shiny to distract him soon.”

Eddie’s usually right about this kind of thing, so Robin’s just been waiting it out, fielding all Eddie-related questions with the patience of a saint.

Today, when she rolls into Scoops, she feels about ready for canonization when Steve looks up and says, “Hey, Robin. Is Eddie coming by today?”

“Eddie is mysterious and unknowable,” Robin informs him. “His movements are like the flight of birds, or like the autumn wind through the trees.”

“Jesus christ, why are you guys so weird,” Steve sighs. “Is he gonna be here or not.”

Robin shrugs, pulling on her vest and donning the stupid sailor hat. “He said he’s gonna try to get his band together for a rehearsal or something. He’ll be here if that doesn’t work out.”

“Oh!” Steve points at her. “The, uh. Coffin guys, right? Do they even play in the summer?”

“Not normally, but the drummer guy knows someone who runs a bar in Indy or something like that, so Eddie wants to record a demo and try his luck. He’s been complaining non-stop about it, so maybe if he throws a big enough hissy fit, the boys will give in.”

Robin gets a secret little thrill at how cool and grown-up it sounds to say record a demo, like that’s just something she casually mentions all the time. Eddie is the biggest dork she knows and a total disaster of a human being, but whenever she talks about his life, it somehow ends up sounding amazing. There’s just something about him that’s too big and bright for Hawkins, and she loves how he’s just as hungry as she is to get out and start his life for real. She loves how when she says things like record a demo and bar in Indy, his future sounds close enough to touch, like maybe her own future’s not too far away either.

“Oh, that's kinda cool. What are the band guys like?” Steve asks. He hops up to perch on the counter in a way he definitely shouldn’t be, but it’s not like Robin’s going to rat him out to the Scoops Ahoy overlords.

She shrugs. “Quiet, I guess? Quieter than Eddie, anyway.” To be fair, she hasn’t spent a whole lot of time with them. She’s not a hundred percent sure she even remembers all their names. The impression she’s gotten is that they mostly just let Eddie boss them around because they don’t have anything better to do. They seem like basically okay people, but weirdly boring for being the crowd that Eddie spends the most time with aside from Robin. Even Steve is practically a gibbering eccentric in comparison.

Speaking of which—Steve’s eyes go wide at something behind Robin and he throws his arms in the air. “Henderson!” he yells, sounding happier than Robin’s maybe ever heard him. “He’s back!”

She’s not sure what she’s expecting to see when she turns around, but it’s not a curly-haired moppet grinning toothlessly at Steve and crowing, “I’m back!” She certainly isn’t expecting Steve to hop over the freaking counter and engage in some kind of elaborate handshake ritual complete with sound effects. The handshake goes on for a really, really long time.

It’s kind of hilarious seeing Steve act like a literal child, but that doesn’t mean Robin’s going to let him get away with this shit. Eddie would absolutely flip the fuck out if he were here to witness whatever this is.

“Exactly how many children are you friends with?” she drawls.

Steve just gives the moppet an exasperated look, gesturing to Robin like you see what I have to put up with?

“We’re gonna catch up, Robin. Can you handle the counter for a minute?”

Robin glances around at the total lack of mall denizens craving ice cream first thing in the morning. “I’ll try to survive the overwhelming pressure,” she says. “Don’t get into too much trouble, you wild and crazy kids.”

———

Gareth’s cousin’s roommate in Indianapolis is Eddie’s favorite person in the entire world, and the three numbskulls dithering over having one single solitary extended evening practice so they can actually record something worth hearing…well, they might be his least favorite people in the entire world right now.

“Hey!” he snaps. “Listen up, you goddamn malingering assholes. This, right here, is way more important than whatever you’re rushing home to jerk off to. This is our shot. This is our best chance at actually getting heard by someone who matters, someone who can get our stuff in front of other people.”

He prowls around, making eye contact with each one in turn. “I know you all wanna be rockstars. Well, gentlemen, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we get to see if we’re pathetic losers…or if we’ve got it in us to be heavy metal gods.”

Gareth’s the easiest to sway, Eddie can tell at a glance that he’s already hooked, but the other two still look hesitant.

Eddie isn’t completely delusional. Not about how this opportunity’s a long shot at best, and not about how none of the boys want it the way he does. None of them need it like he does. They’re smarter than he is, all of them, and they’re going places. Hell, Jeff’s already starting to look at colleges. His dad wants him to go somewhere in North Carolina, of all the damn states, and…yeah, he’s going places. Music isn’t the the beating heart of his world, the way it is for Eddie.

But there’s a reason they all came to Eddie in the first place: what they need is something to care about and somewhere to belong. If Eddie can just talk them into feeling like a part of this, getting swept up in all the hope and excitement, he just knows they’ll love it. They’ll look back on this as the best summer of their young lives, and he can make it all happen for them, for all of them, if they just fucking practice.

“Okay,” says Jeff. Fucking finally. “Sure. I guess we can stay late for the sake of being, you know…heavy metal gods.”

“That’s all I ask,” says Eddie. As he nods at Gareth to count them in, he sends a silent apology out to Robin and Steve, who must be almost closing up shop by now; they’ll understand that this was a way higher priority than Eddie swinging by to kill some time. It’s not like anything important ever really happens at Scoops Ahoy.

#fic: purify our misfit ways #I am disregarding stuff like the time of day that Dustin shows up bc I have zero dedication to canon #I've been rewatching the relevant bits of S3 and damn some of these storytelling choices do not spark joy #pls also note that both Robin and Eddie are unreliable narrators vis a vis the Corroded Coffin crew albeit to different extents #and that I am having a cool n fun time avoiding picking a name for the third CC minion #(and an unsarcastic cool n fun time writing Eddie's little hissy fit)#okay! this is probably the last snippet of Ch2 so that means EDIT TIME #I might not make a separate post for the AO3 upload so just subscribe on AO3 if you want to know when it finally goes up I guess

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seaadc · 8 months

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sshshshshsh heyhey could i have some uhh aqua hoshino x streamer!reader

I feel like such a genius for thinking about this my third eye has been opened

status | aqua hoshino x streamer!fem!reader

a/n: THIS IS SUCH A UNIQUE REQUEST??!!!??? THANK U SM ANON!!

summary: aqua being madly infatuated with you ever since he had saw you streaming.

- “If the world was against us, then I’m against the world.”

You are definitely in for a treat, definitely.

Before Aqua had met you, he was not that quite.. expressive? He had a cold demeanor, You can call him stern, but not too quite.

When Aqua was silently working on the little short trailer of a video that the team he was working with in “Love now” was gonna post, He came across you in the internet.

You were streaming in youtube, Your hair looked good and it looks recently brushed. You were talking to your fans since you were popular— heck, you even knew Mem-cho! You were slightly more popular than her which caused you to have a lot of viewers.

The girl was talking about her life and desires, how she’d want to be an idol someday. Aqua narrowed his eyes at the screen, staring deep into your galactic eyes.. How mesmerizing. He wouldn’t admit that

You were acting all so bubbly and giddy, showing your viewers some stuff in your room. And, to be honest, Aqua enjoyed watching you. Or was he just tired? He was tired from editing the short clip, he just laid his head down the table and using his arms as support while he looked at the laptop, gazing into your eyes that wasn’t even staring into his own.

He then sighed and closed the laptop, standing up while he went outside to grab the juice Yuki was going to gave him.

Aqua went out, Mem-cho went inside and opened the laptop, checking if the video had gotten more popular but she was greeted by a familiar face.

“Oh! It’s [Name]!” The blondie muttered to herself, wondering what was the tab doing in the laptop.

“Huh.. Aqua left the room last.”

Aqua decided to take a stroll outside the building, not too far but not too near. He was walking down the sidewalks when he felt like he should get a snack. He went to the nearest store and went inside, the bell on top of the door ringing.

Aqua sighed to himself and grabbed some chips, To his surprise there was a girl next to him.

She looked up at the shelf and grabbed the same chips Aqua had got but a different flavor, The girl smiled brightly to herself and adjusted her cap.

Aqua looked at her, He was 2 inches taller than her if he could presume.. She looked oddly familiar.

“Miss… Uh.. Have I seen you somewhere?” Aqua asked softly, his eyes narrowing at the girl’s cap which was colored white.

The girl looked up at him, Aqua widening his eyes at the realization it was the streamer had come across earlier.

“Well that’s interesting. People can still recognize me?” You mumbled, sighing in disbelief while you headed over at the cashier and placed your chips down at the counter.

Aqua hummed and followed, right behind you while he waited in line. It was awkward.. The only sound you could hear was the cashier’s machine clacking and doing such beeps.

The girl turned and looked at Aqua, smiling warmly. “[Name], At your service.” She introduced, and left while the bell rang.

Aqua stared off into the door, following your figure until it has dissipated. He looked down at the chips and put it down the counter.. Somehow, He felt.. attached. He couldn’t explain why, It was definitely not the universe playing tricks on both of you… right?

Ever since Aqua met you in real life, He couldn’t stop. As in, He couldn’t stop checking your profile everyday to see if you have a new video or stream. Truth be told, He watched every single video you had made and streams. Even if they were past streams, He still persevered to watch it.

Aqua felt comfortable and satisfied whenever he would rewatch a video of yours when you won’t post due to lack of motivation, but he would always check. Everyday, Everynight.

One day as you set up your computer, You thought of the fair blonde guy you met at the shop. You smiled at the thought, knowing it was the same guy you supported in the show “Love now” and the upcoming Tokyo Revenger live action.

You started streaming and viewers rushed in the stream, waiting for other viewers to arrive while a certain username joined.

“AquaHoshino… Are you a fan or the guy himself?” You chuckled, the viewers commenting of how cute and adorable your smile is while the user you had mentioned didn’t reply.

Meanwhile, through the other screen, Aqua couldn’t contain himself when his tongue slipped out of your mouth. He kept staring at your face, He didn’t know why, but the word that fits to what he kept on doing for the past few months was definitely ‘Infatuation’.

Considering he was a doctor before, ‘course he knew what this thing was. But it took him quite a long time to accept that he was inlove with you. A streamer who makes money off it.

Aqua just entered Strawberry Productions since Miyako called for him, only to find out that you, yes you, had signed a contract. Turns out Mem-cho had invited you and both of you were conversing with eachother on the green couch.

Miyako smiled and walked up to Aqua. “We have a new member.” She spoke with a soothing voice. Aqua flinched when he saw you, You both held eye contact until you smiled.

Oh shit, That was the best thing he ever saw. (except Ai’s smile) His heart melted, feeling it race like a sports car. Aqua cleared his throat and turned away, trying to hide the redness creeping up to his face while Mem-cho merely giggled. “Your so charismatic, [Name]-chan.” Mem-cho teased to which Aqua sighed at, He left the area to not get embarrassed any further and went to his room, leaving a very confused [Name]. and he would probably sabotage things a bit because he doesnt want you to be an idol, being a streamer is already making you tired and he doesn’t want that.

And since then, You would always talk to him with the most giddy-est personality ever. He would reply in short answers but he enjoyed your company, he wasn’t going to say that straightforwardly to you but might as well include it.

He would enjoy the peaceful silence you both shared in benches, school cafeterias, living rooms, and so many more places!

Aqua would probably be clingy to you in private, He isn’t a fan of PDA but he would gladly let you if you would do the first move or if he’s.. ehem.. jealous.

He once saw you conversing too much with a male employee at the cinema counter since you asked to join him in the mall which he couldn’t decline at. Only to find out another person was going to spend all your time with him.

Aqua approached with the popcorn he had bought and gave one to you, glaring at the employee. You thanked him while he simply nodded.

He took your hand and intertwined it with his, which made your heart pounding like some sort of wildebeest in a stampede.

And you both enjoyed that day.

bonus:

Aqua had confessed, inside the store you both first met. The cashier looked very amused while imaginary stars appeared beside her.

“W-what..?“ You stuttered, blushing a pink hue at the sudden confession Aqua had made, since he just kind of.. said that so fast.

Aqua sighed with the tip of his ears were flaming red while his cheeks were red too. “I’m not repeating that.” He blurted out, looking away while he kept a blank expression though the color of his cheeks say otherwise.

Being his girlfriend made you realize how hard is life is, how he would risk anything just to get justice for his mother. Which he told you after a few not a few months of dating. He got comfortable around you and you would always be there to comfort him during his nightmares, And he would always be there for you whenever you get a hate comment that gets you really insecure.

To be honest, You would probably wake up one day and getting the news of the person who kept on hating on you suddenly so quiet… I wonder what your lovely red flag boyfriend did.

#oshi no ko #aqua hoshino x reader #requests open #oshi no ko x reader #aqua hoshino #aquamarine #aquamarine hoshino #ai hoshino #aqua x reader #aquamarine x reader #aquamarine hoshino x reader #ruby hoshino #mem cho #aqua hoshino x you #aqua hoshino x y/n #aquamarine hoshino x you #oshi no ko x you #oshi no ko x y/n

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hashtagloveloses · 7 months

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any time i fall into a depressive episode i have the devastating urge to rewatch fullmetal alchemist, and the october 3rd memes also gave me the urge again. so instead of rewatching, i did something i've been wanting to do for a long time instead - looked up the sheet music for parts of the score to learn on the violin. i'm DECENT on the violin but not the best, so i thought resembool's lullaby would be relatively easy to learn with a bit of practice. i went to sight read it, and despite listening to it constantly, realized quite quickly how it was deceptively way more difficult than i thought. it has a lot of double stops, AKA when you have to play two notes on two different strings at the same time, and getting them to sound good requires a good amount of technique.

there's the basic melody that pretty much anybody could hum, but the texture between and on top of the main melody that makes it special is the hard part. after seeing 800 memes about october third "fail to resurrect your mom and burn your house" day, i realized that the song itself about the elric brothers' home represents the deceptive nature of the taboo they tried to enact. resembool's lullaby, the musical motif that runs through all their travels and follows them just like the horror they experienced after what they did as kids, consists of a few basic, easy to acquire melodic "ingredients", just like the material ingredients edward lists off that physically make up the human body. it is only when attempting to play the theme, just like the boys' attempt at human transmutation, that you realize the extra spark that makes the song come alive, just like a human being, can't be done without a cost. in the song, obviously it is technique and practice, and for human transmutation, it is a soul, which can only be gotten at a price.

this theme shows up a lot in fullmetal alchemist brotherhood - often with a choir, or an orchestral arrangement, but not always the solo violin. the solo violin, though, still has these incredibly difficult chords you have to play the whole time. the most BASIC form of this motif and this theme HAS to have two notes played at the same time through most of it, just like how the elric brothers cannot be apart from each other. the story, the lullaby, their fates, it's always about the two of them, no matter the cost, even in how the music is played.

EDIT: also, the FIRST version on the OST is Lullaby of Resembool, which is played by solo cello, I believe. While the LAST version on the THIRD VOLUME OST is Resembool's Lullaby, which is the solo violin version with the double stops. The themes show up everywhere, but if the solo cello version shows up in the first season and the solo violin version shows up in the last, it resembles how Edward felt alone in trying to get his brother's body back at the beginning, and how at the end they are completely reunited again, even though they shared the same melody, the same story and struggle, the whole time.

#original post #fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood #fma #fmab #edward elric #alphonse elric

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spiderlandry · 9 months

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honest — lo'ak sully

Description: Lo'ak has been preparing a courting gift for you, but you find out before he can even practice what he'll say. So why have you kept quiet about it?

Pairing: Lo'ak te Suli Tsyeyk'itan x GN!Reader (Na'vi)

Warnings/tags: mostly fluff, jumps around between POVs, courting practices/traditions that i'm not sure is accurate, takes place in the future, au where the events of atwow never happened, small death mention? not edited or proofread sorry

Word Count: 2.1k

Author's note: first time writing for avatar, my obsession has been rekindled since i rewatched both movies so it's going to be everyone's problem. this has been in the drafts for a while and i wanted to edit it but i don't think i ever will

Jake Sully had realized early into his training with Neytiri that a prominent trait of the Na’vi is that they don’t lie. He chalked up her bluntness as a dislike for sky people, and though it was true to some extent, it was also because the concept of lying was almost foreign. Not in their nature. There are no reasons to lie in their books.

Until, of course, time passed.

A new generation emerged that learned to lie a human way. It likely began shortly after the arrival of the Sky People, the destruction of their home along with it. He couldn’t blame them.

Now, as the people have reclaimed the forest, Jake couldn’t help but notice that his children were liars. It started with his oldest lying to get out of training, and it trickled down slowly until he finally realized that Tuk began to feign sickness so she can be pampered.

It’s mostly harmless. Amusing, almost.

But not when it interferes with training, no. Because time and time again he has told his youngest son that it will cost him people’s lives. And just when he thinks Lo’ak is honing his focus, something pulls him away. A cocky attitude, a good idea horribly executed, anything of the sort.

But this time? The Olo’eyktan can’t figure it out.

This is the third time Lo’ak has gone off and ditched training an hour early. Neteyam always covers.

The next day, Jake approaches Lo’ak after dinnertime, before everyone has gone to sleep. The son sits on a log and the father takes the place beside him.

“You’re off your game.” Jake isn’t accusatory, not mad, but he states it as a fact.

Lo’ak can’t look into his father’s eyes. “Sorry, sir.”

The man sighs, breaking down the barrier he had built between him and his own. “Don’t call me sir when we’re not on the field.”

Lo’ak is quiet.

“Why are you off your game?”

“I’ll work on it.”

“Did I ask what you were gonna do about it?”

“You asked why.”

“And?”

Jake doesn’t expect it. Not so bluntly, at least. “I’m preparing a courting gift.”

A smile makes its way onto his face. “Is it for Y/N?”

The boy’s head snaps up at him, “No way,” he shakes his head. “Did Neteyam tell you? When I get my hands on—“

This pulls a laugh out of Jake. “Nobody had to tell me. Hell, your mother probably knew before me.”

“I just want to make sure it’s perfect, okay?”

Neytiri watches you interact with her children from afar—the way you let Tuk pull on your tail, how Kiri and Spider smile from atop a branch, Neteyam even going along with the game you invented. Lo’ak sits on the sidelines and watches with an adoration in his eyes she’d never seen until you were introduced to the Sully kids long ago.

It’s almost time for your training. But she lets you hold that time a bit more when she sees how closely you watch for her youngest son even when he sits this one out.

It’s not long until you’re pulled away by Mo’at to practice healing. You spend time with the other healers, shadowing them and watching them work.

Neytiri is showing you a more efficient way to mix paste when she remembers a conversation she had, days ago, with her Jake.

“Lo’ak is preparing to court Y/N.”

From the affections that have seemingly grown between you and her youngest son, she deduced a simple, irrefutable fact: Lo’ak has begun the process of courting you. That would also explain his comings and goings at odd times of day.

“You must be very happy, Y/N.” She cleans up the table, while she watches you recall the motions she performed earlier with the paste.

You hum in agreement.

“Are you excited?”

This doesn’t even remotely catch you off guard, too focused on the task. So you mutter, “for what?”

“That Lo’ak has decided to court you. You seem happy with him.”

You falter—this moment is not lost on Neytiri.

But she’s relieved when you say, almost breathless, “Yeah, yeah, I am.”

Neteyam is the witness to a trainweck about to happen.

Something has definitely shifted. Not just the past few days, but ever since Lo’ak first told him about the gifts he has prepared for you.

Weeks ago.

The first few days of comings and goings, Neteyam excused him. But it has been weeks since he’s finished his gifts, and the only thing holding Lo’ak back is himself. Neteyam has been hyping up his brother to give them to you, even making sure that you would get some time alone together despite how busy it is for hunting season, but Lo’ak never takes the plunge.

You and Neteyam are close, no one can deny that. He’s felt a sense of duty to protect you ever since you became part of the family, and more so now that you might actually be officially a Sully once you and Lo’ak become real. He’d be lying if he said he’s not excited at the thought of you being able to hang around and attend family gatherings without feeling like you’re intruding, something you opened up to him about.

Obviously, he knows about your affections for his brother. But it seems you are clueless to Lo’ak’s subtle advances, and he is sick of him moping around because of it.

At night, when the family is cleaning up after eating, they are all chatting around the fire and Neteyam calmly observes the scene, eating yovo fruit.

But their mother says something that puts this entire situation into a crescendo.

“They are quite smitten with you.” She says it as an offhanded comment, and his brother doesn’t respond at first, too focused on tidying up.

But Lo’ak hums. “Who?“

She almost laughs. Neteyam’s eyes widen as it dawns on him that something is about go go very, very wrong.

“Y/N, of course. Who else?”

Lo’ak’s head snaps up in surprise. “Really?” His tail swishes around, unable to contain his excitement.

Okay, maybe it won’t be so bad, Neteyam thinks.

“They are certainly happy that you’ve decided to court them.”

Oh.

Oh no.

Before Neteyam can stop this (and deep down, he knows it’s too late), Lo’ak’s eyes narrow, tail dropping to the ground with a thump, ears dropping.

“I haven’t even told them yet.”

At this, the entire family falls quiet. Spider and Kiri have stopped talking (even if only in hushed whispers), Neteyam stops chewing, hell—Tuk has stopped talking to their father, who is the last to notice the quiet.

Jake observes the situation.

“Dad,” Lo’ak catches his attention. “Did you tell them about the gift? Is it because I’m skipping on training? ‘Cause—“

“Woah, hey,” Jake holds his hand up to stop him. Neteyam can read his brother unraveling, his tail between his legs and ears flicking in panic. “Slow down.”

Lo’ak breathes.

“I didn’t tell anybody, okay?”

That’s when he turns around, facing Neteyam.

“Was it you? Did you say something?” Though Lo'ak is cautious to make accusations, the older brother can tell it’s at the tip of his tongue.

But their mother interrupts, thankfully.

“Lo’ak,” she says gently. “I did not realize they didn’t know. It’s my mistake.”

The youngest son slowly faces her. “What—what did they say?”

“That they are happy.“

“Nothing else?”

She shakes her head.

Lo’ak has been enamoured by your presence since he was little.

He remembers vividly how you showed up at his family’s tent with an offering of fruits you gathered yourself, as a thank you to the Olo’eyktan for saving your father from a brush with death during hunting. You were both just nine then, wide-eyed and less weathered by the world and its tragic circumstances.

And for years, he grew closer to you, though keeping a distance because that’s what he needed to accept any capacity you’ll grant, even if it was just close friendship.

But as the years passed, the both of you maturing alongside each other, attending the most important rites of passage and ceremonies (he can still hear how loud you cheered once he tamed his ikran), he has found himself almost unable to hold back how he feels. He realized that he didn’t have much time left to court you when all of a sudden you had different people—some of his friends, too—in the clan asking to court you after you’d completed Uniltaron.

He got to work immediately, skipping out on training and having his brother cover for him when he didn’t show to join the hunting party even when Jake insisted. He made himself unavailable just to dedicate his time into impressing you. He learned under one of the most skilled jewelry-makers in the clan to ensure it met the standards for a proper courting gift—he needed you to know he cared.

But as he stumbles out of his family’s kelku, eyes immediately scanning for yours, he thinks he must have fucked up somehow. You found out about his courting gift before he could even say a word to you about it. And you haven’t said anything to him since then, that means you don’t return his feelings…right?

If he were in your situation and found out you were preparing to court him, he would have ran to you right away, saying yes to your proposal. You’ve been quiet. Maybe you’re deciding how to turn him down gently. Eywa, must this really happen?

When you’re nowhere to find in your family’s kelku, your sister mentions that you haven’t been home since eclipse.

He finds you exactly where he expects you to be, just like every time you have needed space. You’re alone up on a branch, secluded by trees in the outskirts, but he can see your shadow just enough against the indigo sky.

He climbs.

As he reaches the thick branch, you’re already looking at him with a slight upturn of your lips.

A smile is good, right? At least you don’t hate him. You would have pushed him off by now if you did.

He perches himself close to the trunk, a few inches from you.

“Where have you been?” He asks when you don’t say anything upon his arrival.

You turn to him. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

“Fair,” He hauls himself up to sit next to you, returning the smile. “Are you going to answer, though?”

“No.”

No? No?!

Lo’ak’s smug demeanor falters, ears flat against his skull, and you could probably tell judging by the way you hold back a snicker.

“Is it…” He struggles to find the words when you’re looking at him like that. “Is it true that my mother told you?”

“Told me what?”

He fights the urge to make a remark, because he can tell you’re playing with him. You clearly know what he’s alluding to, yet you refuse.

“You know what.” He adds flatly.

“I do not.”

Eywa.

He chose you, after all. He needs to own it. Regardless of how you’ll turn him down.

“That I plan to court you. If—if you allow me to.”

He is certain his heart stops beating when you take his hand, smoothing your palm over his before clasping them together. The warmth travels throughout his body.

“On one condition.”

“Anything, I’ll do anything—” He doesn’t even care if it makes him sound desperate. “I will.”

“You should not care if your courting gifts are perfect,” You mutter, losing a little bit of confidence and Lo’ak realizes your eyes have a sheen to them. “I think you are already perfect. I see you, Lo’ak.”

This is the moment he realizes that, as much as you’ve held his heart in your hands, he has held yours.

“I see you, yawne.”

#avatar the way of water #avatar x reader #loak sully #loak #lo'ak #lo'ak sully #lo'ak x reader #loak x reader #loak sully x reader #lo'ak sully x reader #avatar the way of water x reader #atwow x reader #lo'ak te suli tsyeyk'itan #loak fluff

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jupitercomet · 5 months

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maybe one of actor!Bradley’s co-stars hits on reader at a movie premiere

omg actor!Bradley has so much chemistry with one of his co-stars that fans start shipping them and reader starts to get insecure maybe?

ugh, actor Bradley 😩 the king!!

Bradley night

When the trailer first dropped, you didn’t think much of it. Honestly, you were more proud of the fact that Bradley was entering his third (though the movie’s fourth) installment of a very successful franchise. Sure he had a love interest this time around and, sure, the movie’s R rating made their scenes a bit raunchy, but Bradley had been so excited to show you the teaser trailer that you were able to overlook the opening scenes of racy sex in favor of admiring how talented your boyfriend was.

His fans didn’t seem to think the same though because suddenly your TikTok feed was filled with edits of the few scenes the trailer gave audiences. (And, even you could admit, they were very talented edits and you could also enjoy how easily Bradley’s dominance came off through the screen—you may or may not have a few of those edits saved to your favorites.) But then press started and the edits stopped being about Rooster and his love interest Halo and started being about Bradley Bradshaw and his costar Callie Shen.

Random brushes of his fingers against her knee, her hand falling to his bicep as they both laugh, long, lingering stares between the two. You trusted Bradley, of course you did, and you have nothing against Callie either, but it’s hard to watch the internet convince themselves that your boyfriend is in love with someone else.

That interview chick is punching the air rn 😭

↳ I’M punching the air rn

↳ They haven’t been seen together since the last Golden Globes. It was a publicity stunt 100%

With a purse of your lips, you close your phone, leaving it face down by your side as you reach for the TV remote. Maybe you can distract yourself by rewatching Mighty Ducks for the millionth time.

You decide to do just that, starting the movie and making yourself comfortable on the couch. It’s not entirely surprising that you end up falling asleep and you don’t stir until you feel your head being lifted gently and the couch sinking as your head is rested against Bradley’s thigh. He feeds his fingers through your hair, playing with it gently, and you smile sleepily.

Bradley groans suddenly. “You still watch this shit?”

“You were so cute!” You protest, turning your head so you can watch baby Bradley skate around in his Mighty Ducks uniform.

“I’m still cute, don’t say it in past tense,” Bradley argues. “And there are plenty of movies where I’m cute and a better actor that I wish you would watch instead.”

Before you can respond, Bradley’s phone vibrates and he picks it up, a snort leaving him.

“What?”

Bradley waves you off. “Nothing. Callie sent me something funny.”

“Oh.” You try to hide the dejectedness in your tone, sniffing slightly as you try to re immerse yourself in the movie. At least baby Bradley could never make you hurt your own feelings by having to watch him be attracted to someone else.

If Bradley notices your sudden mood change, he doesn’t say anything, playing with your hair with one hand and his phone with the other. After a moment, his fingers leave your hair and he looks around the couch.

“Do you have your phone?” He asks. “I want to send myself that one picture you took.”

You hand the device to him wordlessly.

It doesn’t even occur to you that you may have left TikTok open until Bradley’s already unlocked your phone and the music used on the edit you were watching is playing through your phone speakers. You snap up, trying to grab your phone from Bradley before he realizes what he’s watching.

“Wait—”

Bradley just wraps his large hand around yours, keeping you from grabbing your phone as his brows furrow. His thumb is scrolling on the screen, eyes darting as he reads the comments that are no doubt squealing about him and Callie or making comedic jabs at you.

“Why are you watching this?” Bradley looks at you finally.

You drop your head, feeling like a scolded child as you shrug. “It just came up on my For You Page.”

“Then scroll past it,” Bradley replies bluntly. “You don’t actually believe this, right?”

Again you shrug.

“Hey.” Your answer clearly doesn’t impress him and Bradley sets both your phones down in favor of pulling you into his lap. He grabs your chin between his fingers, forcing you to look at him. “I’m sorry,” he says finally.

You frown slightly. “Why are you sorry?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t realize that this was bothering you. Callie and I know it’s ridiculous and so we’ve just been ignoring it, but I should have thought about what it looked like to you.” Bradley strokes your jaw softly with his thumb.

“I’m not—” You try to shake your head, but with Bradley holding it in place, you’re only mildly successful. “I know it’s your job, Bradley.”

Bradley’s thumb moves to trace over your lips. “It’s also my job to remind you how much I love you. And only you.”

You smile against the pad of his thumb.

“And, hey, you’re handling this way better than I did. Remember when everyone thought you were boning Rhett Abbott after your interview? You couldn’t walk the next day.”

“Bradley!” You let out a shocked laugh.

“We should do that again, actually,” he grins and suddenly he’s standing up as you cling to him with a shriek, barely able to secure your grip before he’s racing to the bedroom. “Seems to me, you just need to be reminded who you belong to.”

#bradley bradshaw blurb #bradley bradshaw x baby girl #actor!bradley #all over tabloids #bradley night #what's up doc

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hethuisxdashausxhouseofxanubis · 14 days

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4 Years HHAtranslated

It's 15 April 2024, which means HHAtranslated turns 4 years old today 🫶🏼🥹

When I thought of starting this account pre-covid, I never expected it would turn into this. During lockdown, I had so much time and the nostalgia and my love for Anubis helped me through so much over the years.

So many accounts on Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter talk about this universe and it makes me so happy!

As there are four series and this is the fourth anniversary, I'd like to express my gratitude for each show.

Het Huis Anubis:

* HHA raised me as a kid and helped me through my struggles as a teen and now in my twenties

* Seeing the cast IRL in December was a dream come true and I still can't believe it happened 🥹

* I can't wait to see the EMDV vodcast of Anjali and Iris! They're teasing the date of the first episode online atm. I can't wait to unravel new truths 🤩

The Five of the Magical Sword:

* Such an overhated and underrated show in Belgium and the Netherlands, that I was scared to sub it. I'm glad I did, because international fans took Sterre, Pim, Marcel, Raphael and Anastacia into their hearts and didn't let them go 🫶🏼

* I also learned to appreciate the show a lot more

* I hope they've a reunion too

House of Anubis:

* HHA and HOA fans often butt heads and it's not necessary at all!

* Both shows are absolutely amazing

* HOA took the key elements of HHA and made it their own and I adore what they did with it. Some characters might have a different arc, but it makes them their own person and I love discovering the differences

* I need to rewatch the masterpiece that's season 3!

Das Haus Anubis:

* For some reason, DHA makes me hella nostalgic while I only discovered it in 2019

* The same sets and scripts make for fun comparisons and while DHA is a lower budget show, it's so much fun

* I love to watch DHA episode/day wise and I've rewatched it like that already often

* The cast is so involved still and it makes me very happy!

The future of HHAtranslated:

* Once I find an editing programme again, I'd love to sub the S100 Singalong Anubis concert, BTS of HHA/The Five and the discography

* I'd love to sub Das Haus Anubis someday🫶🏼

Now:

My main project for 2024 is the 9 Het Huis Anubis novels, based on the TV series and the movies.

The books are in third person, but follow Nienke's pov, throughout her stay at Anubis House. Some scenes are way more graphic than in the series, like Nienke and Noa's kidnapping.

The romance is also more present and we get new scenes which make Nienke's decisions more logical, like how she ended up in Anubis house with the grail mid-season 2.

I'm starting of with book 1: The Secret Club of the Old Willow

I'll try to upload frequently. I've less time as I work fulltime and live with my boyfriend, compared to university and living at my parents' years ago. A new blogpost will be created on my website, with links to the chapters, published in a Google Drive doc.

English isn't my first language so there will be mistakes. However, I hope to do the books justice like I hope I did the show.

Teasers to the books and chapter 1 will be posted soon. Stay tuned ❤️

#het huis anubis #das haus anubis #house of anubis #de vijf van het magische zwaard

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waitmyturtles · 5 months

Text

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: The Bad Buddy Rewatch Edition, Part 3a -- BBS and Asian Cultural Touchpoints

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I offer the first half of the third (ha!) of five posts on Bad Buddy. I'll look today at themes that myself and fellow Asian fans of Bad Buddy have caught and related to in this wonderful show.]

Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4

As a lifelong viewer of Asian dramas, and as an Asian-American myself, I know why I'm drawn to Asian dramas. We all have our reasons for belonging to this widespread fandom, whether you're watching queer or het Asian dramas, consuming Asian music, all of it.

What are my reasons? The first and foremost one is relatability. Especially in Asian dramas, I relate to the spoken and unspoken communication of the dramatic characters as they navigate life's highs and lows. I relate to the way Asian dramatic characters engage with their families, their partners, their children, their colleagues, the world and societies around them. I relate to the ways in which societies are drawn and constructed, to the economic and emotional pressures that characters face. As an American -- I don't fully relate to the majority of experiences that white American characters face dramatically, because I'm not a part of the majority. As an Asian? I get almost all of what Asians are going through in dramatic art (save for, say, Korean or Japanese historicals, ha — but I do indeed get Asian patriarchy and sexism).

I'm not queer -- I am a cishet Asian woman -- but what I appreciate about queer Asian media is, very often, the media's tendency to not be shy about the various and intricate ways that discrimination, sexism, trauma (intergenerational, emotional, etc.), and many more social and emotional phenomena interplay in an individual's life.

When I first watched Bad Buddy, I had the strong sense that what I was watching was incredibly relatable to much of my upbringing and life as a young adult, working out issues vis à vis my family and my eventual partner. Bad Buddy, thematically, captured a tremendous amount of the realities of everyday Asian life for young people.

Bad Buddy exists in the GMMTV bubble of No Homophobia (cc @bengiyo and @lurkingshan, as we have spoken about the GMMTV bubble). However, what Bad Buddy didn't shy away from were explorations of many other social/emotional/cultural themes and frameworks of everyday life, from sexism, to youth bias, to boundaries and enmeshment, and many, many more.

I wrote in my first-ever Bad Buddy thesis that the framework of intergenerational trauma was the main theme I identified -- and identified with -- in the show. But, as I was contemplating writing this series of Bad Buddy meta posts, I wanted to know: what did my fellow Asians pick up in this show that they saw, and that they related to? In other words: what makes Bad Buddy particularly special to Asian fans of the show?

So, I did a thing. I gathered together a few BBS Asian stans, like myself, for a lengthy (and still ongoing!) discussion about what we related to in Bad Buddy. I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, @telomeke, @grapejuicegay, @recentadultburnout, @neuroticbookworm, and @lurkingshan (who's not Asian, but has Asian relatives, and gets us!) for being up for creating a spontaneous mini-village together to talk Bad Buddy and its inherent Asianness.

It sounds redundant to identify Bad Buddy, a show made by Thais and set in Thailand, as an "Asian" or "Thai" show. It's definitely not a show that steps back to take a look at itself and say, "oh hey, this is really 'Thai,' what we're doing here." When I asked @recentadultburnout directly about what they might have identified as uniquely Thai about Bad Buddy, RAB thought about it and said -- maybe Pat's ranak ek (Thai xylophone). Other shows of Aof Noppharnach's, including He's Coming To Me, Moonlight Chicken, and even the start of Last Twilight, highlight many facets of Thai life, from the spiritual to the everyday-cultural (even Gay OK Bangkok does this a bit, too). But Bad Buddy doesn't really go there by way of overt symbolism and/or specifically Thai spiritual/cultural practice.

The Asianness of Bad Buddy is far more inherent. It is rooted and coded in the way people interact with each other.

An overt example occurs in episode 10, when Dissaya confronts Ming in the Jindapat home, and announces that she will reveal Ming's secret, dropping the effort she has made her entire life to "save face" -- her reputation AND Ming's reputation.

During my first Bad Buddy rewatch, I was so moved in fury by this scene that I had to blog about it as if I had never seen it before. There's so much encapsulated in this moment: the pressure that Dissaya has put on herself to keep the embarrassing secret that she lost a scholarship; the effort she made to keep Ming's theft of the scholarship a secret, to save his face, and the secrets she kept from Pran to save her face, and to keep up the façade of rivalry between the Jindapats and the Siridechawats. She was letting a whole hell of a lot loose in this moment, because the eternal pressure of saving face in Asian societies is, frankly, never-ending.

"Saving face" is an incredibly important notion in many Asian collectivist cultures. Saving face is about an individual or a family projecting an image of calm, cool collectedness and success, in order to not make waves within a collectivist society for any reason. If you are not working to seem like you are going with the flow of life, if you're not keeping up with the Joneses, the Kardashians, whoever -- you are not saving face. If you are in poverty, and are projecting an image of poverty, instead of pretending to be more wealthy than you are -- you are not saving your face or your family's face. If you allow yourself to get publicly defeated -- you are not saving face. Dissaya gave up a lot of her hard-earned reputation in the moment she confessed the truth in front of Pat and Pat's mother.

My Asian friends and I can click wordlessly into understanding the pressure of saving face; say that I didn't get good grades in school? I wouldn't be saving my parents' face. This kind of pressure to keep up with particular social dynamics within and external to family, within Asian societies, is a neverending drumbeat of pressure.

Besides saving face, there are many other Asian cultural touchpoints that were contained within Bad Buddy that my fellow Asian BBS stans and I noted. They include:

1) intergenerational/inherited trauma, 2) the unique nature of secret-keeping in Asian cultures/societies, 3) enmeshed family boundaries, 4) setting up children to compete against each other for the sake of familial pride, 5) patriarchy, sexism, and the reversal of sexism among next generations, 6) the inset/assumed roles of family members based on patriarchy and elder respect, 7) Assumed community within and external to one's family, usually based on where you live and where you go to school, 8) How one's identity is defined based on patriarchy and individualist vs. collectivist cultures, 9) How various cultures within an Asian nation live peacefully (or not) together (for example, what makes Pat and Pran different by way of Pat's Thai-Chinese heritage vs. Pran's ethnic Thai heritage),

and many, many more.

It'll be impossible, even over two posts, to analyze all of these cultural touchpoints, but a few of them engendered quite a bit of conversation among the BBS mini-village that I want to highlight. In this post, I'll focus on the continuation of my first BBS thesis on intergenerational/inherited trauma, the nature of secret-keeping in Asian societies, and will return briefly to the touchpoint of saving face.

One of the most devastating scenes for me in Bad Buddy is in my favorite episode, episode 10, when Pat (after he's learned, throughout the episode, of the extent of the lies that his and Pran's family have shared with their children) confronts his father about his father's demands to literally control Pat's emotions, the way in which Pat related to other people -- specifically Pran. Pat sums up a lifetime's worth of control in one sentence.

@telomeke noted in our ongoing group conversation that this notion of inherited trauma vis à vis Ming is particularly present in Asian societies, not just by way of familial expectation that we, as Asians, embody it and "take it" throughout our generations, as Pat realized up above -- but that ALL family members present are responsible for playing their roles within the framework of the inherited trauma. @telomeke noted in particular that exactly what Pat was doing to hate Pran, FOR his father? That was what Ming HAD to do for MING'S dad, when Ming schemed to get the scholarship from Dissaya. AND, Pat's mother, in consoling Pat, had to play the role of explainer -- which, as we know now, Pat ran away from to meet his beloved Pran on the rooftop before running away to the eco-village.

Pat running away from that moment? That was a huge symbol of the breaking of the inherited trauma that was given unto him by his parents both.

(@telomeke has actually written about their theory about how the Jindapats and Siridechawats ended up living next door to each other -- which seems SO STRANGE on the surface, consider Ming's and Dissaya's boiling hatred for each other -- and the theory links nicely within the framework of inherited trauma. Tel theorizes that Ming's father or grandfather may have actually gifted the house to Dissaya's family as a means of apologizing for Ming's deceit. In which case: the presence of the Siridechawats is a reminder, on an everyday basis, of Ming's folly to steal from Dissaya, which may explain why Ming in particular went so hard on Pat to triumph daily over Pran.)

We as a group unwound quite a bit on the nature of secret-keeping in Asian cultures. We know Bad Buddy relies on this cultural touchpoint at the end of the series: Pran and Pat have a full-fledged and committed relationship as a transparent secret, under the noses of Pat's and Pran's parents.

Secret-keeping....oh, man. I could not have lived a fully authentic life in America if I didn't keep a million secrets from my family while I was living out my own independent choices. I actually, literally, could not have gotten married, because the rule of my household was that I wouldn't date. I would just... get engaged. So I'd get engaged through, what, magic? Match-making? No: I'd have to find my partner through my own battle of social and familial conventions, literally against my family, to get to where I wanted to be in life, which was (gasp) married.

@neuroticbookworm illuminated more on this particularly from our shared Indian lens. She wrote,

Keeping your relationship secret from parents is sooooo ridiculously common in India (and I'm sure we can extrapolate to other Asian countries like Thailand). And the justification the children give themselves is always rooted in how they have a "duty" towards their parents, and that they will reveal their relationship after they have fulfilled their duties.

God, I LOVED that NBW brought up "duty" in this conversation. Because! Assumed within the coded language from Asian parents to children, and vice versa, is a sense that children MUST follow the dictates of their parents. 100%, full-stop.

The duties that NBW clarified in this particular conversation specified life demarcations such as "[w]hen I graduate, I'll tell my parents about my partner," and "[w]hen I graduate and get a job and can financially support myself in life, I'll tell my parents about my partner."

What's coded in these statements is a fear that the children will have to reveal to their parents that they were disobedient in the rules their parents set, that no dating shall occur until the time at which the parents rule it's okay. And at least within Indian frameworks, that period of it being "okay" is, more often than not, the period in which arranged matches are examined. Because, yes, that's still the rule in the high majority of Indian culture.

The revelation of that disobedience? That's bad-news bears. It indicates... everything: a lack of loyalty to the family; a lack of understanding the meaning of a child's role to listen to the parents as the parents are elders and therefore are the moral authority of the household; a lack of self-control (which is a huge deal -- that relates to saving face on behalf of the family); a lack of understanding the morals and ethics of saving oneself, in love and sex, before marriage, etc. Even if a family seems fully progressive on the outside, as an Asian, I'm conditioned to question that progressiveness -- as parents may hold different standards of acceptance for their children vs. other young people.

@telomeke expanded on disobedience for us -- connecting it back to the very important notion of "saving face."

I think there's something quite related to secret-keeping, but it's also to do with the ability of Asians, but also human beings in general, of being able to live with duality in life... and secret-keeping is part of it. This also ties in to the East and Southeast Asian preoccupation with the concept of "saving face" [as noted above]. A lot of families are able to live with the knowledge of dirty secrets, unsavory truths, as long as it's not brought into the light and confronted. I'm constantly reminded of this whenever I rewatch BBS Ep. 12 because it's clear both Ming and Dissaya KNOW their sons are in a relationship but it's not overtly admitted. In that way they (and more Ming I suppose) get to "save face" and not have to deal with the truth that their sons are being disobedient, consorting with the enemy, and because it's not in the open -- there is no dishonor brought to the family and to the elders.

God, I love the way Tel put this. That disobedience on the part of Pran and Pat would actually bring dishonor to their families -- because their families have put SO MUCH EFFORT into building their public AND private enmity their entire lives! It affected Chai's relationship with the families as an employee of both families. EVERYONE AT PAT'S AND PRAN'S SCHOOLS knew the guys were the "legendary rivals." And, of course, by being in rival faculties at the same university, the boys could continue this public enmity as well -- keeping up with the roles that were literally assigned to them by their parents.

If the boys disobeyed, they would bring dishonor to their families. Think about that -- and connect that with the heaviness that Pran walked away with after the rooftop kiss in episode 5, AND the weight of Pran's breakdown at the end of episode 10, when Pat assured him that they would run away together.

No matter what a Western viewer (and maybe even Asian viewers, wanting to see a dismantling of these paradigms) would want Pat and Pran to have by way of full openness of their relationships with everyone in their lives (because, in individualistic cultures, that self-driven openness is a given), Pran and Pat themselves knew that that couldn't be their reality vis à vis the social worlds they belonged to. So they kept their relationship a secret, in the end.

The secret that Pran and Pat keep about their relationship is strategic. It's certainly also a stress point: an older Pat asks an older Pran, at the end of episode 12, if he'll ever be able to walk through the front door of the Siridechawat house.

But this is the compromise -- within the larger-scale culture of secret-keeping in Asian societies, AND the private frameworks of the enmity that Dissaya and Ming established between themselves and their families years and years prior -- that will work best for Pat and Pran to preserve the sanctity of their relationship, which I talked about in part 2 of this meta series.

Pran and Pat do not have to publicly appear disobedient to the demands and pressures of their families. They do not have to make their families engage with each other. They do not have to make their families confront the mistakes that their parents made earlier in their lives. They can protect their families from their private and public follies. They can help their families keep and save face. And by doing all that? They can prevent their relationship from being threatened.

I feel this very deeply in my heart as an Asian-American. For the sake of my American spouse, I wanted to protect him from a lot of these pressures, and so I insisted on keeping a lot of our relationship secret from my folks. If I demanded full-blown, public acceptance from my parents? If I brought my "boyfriend" to parties, and introduced him as such with aunties and uncles -- especially if it wasn't indicated that we'd be permanent one day? Damn. No. I'd be embarrassing my folks, with the aunties and uncles saying to my folks, "dang, you can't control your daughter, huh? You let her do what she wants." That would mean my parents would lose face over their ability to control the lives of their children, and that's no bueno in our cultural terms. It would be on ME, as THEIR child, to uphold THEIR ability to save face, as much as its their own work.

Dissaya refers DIRECTLY to Pran doing this FOR HER when, in episode 10, she asks him, "did you forget to save my reputation?" It's brutal, daily work. And Pran goes BACK to keeping secrets in the end, because it would have been impossible, ultimately, for Dissaya to save face, AND for Pran to save Dissaya's reputation/face, if Pran were out with his relationship with Pat, thus proving his disobedience. It would be -- JUST -- better to keep the secret for all those involved.

As this post has gotten long, I'm going to continue talking more about these touchpoints in a second post. I'm driven to talk about this because I think much of the Western fandom might miss what us Asians are reading into shows like Bad Buddy through this coded language and engagement. I very much posit that Bad Buddy -- while it is first and foremost a queer show, made by queer Asians, about queer young men -- is so relatable to so many of us because we've faced similar struggles of survival, and we've faced threats to the sanctity of the love we have for other people by way of needed to fit into the roles set before us by previous generations.

So! With that, thank you for reading, and see you tomorrow, when I focus on competition, enmeshed family boundaries, patriarchy and sexism in Bad Buddy, and more if I can fit it in!

(Tagging @dribs-and-drabbles, @solitaryandwandering, and @wen-kexing-apologist by request! If you'd like to be tagged, please let me know!)

[Alright! Stay tuned for more, many more ruminations from the BBS Asian station tomorrow!

Here's the status of the Old GMMTV Challenge watchlist. Tumblr's web editor loves to jack with this list, so mosey on over to this link for the very latest version!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (The BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series is ongoing: preamble here, part 1 here, part 2 here, more reviews to come) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) (on pause for La Pluie) 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 39) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 40) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 41) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 42) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) 43) Wedding Plan (2023) 44) Only Friends (2023) (tag here)]

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chirpsythismorning · 2 years

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I know it's sort of on the nose (eye), but...

Let's talk about the heart(s).

I realize a lot of fans dismissed this as reaching recently, and so everyone sort of shut up about it, but I can't let it go. Especially when acknowledging what is literally happening on the show itself aka YOU'RE THE HEART, has convinced me that none of this is reaching. In fact, I'm certain that the heart imagery in the California poster(s) was intentional and intended to foreshadow requited Byler in ST5!

HEAR ME OUT!

The Duffers, when asked about the significance of the s4 posters, got excited, saying that it was indeed foreshadowing done by marketing, only to shut up instantly, steering the conversation elsewhere.

A little bit before season 4 actually premiered, fans got these posters as promotion and started noticing the hearts in the trees fairly quickly. So, this isn’t something that was only recently discovered well after s4 premiered. No, this was something fans caught onto way before 'you're the heart' was even a concept we were aware of. And I think there's a reason for that, in that it was foreshadowing what was still yet to come.

So, for starters, look at each of these trees individually…

They all look like your basic, run-of-the-mill palm trees. They have texture to them, which makes them fairly unique like trees often are. They were designed for the eye to instantly qualify them as trees.

These TWO below on the other hand, follow a different formula.

These trees look like hearts, point blank. They are much more defined into a shape than they are meant to look like realistic trees.

One heart is on the left and one heart is on right in this poster (smack dab where the rule of thirds lies, might I add). The left heart is a little bigger and therefore easier for the eye to catch first, while the heart on the right is a little smaller and therefore harder to notice, but it’s there.

Now get ready, because what actually sort of sealed the deal for me, is that it’s obvious these two trees, are the exact same.

Here you can see I reverted the right heart horizontally, and yep... They’re the same. Even down to the little detail of the small tree accompanying both of them. You can clearly see they are the same image, just copy/pasted, shrunk a little smaller and reverted horizontally.

So what does this all mean…?

Well, a couple weeks after Vol. 2 dropped on July 1st, after rewatching the van scene a bajillion times, numerous fans started to notice a heart shape in the light of Will’s eye. And once you saw it, you couldn’t unsee it, especially in edits that enhanced the quality of the scene and made it even more prominent than how it looked in the show.

But the thing is, the heart doesn’t stay there the entire time in Will's eye. There’s moments where it’s bright and clear as day, and theres other moments where it's just barely visible. And I think that was probably necessary, otherwise it would have been a little too obvious. But it's still just subtle enough, and within the context of the conversation literally happening on screen, YOU'RE THE HEART!, that it's... wow. It's beautiful.

Even more interestingly, similar to the posters, while there is a more prominent heart on the left, that being the heart in Will's eye in this scene, his heart is also accompanied by a second heart to the right, which is also slightly less obvious, but it’s there, and it's in Mike’s eye.

There’s moments where it’s bursting or, to even fit the context of the scene, ‘falling apart” (it quite literally falls apart the moment Will says those exact words).

Yes, Mike's heart is a little smaller, it's less distinguishable. And there's times when you can't really see it at all, just like Will's, but it's there, all while Mike looks, dare I say it, in love?!?

The van scene took over half a day to film, and a lot of evidence points to the fact that there is way more going on in this scene than meets the eye. (Like the fact that Will's monologue in the van parallels perfectly to Mike's monologue at surfer boy pizza...)

"I know it's sort of on the nose"

NO ITS LITERALLY ON THE EYES, YOU EVIL GENIUSES!

This, on top of everything else???? Like, Byler is so inevitable at this point, there’s seriously no room for doubts anymore.

I also want to add that, fans noticed Lonnie (Will's dad)'s car in the background of the main Cali poster, and we also know the actor who played him attended the table read for season 4. Which means that this poster has another element to it that confirms it's indeed foreshadowing what is still yet to come in season 5, not just season 4... So it's not a reach to theorize about the significance here of Mike, clearly walking towards Will, while everyone else is walking forwards. After all season 4 was just the beginning of the end. And the posters are confirmed to have hints pointing towards endgame...

#you're the heart #without heart wed all fall apart #heart eyes #heart trees #byler #byler evidence #byler proof #byler endgame #byler theory #stranger things #stranger things spoilers #stranger things theories #stranger things theory #stranger things meta #stranger things 4 #stranger things 5 #stranger things 4 poster

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tickle-bugs · 2 months

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Stupid in Love

Summary: Nick Miller is completely, 100% normal about all things Jessica Day. Including her smile, her laugh--ah, fuck. He's doomed. NickJess ft. pining!Nick

Anon: I just saw you write for New Girl! I am in my yearly rewatch of the show so I am so happy you write for it! Maybe the loft gang and CeCe can be playing a game of true American and somehow during the game it comes out that Jess is incredibly ticklish. Everyone is too focused on the game to use it to their advantage at the moment, but nick remembers and maybe later when him and Jess are together, he decided to test his new found knowledge and see just how ticklish Jess really is.

While this isn’t set during a particular episode, I was thinking HEAVILY about s2 ep15, Cooler. One of the greatest episodes of the whole show, hands down. I just wanted to write pining Nick tbh.

True American is the best goddamn game ever invented. It defines a man at his core level. Everything that’s ever mattered to Nick is on the line in this game. His dignity, his pride, his dignity…

He honestly can’t remember what they’re playing for. Something involving the sink. Or a drink? Unclear, but irrelevant. Nick is the king of an aluminum can palace and his citizens will thrive under his leadership. This is his birthright.

They’re playing True American: Catan Edition tonight. Each player defends their own small nations and attempts to crush the others, throwing their leaders to the molten lava below. It’s the smartest thing Winston’s ever come up with.

“Duel for my amusement,” Nick slurs, waving his paper towel roll scepter around. The cardboard crown on his head slips down over his eyes. Cece blows a raspberry at him. He lobs a balled-up piece of paper at her.

Jess plays a fanfare into her backup kazoo—Schmidt threw away her main one—and draws angry eyebrows onto the smiley face of her country’s flag. A declaration of war.

Sober Jess is all for political progress and human rights, but Drunk Jess? Maniacal, power-hungry, and so very hot.

Focus, Miller.

“Two, four, six, eight! Who do we appreciate?” Jess climbs onto one of the kitchen chairs and puts a colander on her head. A warrior’s helm. Nick smiles at her.

In their corner of the living room, Winston and Schmidt whisper furiously. At some point in the last hour, Winston had ascended to Grand Advisor of Schmidt’s Creek. Schmidt had lost the ability to speak after can number two, when Cece had flirted him out of all of his natural resources and a third of his land. Nick had been trying to think of how to poach Winston to Nicklandia, but he couldn’t think of a plan that didn’t involve saying ‘please’ until he passed out.

“Schmidt’s Creek will not challenge today!” Winston crushes his beer can against Schmidt’s forehead. Schmidt doesn’t even blink.

“Ruth Gader Binsburg! I challenge your weird little colony, Jess,” Cece shouts, messily hopping onto the chair next to Jess. They start some combination of swatting at each other and clutching on for dear life. Schmidt looks up at Cece like a drunk, lovesick puppy. Nick rolls his eyes.

Thank god he doesn’t look like that.

Does he look like that?

Shit. He’s missing the game.

“Yeah? Guess what—” Jess knocks her knuckles against the colander helmet, winces, and then points at Cece— “I’m the Queen of England, bitch.”

Nick’s not sure what’s elapsed in the apparently three years since he was last paying attention, but he knows by the way that Cece gasps that someone’s dying on the living room and/or kitchen floor tonight. Jess cackles and puts her hands on her hips. They start yelling, but even if they’re saying real human words, which he’s pretty sure they’re not, he’s not processing it. Jess looks so stupid in that little holey hat—someone should invent a word for that thing—and she’s adorable.

Nick leans his cheek on his palm and smiles wider. Does she know her nose scrunches when she’s annoyed?

Nick leans a little too far and loses his balance. Half of his aluminum fortress tumbles down. When he looks back up, Jess and Cece haven’t budged. Or blinked. Cece squints at Jess and it’s clear the conversation has ascended to psychic levels that even Drunk Nick can’t access. He tries though. Mostly gives himself a headache.

Something in their eye conversation must shift, because Cece gets this look on her face. Like pure, concentrated mischief. The aura off of her is so powerful that everyone scoots back a bit. Cece starts stretching and cracking her knuckles.

“Waitwaitwait, Cece, you don’t have to do this.” Jess holds her hands up in immediate surrender, but she’s smiling hard enough to brighten the room. A little nervous giggle picks up in the back of her throat and she starts to turn pinker than the boxed rosé that forms her section of the living room.

“Oh, but I do. Surrender. Now.” Cece points to the floor. Which is lava. Cruel way to go.

Jess looks at her best friend with the kind of profound resignation only possible when piss drunk. She sighs deeply, staring at the floor…

And then launches herself at Cece with a war cry.

Cece doesn’t even flinch. She catches Jess, smirks, and starts tickling her sides with vicious precision. Jess lets out a giggly shriek and crumples, sinking right down into the lava. The colander tumbles off of her head and rolls into Nick’s fortress.

The sound worms itself into Nick’s brain, taking up residence alongside all the other little Jess things that drive him nuts. It distracts him hard enough that by the time Winston arises as Supreme Leader of the Loft, Nick can’t even trace the path of his defeat.

………

Even when sobriety beats them over the head the next morning, Nick can remember nothing but the sweet music of Jess’s laugh. And the shape of her smile.

God he’s hopeless.

The slow march of the week brings some relief in the sense that a) Nick remembers that he really doesn’t do the whole ‘feelings’ thing and b) alcohol makes anyone look like an angel walking the earth. He is a grown ass man and Jess is an annoying little craft goblin. He can be normal. She’s normal. No need to get worked up over her.

“You look like Mr. Rogers’s grumpy cousin.” Jess snickers, fiddling with the sleeve of Nick’s hideous cardigan.

“You done? You finished?” He pulls his sleeve away from her. It’s really Schmidt’s, which she very well knows. Nick’s only wearing it because Schmidt’s being weird about Cece again, and the only way to survive that is to bend to his will. Schmidt’s already dehydrated himself twice this week trying to show off his muscles more, Nick doesn’t want to add to that by making the guy cry. He’d never stop.

Jess, however, doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of this manly sacrifice. She’s too busy laughing at him.

“Mmmm, no, I don’t think I am. You look like a Muppet.” She pinches his cheek. He rolls his eyes.

“Well, that’s just a compliment.”

“No, no. You look like the bird. The bird with the eyebrows—“ Jess pauses as her giggles overtake her— “You look like Sam the Eagle.”

Jess folds over into his shoulder with laughter and smacks his chest. The warmth of it almost distracts him from the comment.

Almost.

“Yeah, laugh it up, Jess. C’mere—“ He drags her across the couch by the ankle and latches onto her sides. She makes that adorable sound again, that giggly shriek, and flails like a worm on a hook. She tries to push his face away. He swats her hands aside like it’s nothing. When reaches for him again—futile, really—he snatches her wrists in one hand, pins them down, and tickles with the other.

Her whole face burns. He chooses to ignore it for both of their sakes.

“Let me know when you’re ready to apologize. Take your time.” He does a little pinchy thing with his fingers and Jess lets out a high-pitched mess of syllables. She throws her head back and cackles, arching up into him.

“Hmm, yeah, see none of that sounded like ‘You’re the best, Nick Miller’. Try again.” He pokes all over her torso, fast and wild. He lets go of her and adds his other hand into the mix. Every time she tries to talk, he speeds up, making her laugh at his silliness along with his hands. She kicks her legs and lets out a little giggly growl. Nick smiles so wide his cheeks hurt.

“Nick!” She grabs his wrists but doesn’t stop him. His stomach flips. She’s so overwhelming.

“That’s my name.” He skitters his fingers up her ribs to distract himself from the lump in his throat.

Jess flails and nearly takes them both off the couch and into the next life. Nick catches himself before he collapses on top of her, but it puts their faces mere inches apart. The space of a breath. He can see the faint freckles across her nose, all brought forth by the pink flush down her cheeks and neck. As she catches her breath, lips parted, her laughter simmers low in her chest. He brushes her hair out of her face. His hand lingers on her cheek.

Her eyes crinkle when she smiles. Does she know that?

Nick gets the deep, burning urge to kiss her senseless. To download all these embarrassing, vulnerable thoughts from his brain to hers. To show her how deep this goes. To drink of her like the wine at restaurants he can never afford.

No. Not like this. She deserves better than this.

Than him.

He starts to pull away, awkwardly clearing his throat. Jess surges forward and Nick’s stupid little monkey brain gleefully claps its hands together, shouting this is it! It’s happening! Nick’s brain activity screeches to a halt. He stares at her mouth and freezes.

Jess flips them over and starts tickling his ears like some kind of insane supervillain.

“No! Jessica!” He turtles and attempts to fling himself to safety. All he accomplishes is hanging off the back of the couch, leaving his knees in reach of Jess’s evil nails—

One day he will be smart about Jessica Day, but he concedes that it won’t be today. But as she destroys him and Schmidt’s stupid, hopefully inexpensive cardigan, he secretly hopes the day never arrives.

#my fics #new girl #nickjess #ticklish!jess day #jess day #nick miller #not v proud of this one but it was fun attempting nick's inner voice #hope u enjoy new girl anon! thank u for ur patience <3

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popculturelib · 8 months

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Fanzine Friday #14: The 3rd Season Supplement to the Star Trek Concordance (1973)

Happy 57th anniversary to Star Trek: The Original Series!

Star Trek is one of the most influential fandoms on modern fan culture in the United States. It's where television fandom split from literary science fiction and where slash fiction was created and popularized.

At the Browne Popular Culture Library, we have hundreds of Star Trek zines, dating from the years TOS was airing all the way to the present day. The 3rd Season Supplement is one of those. Its precursor, the Star Trek Concordance of People, Places and Things (1969) by Dorothy Jones and Bjo Trimble, is a comprehensive guide to the episodes, cast, characters, and other information about the first two seasons of TOS and the world of Star Trek. The supplement, as the title implies, was made after the third season aired.

Both the Concordance and the supplement have a long, complicated history in the Star Trek fandom that we highly recommend reading about. What grabbed our attention about the supplement, however, was a paragraph from the editorial that discusses the challenges Trimble faced:

First, one needs a bit of cooperation from the show itself; yet I could not get even the loan of a script from anyone in the ST offices, and had to wait until the show was on the air, to tape it, and then try to reconstruct the show from that. Try it sometime; it's more fun than biting fingernails, anyway. Then they didn't show "Turnabout Intruder" until well into the re-runs, and I had to wait until the network dropped that shoe; had there been any cooperation from the people over at Paramount, the wait would not have been necessary, but... By the time the show came on, I was deeply involved with other things.... Each time I thought I could get back to the project, something else came up. For one thing, this involves pasting up the whole job at once, or risk losing bits and pieces of the copy. So far, I have managed to take up the den, the living room and the dining room, with a bit of overlap into the breakfast room (by the way, some people wonder why we think we need a bigger house!).

Quite the difference from how fandom in the 21st century often works, with our quick access to IMDb, Wikipedia, and easy rewatching, isn't it?

The Star Trek Concordance, its supplement, and entries about later shows and films have been professionally published several times since the 1970s. We have several editions available for library patrons to use in their research.

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

#bgsu #libraries on tumblr #star trek #star trek concordance #star trek tos #fanzine friday #zines

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pastelcheckereddreams · 1 year

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Four Seasons Manor (四季山庄): Set Layout!

If you’ve been following my descent into madness my research progress for my next set design project, you’ll know that it immediately became impossible for me to work out the layout of Siji Manor from screenshot studies of the show alone. To backtrack to about a year ago: it quickly became clear that the exterior shots of the manor’s first courtyard and the birdseye view we see in episode 24 is not located in the same set, or possibly even film base, as the “interior set”. Unfortunately, that secondary set is where many of the indoor scenes take place (with significant rooms, such as Wen Kexing’s bedroom being redressed to be used for other scenes in the show), and is where the secondary courtyard is located. I soon realised that I had to do three things in order to create a Four Seasons Manor for my project that feels as authentic as possible to the one we are presented with in the show. First, find the full film base on Google Earth (which has the most up-to-date satalite imagery I can find); second, identify all the buildings to create a “complete” Manor and confirm the secondary set isn’t just another part of the first; and third, find the secondary set in order to correctly map its layout and marry it with the birdseye view. Friends, I have achieved two of those three things. The second set still evades me. But so far, I have finally managed to correctly and completely identify the film base that is presented to us as Four Seasons Manor:

(Full research breakdown under the cut.)

This is one of two full manor sets on Hengdian World Studio’s No.1 Mountain in the ‘Spring and Autumn Tang Park’ filmbase. In anticipation for the birdseye plan in my set design project, I’ve gone ahead and mapped it out faithfully to the satalite image:

As you can see, there's five distinct areas that make up this manor: three courtyards (labelled 1,2,4) and two gardens (3,5). The first courtyard will be familiar to everyone who has watched Word of Honor:

It is the main courtyard of Four Seasons Manor. Likewise, the fifth area will also be familiar to you all, although you may not realise it yet. It's Sanbai Manor:*

*With the exception of the main gate. The main gate of Sanbai Manor is actually from another set in the Spring and Autumn Park filmbase - the Tang Palace. There is fantastic drone footage of that set here. The Sanbai Manor gate is at the rear of the set, but you may recognise the opening shot of this clip as another place we see in the very first episode of WOH 🤫 Edit: I forgot I had a second douyin clip for the Tang Palace set.

These are the main two areas used in WOH of this set. Confirmation of the rest of the set comes from drama New Life Begins and various douyin videos and tourist photos on the internet. I won't bore you with a breakdown because Tumblr has eaten too many drafts of this post and I am Tired, but here is a snapshot of my confirmation process:

Find the difference between these two pictures

Edit: On rewatch, I can confirm that are 4 is also used in WOH. We see it in the very first scene of episode 1, dressed as the Military Governer Li’s Manor:

Here is a daylight photograph (source here) of that same building:

You may be wondering though, about the alternate layout I have detailed in my map:

Friends, this is where I would like to hear your ideas.

After scouring many clips and photographs trying to confirm whether these photos are part of this same set or a later development, I've found that since the satalite picture of this site was taken by Google Earth in 2020, corresponding to what we see in WOH, Hengdian has remodeled this part of the set. You can see a wonderful walkthrough of areas 4 and 5 here, in which you can see the remodelled layout:

This douyin video was the last confirmation I needed to place the photographs from the article. This photograph in particular feels very much like Siji Manor to me, and so I will be trying to include this remodelled layout in my project design:

But.

Despite not having located the secondary set yet, I have been thinking over which area would be best to remodel myself, to try and incoporate the kitchen space and the two rooms it sits between, which I have confirmed to be WKX and ZZS's rooms:

Reminder of that early process here.

There are two options that I see right now:

1) I use area 4 as this second courtyard. I remove the gate, make the main room ZZS's room, remove the side halls, drop in a kitchen, put WKX's room where the gate was. Chengling's training dummies then get dropped whereabouts the hexagonal pavillion is in the alternate layout, and I tweak a random building here or there:

However, somewhat crucially - the view from WKX's moon widow would be blocked by the big building that is the centerpiece of area 5. I don't like that. Past the first courtyard, there's a certain sprawl and lack of uniformity to Siji Manor created in part by this CGI shot. I think that's why the above photo appealed so much to me.

So, 2) I remodel area 3. It's pretty sparse. I was thinking of making courtyard #2's main hall into a private study or meeting room, with the sidehalls being ZZS's "medicine room" and the "first night room" - the Cold River Room, as @minnarr called it in their stellar sleuthing post (I hope you don't mind that I'm using the name? And may continue to use it? Also, I'm still searching for this set and your sleuthing is going to be so much help.) - they could later become Chengling's room (and Han Ying's. For hanwenzhou headcanon rights).

Area 4 could then be used as a training courtyard and lecture hall perhaps? Meanwhile area 3 can be completely redone, to have ZZS's room at the bottom facing north, WKX's facing south:

The "training area" is then still technically past a covered walkway to the left of their courtyard. The spirit remains. However, crucially: The dotted line between areas 3 and 4 is indicative of a drop in elevation. The whole set is on a slope, with areas 1,2 and 3 at a higher elevation to 4 and 5. So. If the moon window in WKX's room did face west across the garden and down the mountain, it would actually be true to the CGI we see out of his window in the show: Especially because you see part of a roof. That could totally be the roof of the building that sits against the dotted line.

But additionally, there's also this alternate orientation:

It makes the kitchen feel more tucked away, and the additional screened walkway would give ZZS and WKX their privacy. But the view from the moon window would be blocked, and there's no reason to not have the rooms central to the courtyard the way they are here.

...Does any of that make sense? I bypassed Normal about this show a solid year ago. I'm leaning towards option 2 right now, but I will continue my hunt through cdrama for this other set. What's irritating is that I can see its style in lots of other places, including Lotus Pier, and I just can't find the real world setting for it...

ANYWAY, as always, thank you for joining me on my research adventures. Supporting me through ko-fi, and checking out my previous CQL projects here and on inprnt, would be greatly appreciated.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

#nikkidraws #nikkispeaks #my neurodivergance is showing #but more importantly #also my epic sleuthing skills #true to form i will now yeet this post from me because my brain is DONE with it #woh set design #set design saga #word of honor #four seasons manor #siji manor #wenzhou #my hanwenzhou agenda #shan he ling #hengdian world studios #spring and autumn tang park #spring and autumn tang garden

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bumblebeerror · 1 month

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I’m rewatching the potato war [ “bumble, it’s 7am!” SHUT. ] and I have some favorite lil facts to share with you

Techno’s third Alt is named “pommedeterre” which is “potato” in French. It translates literally to “apple of the earth”. French, why are you like this.

The Excell spreadsheet that Techno uses to track Squid’s potato minion outputs by crawling through it each day timing them with a stopwatch is titled “normal behavior”

At one point Techno talks about catching Squid’s alt trying to sabotage him, and parties using his own alt. Here’s the conversation they had, Techno’s account is “BizzarreZz” :

The UN does, in fact, classify intentional sleep deprivation as a form of torture

The basket given to the top 1k potato farmers has a sun tzu quote on it that reads “the greatest victory is that which requires no battle”.

The potato crown, given to Techno, besides the quote he reads aloud also says, at the bottom: “Congrats!!! Please stop.”

The goons that helped with Techno’s AFK coverage are Kirill17, s_a_d, Xentrin, and 7big.

s_a_d was also one of the goons from the second potato war video, specifically the guy who hired a bunch of other skyblock tryhards to collect a mind-boggling amount of resources. He’s also referred to as the “head goon” and in a scene where Techno talks about him coding a discord bot to ping the afk coverage goons, a chat message from techno edited underneath him reads: “look off nobly into the distance”.

The excell sheet tracking Squid’s potato yield in the third potato war episode is titled “very normal behavior”.

The discord bots that tracked both Techno’s AFK coverage and squid’s AFK activity were named “technotifier”

The document outlining Techno’s plans is named “⚡️Operation Thunderbolt ⚡️”

The discord alt Techno showed as being in Squid’s secret channels has a Beldum as it’s profile picture, a Pokémon he collected over 20 of while technocord had the pokecord bot.

In the first potato war video, he demonstrates one of the few times anyone has ever used the slope-intercept formula in real life.

Squid not only painted the Mona Lisa, he also recreated The Last Supper, Girl with Pearl Earring, and The Scream.

The guy who bid 11mil on enchanted baked potatoes has the username “WoahOkay”.

The reason listed for Techno getting kicked from Squid’s island is listed as “bozo”.

Foogle was the player who juked Techno with a surperior dragon helmet, cancelling the trade before it could complete.

#technoblade #bumble rumbles

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claireclaymore · 5 months

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Everlark on movies

or why I just can't hate the movies - Part 1

This post will be polemic, and I am sure everyone will disagree, but I came here to defend romance aspect on the movies.

But first, some important points:

-I do agree the books were totally better while the movies failed in insert romance organically in the storytelling.

-And yes, everlark community is right in be pissed of with the director. He really didn't get the purpose of Peeta and Katniss relationship and that's shows.

-The producers forced the Team Gale and Team Peeta thing to increase the engagement. More Gale and Katniss were their crimes.

That said, what I strongly disagree are following accusations:

-"The movies are Everthorne propaganda and made that ship more popular than the canon one."

-"Peeta and Katniss didn't have chemistry on the movies."

-"On the movies, Katniss was actually in love with Gale, Peeta was rebound."

So this post will cover this fist accusation.

The changes for the love triangule

First movie did insert hits about Gale have a crush on Katniss (the book made this too, but it was implied). In movies Gale is a decent friend (he was there with Prim wait for her, alike on canon), so he is shippable and this create a interesting conflict on the audience, cause her looks like a good match, right?

But then there is Peeta. This guy that happened to be genuinely kind, and was willing to let Katniss win. And in script was implied he did knows it was an act whole time. So in the end of story feels like the audience is strongly divided between two good men, adding the political mess, we do have an exciting cliffhanger.

Then second movies happens and all doubts go away! Again edition cut iconic lines from Peeta, but Josh killed it in all his scenes. Peeta's essential kindness was well portrayed, in my opinion, and made audience really care for him.

It was criminal that they didn't delve deeper into the everlark bed scenes and add new everthorne scenes (that no one asked for), but rewatching it I didn't see much emotions on those kisses (and thanks Liam for having the expressiveness of a door).

In the other hand, the everlark scenes during the games were EVERYTHING! All the drama that was missing in the first film came in full force in the second! The force field scene is so much more theatrical!

And they made the beach kiss sweeter (and personally I love how heartwarming the scene was). I do remember applauding in theater (so... no chemistry my ass)

In short, my reading of the film is that Peeta is not just a cute and passionate friend who Katniss is afraid of hurting by rejecting him. She's falling in love with him. The desperation, the devotion, all of this is perfectly translated in Jennefer's performance. I seriously don't get how someone can see their interactions on arena and think he is the third wheel (and thank you director for don't include Gale's sad face to ruin the moment here).

Feral and in love (overdramatic? overreacted? Yes, but it follows the intensity of Katniss in canon). Will historians say that she is acting like this because of a friend?

Then the two last movies. They finally allowed show Gale being a asshole (I liked that change with calling Peeta a coward, they cut Gale's bullshit in Catching Fire, they had to put in some place). We still have to endure some Gale and Katniss scenes, but again, their ton are pale (basic soundtrack, no creative angles).

But what continues selling the ship is the adversity, the longing. Wherever Peeta appears Katniss just sees him! Gale stay on background or the camera forget him, he is just a desperate man looking at an amazing couple.

You are excellent door Liam!

And all angst, the forbidden love thing make people root even more for Everlark! So no! The movies didnt' sell Everthone or this attempt backfired (or if you disagree, at least see Jennefer isn't on board).

In conclusion, yes the movies made little for the ship, but this little was enough to introduce people to this amazing franchise. The details, the performing, soundtrack, edition all came together to the tip of the iceberg of everlark.

#everlark #the hunger games movies #people tray to gaslight me saying the movies was team gale #the movies was always team money #and what bring money?#our top!#jennifer lawrence #josh hutcherson #sorry Liam fans I know he was leaning that time #must be hard act along with Oscar winner #peeta x katniss #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark

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rukbat3 · 2 months

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Babylon 5 Rewatch - Mind War

This is a post I originally wrote several years ago for Mark Oshiro’s Mark Watches blog. I don’t really plan to edit them before posting, so there may be some references that don’t make sense. If you see words that look like gibberish, they are actually rot13, which was our way of discussing spoilers. There are plugins you can install to decode the text (Cryptext is the one I use), or you can copy/paste to rot13.com, or just ignore it.

Hooray! Catherine Sakai is back! This means she’s going to be a recurring character, not just a single-episode romance character! I love how in this episode you can see the conflict between their two jobs, but it’s not a huge deal; it’s just something they’re learning to navigate. [season 1] Nyfb, unun, V sbetbg nobhg guvf yvar jurer Fvapynve gnyxf nobhg univat gb znxr ohqtrg phgf va pbafgehpgvba. Guvf vf rknpgyl jul V ybir O5. Gur pbagvahvgl srryf fb betnavp.

As you can see farther down, I think the way that G’Kar interacts with Catherine is so interesting. From everything we’ve seen about his character so far, we absolutely buy into Catherine’s interpretation of his actions. And the episode itself basically leads us to think he’s up to something nefarious. But no! He really was just trying to help. It gives us another level of insight into his character that makes us think maybe there’s something more to him than just the loud, brash, antagonistic person we’ve seen before.

As far as the main plot of the episode, it’s Star Trek comes to Babylon 5! (Or if you’re me, the other way around. The first time I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I gasped when Chekov first appeared and said, “It’s Bester!”) There’s not much more I can say at this point. We get some hints of shady doings happening back on Earth, but whether anything more will come of it is yet to be seen.

I would like to highlight two scenes, though. The first is Talia’s description of what it’s like when telepaths make love. It’s very evocative, and I have always found this scene to be particularly memorable. Naq vg’f fhecevfvatyl vzcbegnag zhpu yngre ba va gur fubj. Abg gb zragvba znxvat pregnva guvatf jr svaq bhg nobhg gur Cfv Pbecf rira zber ubeevslvat. And the second is Jason Ironheart’s explanation of what the Psi Corps experiments were aiming to do. “Think about it. You want to assassinate someone, so you get a telekinetic. He reaches into a person's throat and gently, quietly, with a thought, he pinches the carotid artery shut. The blood stops; the brain starves; the target dies; and then you just let go. Murder without a trace.” Absolutely chilling.

There’s a third scene not directly relating to this subplot, but relating to telepaths in general that I think it’s important to discuss. And that’s the scene where Talia is explaining to some random guy what it’s like to be a telepath and they share an elevator with Garibaldi, who is obviously thinking something sexual about Talia, which she picks up on. I feel like we get a scene like this one in a lot of books/shows/movies where mind-reading is a thing, and it’s often played for laughs, as it is here. But for me, there are a lot of questions raised by this brief moment. In a world where the existence of telepaths is widely known, how responsible is Garibaldi, who is not a telepath and presumably hasn’t received any form of mental training, for controlling his thoughts? What if he hadn’t known Talia was a telepath? Would that make it okay? On the other hand, he’s just overheard her talking about how hard it is to block out strong emotion. Does that give him more responsibility to control himself then before?

Because if he can be held responsible, then it seems to me that what he did to Talia is a form of sexual assault, or at least harassment. But are we okay with what amounts to a form of thought policing? Once you open the door to punishing someone for what may well have been a stray thought, there are any number of ways that could be abused. On the other hand, why should all the responsibility lie with Talia, or any other telepath to protect themselves? I don’t see any easy answers here.

[season 4, TV movie] Nyfb, jung vf vg va guvf frevrf nobhg gryrcnguf naq gur zra jub ner vagrerfgrq va gurz va ryringbef? Vg arire tbrf jryy!

Favorite scene: The two scenes that G’Kar and Catherine Sakai have together often get mixed up in my head when I’m thinking about this episode, so I can’t really pick one over the other. In each of them, G’Kar says something I really love. In the first, it’s “No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair. And not me.” This is borne out in the events of this episode, at least in G’Kar’s case, which makes you wonder: How right is he about everyone else? V nyfb ybir guvf dhbgr orpnhfr vg frrzf gb zr gung vg’f bar bs gur birenepuvat gurzrf bs gur fubj va trareny. Ab bar vf rknpgyl jub gurl nccrne ng svefg tynapr. Abg rira Orfgre! In the second scene, I love G’Kar’s explanation of what Catherine saw at Sigma 957, but I love what he says next even more: “They are a mystery. And I am both terrified and reassured to know that there are still wonders in the universe—that we have not yet explained everything.” And when you put both scenes together, I find them collectively eye-opening about what this show is trying to do, not just with the character of G’Kar, but with the world of the show in general. Vg’f rfcrpvnyyl vagrerfgvat gb pbzr onpx gb gurfr fprarf nsgre lbh’ir svavfurq gur fubj naq guvax nobhg whfg ubj evtug T’Xne vf.

#babylon 5 rewatch #babylon 5 #b5 #mind war

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