#@bookittyboop

[tilted-sun]

Following this previous post :

I got a reply asking how I think Porsche could make it work as the leader of the minor family and I thought it over and realised it would be too much for a reply.

This will be extremely long, sorry about that, it turns out I had a lot of thoughts on it. Heads up my dissertation was mostly on European and North American mafias . As a result my knowledge on the mafia system in Thailand is next to zero, so there might be a lot of culture elements I'm missing so please take this just as an interesting thought experiment on my understanding on mafias and how Porsche would interact with that.

I hope this makes sense as I am writing this very early in the morning so please forgive any errors.

We have to go into this with the assumption that Porsche would want this to work and was willing to do anything to achieve it (which I don't think the character would but for the sake of the thought process lets pretend he would). And lets assume he has enough time to pull this off.

Porsche would need to establish control over the family before he tries anything with bringing the families together. I think the only way to make it work would be the method used by King Sejo of Joseon in his coup, obviously this was not a crime organisation but the methodology can be adapted.

First Porsche would need to make allies. It is a mafia, it will have a hierarchy, even the Russian mafia which is more of a network than family type system has a hierarchy. Porsche should bypass what's left of the established underbosses and begin making allies among the level below. Especially if this mafia has the equivalent of a Russian boyevik who were usually the muscle in charge of recruiting and training the underlings and associates. Think about who did most of the heavy lifting training Porsche in the main family and find their equivalents in the minor family. We will circle back to these as they will be useful later.

Great, Porsche has allies but now what? He gets rid of the high ranked members he previously bypassed, whether through exile or killing them. One of Sejo's first acts in the coup was the assassination of General Kim Jong-seo who was Left State Councillor at the time. This meant the ruling side was left without one of its main political and military figures and it also meant there was a power vacuum occurring to replace him. 2 birds, 1 stone. It leaves the established ruling section weaker as they no longer have anyone giving orders and it also opens up positions for Porsche to put his newly created allies in.

(These were also the ranks mostly likely to try and stage their own coup against Porsche as they has the existing authority, influence, and backing from their own loyal fractions. Best to get rid of the competition.)

Porsche now leads and has a newly created structure where the top levels are loyal to him. Here is where the newly promoted boyeviks come in. They know all the underlings and trained them, for the underlings who were used to answering to them anyway very little has changed. Its still the leadership they knew as they would have had very little interact with the big boss regardless, but now they are watching those of their own rank be promoted and will likely try to stand out to be promoted themselves.

And how would these underlings try to stand out? By taking on the role of the boyevik and going out to recruit new underlings. This will give Porsche an entire new wave of underlings whose only experience in the mafia would be of him as leader. It is far easier to keep loyalty to what is perceived as an instilled authority rather than sway it to something new.

Porsche now had a mafia family under his control. From here Porsche would have to learn fast and ensure the loyalty through maintaining the relationships with the new ranks. Getting control of a mafia is easy, maintaining a mafia is extremely hard. The Italian mafias tend to prefer to do this with a familial concept with the boss often alluded to as a doting but stern father doing what is best for the family. The modern Russian mafias find their origins in prison gangs in the gulags where 'thieves in law' developed as people who govern over criminal life and have a strict code of conduct. The code demands devotion to the criminal life and devotion to other criminals including taking the fall if caught by police. Most of the code has been left behind in recent years but the key to maintaining leadership of a mafia is devotion to it, whether that's to the people in it or to the concept of a thief in itself. I don't know how the Thai mafia works but I imagine it will require the same level of dedication to make it work.

And here is why it won't work:

Porsche is an outsider. King Sejo's coup worked partly as he had an existing claim to the throne as uncle to the ruling monarch and because he was already within that system. Porsche is a member of the main family as the partner to the head of the family. For a modern example how would you react if the new manager on your department was related to the ceo of the company? Probably wouldn't show them as much respect as the guy whose been working there for 8 years who just got passed over for the promotion.

Vegas is alive. Sejo first exiled his own brother and then sentenced him to death because he knew the brother had a claim to the throne and could be used by people in their own coup against him. Vegas has a better claim to leadership and is known within the family, they would be far more likely to rally around someone they know than this stranger sent from the main family. ( Further Vegas now has Pete on his side, and though Pete is loyal to the main family that loyalty is not equal to what he is giving to Vegas. The show has done a good job showing us the connection Pete has with the other bodyguards and especially Tankhun. If Vegas is pushed into taking back control then it triggers the switch from Pete being a bystander to one of the most influential pieces on the board.)

Porsche himself. Despite the common perception, mafias are extremely bureaucratic. To a truly ridiculous nature. Even if we ignore that Porsche is only in the mafia to protect Chay and to then be with Kinn, no part of his personality says he could deal with the bureaucracy. Most mafias have some form of self regulation to stay viable. In the Italian variations of the mafia we see that in 2 major ways: 1. the consigliere, someone who can question the boss in their decisions and also works to keep them honest to the family, and 2. the Commission, used by the Five Families as a board of directors type affair to keep an eye on things going on in the US and a place for them to mediate disputes. Both methods force the head to justify their decisions and why they are in the best interest of the family. The only viable option the show has given us to take on these roles is Kinn and I'm sure I don't need to go into detail on how badly that will turn out. Porsche will essentially have no one calling him out in a situation he neither enjoys nor excels in. (For those wondering this role is done by Tankhun in the main family)

This could never be seen as a 'unification' of the families. This is linked to point 1 but is the consequence for the minor family rather than Porsche. The best analogy I have for this is say you work for a small business and that business was sold to a megacorporation. You've been working fine in the small business but now the megacorp has sent one of their own executives to over see your business. That executive begins making little changes here or there, like he changes when you can go for your break or how lunch hours are divided or the rota and suddenly you have to start work an hour earlier than you used to because thats how its done in the megacorp. How quickly would you resent the megacorp? This was never meant to be a unification, it was an acquisition. Break the minor family down and then pick up the scraps left over whilst saying fancy words about unifying.

In conclusion this was a terrible idea and Kinn should have brought him a new ring and Porsche should just run a bar instead. Porsche could in theory successfully take over as leader, however I don't think he could last as leader even if he did. His loyalty will always be to Kinn more than the family and so how could the people serving the minor family put their trust in him to have their best interest in mind. Chances are this would result in him being ousted from leadership which would fracture the relationship between the 2 families for good and result in both houses being weakened leaving them vulnerable to outside attacks.

#kinnporsche #long post #@bookittyboop #thai bl #he would be killed within 3 months and it would cause a turf war with the main family #also its healthy for porsche to have something in his life that isn't related to kinn #you should have let him have a bar and given him a sense of his own identity away from kinn

[berestweys]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37065154?view_adult=true

@bookittyboop

@queenofattolia

This is the fic I was only like 15% remembering where lan xichen and jiang yanli are at odds. Ficfinder comes through with a win against my terrible memory! It’s a good read and recently had a part 2 added 😊

#bookittyboop #queenofattolia

[emotionallychargedtowel]

the persistent and the cute

Over the last few days, there’s been a really interesting discussion in the comments of my reblog of the gifset @tinngun​ put together of the Utsukushii Kare season 2 finale kiss. I’m transplanting it here because 1) it seems like @tinngun​ could use a break from all those notifications and so forth 2) the conversation was totally getting buried and I think it might be interesting to folks who probably wouldn’t see it without it being brought back out into a main post. So, first, here’s a quick recap of what I posted when I reblogged the gifset post in the first place. Well, the part that’s pertinent to this conversation, at least. I commented on the tropeyness of the scene, including allusions to Hira and Kiyoi’s sexual relationship, which (from what I hear) gets quite a bit of time in the novels but by virtue of TV as a medium, is mostly not portrayed in the series. In other words, since this part of the relationship isn’t shown directly the vast majority of the time, it has to be sketched out through these allusions, including what I’d consider coded language. 

With regard to the coded terms, I brought up something @bookittyboop​ had mentioned to me previously, that “persistent” and “cute” have specific meanings in BL/yaoi/other related genres. Basically, someone labeled as “persistent” is more active/forceful sexually and someone labeled as “cute” is yielding/more passive, with these roles being mutually reinforcing (i.e. the more yielding the “cute” person is, the more forceful the “persistent” person becomes).

Then I talked about the way Hagiwara Riku’s voice shifts in the line, “Sorry, Kiyoi. I can’t wait any longer tonight.” I had checked out some clips of other roles of his and noticed that among other things, he really seems to use his voice to differentiate between characters. This helped me to notice how distinct his “can’t wait” voice was, and I thought this was probably a voice belonging to the “persistent” part of the character. And I was less sure about this, but I thought Yagi Yusei was playing into this as well by reacting to the voice by kind of melting/going all floppy in response to it (he’d been fairly swoony before that, but it definitely seemed to be going up a notch there).

Then @xnoel, perennial fountain of information, pointed me to this quote from an interview translation (highlighting added):

So yeah, this seems like confirmation! I mean, what else would Yagi be referring to when he talks about “Hira’s ‘dark’ side” than this authoritative husky whisper thing?

Then I got some really great comments which I’m going to share here with permission, in part because I asked if anyone could point me toward more information on the “persistent”/”cute” thing.

The ever-helpful @nieves-de-sugui​ said:

a little bit of translation notes for your analysis! Hira is saying, literally, "I can't hold back (anymore)" and it's a very tropey sentence to say in BL (and shoujo) right before getting it on.  It's also the main indicator of taking over/taking charge of the sexual encounter. There's a lot of one taking over and the other giving in. (I think there's a lot here about how Japanese people relate to sex and how it should be done).

(I said I’d run into this trope in Kdramas before as well.)

And then the kind and knowledgeable @bookittyboop​ pretty much took me to school on the whole persistent/cute dichotomy! They left comments in two clusters at different times so I’m putting a little dinkus (the line of asterisks or symbol that marks a transition between sections) in there to show where that was. Oh, and I took out some greetings/closings and stuff like that for flow purposes. Here we go:

The best source I can think of (because otherwise this is the kind of thing your get through osmosis once you've watched enough Japanese media) is @absolutebl's post [link added by me] on the whipping boy trope, though there is more to it. I would classify Hira as a whipping boy/attack dog/service top and Kiyoi as more of a kuudere than a tsundere as well as a spoiled prince/pampered princess.

Their characterization and dynamic (and derivatives) is a staple not only in bl but in Japanese media. You've got a male character (Hira) who is the unassuming or even the loser archetype but unearths or shows a "manly" and protective side in benefit of his loved ones (many times after his "cowardice" or "uselessness" has let them be hurt) and slowly makes something of himself.

Then you got a (normally female) character who is  a combination of cold and aloof (kuudere) or prickly and explosive (tsundere) but actually wants to be cherished and uses the gruff exterior as a way to protect herself from heartache/rejection.

The first archetype normally admires the second and wants to be at their service while the second sees the potential in them and the adoration makes them feel safe. In normal circumstances the first character has a submissive personality and the other a domineering one. The second character is also going to find emotional vulnerability extremely difficult to express. But in certain circumstances, there is a "mom friend hack" button.

* * *

When character 2 opens up/shows vulnerability, character 1 identifies a need in the other to be cared for and takes confidence from being  chosen to provide that. There's also gap moe (duality cuteness) and horny "I'm gonna worship you so good you will forget everything else,” "gotta get top marks at satisfying you," and "you're so cute I wanna eat you up" buttons.

The second character in turn feels attracted, safe and tethered by that show of confidence and let's themselves (their barriers) go more and more . Those energies feed into each other and that's how you get to our kiss scene. Sometimes(Kiyoi's case) they add coyness and shyness ("no, that's too much you beast") because God forbid the tsundere/kuudere lacks plausible deniability when they go back to their senses. (there's a "baby it's cold outside"element too)

This is where @absolutebl​ chimed in to say they thought @bookittyboop​ was doing “a GREAT job” with this explanation.

And I agreed, and thanked them for the time and effort involved in such a useful explanation, but asked about the “mom friend hack” because it was new to me. Here was their explanation:

The mom friend is the responsible, caring one, prepared for any eventuality. If you're a generally anxious person but also the mom friend, you've got a hack where you handily navigate  situations which would normally be embarrassing or anxiety-inducing if it's for your loved one's benefit.

For example:

-Buying condoms, pregnancy tests, emetics or other "embarrassing" stuff

-telling waitstaff they got an order wrong and to please change it

-asking a teacher to explain something again or revise an exam score

-giving a jerk a piece of your mind

Basically, you may not be able to stand for yourself or even make perfectly mundane, normal requests for your own sake, but the power of love lets you rationalize things, be brave, and do it for others.

I just realized I probably didn't clarify enough. Hira's thing is not exactly a "mom friend hack" but it's similar to it in the sense that "being needed" lets him overcome a mental block.

And they added, re: my theory about Kiyoi’s response to the Persistent Voice:

As for the kiss voice and Kiyoi's reaction, I too am convinced that was all on purpose. Bl drinks from yaoi manga, which has a treasure trove of visual cues and tropes. If there was a manga version, we'd probably have seen Hira suddenly get wolfy ears and shiny eyes + Kiyoi blushing like a maiden (maybe a fade to black with the dirtiest onomatopoeia known to man) to signal someone's getting railed within an inch of his life 😂. This is the real life equivalent.

So, yeah. Lots to think about here. I’m glad to know I seemed to be on the right track. It’s funny how there is so much material out there about some tropes and genre terms (googling seme and uke will get you more results than you know what to do with) while other tropes are harder to find anything about. (If only because of the vagaries of search terms, which might be a factor here.) If nothing else I’ll have this post to refer back to and I hope others will do the same if they find it at all useful.

Thanks again to @bookittyboop​ and @nieves-de-sugui​ for their thoughts! And to the illustrious @absolutebl​ for chiming in with praise (for @bookittyboop​) and confirmation.

postscript:

There are a couple of things I keep noticing about that kiss scene since this discussion that I wanted to point out. I guess the fact that, due to both of my reblogs, I had a gifset of the scene at the top of my profile for three days probably has something to do with it.

First, I hadn’t noticed how much Kiyoi really is slipping into a “cute” persona even before the Persistent Voice is used--just in response to Hira’s first kiss. His eyes get very soft and he does that affectionate head-bonk but the pièce de résistance, to my mind, is the rather childlike way he sticks out the end of his tongue. So, yeah. The first stage of cuteness comes before the Voice is even used.

Second, I hadn’t even reckoned with just how floppy Kiyoi gets after the Voice. He’s swaying around so much that Hira keeps having to grab him so he doesn’t just keel over. He’s gone almost boneless.

I guess it’s just really fascinating to me how this set of tropes can be so pervasive in one culture (or at least noteworthy chunks of it) and yet almost entirely novel to me. I mean, I was aware cultural differences existed, of course, but sometimes getting hit by the reality of them is still startling.

#utsukushii kare #utsukushii kare season 2 #utsukushii kare 2 #hira x kiyoi #persistent x cute trope #bl tropes

[derangedthots]

I'm best at lurking but I wanted to say I'm so 🤭🥰😍🤩🥺🤯❣️❣️❣️ every time I go through the Jacemond tag or read your asks, because everybody (that's you too!) is so lovely and has such a wonderful imagination. We all know about rarepair hell, but for me Jacemond is rarepair heaven.

Seriously, if you ever lose sight of that, know I'm in my corner in awe of all of you, mentally distributing praise and treats. 🤗❤️

bookittyboop hello darling☺️🥰♥️

and you're so right, the creativity in this little community is insaaane. we may not have much content but it's always high quality, ugh it never fails to amaze me the talent everyone has😌

i respect the lurking(also me like 60% of the time LMAO) but pls know the same goes to you if you ever lose sight or have a hard time, you've always got supporters here💕💕 we're mutually distributing those treats with each other😊🥰

#ask #💕💕

[lbc-tincan]

Hi! If you are still on the train what are your TinCan HCs for love languages? Apart from Can being physically demonstrative and Tin being into showing people with gifts.

Hello, sorry this is so late! This is the last of the train prompts and HCs from like 2 days ago! 

So let’s go over the 5 love languages first (I just copy/pasted these definitions):

l. Words of affirmation – using words to build up the other person. “Thanks fortaking out the garbage.” Not – “It’s about time you took the garbage out. Theflies were going to carry it out for you.”

2. Gifts – a gift says, “He was thinking about me. Look what he got for me.”

3. Acts of Service – Doing something for your spouse that you know they would like. Cooking a meal, washing dishes, vacuuming floors, are all acts of service.

4. Quality time – by which I mean, giving your spouse your undivided attention.Taking a walk together or sitting on the couch with the TV off – talking andlistening.

5. Physical touch – holding hands, hugging, kissing, sexual intercourse, are allexpressions of love.

—

As we’ve seen in the show Tin’s main love language (so far at least) is gift’s. It isn’t because he wants to buy people, as he said himself it’s the only way he knows how to show love. He bought gifts for Can and his family because he thought it would make him happy.

You’ve mentioned being Can being physically demonstrative, for example we see Can wanting the second kiss and actually responding in the extended version of the finale.

—

Here are some other HCs about TinCan and the love languages:

Words of affirmation:

They both say “I love you” A LOT once they start dating, but Can in particular says it a ton because he knows Tin needs to hear it all the time to feel reassured and happy. Tin can be a bit needy but Can can’t blame him after his painful past

Gifts:

Tin will never really stop giving Can gifts. It’s just the way he grew up and learned to do when you love someone. He likes to spoil Can, likes to feel like he can take care of him. He doesn’t want Can, or the people he loves, to ever suffer and so he wants to give him everything - everything in terms of both love and material objects. And by the way, he doesn’t work so hard for nothing, right?

It takes some time, but Can works on being patient with Tin after the boy opened up to him. It was hard not to take offence at first, but now he knows it’s just Tin’s way of trying to show him he loves him and that’s the main thing

That being said, as they continue to date, Can works on a compromise so that Tin will still feel fulfilled but Can won’t be overwhelmed by the gift giving. They limit the number of big gifts Tin can spoil Can with, saving those for things like birthdays or anniversaries and instead Can let’s him get away with smaller things like food

Can likes to pay the favour back sometimes too, saving up to pay for a fancy dinner or something once in a while, to surprise Tin

Acts of service:

Tin, actually likes to cook and decides to start cooking for Can once they’re been dating for a while, besides with Can’s appetite even he’ll go bankrupt if they always eat out. (Ae and Pete aren’t the only ones who can peel shrimp!) He eventually teaches Can some of the simpler recipes so that the boy isn’t completely useless when he’s not there

Can has enough energy for the two of them to spare, so when Tin ends up getting his own apartment and Can starts staying over more often than he sleeps at home, he takes over cleaning duties. He doesn’t particularly enjoy it but he knows Tin is often exhausted by the time he gets home and he didn’t want the other boy to bother with a maid when it could easily be done themselves

Quality time:

Not a HC, but we see this when Tin goes to the market with Can even though it’s clearly not his scene. Being together is more important than where they are or what they’re doing

Physical tough:

Can is a dominant bottom and Tin is a submissive top. I’ve mentioned this before, but I always have to bring it up again. Can is the first one to initiate sex. He tells him how he wants Tin to do him and Tin is happy to comply. They switch occasionally, but these are their usual roles/positions in the bedroom

They are pretty vanilla, they don’t need or want anything too crazy in the bedroom because just having each other is enough. Toys or pain or any of that just really isn’t their scene

Again not really HC but canon, Tin has a habit of asking for kisses by running his thumb across Can’s lower lip. Can is always pouty for a bit but gives in easily

Can will often reverently place his hand wherever Tin places a kiss on him

Tin is not afraid of PDA, in fact he’s the total opposite. He likes to kiss Can, hold him close, hold hands, have an arm around his shoulder WHATEVER. My boyfriend is so adorable I can’t bother holding back. Look at him. Have you seen him? You wouldn’t be able to hold yourself back either

Tin is not a very smiley person, but Can is always able to get one on his face. Other people notice and rib him for it but honestly he doesn’t give a shit. If Tin is an ice prince then Can is the sun

Can is hyper and doesn’t like to settle on just one place on Tin’s body. For example when they go out for food with friends he’ll be holding Tin’s hand one minute, arm around his shoulders the next, and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck the next

#bookittyboop #tincan #headcanon #hc #love languages #prompt #ask #thank you #mine

[luckydragon10]

Damn Good KinnPorsche Meta Doc

Whew, this doc is a lot of work. I knew it would be, s'okay.

The Damn Good KinnPorsche Meta Doc is going strong. I've been at it for about 3-4 weeks now, I think.

I want to say again that I'm so so grateful to every angel who has contributed links on the Rec Form -- you're my favorites. *forehead kissies*

Meanwhile, the doc now features 79 unique meta writers. Most have multiple meta works featured.

Who's Featured:

acacia-luna-royal aella-a antique-forvalaka artemisvexing atlasshrugd bfjeff biochemjess black-flame-rose blrambles bookittyboop caedi celesfelicie chaos0pikachu chaotic-beautiful clandestinegardenias daltoneering demiromanticmickey disaster-j elnotwoods erisele feralpansexual fleet-off florbexter gradienta gremlin-02 guessitsjustme hael987 heyninja iamafictionfreak ichigokeks iffervescent iguessitsjustme i-sveikata itsayellowdaisy jenmo johnsspacesuittight julietsbb kates-sweet-escape kinglucaslallemant kinnsporsche l0rd0fther1ng5 laughsalot3412 liankuea little7soldier liyazaki luckydragon10 lutawolf mercy-misrule minisculecosmos minsuga-pd moerusai mudinyourshoes myezblog myguiltypleasuresmanifested mystical-pcy nattaphum negrowhat pplirritatemysoul purpleguitar racalbrecht rainbowcolored7 reinacadeea rythyme sadday4sure sarrr-exists shortpplfedup snake-and-mouse snowy-atlas suga4mycoffee summer04rayne thatgirl4815 thatsamoodrightthere the-wayside tobeornottotc tsukiyadori uriyeonwooyeppeo vegaspetes yeetlegay yellingaboutkp

I have dozens of new links added for episode 7 already. Be sure to check the doc for updates.

Also, please, for my sanity, don't change your usernames. 🤣🤣🤣😭

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche meta #damn good meta #will I survive all the way to episode 14? #gosh I hope so

[berestweys]

Hi! Can I ask what the fic where jyl and lxc are profs who hate each other is? Thanks

ack i can't remember the title or who wrote it! i'm terrible about those sorts of things. i did a cursory tag search and came up empty. i'll put in an ask at wangxian ficfinder and see if the hive mind can find it. might take a week or two for them to answer but i'll let you know!

@queenofattolia tagging you too since you also asked. i'll figure it out!

#bookittyboop #queenofattolia