AWildAntisexual

Ok so just like hear me out.

Everything and I do mean everything that happened in season 1 was very real and did happen, Will's disappearance, the Demogorgon, Elven, all of it except the ending. Noone's sure what exactly happened to El but she disintegrated so she's probs dead, but Will is entirely dead when Joyce and Hopper went to save him they found and recovered his body.

Each member of the party grieved in their own way but Mike was being weird, he kept talking to himself and insisting that will is still alive when asked where Will is Mike kept saying "At a doctors appointment."

When the anniversary of Mike's disappearance rolls around Mike starts getting worse, talking to "Will" more and more and then he starts saying that El is alive and hopper has her in his cabin, when asked Hopper said "I don't have a cabin." and he wasn't lying.

Everything that happened with Nancy in season 2 was real, she wanted justice for Bard after all and Johnathan wanted justice for will. Nancy and Johnathan asked Steve, who was still with Nancy at this point, to watch over the kids keep em safe. The boys did meet a girl named Max from California who had a step-brother named Billy who became their friend.

During the "final battle" in season 2 Mike was running around saying nonsense about Will being alive and possessed, El being alive and something about her sister? In the end they get Mike help, he's put on drugs since his parents insist that he doesn't need to be locked up.

Things get worse shortly after Dustin comes home from camp, unbeknownst to the party Mike wasn't taking his meds and has quickly declining. Suddenly Billy's possessed, Nancy's boss is possessed, there are Russians for some reason, and the new science teacher is and evil Russian?! It just gets even worse when the mall burns down, Hopper, Billy, and so many others unfortunately lost their lives that day, but Mike kept running around saying that it was the "Mind Flayer" and Hopper's alive but captured by the Russians.

So they do the only thing at makes sense at this point, they sent Mike to Pennhurst for treatment.

The party and his family visit and tell Mike about what's going on, about how highschool's going, about this new D&D group they found, that the Byers moved to California. Unfortunately it all gets filtered through his grief driven phyocosis. Mike also starts talking about another patient their Victor who went into a similar phycosis to Mike's after his family died, Mike starts talking about how Victor's dead son is alive and was the "demon" that killed Victors family and he's Venca and also One?

Mike makes less and less sense by the day, and when an earthquake happens, "Guys it's Venca." when a serial killers on the loose, ending the lives of Chrissy Cunningham, Fred Benson, Patrick McKinney, Jason Carver, and Eddie Munson, Mike blames it on "Vecna" aka "Henry" aka "One".

One by one the party stops visiting him, for their own sanity more than anything else, Max stopped when he wouldn't shut up about Billy and the "mind flayer", Lucas stopped when mike kept talking about his dead teammates like they were monsters, and Dustin stopped when mike saying Eddie died a hero, died fighting when it was really just tragic and traumatizing.

Without his friend's info on what's going on in Hawkins and their lives Mike's brain has to makeup even more stuff and makes even less sense somehow. Season 5 is the opposite of season one. None of it was really besides everyone's endings, since those were the last things they updated Mike on before going their separate ways, leaving him behind in Hawkins, their Master Storyteller.

Watched Avatar 3 today, had to at least do a lil sketch of Ao'nung but I'll probs draw more of him.

His favorite color was always blue. A tealish bright blue, like the sky. When he was still human his best friend liked this girl who also loved that shade of blue, so he bought her a necklace with a blue gemstone shaped like a heart. 

Romance had always been in love with his best friend so when he threw the necklace into Romance's hands, after the girl rejected him and the necklace, he didn’t hesitate to keep it. 

Admittedly he felt bad about it since he knew his friend really liked that girl but more so because he knew the way he felt about his friend was wrong, but he couldn’t stop. 

So he kept the necklace, tucked it under the collar of his Hanbok and pretended he didn’t hear a voice in his ear reminding him of how sick he was for doing so.

Life continued, his friend found another girl, he didn’t. His friend got married to that next girl, it was a beautiful wedding. Romance had never been more torn tho, so so happy that his friend was getting married to the love of his life, but so sad that that love wasn’t him. 

It happened while Romance was getting his friend into his wedding clothes. Romance bent down in a way that ended with his friend seeing a flash of beautiful teal blue and sending everyone else out of the room. 

“Tell me honestly, are you… into me?” His friend started, not even looking at him. “I know it sounds crazy, but I mean I’ve never even seen you with a girl, at least not one I didn’t set you up with. And you’re always looking at me, but not like how you look at our other friends, and then I saw this!” He ripped the necklace off of Romance’s neck, “I can’t think of a normal, not creepy reason you’d keep this (Redacted)!” 

“It’s my favorite color-” Romance started to explain, but as he met his friend's eyes the look in them told him that his secret was out, no more hiding it. “And it reminded me of you so I thought I’d just keep it since you didn’t want it. I know you don’t feel the same way and I was never going to tell you or push you into anything. I’m fine just being around you, that's enough for me.”

“Well I don’t want to be around a sick pervert like you! GET OUT!” He shoved Romance towards the door pushing the necklace into his hands. 

He ran and ran and ran until he couldn’t run anymore, collapsing miles away from his home knowing that once word got out he could never go back. He squeezed the necklace in his hand as he let the voices take over.

Abby checked his appearance regularly, in a small copper mirror he’d gotten a few centuries ago. He didn’t need to but he needed to. Gwi-Ma had made him beautiful but he could also take it at any moment. 

He just wanted to be loved so wrong, maybe dealing with the demon king was a bad idea but it worked. He’d become so gorgeous that everyone loved him. 

Something still nagged at him tho, knowing that deep inside he was the same ugly, disgusting thing he always was.

So he stared at his reflection, reminding himself that he was beautiful. 

His beauty once won him the favor of a princess. The same one who’d gifted him the mirror.

“So you can see the man I fell for the same way I do.” A sweet sentiment, if she actually knew anything about him, anything that wasn’t a lie to get himself into the palace.

He worked out like a madman, he did not need to but there was a voice in his head, not Gwi-Ma’s, one that told him to make himself even more appealing. 

Abby even altered his Hanbok, as soon as he had access to human clothes again. Getting rid of most of the original garment. Replacing the flats for thigh high platform boots, and replacing all but the outer part of the main outfit for a mesh crop top and leather pants.

He’d made sure to show off his perfect body whenever he could. 

While in the human world he was able to look at himself in full length glass mirrors but he didn’t for the most part. Always relying on that small copper mirror, to see the face that even a princess fell for.

All Mystery felt after all the centuries past was a dull ache in his chest for someone he’d lost long ago. 

He wandered near the border of the demon world, he no longer desired to return to the human world. If asked he’d go but he had no reason to go, no reason to do anything anymore. 

He fiddled with the rings dangling around his neck, hung there by the string he once used to tie his hair back. She loved his eyes, said they held so much emotion and he loved to just look at her. Not much to look at in the demon world though. 

His wandering helped, sometimes. If he walked long enough it was almost like he wasn’t walking alone. Every few decades or Baby’d join him for a while, it was nice, it never lasted for more than a few days at a time though Baby found the wandering boring. 

He sang a lot, the same song every time, the song he’d written for their 100 days of dating celebration. The first time he sang it for her he ended it with giving her the rings as she cried tears of pure joy. 

His friends told him later how embarrassing the song was. He didn’t see it that way but it got in his head. He started seeing people in edge of his vision whispering to each other when he did some sweet gesture for his lover. 

“You embarrass her. She doesn’t want to deal with your emotions. I can cover them up for you.”

From that day onward he didn’t show how he felt, he still felt it but no more big gestures. He looked bored during the Hahm tradition. 

In the end she broke off the engagement, handing back the hundred day ring, saying he’d changed and she didn’t like it.

He was broken after that, his heart shut down and he was dragged into the demon world. He just layed in the dirt for a decade or two, eventually getting up just to walk endlessly as the numbness washed over him.

If he walked long enough he would almost remember how it felt to meet her for the first time.

Demons only ever kept at most one item from their human life, if that. After all Gwi-Ma would keep them from any items of comfort and few wanted to keep things that remind them of their shame.

Baby was no different. He only kept a dagger, one he kept in immaculate condition but only served to remind him of his pain.

His mother sent all her money on a beautifully crafted dagger, handle wrapped in leather with stylized clouds on the blade. She’d placed it in his hands saying it’d protect him, that it was a good luck charm, and to come home safely. 

He’d returned but he was… different, or at least looked different. He was taller, muscular, and covered in scars. His mother was right, the dagger protected him, he was home and all he wanted was to see his mother again, to forget about the way people stared at him now, like he was some broken dangerous thing.

His mother…looked at him the same way everyone else did. She tried to act normal but he saw the expressions she’d make out of the corner of his eye. That’s when he’d first heard it.

“She’s every right to be scared. You have gone from her baby to a beast, but I can return you to the boy she loved so much.”

To his regret he accepted. He just wanted things to go back to how they were before he was sent away, to be Mama’s baby boy again. 

She figured out what he’d done. “How else could you look like that!” She’d screamed, he was still a monster to her and when she started saying she was going to get the hunters he, well he, panicked. Next thing he knew he was running far from the village, dagger in hand, blood on his clothes and tears streaming down his face. 

   Jinu’s plan was going to work, it had to, otherwise he’d never be rid of the voices. It was a good plan, make a boy band, steal the hunters fans then feed the fans souls to Gwi-Ma, one problem to make the band he needed people to join him and that would be easy if he had any friends, he uh…. Didn’t have any. He hated Gwi-Ma and hated all demons by extension which might make forming his band a tad bit difficult.

   He had an idea tho, recruit an elder demon who knows people, the friend of a friend approach. He’d heard of a mysterious demon that sang as he wandered near the edge of the Demon Realm, silently walking alone for centuries, no one even seemed to know his name. The man wasn’t hard to find, as Jinu approached he could hear the solitary demon singing. It was quiet, gentle, something akin to a lullaby but the lyrics were definitely a love song. 

“Excuse me?”The man stopped and turned to Jinu, “You’ve been here a long time, right? I was hoping you could help me with something?”

“Sure.” He spoke in a blank monotone with no expression on half of his face that Jinu could see.

“Uh, great! I’m Jinu and uh I’m starting a boy band to take down the hunters. What’s your name?” Jinu stumbled through his explanation, thrown off by the demon’s quick acceptance.

“I don’t remember my name.”

…

“That's fine, we’ll make you a new one.”

   The newly named “Mystery” lead Jinu through the dark landscape supposedly taking him to another demon for the band. He heard humming, seeing a small demon sitting on the ground drawing in the dirt with his claws. Mystery knelt down next to the boy. “Want to join a boy band?”

The smaller demon looked up and in a surprisingly deep voice answered, “Hyung.”

“Yes?”

“That’s not how you start conversations.”

“Ok.” 

   He looked up to Jinu for the first time, “I’m guessing this boy band thing is your idea?”

“Yes, we will take away what gives the Honmoon power, the fans.” Jinu smiled and offered a hand, “Name’s Jinu, and you’re?”

“I’m Is-”

“Baby.” Mystery interrupted.

“I’m Baby.” He said, taking Jinu’s hand. “I’ll join if you promise I can have sweets in the human world.” Jinu stared, shocked. Of course the weird guy  I recruited would have weird friends.

“Easy enough.”

   Baby took the lead, showing them to a pair of demons that they’d all heard of, exceedingly beautiful creatures that take full advantage of it, using their looks to lure humans in to eat their souls. The stories didn’t lie even from a bit away he could see how handsome they were. One of them had his hat off, showing off his short pink hair, leaning against the other's legs, seeming to be asleep. The other sat on a rock and had a hand running through the sleeping one’s hair, he sang gently to his…friend? Best friend? The one atop the rock stopped singing and stood upon seeing them, his friend got up with a sour expression on his face, grabbing Baby’s arm he whispered, “What are you doing, we told you not to tell people where we are!”

“Though you might like to hear this guy's proposal, and if you don’t want me to come here, maybe spend time somewhere else.” 

   The one with shorted hair opened his mouth to say something before his friend gently spoke up, “What is this proposal then?”

“To take down the hunters for good. We five would become a boyband and steal the hunters' fans from them, after they lose the source of their power, the Honmoon will be weak enough for us to destroy it for good.” The pink haired men seemed to listen more when Jinu mentioned fans. They looked at each other, silently communicating.

The long haired one smiled, “We’re in, right?” Turning to his friend.

“Yeah fine.” The short haired man grumbled. “What’s the name of this band anyway?”

“Saja Boys”

   Romance is a heartthrob along with Abby but his design is done in a way that pulls memories of romance novels instead of romance novels like Abby’s. He has pink hair that's a bit desaturated to allow for a more gentle feel, his hair’s also perfectly done and frames his face beautifully. His expressions are very gentle, bringing romance novels to mind once again, when the male lead whispers sweet nothings to the protagonist or comforts her after something stressful. His color palette is all pastels leaning even more into a caring romantic vibe. His name is very fitting seeing as his whole design is made to scream Romance.

   There isn’t much to say in terms of Romance’s personality. Every scene he’s in he plays the perfect romantic idol, with a gentle look and gentle voice clearly made to have every girl wanting to be with him, he’s just so respectful and kind he’d never push your boundaries and would always remember to bring you flowers.

   Just like with his personality it’s a little hard to analysis his lyrics in Your Idol cause he doesn’t have a lot just, Yeah, you gave me your heart, now I’m here for your soul, or at least that's the only time I can solidly say that it’s Romance as the main singer. But from this he continues to do nothing but play into the romantic man.

   He’s gay. Ok sorry strong opener let me explain. Romance realized he was different at the same time most gay kids do when all their friends get interested in the opposite gender and they just don’t, they can’t, he can’t. Just a kid in the ancient times, he was told by his parents that one day he’d meet the perfect girl, they’d get married, have kids and live the perfect life, in response Romance asked “Can I marry a boy instead?” yeah uhh, the answer was a no, a no with an ass whooping attached. His father said to purge such thoughts from his mind he’s a boy so he likes girls, he does, he has to, or else he’s a freak. Romance tried but he didn’t even know what girls liked and he didn’t know how to talk to them but boys were so much easier to get along with if only he was a girl, but he wasn’t and he didn’t really wanna be so he was just wrong on the inside. One day Gwi-Ma came to him and promised him that by joining him Gwi-Ma would give them the ability to know what girls want and how to talk to them. Romance thought this meant he could like girls too, but he was wrong and continued on internally drowning in shame. At Least he could pretend.

   The very first look we really get at Baby is a close up on his glowing eyes, the rest of his design is made to bring attention to said eyes. All the boys’ demon forms use almost identical color palettes, dark purples with glowing yellow eyes (besides Mystery), Baby’s larger eyes brings all the attention to his eyes while also creating an image of innocence cause big soft eyes remind us of babies. His bangs stop right above his eyes, hiding his eyebrows allowing all the focus to be on the eyes and the rest of his features are made smaller, especially when compared to the other boys. His clothes are large blocks of color, his jeans are even different than the others to put more bright colors on him, all the textures are also very soft looking. All put together his design is very childish, on purpose of course he is baby, this makes a very fun contrast between design and voice/personality.

   Baby is very nonchalant, always slouching with a bored expression. He can handle spice better than anyone else but doesn’t seem to enjoy it. His eyes are always half closed unless he’s performing but they’re the most open during Your Idol, he also seems to just be enjoying himself more during that song than the rest of the movie. 

   Anything in parentheses is what’s in korean in Baby’s verse, I had to use google translate cause…. I’m an American who only knows english. Uh, (Shining) Fame, (Keep shouting), I’m your Idol - Thank you for the pain cause it got me going viral - Uh, yeah, (a [fever] that doesn't go away), makin’ you a believer - (Why do you exist as an idol to me?). In all honesty most of Baby’s verse here doesn’t stand out to me as something that could be personal to him, except “Thank you for the pain cause it got me going viral” pain as a way to get famous? Pain that he and his allies (they don’t seem like friends) are causing? 

   Baby’s backstory was the hardest to make, thought Abs Magee would be but the more I thought about Baby the less I had but I think I came up with something that works or at least makes sense. He used to be a soldier, a boy who was sent to war young, losing his childhood in the process. He was a great warrior, his name was known everywhere, his shame didn’t come from what he did during the war but the scars he suffered as a result. Throughout the fighting he just wanted to go home, to be his mama’s baby again, but by the time he returned home he’d grown tall and covered in scars, his scars terrified the children in his hometown even his mother seemed uneasy around his new face. Gwi-Ma eventually approached him, “What a horrifying creature you’ve become, your own mother can’t look at you anymore. How would you like to see how’d you look without those wretched scars?” After taking the deal his deep voice remained and he seemed to lose the muscles he’d gotten from training and his eyes were bigger, maybe that last one was just his imagination.

   Abby’s design is very attractive, I mean they all are but his is very specific in it’s appeal. Abby is made to be immediately attractive, the sex appeal of the band. I mean his whole thing is his abs none of this is news I know. He’s built very similarly to Jinu, with strong features and prominent muscles. Taking a closer look shows that he has sharper features than Jinu, pointed eyebrows that lean down towards his nose that goes with his sharper eyes to bring an always almighty angry look to his face, his hair’s also shorter and messier than Jinu’s. In short he’s sexy in a typically masculine way.

   Abby’s very aware of how sexy he is, he plays into it constantly. During the signing he’s giving out outlines of his abs.

   During both Saja Boy songs he’s given the lyrics with the most sexual connotations. In Your Idol, Keeping you in check, keeping you obsessed - Play me on repeat, (korean) in your head - Anytime it hurts, play another verse - I can be your sanctuary.  He wants to keep you in check and obsessed?! Just immediately able to see the connotations, not that any of us wouldn’t want him to keep us in check coughs WHO SAID THAT?! Looking at the “Anytime it hurts, play another verse” through the lens of Abby being very intentionally sexy, it can be read as “Whenever you’re in pain, let me help you through it.” The “I can be your sanctuary.” is the only one that I’m not immediately able to find a sexual connotation but instead playing into a strength thing, sanctuaries are places of safety he’s sayin “I can protect you.”

   So backstory, he used to be weak and conventionally unattractive. As a man in ancient times it would’ve been extremely shameful for him to be weak, unable to be anyone’s sanctuary. Gwi-Ma approached faster than any of the others, “You’re hideous and weak, completely unlovable, but I can fix that.” After getting his new face and body he faulted it and that never stopped, he needs everyone to know how beautiful he is, he needs them to tell him . Jinu didn't need to do much to convince Abby to join the band, he mentioned the fans and Abby was hooked.

Mystery is the oldest. His shame came from how public he was with his emotions, and Gwi-Ma offered to make it so he won't show his emotions anymore. 

My design analysis of him, in the scene where they’re convincing Gwi-Ma to agree to the boy band, his transition is from curved monster fangs to a blank looking expression, that and the barking at fans makes me think that he’s the most “monstrous” and his monstrousness comes from that he stopped showing emotions so long ago that he now barely/doesn’t feel them, including shame. Without shame he can’t think to stop himself from barking at people, which also ties into something I noticed, he’s almost always touching/right next to Romance or Abby the 2 people (besides Jinu) that clearly care about appearances so they’d keep him in check. To help him hide his emotions Gwi-Ma made his hair fall in front of his eyes, cause eyes show the most emotion on most faces.

Since Gwi-Ma uses shame to control people Mystery does still feel it but barely and since he doesn’t really feel anything after all these hundreds of years he doesn’t really have desires anymore and just follows orders. When Jinu asked Mystery to join his boy band no convincing needed just, “Join my Boy Band?” “Sure, why not.”

Lyric analysis,  Know I’m the only one right now - I will love you more when it all burns down - More than power more than gold, back when he was human this was how he felt about someone. He was the only one to them, they were the only one to him, there wasn’t anyone else who even remotely interested him. When he took Gwi-Ma’s deal he still loved his partner, he took the deal for them, but they didn’t feel the same when he acted differently to the man they loved, he loved them more even as the relationship burned down. 

Made up backstory, Mystery  loved someone alot, like to an embarrassing degree. He would openly talk about how much he loved them, how perfect they were, and one day his friends told him that the way he acted was weird, “Men don’t talk like that (Redacted).” “Yeah (Redacted) can’t you just be normal about them?” “Everyone in town thinks it's embarrassing.”, at first he didn’t think anything of it but then he started noticing the townspeople whispering when walked by with his partner and the shame started to set in and soon enough Gwi-Ma approached him with a deal “to no longer embarrass the one you love with your silly emotions.”