skits and tidbits

Kira, 28, he/they

[citizenkirra]

me when I am tired of pattern recognition:

[citizenkirra]

While waiting for the comeback, many loretinies have come up with amazing connections, trying to find the missing puzzle pieces. However, what we failed to consider is the fact that the world of the lore is slowly bleeding into our reality. (it's monthly shitpost time!) Like this frame of Yunho's eye, as aptly caught by @thirstkanaphan, visually parallels the image of the surveillance tower.

Well, that's because in our dimension, Yunho is the surveillance tower. I mean, isn't he tower-like and panoptical in nature, as evidenced by his reputation of the ultimate Yaoi Moments Spotter? Sopro looks like the money monster from Work mv - that's the monster of capitalism right here.

Monster of capitalism IRL is KQ using generative AI for the music videos.

ATEEZ are promising us something special for this comeback, and they are telling the truth. They mean physically teleporting Atiny to the world of the lore (probably, by means of the newest Lightiny). With how similar the Choose mv is to the Ash mv, have you wondered how it relates to the lore?

they are trying [to summon the Atiny to help them fight]

ninth person is not Sopro - it's actually us

ATEEZ and us will probably start in different dimensions, then briefly meet and get parted, us getting in the dimension where they were up until that moment, and vice versa.

It would take us approximately 10 Golden Hours to meet again.

[citizenkirra]

judging by the covers, the Golden Hour: Part 5 will be so hot, even the Sopro will melt.

[citizenkirra]

saw this Alexi Lubomirski's photo and immediately went: oh. Oh, but this is MATZ.

[citizenkirra]

When six months ago Letterboxd published Year in Review for 2025, as a filmtiny, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ateez: Towards the Light movie in the Top 10 of the highest rated concert films (based by the Letterboxd users' ratings).

Actually I completely forgot about this fact, but then Seognhwa sporting a Letterboxd-colored bandaid in the latest concept photos made me remember it!

[thirstkanaphan]

THE COLORS MEAN THINGS!!

[citizenkirra]

were you also most affected by this minor detail, a stark contrast between Hongjoong's ring and his chipped nail polish, a promise for eternity and a fleeting image of everchanging present - or are you totally sane?

[citizenkirra]

when Mingi said, "Chasing that dough? well, ride me", apparently, Yunho heard it as "ride me [like a motorcycle]"

mark my word, for the next comeback, we'll get Yungi playing airplane (inspired by Daesung, obviously)

[citizenkirra]

... sandwich in Chinese is 三明治, pronounced sānmíngzhì, so whenever I need to say it, I just say Song Mingi with an accent

Dear Mister Breadface, thank you for your mnemonic service!

[citizenkirra]

... I got to the point where I am seeing Jjoongramis in any squirrel images and treating minor squirrel sightings in the park like fanmeetings.

For the longest time, I believed that this obsession came out of nowhere, but suddenly I realized: oh, but I have had squirine influences throughout my entire life! It's like destiny was preparing me for the fateful meeting with a certain orange-furred menace!

First important squirrel in my life was probably Squirrel with a Marvelous Tail I met in "Moominland Midwinter". The one braincell he owns is preoccupied with only the right things (namely, his Marvelous Tail). He doesn't bother remembering anything else (for instance, some non-negotiable instructions telling him to stay inside and NOT to meet Lady of the Cold) and freezes to death. However! Then the spring comes, and turns out he literally defeated death.

Is Squirrel with a Marvelous Tail a missing link between Osiris and Jesus in the motif of Dying-and-Rising God? While digging through the old papers, I've recently found the letter (more of a wishlist, or even more fair, a demand list) little me had addressed to Santa-Claus. Among other things I ask to get me, I kid you not, "a real squirrel and a real eagle-owl" (got neither; was severely dissapointed). I bet that if I got a squirrel not endowed with a Marvelous Tail, my dissapointment would only multiply. Then, of course, came Ice Age. I treated Scrat as a main character, while all the found family stuff was but an obnoxious interlude.

I wonder when will they stop with Send Me on My Way and tell us what happes to the acorn?!

Oh, and of course I do love Ratatosk, aka the Squirrel of them all! Ratatosk is the squirrel who there shall run On the ash-tree Yggdrasil; From above the words of the eagle he bears, And tells them to Nithhogg beneath. (Poetic Edda, tr. by Henry Addams Bellows)

Birds and the bees may be the more obvious choice for the role of a mystic messengers (remember, the bees are also living in the Yggdrasil branches) , but the liminal potential of squirrels remains untapped. Squirrel moving to the top of the tree to squeak to God about your less than stellar behaviour? Yep, can totally see it.

A couple of honorable mentions:

I also like the German proverb stating that der Teufel ist ein Eichhörnchen (Devil is a squirrel). When I was watching Polish cult web series Kraina Grzybów, it took me some reverse engineering to recognize the orange blobby creature as a squirrel - only after the subtitle literally told me DEVIL.

(the blobby creature is called Małgosia, be nice to her) And last but not least: a highly territorial squirrel from Baldur's Gate 3 that promises that, thank God, she won't do us no harm - as long as we stick to the ground and don't think about climbling trees, her domain.

[citizenkirra]

Until Golden Hour: Part 5 is released, in my head, XLOV's "1&Only" will be a placeholder song for Mamacita (with ATEEZ singing "Call me papi chulo or mamacita" on repeat).

[citizenkirra]

will be looking at these suspiciously similar Yeosangs for 5-8 business days

[citizenkirra]

either a coincidence, or a random anime reference

In Death Parade episode 1, the newlyweds get into a mysterious bar (by the end of the episode - minor spoilers - revealed to be limbo). They are forced to play a game of darts, with different sections of the dartboard being connected to their body parts. And yep, bullseye is the heart.

cw: an anime image depicting internal organs:

Death Parade, Death Seven Darts

[citizenkirra]

what he says:

what he conveniently fails to mention: the ladder; his firefighter gig and his mission to save the world from the rain

[citizenkirra]

Wanteez Hunt: the timeline of fear (how I would feel if I were in San's shoes) We know that during the filming of Wanteez: Hunt, San accidentally stumbled into the room with the props and learned the topic of the episode before all the other members. He must have been feeling terribly, awaiting the inevitable. However, if I were him, I would feel even WORSE.

This unprompted introduction of the horror theme would make me see red. I've seen enough death game-themed movies to know how it goes. In the beginning, the characters tend to treat the situation lightly because it is too absurd to comprehend. "Oh, it can't actually happen: it must be a hidden camera prank or something!" (yeah... nah) And it's not like the presence of cameras and familiar stuff would make me feel better: it's not like horrors televised is a rare theme in the death game media. All of this means I would be faced with a terrible choice: should I start a scandal, potentially getting everyone out (AND potentially embarrassing myself)? Or should I keep quiet and risk the lives of my fellow members? Is it better to gaslight myself or to let my paranoia loose? (luckily, there is one obvious way to cut this Gordian knot: tell Kim Hongjoong and let him decide)

Then comes the locker room scene. Half of the members are pointing out that (supposedly dead) Dae Do dropped the key on the floor, intentionally leaving the clue, which is supposed to be soothing (it's actors, after all! no death-gameing in this house)... but what if it's the mind playing tricks and filling out the lacunae so as not to compromise the "normal" version of reality? What if it's the heart thumping too loud to properly hear the openly malicious voices?

The basement kitchen would be the turning point for me.

In the movies, that's when the realization usually hits. "Oh god, the props look realistic. And that bag of severed limbs? Looked like they totally came from real humans". And then it only takes one accidental touch to shatter the illusion.

If I were San, that would be the moment where, after sneakily checking the pulse of the people lying on the ground, I would exhale and be like, "OK, so it IS a good old WANTEEZ episode, after all".

[throwing-roses-into-the-abyss]

So if mingi watches bl and yeosang and yunho are fudanshi kings and woosan kiss on stage and have matching tattoos and seonghwa reads gay books and posts every pride flag he can find and jongho wants everyone to take their shirts off and hongjoong produces music for queer movies and goes on queer shows and makes rainbow accessories then who is driving the bus

[citizenkirra]

Oh no, isn't it...?

[citizenkirra]

I love how this image validated my (over) thinking processes, because yesterday, when seeing ATEEZ going green, my first thought was, "isn't it like, Sopro's inverted color", but then I remembered that inverted green is magenta, and not exactly red, so I dropped the thought. And now here we have it!