for someone who had his first solo album coming out in a couple of days, dowoon looked way too invested in this softball game. she could tell because he’d continuously yelled at her whenever she got on the field. there was no way she was going to put any effort into this game, but she was really close to throwing the bat at dowoon’s face if he didn’t shut up anytime soon. however, she had to be on her best behavior when she was on the field, at least, because there were too many eyes on her. the last thing she needed was to be on the front page of the la times or something for wacking a fellow idol member with a softball bat.
when she got back to the benches, she gave dowoon a quick punch on the arm before grabbing a water bottle and downing almost half of it. though she hadn’t been passionately playing like some of the other idols, the california heat was making it impossible for her not to sweat. simply standing beneath it was proving to be too much, and she didn’t need dowoon’s competitive ass being all up in her face. “if you yell at me to run again, i swear to god.” she doesn’t finish the sentence because there’s too many threats bubbling up in her mind, but she grits her teeth before taking the seat besides him.
Those involved in Hot Topic(k) this month may earn up to 6 points total for writing, by the end of January 31 KST:
Completions of the two interviews included in the in-character prompt. (1 point each, up to 2 points total)
A headcanon of 400+ words of your muse’s “lesson plan”* before going in to complete their mentoring gig. (2 points).
A solo para of 400+ words based on filming |OR| a thread with the mentor for the same skill of at least six posts. (2 points *points may only be collected for one or the other).
These do not count toward monthly limits or toward normal schedule points. All posts for this task block should be tagged with #fmdht2.
IN-’VERSE INFO
A week before they’re scheduled to film, the idols chosen are informed that they’ve been cast as mentors for the episode 6 & 7 block of the show. They’re informed of their filming time, the skill they’ve been chosen to give a workshop on, and the other idol that will be helping with the same skill. They will also be told the songs and arrangements the idols will be performing for their respective position evaluations. Dance mentors will also be given the choreography ahead of time to familiarize themselves with.
There will be five contestants performing each song.
Episodes 6 & 7 (Position Evaluations) - January 11
The mentors will arrive at the studio where the show is filming on January 11. The vocal mentors will coach in the morning, the dance mentors in the afternoon, and the rap mentors in the evening. The pair will be filming their mentoring at the same time, though they may mentor separately, together, or switch on and off as they see fit.
Before doing any other filming, the mentors are pulled aside for a short talking head interview as follows:
Which song do you consider to be the harder performance of the two?
If you were a contestant on the show, which song of the two would you have wanted to chose to perform?
What do you expect a pre-debut trainee to struggle most with for their position evaluation?
The pairs will mentor the first group listed for around an hour and then switch to the second group listed.
Once inside each room, they’ll introduce themselves and the members of the group they’re helping will introduce themselves to them (note: Muns of mentors may write interactions with NPCs in the groups to their liking, but please avoid writing detailed interactions with every single member of the group since some contestants may later not be NPCs).
The group will then show the mentors the current state of their performance. The mentors will be expected to give initial critiques and feedback on their performance before working more in-depth to help improve their performance over the course of the hour they have with each group. Though other performance elements may be in play in a performance other than the specific skill the position evaluation is for, the mentors are suggested to keep to advising on the specific skill they are there for.
At the end of their time mentoring, each mentor is asked to pick an MVP from the contestants based on what they’ve seen from the workshop. They may use their own criteria to pick this.
After they have completed their time mentoring, they will be asked to give one more talking head interview before leaving:
How do you feel your mentoring session went?
Did anything happen that threw you off of your original plans? Did you realize they were struggling with anything unexpected or did you add on any other tips in the moment?
Do you feel you’ve grown or learned anything from mentoring? Do you feel that vocals/dance/rap is in good hands with the next generation of idols?
The position mentors are also invited to come and be filmed watching the live performances for their specific position on filming for the final stages on January 15 to react to the stages. This is optional.
OUT OF ‘VERSE INFO
Every mun who submitted for this casting should have at least one muse receiving a mentorship role, either during this filming or the last one. Most muns should have gotten their first choice muse in, but a few may have gotten a second or third choice muse in and not their first choice. This is simply because the first choice muse was submitted to fewer categories and/or only to more selective categories and has lower odds of being selected, while the second or third choice muse was submitted to more categories and/or less selective categories and had higher odds.
* = The “lesson plan” headcanon doesn’t have to take a specific format or resemble any kind of real lesson plan; it should just detail what your muse is anticipating having to teach and help with and what they did to prepare for mentoring.
Any questions can be directed to the main’s ask box!
winter is something that is really near and dear to duri’s heart, his all time favorite season - which is something that most people aren’t able to say. but, for duri, he always really just enjoyed the winter, from the snow, staying inside, having hot meals, and everything in between, he couldn’t help but to like it a lot. however, while that’s something that he really likes, winter activities aren’t really something that he’s ever partaken in. sure, you’ve got the snowball fights, making snow-people, ice skating, and all that - but, that’s about the extent of his winter activities. he’s truly just a city boy, that’s for sure.
skiing and snowboarding were two things that duri never actually did. truth be told, his family never really took many trips, and they definitely weren’t taking skiing trips. they really only stayed in seoul and would travel to incheon, but that was about the extent of the things that they would do. vacations were really just going to incheon because everyone was always just so busy with life, that vacations were something that never made sense to them. nonetheless, it was probably about time that he finally took on skiing and snowboarding.
“i’ve... never done snowboarding or skiing,” duri admits to the younger, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip. “should i go for a snowboard or skis? is one easier than the other?” he asked, before he’s looking back at the equipment. “i kind of think a snowboard is cooler... i feel like it would make me look cool,” he said, before he’s giggling a bit. “but, skis is probably like ice skates? and i can ice skate...” he says, seemingly trailing off.
sung wouldn’t go into this mentoring with a strict plan in mind
while he prefers being able to map everything out, he’d been chosen to give advice for a specific performance, rather than teach the trainees what he knows about dance at all
blessing amongst the worst, although he’d been dancing for twelve years by that point, that was still nothing to those that had been dancing since before they left their diapers, and lived and breathed it since then. he’d never be able to match
if he recalled correctly, dowoon was the same as him, so, best they both stick to only hands on advice
in what could be called preparation, sung was determined to add speaking with dowoon to the list
since schedules were hard to link up, they were only able to facetime after having learned the choreography themselves
unsurprisingly to himself, he’d have much preferred the choreography for shape of you, from versatility, tasteful prop usage, and interesting formations
the choreography for get ugly wasn’t what he was used to, not with element, on his own as a soloist, or what he choreographed for others
out of his comfort zone, he needed to think harder about that choreography, and even seek out advice from dowoon about it, since charm had some releases that called for similar dance stylings
however, seeking advice from his mentor partner wouldn’t be his top priority, as his own feelings and thoughts on the choreography mattered as well
he’d really want to get on the same page about what was important to get across, for the both of them
and to get on the same page about supporting one another
having general talking points on the importance of the two routines, but also supporting each other when they went off script, esp bc neither of them had detailed itineraries
if they contradicted one another, it would be too complex to the trainees on what they were supposed to follow
so he’d want to employ a ‘yes, and’ method
for example, if they had two separate ideas on how to get the result they were asking for, and dowoon suggested one way, but sung had another, he’d agree with dowoon’s path, and offer the alternative to the group as well, should dowoon’s not work well for them
aside from that, he’d make small agreements with himself to not be too strict with the trainees, to not be so heavily hands on in fixing them
both of which he would fail miserably at keeping to
which song do you consider to be the harder performance of the two?
“they both have their challenges, though, from a dance perspective, the choreography for get ugly utilizes more separate techniques, which means needing to master more areas. isolations can prove to be difficult for some people, but there is a lot of quick footwork that’s easy to muddle together for anyone who isn’t already a master.”
if you were a contestant on the show, which song of the two would you have wanted to chose to perform?
“shape of you, definitely. it’s more of my kind of performance, because the focus is more on the performance aspect? get ugly is the type of routine that feels like putting together elements of any kind of typical boy group dance routine, while shape of you creates a picture, and environment, that’s more like an art piece. it reminds me of dowoon’s group charm, actually.”
what do you expect a pre-debut trainee to struggle most with for their position evaluation?
“nerves are fickle, and troublesome, when they can get in the way of something like this, that these trainees have been possibly working years and years towards. obviously, we would love if positional evaluations took into account our growth, and a sample size of all evaluations before it, but that can’t always be the case. they’ll need to give it their all every time, and leave worries behind, even if only for those five minutes. it’s a difficult thing to achieve, when even i am not perfect at it.”
post-interview
how do you feel your mentoring session went?
be nice. keep your words in check. “it was an interesting experience, for sure. i’ve never mentored in this way before, as in, giving advice to the next possible generation of idols? within my own company, our youngest group debuted so soon after element, so it’s a new experience for me in general, to work with young trainees. i’d love to have the opportunity again.”
did anything happen that threw you off of your original plans? did you realize they were struggling with anything unexpected or did you add on any other tips in the moment?
“although this was my first time mentoring, i think i learn it’s important to be adaptable as a mentor. the trainees asked questions that i didn’t anticipate and had their own unique troubles person to person that affected their work. in order to appeal to the needs of each individual, i had to learn what made them tick, and try to use it to the advantage of the performance.”
do you feel you’ve grown or learned anything from mentoring? do you feel that dance is in good hands with the next generation of idols?”
“the passion these trainees have is something i’m going to be taking home with me. if they keep being persistent, and keep working on the skills they’re budding with, i have no worries about the next generation of idols.”
