In Celebration of Seki Sunday
First off, Happy Seki Sunday to Everyone
Really, though, today I want to talk to you all about KO3an Guo. Now I know, you've skimmed my comments here about KO One and X-Family, on how both series gave me occasional hints of wonderfulness but in general remained true to their crappy crappy Taiwanese Drama roots.
I've watched 3 eps of KO3 now... and I've watched them multiple times. This is interesting because the only things that kept me watching its predecessors were Fahrenheit, A Chord, and Danson's wardrobe. This show only has little XiuXiu, but it has more of my attention than both its predecessors due to two simple facts. 1) It's spending all its time with the main characters. There are very few side tracks into the lives of people not a part of team awesome, and 2)the main characters are spending their time delivering regular and consistent service.
I hate to say it, but the acting may be a bit stronger here as well. Now that little XiuXiu is no longer PlotExposition!Dude, he has time to do a bit of acting, and his new found not so stealthy but always put upon sneaky spy is adorable. ArcherBoy hardly gets a line, but he's so facially expressive that he doesn't need them. Especially for something out of Taiwan... this is good stuff.
Now it's early yet. We have plenty of time to break away from the goodness for lame het!plots or god forbid teacher back story, but I have to say that here and now, I'm enjoying a Taiwanese drama without benefit of the skip button
Continuing on that line of thought, here's a bit of fic I wrote at work when I was alone in the staff room for far too long. It features XiuXiu and A Chord because this show would still be a lot better with A Chord, but then again, what wouldn't be?
Title: Dimensional Anomaly
Fandom: KO 3an Guo
Pairings: XiuXiu/Zhang Fei and guest starring A Chord
Xiu knew he shouldn't be getting comfortable in Silver Dimension, but the fact was that he was having a much better time here than he ever did at his actual high school. the food in the cafeteria was decent, he was passing math, and he had a date on Friday. None of this was going to stop him from telling Da Dong and company what a fine thank you this was for risking life, limb, and dimensional balance to rescue their precious battle points, but Xiu was in no hurry to inform them.
"This seat taken?"
Xiu looked up to nod and choked on a french fry at the sight of A Chord in a ten centimeter high afro. "What are you doing here?!"
A Chord feigned confusion, "I go to school here. My name's B Chord. Nice to meet you."
"Shut up, I know it's you."
"You're no fun," A Chord sighed, throwing the afro at Xiu. "What gave me away."
Running into A Chord's double working at the convenience store down the street was a small hint, but Xiu went with "Any idiot would know it was you. Meng Zhu is going to vaporize you when he finds out you're here."
"Oh, I don't think so, seeing as he sent me. Official business for the Guard; investigating dimensional anomalies." He pointed a french fry at Xiu, "Found one."
Xiu leaned back, "You're not going to tell him--"
"That you jeopardized the newly restored dimensional balance to show off for his double?"
"I wasn't showing o-- who told you that?"
"Da Dong did, idiot. When he asked me to check on you while I was over here. Got any more fries? I'm starving."
Even in another dimension, Xiu couldn't escape getting picked on by A Chord. Life wasn't fair. "Did he happen to mention when he'd be back while you guys were chatting?"
A Chord nodded, swallowing about twenty fries. "Yeah. He said it might be a while."
"What'd they do to my alternate?"
"Nothing. I think they just like him better."
Jerks. All of them. "Well, fine."
A Chord's eyebrow shot up in suspicion. "Well, fine?"
Times like this Xiu remembered it was only the low standards of Silver Dimension that made him the master of stealth. "I mean, I should have expected--"
"No, you meant, 'well, fine.' That's why you said, 'well, fine.' I can think of only one thing that would make this situation, 'well, fine."
"Just tell Da Dong that--"
"You have a date."
"Will you be--"
"Dimensional Anomaly!" A Chord nearly knocked over the table to stand and point at Xiu, thus drawing every pair of eyes in the cafeteria to him.
"--Quiet!" Xiu finished, yanking A Chord back down to his seat. "I'm supposed to be undercover!"
A Chord's retort was cut short by the arrival of Zhang Fei asking with a smile, "Is there a problem, Big Brother?" This also signaled the end to Xiu's short-lived perfect life. He covered his head with his arms, and waited for the fall out.
"Hi!" A Chord beamed, "I'm an old friend of ... ah..."
"He knows," Xiu mumbled into his elbow.
"...little XiuXiu, here." A Chord ruffled Xiu's hair while Xiu contemplated various dark holes he could crawl into. "I'm A Chord, former lead singer of Dong Cheng Wei, current captain of Iron Dimension's Imperial Guard, just dropping by to check that everything's okay."
Comprehension dawned on Zhang Fei's face. "Oh, from Iron Dimension. I'm Zhang Fei."
"Of course you are. Xiu talks about you all the time."
"I haven't seen you since I got here," Xiu mumbled.
"I didn't say you talked to me. Just making an educated guess. Honestly, how do you keep up this secrecy act?"
"Oh, Big Brother's a genius," Zhang Fei interrupted. "He even knows the nine by nine multiplication chart. No way he'd get caught." Xiu wanted to look at Zhang Fei's face to see if he was teasing or flattering, but that would also require looking at A Chord again which he was not willing to do.
"That's our little genius," A Chord tried to ruffle Xiu's hair again but got an elbow to the side for his trouble. "Glad he's working out."
"Hey, we're all going out for dinner and karaoke after school, today." Xiu's head shot up to send a frantic No! vibe at the other boy, but it was too late. Why don't you join us?"
Schadenfreude gleamed off of A Chord's aura. "Sounds great!"
"Awesome. Do you know 'Gou Ai?'"
"I think I've heard it once or twice."
So much for avoiding dimensional collapse. Still, Xiu supposed there still might be hope in Silver Dimension. Maybe A Chord would hit on Ma Chou and get an arrow through his knee cap. He could dream.
Really, though, today I want to talk to you all about KO3an Guo. Now I know, you've skimmed my comments here about KO One and X-Family, on how both series gave me occasional hints of wonderfulness but in general remained true to their crappy crappy Taiwanese Drama roots.
I've watched 3 eps of KO3 now... and I've watched them multiple times. This is interesting because the only things that kept me watching its predecessors were Fahrenheit, A Chord, and Danson's wardrobe. This show only has little XiuXiu, but it has more of my attention than both its predecessors due to two simple facts. 1) It's spending all its time with the main characters. There are very few side tracks into the lives of people not a part of team awesome, and 2)the main characters are spending their time delivering regular and consistent service.
I hate to say it, but the acting may be a bit stronger here as well. Now that little XiuXiu is no longer PlotExposition!Dude, he has time to do a bit of acting, and his new found not so stealthy but always put upon sneaky spy is adorable. ArcherBoy hardly gets a line, but he's so facially expressive that he doesn't need them. Especially for something out of Taiwan... this is good stuff.
Now it's early yet. We have plenty of time to break away from the goodness for lame het!plots or god forbid teacher back story, but I have to say that here and now, I'm enjoying a Taiwanese drama without benefit of the skip button
Continuing on that line of thought, here's a bit of fic I wrote at work when I was alone in the staff room for far too long. It features XiuXiu and A Chord because this show would still be a lot better with A Chord, but then again, what wouldn't be?
Title: Dimensional Anomaly
Fandom: KO 3an Guo
Pairings: XiuXiu/Zhang Fei and guest starring A Chord
Xiu knew he shouldn't be getting comfortable in Silver Dimension, but the fact was that he was having a much better time here than he ever did at his actual high school. the food in the cafeteria was decent, he was passing math, and he had a date on Friday. None of this was going to stop him from telling Da Dong and company what a fine thank you this was for risking life, limb, and dimensional balance to rescue their precious battle points, but Xiu was in no hurry to inform them.
"This seat taken?"
Xiu looked up to nod and choked on a french fry at the sight of A Chord in a ten centimeter high afro. "What are you doing here?!"
A Chord feigned confusion, "I go to school here. My name's B Chord. Nice to meet you."
"Shut up, I know it's you."
"You're no fun," A Chord sighed, throwing the afro at Xiu. "What gave me away."
Running into A Chord's double working at the convenience store down the street was a small hint, but Xiu went with "Any idiot would know it was you. Meng Zhu is going to vaporize you when he finds out you're here."
"Oh, I don't think so, seeing as he sent me. Official business for the Guard; investigating dimensional anomalies." He pointed a french fry at Xiu, "Found one."
Xiu leaned back, "You're not going to tell him--"
"That you jeopardized the newly restored dimensional balance to show off for his double?"
"I wasn't showing o-- who told you that?"
"Da Dong did, idiot. When he asked me to check on you while I was over here. Got any more fries? I'm starving."
Even in another dimension, Xiu couldn't escape getting picked on by A Chord. Life wasn't fair. "Did he happen to mention when he'd be back while you guys were chatting?"
A Chord nodded, swallowing about twenty fries. "Yeah. He said it might be a while."
"What'd they do to my alternate?"
"Nothing. I think they just like him better."
Jerks. All of them. "Well, fine."
A Chord's eyebrow shot up in suspicion. "Well, fine?"
Times like this Xiu remembered it was only the low standards of Silver Dimension that made him the master of stealth. "I mean, I should have expected--"
"No, you meant, 'well, fine.' That's why you said, 'well, fine.' I can think of only one thing that would make this situation, 'well, fine."
"Just tell Da Dong that--"
"You have a date."
"Will you be--"
"Dimensional Anomaly!" A Chord nearly knocked over the table to stand and point at Xiu, thus drawing every pair of eyes in the cafeteria to him.
"--Quiet!" Xiu finished, yanking A Chord back down to his seat. "I'm supposed to be undercover!"
A Chord's retort was cut short by the arrival of Zhang Fei asking with a smile, "Is there a problem, Big Brother?" This also signaled the end to Xiu's short-lived perfect life. He covered his head with his arms, and waited for the fall out.
"Hi!" A Chord beamed, "I'm an old friend of ... ah..."
"He knows," Xiu mumbled into his elbow.
"...little XiuXiu, here." A Chord ruffled Xiu's hair while Xiu contemplated various dark holes he could crawl into. "I'm A Chord, former lead singer of Dong Cheng Wei, current captain of Iron Dimension's Imperial Guard, just dropping by to check that everything's okay."
Comprehension dawned on Zhang Fei's face. "Oh, from Iron Dimension. I'm Zhang Fei."
"Of course you are. Xiu talks about you all the time."
"I haven't seen you since I got here," Xiu mumbled.
"I didn't say you talked to me. Just making an educated guess. Honestly, how do you keep up this secrecy act?"
"Oh, Big Brother's a genius," Zhang Fei interrupted. "He even knows the nine by nine multiplication chart. No way he'd get caught." Xiu wanted to look at Zhang Fei's face to see if he was teasing or flattering, but that would also require looking at A Chord again which he was not willing to do.
"That's our little genius," A Chord tried to ruffle Xiu's hair again but got an elbow to the side for his trouble. "Glad he's working out."
"Hey, we're all going out for dinner and karaoke after school, today." Xiu's head shot up to send a frantic No! vibe at the other boy, but it was too late. Why don't you join us?"
Schadenfreude gleamed off of A Chord's aura. "Sounds great!"
"Awesome. Do you know 'Gou Ai?'"
"I think I've heard it once or twice."
So much for avoiding dimensional collapse. Still, Xiu supposed there still might be hope in Silver Dimension. Maybe A Chord would hit on Ma Chou and get an arrow through his knee cap. He could dream.